Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Ragpickers who saved Delhi
Ragpickers who saved Delhi
Sidharth Pandey
Monday, September 15, 2008, (New Delhi)
Without them Delhi's serial blasts could have been a lot worse. Two ragpickers who found two live bombs in dustbins at Children's Park at India Gate and near Regal Cinema in Connaught Place and alerted the police are getting Rs 50,000 each as a reward.
A 12-year-old baloon seller and two young rag-pickers are the capital's latest heroes while one of the boys is helping the police narrow down on the men who may have carried out one of the blasts, the other two prevented two bombs from exploding by alerting the police in time.
However, NGOs say that this is a bitter irony as the capital's 1 lakh street children are often at the receiving end of the law.
Connaught Place, the heart of Delhi, also home to thousands of street-children who are its eyes and ears but go unnoticed, unheard.
It's been a long walk for Javed and Sunil, both in their teens, from broken families one from Bareily the other from Madhya Pradesh.
A year ago, they ran away from their homes and came to Delhi looking for work. But all they managed to do is this risky business especially after live bombs were found in dustbins on Saturday.
"We are scared as we pick garbage and especially from dustbins it could be bomb and something may happen but what to do, it's about survival," said Mohammad Javed, ragpicker.
The two walk over five kilometers each day, looking for stuff that can be sold to scrap dealers, 40-50 rupees is all they earn, life on the streets is not easy.
"The problem is that people keep beating us up, especially if something like this happens," Javed added.
There are lakhs of children like Javed and Sunil who form an virtual invisible army which work on the streets of most Indian cities and for years NGOs have been asking the police not to treat them as a problem but as a solution.
"It is important that the police be sensitised and that they realise that we have to include these kids in society," said Sunil Gupta, Chief Executive, Chetna, NGO.
A day after the serial blasts, it's business as usual for Javed and Sunil walking the same stretch where two bombs exploded only hours ago.
Keeping off work would mean no food, the daily struggle for survival continues.
Sidharth Pandey
Monday, September 15, 2008, (New Delhi)
Without them Delhi's serial blasts could have been a lot worse. Two ragpickers who found two live bombs in dustbins at Children's Park at India Gate and near Regal Cinema in Connaught Place and alerted the police are getting Rs 50,000 each as a reward.
A 12-year-old baloon seller and two young rag-pickers are the capital's latest heroes while one of the boys is helping the police narrow down on the men who may have carried out one of the blasts, the other two prevented two bombs from exploding by alerting the police in time.
However, NGOs say that this is a bitter irony as the capital's 1 lakh street children are often at the receiving end of the law.
Connaught Place, the heart of Delhi, also home to thousands of street-children who are its eyes and ears but go unnoticed, unheard.
It's been a long walk for Javed and Sunil, both in their teens, from broken families one from Bareily the other from Madhya Pradesh.
A year ago, they ran away from their homes and came to Delhi looking for work. But all they managed to do is this risky business especially after live bombs were found in dustbins on Saturday.
"We are scared as we pick garbage and especially from dustbins it could be bomb and something may happen but what to do, it's about survival," said Mohammad Javed, ragpicker.
The two walk over five kilometers each day, looking for stuff that can be sold to scrap dealers, 40-50 rupees is all they earn, life on the streets is not easy.
"The problem is that people keep beating us up, especially if something like this happens," Javed added.
There are lakhs of children like Javed and Sunil who form an virtual invisible army which work on the streets of most Indian cities and for years NGOs have been asking the police not to treat them as a problem but as a solution.
"It is important that the police be sensitised and that they realise that we have to include these kids in society," said Sunil Gupta, Chief Executive, Chetna, NGO.
A day after the serial blasts, it's business as usual for Javed and Sunil walking the same stretch where two bombs exploded only hours ago.
Keeping off work would mean no food, the daily struggle for survival continues.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Anglican Church's Apology to Darwin
News Makers
Darwin to get apology from Anglican Church
The Asian Age Sept.15, 2008
By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
London
BRITISH NATURALIST Charles Darwin, who is famous for his theory of evolution by natural selection, will get an official apology from the Church of England on Monday. Darwin, who died in 1882, introduced the theory about evolution by natural selection in his groundbreaking book The Origin of Species, in 1859.
The Church will apologise directly to Darwin almost 150 years after he propounded his theory and more than 125 years after his death. The Rev
Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church’s director of mission and public affairs of the Archbishops’ Council, will write in the apology that will be posted as an article on the church website, "Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practise the old virtues of ‘faith seeking understanding’ and hope that makes some amends."
"But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests," according to the extracts from the apology, printed in the Mail on Sunday.
It further said, "People, and institutions, make mistakes and Christian people and Churches are no exception. When a big new idea emerges that changes the way people look at the world, it’s easy to feel that every old idea, every certainty, is under attack and then to do battle against the new insights. The Church made that mistake with Galileo’s astronomy and has since realised its mistake. Some Church people did it again in the 1860s with Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. So it is important to think again about Darwin’s impact on religious thinking, then and now."
Link
Darwin to get apology from Anglican Church
The Asian Age Sept.15, 2008
By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
London
BRITISH NATURALIST Charles Darwin, who is famous for his theory of evolution by natural selection, will get an official apology from the Church of England on Monday. Darwin, who died in 1882, introduced the theory about evolution by natural selection in his groundbreaking book The Origin of Species, in 1859.
The Church will apologise directly to Darwin almost 150 years after he propounded his theory and more than 125 years after his death. The Rev
Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church’s director of mission and public affairs of the Archbishops’ Council, will write in the apology that will be posted as an article on the church website, "Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practise the old virtues of ‘faith seeking understanding’ and hope that makes some amends."
"But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests," according to the extracts from the apology, printed in the Mail on Sunday.
It further said, "People, and institutions, make mistakes and Christian people and Churches are no exception. When a big new idea emerges that changes the way people look at the world, it’s easy to feel that every old idea, every certainty, is under attack and then to do battle against the new insights. The Church made that mistake with Galileo’s astronomy and has since realised its mistake. Some Church people did it again in the 1860s with Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. So it is important to think again about Darwin’s impact on religious thinking, then and now."
Link
Sunday, August 24, 2008
William Temple
Born into the Establishment, his father Frederick being Archbishop of Canterbury from 1896-1902, Temple was both a national and international figure.
Appointed Bishop of Manchester in 1921 at the age of 40 and then in 1929 Archbishop of York, Temple and his ministry came to epitomise the face of a renewed Church engaging with society in the midst of a nation in social and political turmoil, coping not only with the aftermath of one war but also another dangerously looming on the horizon.
A philosopher of deep spirituality with an insatiable appetite for hard work and ability to communicate with all classes, Temple’s Oxford University Mission addresses of 1931 entitled Christian Faith and Life to the packed University Church influenced a whole generation of future leaders: “People are always thinking that conduct is supremely important, and that because prayer helps it, therefore prayer is good. That is true as far as it goes; still truer is it to say that worship is of supreme importance and conduct tests it.”
Conscious of the deepening divisions within Europe, he was determined that if the Churches were to have any future credibility they should present a united front spiritually and socially. In 1942 he co-founded the Council of Christians and Jews. From the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 to the foundation of the World Council of Churches he helped to steer the ecumenical ship, and the success of the first General Assembly of the WCC in Amsterdam in 1948 was in no small part a credit to him.
Together with his keen interest in education and his collaboration with Rab Butler on the 1944 Education Act, Temple’s contribution was decisive in Labour’s landslide victory in 1945. A not uncritical supporter of the Labour Party and following in the Christian Socialist tradition of F. D. Maurice and Henry Scott Holland, it was Temple who coined the phrase “the Welfare State”.
Working with his Rugby contemporary R. H. Tawney, the seminal Labour thinker, and William Beveridge, the architect of the welfare reforms which sought to banish the five giants of want, idleness, squalor, ignorance and disease, Temple’s book Christianity and Social Order, published in 1942, provided a challenging theological gloss to this vision: “. . . there is no hope of establishing a more Christian social order except through the labour and sacrifice of those in whom the Spirit of Christ is active, and that the first necessity for progress is more and better Christians taking full responsibility as citizens for the political, social and economic system under which they and their fellows live.”
He died at the age of 63 after being Archbishop of Canterbury for only 30 months.
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Appointed Bishop of Manchester in 1921 at the age of 40 and then in 1929 Archbishop of York, Temple and his ministry came to epitomise the face of a renewed Church engaging with society in the midst of a nation in social and political turmoil, coping not only with the aftermath of one war but also another dangerously looming on the horizon.
A philosopher of deep spirituality with an insatiable appetite for hard work and ability to communicate with all classes, Temple’s Oxford University Mission addresses of 1931 entitled Christian Faith and Life to the packed University Church influenced a whole generation of future leaders: “People are always thinking that conduct is supremely important, and that because prayer helps it, therefore prayer is good. That is true as far as it goes; still truer is it to say that worship is of supreme importance and conduct tests it.”
Conscious of the deepening divisions within Europe, he was determined that if the Churches were to have any future credibility they should present a united front spiritually and socially. In 1942 he co-founded the Council of Christians and Jews. From the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 to the foundation of the World Council of Churches he helped to steer the ecumenical ship, and the success of the first General Assembly of the WCC in Amsterdam in 1948 was in no small part a credit to him.
Together with his keen interest in education and his collaboration with Rab Butler on the 1944 Education Act, Temple’s contribution was decisive in Labour’s landslide victory in 1945. A not uncritical supporter of the Labour Party and following in the Christian Socialist tradition of F. D. Maurice and Henry Scott Holland, it was Temple who coined the phrase “the Welfare State”.
Working with his Rugby contemporary R. H. Tawney, the seminal Labour thinker, and William Beveridge, the architect of the welfare reforms which sought to banish the five giants of want, idleness, squalor, ignorance and disease, Temple’s book Christianity and Social Order, published in 1942, provided a challenging theological gloss to this vision: “. . . there is no hope of establishing a more Christian social order except through the labour and sacrifice of those in whom the Spirit of Christ is active, and that the first necessity for progress is more and better Christians taking full responsibility as citizens for the political, social and economic system under which they and their fellows live.”
He died at the age of 63 after being Archbishop of Canterbury for only 30 months.
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Simple Church - Amish Church
I heard a news story this week that really made me think about a simple church. I heard about a group of people bound by a similar faith. These people have no outreach program. These people do not practice evangelism. These people do no vacation Bible school. These people do no church camp or recovery groups or community Christmas programs. These people do not do world missions and have no "cooperative program." This ecclesiastical body must be shrinking and dying, you say? No, guess again. This group of people have doubled their population in sixteen years. They are growing much, much faster than Baptists and all other evangelical churches. Who are they? The Amish.
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Friday, August 22, 2008
Tips for Saving Money on Your Grocery Bill
America's Cheapest Family' Offers Tips for Saving Money on Your Grocery Bill
The Economideses Share Deals, Discounts and How to Reduce Food Costs for Their Family
By MIKE VON FREMD
Aug. 22, 2008
At a time when many consumers' grocery bills are rising, the aptly named Economides family is able to feed itself inexpensively.
The cheapest family in America offers tips on how to save money.
The family of six spends only $350 monthly on groceries.
Annette Economides said she and her husband, Steve, see the search for great deals as thrilling entertainment.
"If your job is to stretch your dollars and you can do it and have success at it, wouldn't you?" she said.
The pair and self-proclaimed cheapest family are able to stock a lot of food for a little bit of money, thanks, in part, to coupons. They use them for almost every item. During one recent shopping venture, for instance, the Economides bought more than $140.58 worth of food for $53.01.
Read more
The Economideses Share Deals, Discounts and How to Reduce Food Costs for Their Family
By MIKE VON FREMD
Aug. 22, 2008
At a time when many consumers' grocery bills are rising, the aptly named Economides family is able to feed itself inexpensively.
The cheapest family in America offers tips on how to save money.
The family of six spends only $350 monthly on groceries.
Annette Economides said she and her husband, Steve, see the search for great deals as thrilling entertainment.
"If your job is to stretch your dollars and you can do it and have success at it, wouldn't you?" she said.
The pair and self-proclaimed cheapest family are able to stock a lot of food for a little bit of money, thanks, in part, to coupons. They use them for almost every item. During one recent shopping venture, for instance, the Economides bought more than $140.58 worth of food for $53.01.
Read more
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Maker of Film on Binayak Sen's Life Imprisoned for 90 days
Ajay T G, who made a film on the life and work of Dr. Binayak Sen, was arrested under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security (CSPS Act, 2005)on May 5, 2008, for “having links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist). Dr. Sen was also arrested on similar charges on 14 May 2007. Ajay has been serving as a state executive of the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) in Chattisgarh. When the police failed to find any evidence to support their charges within the mandatory 90 days period, Ajay was granted statutory bail on August 4. He was warned not to travel or speak to the press and the case against him has not been closed. This has been the case with Binayak Sen who is still in prison for more than one year. In this blog we have requested the readers' support to the efforts to free Binayak Sen.
Ajay and his wife, Shobha, attended Tuesday’s public meeting in Delhi organized by human rights activists and journalists, including Arundhati Roy, at their own risk.
Read it here
Ajay and his wife, Shobha, attended Tuesday’s public meeting in Delhi organized by human rights activists and journalists, including Arundhati Roy, at their own risk.
Read it here
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Chengara Land Struggle: Sign the Petition
Aound 5000 landless families who are engaged in a struggle to claim land for a living in Chengara in Kerala State are facing violent reprisal from a bunch of goons with the connivance of the Government of Kerala. In order to show solidarity to the victims and to o put pressure on the Government of Kerala to act immediately and secure justice a petition addressed to the President of India by some concerned individuals and organisations are being circulated. You can also participate in this campaign by signing the petition. To sign click here.
The Chengara struggle is a movement by landless Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised peoples to gain ownership of land that began on 4th August 2007 in the southern plantation belt of Pathanamthitta. It is a fight to re-claim ownership of land that has been part of a long standing promise of the Government. To this end about 5000 families totaling around 24,000 people from different parts of the region have moved on to the Harrison Malayalam Private Ltd estate, building tents with poles and plastic sheets to establish the struggle front. The impugned land was a part of a leasehold to Harrison Malayalam Ltd, which expired in 1985 and no rents have been paid to the State exchequer since. The struggle is also a statement against illegal encroachment of land that ought to belong to the people by a corporate entity for commercial purposes with the tacit support of the State machinery.
The Chengara Land struggle is being carried forward under the banner of Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi (SJVSV) and has the support and solidarity of various Civil Society groups, movements and citizens across the country. In order to show solidarity the people in struggle and to put pressure on the Government of Kerala to act immediately and secure justice for the landless people petition, addressed to the President of India is Constitutional authorities in this country, epeaceful protestors.
The State Government is yet to make any serious move to initiate negotiations with the protestors. The past feeble attempts at discussions were more a ploy to threaten the agitators with police action and subvert the agitation. The ruling party has resorted to a violent reprisal resorting to violent intimidation including rape, defamation and deliberate cutting off food and other lifeline supplies to the protesters for more than 10 days.
The Chengara struggle is a movement by landless Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised peoples to gain ownership of land that began on 4th August 2007 in the southern plantation belt of Pathanamthitta. It is a fight to re-claim ownership of land that has been part of a long standing promise of the Government. To this end about 5000 families totaling around 24,000 people from different parts of the region have moved on to the Harrison Malayalam Private Ltd estate, building tents with poles and plastic sheets to establish the struggle front. The impugned land was a part of a leasehold to Harrison Malayalam Ltd, which expired in 1985 and no rents have been paid to the State exchequer since. The struggle is also a statement against illegal encroachment of land that ought to belong to the people by a corporate entity for commercial purposes with the tacit support of the State machinery.
The Chengara Land struggle is being carried forward under the banner of Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi (SJVSV) and has the support and solidarity of various Civil Society groups, movements and citizens across the country. In order to show solidarity the people in struggle and to put pressure on the Government of Kerala to act immediately and secure justice for the landless people petition, addressed to the President of India is Constitutional authorities in this country, epeaceful protestors.
The State Government is yet to make any serious move to initiate negotiations with the protestors. The past feeble attempts at discussions were more a ploy to threaten the agitators with police action and subvert the agitation. The ruling party has resorted to a violent reprisal resorting to violent intimidation including rape, defamation and deliberate cutting off food and other lifeline supplies to the protesters for more than 10 days.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Beacons of hope in Ahmedabad's dark days of terror
Manorama Online Home - Beacons of hope in Ahmedabad's dark days of terror
Tuesday,29 July 2008 17:10 hrs IST
Beacons of hope in Ahmedabad's dark days of terror
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Ahmedabad: Just like the proverbial silver lining behind every dark cloud are the stories of valour and compassion that come to the fore with every terror attack. And Ahmedabad was no different in the many instances of those who helped out without regard to life or limb as one bomb after another exploded with relentless regularity two evenings ago.
Dinesh Kumar, Ranjit Singh, Vishnu Thakore, Kamlesh Tank, Bhavesh Kabir, Paresh Panchal or Mukesh Lalani... just some names in the list of at least 50 dead and more than 200 injured when 21 blasts tore through the peace of this Gujarat city Saturday evening.
Some of them died even as they rushed to help or commiserate after the news of the first blasts came.
Their acts of goodness stood out like beacons of hope through the dark days following the terror strike.
Mukesh Lalani, 52, was one who lived to tell the tale. He had rushed to help the injured at the Civil Hospital when a bomb exploded just behind him and he was seriously wounded himself.
Two days later, the 52-year-old Lalani recounted with gratitude Monday: "I tried to help when the ambulance entered; god seems to have repaid my kindness."
"I had gone to the Civil Hospital where a friend was being discharged after being hurt in an accident. I had a word with him and was leaving a little while later when I saw an ambulance entering the hospital premises. It came to a screeching halt. On impulse, I decided to help even as a couple of paramedics approached the rear door," Lalani told IANS.
That's when all hell broke loose.
"There were only the injured all around me. And then, even as I was helping a stretcher out of an ambulance there was a loud explosion behind my back. I dived trying to reach under the ambulance even as the stretcher fell with a thud."
It will be some time before Lalani, who suffered serious shrapnel injury, walks again. But he at least managed to escape without any serious injuries to his chest or head.
Twenty-year-old Bhavesh Kabir ran towards the Civil Hospital -- in what is perhaps a first, the bomb at the Civil Hospital exploded just as injured from earlier blasts were being brought in -- as soon as he heard about the injured coming in.
Just as he was getting a trolley, a bomb exploded leaving Kabir with severe burns -- and his mother weeping helplessly.
"I only came to help, why this happen to me," he was quoted as murmuring from his hospital bed.
They were the luckier ones.
Paresh Patil, 38, went to the Civil Hospital to donate blood on hearing about blasts but never came back. His body was found Sunday morning but his 12-year-old son and 10-year-old were still waiting in hope.
As was perhaps the family of Dinesh Kumar Jain who was also caught in the blast in the hospital just as he was trying to help move the injured out of the ambulance. He was killed and his three friends were reportedly seriously injured.
Ranjit Singh, Vishnu Thakore and Kamlesh Tank, who along with Dinesh Kumar, were at the forefront when Gujarat was struck by a quake, and then the riots of 2002 a year later, are in hospital while their friend lies dead.
As Ahmedabad counts its dead and looks beyond, they are the ones who will help in the task of rebuilding lives shattered by terrorism.
Tuesday,29 July 2008 17:10 hrs IST
Beacons of hope in Ahmedabad's dark days of terror
-
Ahmedabad: Just like the proverbial silver lining behind every dark cloud are the stories of valour and compassion that come to the fore with every terror attack. And Ahmedabad was no different in the many instances of those who helped out without regard to life or limb as one bomb after another exploded with relentless regularity two evenings ago.
Dinesh Kumar, Ranjit Singh, Vishnu Thakore, Kamlesh Tank, Bhavesh Kabir, Paresh Panchal or Mukesh Lalani... just some names in the list of at least 50 dead and more than 200 injured when 21 blasts tore through the peace of this Gujarat city Saturday evening.
Some of them died even as they rushed to help or commiserate after the news of the first blasts came.
Their acts of goodness stood out like beacons of hope through the dark days following the terror strike.
Mukesh Lalani, 52, was one who lived to tell the tale. He had rushed to help the injured at the Civil Hospital when a bomb exploded just behind him and he was seriously wounded himself.
Two days later, the 52-year-old Lalani recounted with gratitude Monday: "I tried to help when the ambulance entered; god seems to have repaid my kindness."
"I had gone to the Civil Hospital where a friend was being discharged after being hurt in an accident. I had a word with him and was leaving a little while later when I saw an ambulance entering the hospital premises. It came to a screeching halt. On impulse, I decided to help even as a couple of paramedics approached the rear door," Lalani told IANS.
That's when all hell broke loose.
"There were only the injured all around me. And then, even as I was helping a stretcher out of an ambulance there was a loud explosion behind my back. I dived trying to reach under the ambulance even as the stretcher fell with a thud."
It will be some time before Lalani, who suffered serious shrapnel injury, walks again. But he at least managed to escape without any serious injuries to his chest or head.
Twenty-year-old Bhavesh Kabir ran towards the Civil Hospital -- in what is perhaps a first, the bomb at the Civil Hospital exploded just as injured from earlier blasts were being brought in -- as soon as he heard about the injured coming in.
Just as he was getting a trolley, a bomb exploded leaving Kabir with severe burns -- and his mother weeping helplessly.
"I only came to help, why this happen to me," he was quoted as murmuring from his hospital bed.
They were the luckier ones.
Paresh Patil, 38, went to the Civil Hospital to donate blood on hearing about blasts but never came back. His body was found Sunday morning but his 12-year-old son and 10-year-old were still waiting in hope.
As was perhaps the family of Dinesh Kumar Jain who was also caught in the blast in the hospital just as he was trying to help move the injured out of the ambulance. He was killed and his three friends were reportedly seriously injured.
Ranjit Singh, Vishnu Thakore and Kamlesh Tank, who along with Dinesh Kumar, were at the forefront when Gujarat was struck by a quake, and then the riots of 2002 a year later, are in hospital while their friend lies dead.
As Ahmedabad counts its dead and looks beyond, they are the ones who will help in the task of rebuilding lives shattered by terrorism.
Generate your own power, use it and sell it too
Manorama Online Home - Generate your own power, use it and sell it too
Generate your own power, use it and sell it too
-
Salzburg: The Indian government has placed solar energy development at the centre of its strategy for energy security and combating climate change. There is a town in Germany where most new buildings have solar power roofs that not only cater to all the energy requirements of homes, but also allow residents to sell power to the grid.
With more than half the world's population living in cities now, and the figure estimated to go up to 70-80 percent by 2025, the focus of planners dealing with climate change is shifting to making cities self-sustainable in renewable energy production.
Freiburg is a city in Germany that has perhaps moved more in this direction than any other. Its chief architect, Wulf Heinrich Daseking, explained exactly how this was being done at a recent session of the Salzburg Global Seminar on Combating Climate Change at Local and Regional Levels: Sustainable Strategies, Renewable Energy.
Planners and academics from around the world attended the session. IANS was the only media organisation from Asia to be invited.
A city of around 200,000 people near Frankfurt, Freiburg started with a basic disadvantage - it had no industry, so it was not a rich city. "That is an advantage in some ways," said Daseking. "When you don't have much money, you have to find the best way to use what you have."
The greening of Freiburg started with local opposition to a proposed nuclear power nearby. The locals won, "but then the question was: How do we keep the lights from going out?" Daseking said.
"Six to eight people got together and said, 'We have the city with the most sunshine hours in Germany, let us try to use that'. From that small start, we now have entire neighbourhoods with solar panels as their roofs."
Private entrepreneurs put in the roofs and take care of maintenance for the first three years as part of the contract. By that time, residents have already recovered the extra cost of putting in the solar power roofs because they do not have to pay any electricity bills.
What is more, the solar panels generate more electricity than the household can consume, so the residents sell it to the grid and have a perpetual source of income from their homes.
Apart from its solar-powered houses, Freiburg has a public transport system that makes it quite unnecessary to own a car. Be it trams, buses, local trains, intercity trains, cable cars, aircraft, private cars, or bicycles - all are interchangeable at one hub, the railway station.
"The trick is to integrate all the transport systems at one point," Daseking said. "The commuter obviously finds it most convenient. And the city also saves money."
A single ticket that costs 53 euros a month enables the commuter to use all these forms of transport as often as he or she wishes. On weekends, families can travel without paying anything extra. With dedicated lanes, travelling by tram or bus is faster than driving - and far more comfortable.
There are two dedicated bus lanes and tramlines, one going from the eastern end of the city to the western end, and the other from north to south. The city planners have placed as many offices and residential neighbourhoods close to these lanes as they can.
The result, there are parts of Freiburg where the number of cars per 1,000 residents has come down from 550 to 85, even as the per capita income is going up.
Of course, this has the major additional advantage of saving energy and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the Earth's atmosphere and leading to climate change.
"We must build up the density of population in a city, not reduce it," Daseking said. "Everyone lives together, as they did for so many centuries. That also reduces the overall energy used for transportation."
That was the way to go, in more senses than one, said one delegate at the end of Daseking's presentation.
Generate your own power, use it and sell it too
-
Salzburg: The Indian government has placed solar energy development at the centre of its strategy for energy security and combating climate change. There is a town in Germany where most new buildings have solar power roofs that not only cater to all the energy requirements of homes, but also allow residents to sell power to the grid.
With more than half the world's population living in cities now, and the figure estimated to go up to 70-80 percent by 2025, the focus of planners dealing with climate change is shifting to making cities self-sustainable in renewable energy production.
Freiburg is a city in Germany that has perhaps moved more in this direction than any other. Its chief architect, Wulf Heinrich Daseking, explained exactly how this was being done at a recent session of the Salzburg Global Seminar on Combating Climate Change at Local and Regional Levels: Sustainable Strategies, Renewable Energy.
Planners and academics from around the world attended the session. IANS was the only media organisation from Asia to be invited.
A city of around 200,000 people near Frankfurt, Freiburg started with a basic disadvantage - it had no industry, so it was not a rich city. "That is an advantage in some ways," said Daseking. "When you don't have much money, you have to find the best way to use what you have."
The greening of Freiburg started with local opposition to a proposed nuclear power nearby. The locals won, "but then the question was: How do we keep the lights from going out?" Daseking said.
"Six to eight people got together and said, 'We have the city with the most sunshine hours in Germany, let us try to use that'. From that small start, we now have entire neighbourhoods with solar panels as their roofs."
Private entrepreneurs put in the roofs and take care of maintenance for the first three years as part of the contract. By that time, residents have already recovered the extra cost of putting in the solar power roofs because they do not have to pay any electricity bills.
What is more, the solar panels generate more electricity than the household can consume, so the residents sell it to the grid and have a perpetual source of income from their homes.
Apart from its solar-powered houses, Freiburg has a public transport system that makes it quite unnecessary to own a car. Be it trams, buses, local trains, intercity trains, cable cars, aircraft, private cars, or bicycles - all are interchangeable at one hub, the railway station.
"The trick is to integrate all the transport systems at one point," Daseking said. "The commuter obviously finds it most convenient. And the city also saves money."
A single ticket that costs 53 euros a month enables the commuter to use all these forms of transport as often as he or she wishes. On weekends, families can travel without paying anything extra. With dedicated lanes, travelling by tram or bus is faster than driving - and far more comfortable.
There are two dedicated bus lanes and tramlines, one going from the eastern end of the city to the western end, and the other from north to south. The city planners have placed as many offices and residential neighbourhoods close to these lanes as they can.
The result, there are parts of Freiburg where the number of cars per 1,000 residents has come down from 550 to 85, even as the per capita income is going up.
Of course, this has the major additional advantage of saving energy and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the Earth's atmosphere and leading to climate change.
"We must build up the density of population in a city, not reduce it," Daseking said. "Everyone lives together, as they did for so many centuries. That also reduces the overall energy used for transportation."
That was the way to go, in more senses than one, said one delegate at the end of Daseking's presentation.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Che Guevara Remembersed , on the occasion of his 80th birth anniversary JUNE 14, 2008
Frontline
Volume 25 - Issue 13 :: Jun. 21-Jul. 04, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
Printer Friendly Page Send this Article to a Friend
WORLD AFFAIRS
An icon for all time
JOHN CHERIAN
The world remembers Che Guevara, the great revolutionary, on the occasion of his 80th birth anniversary.
ALBERTO KORDA/GAMMA
A 1959 photograph of Che Guevara playing golf, taken at Fidel Castro’s request, according to the photographer.
JUNE 14, 2008, the 80th birth anniversary of the revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara, was celebrated in many cities of the world. In New Delhi, a photo exhibition highlighting his visit to India in 1959 was held at the India International Centre: Che was in India soon after the 1959 Cuban revolution and met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other senior Indian leaders. Also on display were rare pictures of Che’s diplomatic forays on behalf of Cuba’s revolutionary government in the late 1950s and the early 1960s to Asian countries such as Indonesia and China, Egypt and the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Until the cause of revolutionary internationalism beckoned him, Che held important portfolios in the Cuban government, including finance and foreign affairs.
Che was killed in action 40 years ago while fighting along with a guerilla army in the jungles of Bolivia. A Bolivian army unit trained by the Central Intelligence Agency captured Che and his band of guerillas after they ran out of ammunition. Che was then summarily executed on the CIA’s direct orders. Che and his highly motivated band of guerillas had hoped to ignite a popular revolution in Bolivia and, eventually, in the rest of Latin America.
Che’s 40th death anniversary was one of the most important events for Cubans last year. The top Cuban leadership assembled to pay homage to him in Santa Clara, the city he helped liberate during the struggle against the United States-backed dictatorship. Ramiro Valdes, one of Che’s comrades-in-arms and counted among the three senior leaders of the revolution, emphasised on the occasion that Che’s ideas and the legacy of his comrades would remain “a living element” among all Cubans.
Fidel Castro, paying tribute to his late comrade-in-arms, said that he bowed his “head with respect and gratitude to the exceptional combatant”. He described Che “as a flower yanked prematurely from its stem”. In an article that first appeared in the daily Granma, Castro also wrote that Che “was the mastermind of voluntary work; he accomplished honourable political missions abroad and served as messenger of militant internationalism in East Congo and Bolivia. He built a new awareness in our America and the world.” Castro concluded by reiterating that Che “still fights with us and for us”.
Che, as was evident from his writings and speeches, was inspired by the struggle of the Vietnamese against U.S. imperialism. In an undated message to the Organisation of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAL) and published in the Cuban magazine Tricontinental in 1966, Che wrote: “How close we could look into a bright future should two, three or many Vietnams flourish throughout the world with their share of deaths and their immense tragedies, their everyday heroism and their repeated blows against imperialism, impelled to disperse its force under the sudden attack and the increased hatred of all peoples of the world.” “One, two, three Vietnams” became one of Che’s famous slogans.
In that article Che also wrote that true revolutionaries need not fear death: “Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons and other men be ready to intone the funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries for victory.”
Che’s death, in retrospect, was not at all in vain. His struggles in the jungles of Africa and Latin America were inspirations to guerilla struggles that followed. Ruthless U.S.-backed authoritarian regimes had only managed to stem the revolutionary upsurge temporarily.
Che, if he were alive, would have been happy to see the political map of Latin America today. The governments in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and, importantly, Bolivia, the country in which he laid down his life, all have a left-wing orientation. In the capitals of all the four countries, Che’s death anniversary was observed in a big way. Bolivian President Evo Morales went to Vallegrande, 450 km from the capital La Paz, where Che’s remains were secretly buried, to pay his respects. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez presided over a ceremony at Pico del Agila in western Venezuela, which Che visited 55 years ago.
Foray into Congo
Che’s foray into Congo with a band of revolutionaries was another interesting episode in his short but eventful life. The CIA, which had assassinated the left-wing Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, soon after the country gained independence, despatched more than a thousand mercenaries to counter the Congolese guerillas led by Che. Che’s ideas inspired other revolutionary movements on the continent.
Not many people know that Cuba played a key role in the revolutionary successes of the National Front of Algeria (FLN) in its struggle against French colonialism. Even more important was the role of Cuba in the victory of the Movimento Popular da Libertação de Angola (MPLA) in Angola and the triumph over apartheid in South Africa. The battle of Cueto Cuanavale in 1987-88 turned the tide against the racist South African government. A combined force of Cubans and Angolans defeated the South African army in that battle. White South Africa’s aura of invincibility was broken. After Nelson Mandela was sworn in as President, he was overheard telling Castro: “You made this [freedom] possible.”
Thousands of Cuban men and women, inspired by Che, had volunteered to fight in far-off African countries, such as Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, against Portuguese colonialism. South African President Thabo Mbeki, in an article in the African National Congress (ANC) journal to commemorate Che’s death anniversary, paid lavish tributes to the revolutionary. Mbeki’s article quotes from official U.S. documents to prove Washington’s culpability in Che’s killing.
Che’s life was a testament to his commitment to the downtrodden. Che was born in a progressive Argentinean land-owning family in 1928. His early exposure to the profound inequalities in Latin America made him an avowed enemy of imperialism and the wealthy elite. He worked among the poor in many Latin American countries as a doctor. His stay in a colony of leprosy patients in Peru was documented in his travelogue Motor Cycle Diaries.
In 1954, when he was in Guatemala, he witnessed first hand the CIA-sponsored coup against the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz, and this had a big impact on his world view. In the same year, in Argentina the army overthrew the democratically elected government of Juan Peron, with the tacit support of the Americans. Che moved on to Mexico, where for the first time he came in contact with Castro in July 1955.
He was among the band of revolutionaries belonging to the July 26 Movement under the leadership of Castro, who boarded the Granma Yacht on November 25, 1956, to begin the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and restart the war of independence. Granma reached Cuba on December 2, 1956. Within a year, Castro, recognising Che’s potential as a fighter and a revolutionary, appointed him commander of Column No. 8 of the liberation army.
“He’d be the first for any mission. He was characterised by an extraordinary bravery, an absolute contempt for danger,” Castro told Ignacio Ramonnet (Castro’s recently released book My Life).
Che participated in many heroic battles, including the battle of Santa Clara of December 31, 1958, which was a turning point in the struggle. On January 1, 1959, Castro ordered Che and his troops to march to Havana after receiving news that Fulgencio Batista had run away from the country. On February 7, 1959, Che was formally given Cuban citizenship.
In My Life, Castro reminisces about the days when he first came into contact with Che, whom he describes as first and foremost an internationalist. Castro tells Ramonnet, who is the editor of the book, that Che had only one request when he enlisted for the struggle to liberate Cuba.
“The only thing I ask is that when the revolution triumphs in Cuba, you not forbid me, for reasons of the state, from going to Argentina to make a revolution there,” Che told Castro, who immediately agreed. The subject, according to Castro, was never broached again until Che decided to leave, not for his native Argentina but for Congo.
COURTESY: EMBASSY OF CUBA
Frontline
Volume 25 - Issue 13 :: Jun. 21-Jul. 04, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
WORLD AFFAIRS
An icon for all time
JOHN CHERIAN
The world remembers Che Guevara, the great revolutionary, on the occasion of his 80th birth anniversary.
JUNE 14, 2008, the 80th birth anniversary of the revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara, was celebrated in many cities of the world. In New Delhi, a photo exhibition highlighting his visit to India in 1959 was held at the India International Centre: Che was in India soon after the 1959 Cuban revolution and met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other senior Indian leaders. Also on display were rare pictures of Che’s diplomatic forays on behalf of Cuba’s revolutionary government in the late 1950s and the early 1960s to Asian countries such as Indonesia and China, Egypt and the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Until the cause of revolutionary internationalism beckoned him, Che held important portfolios in the Cuban government, including finance and foreign affairs.
Che was killed in action 40 years ago while fighting along with a guerilla army in the jungles of Bolivia. A Bolivian army unit trained by the Central Intelligence Agency captured Che and his band of guerillas after they ran out of ammunition. Che was then summarily executed on the CIA’s direct orders. Che and his highly motivated band of guerillas had hoped to ignite a popular revolution in Bolivia and, eventually, in the rest of Latin America.
Che’s 40th death anniversary was one of the most important events for Cubans last year. The top Cuban leadership assembled to pay homage to him in Santa Clara, the city he helped liberate during the struggle against the United States-backed dictatorship. Ramiro Valdes, one of Che’s comrades-in-arms and counted among the three senior leaders of the revolution, emphasised on the occasion that Che’s ideas and the legacy of his comrades would remain “a living element” among all Cubans.
Fidel Castro, paying tribute to his late comrade-in-arms, said that he bowed his “head with respect and gratitude to the exceptional combatant”. He described Che “as a flower yanked prematurely from its stem”. In an article that first appeared in the daily Granma, Castro also wrote that Che “was the mastermind of voluntary work; he accomplished honourable political missions abroad and served as messenger of militant internationalism in East Congo and Bolivia. He built a new awareness in our America and the world.” Castro concluded by reiterating that Che “still fights with us and for us”.
Che, as was evident from his writings and speeches, was inspired by the struggle of the Vietnamese against U.S. imperialism. In an undated message to the Organisation of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAL) and published in the Cuban magazine Tricontinental in 1966, Che wrote: “How close we could look into a bright future should two, three or many Vietnams flourish throughout the world with their share of deaths and their immense tragedies, their everyday heroism and their repeated blows against imperialism, impelled to disperse its force under the sudden attack and the increased hatred of all peoples of the world.” “One, two, three Vietnams” became one of Che’s famous slogans.
In that article Che also wrote that true revolutionaries need not fear death: “Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons and other men be ready to intone the funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries for victory.”
Che’s death, in retrospect, was not at all in vain. His struggles in the jungles of Africa and Latin America were inspirations to guerilla struggles that followed. Ruthless U.S.-backed authoritarian regimes had only managed to stem the revolutionary upsurge temporarily.
Che, if he were alive, would have been happy to see the political map of Latin America today. The governments in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and, importantly, Bolivia, the country in which he laid down his life, all have a left-wing orientation. In the capitals of all the four countries, Che’s death anniversary was observed in a big way. Bolivian President Evo Morales went to Vallegrande, 450 km from the capital La Paz, where Che’s remains were secretly buried, to pay his respects. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez presided over a ceremony at Pico del Agila in western Venezuela, which Che visited 55 years ago.
Foray into Congo
Che’s foray into Congo with a band of revolutionaries was another interesting episode in his short but eventful life. The CIA, which had assassinated the left-wing Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, soon after the country gained independence, despatched more than a thousand mercenaries to counter the Congolese guerillas led by Che. Che’s ideas inspired other revolutionary movements on the continent.
Not many people know that Cuba played a key role in the revolutionary successes of the National Front of Algeria (FLN) in its struggle against French colonialism. Even more important was the role of Cuba in the victory of the Movimento Popular da Libertação de Angola (MPLA) in Angola and the triumph over apartheid in South Africa. The battle of Cueto Cuanavale in 1987-88 turned the tide against the racist South African government. A combined force of Cubans and Angolans defeated the South African army in that battle. White South Africa’s aura of invincibility was broken. After Nelson Mandela was sworn in as President, he was overheard telling Castro: “You made this [freedom] possible.”
Thousands of Cuban men and women, inspired by Che, had volunteered to fight in far-off African countries, such as Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, against Portuguese colonialism. South African President Thabo Mbeki, in an article in the African National Congress (ANC) journal to commemorate Che’s death anniversary, paid lavish tributes to the revolutionary. Mbeki’s article quotes from official U.S. documents to prove Washington’s culpability in Che’s killing.
Che’s life was a testament to his commitment to the downtrodden. Che was born in a progressive Argentinean land-owning family in 1928. His early exposure to the profound inequalities in Latin America made him an avowed enemy of imperialism and the wealthy elite. He worked among the poor in many Latin American countries as a doctor. His stay in a colony of leprosy patients in Peru was documented in his travelogue Motor Cycle Diaries.
In 1954, when he was in Guatemala, he witnessed first hand the CIA-sponsored coup against the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz, and this had a big impact on his world view. In the same year, in Argentina the army overthrew the democratically elected government of Juan Peron, with the tacit support of the Americans. Che moved on to Mexico, where for the first time he came in contact with Castro in July 1955.
He was among the band of revolutionaries belonging to the July 26 Movement under the leadership of Castro, who boarded the Granma Yacht on November 25, 1956, to begin the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and restart the war of independence. Granma reached Cuba on December 2, 1956. Within a year, Castro, recognising Che’s potential as a fighter and a revolutionary, appointed him commander of Column No. 8 of the liberation army.
“He’d be the first for any mission. He was characterised by an extraordinary bravery, an absolute contempt for danger,” Castro told Ignacio Ramonnet (Castro’s recently released book My Life).
Che participated in many heroic battles, including the battle of Santa Clara of December 31, 1958, which was a turning point in the struggle. On January 1, 1959, Castro ordered Che and his troops to march to Havana after receiving news that Fulgencio Batista had run away from the country. On February 7, 1959, Che was formally given Cuban citizenship.
In My Life, Castro reminisces about the days when he first came into contact with Che, whom he describes as first and foremost an internationalist. Castro tells Ramonnet, who is the editor of the book, that Che had only one request when he enlisted for the struggle to liberate Cuba.
“The only thing I ask is that when the revolution triumphs in Cuba, you not forbid me, for reasons of the state, from going to Argentina to make a revolution there,” Che told Castro, who immediately agreed. The subject, according to Castro, was never broached again until Che decided to leave, not for his native Argentina but for Congo.
COURTESY: EMBASSY OF CUBA
Che visited India in 1959, soon after the revolution in Cuba.
Che went on to become one of Cuba’s central figures during the formative years of the revolution. In the initial years, he played a key role in bringing about agrarian reforms, eradicating illiteracy, and nationalising all American-owned property in the island. Before the revolution, Cuba was virtually a colony of the U.S. and a playground for the mafia and the rich and the famous of America.
As Cuba’s first Finance Minister, Che initiated radical reforms of the kind unheard of in Latin America and the Caribbean at the time. Though without any formal training in economics, Che had a fine grasp of the subject and presided over the liquidation of American capital in the island.
There is a story surrounding the circumstances of his appointment to the post. Immediately after the revolution, Castro, at a meeting, asked whether any of his comrades was an economist. Che was the first to raise his hand and was immediately appointed Governor of the Central Bank. He casually signed the new banknotes as “Che”. A couple of days later, Castro told Che: “I did not know you were an economist.” Che answered, “I thought that you were asking whether I was a Communist.”
Che’s sense of humour is exemplified by another story this correspondent heard in Havana. Che, who was asthmatic, was told by his doctor to restrict his smoking to one cigar a day. Che immediately agreed and from then on started smoking a cigar that was a foot long.
By 1964, Che was restless with his desk job. He had also become convinced that the Cuban revolution could only thrive if like-minded governments emerged in Latin America and other parts of the world. In his “farewell letter” to Castro, written on April 1, an emotional Che wrote: “I feel that I have fulfilled the part of my duty that tied me to the Cuban revolution in its territory, and I say farewell to you, to the comrades, to the people, who now are mine.”
Che was nostalgic about his relationship with Castro. “I have lived magnificent days, and at your side I felt the pride of belonging to our people in the brilliant yet sad days of the Caribbean Missile Crisis. Seldom has a statesman been as brilliant as you were in those days. I am also proud of having followed you without hesitation, of having identified with your ways of thinking and of seeing and appraising dangers and principles.”
After Che left on his mission to Africa and Latin America, there was feverish speculation in the Western media about alleged differences between Castro and Che. It was only after Che’s death that it became clear that his mission was undertaken with Castro’s full support and knowledge.
Che ended his last letter to Castro by emphasising his identification “with the foreign policy of our revolution. Wherever I am, I feel the responsibility of being a Cuban revolutionary, and I shall behave as such. I am not sorry that I leave nothing material to my wife and children; I am happy it is that way. I ask nothing for them, as the state will provide them with enough to live on and provide an education.”
In a speech delivered on Che’s 30th death anniversary, Castro said that as long as injustice, exploitation, poverty and hegemony continued to expand, Che’s image would only grow. Che, he said, was “a paradigm of a revolutionary and a communist”.
Copyright © 2008, Frontline.
Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited
without the written consent of Frontline
Che went on to become one of Cuba’s central figures during the formative years of the revolution. In the initial years, he played a key role in bringing about agrarian reforms, eradicating illiteracy, and nationalising all American-owned property in the island. Before the revolution, Cuba was virtually a colony of the U.S. and a playground for the mafia and the rich and the famous of America.
As Cuba’s first Finance Minister, Che initiated radical reforms of the kind unheard of in Latin America and the Caribbean at the time. Though without any formal training in economics, Che had a fine grasp of the subject and presided over the liquidation of American capital in the island.
There is a story surrounding the circumstances of his appointment to the post. Immediately after the revolution, Castro, at a meeting, asked whether any of his comrades was an economist. Che was the first to raise his hand and was immediately appointed Governor of the Central Bank. He casually signed the new banknotes as “Che”. A couple of days later, Castro told Che: “I did not know you were an economist.” Che answered, “I thought that you were asking whether I was a Communist.”
Che’s sense of humour is exemplified by another story this correspondent heard in Havana. Che, who was asthmatic, was told by his doctor to restrict his smoking to one cigar a day. Che immediately agreed and from then on started smoking a cigar that was a foot long.
By 1964, Che was restless with his desk job. He had also become convinced that the Cuban revolution could only thrive if like-minded governments emerged in Latin America and other parts of the world. In his “farewell letter” to Castro, written on April 1, an emotional Che wrote: “I feel that I have fulfilled the part of my duty that tied me to the Cuban revolution in its territory, and I say farewell to you, to the comrades, to the people, who now are mine.”
Che was nostalgic about his relationship with Castro. “I have lived magnificent days, and at your side I felt the pride of belonging to our people in the brilliant yet sad days of the Caribbean Missile Crisis. Seldom has a statesman been as brilliant as you were in those days. I am also proud of having followed you without hesitation, of having identified with your ways of thinking and of seeing and appraising dangers and principles.”
After Che left on his mission to Africa and Latin America, there was feverish speculation in the Western media about alleged differences between Castro and Che. It was only after Che’s death that it became clear that his mission was undertaken with Castro’s full support and knowledge.
Che ended his last letter to Castro by emphasising his identification “with the foreign policy of our revolution. Wherever I am, I feel the responsibility of being a Cuban revolutionary, and I shall behave as such. I am not sorry that I leave nothing material to my wife and children; I am happy it is that way. I ask nothing for them, as the state will provide them with enough to live on and provide an education.”
In a speech delivered on Che’s 30th death anniversary, Castro said that as long as injustice, exploitation, poverty and hegemony continued to expand, Che’s image would only grow. Che, he said, was “a paradigm of a revolutionary and a communist”.
Copyright © 2008, Frontline.
Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited
without the written consent of Frontline
Volume 25 - Issue 13 :: Jun. 21-Jul. 04, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
Printer Friendly Page Send this Article to a Friend
WORLD AFFAIRS
An icon for all time
JOHN CHERIAN
The world remembers Che Guevara, the great revolutionary, on the occasion of his 80th birth anniversary.
ALBERTO KORDA/GAMMA
A 1959 photograph of Che Guevara playing golf, taken at Fidel Castro’s request, according to the photographer.
JUNE 14, 2008, the 80th birth anniversary of the revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara, was celebrated in many cities of the world. In New Delhi, a photo exhibition highlighting his visit to India in 1959 was held at the India International Centre: Che was in India soon after the 1959 Cuban revolution and met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other senior Indian leaders. Also on display were rare pictures of Che’s diplomatic forays on behalf of Cuba’s revolutionary government in the late 1950s and the early 1960s to Asian countries such as Indonesia and China, Egypt and the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Until the cause of revolutionary internationalism beckoned him, Che held important portfolios in the Cuban government, including finance and foreign affairs.
Che was killed in action 40 years ago while fighting along with a guerilla army in the jungles of Bolivia. A Bolivian army unit trained by the Central Intelligence Agency captured Che and his band of guerillas after they ran out of ammunition. Che was then summarily executed on the CIA’s direct orders. Che and his highly motivated band of guerillas had hoped to ignite a popular revolution in Bolivia and, eventually, in the rest of Latin America.
Che’s 40th death anniversary was one of the most important events for Cubans last year. The top Cuban leadership assembled to pay homage to him in Santa Clara, the city he helped liberate during the struggle against the United States-backed dictatorship. Ramiro Valdes, one of Che’s comrades-in-arms and counted among the three senior leaders of the revolution, emphasised on the occasion that Che’s ideas and the legacy of his comrades would remain “a living element” among all Cubans.
Fidel Castro, paying tribute to his late comrade-in-arms, said that he bowed his “head with respect and gratitude to the exceptional combatant”. He described Che “as a flower yanked prematurely from its stem”. In an article that first appeared in the daily Granma, Castro also wrote that Che “was the mastermind of voluntary work; he accomplished honourable political missions abroad and served as messenger of militant internationalism in East Congo and Bolivia. He built a new awareness in our America and the world.” Castro concluded by reiterating that Che “still fights with us and for us”.
Che, as was evident from his writings and speeches, was inspired by the struggle of the Vietnamese against U.S. imperialism. In an undated message to the Organisation of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAL) and published in the Cuban magazine Tricontinental in 1966, Che wrote: “How close we could look into a bright future should two, three or many Vietnams flourish throughout the world with their share of deaths and their immense tragedies, their everyday heroism and their repeated blows against imperialism, impelled to disperse its force under the sudden attack and the increased hatred of all peoples of the world.” “One, two, three Vietnams” became one of Che’s famous slogans.
In that article Che also wrote that true revolutionaries need not fear death: “Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons and other men be ready to intone the funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries for victory.”
Che’s death, in retrospect, was not at all in vain. His struggles in the jungles of Africa and Latin America were inspirations to guerilla struggles that followed. Ruthless U.S.-backed authoritarian regimes had only managed to stem the revolutionary upsurge temporarily.
Che, if he were alive, would have been happy to see the political map of Latin America today. The governments in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and, importantly, Bolivia, the country in which he laid down his life, all have a left-wing orientation. In the capitals of all the four countries, Che’s death anniversary was observed in a big way. Bolivian President Evo Morales went to Vallegrande, 450 km from the capital La Paz, where Che’s remains were secretly buried, to pay his respects. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez presided over a ceremony at Pico del Agila in western Venezuela, which Che visited 55 years ago.
Foray into Congo
Che’s foray into Congo with a band of revolutionaries was another interesting episode in his short but eventful life. The CIA, which had assassinated the left-wing Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, soon after the country gained independence, despatched more than a thousand mercenaries to counter the Congolese guerillas led by Che. Che’s ideas inspired other revolutionary movements on the continent.
Not many people know that Cuba played a key role in the revolutionary successes of the National Front of Algeria (FLN) in its struggle against French colonialism. Even more important was the role of Cuba in the victory of the Movimento Popular da Libertação de Angola (MPLA) in Angola and the triumph over apartheid in South Africa. The battle of Cueto Cuanavale in 1987-88 turned the tide against the racist South African government. A combined force of Cubans and Angolans defeated the South African army in that battle. White South Africa’s aura of invincibility was broken. After Nelson Mandela was sworn in as President, he was overheard telling Castro: “You made this [freedom] possible.”
Thousands of Cuban men and women, inspired by Che, had volunteered to fight in far-off African countries, such as Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, against Portuguese colonialism. South African President Thabo Mbeki, in an article in the African National Congress (ANC) journal to commemorate Che’s death anniversary, paid lavish tributes to the revolutionary. Mbeki’s article quotes from official U.S. documents to prove Washington’s culpability in Che’s killing.
Che’s life was a testament to his commitment to the downtrodden. Che was born in a progressive Argentinean land-owning family in 1928. His early exposure to the profound inequalities in Latin America made him an avowed enemy of imperialism and the wealthy elite. He worked among the poor in many Latin American countries as a doctor. His stay in a colony of leprosy patients in Peru was documented in his travelogue Motor Cycle Diaries.
In 1954, when he was in Guatemala, he witnessed first hand the CIA-sponsored coup against the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz, and this had a big impact on his world view. In the same year, in Argentina the army overthrew the democratically elected government of Juan Peron, with the tacit support of the Americans. Che moved on to Mexico, where for the first time he came in contact with Castro in July 1955.
He was among the band of revolutionaries belonging to the July 26 Movement under the leadership of Castro, who boarded the Granma Yacht on November 25, 1956, to begin the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and restart the war of independence. Granma reached Cuba on December 2, 1956. Within a year, Castro, recognising Che’s potential as a fighter and a revolutionary, appointed him commander of Column No. 8 of the liberation army.
“He’d be the first for any mission. He was characterised by an extraordinary bravery, an absolute contempt for danger,” Castro told Ignacio Ramonnet (Castro’s recently released book My Life).
Che participated in many heroic battles, including the battle of Santa Clara of December 31, 1958, which was a turning point in the struggle. On January 1, 1959, Castro ordered Che and his troops to march to Havana after receiving news that Fulgencio Batista had run away from the country. On February 7, 1959, Che was formally given Cuban citizenship.
In My Life, Castro reminisces about the days when he first came into contact with Che, whom he describes as first and foremost an internationalist. Castro tells Ramonnet, who is the editor of the book, that Che had only one request when he enlisted for the struggle to liberate Cuba.
“The only thing I ask is that when the revolution triumphs in Cuba, you not forbid me, for reasons of the state, from going to Argentina to make a revolution there,” Che told Castro, who immediately agreed. The subject, according to Castro, was never broached again until Che decided to leave, not for his native Argentina but for Congo.
COURTESY: EMBASSY OF CUBA
Frontline
Volume 25 - Issue 13 :: Jun. 21-Jul. 04, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
WORLD AFFAIRS
An icon for all time
JOHN CHERIAN
The world remembers Che Guevara, the great revolutionary, on the occasion of his 80th birth anniversary.
JUNE 14, 2008, the 80th birth anniversary of the revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara, was celebrated in many cities of the world. In New Delhi, a photo exhibition highlighting his visit to India in 1959 was held at the India International Centre: Che was in India soon after the 1959 Cuban revolution and met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other senior Indian leaders. Also on display were rare pictures of Che’s diplomatic forays on behalf of Cuba’s revolutionary government in the late 1950s and the early 1960s to Asian countries such as Indonesia and China, Egypt and the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Until the cause of revolutionary internationalism beckoned him, Che held important portfolios in the Cuban government, including finance and foreign affairs.
Che was killed in action 40 years ago while fighting along with a guerilla army in the jungles of Bolivia. A Bolivian army unit trained by the Central Intelligence Agency captured Che and his band of guerillas after they ran out of ammunition. Che was then summarily executed on the CIA’s direct orders. Che and his highly motivated band of guerillas had hoped to ignite a popular revolution in Bolivia and, eventually, in the rest of Latin America.
Che’s 40th death anniversary was one of the most important events for Cubans last year. The top Cuban leadership assembled to pay homage to him in Santa Clara, the city he helped liberate during the struggle against the United States-backed dictatorship. Ramiro Valdes, one of Che’s comrades-in-arms and counted among the three senior leaders of the revolution, emphasised on the occasion that Che’s ideas and the legacy of his comrades would remain “a living element” among all Cubans.
Fidel Castro, paying tribute to his late comrade-in-arms, said that he bowed his “head with respect and gratitude to the exceptional combatant”. He described Che “as a flower yanked prematurely from its stem”. In an article that first appeared in the daily Granma, Castro also wrote that Che “was the mastermind of voluntary work; he accomplished honourable political missions abroad and served as messenger of militant internationalism in East Congo and Bolivia. He built a new awareness in our America and the world.” Castro concluded by reiterating that Che “still fights with us and for us”.
Che, as was evident from his writings and speeches, was inspired by the struggle of the Vietnamese against U.S. imperialism. In an undated message to the Organisation of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAL) and published in the Cuban magazine Tricontinental in 1966, Che wrote: “How close we could look into a bright future should two, three or many Vietnams flourish throughout the world with their share of deaths and their immense tragedies, their everyday heroism and their repeated blows against imperialism, impelled to disperse its force under the sudden attack and the increased hatred of all peoples of the world.” “One, two, three Vietnams” became one of Che’s famous slogans.
In that article Che also wrote that true revolutionaries need not fear death: “Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons and other men be ready to intone the funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries for victory.”
Che’s death, in retrospect, was not at all in vain. His struggles in the jungles of Africa and Latin America were inspirations to guerilla struggles that followed. Ruthless U.S.-backed authoritarian regimes had only managed to stem the revolutionary upsurge temporarily.
Che, if he were alive, would have been happy to see the political map of Latin America today. The governments in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and, importantly, Bolivia, the country in which he laid down his life, all have a left-wing orientation. In the capitals of all the four countries, Che’s death anniversary was observed in a big way. Bolivian President Evo Morales went to Vallegrande, 450 km from the capital La Paz, where Che’s remains were secretly buried, to pay his respects. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez presided over a ceremony at Pico del Agila in western Venezuela, which Che visited 55 years ago.
Foray into Congo
Che’s foray into Congo with a band of revolutionaries was another interesting episode in his short but eventful life. The CIA, which had assassinated the left-wing Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, soon after the country gained independence, despatched more than a thousand mercenaries to counter the Congolese guerillas led by Che. Che’s ideas inspired other revolutionary movements on the continent.
Not many people know that Cuba played a key role in the revolutionary successes of the National Front of Algeria (FLN) in its struggle against French colonialism. Even more important was the role of Cuba in the victory of the Movimento Popular da Libertação de Angola (MPLA) in Angola and the triumph over apartheid in South Africa. The battle of Cueto Cuanavale in 1987-88 turned the tide against the racist South African government. A combined force of Cubans and Angolans defeated the South African army in that battle. White South Africa’s aura of invincibility was broken. After Nelson Mandela was sworn in as President, he was overheard telling Castro: “You made this [freedom] possible.”
Thousands of Cuban men and women, inspired by Che, had volunteered to fight in far-off African countries, such as Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, against Portuguese colonialism. South African President Thabo Mbeki, in an article in the African National Congress (ANC) journal to commemorate Che’s death anniversary, paid lavish tributes to the revolutionary. Mbeki’s article quotes from official U.S. documents to prove Washington’s culpability in Che’s killing.
Che’s life was a testament to his commitment to the downtrodden. Che was born in a progressive Argentinean land-owning family in 1928. His early exposure to the profound inequalities in Latin America made him an avowed enemy of imperialism and the wealthy elite. He worked among the poor in many Latin American countries as a doctor. His stay in a colony of leprosy patients in Peru was documented in his travelogue Motor Cycle Diaries.
In 1954, when he was in Guatemala, he witnessed first hand the CIA-sponsored coup against the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz, and this had a big impact on his world view. In the same year, in Argentina the army overthrew the democratically elected government of Juan Peron, with the tacit support of the Americans. Che moved on to Mexico, where for the first time he came in contact with Castro in July 1955.
He was among the band of revolutionaries belonging to the July 26 Movement under the leadership of Castro, who boarded the Granma Yacht on November 25, 1956, to begin the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and restart the war of independence. Granma reached Cuba on December 2, 1956. Within a year, Castro, recognising Che’s potential as a fighter and a revolutionary, appointed him commander of Column No. 8 of the liberation army.
“He’d be the first for any mission. He was characterised by an extraordinary bravery, an absolute contempt for danger,” Castro told Ignacio Ramonnet (Castro’s recently released book My Life).
Che participated in many heroic battles, including the battle of Santa Clara of December 31, 1958, which was a turning point in the struggle. On January 1, 1959, Castro ordered Che and his troops to march to Havana after receiving news that Fulgencio Batista had run away from the country. On February 7, 1959, Che was formally given Cuban citizenship.
In My Life, Castro reminisces about the days when he first came into contact with Che, whom he describes as first and foremost an internationalist. Castro tells Ramonnet, who is the editor of the book, that Che had only one request when he enlisted for the struggle to liberate Cuba.
“The only thing I ask is that when the revolution triumphs in Cuba, you not forbid me, for reasons of the state, from going to Argentina to make a revolution there,” Che told Castro, who immediately agreed. The subject, according to Castro, was never broached again until Che decided to leave, not for his native Argentina but for Congo.
COURTESY: EMBASSY OF CUBA
Che visited India in 1959, soon after the revolution in Cuba.
Che went on to become one of Cuba’s central figures during the formative years of the revolution. In the initial years, he played a key role in bringing about agrarian reforms, eradicating illiteracy, and nationalising all American-owned property in the island. Before the revolution, Cuba was virtually a colony of the U.S. and a playground for the mafia and the rich and the famous of America.
As Cuba’s first Finance Minister, Che initiated radical reforms of the kind unheard of in Latin America and the Caribbean at the time. Though without any formal training in economics, Che had a fine grasp of the subject and presided over the liquidation of American capital in the island.
There is a story surrounding the circumstances of his appointment to the post. Immediately after the revolution, Castro, at a meeting, asked whether any of his comrades was an economist. Che was the first to raise his hand and was immediately appointed Governor of the Central Bank. He casually signed the new banknotes as “Che”. A couple of days later, Castro told Che: “I did not know you were an economist.” Che answered, “I thought that you were asking whether I was a Communist.”
Che’s sense of humour is exemplified by another story this correspondent heard in Havana. Che, who was asthmatic, was told by his doctor to restrict his smoking to one cigar a day. Che immediately agreed and from then on started smoking a cigar that was a foot long.
By 1964, Che was restless with his desk job. He had also become convinced that the Cuban revolution could only thrive if like-minded governments emerged in Latin America and other parts of the world. In his “farewell letter” to Castro, written on April 1, an emotional Che wrote: “I feel that I have fulfilled the part of my duty that tied me to the Cuban revolution in its territory, and I say farewell to you, to the comrades, to the people, who now are mine.”
Che was nostalgic about his relationship with Castro. “I have lived magnificent days, and at your side I felt the pride of belonging to our people in the brilliant yet sad days of the Caribbean Missile Crisis. Seldom has a statesman been as brilliant as you were in those days. I am also proud of having followed you without hesitation, of having identified with your ways of thinking and of seeing and appraising dangers and principles.”
After Che left on his mission to Africa and Latin America, there was feverish speculation in the Western media about alleged differences between Castro and Che. It was only after Che’s death that it became clear that his mission was undertaken with Castro’s full support and knowledge.
Che ended his last letter to Castro by emphasising his identification “with the foreign policy of our revolution. Wherever I am, I feel the responsibility of being a Cuban revolutionary, and I shall behave as such. I am not sorry that I leave nothing material to my wife and children; I am happy it is that way. I ask nothing for them, as the state will provide them with enough to live on and provide an education.”
In a speech delivered on Che’s 30th death anniversary, Castro said that as long as injustice, exploitation, poverty and hegemony continued to expand, Che’s image would only grow. Che, he said, was “a paradigm of a revolutionary and a communist”.
Copyright © 2008, Frontline.
Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited
without the written consent of Frontline
Che went on to become one of Cuba’s central figures during the formative years of the revolution. In the initial years, he played a key role in bringing about agrarian reforms, eradicating illiteracy, and nationalising all American-owned property in the island. Before the revolution, Cuba was virtually a colony of the U.S. and a playground for the mafia and the rich and the famous of America.
As Cuba’s first Finance Minister, Che initiated radical reforms of the kind unheard of in Latin America and the Caribbean at the time. Though without any formal training in economics, Che had a fine grasp of the subject and presided over the liquidation of American capital in the island.
There is a story surrounding the circumstances of his appointment to the post. Immediately after the revolution, Castro, at a meeting, asked whether any of his comrades was an economist. Che was the first to raise his hand and was immediately appointed Governor of the Central Bank. He casually signed the new banknotes as “Che”. A couple of days later, Castro told Che: “I did not know you were an economist.” Che answered, “I thought that you were asking whether I was a Communist.”
Che’s sense of humour is exemplified by another story this correspondent heard in Havana. Che, who was asthmatic, was told by his doctor to restrict his smoking to one cigar a day. Che immediately agreed and from then on started smoking a cigar that was a foot long.
By 1964, Che was restless with his desk job. He had also become convinced that the Cuban revolution could only thrive if like-minded governments emerged in Latin America and other parts of the world. In his “farewell letter” to Castro, written on April 1, an emotional Che wrote: “I feel that I have fulfilled the part of my duty that tied me to the Cuban revolution in its territory, and I say farewell to you, to the comrades, to the people, who now are mine.”
Che was nostalgic about his relationship with Castro. “I have lived magnificent days, and at your side I felt the pride of belonging to our people in the brilliant yet sad days of the Caribbean Missile Crisis. Seldom has a statesman been as brilliant as you were in those days. I am also proud of having followed you without hesitation, of having identified with your ways of thinking and of seeing and appraising dangers and principles.”
After Che left on his mission to Africa and Latin America, there was feverish speculation in the Western media about alleged differences between Castro and Che. It was only after Che’s death that it became clear that his mission was undertaken with Castro’s full support and knowledge.
Che ended his last letter to Castro by emphasising his identification “with the foreign policy of our revolution. Wherever I am, I feel the responsibility of being a Cuban revolutionary, and I shall behave as such. I am not sorry that I leave nothing material to my wife and children; I am happy it is that way. I ask nothing for them, as the state will provide them with enough to live on and provide an education.”
In a speech delivered on Che’s 30th death anniversary, Castro said that as long as injustice, exploitation, poverty and hegemony continued to expand, Che’s image would only grow. Che, he said, was “a paradigm of a revolutionary and a communist”.
Copyright © 2008, Frontline.
Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited
without the written consent of Frontline
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