[Goanet] Potholes and BRICS (Times of India, 15/roh/2016)

2016-10-18 Thread Gilbert Lawrence
Marshall Mendonza 
Subject: [Goanet] Potholes and BRICS (Times of India, 15/roh/2016)


A ready reckoner where India stands vis-a-vis other BRICS countries

Slowing economies, divergent outlooks: BRICS needs mortar to be relevant

-GL responds:
Different individuals and different BRICS leaders have differing agendas for 
such grand meetings.  And folks achieve varying levels of success.
As suggested in a post in the TOI, the less-than-average South Goans were 
hoping to get a new refurbished road going through their villages.
Likely the more-than-average Goans was hoping to make an added tourist-rupee 
from of this big event. The Taj, the Hyatt and other upper class hotels (and 
their GOAN employees) achieved their targets and their big tips. The Goan cab 
drivers and the restauranteurs had a roaring business.  
The leader of BRICS hope such meetings improve trade.  And individual importers 
and exporters from the various countries who came for this meeting likely met 
their expectations.  To most this meeting was not their first rodeo (as they 
say in America).  They wined, dined, made and sealed their deals. 
The news was ablaze about the multi-crore contracts the big private Indian 
defense contractors and those in the energy sectors signed with the Russians.  
Likely there were also behind the scenes and behind the newspaper-headline 
talks with entrepreneurs from China, Brazil and South Africa.  Every long 
journey and trade relationship begins with a small first step.
It is a pity the many more Goans did not avail themselves of the opportunity 
and participate in the small first steps to look at the larger picture and 
develop a dialog and contacts with their counterparts in rest of India and rest 
of the World.  For just a solitary example, Goa could show-case its college 
(undergraduate and postgraduate) educational system and be a center for 
international learning. 
Regards, GL


[Goanet] Potholes and BRICS (Times of India, 15/roh/2016)

2016-10-17 Thread Marshall Mendonza
A ready reckoner where India stands vis-a-vis other BRICS countries

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/slowing-economies-divergent-outlooks-brics-needs-mortar-to-stay-relevant/story-yww5hSLL1RpZ2TsTIYZwSP.html


[Goanet] Potholes and BRICS (Times of India, 15/roh/2016)

2016-10-15 Thread Gilbert Lawrence
From: V M 
Re:   [Goanet] Potholes and BRICS (Times of India, 15/roh/2016)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Potholes-and-BRICS/articleshow/54859688.cms

Focus back on Goa, host of all this geo-political grandeur, and the term 
?Potemkin Village? becomes inescapable. Back in Russia in 1787, Prince Potemkin 
hastily constructed pretty-looking cardboard villages to deceive Empress 
Catherine II about the actual state of affairs.

This is identical to what has been thrown up in a frantic haste by the state 
administration. It is a South Goa-scale pretense of efficient administration, 
an incredibly costly make-believe of adequate foresight and planning. Let one 
single Russian or Brazilian or Burmese stray even a few steps outside the 
skin-deep subterfuge, and he or she will find a moonscape of derelict, severely 
potholed roads and highways, lined with ever-accumulating piles of garbage.

BRICS is all about aspiring for a better future, but in the meanwhile who is 
going to fix the present?

-GL Responds:
This article is very uplifting. But in the typical Goan fashion it ends in a 
depressed state of affairs.Here is a reply to the question: "Who is going to 
fix the present situation?"
ANSWER :  The PEOPLE OF GOA through their ELECTED representatives; and the 
Goans who work for various government departments whose job is to fix roads, 
water, sewage and garbage disposal, electricity, public transportation, 
potholes, etc etc.
So there is no time to waste pontificating about the problems.  Goans 
themselves have to get to work on these decades-old problems.  As STARTERS, 
perhaps every Goan family can start by painting their own homes and having a 
beautiful garden. One cannot blame the government for the dilapidated looks of 
and in-front of ones own home.  There is no magic fairy-angel that will come 
and do it for the Goans.
Regards:  GL


[Goanet] Potholes and BRICS (Times of India, 15/roh/2016)

2016-10-14 Thread V M
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Potholes-and-BRICS/articleshow/54859688.cms

Goa takes world centre stage this weekend when Presidents Xi Jinping
of China,Vladimir Putin of Russia, Jacob Zuma of South Africa and
Michael Temer of Brazil join India’s own Prime Minister Narendra Modi
for the eighth annual BRICS summit. Others in attendance will be
Myanmar’s icon (and foreign minister) Aung San Suu Kyi, Nepal’s new
Prime Minister Prachanda, as well as Sri Lankan President Maithripala
Sirisena and Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The history of this ancient territory makes it well suited for such an
extraordinary summit meeting, bringing together some of the most
powerful leaders from across the international spectrum. Five hundred
years ago Goa became the first potent crucible between the East and
West, the first European colony in Asia, and site of an epic
intermingling and socio-economic-cultural exchange, which forever
changed both India and Europe, then the rest of the world. Look
further back – 1,000 or even 2,000 years ago – and it is evident that
this tiny sliver of Konkan coastline has always played an outsized
role by remaining open to the rest of the world.

Even across those millennia, however, Goa has never witnessed a
gathering quite as significant as this one. This weekend, the state
hosts men and women who together represent and lead more than three
billion people, well over 40% of the world’s population. Their
countries account for over 25% of global gross domestic product (GDP),
comprising the most significant engine for economic growth over the
past decade (and potentially, the rest of the 21st century).In the
unipolar contemporary world order, each BRICS member has consolidated
its position as a significant power.

Each individual leader also comes to Goa at a particularly dramatic
moment. Brazil’s Temer is struggling with his country’s worst-ever
recession, and an entrenched political soap opera (including serious
corruption charges against him and his party). Zuma of South Africa is
reeling under accusations of being “sponsor-in-chief of corruption”. A
few days ago, his country’s constitutional court allowed his
prosecution for “fraud, racketeering and corruption”.Mixed into that
remarkable array of charges is one of being paid off by the
Indian-origin Gupta family.

Vladimir Putin faces no criminal proceedings, but that is because of
his fierce hold on every aspect of Russian affairs. The “Panama
Papers” pointed to billions of dollars likely belonging to him, amid
persistent (and reliable) claims that he is the richest man in the
world, with over $200 billion stowed away. Lucre aside, he swaggers
around the world stage largely unchecked - annexing Crimea, plunging
into the Middle East to prop up Syria’s Assad, and (most probably)
hacking various databases to try and boost Donald Trump’s chances of
becoming the next US President.

Even in this terrifically colourful lineup - even including India’s
own Narendra Modi - by far the most intriguing (and powerful) person
in Goa this weekend will be Chinese President Xi Jinping. After rising
almost imperceptibly through the ranks, the 63-year-old has purged
hundreds of thousands of officials and ruthlessly sidelined every
possible challenger to consolidate astonishing dominance. Xi is the
most formidable Chinese leader since Mao, with the difference being
that the China he rules has been transformed into the second most
powerful country in the world.

There will be much action on the BRICS sidelines too. Nepal’s
Prachanda – former Maoist insurgent – meets Xi in a tense atmosphere
due to the Chinese perception that he is tilting towards India.
Burmese stateswoman Aung San Suu Kyi makes an emotional return to the
county where she went to school (and Lady Shri Ram College) just six
months after taking office, after enduring 15 years house arrest as a
political prisoner. Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh is coping with a
worrying rise in extremism, which risks impressive (better than India)
performance in crucial human development indices.


Focus back on Goa, host of all this geo-political grandeur, and the
term “Potemkin Village” becomes inescapable. Back in Russia in 1787,
Prince Potemkin hastily constructed pretty-looking cardboard villages
to deceive Empress Catherine II about the actual state of affairs.


This is identical to what has been thrown up in a frantic haste by the
state administration. It is a South Goa-scale pretense of efficient
administration, an incredibly costly make-believe of adequate
foresight and planning. Let one single Russian or Brazilian or Burmese
stray even a few steps outside the skin-deep subterfuge, and he or she
will find a moonscape of derelict, severely potholed roads and
highways, lined with ever-accumulating piles of garbage.


BRICS is all about aspiring for a better future, but in the meanwhile
who is going to fix the present?