Putting the Global Occupy Movement in Context: Who Are These Protesters, and What Do They Want?

Protesters demonstrate at the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, on Oct. 15, 2011, during a worldwide demonstration sparked by anger against corporations and government cutbacks. 

At first glance, the synchronized protests that took place in more than 900 cities around the globe on Oct. 15 seemed to indicate that Occupy Wall Street had achieved a kind of worldwide resonance.

But the truth is more complex. Many of the protests elsewhere grew out of movements that pre-date Occupy Wall Street and out of frustrations that, though similar in some ways, are also specific to their countries.
Here’s a look at the origins, demands and affects of five of these global protests, as well as the criticism they’ve faced.

In Chile, Students Protesting for Free Education Occupy Schools

The Santiago protest in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street took place during a week of ongoing national demonstrations. Since May, Chilean students have been staging protestsdemanding that the government make education free to all.

Secondary school students have occupied their schools, sleeping on the floor and holding their own classes. Last week, protesting students occupied Chile’s senate building in Santiago. Hundreds of thousands of people have participated in marches over the past six months. At times, the protests have become violent, with police using tear gas and water cannons on the protesters, and “masked assailants” setting fire to a city bus.

Opinion polls show more than 80 percent of Chile’s citizens support the protesting students, who also have the backing of labor unions and teachers. Government officials,including the president, have resisted the demands, saying the government cannot afford to pay for education for all students.

In Israel, a Summer Protest Against Rent Prices, Cost of Living

Protesters in Tel Aviv returned Oct. 15 to Rothschild Boulevard, the site of a summer occupation that prefigured the Occupy Wall Street movement.

During those demonstrations, which began July 14, hundreds of people set up tents along the most prestigious street in Tel Aviv’s financial district to protest the high cost of rent. Government ministers mocked the protesters, calling them “sushi-eaters” and “nargila [hookah] smokers with guitars.”

But over two months, demonstrations against Israel’s high cost of living brought out a record-breaking numbers of participants. A march on Sept. 3 drew 450,000 people, orroughly six percent of Israel’s population. In response, Israel’s prime minister proposed reforms, and, when they were rejected as insufficient, assembled a task force to consider ways to improve the standard of living for Israel’s middle class.
Tel Aviv’s tent city was dismantled earlier this month.

In Spain, High Youth Unemployment Rate Sparks Tent Occupations

The idea for a global day of protest on Oct. 15 was originally proposed by participants in Spain’s 15-M or “Los Indignados” movement.

The “indignados” movement began in May, when hundreds of protesters set up tents in Madrid’s historic Puerta del Sol, and others gathered elsewhere to protest Spain’sextremely high unemployment. Overall, unemployment was at more than 20 percent, and youth unemployment was at nearly 50 percent. On Oct. 15, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville.

Like the Wall Street protesters, protesters in Spain faced criticism for having no clear demands and using the protest as an excuse for a big party. Madrid’s tent city, which largely disbanded in June, was leaderless and had a legal advice tent, a library, a kitchen set up to prepare donated food. It also had a general assembly where participants made decisions through consensus on issues such as how to deal with police or complaints from neighbors. Some neighboring merchants were not enthused about the occupation, but, as in New York, the 24-hour pizzeria didn’t seem to mind.

In the UK, Occupation Follows Protests on Education Cuts, Riots Over Police Brutality

Over the past year, the UK has seen major student protests over rising school fees, as well as violent riots and looting this August after a young black man from a low-income neighborhood was killed by the police.

In comparison with the roughly 50,000 protesters who turned out last November todemonstrate against tuition increases, the Occupy London Stock Exchange movement is small: an estimated 600 people are camped out by St. Paul’s Cathedral, and a smaller cluster have gathered near London’s Royal Bank of Scotland and JP Morgan buildings. (At times, an estimated 2,000 protesters have gathered at the encampment. There also have been smaller protests in other cities across the UK.)

The encampment has prompted the closure of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is reported to be considering legal action to dislodge the protesters.

Like those in New York, the Occupy London protesters have been criticized—by the Mayor of London, among others—for not having a clear set of demands. A Guardian reporter who spent a few days at the encampment reported that “a few of the key facilitators in last winter’s student protests haven’t come down” because “they’re not sure it’s radical enough.”

But the reporter, Patrick Kingsley, concluded that the lack of demands may be part of the point: “If anything, the camp itself is their demand, and their solution: the stab at an alternative society that at least aims to operate without hierarchy, and with full, participatory democracy. And to be fair, in its small way, it kind of works,” he wrote.

In Germany, a Country Less Burdened by the Financial Crisis, Protest May Reflect Fears for the Future

In Frankfurt, Europe’s financial center, roughly a hundred protesters are currently camped out in front of the European Central Bank, and at least 4,000 more took to the streets again last weekend to protest the banking system. (Smaller numbers protested in Berlin.)

The protests, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, have been greeted with some bewilderment by commentators. While the American protests have focused on the nation’s increasing inequality and wealth disparity, Germany “has one of the most equitable distributions of family income in the world,” according to Foreign Policy magazine. German youth are not saddled with student loan debt, the Wall Street Journal points out, and have a very low unemployment rate of 9.7 percent.

Trying to explain the reason for protests in a country “largely unscathed by the global financial crisis,” German newspapers suggested that there was “bitter disappointment” that state bailouts of banks did not result in reforms to the financial system, or that the protests were forward-looking, sparked by “young people who are afraid that the debt crisis is robbing them of their future."

Occupy Wall Street: The World Economic Crisis and its Solutions

Thousands of demonstrators who are gathering in front of the famous Wall Street, the financial centre of the USA and the world in New York are demanding a serious change in the world financial system that does not care about the people but only about the profit of the investment banks. Initially it was the debt problem of some smaller European countries like Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Iceland and the Baltic States. Now it has spread to the banking system of both USA and UK creating panic in the world economy.

Greek crisis, resulting into Greece’s submission to the IMF and the forthcoming social unrest is related to the Global crisis of finance both in Europe and in USA. The result can very well be a global recession, from which the merging countries like India cannot escape. Globalization has massively increased the vulnerability of the world’s financial and economic system. Every day trillions of dollars is transacted at the speed of light, much of it unregulated. The derivative products or gambling of various kinds on every financial future market have accrued to the level of hundreds of trillions of dollars, unmonitored by any governmental authority. In essence, a vast global financial superstructure has been erected on a fragile foundation by arranging massive loans by some investment banks to countries who cannot afford to pay back. This is just as worst as the sub-prime securities or loans to poor American to buy houses knowing their inability to repay but then selling these loans as assets to the rest of the world.

The situation has already created a fear psychosis all over the world of an impending recession of the world economy. European governments decided to fund a bailout largely out of fear that a Greek default might lead to a new financial crisis and the bankruptcy of other countries, such as Ireland, Portugal and Spain. Credit rating agencies recently downgraded both countries’ debt. If Greece will collapse, others will follow.

Greek Debts:

Greek government of Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou announced massive social cuts worked out in negotiations with European and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials to pay off the Greek debt to its international creditors. In exchange for these austerity measures, the European financial ministers decided earlier to implement a €110 billion bailout package for Greece so that Greece will not default, which would ruin the European monetary system and its currency Euro. It’s more than likely that austerity package will be rejected by the Greek people who would prefer to default on the debt. If Greece can get away with a default, that will make the prospect of default for Ireland, Portugal and even Spain a much more realistic possibility. Greece has a national debt of 330 billion Euro out of that about half are due to international banks mainly American, other half are from German and French banks. French banks hold $75.4 billion worth of Greek debt, followed by Swiss institutions, at $64 billion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. German banks’ exposure stands at $43.2 billion. That gives the Greek debt crisis an international dimension with worldwide impacts. One possible way out for Greece is to default on its debts and quit the European Monetary system. This would allow Greece to devalue, to improve its balance of payments with cheaper exports. However, in that case Greece will be unable to borrow in future from the European Central Bank and people will get rid of their own currency to have more Euro to survive the uncertainly. That will exhaust its foreign exchange reserve. A default would hurt French and German banks in particular. They were some of the biggest lenders, holding more than two-thirds of the Greek government bonds in international lenders’ hands at the end of last year.

How Greece fell into the Debt Trap:

Greeks are some of the world’s richest people. The National Bank of Greece, Eurobank, Alphabank and Piraeus bank, have 164 billion Euros in deposits alone. The estimated loans taken from the foreigners are about 216 Billion Euros. Greece has extremely low household debt / GDP ratio; low corporate debt/ GDP ratio; low bank debt/ GDP ratio; a manageable total debt / GDP ratio, but a very poor Government debt / GDP ratio, above 100% of GDP.

In 1980, when Greece has joined the European Union, Government Debt/GDP ratio was 30% and it would have been much lower were it not for the high costs of defense. When Greece joined the EU in 1980, it became a party time. A small oligarchy then was the only source of capital and had the acumen, education and experience to deploy it as the country developed. Old families controlled the steel, cement, foodstuffs and construction companies that rebuilt Greece after the war.

Money that was sent from the European Commission to build the Greek infrastructure, about 6% of Greek GDP for the last 30 years, was funneled directly into the pockets of the oligarchy due to high level of corruption in Greece. Most part of that money could be used in socially desirable projects, but instead the bulk ended up in the pockets of the twenty families who run Greek business and own all the banks. Low rate of interest from the European banks, have allowed the Government of Greece to be borrow more and more but the people on the street never saw the benefit of the 300 billion the government has borrowed. Even then, Greece should not have any difficulty given the deposits and assets of the Greek banks.

Greece then fell into the trap of debt due mainly to a financial derivative called Credit-Default Swap. The contract, known as credit-default swaps, means if a company or, in this case Greece, an entire country, fails to pay its debts, Banks and financial institutions who own these swaps stand to profit. It’s like buying fireinsurance on your neighbour’s house — you will be motivated to burn down the house of your neighbour so that you can receive a huge insurance payment subsequently. Similar conditions were created for Greece by a number of Banks, some of which are Greek. Greece was encouraged to borrow heavily by these banks to finance its budget deficit. At the same time, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and about a dozen other banks had created an index that enabled market players to bet on whether Greece and other European nations would go bust.

As banks and others rush into these swaps, the cost of insuring Greece’s debt rises. Alarmed by that signal, bond investors then started rejecting Greek bonds, making it harder for the Greece to borrow. That, in turn, adds to the anxiety that Greece cannot repay its existing debts by borrowing more. Anxiety now covers other troubled economies like Ireland, the Baltic States of the former Soviet Union, Portugal and Spain.

Role of the US Financial Institutions and the Financial Derivatives:

Greece has come under pressure recently to explain allegations that it used complex financial products, provided by US investment banks, to conceal the true state of its debt pile over the last decade. Goldman Sachs and other banks set up a new index or derivative, in plain English a bet, in September of 2001 that investors could use to bet on the likelihood that Western European countries like Greece would default on their debt. The very same company that created this index set up a similar index in early 2006 that allowed investors to bet on the likelihood of defaults in the subprime bond market in USA. That index was a collaboration between two companies Markit and CDS IndexCo, a consortium of 16 banks, including Goldman Sachs. The acting chairman of CDS IndexCo was Goldman Sachs managing director Bradford Levy. Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund manager John Paulson, who made billions betting against the subprime sector, were the major buyers of these Index or derivative.

Goldman is, in fact, using swaps to bet heavily on the likelihood of a Greek default, At the same time that it is helping Greece to hide its debts. The game plan is fairly simple: create government bonds to hide true levels of debt, then make profitable bets that the government will fail to pay off . This would create a financial crisis. The country would expect other governments and the International Monetary Fund would take the responsibility for its debt. The bets will earn enormous profits for these investment banks.

Goldman Sachs and John Paulson did this with AIG before to create the financial crisis in USA and subsequently for the world, devising complex securities known as “synthetic CDOs” which were composed entirely of bets on a set of mortgage loans given to poor Americans who can not afford these. Paulson has collected the contracts for these mortgage loans, selecting the ones that were most likely to have default. Goldman then created the securities combing these mortgage loan contracts and sold them as investments to investors like AIG ( American Insurance Group). The bets were essentially designed to fail, with Paulson (and Goldman) on the winning end. The hidden cost of default was massive enough to make AIG bankrupt, threaten the world financial system, and necessitate a help from all G-20 countries.

These bailout funds were then passed on to Goldman Sachs. Due to the activities of Goldman Sachs and Paulson, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission of USA, Royal Bank of Scotland and Germany’s IKB Deutsche lost about $1 billion on the deal, which was later financed by the respective governments of Britain and Germany. Similarly, Greek government now has to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund for the game Goldman Sachs and Paulson played. John Paulson’s investment firm earned more than $15 billion in 2007 and Goldman Sachs earned $4.79 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone. The Greek crisis is created using the similar technique, when Greek banks have enough assets to walk over the crisis.

However, when Greece is dealing with the prospect of financial ruin, Goldman Sachs and Paulson have been speculating heavily in Greek debt markets with a team of 20-30 traders focused on the country. As New York Times reported, that on Jan. 28 and 29 2011 this year, analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. took a group of investors on a field trip to meet with Deputy Finance Minister of Greece and head of other private banks in Greece. Greece appears to have been negotiating for its economic future with Goldman Sachs and its network of hedge fund colluders, many of whom have taken large speculative positions on Greek debt. The Wall Street Journal reported on a Manhattan dinner party where a group of hedge fund managers discussed their bets against the Euro, which is now seriously affected by the crisis in Greece and possible crisis of Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Italy.

Effects of the Rescue Plan for Greece:

The IMF plan to have any chance of success will tighten Greece’s austerity plan further. Greek GDP will fall further if the IMF demands a further tightening. The Greek government is seeking to reduce the budget deficit from 14 percent to 4 percent of Greece’s gross domestic product (GDP), which stands at roughly €245 billion. As it absorbs the impact of these cuts, the Greek economy is expected to contract by 4 percent this year.
Public sector workers face another cut in their official wages, which will then be frozen until 2014. Pensioners also face massive cuts. Sales taxes—which fall most heavily on the working class—will be increased. Greece also plans to privatize mass transit and utilities—moves that will doubtless dramatically increase user fees, just as workers face plunging wages and rising unemployment. There will also be large cuts in spending on hospital equipment and medical care.

How USA got into involved in this crisis:

More than 70 % of America’s GDP is derived from consumer spending. Accordingly, in this time of economic crisis, the government must substitute for the downfall in retail and business activity by regenerating demand in the economy. In the America that gave birth to the global financial crisis and credit crunch, the government’s finances have been driven to the brink of bankruptcy by vastly excessive military expenditures, run amok by a losing war in Afghanistan and an unnecessary war in Iraq.

America’s superiority was based on its military infrastructure, and the capability to project power thousands of miles from its shores, inflicting “shock and awe” on any foreign enemy. However, that military industrial complex required a massively productive and successful economy to maintain itself. During the last ten years, while America replaced its ability to create goods that the world needed with complex financial instruments and securitized mortgages as its primary export product, it relied on foreign creditors to subsidize the American military establishment and the cost of the foreign wars it was engaged in. That bubble has busted. European banks are not in a position, due to the defaults of several smaller European countries like Greece, to extend loans to USA.

The consumer demand of the U.S., driven by debt, is now collapsing with the growing jobs crisis. This is leading to demand destruction for those export goods developing economies around the world depend on to employ their teeming masses. During the course of the year the jobs crisis will clearly be a global phenomena, as are all the other factors that characterize the ongoing World Economic Crisis.

For USA, to finance the massive amount of spending planned by the Obama administration; at least a trillion dollars of additional money have to be borrowed from abroad. The American stimulus package alone has cost over one trillion dollars in the last two years. This comes on top of the $700 billion program of George Bush initiated. The only way the U.S. will be able to attract foreign credit in this context is through much higher interest rates. This will kill private borrowing, stifling investment and ultimately defeating the purpose of the stimulus spending. The other alternative is to simply print the money, and produce the hyperinflation, as Nixon did in early 1970s. The viable alternative is to reduce USA’s massive defence spending, which is the cause of its huge budget deficits.

The American consumers, always over-burdened with debt, are always ready to purchase more by the easy access to credit. Now they are denied this. With the collapse of consumer demand in the United States, factories in China, Japan, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia are throwing millions of employees out of work. This in turn is collapsing internal consumer demand in those countries, further exacerbating the shortages of global demand. The Asian contraction in consumption is leading to global demand destruction in commodities, facilitating the deadly virus of global deflation.

Policy Recommendations:

There were two reasons behind the financial crisis of 2008; both of them are the result of this liberalization of the economy started since 1980s. The first is the idea that people can take care of their housing needs without any help from the government. The second is to consider liability as asset by building some new financial schemes to turn speculative gambling bets on future market as respectable assets. Neither of these can happen if there is a public ownership of financial institutions and if the government takes the responsibility for the basic needs of the people. Greece is now a victim of both the speculative activities of the global investment banks and corruptions and greed of the private sector companies and banks of Greece.

The stream of virtual money or derivatives are nothing but some kind of gambling bets on the expected future prices of various commodities, gold, shares of companies, rate of interests and exchange rates of various countries and of course the price of these Mortgage Backed Securities. It has created gambling casinos in the futures market, where different financial institutions are betting for the future values of various financial instruments. These betting have resulted into more and more bankruptcies of famous institutions like Barring Bank or Equitable Life Insurance Company. The game went on describing what can be called dangerous financial risks as assets just by attaching values on them. The fundamental idea is that past bahaviours can predict the future. However, there is one very important lesson from the past is missing here: the experience of 1930’s crash of the US Stock market, that speculative bubble would burst sooner or later and no mathematics can predict when that would happen.

However, their greed has no limit. After nearly destroying the financial system of both USA and UK in 2008, they are now trying to ruin country after country by offering them loans and creating derivative or bets that the country cannot pay back the loans. They know that richer countries like Germany and IMF would not allow a country like Greece to go bankrupt. However, ultimately the people of Greece will have to pay, for the corruption and short sightedness of its Government and the corruption and greed of the captains of its private sector, in terms of their much lower standard of living.

India has a lesson to learn from the Greek tragedy. Indian companies are borrowing heavily in the international market to acquire properties abroad; more than half of Indian foreign borrowings are of these private business companies. India also allows huge amount of short-term borrowings by its institutions from the international market. International private financial institutions are allowed to operate in the Indian stock market, real estate market and in the food and agricultural market, thus creating inflation. Thus, India is getting more and more exposed to the speculative games that these financial institutions play to ruin a country. In 1998, several East Asian countries became their victims, in the same way as Greece and several European countries are today.

The cause of the problem comes from speculation, as it was the cause for the great depression of 1930s as well. Before the 1930s depression for about 15 years there was totally free speculations where most of the companies, banks and financial institutions were free to behave, as they wanted. Since 1980 as well we have seen the same deregulation process to free the companies from many obligations to the society at large. Now added to the speculation in the share market we have also speculations about possible future movements of every financial or economic indicators and prices of commodities and services, which are called ‘Financial Derivatives’. Added to that we also have a new financial innovation called ‘Mortgage Backed Securities’ which are nothing but loan obligations of the banks, which were sold as assets to the world banking system. People were told that they are buying shares of properties, but in reality they were sold existing ‘debts’, which are hard to recover.

There are two types of solution short-run solution so that the economic system of the world will not collapse creating mass unemployment. There is also a long-term solution, so that this type of crisis would not occur in future. Short-term solution must look at the immediate causes of the crisis and try to resolve these. The long-term solutions must be aimed at reforming the present system so that this type of crisis would not occur in future.

Immediate cause of the crisis is lack of resources in the banks to maintain the credit system flowing so that companies that depend on the banking system can survive. Another cause is the huge stocks of worthless option, derivatives and mortgage backed securities, which are now reduced to the status of junk bonds. Throwing money to the banks and the companies will not solve the problem, as the US government is trying to do now. Nationalisation of the entire banking system along with the major companies is needed to solve this problem. Nationalisation will help the government to refinance the depleted stock of the banks and to help major companies to survive. That will help their supplier companies and their sales outlets along with the trading companies to survive.

For the long-term solution we need to go back to the advice of two great economists, during the 1930s depression, which were so far rejected by the world. In 1934 Ragner Frisch (Circulation Planning: Proposal for a National Organization of a Commodity and Service Exchange”, Econometrica, 1934) has suggested a National Exchange replacing the stock market, where the companies will be allowed to sell their shares only if they will provide complete information about their business. Investors must keep these shares for a specified period and cannot do speculation trading with these. If they want to sell the shares they must sell these back to the company itself. The company can sell more of its shares only if it permitted by the National Exchange provided it has good prospect. Thus, the valuation of a company will not depend on the speculation and rumours in the stock market but on the honest information collected by the National Exchange about these companies.

This will rule out speculation altogether, as the secondary stock markets today do not contribute directly to the investment funds of the companies, but only create artificial often misleading valuation of the companies. Those today depend on these artificial valuations of the stock market and do trading can be ruined easily. This is the situation for most of the large investment funds, pension funds, unit trusts, which were mislead by the stock market and now facing bankruptcies ruining the lives of millions of investors and pensioners. Other speculative instruments like options, derivatives, and future prices must be disallowed as well by the National Exchange, who would advice the banks to invest directly to the companies as they do in both Germany and Japan today. Both Japan and Germany are comparatively more stable than the Anglo-American world.

John Keynes suggested another long-term solution in 1948 at the time of the foundation of the International Monetary Fund to redesign the world’s financial architecture (‘Shaping the Post-War World: The Clearing Union’, in The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. Vol. XXV. Activities). The idea is that no country will be allowed to keep more than a certain amount of its surplus from the balance of payments. Today, China’s reserve of foreign currencies has exceeded a trillion US Dollar causing blockages of the financial flows. Keynes idea was that the member countries of the IMF might keep up to one year’s import costs as reserve of foreign currency. The rest they have to deposit to the IMF, so that these surplus can be distributed to the countries in need of investments.

However, these are not enough. American crisis is the result of a trading system that provides no supports for the workers who are the consumers. If the American workers have no jobs, their consumption spending will fall, creating less and less demand for the domestic economy, creating more unemployment and less tax revenues for the government. This cycle of misery was created about 20 years ago, when serious effort to dismantle trade restriction was initiated. The result is the massive rise of China, who has kept its exchange rate at a very low level artificially by having a fixed exchange rate, which does not depend on the international currency market. Yet China, which has no trade union, with massively abused worker with very low wages, control on all aspects of investments, was admitted in the World Trade Organization as a market economy, because China supplies cheap products to the Western corporations, who consider their profit more valuable than the fortune of their own people.

For all countries, it would be better to have a trade management system in which each country pays for its imports with its own currency. A country cannot import if its currency has no demand or in other wards it has nothing to export. In that case, an exporting country would be obliged to buy from the country to which it exports. Thus, China will be obliged to buy from USA if it wants to export to USA. The system would not lead to a massive surplus for one country and a deficit for another, but rather to a balanced trade regime that benefits everyone. The WTO, instead of being an arbitrator and promoter of “free trade,” should be an advisory council for planning such a trade system so as to maximize the interests of everyone.

Conclusion:

Nationalization of the banks, including the Federal Reserve System of USA, which is a private enterprise, will help countries to regulate the financial market for the benefit of the economy and the people. Abolition of speculative activities in the secondary stock market will protect the genuine investors. Abolition of derivative market and the credit-debt swap market and their reinsurance, which has caused the debt crisis in Greece and other European countries to provoke them to borrow more than their ability to pay, will help cool down the financial madness and help the banking system to survive. A managed trading system will rule out economic exploitation of one country by another by destroying economy of one country by another with cheap export items manufactured by slave labourers and an artificially low exchange rate, as China is doing now. Debt crisis in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy were caused by the investment banks like Goldman Sachs who provokes countries and companies to take loan and then create derivative that they will fail to pay off. As a result, the debtor country suffers along with its companies and the people but the investment banks make gigantic profit. Debt crisis in USA was caused by excessive defence spending to finance the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and possibly now Syria and the same speculative lending by these same investment banks to the American poor who could not afford to buy houses. The crisis of unemployment in USA, UK, and Japan are caused by a trading system where China has managed to ruin their manufacturing industries through its cheap exports. In India as well, about 26 percent of the manufacturing industry is now taken over by the Chinese exports causing serious unemployment.

The solution cannot be available within the given economic system. Thus an outside-of-the-box solution is needed. This is the real demand for the demonstrators in front of the Wall Street. They don’t want to destroy the system but want the system to respond to the needs of the people.

Goa "HERALD": Contact Tulsidas For "Paid News" Section

GOA'S PAID PIPER -- Paid political interview in Goa's Herald newspaper for Rs 86,400

MAYABHUSHAN

“The phenomenon of ‘paid news’ has acquired serious dimensions. Today, it goes beyond the corruption of individual journalists and media companies and has become pervasive, structured and highly organized. In the process, it is undermining democracy in India.”


These are the grave opening remarks of the Press Council of India’s (PCI) report on paid news in the Indian media, in July last year. The report compiled by the PCI was based on the findings of its sub committee which pored through evidence, in form of published articles in newspapers both vernacular and English, which were suspected as ‘paid news’ content.


The four audio files and transcripts below go a step ahead. The conversations in these audio files with the marketing manager for both Herald newspaper, Goa’s leading English daily and Herald Cable Network (HCN) a cable news channel owned by the lay bare how a typical political paid news deal is struck, especially with elections around the corner. Many in the media and other informed sections of society, would already know that piety pouting newspapers across the country have been brazenly cracking ‘editorial content for cash’ deals, but these conversations show how easy it really is to crack a paid news deal in the Indian -- and case in point here -- the media in Goa.

Buying editorial space in a newspaper is almost as easy as walking up to a store counter and buying a change of underwear.


Here we have a reputed Goan media house welcoming paid news content and dishing out a rate chart for paid political interviews, both on behalf of its English daily news paper ‘Herald’ and for its local cable news channel, Herald Cable Newtork (HCN).


It is necessary to mention here, that although I am a journalist by profession, I have undertaken this ‘paid news buster’ exercise, solely as a reader of the newspaper, which I subscribe to at home. That is one of the reasons why I chose this newspaper.


The other reason being that, Herald over the last few weeks has been running dubious interview after interview of ‘potential’ candidates for the forthcoming state assembly elections which are scheduled to happen sometime next year.


A source in the Herald informed me that money was being exchanged by the newspaper’s employees – both editorial and marketing – for publishing the political interviews.


I called up the Herald boardline on October 20 posing as Bernard Costa, a fictitious person wanting to contest assembly elections from the Velim assembly constituency in south Goa. On the same day, Herald had carried another dubious and suspected paid political interview of Raymond D’Sa, who had claimed that he vying for a Congress ticket for the Cortalim assembly seat and had wanted to “serve the poor and needy” (sic).



The receptionist at the Herald gave me the number to Tulsidas Desai 9822568376 – a marketing manager at the Herald. What unfolded between Tulsidas and ‘Bernard’ (i.e. me) is represented below in form of four audio files. They are unedited phone conversations, transcripts for which are also available. Here's audio file number 2. http://youtu.be/JjhIhQSCkTw


I have already dispatched a complaint to the Press Council of India, Election Commission of India, Goa Union of Journalists as well as several media blogs, journalists and concerned civil society persons, in order to put the information I had in the public domain and with the relevant authorities.



Tulsidas Desai


Keeping the current example in context, Herald is not the only news paper which has been institutionally allowing paid news content in Goa at the moment, but I put forth this case because I could establish a connection between the editorial content and the price that is to be paid for it. There are a couple of other vernacular newspaper published from outside Goa, who have already cracked deals with a young Congress minister and it is showing in the content. The newspaper’s editor and the vernacular newspaper’s very special correspondent is involved in this particular deal.


In the Herald case too, it would be naive to believe that a marketing manager, in this case Tulsidas, can push a deal like this without the consent, tacit or otherwise, of the editorial leadership of the newspaper.


Here in the case before you, the deal Tulsidas cracked with me was to publish my interview in the Herald for Rs 86,400 (for a fifteen inch and eight column spread) and on HCN, a half an hour interview thrice a day.(audio file number 3) http://youtu.be/8U8YBT7Tv6M



And the gall of these guys to tell the interviewee to drop by with a questionnaire himself!!!!


The things to look out for in this story are:


We are not just talking about paid news in the air here. When Tulsidas is asked about the rates for political paid interviews, he mentioned the Raymond D’sa interview published in the Herald on Oct 20 and the nearabouts price the newspaper got paid for it. Tulsidas is no novice intern at the Herald, he is a marketing manager and obviously knows the paid news rate card set by the newspaper.


Raymond’s was not the only published paid political interview in print. There are several other dubious article which have been publised by the Herald earlier, which should be looked into by the Press Council of India and the newspaper’s readers. Interestingly most of these interviews were carried in the same slot, on Page four top deck.

There was an interview of Sankalp Amonkar, a potential Congress candidate published on October 3 also carrying the same byline.



There was Somnath Zuwarkar, another potential Congress candidate’s interview published on September 19



Another political hopeful Sameer Salgaonkar was interviewed on September 12.



Michael Lobo who is a potential BJP candidate from Calangute constituency has been interviewed on August 15



Tulio de Souza, son in law of former deputy chief minsiter Wilfred de Souza and also a potential election candidate from the Saligao constituency has already been positioned as a winner, in perhaps one of the most lopsided ‘constituency analysis’ segment.



Not too surprising, that all the potential candidates here have one thing common other than the fact that they have featured in Herald’s suspected paid news interviews. All of them are extremely rich folks.


How the silver earned in exchange for the paid news interviews was shared, is anybodys' guess!


P.S. If any media persons wants to run a story on this revelation, I could send across a zip file containing all the relevant details. I am on mayabhushan@gmail.com
P.P.S. Readers, who believe the paid news needs to be addressed can spread the story and the audio files around on mail and social networking sites.
P.P.S. If you guy wish to take up the paid news issue with Herald and want to register your protest, feel free to contact the 'people's paper' and its reps on:

Board numbers
0091-832-2224202, 2224460, 2228083/ info@oheraldo.in

Editor in chief and owner Raul Fernandes 0091 9822100188
Editor Sujay Gupta 0091 9923057937
General Manager Michael Pereira 9822122304
Marketing Manager Tulsidas Desai 9822568376

(COURTESY: MAYABHUSHAN & http://www.paidnewsingoa.blogspot.com/)

Anna Says, " चांडाळ-चौकडीला नेस्तनाबूत करा !"RISE AND FIGHT AGAINST ‘GANG OF FOUR’ !

Anna literally writing for his blog !!!

My Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Namaskar!

Kiran Bedi has been accused of being involved in air-travel corruption. She has time and again made it clear that if she has done such a thing and used the money for the benefit of her family then the government should take help of one of its own inquiry agencies and if found guilty should take stringent actions against her.

But the government doesn’t seem forthcoming in taking such a step. To accuse and humiliate seems to be the mantra of the few. This is not the first time that such accusations have been leveled against Kiran Bedi. Every member of ‘Team Anna’ had to face accusations and character assassination by the ‘gang of four’. Who are these people? Those are the very same people who are not in favor of Janlokpal Bill.

Let’s give it a thought to the initial days of the movement when Joint Committee was to be formed to draft Janlokpal Bill. Who were the people opposing the Committee?  You will realize these were the very same ‘gang of four’ who stood in opposition. After much deliberation on 5^th April 2011 I began my fast on Jantar mantar where people gathered in large numbers. It was then they realized their mistake and agreed to form a ‘Joint Committee’.

चांडाळ-चौकडीला नेस्तनाबूत करा !

 

On 4^th June 2011 as Ramdev Baba’s agitation was in progress on Ramlila Maidan I was supposed to meet him on the following day i.e. 5^th June 2011. But on the night of 4^thJune 2011, at 1:30 pm the Delhi police launched a brutal attack on the unsuspecting crowd of men and women old and young alike and innocent children. The Government’s intention was clear-‘Anna Hazare and Ramdev Baba should not meet’. By ruthlessly beating up women was the Delhi police trying to prove they are man enough? Who were these men who did lathi charge on the women? Those were the same people who are now playing accusatory games aren’t they? The mystery will surely unfold.

Joint Committee was formed but these people did not want the Janlokpal Bill passed. This ‘gang of four’ now started accusing Shri. Shanti Bhushan and Shri. Prashant Bhushan on the CD issue. Like Kiran Bedi, Shri. Shanti Bhushan and Shri. Prashant Bhushan too maintained their stand on being innocent and asked the government to conduct an enquiry in to the matter. But these people are aware that their aim will not be fulfilled if they follow the legal path. The only way out was to spread dissention in ‘Team Anna’ thereby spreading misconceptions among people who will be dissuaded from participating in the movement.

One of the honest members of Team Anna, retired Judge Shri Hegde Saheb who was responsible for sending the BJP Chief-Minister behind bars was also accused. Who were these people? You will soon understand that these were the same ‘gang of four.’  Accusations were leveled against Arvind Kejriwal and he was attacked with slipper in one of his gatherings. Who was behind this act? On 16^th August 2011, I was to hold a demonstration in Delhi demanding the government pass the Janlokpal Bill. It was for more than a month that I was trying to seek permission for obtaining a venue for the same through letters and personal visits.  But purposefully we were not assigned a place for my fast and the matter was stretched until 15^th August 2011. They applied IPC 144 on all the public places in Delhi. Finally we de cided we will get ourselves arrested and go on fast in jail. The ‘gang of four’ were behind this conspiracy is now clear.

Early morning at 6’0 clock on 16^th August 2011, I was arrested from my house. I had not committed any crime hence they had no right to arrest me from my house. These people wanted to humiliate me intentionally. I was sent to Tihar Jail. It was four in the afternoon till necessary formalities were completed and we were taken in to Tihar Jail. We were allotted one room, set of clothes and at 6:00 pm an officer came with the news that my sentence was pardoned and I was free to leave. We have been directed to leave you at the place where you were arrested from.

I was surprised as the government had arrested me because my protest was causing disharmony and within next two hours I was set free! Had the government had some sort of divine intervention? Is this government a joke? You arrest someone at your whim and then set them free. Is this democracy? The police resorted to lathi charge on the peaceful protestors and whisked away Ramdev Baba to Haridwar in the middle of the night at 2:00 am by plane and was prohibited from stepping in to Delhi. His movement was crushed and now the ‘gang of four’ wanted to do the same to me. Their plan was to release me from jail and under the pretext of taking me home bundle me in to a car and take me to Delhi airport where an air-force plane was waiting to taxi out. Next I was to be flown to Pune and kept at unknown place; all this to thwart my m ovement in Delhi. Who was behind this conspiracy? These were the same people who were spreading derogatory remarks about ‘Team Anna’. Their conscious is not clear. I was suspicious right from the beginning when the jail authorities planned to release me within two hours of my arrest. I flatly refused to leave the jail premises. I told them if I was given a seven day sentence then I will stay in jail for seven days.

The said officer passed on my message to the senior D.I.G who said I had come out of the jail to meet him in his office hence I cannot go back. I replied, ‘I came here because you wanted to speak to me and now you say I cannot go back, this is wrong on your part. You are not letting me go back in the prison neither I am stepping out of the prison gate. You have to push me or else carry me out.’ I refused to budge out of the jail. Thus the tables were overturned on the ‘gang of four’ as the officers carried out discussions with the government past one in the night. My decision had landed them in trouble. They were clueless as to what was to be done. For the next three days I was neither in jail nor outside jail. I was in D.I.G’s office. I had not had my bath for three days as there was no bathing facility there. Thu s the people realized that the government had covert plan in its mind and hence the people lost their temper. The ‘gang of four’ had conspired to put me in jail so that they can cast aspersions on my team.

The government had no alternative but to grant permission to carry out my agitation on Ramlila grounds. When I came out of the jail I was overwhelmed by the large crowd that had gathered there. Whenever the ‘gang of four’ tried to play mischief their tables were overturned and once again they found themselves on the receiving end. For the next two and half months Joint Committee met seven times. The issues raised by Team Anna were discussed at length and then they did a turn-a-about. We will present your draft of Janlokpal Bill before the cabinet they assured us but in reality they presented government’s weak draft which had deadly loopholes in the issue bypassing what we had to say.

I do not blame all the ministers from the Congress party or the Government as a whole. There are some righteous and committed people in the government but they cannot raise their voice because of this ‘gang of four’. We are dashing off letters to all our members that saints, Mahatma’s, Prophets and Great men had to endure hardships and criticism when they tried to do good to humanity. (I appeal to my closer ones) Please do not react again and again on any or repeated allegations made by the ‘gang of four’ (and their agents from various fields). People are wise enough to understand what the truth is. Thus it becomes futile on their part. Corruption has driven people to their brink. People are weary of the rising corruption level. That is the reason the people of this country are unhappy with the present government.< /p>

Corruption has given way to inflation. It is becoming difficult for the common man to run his house. The common man understands we are fighting for his sake. Hence no matter how many aspersions are cast on us people’s support for us will remain undeterred. We have to move ahead through the obstacles. People who chose the path of righteousness always have to face difficulties. But truth has always prevailed as seen in history. So we should keep walking the path of truth.

The only thought that keeps us going and binds us together is it doesn’t matter if someone is trying to spread dissent in the ‘Team Anna’ or maligning our reputation. Why do people stoop so such low level? They have their own reasons. They are afraid if Janlokpal Bill is passed they will be stripped off their power. They will no longer be able to take bribe. Hence under any circumstances they will see to it that the Janlokpal Bill as a law does not come in to existence. They will keep blaming Team Anna so they can go on doing corruption.

The number of Ministers who are opposing Janlokpal Bill in Cabinet is handful. It is similar to a village where there are 2 to 4 goons who hold the entire village to ransom. In government there is a majority of people who are righteous but can’t go against these ruffians. Leaving aside these specific 4 to 6 people no one points a finger at us.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured us in writing that he will pass a law in favor of Janlokpal Bill during this winter session. He has also given this assurance before television channels. Shri. Salman Khurshid too has promised people that he will see to it that Janlokpal Bill is passed during the winter session. This shows that righteous people are in majority as to ‘gang of four’. The way these people are leveling allegations against Team Anna it shows they are not bothered for the well-being of our nation or society at large. They are casting aspersions on others for their own selfish interests. They are quite capable of pressurizing the government not to bring Janlokpal Bill and if need be might take help of the handful belonging to the opposition party.

But I think this storm will give birth to Lalbahadur Shastri’s Congress, Vallabh Bhai Patel’s Congress and Kamraj’s Congress. Today people will carefully sort out the unwanted from the list and this to happen is the need of the hour. In order to achieve a bright future and corruption free India the country and its country men have to do this. If need be I too will tour the nation and campaign for the cause.

I will be writing a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the draft for the Janlokpal Bill to be passed should be put on the internet so that people can have a look at it and not limit it to the Joint Committee. Late Prime Minister Shri. Rajiv Gandhi before making amendments in the 73^rd and 74rth Act had sent a letter to 5.5 lac villages to call for Gramsabha vote. When we speak about democracy, Independence and Republic we have to take the people of this country in confidence before any law is drafted. But as per Prime Minister and the other Ministers assurances I have kept on hold my agitation till the winter session. If the law is not passed in the winter session then I will tour the five places where assembly elections are due to be held and then tour the rest of India during national elections. People should make it a point that they form a resolution on the Janlokpal Bill to be passed in Winter Session or else we will once again agitate and send it across through their village panchayat and Gramsabha to Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and to the President. From all over India 35 to 40 lac resolutions should reach the government.

When resolution for Lokpal Bill is passed a bill for Lokayukt should be brought and the state’s Chief-Minister, Governor should pass a resolution for this purpose. The directives for Lokayukt Bill will be sent on behalf of the Government. Before that a resolution comprising of our demands should be sent to the Chief-Minister and the Governor of our own state. We are short on time hence please send the said resolution as soon as possible. Those who are trying to create mischief will learn a lesson. This is the only opportunity we have in order to get a corruption free India, ‘now or never’. If the Government goes back on its word and refrains from passing the Janlokpal Bill then it will have to face much more damage than they are facing now. But if a stringent Janlokpal Bill is passed then the government will be able to bounce back from the damage it has faced till now. For the past 25 to 30 years I have led agitations without taking in to consideration any political party, person, part of society, state but have always kept in mind the well-being of the nation. Henceforth my agitations won’t be any different.

Inquilab Zindabad! Vande Mataram! Bharat Mata Ki Jai!

K. B. Hazare (Anna)

Raising the dust on illegal mining in Goa

By Joseph Zuzarte Only nine of the 90 active mining leases in Goa appear to be valid, preliminary investigations by the Justice MB Shah Commission reveal. The rest have been exploiting a legal loophole to extract upto 54 million metric tonnes of iron ore per year. Joseph Zuzarte reports on the dust that is, finally, being raised in the state about illegal mining The arrival of the Justice MB Shah Commission, set up to inquire into illegal mining in the country, in Goa in September has opened up the proverbial can of worms. Interacting informally with the media on the sidelines of his meetings with Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, and Chief Secretary Sanjiv Srivastava, members of the commission have revealed that preliminary investigations prima facie indicate that only nine mining leases out of a total of 336 in Goa, have valid licenses to operate. Considering that there are around 90 active mining leases in the state, this implies that around 90% of the mining leases in Goa are being operated illegally. What’s more, of even these nine valid mining leases, some are said to be operating without the mandatory clearance from the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) required for carrying out mining within 10 km of a protected area. Though this is preliminary information, the unearthing of the ambiguities under which most of the mines in Goa operate following the visit of Justice Shah and other members of his Commission to some of the largest mining areas in Goa last week – the visits are still going on – has the potential to deal a deathblow to mining operations in Goa. The findings of this same Shah Commission, which had also inquired into the illegal mining at Bellary in Karnataka, led to Karnataka Lok Ayukta’s damning report against the Yedyurappa government and the arrest of mining magnate and Tourism Minister Janardhana Reddy and his associates only recently. According to information provided by the Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association (GMOEA), 54.45 million metric tonnes of mineral ore were exported from Goa in 2010-11, the highest by any state in the country. In FY 2009-2010, 45.68 million metric tonnes were exported. Most of this is iron ore, with a small percentage of manganese and bauxite (less than 20%). Of the 54.45 million metric tonnes, 48.93 million metric tonnes were sent to China, followed by 3.4 million metric tonnes to Japan. The ore was also exported to South Korea, UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, Thailand, Netherlands, Romania and Italy. Though most of this ore is of Goan origin, a small percentage comes from neighbouring Karnataka. In comparison, in 1995-96, 15.12 million metric tonnes were exported. The nearly four-fold growth in exports has been largely caused by the insatiable demand for ore from China. Catering to this demand has led to an unprecedented boom in mining in Goa and consequently all legalities have been thrown to the winds in the rush to excavate the iron ore and export it. It’s been a win-win situation for many – the mining lease owners, owners of lands next to the mining leases, transporters of the ore and, most of all, the politicians and bureaucrats who have facilitated the large-scale mining by bending the rules and turning a blind eye to the flouting of all laws. The history of the mining leases To really understand what has happened, you need to go back in time a little, to the pre-1961 period when Goa – then known as Estado de India – was ruled by the Portuguese. At the invitation of the then colonial government, mineral prospectors from Japan surveyed the state and discovered huge reserves of iron ore, manganese and bauxite, mostly in the interior hilly areas of the tiny territory (Goa admeasures 3,720 sq km) in the foothills of the Western Ghats. The then colonial government consequently granted mining concessions in specified areas to explore and extract the mineral ore. In all, 336 mining leases were granted. Only a few were excavated over the years and many remained idle for want of demand because the iron ore was low-grade. Though the Indian army invaded Goa in December 1961 and ‘liberated’ the territory from Portuguese rule, the status quo was maintained on these mining concessions and they were allowed to operate. It was only in May 1987 that the union government converted them into mining leases through an act of Parliament. In 1987, 336 lease holders applied for renewals of their leases and were renewed for 10 years at a time. But when these came up for renewal in 2007, only nine were renewed and notified by the union government under the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960. The approval period, initially for 10 years, has now been increased to 20 years, so the mines renewed in 2007 are valid till 2027. Although only nine mining leases have been renewed, in reality there are around 90 mining leases which are being openly operated and which have exported the nearly 54.45 million metric tonnes of ore. This happened because of a legal loophole: lease holders whose applications for renewal have been pending since 2007, took advantage of a clause that their leases are deemed valid till the government decides either way on their applications for renewal of licenses. This ambiguity led Justice Shah to pointedly ask the state authorities during his meeting with them on September 17, why mining companies were allowed to carry out mining without securing the requisite renewals. He also observed that the authorities could have fixed a timeframe to decide about the applications for renewal. Talking to the media after Justice Shah’s meeting with him, the Chief Secretary of Goa, the top bureaucrat, said, “We did have a meeting with the Shah Commission, in which a few queries were raised. We will take all necessary steps to stop illegal mining in the state.” That, however, could only be the tip of the iceberg. There are indications that one of the first high-profile casualties of the Shah Commission’s visit to Goa could be the sprawling Dempo Mines in Bicholim taluka, now owned by Sesa Resources, which in turn is owned by Vedanta. The Shah Commission, in the meeting with Chief Secretary Sanjiv Srivastava, raised questions regarding the transfer and operation of mining leases operated by the Sesa Group which were bought out by the Vedanta-owned Sesa Group in June 2009 from VS Dempo and Company. Justice Shah has asked if the leases formerly operated by VS Dempo and Co Pvt Ltd have been transferred to Sesa Resources under Rule 37 of the Mineral Concession Rules 1960 after necessary permissions from the central and state governments. This is one of the mines that Justice Shah personally inspected last week. During his visit he inspected all documents and discovered that the Goa government had allowed mining in these leases without seeking permission from the centre to transfer the lease to the new company. Article 37 A also states that the government’s consent on the transfer of lease has to take place within three months from the date of application. The Sesa buyout of Dempo happened on June 12, 2009, more than two years ago. The Shah Commission members are currently inspecting all the mines operating in Goa and have formed a number of teams comprising members from the union government and state officials to fan out all over the territory and verify all the documents. A clearer picture will emerge when they submit their findings after 45 days. But on the other hand, if all these mines operating without licenses are now stopped, it will be a deathblow for the mining industry in Goa and have far-reaching consequences. Justice Shah along with other members of his Commission held a public hearing on Saturday, September 17, at the Secretariat, seat of the Goa government. The large pro-mining lobby came to the public hearing in strength and occupied most of the available space in the conference hall, all but shutting out those against mining. Whenever the anti-mining lobby tried to make a point, the pro-mining lobby shouted them down. The pro-mining lobby had one simple demand – legalise all illegal mining because the livelihood of thousands depends on it. To which Justice Shah, in his cool and calm manner, simply observed that legalising illegal mining was not within his jurisdiction. The findings of his Commission will be presented in a report to the central and state governments who will then decide whether to take any action. He reiterated that his findings are not binding and are only recommendatory in nature. However, in Bellary, the findings of the same Shah Commission were used by the Lok Ayukta, which led to the closure of all mining activities there. A similar stoppage of all mining in Goa will have many ripple effects. For example, because of the boom in mining over the last few years, there are now around 22,000 trucks involved in the transportation of ore to the loading jetties, from where the ore is transported in barges to the ports; there are 357 barges operating at present – up from 136 barges in 1995-96. And that’s not counting the people actually working the mines and other ancillary services, all of whom now face an uncertain future. Growing opposition There was a time not too long ago when nobody in Goa would have dared raise their voice against mining activities. Anybody who did was simply smothered, isolated and turned into a social outcast for daring to stand up to the mighty. In fact the first chief minister of Goa after the state was ‘liberated’ from 450 years of Portuguese rule in 1961, Dayanand Bandodkar, was himself a mining baron. He held absolute sway over Goa till his death in the mid-’70s, after which his daughter Shashikala Kakodkar became chief minister and stayed in office till the early-’80s. The media too was partially owned by mining houses or those sympathetic to the mining lobby. Only the most sanitised, pro-mining reports ever appeared in the press, therefore, until more national dailies arrived in Goa a few years ago, along with a number of local, cable-based TV channels. Now hardly a week goes by without reports of people’s opposition to mining activities. The real game-changer, though, was the arrival of mass tourism following the Commonwealth Heads of Government retreat in Goa in 1983, which put the state on the international tourism map. Over the years tourism has grown steadily and in 2008 emerged as the largest industry in Goa, knocking mining off the top spot it had occupied for decades, ever since the Portuguese awarded mining leases back in the 1950s. Nowadays people are no longer scared to raise their voice against mining. In the course of mining over the last five-six decades, mineral-rich mountains have simply disappeared, leaving behind huge mining pits, entire villages and communities completely destroyed. What was worse is that very little of the money earned by the big mining firms like the Dempos, Salgaocars, Chowgules, Timblos, Bandekars etc was pumped back into the decimated villages. A benign mining policy ensured that the state too earned a negligible amount as royalty from the minerals extracted. Resentment against this exploitative situation has been building up for years and, with the aid of a few committed activists like Claude Alvares of the Goa Foundation and the new media, this resentment has finally come to the surface. A few months ago, for example, villagers in south Goa’s Quepem taluka halted all mining activities in a lease which involved the excavation of a huge mountain locally known as Dev Dongor (mountain of the gods) because it was sought to be operated without proper clearances. Claude Alvares’ Goa Foundation has been at the legal forefront against illegal mines. In September the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court issued notices to three major mines which are operating in the buffer zone around wildlife sanctuaries. In December 2004 the Supreme Court had mandated that no mines can be operated in a 10-km buffer zone around wildlife sanctuaries. But the Goa government – the current Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has family links with mining barons; Kamat has also been the mines minister for the last 11 years– has sought a zero-km buffer zone around the wildlife sanctuaries of Goa as a special case, a proposal unlikely to be granted by the union environment ministry. There are six wildlife protected areas in Goa, all in the Western Ghats and its foothills. The northernmost is the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary. A little to its south is the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary, followed by the Mollem National Park, the Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary and the southernmost Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary. The tiny Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary in central Goa is surrounded by huge mining pits. The Mhadei is named after the Mhadei river, often described as the lifeline of north Goa because it supplies most of the drinking water in the north; the river originates in the Ghats there. The Mhadei downstream becomes the Mandovi river which is also fed by a number of other smaller rivers like the Volvonti and Surla which also originate in the Ghats. The Khandepar river originates in the Mollem National Park and feeds the Opa water treatment plant which supplies water to most parts of central Goa including the capital Panjim. The Netravali Sanctuary is where the water for the Selaulim Dam originates. There are a large number of mines in the vicinity of the Selaulim Dam The Chapoli Dam which supplies water to the southern-most parts of Goa receives its supplies from rivers which also originate in the Netravali and Cotigao forests. Because of the large number of mines in the vicinity of the Dudhsagar-Khandepar river system which feeds the Opa water works, there is a perennially high level of turbidity in the water arriving there. Following a directive from the MoEF earlier this year, 41 mines which operate in the buffer zone of protected areas were issued notices to obtain fresh environmental and forest clearances. However, only seven reverted with the required documents and their licences were renewed. The fate of the remaining 34 mines now hangs in the balance. Besides the notices from the forest department of the Goa government, the Goa legislative assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, headed by the (BJP) leader of the opposition Manohar Parikar (a former CM) also issued, earlier in September, notices to 46 mines asking them about non-fulfillment of conditions for environmental clearance, including the mandatory NOCs under the Forest Conservation Act, certificates from the Chief Wildlife Warden and under the Air and Water Pollution Act. This effectively covers half the mining leases currently in operation in Goa. Ironically, it was this same Manohar Parrikar who, during his tenure as CM about a decade ago, tried to denotify the Mhadei and Netravali sanctuaries to benefit the mine owners. His attempts failed. Apart from the forest department and PAC, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has also issued notices to 30 mines and has suspended three mining leases. The Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has also, this month, suspended two mines and issued notices to 21 others for gross violation of the Mineral Conservation and Development Rules (MCDR) 1988. The violations include exceeding production capacity, operations beyond lease boundaries, failing to plant saplings as directed for using forest land, exceeding size of pits, etc. Watch the Infochange film on the impact of mining in Goa:http://infochangeindia.org/infochange-documentary.html (Joseph Zuzarte is an independent journalist based in Goa)

The Anna effect is bigger than the foibles of Team Anna

“Chalo, hum sangharsh karein, 

Anna hamare saath hai”

With each passing day, the media keeps dragging out yet more ‘dirt’ on Anna Hazare’s core leadership team. With absolutely no sense of scale, they have amplified and blown up what was, in Kiran Bedi’s case, merely an attempt at cross-subsidising her voluntary services:  simply put, Bedi accepted contributions from those who could afford to pay to have her come and talk – and used the savings on those contributions (by travelling cattle class) to offer her services for free to those who couldn’t defray her travel and other expenses.

Would it have helped if Bedi’s NGO had been more transparent in its accounting practice vis-à-vis her contributors? Of course.

Would it have been better for Bedi to have claimed actual reimbursements for her discounted economy-class travels – and asked her patrons instead to make donations that would have served the same purpose of cross-subsidy? Decidedly.

Given the goodwill that she enjoys with her patrons, they would probably have made generous donations – on which they could additionally have claimed tax breaks!

That would have been a win-win for everyone – except, of course, that the state exchequer would effectively have been subsidising Bedi’s NGO twice over: first, on the airfare discount she qualified for, and on the tax-breaks that donors would have claimed.

Sure, you could then have picked on Bedi’s NGO for milking the mammaries of the welfare state, and she would have been guilty on that count. But so would have a thousand other NGOs – and Ministers and MPs across the political spectrum who personally profit on everything from government-subsidised accommodation to a clutch of discretionary quotas.

But do these exposes against Bedi warrant the delirious sense of ‘gotcha’ emotion that hit-and-run media commentators and turncoats-in-saffron are exulting in, after dubiously blurring the ethical lines that separate minor accounting indiscretions from wholesale plunder of state funds and resources of the sort that Bedi and others campaigns against? Most definitely not.

Nor do these hatchet-job commentaries dilute in any way the persuasive case that Anna Hazare and his core team have made over the past few months for a strong Lokpal institution – which the entire political establishment has at various times been lined up against.

Anna Hazare greets supporters. AFP

The only ones who are rejoicing over the tar-and-feather treatment meted out to Hazare’s core team are the political class that has been fighting dirty to dilute the provisions of the Lokpal Bill.

But what these slur campaigns perhaps miss out is that for all the momentary setback in the mood of the Anna-led campaign, the baton of the anti-corruption movement has, in a larger sense, been passed on from its leaders to its foot-soldiers. And at the grassroots level, the seed of empowerment that Anna Hazare planted with his two hunger strikes against corruption has taken root – and is giving transformative power to ordinary people in everyday situations.

There are several anecdotal accounts of people who invoke the spirit of Anna in their daily lives to either not yield to demands for bribes – or otherwise find the strength of purpose to challenge wrongdoing by those in positions of power. Two such anecdotes are narrated hereand here: they’re inspirational and worth reading.

One other recent narrative, which has gone viral, relates to a Delhi resident who was flagged down by traffic policemen in Ghazipur – and found to his mortification that his insurance and pollution clearance certificates had expired. Asked to settle the matter without being challan-ed – by bribing the cops – he resisted, solely on the strength of his having been a part of Anna’s campaign at Ramlila Maidan. He instead asked to be issued a challan, after which he appeared at the Kakardooma Courts to pay the fine.

Within the court premises, he was approached by an army of touts who said he would be required to pay a fine of Rs 2,000, but that they would settle the matter for Rs 600. Yet, he shook them off and persisted, and went through the due process of law, which took him barely a few minutes. More surprisingly, he was required to pay a fine of only Rs 100.

The sense of empowerment that he feels today – at not having succumbed to the pressure to pay a bribe – is compounded by his realisation that the straight-and-narrow path of due process occasionally works. That realisation he owes entirely to Anna’s campaign.

It is narratives like these, replicated a million times over, that will change the landscape of everyday corruption that confronts ordinary folks, irrespective of the slanderous campaigns that movement’s leaders are subjected to.

After all, even the slogan of Anna Hazare’s movement has changed to reflect the sense of ownership that the foot-soldiers now have over the anti-corruption campaign. Where once they chanted: “Anna, tum sangharsh karo, hum tumhare saath hai” (Anna, carry on the campaign, we are with you), they now say: “Chalo, hum sangharsh karein, Anna hamare saath hai” (Let’s carry on our campaign, Anna is with us).

As Leonardo DiCaprio says in the mind-bending film Inception, the most resilient parasite is not a bacteria or a virus or an intestinal worm. It is an idea. It is “resilient, highly contagious… Once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it’s almost impossible to eradicate…”

Anna has planted a very radical idea – that you don’t have to give in to corruption, and can fight it – in millions of people’s minds. It may seem a foolishly naïve idea to some, given the monstrous hold that corruption has on our everyday lives.

Yet there’s the hope that the spark that Anna lit, and the inspirational, resilient, contagious idea that he’s planted, could well start a prairie fire of a revolution that turns the heat on the monumentally corrupt.