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In the Defense of “Che”

It’s been an eventful weekend. I’ve had some time on my hands, with my current muse, a book, a revisit to one of my favorites, and one of the many that got me into the habit of reading. It was in my days as a college going, t-shirt wearing malcontent, that I picked up a superbly worn copy of “The Motorcycle Diaries”. The book was a hand-me-down, an edition published in the late 1990s, the thoughts it provoked then, and now, weren’t.

The life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, has been an enigma for a lot of people. Over the years of his short, eventful life, he went from being a student, to a traveler that rode through most of South America on a Norton 500 named “La Poderosa II”, the invincible one, a name that can just as simply be translated to Che’s life. He went from being a physician that joined the revolution because of the poverty and sufferings he witnessed on that eventful ride, to being one of the best guerilla fighters there was, a truly gifted tactician, a textbook Marxist communist, an astute politician, and at the end of the day, no matter what people say, I believe, a martyr at the altar of world opinion.

My time in the United States brought me into contact with people that talked about a personal hero of mine, as someone, who was given to violence, someone who didn’t believe in the due process of the law, and handed out death sentences at tribunals, that amounted to little more than summary execution, and someone that destroyed anyone that stood in the way of his quest to a Marxist answer to South America’s troubles. This, in addition to a lot of other unenviable names, that I wouldn’t grace a certain dictator from Germany with.

Reading the book again, draws a picture in my mind of someone that decided to take action against the poverty, the misery and the lax attitude toward the people of the political leadership at the time, and took a stance, necessarily radical to bring attention to a part of the world that was mostly being ignored up until that point. To say that an Argentinean, fought for his beliefs in three countries says something about his perseverance, and dedication to his cause. Throughout, he wasn’t just a fighter. He was a physician that, following the disastrous beach landings at the Cuban revolution, dropped his medical kit for a box of ammo, that following the explosion of La Coubre reversed the tide just as easily, ran to the docks, and administered emergency medical treatment to the wounded crew and dock workers. He was a diplomat that set the tone of Cuban relations with the rest of the communist world. He was also an involved intellectual whose interests stretched from philosophy to sociology. In short, he was the sort of person the youth of today, need to look up to as an icon, not a counterculture one, but as someone that they need to strive to follow, much like our very own Subashchandra Bose, a Nelson Mandela, or the countless others the world honors.

I cannot help but build parallels, to the issues that we face in our country today, and how closely they match up to the apathy of the government, the law enforcement and the general administration, that was being displayed to people in the countries that Che decided to make a difference in. Maybe, I border on not agreeing with a way of violence to make your opinion felt, and to enforce change, but I do support taking action. Today, though, the inaction among those that stand to inherit our world is appalling. So here’s where we can delve into our past, and conjure up icons that help propel us forward to a world where we demand action from our government, and jolt them into action, if need be.

To sum up, in Guevara’s own words to his kids, in a letter written to them, to be opened upon death:

"Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary." – Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.

Get out NOW!!!

Travelling

I am travelling from the United States to India. I hope to get back to blogging when I get to India.

You've got E-Democracy!!!

So, over the week, I was reading up about an interesting concept. This concept is called 'E-Democracy'. In the recent Mumbai terror attacks, the one thing that came out of a terrible situation, was a demonstration of how electronic media, social networks, blogs and sites like twitter were used to disseminate almost instantaneous information about what was happening on the ground in Mumbai. So much so, that a couple of reputed news networks were giving in live feeds to twitter to show their viewers live updates about the attacks.

E-Democracy is fairly intriguing in concept as well, and has already been implemented in various ways around the world. It essentially involves using all of the new age media out there as a political tool. This takes the effect of democracy, and the message that can be passed to the people to a whole new level, which can then be used by them to educate the lesser educated about politics, the importance of being involved in government, and how online spaces can be used as a forum for airing grievances, and addressing them by providing real situations.

A tool like this becomes incredibly convenient for people of a democracy, especially among the tech-savvy, educated section of the population, the kind this blog aims to reach out to, to make their voices heard in a world dominated by the neanderthal mode of governance we are used to, with our members of the parliament, and legislative assembly screaming at the top of their voices to get laws passed, and decisions made.

Consider the possibilities for the government

• A bill needs to get passed. The local representative of the state/ federal governments puts it up on a central portal, and announces that the bill is now open to votes for all constituencies. A time period for the bill is also announced as to when it comes up to be voted on, in the assembly. All popular votes will have to be completed by then.
  
• The local population is made aware of the highlights of the bill via a preamble written to local constituencies, and distributed along small community blocks by volunteers. The preamble also offers details on various ways to vote, by going online, by writing to your local representative, or placing a vote over the phone.
• The full text of the bill is also available by request, and under the Right to Information Act, it is obligatory for the bill to be presented to anyone who asks to see it.
• Depending on the number of 'yes' or 'no' votes received by the local representative, he/she decides on how to vote. If they decide to vote against the decision of the people, a written explanation as to why is afforded and attached to the text of the bill at the time of the vote by the local representative.
• This set of actions will truly bring democracy into the mainstream, and ensure that people that need to be governed, are kept aware of the laws being passed, and how they affect their daily lives.

For the citizens, E-Democracy can serve a host of purposes.

• Education of the population. A lot of people today are unaware of the power that rests in their hands, choosing simply, to deny their capability to make change happen, and accepting situations on an as is basis. E-Democracy can be implemented by way of citizen created portals to put up information about the political process, problems with the daily bureaucracy, and the ability to provide people with a common ground for discussions with no physical or location based constraints. It is a strong platform to learn about alternatives to the one process of the state, and gives people an insight into the sources of power outside it.
  
• Using the internet as a platform to spread political, environmental activism. Again, this comes back to the power of the internet to disseminate knowledge. Organizations seeking to garner the support of people toward a cause can use the internet to gain popular support.
• Open Source Governance, which gives power to the people to draft legislation that can then be presented to our local representatives, and then acted upon by those representatives according to the points mentioned above. This is an excellent method to boost participation of the people in the governance of a region.

Again, as with all forms of participation, there need to be adequate checks and balances, to the implementation of E-Governance/ E-Democracy in general, and the concept is still in a fairly nascent stage of realization. A central body controlled and staffed by the people, needs to be established, to watch over the process, and to keep people from manipulating it to their own advantage.

All in all, it seems like a good time for democracy to evolve. Isn't it time we got E-Democracy?

(Credits: A lot of good information of E-Democracy is available in the public domain by way of wikis, and articles written up by prominent political analysts. Please contact me if you need more information about e-democracy, and I can point you in the right direction. Thanks to all those people on the internet, who took the time out to write those articles, and got these thoughts cycling in my head.)

An open letter to my friends

This is the first email I sent out to all my friends, and asked them to pass on to come back with any suggestions they might have for what a common citizen can do on a daily basis, to make our cities and localities safer. This email was sent out in the wake of the 11/26 terror attacks in Mumbai, and there have been several responses to this, which I will put up in due course.

If anyone happens across this, and wishes to use it as a starting point for a call to action in their own networks, please feel free to do so. It's time each one of us stood up and took action.

"Guys

On this list are some people, I've contacted before, and some that I am getting in touch for the first time. 

So, to start with, Hi everyone. This is Ramprasad Hariharan, a Mumbaiite.

This email is going out to everyone as a request for help from a city, that all of us are connected to, or have been connected to at some point of time in our lives. I've decided to step in and do my bit, as a responsible citizen, to make as much noise about the apathy, and sheer docile nature and pure blatant disregard of the security of our people that was demonstrated by our state, and federal governments, as well as the intelligence mechanism and police forces, during the audacious assault on our freedom and democracy on 11/26/08.

I'd like to think we are getting to a point where the people of India, or at least a section of it will wake up and start questioning the functioning of our democracy, and demand a shift, however slow it might be to a welfare oriented society. We need to realize that the government has failed the country as a whole and has done more than put the country at grave risk, they've endangered the future of one-fifth of all humanity, and all of our kids/ nephews/ nieces, and pretty much everything we hold dear today. It's high time the administration gets accountable to the promises it makes, and takes real steps toward improving the security of the country, so at least some of these attacks are pre-empted. In my personal opinion, there can be no development, economic, humanitarian or personal without a sense of security in the society we live in. 

What I am proposing here, is starting a grassroots movement to get our broken community together, and break down the walls that exist between the different sections of society, the administration, the law enforcement and the justice system. Before security needs to come trust, and I propose building up that trust by networking between people who like on this list are from different facets of society, and can help a lot with the right inputs.

Please take a couple of minutes to read this email, and try and respond back to me with what you think should be a further course of action that we as citizens can recommend. This does not necessarily need to involve the government, but might range from educating ourselves politically, to educating a section of the illiterate population in india, as an attempt to bring them to the mainstream, to organize local events in your city, that brings all sections of population togther, and gets them invested in each other, to something as simple as voting in the next election, which pretty much is the most potent weapon in a democracy's arsenal.

Please also feel free to forward this along to whoever you think can contribute to this discussion. I am trying to make it a little more official, and have requested guidance from the concerned people about how we can setup a citizens watch group that can be co-ordinated online, via a blog to start off with, and depending on the results it shows, I'd like to grow it into a portal for us concerned citizens.

I am also trying to recruit for this effort, and would welcome any assistance offered. 

11/26 shall never be forgotten in my heart and mind, as I am sure it wont be, with everyone on this list. The question is, can we act now, so we can pre-empt something like this the next time? The government clearly needs a clap of thunder to wake from their slumber. Maybe it needs to come from us. 

If you read till here, thanks for reading :-),and any help offered is truly appreciated. Once i receive feedback, I will format and post it up at http://thesosclub.blogspot.com, along with this request for help. All of your replies will be posted anonymously, unless requested otherwise. 

Ram Hariharan"

The thing with Talking, and then walking it...

So, its been more than a week now, and still little or no response from our dear elected leaders, that were chosen, (or least we are told) to represent our interests. It's a democracy after all, power to the people and all that jazz..

A week after the tragedy, people still are holding candlelight vigils, and demonstrations, and everything else that involves them congregating in a group, and very few are actually acting. The NGOs at this point should latch on to this, or least, there should be some citizens groups forming out of this situation, to put a handle on it, build up a measured response, and rack up the pressure on politicians to affect a change. All I've heard, on social networks, and blogs are whispers of action, that fade into thin air.

As for the response from the politicians, there was a pansy little address from our PMOI, which made it look like someone from his entourage had a gun to his head, and he was reading from a prepared speech, without a trace of concern, or genuine regret, that the country he so magnanimously chose to represent, was attacked so brazenly. The NSA has all but disappeared, and our MEA , Mr. Mukherjee, chose to dial up the rhetoric when Ms. Rice was in New Delhi, and then fell silent, when Ms. Rice went to Pakistan, to showboat with some others. Heartening, yes? A couple of politicians from Maharashtra were fired, for bumbling their way through this crisis, yes, for the way they acted during this crisis, not the way they acted before it. Not for the way they behaved before the security situation in the crown jewel of the country had some to such paltry heights, but for misplacing a couple of words in a press conference, as was the case with R. R. Patil, and with Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, who could possibly blame him for running the state into the ground, letting something like this happen, by keeping the local security services so woefully inept, and now, wanting to make a movie out of it?

The next crop of politicians, that replaced our esteemed leaders, dont seem to be much better off as well. Maybe that's because politicians in our country are all in the same mindset? I wonder what "Chance pe dance karna" means to them.

I've been sending out an email asking for suggestions of next steps, the text of which I will post on this blog shortly, followed by the responses I've gotten to date. The shocking part seems to be that out of the 150+ people I sent these emails to, less than 10% have responded. Seems like people are just accepting these as just another terror attack, just another unfortunate 180+ people dead, just another 600 injured, just another group of families ripped apart, just another failure to deny an attack, and just another failure to respond effectively to it. Seems like, the message from the majority of the people seems to be, "Just another part of being an Indian".

See for the following groups, the thing about talking is, it needs to be followed up with someone walking it.

1. For the politicians, they need to dial down the rhetoric, and take a long hard look at what brought the country in general to this situation, and how they can fix it with the help of the people. Else, the people will do it for them, and they can all go dig a hole.
2. For the people, they need to stop accepting this as a part of their life, everything from the fear of an attack, to the attack itself, and then the response to it. They need to take the response to this attack seriously, and use it as a foundation to build out a plan to make a real change in their community, their city, and ultimately their nation.