An Icon Who Gave the First Decisive Victory Over Foreign Forces Dead At Age 94

Imagine when was the last time Bharatiya forces decisively defeated an aggressive foreign force - not a neutral stalemate and surely not a bumbling defeat that was salvaged, partly, only by retreating enemy forces. One has to go a long way. If one thinks about it carefully about the ultimate outcome, may be never. Therein lies the significance of what Sam "Bahadur" Manekshaw did in his brief stint of being in charge of Indian Army. So if the current defense minister and the current chiefs of the three services - who? - did not want to honour this hero in death, it shows how tiny these men are. But, protocol or not, most people know who the hero, that genuine real life hero, is. The snub does not diminish the Field Marshall who died on June 27, 2008, at a ripe age of 94.

A Childish Nation's Not So Grand Send-off to a Hero - Rediff

Is there another military man's name that most people recognize - other then the other Field Marshall, K.M.Cariappa? Because Field Marshall Cariappa was not bemused by Nehru's pseudo-secularism, a whisper campaign was waged to try and tarnish his image. Field Marshall Manekshaw came close to the same, but official, fate when he had something to say about the incompetency of the civilian and military men in charge during the 1962 debacle. Luckily sane minds prevailed after the incompetency was purged.

While most people know of Sam Manekshaw's brilliant execution of the 1971 war for Bangladesh another episode shows the personality of Manekshaw. I watched a documentary on Indira Gandhi some years ago and in it the Bahadur himself narrates an incident sometime after he became the chief of Army in 1967. In one of those early paranoid periods of Indira, when rumours of Army exercises and secret plans for taking over the country to impose a military dictatorship were floating around, because of the on-going political uncertainty due to the tussle between the two splintered Congress parties, she called Manekshaw into her office and asked him, if the rumours were true. Surely Manekshaw heard the rumours too replied, "What do you think?" Unlike most generals in countries in the neighbourhood during that period, Sam Manekshaw didn't even contemplate that he was the salvation to the country's problems. That put Indira's mind to rest and probably contributed to her listening to his advise, few years later, as to why he shouldn't attack East Pakistan in August, although refuges were pouring in, when monsoon was at its peak in the Bengal region and the northeast mountain passes from China were eminently passable.

Two Great Men Chatting in late 2005 - Rediff

Beyond the famous war of 1971 - he retired soon after in 1973 when he became the second of the two Field Marshalls the country has had, Sam Manekshaw was involved in the first war that the newly independent country fought against the newly formed enemy nation. In the story he narrates to Prem Shankar Jha, he, as a part of Directorate of Military Operations, accompanied V.P. Menon, a babu extraordinary, to the Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, during the early uncertain days of Pakistan-backed Islamic tribal attack on the kingdom, to make Maharaja Hari Singh sign the kingdom's accession into the republic. After returning from Srinagar, Sam Bahadur goes to the high-level meeting headed by Mountbatten to consider the next steps.

At the morning meeting he (V.P. Menon) handed over the (Accession) thing. Mountbatten turned around and said, ' come on Manekji (He called me Manekji instead of Manekshaw), what is the military situation?' I gave him the military situation, and told him that unless we flew in troops immediately, we would have lost Srinagar, because going by road would take days, and once the tribesmen got to the airport and Srinagar, we couldn't fly troops in. Everything was ready at the airport.

As usual Nehru talked about the United Nations, Russia, Africa, God almighty, everybody, until Sardar Patel lost his temper. He said, 'Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away'. He (Nehru) said,' Of course, I want Kashmir (emphasis in original). Then he (Patel) said 'Please give your orders'. And before he could say anything Sardar Patel turned to me and said, 'You have got your orders'.

I walked out, and we started flying in troops at about 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock. [bold added]

There are two kinds of great men - those who are genuinely loved by everyone and those who are not. Sam Bahadur was the former. There are numerous stories of his genuine concern for people around him - from an elderly peon to a newly minted officer. And he was a great story teller.

Manekshaw was at his evocative best when he recalled his acquaintance with President Yahya Khan (Yahya Khan was the president of Pakistan in 1971) when the latter had worked under him in the military operations directorate of the British Indian Army just before partition.

Yahya Khan, then a colonel, was impressed by Manekshaw's James motorcycle which he had bought for Rs 1400. ''I told him that he could have the vehicle for as much. He said he would give only Rs 1000. I said okay,'' Manekshaw recalled.

''But I don't have a thousand rupees now, I will send it to you later,'' Yahya Khan said. It was August 13, 1947. Twenty-one years later Yahya Khan became the president of Pakistan. ''I never received the Rs 1000, but he gave me the whole of East Pakistan,'' Manekshaw said amid thunderous applause.

Here is an extract from Lieutenant General Depinder Singh's memoir of this extraordinary man - Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Soldering with Dignity.

Those Hindu Terrorists

Apparently a motley crew does exist! Indian Express briefly profiles various groups, including the group that set off crude bombs in Mumbai last week, that want to take up arms and fight. Apparently they are fighting for Hindu cause because, according to them, Hindus are under grave threat. Not sure how they are going to fight the threat by blowing up innocent people. Talk about copy cats. Needless to say, the idiots needs to be put away.

One of the groups is called SS - Sanatana Sanstha!! This is exactly what the self-appointed secular bridges are looking for. One can image their excitement to club these motley crew with the Bharatiya right even as they offer apologies to the real terrorists that are killing hundreds every year - the Islamic and Maoists groups.

The five men were members of the Sanatan Sanstha (SS) and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), hitherto little-known groups operating in the hinterland of Maharashtra and Goa. Two of them are also members of another newly launched outfit called the Dharmashakti Sena, pictures of whose inaugural rally in April show young men dressed in military fatigues.

These groups, which work like wheels within wheels, have been quietly mobilising Hindus on a cocktail of Ramrajya, Hindu dharma and “dharmakranti” — religious revolution — in and around Mumbai for a few years now....

While the motley crew will be used as an excuse to further not do much about tackling Islamic terror in the country, one should challenge the secular bridge to tackle "all" terror groups by passing workable anti-terror laws and to investigate and arrest all the terrorists.

Closed Door In-Fighting

In case someone missed it, Praveen Swami provides an excellent background, as always, on the current in-fighting going on in the Land of the Pure's Army - between Gen. Musharraf and his former loyalists using the trouncing of his Kargil adventure as the focal point.

Kargil is merely an instrument for discrediting President Musharraf’s anti-Islamist campaign. Many of the ‘Kargil Ghazis’ occupy important positions in Pakistan’s war against the Taliban and the al-Qaeda. Peshawar-based XI Corps commander Masud Aslam, for example, commanded 80 Brigade which was decimated in Kargil. He won a Sitara-e-Jurrat, or Star of Courage, for allowing the men he sent to be sent to their slaughter in an ill-conceived operation — a taint that hangs over his conduct of operations in the NWFP. Incidents like the destruction of the Spinkai town by the Pakistan Army’s 14th Division, which is reported to have displaced thousands, are represented by the army’s in-house hardliners as examples of just how little President Musharraf’s loyalists care for their own people.

Not Just a Mouth Piece But a Propaganda Machine in the Kingdom Itself

Sri B. Raman writes of The Hindu's editor N. Ram's attacks on Sri Dalai Lama that are being used as propaganda and required reading by, hold you breath, the Communist Chinese political honchos themselves!! Apparently N. Ram's thesis bashing his holiness Lama was translated into Tibetan and Uighur languages and made required reading for the people of those regions. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise how close N. Ram is to his beloved country and their leaders.

Shri N.Ram, the well-known Editor-in-Chief of "The Hindu" of Chennai, has been the toast of China for an article purported to have beenwritten by him refuting the allegations levelled by the Dalai Lama and his supporters regarding the events of March in Lhasa . The Chineseauthorities have been gratified by what they see as his vigorous articulation of the version of the events as put out by them.

2. A report on Shri Ram's article disseminated by the State-owned Hsinhua news agency of China is annexed. It is learnt that this has beentranslated into the Tibetan and Uighur languages and copies distributed in all the monasteries and educational institutions in theTibetan-inhabited areas of China. It has also been made required reading in the patriotic re-education classess for Tibetans being organisedby the Chinese authorities.

Here is that N. Ram's article that the Chinese Communists translated.

Who Surprised Whom!

We must, by far and away, be the worst country on the planet when it comes to national security and protecting border. Chinese walk all over the existing border including building roads and other infrastructure. And apparently:

During the recent visit of India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Beijing, the Chinese reportedly stunned him by raising the issue of Finger Area.

Here is the aggressor taking the issue to heart of the matter. It should us who bring the issues and take Chinese to task - as the foreign minister said he would before taking that plane to Beijing. Apparently he did not. May be he was saying hindi chini bhai bhai. After all he crushed the Tibetian protests in our country to please his Chinese friends and, of course, to please leftist Congress I's communist traitors in bed.

Here is what we are avoiding that the former commerce minister, Subramanian Swamy, says we should be talking about:

In particular, a crucial choice will have to be made. Choice I: India could form a compact with China. Choice II: It could become part of the U.S. efforts to keep China ‘contained’. How and why the choice is to be made must be subject to an in-depth analysis and national debate. Either India befriends China in a fundamental and strategic sense, or India confronts China. There is no third way.

Desis Are Taking Over!

This is Wall Street Journal's headline today.

Mahanatyamani Kalamandalam Gopi

I am always mesmerized by Kathakali when I watch it on TV. I have never watched it live and wish I would someday. Ajayan of Mint profiles Kalamandalam Gopi, a person who expanded Kathakali's fame.

Training at Kalamandalam was rigorous—from 4 am till 10 pm, under maestros such as Ramankutty Nair, Padmanabhan Nair and Krishnakutty Warrier. It lasted for seven long years. “It is the dedication of those teachers that has helped me grow to these heights,” says Gopi.

Kathakali has its roots in Krishnaattom (dance) which was developed and popularized by the Zamorin, who ruled Kozhikode in the 17th century. It is based on the famous 12th-century Sanskrit poem Geeta Govinda which celebrates the love of Lord Krishna for Radha. The ruler of Kottarakkara, a fiefdom in south Kerala, gave form to another play, Ramanattom, based on the life of Lord Rama. These masked plays were a precursor to Kathakali. In the 18th century, the ruler of Kottayam in central Kerala gave Kathakali its current name, along with its present form, making innovations in the costumes, stylization and presentation, and basing it on dramatic episodes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Traditionally, stories based on the epics were composed to be performed over a whole night, but with time they have become more concise, focusing only the dramatic and popular parts that last from two to four hours....

Gopi still remembers his performance as Bhima in Paris in the 1980s. Enacting an episode of the Mahabharata, he was to kill Duryodhana. “I was very young then. Bhima was to pull out the intestines of Duryodhana and, to an extent, I overdid it. A pregnant woman in the front row was shocked at the performance and fainted,” he recalls.

Three factors are crucial in the making of any good Kathakali actor—a body and face ideal for the Kathakali costume and make-up, acting and expressive abilities and rigorous training. “What one finds in Gopi is a rare and happy blend of all these,” says M.V. Narayanan. “He is actually the only actor today who can present with equal ease such highly technical and systematized roles like that of Arjun or Bhim or Yudhisthira, as well as the more ‘emotive’ and ‘freewheeling’ roles such as Nala and Karna.”

And There Was Not Even a Followup

Here is an interview between IE political staff with a senior member of the leftist Congress I party, Prithiviraj Chavan, Minister of State but part of PMO. Here is Chavan's answer to a question followed by another question:

(PC:) I think we are becoming too minister-centric in states and even at the centre. Nobody will trade a ministerial position for a party position. The power that a minister enjoys of dispensing favours, of amassing wealth and patronage is so huge that people take up party responsibility only to see that they will get ministerial berth later on. That is something we have to introspect: how to re-organise the party.

•SHAWAN SEN: What is your opinion of the Gurjjar stir and their demand for ST status?

Is't amazing based on what the answer was, that there was no follow up question on that issue? Is Congress I so corrupt that follow up question is not necessary? I wonder what the IE political staff would do if BJP gave a similar answer to a question.

If there was any doubt that socialism, with it's vast power of government to control all economic activity of the country, is evil that statement should put to rest any doubt.

Vindictive Foreign-born in Charge

It's hard to say if she was not foreign-born, she would love the country. After all there are plenty of locals who hate the country. But being foreign-born makes love for the country harder, interest in the country's development minimal, and pursing vindictive politics easier.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was in the PMO when Sri Vajpayee was the prime minister, writes about his experience of Sonia Gandhi's vindictiveness.

Once something remarkable happened at an NDC meeting in 2002. Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and one of the most active participants in all such forums, suggested that in addition to having formal meetings with fixed agendas, there was a need for a free-wheeling brainstorming get-together outside the Capital to discuss major developmental issues before the nation. Most chief ministers, including those belonging to Congress-ruled states, endorsed this novel idea. S M Krishna, who was then the chief minister of Karnataka, even offered to host the conclave in his state....

Given the informal nature of the proposed conclave, the venue chosen for it was the sprawling and serene Infosys campus in Bangalore. Accordingly, Dr Ghosh and I went there to interact with senior Infosys executives. A separate preparatory meeting was also held with Krishna’s officers in Vidhan Soudha. However, within a few days, the idea of PM’s retreat with CMs came crashing down. Krishna informed Vajpayee that the Congress president disfavoured her party’s CMs attending it. Later, I asked Krishna — he is one of the gentlest politicians that I have known — “What happened?” “You know, Madam....” His incomplete reply said it all.

One Reason Why Bharat Continues to be a Democracy

The official media tried to suppress the new of the Congress debacle and, especially the defeat of the Prime Minister and her son as long as they could. This gave rise to many wild rumours and speculations. I later came across an account of what happened on that fateful day in the memoirs of K.P.Krishnanunny, a PTI correspondent*. Once the results of the counting in most constituencies showed that the Janata Party was heading towards a great victory, Krishnanunny typed out the story whose lead line was: 'The 30-year Congress rule in India has ended and a non-Congress Ministry will assume office soon....' To his surprise, his Editor asked him to hold on to the story, and according to Krishnanunny, told him that Indira Gandhi was meeting the three chiefs of staff 'apparently to know their mind whether they would extent support to her if she continued in power despite adverse election results.' Only after ascertaining that the 'service chiefs had turned down Mrs Gandhi's attempt to remain in power' did the Editor release the story.

Emergency was officially lifted on 23 March 1976. With that ended the darkest period in the history of the Indian Republic.

Excerpt from My Country My Life, L.K. Advani, Page 266, Rupa & Co.

* - K.P. Krishnanunny, Reporting Memoirs, Kozhikode: Olive Publications [Apparently Krishnanunny's memoir retells the story of Emergency as it unfolded at the level of prime minister, that no one else was able capture.]

It's Official - Maoists and Islamists Are Now Partners in Terror

Call them the Mao-Islamists - Only Group Left to Join in is Our English News Media

One had a nagging feeling when the so called human rights activists, sympathizers of Maoists terrorists, try to divert attention when an Islamic group kills tens or hundreds of people during their bombing fests, as happened as recently as Jaipur bombings. Or when the left wingers join forces to defend a terrorist conspirator, Mahmood Afzal, for attacking, of all places, the Parliament when it was in full session.

Apparently all that was ground work for what was to come next - an official partnership between the two terrorist group and their various support groups.

Calling themselves “the victims of state terror”, the two improbable partners had sat together for the first time and called for resistance against all kinds of terror unleashed by the State and Central governments against Maoists and Muslims. The meeting was held in Kerala last month.

The main forces behind the move are — ‘Porattom’, a Maoist group having base in South India, Minority Watch, a human rights organisation suspected of having close links with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and National Democratic Front (NDF), a radical Muslim group accused of having similar links with the banned Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS)...

The meeting was also attended by some civil society movements including Confederation of Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) and People’s Union Civil Liberty (PUCL) working against encounter killings and anti-terror laws.

Normally, non-secular Islamics fundamentalists would crush any left wing activities in the areas under their control, say, in the Gulf region. And the Godless Maoists would push any religious activities underground, like the Stalin's Soviet or Mao's China. But ideology of terror can make strange bedfellows.

One can only imagine the English media joining in transforming their role from being just apologists to both the Maoists and Islamic terror groups. Unsurprisingly, as suspected even by casual observers, many of the so-called "human rights groups", groups doing the bitting for Maoists and Islamic terror groups, also joined in the partnership.

Also imagine if the major foreign powers joins in from the east and north to support the entire Mao-Islamists terror infrastructure to undermine the country when they deem appropriate. It would be the continuation of thousand year assault on Bharat - the Islamic onslaught since the 8th century followed Christian European onslaught since the 16th century. I think our nationalists celebrated too soon, in 1947, when India finally got independence, that the assaults will finally cease.

One has to wonder if the Bharatiya state is capable of standing up to this partnership and fight back. Surely more than half the political spectrum, the secular apologists all, which are already steeped in appeasement of Islamic forces - those quotes and reservations and, of course, first claim to national resources - and in apologizing to Maoists terror - "they are our family", cannot or will not put up a fight. The task is daunting indeed for the right thinking people in power. I shudder to think what if Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sri Advani and their cohorts decided not to form BJP and call it quits after the dismantling of Janata Party post-1980 elections losses. Who would right minded people turn in a democracy if not the political parties?

Terrorists Know Who is Tough on Them

With BJP taking over Karnataka, the underground terrorist organization, Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) wants to move.

Based on this report, Intelligence Bureau officials told rediff.com that leaders of the banned SIMI are having second thoughts about making Karnataka their base.

In his narco test, Asif said SIMI leaders had decided to shift their base if the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.

Asif added that SIMI leaders had taken the decision after analysing the trends and patterns from other states where the BJP was in power.

IB sources say SIMI has already started making inroads into other states because of the crackdown on them and the new state government promising tougher anti-terror laws.

The SIMI had built up a strong base in Karnataka as evidenced by the attack on the Indian Institute of Science -- and its cadres played a crucial role in providing logistical support in carrying out various blasts across the country.

According to the IB, SIMI shifted base to Karnataka after the police forces in their two strong bases, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, initiated a ruthless crackdown. Shifting to another state from Karnataka will be a relatively easier task, as the outfit's bases are relatively new, the sources said.

Bush Did Us Good

In a silly nostalgic article in New York Times (which I happened upon via another source), former US Secretary of State, who wanted to put India back in a bottle and used phrases like "stop digging if you are in a hole" while referring to India's 1998 Phokharan II nuclear tests, Madaleine Albright, rues the end of self-proclaimed white man's burden.

During the 1990s, certain precedents were created. The administration of George H. W. Bush intervened to prevent famine in Somalia and to aid Kurds in northern Iraq; the Clinton administration returned an elected leader to power in Haiti; NATO ended the war in Bosnia and stopped Slobodan Milosevic’s campaign of terror in Kosovo; the British halted a civil war in Sierra Leone; and the United Nations authorized life-saving missions in East Timor and elsewhere...

The Bush administration’s decision to fight in Afghanistan after 9/11 did nothing to weaken this view because it was clearly motivated by self-defense. The invasion of Iraq, with the administration’s grandiose rhetoric about pre-emption, was another matter, however. It generated a negative reaction that has weakened support for cross-border interventions even for worthy purposes. Governments, especially in the developing world, are now determined to preserve the principle of sovereignty, even when the human costs of doing so are high.

I think we owe the current US president George Bush a, may be two, thank yous: one, for putting to rest the notion that west, mainly US with the powerless Europeans egging on, can enter any country it wants for any reason it wants - hope it stays that way for the foreseeable future; and, two, for pursing a very close relationship with India.

We already know that at least one of possible future US president, Barack Obama, a classic left winger, would bring back moral equivalence between terror victim Bharat and terror sponsoring Land of Pure, and, who knows, side with Chinese when the time comes, keeping in tune with the historic sore to ambivalent US relations with India. The days of bonhomie between US and Bharat may be coming to an end.

Humour: Solidarity, But Can't Touch It!

(Caption says)Working for a greener cover: Vidya Balan (whoever she is) showed her solidarity to the environment and participated in the tree plantation drive (from DNA)

No such qualms here:

And the GOI Has a Kalpavriksham!

The price raise, based on global market prices, should have been "Rs 21.43 a litre on petrol, Rs 31.58 on diesel, Rs 35.98 on kerosene and Rs 352.99 on an LPG cylinder."

Instead, actual price raise, controlled by the wise Government of India was "Rs 5 per litre on petrol, Rs 3 on diesel and Rs 50 per cylinder of cooking gas LPG while keeping kerosene, the poor man’s lighting and cooking fuel, untouched."

How does the government plug the difference? By taking on more debt via oil bonds. Why? In order to control inflation which is already mangled by all sort economic distortions from agricultural products to steel.

Sure, short term inflation may be held down. But at what cost? First, oil bonds are the debt of the people, not some faceless government. The current users spurge oil at lower cost, but their children will be paying for it for decades to come.

Second, because the oil bonds are huge - subsidies are huge - they are going to crowd out productive investment in the economy impacting cost of borrowing for everything from infrastructure to agriculture investments. Here is what the oil bonds are going to take in:

"With the OMCs having to absorb Rs 20,000 crore of the loss as against Rs 16,125 crore last year, the leftover loss of Rs 135,000 crore would be handled by the government with the Finance Ministry issuing oil bonds every quarter based on actual numbers. However, to provide immediate liquidity to OMCs, the government would allow them to daily place Rs 1,000 crore of previous oil bonds with the central Reserve Bank of India in lieu of foreign exchange to import crude oil."

Third: because the actual price raise is a small fraction of what the price raise should be, energy consuming people will not make dramatic adjustments in their consumption habits. A Rs. 20 increase in petrol cost would surely make more people to drive cars less by curbing unnecessary driving or switching to two-wheelers and force vehicle owners to maintain their vehicles better to increase the mileage of the vehicles. A Rs. 300 increase in LPG cylinder would dramatically change peoples cooking habits ensuring minimum wastage of LPG. The prime motivation for changing peoples behaviour is taken away by not increasing prices of oil products to market levels.

Fourth: people, media, and opposition political parties would have forced the government to find more oil/gas within the country itself. Instead of underinvestment and slow progress of prospecting for oil and gas fields, there will be a big push for increased investment and, hopefully, increased privatization for finding and drilling activities.

And lastly: high oil/gas prices will create an immediate market for alternative energy sources - more people will use solar or alternative means to get energy. That in turn will boost investment in alternative energy, presumably low cost technology that we excel at, by private players who want to serve the alternative energy market.

The last three are critically important for future energy needs and future growth of the economy. The first two will surely hurt the economic growth in the long run.

None of these are achieved by subsidizing oil products and taking on more debt by the current government which will have to be paid for by future generations. In 2002-03, when price of energy was at a low point, there was considerable discussion in NDA government on allowing markets to determine price of energy that people consume in the country. Baby steps were taken. UPA, which came to power in 2004, folded the baby steps and went back to the old socialist ways of command and control of energy markets and distortion of prices.

Meanwhile Communists, partners in current government's bed, say they will hold dharnas. And BJP's Sri Advani takes a swipe at UPA that it's one more instance of UPA's bogus aam aadmi policies. And why not the swipes.

The only positive that seems to come out of this sorry oil story is that the government is cutting all kinds of taxes that are a norm on petroleum products in the country.

"The government took a hit on its revenue by cutting customs duty on all products by 5 per cent, abolishing that on crude oil and lowering rates on petrol and diesel to 2.5 per cent. It also cut the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Re a litre to Rs 13.45 and Rs 3.60 per litre respectively. While the increase in retail prices would bring in Rs 21,153 crore for the OMCs, the duty cuts would reduce their tax outgo by Rs 22,660 crore."

Let's hope those duty cuts will stay even after oil price come down to earth as it seem to finally indicate (down to $122 from $135 a future barrel of crude just a few weeks ago), although it's still very high.

Was the Company Responsible?

The headline of story related to an arrest in the Jaipur bombings case says "Police probe Infosys Jaipur employee for ‘SIMI links’." Why exactly was Infosys name used in the headline?



Does this mean Infosys is implicated in the case? Infosys has tens of thousands of employees. Is it supposed to be responsible for all those employees off-campus activities? A passing mention of the name of company in which the arrested person worked for in the article would have sufficed. The headline adds no value other than dragging Infosys name into terror-related cases.

Wonder Why They Didn't Think Of It Before

UN meet again - rather UN's Food and Agricultural Organization - in Italy. This was an emergency meeting to tackle the raising global food prices. And they promised to deliver - not just beat back the current food emergency but to solve an age old human problem just by talking about it!

The babus from the currently bountiful countries like Zimbabwe and 43 others got together and declared "We commit to eliminating hunger and to securing food for all, today and tomorrow!"

One wonder why they didn't think of it before. If they did, I'm sure they could have tackled it long time ago, just like they will now!