At the Stroke of Midnight Hour- Phenomena

Follow most comments that immediately followed the ‘demonetisation’- news, across media, political divides: ..."at the first instance it sounds good....but...you know...", “ well counterfeit will be gone… but…”, “certainly the best move… of the times”…”revolution by government” etc. These first hand positives or hyperactive kudos, are the 'capital' that such moves garner. But this does not mean one should go sleep with pride in the magic.

What is the difference between declaring the aforesaid notes non-legal tenders, ‘at the stroke of midnight hour (not when the whole world sleeps!)’ from, saying one will have time only till end of December 2016 to get rid of/ exchange the notes. The difference I guess is in the rhetoric and surprise with a tinge of human interest that the first one has. It also comes at a time when previous surprises like bringing the wealth back from Swiss bank did not quite do the trick. Rational voices obviously asked about the domestic black money loop holes that were of a much bigger scale!

The behemoth corporate write offs, farmer suicide maintenance, exposure of the government for its treatment of/position on certain sections of people like Dalits, state repression of campuses that should be critical learning centres (and not official right wing radio stations) and the overt communal gestures; all were threatening the political continuity of the ruling order. So the timing too could not be better. By the way aren’t we soon having some state elections?

On the long run people also need to assume that all the unaccounted money held by the biggest foul players are stacked under their pillows as 500 and 100 rupee notes in year 2016. Even if some actually did, December 30 gives fair time for their already well oiled brains to work something out. Doesn’t it? So there is no surprise sell for these brainy foul players who even otherwise were blessed by aforementioned corporate write offs. The write offs, by the way, were also magical figures. The one lakh crore plus hardly has any surprise value. Probably it got accounted into the nationalism tongue.

When one thinks, there are also possibilities of many new accounts that will be opened for transactions and more will come under tax nets (also could rope in a few more in the extraordinarily imposed Aaadhaar system– which was pushed in as a Money bill!). This certainly puts some money into coffers, but also helps to make a large percentage of black money (otherwise reduced to worthless paper) accountable and white. There is an interesting article, “Here's A Simple Idea To Fix India's Black Money Problem Once And For All” in July 18, The Huffington Post. There are disturbing possibilities of ‘gives and takes’.

There is obviously a lot more…I am sure people will think beyond the rhetoric and loudness (which signify the times, but are no guarantee for better life).

TILING IN LIFE

The following are records of space ^* in Ernakulam town region that has transformed too much over the last few decades. This transformation is also an embodiment of the relations that we weave with spaces around. The life we live and the systems we give sanction to produce such spaces.

*One could always find better snaps for the older shots

The first one is a screen shot from the movie Anubhavangal Paalichakal that came out in 1971. The space shown here is the marine drive zone of Ernakulam; the lake can be seen as right next to a much narrower road.

The second is also a screen shot, this time from the movie Rajavinte Makan that came out in 1986. By now the roads have become wider and hectares of lake have been filled up. We see the slanted high rise, which was amongst the first in the big rows that soon followed (which once rivaled the only tall structures of Sea Lord hotel or LIC on the other side).

The Third is a view from the lake towards the present closely positioned row of buildings that came up on the filled up lake. They totally block the view of the lake as well as the winds from the lake towards the land. After all, by now, the wind and the view cannot be a casual privilege for ordinary travelers. They either have to be entitled in some way to one of the high rises (the ‘lake view’ or ‘sea view’ crowd) or else they have to find the’ leisure’ time to stroll on the compromise space spared as ‘promenade’ that is sandwiched between the buildings and the lake.

 

 

 

 The Fourth set of pictures (the latter two, taken by Vinay Padre a couple of days back) is representative of the fate of whatever spaces remain ‘open’/ public. Tiling is an institutional cult in the state. It is a war on earth and life. It respects no recycling of water or the life on earth (with its millions of forms). The authorities are covering up huge swaths of land.

(Another space in the Rajendra Maidan that faces the lake has now become a permanent laser show structure and half of the grassy park is now tiled in). There is an old photo and a later one that can be googled, there is the screen shot from the movie In Harihar Nagar (1990) and a current photo with the laser structure/ tiling.

 

These are gestures that go under the tag of cleaning. Cleanings as could be gathered from instances are about acts of distancing the human and non human. So leaves and earth and trees are problems or threats, but the production of plastic, pollution, consumption, and vehicles are fine.

There is absolutely nothing on offer in terms of health of life forms. The ground temperatures will swell due to the excess of concrete, and the blockade of water from seeping into grounds will alter the equilibrium with saline water, in lake side regions. So apart from the fact that civil works offer a good option for institutionalized corruption, there is no rationale in the ways spaces get appropriated and sealed away from life.  Nothing justifies such anti-social gestures, especially in contemporary times, when people have gotten more than exposed to urban disasters, flooding, and heat effects…

Global ‘Education!’ Meet…Kerala…

Different kinds of cities are on the rise. In the larger environment of ‘smart city’ promotions, with more than seven thousand crore pumped in by the central government, the south western state of Kerala is pitching in more. After the much advertised Kochi ‘smart city’, which in effect was an instance of pumping in capital, especially through state-land into corporate market, here comes a more problematic deal. Through the state Higher Education Council of Kerala (HEC), a Global Education Meet is on.

Once again, with the fetish of Dubai models, like the Academic City, the government seeks to throw open another (ever more!) treasure trove for private capital; education. With the self financing systems, management college dictated regimes, bribe – based ( this has fast become the norm in most place and is often known as ‘donations’ but bereft of the idea of gift or agency conveyed by the root idea ‘donare’) college intakes and ‘autonomies’; the ground was already set for such a fiasco. The officialdom uses ideas like that of hub, skill based partnerships, relevant to industry models (and concomitant rejection of the irrelevant to industries people / ideas- isn’t this the function of such ‘responsible’ governments??), and yes ideas of Special Export Processing Zones and all kinds or ‘real estate’ tongue (the higher education policy document could well be mistaken for a desktop pamphlet for DLF or Confident group of builders) to push in this totally OFF-EDUCATION agenda. There is more to this entire game, like single window clearances, PPP models…

And on top of this they project all of this as if it is about education as it happens in serious universities across the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. If things go on track, we can soon start hearing about legislations, land grabs, and gated community advertisements; all to finishing schools for private industries.

One must add that ‘models’ are a highly problematic concept unless clarified. Models are not supposed to take into consideration the formidable differences in the way things run from place to place. So there are crucial questions that arise from the Dubai model itself; like the problems with their educational zones, the different priorities in infrastructure, a highly different educational history.

If one does not keep close watch and act on such exercises like the Global Education Meet, which seeks to release the field of education for more profit mongering, with such totally un-educational ideas like repatriation of profit for the investor (by the way investments, knowledge transfers- KTs, and soft skills will now masquerade as academics) and tax exemptions for land and buildings; more disasters will follow right after autonomy-gala.

The word autonomy conveyed the idea of academic autonomy with state support as in world’s best universities or the best within the sub continent like the JNU/ or IITs (as they used to be!). Now there are only a few who manages to be innocent enough not to realize the fact that this is all about…administrative autonomy…administrative autonomy….administrative autonomy…and nothing else, and in its worst forms. Likewise the word ‘education’ in the Global Education Meet needs to come off the possible illusions.