sharpeye

Need for Social Transformation By Dr Arvind Kumar Transformation of the world in the image of love and justice entails deep social change and social transformation, of democracy versus plutocracy, and of people’s willingness to work together on common problems as full and equal citizens, not as clients or consumers. Any successful recipe for social transformation must include a wellf-unctioning market economy that creates wealth — broadly distributed throughout the population — and fosters technological innovation, directed at socially useful ends. When business puts its own house in order in this way, it can have an enormously positive impact by increasing the social and environmental value of the goods and services it produces, improving the quantity and quality of the jobs and incomes it creates, and acting as a good corporate citizen — which means paying taxes, obeying regulations, ending monopolies, and removing lobbying from politics. It has always been civil society and...

Uranium Insecurity in Africa By Dr Arvind Kumar Dangerous trends of unsafe mining of uranium prevail in some African countries endowed with uranium mines. A recent UPI news report based on diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveals abysmal safety and security standards in the African uranium mining industry. Prevalence of poor safety and security standards in a number of African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Burundi and others, with regard to uranium and nuclear facilities is a matter of grave concern. European, Chinese, Indian and South Korean companies are reportedly involved in the illegal extraction and smuggling of uranium from Africa. According to the news report, Uranium imported from African countries is used by most European reactors. It is further revealed that Roger A. Meece, U.S. ambassador to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a 2006 cable reported that external and internal security at CREN-K, a nuclear research centre...

Diet–Longevity Linkages By Dr Arvind Kumar In a recently published study in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietic Association , the research carried out among 2,500 adults in USA in the age group of 70 to 79 has revealed that those who maintained diet comprising ‘Healthy foods’ were less likely to die and more likely to remain healthy as compared to those whose diets consisted of more or less-health healthful foods during the decade-old period examined. The study subjects were divided into six groups according to their predominant food choices among 108 food items, as follow: "Healthy foods" (374 participants) "High-fat dairy products" (332) "Meat, fried foods, and alcohol" (693) "Breakfast cereal" (386) "Refined grains" (458) "Sweets and desserts" (339) Highlights of the Study Ø The’healthy foods’ category was includes relatively higher consumption of low-fat dairy, fr...

New Geopolitical Landscape By Dr Arvind Kumar Emergence of a new geopolitical landscape is becoming inevitable and this is likely to be characterized by a multipolar world, hitherto perched safely on the horizon but now rushing quite abruptly into the present. It seems that the two-century old Western hegemony is drawing to a close rather faster than expected. New emerging powers like China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, South Africa and the rest are going to decide the rules of the game called geopolitics and geo-economics very soon. The global dichotomy will be between slow- growing and fast-growing nations as much as the rich and the rising. The geopolitical balance is tilting in favour of the rising powers which are expanding their sphere of influence in respective areas. China is becoming actively involved in East Asia, Africa and Latin America. Turkey and Brazil are enhaning their regional clout. Europe is scrambling for saving itself from being reduced to insignificance...

Sustaining Renewable Energy By Dr Arvind Kumar T he success, thus far, of fossil fuels in meeting energy demand any time required has led to a belief that whatever we want we can always have whenever we want it. This of course is leading to problems as it patently can no longer be maintained. It also has lead to the development of quite unrealistic expectations as to how far renewables can replace fossil fuels. Renewable energy is being tagged on to a massive existing demand led fossil fuelled energy system that has historically recorded tremendous growth. Efforts at demand reduction and increased efficiency have seemingly resulted in slight savings and these are often deferred by people opting for higher comfort levels. Viewed in a broad spectrum, almost all the renewable technology presently installed has only made us 96% fossil fuel dependent rather than 100%! This is a cause of worry as to the very extreme degree of energy descent that may be experienced as we move further in...

Uncertainty in Afghanistan By Dr Arvind Kumar The reported move of Obama Administration to start withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan from July 2011 after over a decade-long sufferings may be a good news for the American families whose members are fighting ‘aimless war’ on a foreign soil, but it is very difficult for Afghans to wriggle out of the foreign-created quagmire. Since the fall of the Daoud government in March 1978, Afghanistan has seldom seen even a brief spell of peace or stability. The present decade-old mess is the result of inability of the US and NATO-led forces to tame Taliban. Unless Pakistan is not reined in, it is difficult to restrain Taliban because Islamabad is the main source of money and weapons for Taliban. It is ironical that Pakistan itself has been the victim of Taliban terror, by the Taliban protégé – Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and it still continues to support Taliban. The post-US withdrawal scenario in Afghanistan entails the possibility ...

Spread Message of Love By Dr Arvind Kumar 25 December is celebrated as the holy day of Christmas to commemorate the day when Jesus Christ was born, as a tiny baby to restore the friendship between God and humanity, and to bring hope and joy and love to the world. Christmas is more than a charming story. It is, should be, a life-changing experience as well as a celebration. Yet in much of Christian World today there is a growing crave for materialistic possessions and the ideals of Christianity – love and compassion – are being replaced by Epicurean notions of eating, drinking and merry-making. Eating and drinking and making merry are fine, of course, but Christmas is a time to persuade people to part with more money for the poor and neglected segments of the society. Santa Claus (Father Christmas) has been hijacked as a super-salesperson for aggressive marketing. Instead of reverent, melodious Christmas carols, the air is filled with the sound of tinkling Muzak with cringe-making ...