Month of  “FREEDOM”

                                     (February7-, March 6,2008)

       Inner freedom

Inner freedom comprises (a) ability to act with dictates of reason (b) ability to act in accordance with one’s own true self or values (c) ability to act in accordance with universal values (d) ability to act independently  of both the dictates , reason and urges of desires. The urges of desires if not directed with a sense of enough ness may lead to negative freedom.

     Economic freedom

Economic freedom is freedom to produce, trade and consume any goods  and services acquired without use of force, fraud or theft. It is associated with a free and open market system, protection of property rights and freedom of economic initiatives. Economic freedom promotes economic growth and poverty reduction , with rule of law which implies that government must be ruled by the law and subject to it. Existence of widely shares  of social, cultural and ethical norms and values etc are the prerequisites of rule of law 

Environmental freedom

            In addition to political, economic and social freedom  , I am of strong conviction that time has come for the humanity to recognize and understand “Environmental Freedom”, which can not be separated from aforesaid three  freedoms. Environmental freedom is defined as empowering biotic and abiotic components of the biosphere to interact and function sustainably for recycling and regeneration of its resources .

  The rule of law of environmental freedom means that  its resources should not be allowed to explored beyond their regenerative and recycling power. This ultimately will result in strengthening of the life-support systems and resisting adverse consequences like climate change, diminishing genetical diversity etc

     life-support systems

In the process, the ideas developed that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule or dominate others which in history has given rise to wars and violence in different forms. The latest form of violence – “terrorism” was erupted towards last decade of 20th century which is rising now at a rapid rate. This form of violence  has spread from inter-race to intra-race societies threatening the continuance of the human family /race in the biosphere.

Race-based

The escalation of inter and intra race conflicts has assumed serious destructive dimensions for which now racialism is being promoted as a related term intended to avoid negative meanings whereas sociologically , racism is highly organized system of “race-based” group privilege that operates at every level of society networked by a sophisticated ideologies of color/race, cast/creed, and religious supremacy etc. It is in essence the psychic of oppression and domination on other groups divided on the base of race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin.

Today , as in the past centuries beginning from 17th, the racial oppression and dominations pervade , permeate and interconnects all major social groups linking to institutions across the society. It is a form of bigotry which also implies inequality and hierarchy. It is a social construct with potent social and political effects. Genetical and biological base  race has been side tracked which need to reinvented to remove all the negative meanings attached to race.

racism

Time has come to discredit and discard all the negative concept of ideological, social , economic and scientific racism which have push the humanity to a violent suicidal path of destruction, causing mass destruction and killing. It is not valid today in an era of globalization to classify people on the basis of race.We have to build systems to bring about unity in diversity of races and of genetic characteristics determining the form – physical characteristics of humans (color of skin, hair, eye and facial shape etc) and size of human species linked to social positive determinants of equity and equality of opportunities to arrest separation process both in inter and intra race communities to build one human race/family.

 Edward VII (1841-1910) in a letter to Lord Gramville on 30 November 1875 wrote “Because a man has black face and different religion from our own, there is no reason why he should be treated as a brute.” All men and women are equal. Then, they are to be unified  through providing opportunities for equal sharing of prosperity accrued from exploration of material and spiritual resources.  It is only with the doctrine , the definition of UN international convention,

“The term “racial discrimination” shall mean as distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying on impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life”; the process of unification will take place counteracting the terms used in UN definition to materialize the   vision of “global village” with the ongoing process of  globalization; which is still a distant dream for the humanity.

Impact of globalization

What is the link between racism and Child Abuse ? Prosperity with glorified vulgar consumerism culture at the cost of all values and humanitarian qualities is now dominating human minds, which is also fueled by  adverse impact of globalization.  At the altar of utilitarianism , spiritual, moral, social and family values have been sacrificed and oppressed , which establish dangerous link between racism and child abuse.  

Emotional intelligence is on the decline affecting the bondage created in a family.  Parents are selling their children not only to overcome poverty but also for acquisition of material goods so that they can be part of a virtual ever changing glamorous life style. Girl child some time opts for prostitution either on parents pressure or for the shake of earning more money to enjoy the luxury of life which, they can not afford in their normal life style.  Only “Self” is dominating and nothing else. The parents have forgotten the appropriate lessons of parenting as a result when the children grow up they develop a lop sided approach to life.

                  Parents

Children

    Even such  children when they grow up lead an “individualistic”, life style in which they are least bothered about their relationship with parents , grand parents and other relations. In such a family environment , the evil spirit of  “racial discrimination” enters – considering and accepting the meaning of racial as “separation” , “segregation” and “stratification” . As at social level, hatred of one person by other because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth etc reveals the basic nature of that person.

              violence

Is it the price the humanity has to pay for the sake of  mindless prosperity and globalization leading to a culture of violence ?  If this is accepted and continued, there is no doubt that  a violent world is now in the making where in course of time each one will kill other and ultimately the human race will be wiped out from the biosphere.

Child abuse is defined as “the physical and mental injury, sexual abuse, negligent treatment or mal treatment of child under the age of 18 by person who is responsible for the child’s welfare under circumstances which indicate that the child’s health and welfare is threatened or harmed. Some facts and figures of child abuse are really horrifying . Globally, an estimated 57,000 deaths were attributed to homicide among children less than 15 years of age in 2000, with rates of highest among infants and very young children (0-4 years)

          sexual abuse

            child maltreatment

Reported level of non-fatal abuse are much higher. In USA, approximately 906,000 children were found to have victims of maltreatment in 2003. A comparative study of child maltreatment in Chile, Egypt, India and Philippines showed that percentage of mothers admitting to hitting their child with an object (on a part of the body other than the buttocks) ranged from 4% in Chile to 36% in India.

Available data also suggests that about 20% percent of women and 5-10% of men suffered sexual abuse  as children. Globally , a history of child sexual abuse is estimated to cause 4-5% of alcohol misuse in man and 7-8% in women. Such victims are also at greater risk of  displaying violent tendencies themselves later in life. Thus child abuse can contribute to a cycle of violence from one generation to another.

             fatal child abuse

The magnitude of alcohol-related child maltreatment is also off great concern especially in rich countries. In USA, 35% of offenders of parental child abuse had consumed either alcohol or drugs at the time of incident. In Germany around 325 of offenders of fatal child abuse (1985-90) were under the influence of alcohol at the time of crime. The economic cost of child maltreatment in USA, Canada and Australia are US $94 billion per year, US $13.1 billion and US $520 million in 2000-01 respectively.

Child abuse in both developed and developing countries in now a serious problem. Because of absence of reporting of child abuse , current information is not available especially in developing countries. In rich countries also about more than two-third cases of child abuse are unsubstantiated . Accurate estimates of non fatal maltreatment are difficult to determine as they are related to cultural differences in parenting styles and definition of maltreatment; further confounding the estimates. More over many countries have no systems in place to record child maltreatment.

      healthy global society

If today’s child is abused, there is chance that he will become a criminal, psychopath , sex-addict , drug-addict and a terrorist in his adulthood. Therefore in the interest of securing future of humanity child rights needs are  to be fulfilled to develop a healthy global society. Child rights must be given higher priority to build a sustainable and peaceful world.

I prefer to use “child care” as more appropriate than “child rights”, as rights are determined  by concerned groups whose interests are not protected by members of the society, as a result they develop ability , capability, intelligence and tact for fulfillment of their rights.

The children need care-physical, emotional , spiritual and environmental which are to be provided by mother, father, family members, community , society and socio-economic agenda of a society/country etc. If all these spokes of a society are strongly welded for smooth rolling of wheel of life for strengthening the structures , systems and processes of human race,the children will (a) survive a well meaning life with health, nutrition, name and nationality and as a fraction of the universe. (b) be provided with right education,

 care, leisure and recreation (c) be protected from exploitation , abuse and neglect (d) be provided with  opportunity  to think, express understand and imprint positive impulses in their neural plate of their brain so that there responses when they grow up as adults will be positive , peaceful and inconformity with the accepted moral and spiritual conduct of a society.

              society

                child care

Unfortunately the resultants of such actions have not yet able to bring about remarkable improvement  in the status of “child care”. Global and international organizations like UNICEF etc have come up with many ideas to meet the challenge of problems face by the children. For example MDG (Millennium Development Goals)  has provided for all the boys and girls to complete a full course of primary schooling , elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education and reduction of child mortality.

able to bring expected and desirable changes . What is needed is to develop and manage a holistic package of “child care” in which all the determinants of the care elements will be incorporated and networked with minimum dependence on other sectors of development. There should be also separate independent implementation agencies to transfer such holistic policy framework to the grassroots level.

             War and Terrorism

          TOP 5 Green

      Columbia university

Study and analysis of the above information of biosphere peace linked to human peace was undertaken by Matthew E. Khan , Phd , an environmental economist at the university of California and UN 2006 Human Development Index – with collaboration between the World Economic Forum and researchers at Yale and Columbia university.

My humble submission to the world citizens is thatthe rankings derived above may vary in time and there is a chance of deterioration if the humanity do not build into there genes the constituent of peace – Peace of Biosphere and peace of humanity for all countries of the world without any discrimination. The discrimination if continues will seriously affect the rankings which are now on the top of the list.

        Peace of Biosphere

             matter of time

True green will be sustainable only with True peace, which is the real nature of the world/universe. Without peace, survival of humanity and biosphere is at stake in spite of all globalization, economic growth , modern consumerism and high technological advances . It is only a matter of time to be more worst  if we do not initiate timely action to save the humanity and the world.

The PPF urges upon the humanity to invent and innovate ideas to mould their environment, actions in such a way that “Peace is in built into there minds  so that they are able to reorient thoughts and actions for ensuring their own security, comfort, happiness converging with truth, order, and harmony – the basics of Peace. This will only develop collective peace at humanity and biosphere level which will support a peaceful and sustainable  human growth and evolution.

                    Peace

TECHNOLOGY IS THE KEY WORD IN THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM. YES ,TECHNOLOGY IS THE NEED BUT NOT MORE THAN LIFE -SUPPORT SYSTEMS.  CAN THE NEW MILLENNIUM AND NEW YEAR 2008 TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE OF GENERATING IDEAS FOR TECHNOLOGIES OF LIFE -SUPPORTING  SYSTEMS ?-THE PEACE AND GREEN TECHNOLOGY. THAT IS THE ULTIMATE  NEED , TRUTH AND REALITY , WHICH THE PEACE PATH FINDER IS IN THE PROCESS EXPLORATION AND INNOVATION