In the din and cacaphony of the presidential campaign/election in the US of A, two recent news stories are likely to be overshadowed, if not drowned. First, “Baghdad is drowning in sewage, thirsty for water and largely powerless, an Iraqi official said on Sunday in a grim assessment of services in the capital five years after the US-led invasion,” reports AFP. (More here…)
So how is American occupation better than life under Saddam Hussein? A good question. Once the local populace realises that foreign invaders are on their soil only to take care of their own interests, let’s be quite clear that it will be an ever-going war against terror.
Second, in the USA’s first-ever $3 trillion budget, “President Bush seeks to seal his legacy of promoting a strong defense to fight terrorism and tax cuts to spur the economy. The 2009 spending plan sent to Congress on Monday will project huge budget deficits, around $400 billion for this year and next and more than double the 2007 deficit of $163 billion. But even those estimates could prove too low given the rapidly weakening economy and the total costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Bush does not include in his request for the budget year beginning Oct. 1…
” ‘This administration is going to hand the next president a fiscal meltdown,’ Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Sunday in an interview with The Associated Press. ‘This is a budget that sticks it to the middle class, comforts the wealthy and has a set of priorities that are not the priorities of the American people’.”
While there is little, if any, effort to rebuild the devasated economies/lives in Iraq and Afghanistan (alienating the people), the US and its people have been witnessing the draining of their precious resources with huge deficits raising their ugly heads, likely to devastate the economy (and American people’s lives). And then there is the looming threat of recession on the horizon… More here…
And the questions (that come up often): For whom the so-called war on terror is being fought? Are the US presidential candidates addressing these issues with a degree of clarity?
(Photo above courtesy AP: An Iraqi boy drinks water from a water pipe crossing an uncovered sewage canal)
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.