Why quality of life in Mumbai is poor

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report stated that Mumbai [ Images ], India's [ Images ] financial hub, is likely to witness a significant jump in economic growth along with other emerging markets and make it to the league of the world's wealthiest cities by 2025.

The report further states that in the league table of the world's great cities Mumbai will rise from it's present rank of 29th to 11th in 2025.

There is little doubt that most Mumbaikars will scoff at this report, and a gullible few may actually celebrate these finds.

But the fact remains that 'quality of life in Mumbai is poor'. A state that, unfortunately, no stakeholder of the city - citizens (rich or poor), urban administrators, elected representatives, media, corporate leaders or civil society organisations - will disagree with.

In a report titled 'Governance in the Mumbai metropolitan region', and compiled for Bombay First, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy delves deep into the problems that plague the metropolis.

The unanimity in opinion that all is not hunky-dory with Mumbai is based primarily on two sets of perceptions:

The first is the visible evidence of poor quality of urban life, both in absolute terms as well as when compared to other cities around the world.

And the second set of perceptions arise out of transactional experiences:

• A trader looking to get a license or permit to establish a business;
• A citizen seeking to pay his property taxes;
• A widow attempting to get a promised pension allowance for her deceased husband;
• A community association wishing to participate in the choice of municipal priorities in their neighbourhood;
• A multinational organisation seeking to find clean title land to invest in the city; and
• An irate resident seeking to complain about a broken water pipe.

These transactional challenges also exist for people within the government:

• Junior clerks in the accounts department;
• Executive engineers in the works department;
• IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers in so-called decision-making roles within the municipality, but with minimal control over the actual decision-making outcomes;
• Ward corporators who have little control over even their ward budgets, let alone on decisons over the larger city-wide infrastructure;
• A water utility provider who is constantly being pressed to serve more and more citizens in far-flung areas, with broken distribution systems and minimal pricing discretion.

Seeking solutions at an operational level
One way of thinking of such operational challenges is as at the interface between citizens and their local governments, in this case, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Essentially, there are six different categories of citizen interface with their local government:

• Payment of taxes
• Payment of user charges in return for service benefits
• Procurement of licenses and permits
• Access to social welfare benefits
• Redressal of grievances
• Participation in the decision-making process

There are enormous gaps in ensuring that these interfaces are running smoothly, to the satisfaction of the citizens. These gaps can be thought of as having two perspectives: that of citizens and that of those within the government:

Citizen perspective

From a citizen's perspective, some of the reasons for these operational gaps are:

• Structures of government
• Procedures of government

Government perspective:

• Accountability of officers
• Transparency in the system
• Over-centralisation of enforcement

Addressing these gaps in the day-to-day interfaces that citizens have with government can go a long way in relieving the operational conflicts that confront both citizens and those within the government.

While many of the operational challenges can be solved by looking at Mumbai's quality of life in purely tactical terms - i.e. improving interactions/awareness/simplifying administrative procedures etc, there is merit to the argument that even these changes will not address the larger issues that confront urban quality of life in the city region.

The case for urban governance

The operative term needs to move from 'managing' Mumbai to 'governing' Mumbai, because this not only encompasses the function of managing but also locates it in a larger context.

The problems of urban governance in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region are not trivial. There are technical issues, such as urban planning, design and management of mass transport systems, and access to such resources as water and power along with their pricing and distribution.

There are public finance issues of ensuring that the local bodies in the region get access to the resources they need to provide services of acceptable quality. There are regional issues too: how does Mumbai relate to the larger region in which it is located and the other local bodies in the region, and how can the relationship between these be managed?

Examples of gaps that arise out of these 'governance' related issues include:

Affordable housing: the lack of sufficient affordable housing is driven by a complex set of inter-related issues:

• Complexity of current regulations and control on urban land
• Social issues of the poor and how they are oppressed
• Challenges in enforcement, due to political interference and criminal-politician nexus
• Poor urban planning that extends from the neighbourhood to the metropolitan level
• Weak design and implementation of urban infrastructure projects, resulting in time and financial costs
• Lack of opportunities for citizens to participate
• Insufficient financial resources available to urban local bodies

These issues cannot be solved merely by thinking of the urban 'quality of life' problem purely in visible or transactional terms. These challenges arise because there is something more fundamentally wrong with how our cities are run.

Viewed in this perspective, the approach of solving only transactional issues seems an over-simplification of the complex urban challenges that confront Mumbai.

It is this perspective that can be called 'Urban Governance': analysing Mumbai's problems through this prism of institutional arrangements and deeper issues helps to answer the more complex questions, and offer answers that - while their implementation may take time and political will, technical competence and administrative skill - are the ones that will result in long-term sustainable improvements to quality of life in Mumbai.

Anti Naxal operations a cover for exploiting tribal people

the Salwa Judum movement, an armed counter-Naxalite campaign in Chhattisgarh comprising of local tribal and non-tribal people backed by the state, is precipitating a deeper crisis in the state instead of solving the problems posed by extreme Left insurgency. Involving civilians directly in the fight against armed insurgents (mostly local tribal people) has widened the canvas of the conflict (see Cover Story: Red alert in Chhattisgarh). Earlier, the local people were caught between the police and the Naxalites. Now, with the entry of Salwa Judum, they are also involved in a fratricidal conflict. The situation is chaotic in the forested state, in danger of spinning out of control.

Long back, both the government and the Naxalites promised ‘land and liberation' to the tribal population of the state, mostly eking out a living selling forest produce and harvesting patches of land. Most tribal people living in forests are officially ‘encroachers'. They live under the constant threat of being alienated from their land and livelihood. While the government completely failed to reach out to them, the Naxals succeeded in connecting to sections of the people. They spread to the state's 11 districts (200 districts in the country). Unable to contain them, government supported the creation of a civilian militia — Salwa Judum.

After a year, the tribal residents of Dantewada, the epicentre of the Salwa Judum movement, neither have land nor liberation. Not only are they being further alienated from their land, they are also being cut off from local markets by the government in the name of cutting off logistical supplies to Naxals.

Even though the conflict in Dantewada district has been dampened to some extent by the monsoon, the ulterior objectives of the state's campaign continues to be pursued. Dantewada, and for that matter the whole state, is witnessing another desperate battle – tribals fighting against land acquisition by the state government on behalf of private companies. The state has massive bauxite and iron ore reserves and is expecting close to us $6.6 billion worth of investments in steel and iron plants, with an aggressive policy of attracting capital. It is hardly a coincidence that the 11 Naxal-affected districts in the state account for all the minerals and forests resources of Chhattisgarh.

As tribals fight each other, state government officials broker lands for companies, engineering the consent of village councils, required by law, with heavy-duty arm-twisting. For a state with close to 45 per cent land classified as forests and inhabited mostly by tribals, industry finds it easy to prey on these people. The conclusion that the state government is using Salwa Judum to displace people and make land acquisition easier for industrialisation is becoming inescapable.

Tribal lands are the most sought after resources now. Whether it is in Orissa or Chhattisgarh or Andhra Pradesh, if there is a patch of tribal land there is an attempt to acquire it. It is no geographical coincidence that tribal lands are forested, rich with mineral resources (80 per cent of India's minerals and 70 per cent of forests are within tribal areas) and also the site of a sizeable slice of industrial growth. The tribal districts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Maharashtra are the destination of us $85 billion of promised investments, mostly in steel and iron plants, and mining projects. This investment will require huge amount of lands, crucial for the survival of tribal people. Ironically, these lucrative resources are of no benefit to the local people: an estimate of 10 Naxal-affected states shows that they contribute 51.6 per cent of India's gdp and have 58 per cent of the population. As with Chhattisgarh, all these states have a strong Naxal presence and are witness to movements against land acquisition. The state governments say these protests are Naxal-inspired. Local people say, however, that all they are trying to do is protect their land, forests and livelihood.

Of late, state agencies are beginning to recognise that the Naxal movement is not merely an issue of law and order; it is rooted in real problems that poor, marginalised people face. Even the prime minister pointed this out while emphasising the need for the socio-economic development of tribals as the major policy thrust to tackle the crisis. But what type of development programme is needed is an issue that has not been adequately addressed.

The Chhattisgarh government says industries will bring prosperity for tribal people. Tribal people say access to forests and lands will set their lives on sustainable path. Naxals have exploited this gap in perspective, focusing on the need for land reforms, which have not been pursued. In fact, settlement of rights over land has not been attempted seriously till now. Also, access to forests that sustains livelihoods remains a ‘concession' instead of a right. This policy perspective needs to change, along with attempts to rejuvenate ecological niches that sustain marginalised people.

In a situation of endemic poverty, small changes make the difference between survival and destitution. The rapid process of change in the age of liberalisation is unfortunately sending tribal communities on free fall into greater poverty. Salwa Judum is one of the agents of this change.

The war against the poor

We are living a third world war. It is an economic war, waged by transnational corporations on poor people. We have plenty of problems, in fact development problems. There are 200,000 people in our country who do not get adequate food. There is a great deal of people living below the poverty line. People are desperately seeking jobs.

Big financial houses are the ones that own us. They bar development possibilities for us, and peoples are becoming extinct. In this way super powers define our fate, our way of living and our culture. Since the beginning of the 1970's we have suffered from many global problems. An economic recession occurred at the time and the state changed its way of intervention in public affairs. The economy became ever more imperialistic. We have already gone through 20 years of neoliberalism where transnational corporations gain the most in everything. They are growing still and invest productively but not in such a manner that would provide employment to people or so that they would think of the world's best interest in general. They are in search of big profits for themselves and do not care about oppressed poor indigenous peoples.

Two hundred most important corporations on our planet control the most of production. The multi-millionaires earn the biggest share of the dollars. It happens at the expense of the poor. Almost half of humanity lives in poverty. Ecuador is therefore under the control of transnational corporations. There are altogether 17 oil deposits in our country. Eighty per cent of the production goes to private business.

In 1918 Hommovil Corporation began its operations in Santa Elena. In 1921 a new legislation was passed on petroleum issues. In 1938 many oil companies acquired permission to operate. Esso began its operations in 1948. An Ecuadorian company obtained in 1961 the most of the Amazon region. In 1964 an agreement was reached with Texaco and it acquired many areas. In 1966 an Ecuadorian company acquired grounds in Pastaza. A new law on oil exploitation came into force in 1971. Texaco left the country in 1992 without leaving behind any benefits to the country. Instead it caused a lot of damages.

Millions of hectares in our region have been given out to oil companies. The presence of these companies has promoted the destruction of our culture, animals, plants and biodiversity. That has been capitalist development. Transnational corporations do not think about the fate of our people. To them we do not exist.

Our lands are considered free. Whoever wishes can come there. The government shapes the policy on this. Our lands have been occupied: new migrants have been settled on our lands. Thus, our government is racist towards our people. A thousand million hectares have been handed over to petroleum and cotton companies, and our people have been forced to become victims in this situation. Migrants and migrant communities of different religions are continuously flooding onto our lands. These are all in the pay of companies. Economic power has the biggest force. Our country has a constitution that is supposed to guarantee our rights but in spite of that the present Christian Democratic government still pursues an old policy. Twelve million Ecuadorians are suffering from this policy.

I would like us to discuss the problems of indigenous peoples. We hope that all peoples, also Finnish people and your government would understand our problem and help. We hope that everyone would become aware of the extensive nature of the problems of indigenous peoples.

A question to Arturo Yumbay by Yeremei Aipin:

Are there any laws in your country concerning indigenous peoples or oil companies?

Answer:

In 1972 a nationalist military government came into power in our country. It attempted to follow a policy that would be on the side of the people. But after that all have been operating in such a way that laws and decrees would benefit only transnational corporations, and foreign capital would flow into the country. There have been laws protecting indigenous peoples and the environment but they are inadequate. That is why we have launched a legal battle against Texaco. We do not have good environment laws or laws protecting us. Last year (in 1998) Ecuador ratified the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of the ILO (number 169) which from our point of view contains a lot of important matters. A new constitution came into force in the previous year, which expresses the will of our people and our struggle for collective needs, but we do not yet know the outcome.

A response to Yuri Vella's comment

We would like first of all to live in peace in our own living environment without a single petroleum or cotton company disturbing our lives on our own land. But we cannot shut our eyes to reality and the world's situation in general. Perhaps we would not oppose the exploitation of our natural resources, but it has to be discussed among the indigenous peoples. The decision about our happiness or unhappiness should not be taken on the top floors of the capital city's high buildings. We do not want to be oppressed. Yes we want to use high technology but we do not use technology brought from outside with which we could acquire money. We want to determine our aims and decide for ourselves what is the reasonable way to exploit natural resources.

Speech in the seminar on February 6

We have exchanged views in the last few days. It has been important to listen to the Khanty's opinions on the issue. We have also cosmically moved closer to the meaning of life and the importance of land to us. Land is not a commercial issue, rather a life issue. We have compared our conception to that of governments' and corporations'. The comparison helps us to find alternatives to preserving and improving our living conditions. The world knows very little of what is happening in the countries of South America. There is especially little knowledge of what is happening in Ecuador.

In February there erupted a stir becausse the government raised the price of gas from one to five dollars. Electricity price was also increased 300 per cent. The government works on the behalf of corporations because we are an oil-producing country and have plenty of gas deposits.

I will say what Texaco has done in Ecuador in its 28 years of pumping oil on our land. Texaco came into Ecuador in 1964 at a time when oil production was on the rise, and after 28 years it left. During the time 191 million tonnes of oil were pumped out of Ecuador. Sixty-five billion litres of petroleum and 72 million litres of waste water flowed into rivers. Fire burns continuously in oil wells where 6,670 million cubic metres of gas were flared. Six hundred basins that contain toxic waste have been left in the grounds. Domestic and international researches have been done on this so the figures are not exaggerated.

After the destruction we have been left with the reality where our living conditions and living places have been changed. Particularly affected are the Siona, Secoya, Cofan, Huaorani and Quichua peoples and workers who moved there and who were in the service of the oil companies. The very small Tetete people has already been destroyed and the culture of the Zapara people is closed to disappearing. It has to do largely with the impact of oil companies.

We have already seen how many plants and animal species have gone extinct. Such deadly diseases have come with the oil companies which previously we did not have. School children are in difficulties because they cannot cope with. That is to say, children are lacking behind. This stems from the activities of the oil companies in their region. Billions of hectares of forests have been destroyed, and because they use bulldozers and other heavy equipment the destruction is extensive. The situation is impossible to restore to its origin.

There is also evidence that Petroecuador and Texaco have earned seven billion dollars in Ecuador during the period of their operations. This is bigger that the foreign debt of Ecuador at the time Texaco left the country in 1992. Texaco has benefited but our government, and our people have actually not had anything. We filed a lawsuit against Texaco in 1993. We want three things.

• First a modernization of the technology that companies employ. Petroecuador inherited equipment used by Texaco. The companies have used very outdated technology that is no longer accepted in other countries.

• Secondly we demand that they repair the damages done to the environment. Oil leakage should be patched, waters cleaned and poisonous basins should be shut down.

• Thirdly we want compensation paid to all the inhabitants.

The opinions of the rulers have not made it possible to hold the trial in Ecuador, but in New York there is now a public court case going on. We shall see what happens there.

Our case has global significance. It may mean that companies and states will take seriouly these issues before embarking on drilling oil in any part of the world. We hope that organisations are in solidarity with us and that at the close of the seminar all organisations interested in our cause would sign a petition that will give support to our case in New York. Seventy-five representatives of ours are defending the case of 30,000 people. Our country's legislation does not recognise class action lawsuits. If we had taken our case in an Ecuadorian court, we would have to file 30,000 separate suits. In any case we hope that the people would express solidarity with us and that we could continue our process and benefit from it. Thank you.

Speech during a meeting with Pekka Haavisto on February 2

I bring you greetings from the indigenous peoples of Ecuador. I am thankful for the attention that we have received here in Finland. Like brothers and sisters now at this table and others at parts of the globe, we have uncountable number of problems.

These have been caused in particular by companies seeking to benefit from oil and mineral resources. Rivers have been polluted, forests have disappeared and along with them cultures. I would like to ask for three things:

• The first is concerned with a court case which we have brought against Texaco and which is now going on in New York. Perhaps the case is not known here. We would like to ask for support from administrative organs in Finland, and on that basis open up a dialogue with the Ecuadorian government so that the court case of the indigenous peoples would receive support.

• The second problem is that the government intends to start exploiting oil resources in areas that are declared natural parks. Natural parks and areas that provide protection to animals are earmarked for destruction. Along with them the cultural communities that live there would be destroyed.

• The third issue is that the Finnish government should directly establish contacts with representatives of indigenous peoples, and that it should have a direct co-operation with us and not with the government. One never knows whether anything good comes out of a direct co-operation with the government. I hope that Finland's ministry of the environment and environmental organisations would work equally active as they have done till now so that we could also keep nature clean.

Real Life In Our Country

The real life in our country for most of our people. Then people read these articles and do nothing to get involved with helping to change the hard life for people in our country who need the most support. writing news to inform people about all the problems that are wrong and need to have the most attention to get these problems changed. Its time to make life better for the tax payers. What is the big news of the day some senator had his foot in another person's stall. What about all the people that are homeless and hungry in our country? Who writes and talks until no body goes hungry in our country?

An article about some billionaire that made another billion dollars and every body wants to read about it right away. What about all the poor children who get shot down in the streets everyday in our country? This kind of news gets about five minutes on the national media news. What gets done to stop the worthless death of all these children? When will start news media to write and keep writing until our government puts a stop to all these street gangs and the deaths they cause?

people have to involved to help stop the drug abuse in our country. Some famous person gets in trouble with the law and this headline becomes front page news. What ever gets in done our country to help change life so that people will have another choice besides using drugs? Some famous person dies of a drug overdose and this becomes front page news in our country. What are we doing as a nation to stop all the daily overdoses and death for the people that poor? Some body on the news says I am sorry and nothing ever gets changed to end this problem in our country. I would like to know is one famous person`s life more important then the hundreds of poor people that overdose on drugs everyday in our country? Then its on to the next famous person that has a problem. Who talks about all the tears the get shed when these children over dose ?

Is the loss of life that much less because these people do not sell air time ? When will these people that face so much harder a life every hour of every day get some air time to stop this death for their children? Poor people only get air time when there are so many deaths that it sells air time or newspapers. Still nothing gets done affect change. How many poor people are murdered across of nation every day ? I would bet the real numbers are staggering. What gets done to make life safer for these people in life? I want to understand something is the pain of a poor person less to their family then people of wealth and fame?

There is so much more pain and every day death for so many poor people in our country. How many people even hear about all this pain and death ? Does anyone think that the death in a poor family feels less then painful then a famous family? There are far more poor people in this nation and this is a real problem that needs to be changed. Until people help to change this growing problem so many poor lives will pass and nothing will ever get changed . Take a senses about how many more poor people then there are rich people in our country .

How many poor people really get proper medical care in our country? Let alone be able to worry about eating the proper food to become physically fit. How can we make our nation physically fit when people can not get food? How many old people really get the chance to eat the proper food? How can poor people become more physically fit without the proper medical care? This kind of news brings pain and need for change.Then some one gets elected to office then these problems get push aside.

If this government is doing every thing they can to help these poor people? Why are more people becoming poor in our country? This kind of real news would show the real life of our people and our country. Nobody wants to face these problems this is the reality of being poor. Poor people make up the most people in our nation this is so sad. Then nobody wants to step forward and write the truth about real life for most poor people in our country.

Is writing about poor people meaningless because nobody sells air time? then no one hears and sees what most real life is like for poor people. Its easy to sit in your safe homes and pretend that this kind of life is what these people asked for. Would setting off a nuclear bomb in a poor neighbor hood even rate news time? What would really happen if some terrorist set off a dirty bomb in a poor neighbor hood? These people can not afford the proper things to survive? How many poor people would die while all the best medical care went to famous and rich important people?

This is why some writer need to write for real change for so many every day forgotten poor people in our country. How many poor people have family members fighting in Iraq and afghanistan compared to rich and famous people? I would think its more then a hundred to one for the poor people. But as some smart publisher wrote unless your famous or rich do not write articles about unknown poor people. Poor troops that are fighting and dying to make life better for the rich and famous people in our nation.

The real idea of writing and article was to help those that have no one to write to help make changes that are needed to make life a little bit better and safer for most of the poor people that live in the real world. How can any publisher or real new person not want to deal with the real news? How many rich people buy your papers and watch the news shows compared to poor people that really need help the most?

To long rich people have pushed aside the needs of the poor people of our nation this must stop. Remember these are the real people that buy your newspapers and and watch your news shows that you sell for air time to these rich companies. This nation has to bring the needs of the poor people out in to the open. Then start solve these problems to make life better for our poor people. I will write and keep writing these articles until some publisher stands up for the poor people. Instead of the rich and famous people. Poor people articles might not sell but these people are the biggest part of sales for newspapers and news shows.

To sell air time or newspapers. I write these articles for the people that need to most help and change in our country. I remember a time in our country when people championed for the poor people in our country. Who has the love of a good news fight to stand with me for the poor people against the rich people to even the balance of people? I will bet that we will not only sell a lot of newspapers. This will bring all the poor people out to vote for changes that they needed long for time in our country.

It has been always a natural born fighter because I was born poor and had to become tough to survive all these years. Now I champion a better way of life for so many poor people that need a champion to write for them once again. I think that with the proper publisher together we could make the biggest news fight for poor people of all time. Come on over to the poor people`s express and lets change write to change life for the poor people in this nation. Then lets write for all people rich middle class and poor people. I am not saying this will not be a fight to get these changes made. Well as my mother has always told me that I did not know when to quit.

It is supported the underdog to win the ultimate fight in every sport. This is a fight that must be won for the future of our poor people and our nation to bring equality to all people. Come and help the choice is up to each person. I promise this fight for real change will not have a dull moment. This is because all people should support this fight for change in our nation.

Father tries to cash in on daughter's fame

THE poverty-stricken father of Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali plans to become a millionaire himself-by SELLING his nine-year-old daughter.

In a bid to escape India's real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.

As he offered the shocking deal to the News of the World's undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: "I have to consider what's best for me, my family and Rubina's future."

Rafiq tried to blame Hollywood bosses for forcing him to put his daughter up for SALE.

As he tried to fix the illegal adoption deal, real-life slum dweller Rafiq declared: "We've got nothing out of this film."

Then, almost embarrassed to speak it out loud, he whispered to an accomplice the price tag he has put on his innocent young daughter: "It's £200,000!"

That was an astonishing FOURFOLD increase on his opening demand. But Rafiq's equally demanding brother Mohiuddin insisted: "The child is special now. This is NOT an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!"

Dad Rafiq is desperate to cash in on their nine-year-old's success in the blockbuster film by selling her to the highest bidder.

He sees it as his family's escape route from the notorious Bandra slum sprawl of Mumbai.

Rafiq revealed his scheme to undercover News of the World reporters posing as a wealthy family from Dubai.

Why our country is poor? Some thoughts:

This Website contain plethora of ideas with regard to developing our country. These ideas primarily revolve around exploiting “Infrastructure”?, “Education”? and “technology”?.

Undoubtedly, in sharp contrast to poor countries, the rich countries have abundant of universities, roads, bridges, electricity, hospitals etc. So, the solution to the poverty, at least at a very high level, is very intuitive: invest as much as possible in infrastructure, education and technology .As a result of this thinking, millions of dollars have been poured into not only in our country but also in other developing countries, in the form of donation, loan and charity, to enrich education and infrastructure.

Despite the obvious solution and these efforts, as a society we are unable to exploit these funds. The popular answer to this puzzle is: the donors themselves take back 50-75% of what they have donated. In case the question is raised if donors take 75% (a worst case) away what about the remaining 25%. Now the second flood of answers follows: Our government is corrupt. It is too bureaucratic. We don’t have good leaders.

Let us take a step back, and pose a few more questions to ourselves: Who are these leaders? Who are in our government? Aren’t these Nepalese? Aren’t these people products of our society? I am more and more convinced that we should stop blaming leaders and bureaucrats: not because they are innocent, but this blaming culture will lead us to nowhere. We must pause for a moment and think why as a society we could not produce great inventors, great athletes, great scientists, and great leaders so and so forth. Don’t we all must share the blame?

Raising this questions, at least will enable us to examine the fundamental reasons of our lagging. It is not the case that we have dearth of talents. Many students who were toppers in the class in Nepal had stood toppers abroad. There are many examples of entrepreneurs who could excel in the international cut throat environment. Unlike our neighboring countries, why our society lacks the capability to recognize this facts, let alone tap this enormous energy.

I don’t intent to say that we should not invest in infrastructure, education and technology-we must. However, one should bear in mind that in most developing parts of the world this obvious formula has not worked. Therefore, in parallel we should identify deeper underlying problems, make people aware of these problems and try to find solutions to these problems.

The primary reason why we are poor, although it will provide answers to a limited set of question raised earlier nonetheless, in my opinion, is the way to achieve “happiness”?. Whether it is West or East, whether it is materialistic or spiritual view, most of the time people do something in order to become happy.

In our society the mantra to become happy goes like “Santosam Param Sukham”?. Most of our spiritual teachings point towards this essence. This has a detrimental effect on our society. First it teaches you to be content with what you have. Next, when you start going deeper into spiritual understanding it asks you to renounce worldly belongings and essentially “desire”? to obtain more. It teaches that possession of worldly stuff will eventually lead to suffering. There is also an extension to this teaching that you cannot become reach by following a straight path. In other words, in order to become rich you have to be corrupt, smuggler, etc. As a result, it is not surprising that during my school age, I did not hear from anyone that I would like to be a successful businessman, not to mention about becoming the richest man in the world or country. In contrast everyone wanted to be either a doctor or an engineer.

There is nothing wrong with becoming doctors and engineers, however you need to generate affluence to build the country, and you need businessman and entrepreneur to generate the money. In addition, it is not necessary to be corrupt or smuggler to be rich. Once you become rich, at least you have choice to invest in society or yourself. Take Bill Gates for an example.

what makes our country poor ?

most of the time when a young man is being asked what do you think why our country is poor the answer is " its because our government is corrupt ",does it mean all 3rd world countries' government officials are corrupt ? the answer is NO,not even a big factor.Most 3rd world countries belongs to tropical climate or belongs to the equators belt
,this climate created an undesirable intellectual evolution that disables us to solve problems easily,design machines,discover new experiment, invent new hi-technology,invent powerful weapons ,that we can export and have money for our country.Its the Climate we need to change from tropical to humid continental. Climate affects intelligence,intelligence affects economy.Climate is a constant factor eversince no government yet,no colonization yet,no war yet,when population
was yet a problem,when all our natural resources were not yet used by other races.Most of our ancesto's work were on farming and fishing way back year 1400 when lapu lapu and Rizal was not born yet. Their works ,without their knowledge,
exposed their head to the sun all day long,this process greatly affected their cerebral cortex for centuries or over 400 years ,that eventually created an evolution different from the other parts of the world like Japan,Europe,North America,
South Australia,South America.Cerebral Cortex is the main part of the brain which conceptualization,abstraction,designing and ideas were being processed, so as a result their works disables or lessen their and our mental capability to EXPERIMENT and INVENT.Our ancestor and us lack or(less) these two factors that is why our ancestor were not able to defend themselves from colonization and war against other races ,and so as we of today still defenseless.If you disagree with this idea,imagine all imported goods will be taken back by them,what will be left for us to use? will still be able to use cellphone or computers or even watch pirated CD's. Is telling the truth degrading?Im talking about Climate,only climate
makes us all different from the 1st world countries.See the difference between american,japanese
(skin complexion and nose shape) against africans,filipinos, it is a simple physical reaction over hundreds of centuries.if there is a PHYSICAL reaction there must be a MENTAL reaction, and that is the incapability to EXPERIMENT and INVENT and it was proven and still proven by our history experience 1. colonized 2. poor country 3.. less exports 4.no high-tech
invention 5.no weapons for war or defense.It is time to stop barking our government.There is hope but not by barking , changing the CLIMATE to humid continental is the only way