Shashi Tharoor for the UN’s Top Diplomatic Job

Knowing Kofi Annan, it is fair to say, that he is a thorn in the side of President George W. Bush, at least the liberals in the United States find satisfaction in this of course. But the Nobel Peace Prize winner, originally from Ghana, who has been the Secretary General of the United Nations since 1997, won’t be the UN’s boss forever. So who will replace him in 2007? Well the New York Times reports:

“The early scramble to see who will fill the shoes of Kofi Annan has begun, with states and regions trying to bring one of their own into the position of Secretary General of the United Nations and all the bully pulpit privileges that come with it. The latest Iranian attempt, floating the candidacy of President Khatami for the position, was seen, at Turtle Bay, as a diversion. But it also stirred the pot in the hallways, and as world leaders gathered here for a week of meetings, some wonder whether it is too early to ask: Who will be Mr. Annan’s successor? More than anything, the early maneuvering for the position, which will become vacant at the end of 2006, underlines the chaotic method of selecting someone for the high-powered position. To be successful at this stage of the race, one has to feed the rumor mill.”

At the UN, where Mr. Annan is held in high regard, many believe that, as one official put it, “he raised the bar.” And so they assume his replacement has to be someone of stature no more junior than a Foreign Minister. Others assume that Mr. Annan has set another trend: a Secretary General from the ranks of the institution itself. One such candidate whose name is whispered around the halls of the world body is the Under Secretary General for public information, Shashi Tharoor, an Indian-born, British-educated writer with a Hollywood flair whose name is being floated. With what sounded like a well-honed non-denial of his candidacy, Mr. Tharoor told the New York Times: “The Secretary General is barely halfway through his second term. We all have a great deal of work to do to fulfill what remains to be accomplished in this term, and we’re all concentrating on that. I am certainly focused on that.”

On the morning of 29th September 2000 after our daily briefing with Indian Ambassador to the UN, Kamelesh Sharma and the members of the parliamentary delegation at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, I walked across to the UN headquarters two blocks down the road on 1st Avenue and 43rd Street. It was there that I first met Mr. Tharoor as we shared an elevator going up to the UN Security Council Chamber. I was on my way to listen to my hero President Nelson Mandela, as he was due to brief the Security Council on the peacekeeping operation in Burundi and to report back to the head of my national delegation, Mr. N. D. Tiwari who is the current Chief Minister of Uttranchal. While on the elevator Mr. Tharoor noticed my official red governmental UN identification and other security clearance to enter the chamber after which he asked me what a young man was doing on India’s national delegation. I told him that the day before on 28th September 2000, I had delivered my official youth statement to the 55th Session of the UN General Assembly as India’s first youth ambassador. He then congratulated me, gave me his business card and asked me send him a copy of my statement. It was an honour to have met him at that time. Mr. Tharoor is a great supporter of young people and I have listened to him give a couple talks and once shared a panel with him as well. In addition to being a good UN official he is a fine author. While some argue that he may not be ready for the prime time, I would say that Mr. Tharoor is ready to take on the world body as its youngest Secretary General in its history. I have never seen him display the hard edge that might be needed for the job, but not all good leaders need such a hard edge.


Indeed, while Asia contends that its candidate must become the next Secretary General, some groups disagree. At an inter-regional meeting recently, some members of New Europe contended that while the Burmese U Thant’s term ended as long ago as 1971, one region has never had a secretary general: Eastern Europe, which once was the Soviet bloc. Shashi Tharoor is Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information and has led the Department of Public Information (DPI) since January 2001. In this capacity, he is in charge of the Organization's communications strategy, with particular responsibility for ensuring the coherence and effectiveness of the United Nations' external message.

Prior to joining DPI, Mr. Tharoor served as Director of Communications and Special Projects in the Office of the Secretary-General and as Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General (1997-2001). As Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations (1989-1996), he assisted two successive heads of United Nations peacekeeping operations in managing the challenges of unprecedented growth and evolution in peacekeeping at the end of the cold war. From 1991 to 1996, he led the team in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations responsible for the United Nations peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. In 2003, the Secretary-General appointed him United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism.

Mr. Tharoor's United Nations career began in 1978 on the staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. He was Head of the UNHCR office in Singapore (1981-1984) during the peak of the Vietnamese "boat people" crisis.
Mr. Tharoor is also the author of eight books, as well as numerous articles, op-eds and literary reviews in a wide range of publications. He is also the recipient of several journalism and literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
In January 1998, Mr. Tharoor was named by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as a "Global Leader of Tomorrow". Mr. Tharoor is an elected Fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities and a member of the Advisory Board of the Indo-American Arts Council.

Born in London in 1956, Mr. Tharoor was educated in India and the United States, completing a Ph.D. at 22 years of age in 1978 at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he also earned two Master's degrees. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in International Affairs by the University of Puget Sound, United States. Shashi Tharoor is the father of twin sons.

India on 15th June 2006 has nominated UN Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor for the post of UN chief while seeking support of Asian countries to the principle of regional rotation for the key post. Under this principle, the next UN head should be from Asia when the present Secretary General Kofi Anan demits office. A final decision on the candidate for the top UN post is expected by October. Mr. Tharoor is the first Indian to be nominated for the post. The government’s decision was based on the fact that Mr. Tharoor has impeccable credentials and meets with India's desire to have the august body headed by "a person with strong commitment to UN reforms and the interests of the developing countries".

Our country has already approached other UN member countries through diplomatic channels to seek support for Mr. Tharoor's candidature. I believe that India should get the support, given Mr. Tharoor's internationally acclaimed stature and the fact that under the principle of regional rotation the next UN secretary general should be from Asia. Having had the opportunity to hear Shashi Tharoor speak on various occasions, I must say that I am thoroughly impressed by his clarity of thought. Personally I found him to be highly intelligent and scholarly, while humorous and a sensitive humanist at heart. I am really optimistic of him getting elected as the UN’s Top Diplomat. It would be a greatest honour for the world’s biggest democracy to send its own to head the world body.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

In response to the articles that came out on the Meghalaya Guardian and Nongsainhima on May 20, 2006 and on Mawphor on May 22, 2006, I would like to clearly clarify to my dear fellow citizens that I have not violated any law or ruling of any court and therefore I cannot face Contempt of Court proceedings. With respect to our Honorable Mr. H. S. Shylla, who is neither a qualified Environmental Lawyer nor a Nuclear Scientist, I firmly disagree with his opinion that “There is no harm done should UCIL undertake the uranium mining project.” I must remind him that there is a saying that “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” Secondly he must understand that he is neither my Academic Supervisor nor the Head of my Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and therefore he has no right to interfere with my independent research and findings. So for the benefit of our simple people especially those living in the villages, I would like to kindly request Mr. Hispreaching Son Shylla to please STOP preaching the wrong message to us all and leading our people astray. I really wonder who is advising him and misleading him with such incomplete and incorrect information. I have found Mr. Shylla to be very passionate about what he believes in, but I only wish that he would see that Renewable Energy is more sustainable than Nuclear Energy in the long run. If he could only channel his thoughts on renewable energy in the right direction then I strongly believe that our people would be really happy and satisfied with his leadership.


Now let me clarify what the ruling is all about. In response to the Writ Petition (C) No. 188 of 1999 filed by Dr. B. L. Wahdera against the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), the Supreme Court order that came out on April 15, 2004 states “In view of the affidavit, filed on behalf of respondent No. 3-Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, that adequate steps have been taken to check and contain the radiation arising out of the uranium waste, we do not find any merit in the petition. It is, accordingly dismissed.” Well, any layman can see that there is no mention at all in the ruling, which guarantees that uranium mining is safe. As a matter of fact it is clear that the Apex Court has taken into consideration that there are indeed dangers arising out of the uranium waste. However, it seems that the adequate steps that have been taken by the DAE and UCIL to check and contain such radiation have satisfied the Apex Court. All the supporting documents are loaded on my website at www.bremley.blogspot.com for further reference.


I have consulted with my lawyers at the Supreme Court of India and also got feedback from my colleagues who are International Environmental Lawyers in the United States and the United Kingdom and they have all confirmed to me that it is not possible for any Court in any Land, let alone the Supreme Court of India, to rule that uranium mining is 100% safe. Going by science, it is known whether the technique used for extracting uranium is open cast or ordinary mining, exposure to radiation poses a serious threat to miners and the people living around the mines, because radioactive materials are absorbed from the dust into their bodies. Surveys at uranium mines in New Mexico have shown, as long as there is uranium in the dust, the internal exposure of the miners will progress to increasingly harmful levels. Radon, a radioactive gas, is produced from the decay of Uranium-238 or Thorium-232. The gas is released during mining, and radioactive particles attach themselves to the dust. When the dust is inhaled those particles are absorbed through the lung leading to an increased risk of lung cancer. Therefore no court can ignore these facts to say that uranium mining is safe. Our Supreme Court has recognised the 'Right to Health' as part of our Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Everyone therefore has the right to a clean and safe environment.


Again I want to stress that based on the findings of Dr. Gordon Edwards from Canada, when we extract uranium from the ground, we dig up the ore, we crush it and we leave behind this finely pulverized material of radioactive waste, called uranium tailings. As Dr. Marie Curie observed, 85 percent of the radioactivity in the ore remains behind in that crushed rock. How long will it be there? Well, it turns out that the effective half-life of this radioactivity is 80,000 years. That means in 80,000 years there will be half as much radioactivity in these tailings as there is today. And as these tailings are left on the surface of the earth, they are blown by the wind, they are washed by the rain into the water systems, and they inevitably spread. In addition, as the tailings are sitting there on the surface, they are continually generating radon gas. Radon gas is about eight times heavier than air, so it stays close to the ground. It can travel 1,000 miles in just a few days in a light breeze. So how far is Shillong from the proposed mines? And as it drifts along, it deposits on the vegetation below the radon daughters, which are the radioactive byproducts, including polonium. So that you actually get radon daughters in animals, fish and plants thousands of miles away from where the uranium mining is done. It's a mechanism for pumping radioactivity into the environment for millennia to come, and this is one of the hidden dangers of uranium mining.


As regards to the Jaduguda minefields are concerned, the facts cannot be ignored. Pushing the truth under the carpet will not serve public interest. In the first paragraph of my article “Uranium Project: To mine or not to mine” I have clearly stated that my analysis is purely based on the existing scientific data and the research done by other world famous scientists and scholars. The particular quote “Around 30,000 people live in 15 villages within 5 km of the Jadugoda complex and they are paying for India's nuclear capabilities with their lives” that Mr. H. S. Shylla has taken out from my article to accuse me of undermining the Supreme Court is in fact the direct opinion of Dr. Buddhi Kota Subbarao, a famous Nuclear Technology Scientist, who is a former Indian Navy Captain and now a Supreme Court advocate himself. So is this celebrated Supreme Court advocate in Contempt of Court? When I spoke to him about being threatened of Contempt of Court, he told me “If you have written something in the public’s interest and exposed the false claims of the Department of Atomic Energy, I do not see how it can constitute to Contempt of Court.” I have also consulted with Captain J. Rama Rao, a retired naval office in the Indian Navy who is leading the Movement Against Uranium Project (MAUP) in Andhra Pradesh and he told me that even the Chairman of the Planning Commission of India and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna have both stated that uranium mining has health implications on the people in and around the mines. Captain Rama Rao also stated that if Mr. Shylla threatens me with Contempt of Court then he should also charge all the people who spoke about the direct links between radiation and health hazards mentioned above including himself and Dr. Subbarao. If so be the case then the BBC, NDTV, Greenpeace International, South Asians Against Nukes, Movement Against Uranium Mining, Jharkhandi Organisation Against Radiation among hundreds of other organisations should also be charged with Contempt of Court for speaking the truth about the health hazards of uranium mining in Jaduguda. It may be mentioned here that my mentor Late Mr. B. B. Lyngdoh the former Chief Minister of our Uranium–Rich Meghalaya, told UCIL, “KEEP OFF” as he did not want to jeopardize public health by rushing into hasty decisions. Therefore Captain Rama Rao also told his people in Andhra Pradesh and those living in Nalgonda district in particular, to tell UCIL, to “KEEP OFF” the Nagarjuna Sagar Reservoir. Like my mentor, I also want UCIL to “KEEP OFF” our land. If they want to dig our uranium by force then they can do so over my dead body. What really worries me is why our present government is cold and silent about this hot and loud uranium issue. There is a saying that “Evil thrives when the Good do nothing.” So are we all going to be silent spectators? What do our church leaders have to say on this matter?


I have seen that Mr. Shylla has been showing off his ‘Yellow Cake’ pictures from his visit to Jaduguda. If it was really so safe then I wonder why UCIL did not pack it for him with some raw uranium ore as a souvenir which he can place on his dining table. That way he will always remember his great trip to the mines when he eats his meals every day while being exposed to radiating uranium. Then if he thinks that Radon gas is safe to breath then maybe he could consider using Radon gas for cooking in his kitchen instead of LPG. Nothing may happen to him immediately, but I wonder how he would feel if one fine day he were to become a victim of radiation and a father of deformed children. Look at the picture of these little deformed Khasi boy and girl who were victims of the uranium mining and radon gas living in Phlangdiloin. They have huge heads but their feet are so small so they cannot walk until now. So would you dare to look into the eyes of the father and mother and say to them that uranium mining is safe for their kids? How would you feel if the all mothers in the villages near the proposed uranium mines also gave birth to these kinds of deformed babies?

Mr. H. S. Shylla keeps mentioning about the Indo-US nuclear deal even though he has no clue about US foreign policy and global politics. After living 5 years in the US and after having studied International Law and Politics at Ive-league Columbia University in the City of New York, I know for a fact that in America, business interests dictate foreign policy in almost all fields including the civilian nuclear technology. In India, foreign policy assiduously builds the image of Indian nuclear establishment. The latest proof of this fact is the ongoing debate before and after Indo-US joint agreement of July 18, 2005 between President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington DC, and the separation agreement on March 2, 2006 in New Delhi to separate civilian and military nuclear pursuits in India. The truth is that the US wants to make money by selling the disposable enriched uranium and weapon grade plutonium derived from the dismantling of some of their nuclear weapons, as nuclear fuel for power plants. Such is the case with Russia also. While supplying oil, the seller can at the most dictate its price and nothing more. But while supplying the nuclear fuel, the seller not only dictates its price but also can demand many more commitments from the buyers. As an environmental economist, I would say that the cost benefit analysis in Indian context does not show justification for building more nuclear power plants. They are expensive to run and build, and the decommissioning is also an expensive business. The present generation has no right to pile up for the future generations, the financial burden arising from decommissioning and the multiple dangers from the unsolved problem of nuclear waste disposal. My dear fellow citizens the opportunity cost is just too high for our unborn kids to pay. They would be cursing over our tombstone when we are dead and gone.


I would like to conclude by saying that I do respect the ruling of the Supreme Court of India even though the precautionary measures taken by the DAE and UCIL are debatable. But I really disrespect the misuse of power and misguidance of our people by the CEM of the KHADC by hiding under this ruling. My strong recommendation is that Mr. H. S. Shylla should complete his further studies first, before he can be qualified to judge and classify other hard working people’s research as baseless allegations which can only lead to utter confusion. Only then he will be able to have the wisdom and courage to say NO to the people who are misleading him and using him as a scapegoat while they hide themselves from the public eye. I think that maybe some people high up there with a remote control are making ‘Simple Shylla’ dance to their music for their own selfish benefits. However, I am glad that he has woken up and agreed to finance the filing of the review petition for the anti-uranium mining lobbies at the seminar organized by the Meghalaya Tribal Teachers Association (MeTTA) on May 27, 2006.

My challenge for him now is that, if he really wants to be the hero of our people who will be remembered as a legend who dug up the real truth about the dark hidden secrets of uranium mining in India, he himself should be the petitioner on behalf of the people he represents. In return I will recommend the best Supreme Court lawyers who are experts on this issue to work with him. But in order for this to happen we need an independent and unbiased body of experts representing different stakeholders to do the transparent investigation in Jaduguda and other mining sites. My next challenge for Mr. Shylla is to organise a surprise and unrestricted visit for a fresh team of experts to go to Jaduguda on a fact-finding mission. If he can accomplish both these challenges then he will certainly make history in India, the largest free and democratic country on earth!

Last but not the least, I demand that Mr. Shylla gives clarification on his unscrupulous allegations in the Shillong Times and other local papers on May 30, 2006 accusing me of working as a CIA & MI6 agent who is trying to destabilize the country. He has no clue about my contribution for my country and the world in the past 31 years of my existence. Does Mr. Shylla have his own double agents who send him classified information from the CIA & MI6? I really feel disgusted by such false and misleading information from a leader who prides himself by bringing a bad name to the institution he represents. My dear fellow citizens isn’t this an ultimate betrayal of our way of life, our people and our land?

My field trip to the wettest place on earth

I reconnected with my good old mate and colleague from school, Peter Marbaniang when I visited his home to deliver the Hapa book sent by his cousin Karen David who is based in London. Later in the week I went for a field trip to the village near Sohra to meet the members of the Self Help Group that he has been working with for about a year. To get to the village people have to climb down 5000 steps and it takes about an hour to get to the bottom of the mountain near the river. The SHG consisting of 10 males in the village with Peter's help have been able to build a shop cum storage facility on the top of the mountain near the road side to sell the local products that they make in the village.


Peter is helping them to create market linkages for their products so as to benefit the whole village. There are about 250 people in the village and it is the most under developed one compared to others in the area. Anyway I had a great learning experience from my journey with Peter and we have decided to raise awareness about the hardship faced by the villagers and to get more support for them from the government and other concerned funders.


We also visited the office of the Khatarshnong Social Organisation (KSO) and met its dynamic founder who has made a huge impact in the development of the 46 villages in the surrounding area since he got started back in 1990. We later had lunch in the Sohra market and we were so lucky to have a beautiful clear blue sky above us with no sign of rain in the wettest place on earth. On the way back to Shillong we drove through a nature park that was inargurated by the Governor of Meghalaya recently. It was really a beautiful spot with great potential for eco tourism.

Meeting the UN's Deputy SG Mark Malloch Brown

The Chef de Cabinet to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mark Malloch Brown delivered the Third British Council lecture in London on 9 March 2006, which I was invited to attend. The lecture was on the theme: The United Nations in the 21st century 2006.

Mr. Brown said to understand the challenges that the UN faces this century, we need to go back to the end of the Cold War and to the extraordinary period of globalisation that followed it. He stated that during the 1990s we saw a dramatic integration of world economies, not just around trade, but around information flows and capital flows and even cultural flows. He said that in some ways it seemed we had reached a moment where international organisations had their epiphany: that they had found their moment in the sun and the world order they had been calling for, often as lonely voices during those cold war years, had finally come about.

Hence, he suspect for all of us, who believe in these organisations, there has been a real sense of surprise and dismay at the fact that, 15 years later, nearly all of these organisations are in a profound crisis of legitimacy, mandate and purpose. Not just the United Nations, but he thought it would be fair to say at the European Commission as well, NATO even, the IMF and the World Bank. Mr. Brown said if all of these organisations are struggling to recover lost ground with public opinion in member countries, to reconnect with those they're seeking to help, reconnect with the governments that must support them, one must seek some common roots, some common explanations for why we see this crisis in the very international organizations.


Mr. Brown mentioned three new pillars that the UN needs to focus are development, security and human rights, and that the new UN needs major management reform. He said that nothing symbolises this issue of an institution still too closely held down by its 1945 roots, than the management and institutional arrangements of today’s United Nations. He stated that the UN spends some $2 billion a year and there’s something $18 billion a year devoted to development, humanitarian and peacekeeping work around the world, all of it done in hugely difficult circumstances.

He said that for the UN Secretariat proper, with an assessed contribution funding scheme and huge intergovernmental involvement in the management, it has not changed with the times. Mr. Brown said that today in the peacekeeping operations alone the US has more than twice as many civilian staff, UN staff, as they have in the Secretariat in New York. He argues that whereas the Secretariat in New York is in some ways more often like a kind of comfortable, tenured university world with 3% vacancy rates and some people sitting in the same jobs for years and even decades at a time, out in the field it’s a very different story. He said that the people in the field are not able to have their families with them, and are disadvantaged in terms of the financial package they're offered and as a consequence the UN has 30% vacancy rates in the field and in critical functions such as procurement, 50% vacancy rates.

Mr. Brown wants to change the whole structure of the organisation, its management systems, its investment in people, the way they develop their leadership, the way they run things in terms of their global IT system – in short the way the whole operation works -- to one which reflects this new global operational reality.

After his lecture I asked him a question about the possibility of the UN having a rapid action force or a standing army of blue helmets under the direct command of the Secretary General in the future to prevent conflicts around the world. Mr. Brown answered saying that the UN depends on developing countries to provide the troops needed for peacekeeping operations that are paid by developed countries. But it would take a while for the members states to agree on contributing enough troops to serve under the UN flag and to be ready for deployment within short notice. Later I continued the discussion with him in depth. I also reminded him about the story he stayed at Columbia University on a panel with Jeffery Sachs about the development hawks in New York with sharper beaks. He remembered the event and laugh at the reminder. Before he was taken away by the people from the BBC, he gave me his business card and asked me to keep him posted on the finding from my own research work at the London School of Economics.

Meeting the World's Banker James Wolfensohn

The former President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn delivered the Ninth Commonwealth Lecture in London on Thursday 2 March 2006, which I was invited to attend. The lecture was on the theme: The Future Role of the Commonwealth: A Bridge Between an Emerging Three-Speed World.

In his lecture, Mr. Wolfensohn outlined how sweeping changes to the global economy over the next 40 years could produce three distinct but interconnected spheres of varying levels of wealth and development, presenting the Commonwealth with new opportunities but also added challenges. According to Mr. Wolfensohn, developed high-income countries will form the first tier. They will continue to be some of the wealthiest countries on the planet but may slowly lose their economic dominance to the second group of countries, which would include Brazil, China, India and Russia. This second tier will be home to almost half of humanity and could become the new centre of economic power. The third tier will be made up of those countries held back by political, social, and institutional factors. These countries will struggle with widespread poverty but will remain an integral part of the global economy and world social order.

Mr. Wolfensohn said that the Commonwealth could bridge the gap between the different levels of development among its member countries by finding a common ground through shared values. He said the Commonwealth could address the disparities between the high, middle and low-income countries through close collaboration based on a shared heritage of history, language and values. He stated that high income Commonwealth developed countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK will continue to enjoy a major share of global economic growth, while middle income countries such as India, Malaysia, Nigeria and South Africa will enjoy healthy growth in their gross domestic product. Low income and poor countries may languish in poverty if faced with low economic growth but high population growth. Adding to this situation is the disparity in the volumes of foreign direct investment and trade among countries that fall into the three different tiers of development. Mr. Wolfensohn pointed out that these factors have a role in determining the level of equitable growth and social justice that in turn affect global stability.

Strong leadership, accountability and eradication of corruption can make a difference in a country's progress, said Mr. Wolfensohn. Apart from these, having the know-how, coupled with strategic planning and implementation of development programmes, can enhance the growth process. Educated and healthy populations are also critical factors, he added. Mr. Wolfensohn stressed that the Commonwealth has tremendous strengths that can be drawn from its association of 53 countries with close to 2 billion in total population. He commended the Commonwealth for its work that is targeted at promoting peace and democracy, human rights, the rule of law, good governance, public sector reform, gender equality, education, health and trade to advance sustainable development.

After his lecture I asked him a question about what he would do differently to address the interlinking issues of Poverty and Environment if he could go back on a time machine to 1995 when he joined the World Bank. He gave me a 5 min long answer stating the fact that he was not able to do much in that sector and wished he had got more time to deal with the nexus of Poverty and Environment, especially in the least developed countries. He did mention the mainstreaming of the Poverty and Environment linkages and that the World Bank Institute was developing new training programmes to sensitise development professionals globally how to address these two interlinking issues at the same time.


We later continued our discussion over a glass of red wine at the reception that followed with his wife Elaine who also went to Columbia University and recognised the Columbia pin on my jacket. James later gave me his business card and asked me to look him up when I crossed over the creek to New York. What impressed me was that he learnt to play the cello at 40 and is a great lover of classical music. After he left the World Bank in June 2005, he was appointed Special Envoy by the Quartet for the Gaza Disengagement, which comprises the United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice; the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavtov; the European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana and United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

Flying to Meghalaya where the clouds come home

I left my research tower at the London School of Economics after sending the 2nd draft of my thesis to my supervisor on the 29th of March. I took the last Piccadilly train to Heathrow international airport at mid night. I got the early 6am Air France flight out of London via Paris to Delhi the next morning and spent the night waiting for my check in time at Terminal 2. Thank God I had the wonderful company of a nice girl from Bogotá, Colombia who was determine to keep me awake while having a great conversation with me in Spanish. Well I must say it was nice way to brush up my language skills again in the early hours of the morning. It was a nice quick sail across the English Channel to Paris and then we had to say goodbye and run to catch our connecting flights heading in different directions. I was so tired on the Delhi bound flight and went straight to dreamland the moment we took off from Paris.


It is great to be back home in India where it is much warmer compared to cold and wet England. The journey home from Delhi to Meghalaya was beautiful flying parallel to the mighty Himalayas on my left. I will be resuming the 2nd stage of my fieldwork in West Khasi hills district and collecting household survey data from 5 more villages in the Riangdo cluster. I hope to collect at least 100 interviews and since each one takes about 3 hours, I guess I got 300 solid hours of work ahead of me. I plan to be back to base in London my the 27th of June, just in time for my PhD seminar due at 2pm GMT. Below are some pictures of my homeland Meghalaya. More updates later!





While I was home I also had a great interview with the legendary Lou Majaw our home grown rock 'n' roll star!

The day I met an exotic Khasi girl in London!

My good old schoolmate from St. Edmund’s Gerald Pde who currently works in New York is the Internet researcher who tracked down this amazingly beautiful and super talented Khasi star that Shillong has ever produced. Her name is Karen David and she is only 27, but I must say that she has achieved a lot for her age. Gerald’s wife Habari Warjri who is also a good friend of mine, then got in touch with me in London and connected me to Karen who wanted to meet Khasi people there.

Karen was born in the music-loving city of Shillong, but moved to Toronto with her parents when she was one year old. The last time she returned home was when she was 8 years old. So when I met her, I told her that she must revisit her homeland and rediscover her roots and heritage. She then told me she wrote a song called “Shillong Shillong” and I was happy to know that still she strongly identifies herself as a Khasi girl even she was raised far away in Canada. We both agreed that we needed to put our hometown Shillong on the international radar screen and that we wanted to work with children in the poor villages of our state Meghalaya.


Before I went to her show at the Jazz Café in London, I did a little research on her and I was really impressed by what she has been able to achieve so far. I found out that the stylish singer, songwriter and actress may be this year’s hottest new thing, and it seems that Karen is no stranger to the world of showbiz. She was handpicked by Bill Cosby to star alongside him in a TV commercial for Jell-O at the age of six, and the multi-talented girl has spent her whole life doing what she does best putting on dazzling performances to win admirers wherever she goes. Born in Shillong and raised in Toronto, by a Khasi mother and a father from Chennai, I guess the ever-alluring Karen was never one to be confined by the expected boundaries.


One evening after spending the whole day studying and working on my paper at the London School of Economics library, I decide to take a break and go to one of her shows at the Jazz Cafe in the North of London to hear her music and relax my mind. When I got there her fans cheered as she walked on stage with a light grey top with shining silver V shaped neck, black pants and smooth leather boots up to the knee. She saw this Khasi boy in the club packed with her screaming fans and just smiled at me as I wave my hand. After that all the other girls and boys in the club then looked at me and asked me how I knew the cool singer on stage. I replied to them saying that it was my first Karen David show.


I wanted Karen to sing “Shillong Shillong” which is about our homeland, but she sang four of her other great songs. She opened with “I Need You”, and who could resist such an offer? The exotic star has everything her fans have been looking for: talent, beauty, charm and a star quality that shines through everything she puts her passion to. That night she was performing with the Inklein Quartet – so they were playing a couple of their own pieces as well - she hit the stage at 8.30pm sharp and I tell you, it’s not easy to sing pop songs with a Quartet. There were seven people playing three violins, a cello, a tabla, a keyboard and a background singer. Karen did the opening for the great Susheela Raman and her music was simply amazing!



After her show Karen introduced me to her manager and lawyer Colin Long who later gave me her CD. She got me a drink and some pudding and thanked me for coming to support her. She is so talented and famous, but yet she is so humble and warm. I think that is the perfect ingredients that make a star. I am really proud of her and all the Khasi people will be very proud of her too. I picked up one of her fliers and she signed her autograph on it for me. Before we parted that night, I said rock on Khasi Star and she said "Khublie Shibun and Thiah Suk". What can I say, but she turned that cold and rainy night in London into one that her fans including myself will cherish for a while.


Karen was in a film with Steven Seagal in, "Enemy of the Unseen" in Romania. The picture above is a shot of Karen as Lieutenant Landers in the US Air Force from the film set. Well we will have to wait until the film comes out of Hollywood to see Karen in action. The other picture is during the Lord of the Rings premier in Canada with A. R. Rahman. If you are interested in her work then you can listen to her music and see her videos on www.karendavid.com. May the force be with her to keep our Khasi star safe and strong always!

My fieldwork in the villages of West Khasi Hills

I flew to Meghalaya, India to start my fieldwork in late September 2005 and stayed there until late January 2006. During these 4 months I had a great learning experience revisiting my own home this time looking through the lenses of a research scholar. It was exciting, but nevertheless challenging. My research question was to find out if the Supreme Court logging ban in 1996 had any implication on the rural household strategies of the people, and if so how are these forest dependant communities coping with such an institutional arrangement. My goal was to find the data from the villages I had selected in the West Khasi Hills district of the state which will help me, answer my key research question.


During my journey through the district I visited and stayed in 6 villages, interviewing the people there and listening to their stories. According to what I have gathered so far, the logging ban had a direct effect on the lost of livelihoods in the communities I studied and it failed to protect the remaining trees and bushes from being converted to charcoal.


I was studying three types of villages and they are the ones that have had intervention from a multilateral agency, in this case through International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the ones that have had intervention from a governmental agency, in this case though the Joint Forest Management (JFM), and the ones that have had no intervention whatsoever since the ban was enforced.


IFAD has been working in some selected villages in West Khasi Hills since 1999 and the Forest Department of Meghalaya had just introduced the JFM in August 2005 in a few selected villages. It was interesting to see how the wealth-ranking index of the IFAD villages was rising since they got some support. The JFM villages have also got some support in the form of nurseries, fishponds and livestock. However, the villages that have been left out from any sort of assistance are going from bad to worst.

One such village that I visited called Lawsiej had 75 households and it took me about 2 hours to walk there from the closest metal road. When I reached the village I was shocked to see only 3 men who came to the meeting, which the headman had organised for me. I later found out that since there was no more livelihood opportunities in the villages, all the men had left their homes to work in coal mines 250 kms away near the Bangladesh border. They would only return home after 6 months with all sorts of respiratory diseases and later die from lack of medicines and treatment. It was very sad to see this trend of male workforce migration as a coping strategy for these poor communities in order to survive. However, before I left this village the headman gave me a rooster to take back with me as a special gift from the entire village. I was so touched by his generosity and I had to accept his gift or else I would be insulting his whole community if I had declined. Wherever I went I was treated in good faith and I realized that these people had no material belongings with them, but yet they were so happy.


While I was driving to another village called Nongkrem, which had got some IFAD help, I stopped on the way to give a lift to 7 women who had just returned from the market with all their supplies. Their journey home from the market was 3 hours walk and it was already getting dark that evening. Anyway they all got into my jeep and I continued to drive in this jungle mud road where only timber carrying trucks ply on. It was therefore very difficult to navigate between the deep tracks created by the tyres of these heavy trucks. Since the ground clearance of my jeep was no high enough, I had to drive in between these deep mud tracks, which also had stones and boulders along the way. As we drove down a steep descend heavy fog suddenly appeared and both my headlights failed to dim, so I was driving blind.


In the process I managed to hit a rock on the road, which then broke the joints that held the spring of the left back tyre. The bang was loud, but I continued to drive slowly up the hill and finally after a few minutes the spring came off with the shock absorber and the left back tyre hit the mudguard of the jeep and we were stuck on the hill. Anyway to cut the story short, I had to ask all the women to disembark and walk home from there. I was lucky that there was enough space for the trucks to pass from the side of my broken jeep. After locking the jeep, I too continued on my journey on foot and reached the village in an hour just in time for my meeting.


The next morning I took a ride on one of the timber trucks to meet the people in another village called Nonglang with also got some IFAD support. In the mean time some village boys from Nongkrem walked to the market bought the spare parts for my jeep, returned to repair it and then drove the jeep back to me to Nonglang where I was still busy with my interviews. It was simply amazing as I though I would be stuck there for days. So much for jungle driving!

Buffalo Hospital in Dong-ki-ing-ding Village

On the evening of the 12th of January 2006, as part of my Ph.D. research work for the London School of Economics, I visited the village of Umniangriang located 49 km away from Mairang in the West Khasi Hills district in the state of Meghalaya. I was respectfully received by Mr. Boxstar Nongrang, the 31-year-old intelligent and dynamic Sordar (elected chief) of the village who had been waiting for me with his team of village committee leaders. We got along very well as we were about the same age and had a similar outlook to life. However, he had a long beard and was already married with four kids. The Sordar did not waste any of my time and wanted to show me the dysfunctional infrastructures in his community right away. So we drove for 2 kms down the road to meet the Sordar of the next village of Dong-ki-ing-ding, which happened to be the closest market centre for the all eight villages in the surrounding area.


We were taken to see the hospital that was built by the government about 10 years ago in front of the Christian secondary school. On arriving at the site I was shocked by what I saw. The gates of the hospital were locked forcing us to duck under the broken barbwire fencing to enter the compound. When we got inside I found that the hospital too was locked and had no one occupying it - no doctors, no nurses, no equipment, no medicines, absolutely nothing. To my astonishment I saw two buffaloes sitting in front of the hospital enjoying the grass in the compound. The condition of the hospital was appalling, it was already rotting to pieces as the termites had eaten up all its doors and many windows were broken. So here was the most important infrastructure built to serve the public health needs of all the eight villages in the area, but tragically it never opened for business. Surely it is shameful and unacceptable that after so much has been already spent from public funds to build such a hospital, nothing has been done in a decade to make it functional.


Only bitterness and hurt can be felt when one is faced with wasteful and uncaring behavior from the government making me wonder when the political leaders responsible will wake up and feel concern enough to open the hospital. According to the Sordar the landowners donated the land, which the hospital was built on, on the condition that the members of their family would get some sort of employment from it. That agreement was broken because the hospital was never opened, and now after 10 years of waiting in vain the landowners want to take the government to court. I was also told that many sick people have died in the surrounding villages over the years because they could not get access to medicines in time and they could not afford to go all the way to Mairang for getting hospital treatment for their illnesses. These innocent lives could have been saved if the hospital in the Dong-ki-ing-ding village was fully operational. I spent a night in the village of Umniangriang and visited the thatch house of a single mother who lost her little 1-year-old girl because she had no money and no medicines to save her from her illness. So I question the concerned authorities and their responsibility for the plight of our poor villagers dying from easily preventable diseases. Are they going to continue to shut their eyes and turn a deaf ear while the poor villagers suffer? On my 3-month journey across West Khasi Hills, I found many other villages in the same pathetic state of affairs. So where has all the money for the support and development of these villages gone?


The people whom I met from the different villages asked me to help them out, but being only a research scholar I cannot do much. However I can use the power of my pen to put pressure, to raise public awareness and debate at the local, national and international level about the unfair treatment and injustices that is being meted out to the poor people in my state. After seeing the reality of how our people life in the villages with my own eyes, I am leaving home feeling very sad and angry to finish my academic work in England. But I call upon all the concerned citizens and stakeholders, NGOs and especially the young people who are the current and future leaders of our state to shake up and put massive pressure upon some of the elected sleeping leaders, so that they wake up before its too late.

Direct Funding to the Village Councils

A special call was made to the Government of Meghalaya by the Dorbar Shnongs (Village Councils) to recognize their traditional system of grassroots governance and to give them the full responsibility of implementing the "Direct Funding" for the development of their villages. The Dorbar Shnongs wanted the government to start with an allocation of Rs. 2 lakhs for small villages and Rs. 5 lakhs for big villages in the entire state of Meghalaya, which will be audited by government authorities. They understood that if such a funding came straight to the villages, it would really speed up their growth and development process. It would also lighten the responsibility of the concerned MLAs & MDCs with regard to building footpaths and other small infrastructure related work that the villages themselves can take action upon.

On 21st August 2004, the Government of India published in many national newspapers the words of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India who said "the system of governance that is planned from the top-down does no reflect the true realities of the people on the ground and must be stopped…if we want strong and meaningful governance we need everyone to be included in the decision making processes from the bottom-up right from the village level." The newspapers also published the words of Dr. Monmohan Singh, the current Prime Minister of India who said, "the most important responsibility of this government is how to shape the traditional institutions of self-government, so they are included in big projects for their own development and growth."


In his letter to the political leaders on 6th March 1989 and to the Governor on 24th February 1989, Bah B. B. Lyngdoh, our former Chief Minister stated that he had spoken in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly saying that the Government of Meghalaya has decided to preserve and strengthen the traditional governance system of the Syiems, the Dolois and the Nokmas. He also stated that the government will open different ways to lift the honour and rank of these traditional leaders. The Governor also stated that the Government of Meghalaya, through the government notification of 22nd February 1989 has appointed a "High Powered Committee" consisting of – Chairman – B. B. Lyngdoh, Members – O. L. Nongtdu, P. R. Kyndiah, P. A. Sangma, and Member Secretary J. M. Phira, IAS. But nothing is known what became of this High Powered Committee, which just ended only in publicity and promises that were made from time to time by the political leaders.


Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India spoke in Parliament on 18th May 1989 and said, "The Panchayati Raj Act was (released) for Meghalaya because they already have the Dorbar Shnongs as existing traditional institutions of self-government which we must preserved and strengthen." But what is really surprising is that since 1992 the Gram Panchayat (Shnong) in other states in India got direct funding from their respective state governments. However, in our own state of Meghalaya where the approval was already granted because of the existence of the Dorbar Shnongs, no support of any kind has come through from the government so far. I really wonder what is holding them back. I have observed in my travels across India that while other states in our country are moving forward and developing rapidly, we in Meghalaya are shamefully moving backwards.


In 2004 about 3100 Gram Panchayat (Shnong) in the state of Karnataka got direct funding from their government for projects amounting to about 60 lakhs per village, supporting an array of developmental initiatives that benefited them. I spent a night in the village of Umniangriang, which is about 49 kms from Mairang, as part of my own Ph.D. fieldwork meeting with their Natural Resource Management Group and 4 Women Self Help Groups. After a long conversation with Mr. Boxstar Nongnang, the young and dynamic Sordar of the village, I was told that he and Mr. John F. Kharshiing, Chairman of Ka Dorbar Ki Nongsynshar ka Ri Hynniewtrep have been working very hard to push for this direct funding mechanism to work in our state. I want to salute their tireless efforts to help our poor villages and I call upon all other concerned stakeholders to join forces with them in this noble cause.


The Sordar also told me that the Government of Meghalaya has rejected the central government’s approval for direct funding to the Dorbar Shnongs because our political leaders will not have control of the money that will flow directly to the villages. I would argue that if this great system can work and benefit the villages in many other states in our country, what is the real problem of making it work in our own state. I think our leaders really lack the political will to make it work. I really believe that if there is a strong will to make it work, there will always be a way. It is now up to you the people of the state to put tremendous pressure on our political machinery to jump start the direct funding engine in Meghalaya before the villages run out of gas.

My Journey to the Himalayan Foothills

It was on the 27th January morning at 7am that I started on my solitary journey to the Himalayan foothills. After being in the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and listening to his teachings, I was ready for my journey. But I have never felt so lonely as on that 20 kms hike that morning. I started walking alone up a slippery trail from the town of Mcleod Ganj, but I was later joined by 3 stray dogs, two black and one brown that accompanied me all the way to the top on the mountains.


About 2 hours later as I was approaching the top, I was then escorted by a huge eagle soaring above my head. I realized that I was not alone anymore and that God had sent me some friends to accompany me on my journey. When I got to the base camp on top, I found a shopkeeper there who told me the trail ahead was covered with snow and too dangerous to proceed. But I decided to walk on after taking some pictures and I climbed higher into the mountains in front of me.


After walking for another hour I got to the top of a big rock and was breathless and covered in sweat. I decided to stop and then took off all my clothes, boots, backpack and shouted at the top of my voice "Let me heal my broken wings and fly free as a bird." It was an amazing experience where I felt one with the snow covered mountains and I was not even feeling cold at all. I felt that I had to let go of all my baggage and just meditate with nature in the snow. I closed my eyes said a prayer and did some breathing exercises and felt some powerful, burning and fresh energy rise from within me. I felt love and compassion. I remembered my good friends around the world and sent blessings for them in the cold wind from 3000 metres above the sea!