“THE WAR on Terror and windfalls from rising oil prices have helped to push American military sales to foreign governments to their highest level since the first Gulf War,” says David Robertson in The Times of London.
Pakistan is among the largest spenders on U.S. arms, The Times adds.
“An investigation by The Times has found that the US Congress was notified of sales worth $12.9 billion (£6.8 billion) in July — the largest monthly total since the beginning of the Bush Administration.
“Defence analysts believe that the US could be heading for the biggest full-year total since 1993, when the end of the first Gulf War triggered a $42 billion bonanza for defence contractors.
“The largest spenders in the past five years include Saudi Arabia, which has placed orders worth $14 billion, South Korea, with orders of $8.8 billion, and Pakistan, with orders of $7.6 billion. Among the biggest winners of contracts this year are Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Britain’s BAE Systems.
“Other factors behind the leap in arms sales include the rising price of oil, which has given oil-producing nations more money to spend. An unusually high number of contract negotiations have also reached completion this year.
“A lucrative result of the leap in arms sales is the $600 million that the Pentagon has earned in commission. It places a 2.8 per cent charge on all arms sales that it arranges for foreign governments and in the past five years this has been worth about $2.5 billion.”
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.