Marching with Trinity at largest MLK March of nation

         San Antonio is a pretty quiet city only until Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Come MLK day, San Antonio city attracts a lot of attention and marchers. In fact, San Antonio leads the largest MLK March in the US and Trinity University leads one of the largest student marchers group every year. Keeping in mind, waking up habits of college students on holidays, it adds to institutional integrity of Trinity.

Photo By: Jaskirat Singh Batra

      I also marched along with other students and this was my second time which means I have marched every single year I have been here. MLK march has a significance and people marched for various causes. Since it is not a parade, every student was told to think of why they were marching. I marched because,

• I wanted to be a part of the largest MLK March in the US.
• I want global inequality to end, MLK was the symbol for end of inequality
• I wanted to wake up early. March ended before noon and I wouldn't have waken up before noon had I decided not to go.

Photo by: Abhishek Chhetri

         Solidarity and integrity among marchers of San Antonio incited good feelings. Scale of an organized march in modern day shows that it is still valid as a powerful tool against hegemony and discrimination. It also acted as an excellent platform to disseminate information and advertise about one's business or candidacy in Mayor's election which was reflected in posters and flyers that were distributed periodically throughout the march.

Help Haiti

It feels great to see such unity among people of all nationalities to help Haiti. People from all over are texting, facebooking and tweeting each other to garner more donations for Haiti. And, with technological advances, making an impact in Haiti through little donations is just a few clicks away or you could simply text a number and a certain amount is donated automatically. US has already donated $ 100 million and Obama has pledged his support. Amazing.

Even at Trinity, solidarity among students is very impressive. Students have organized Haiti Relief Concert to be held at Coates Esplanade of Trinity University  on Jan 17 from 4 to 5:30 pm to raise money. Students are constantly updating their statuses with messages about how one could help Haiti. For instance, one of my friends Tim wrote this,

***** is cutting a check to Haiti. Considering the hundreds of thousands feared dead from yesterday's earthquake, I urge you to do the same if possible.

And take a look at this, 

 Text "HAITI" to "90999" and a $10 donation will be sent to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

Technology has made it easier to spread words but it could be equally misleading. For instance, a rumor has been widely spread both on Facebook and Twitter that UPS is shipping 50 lbs of material to Haiti for free. It is not true. In this time of crisis, UPS is facing difficulty delivering its own commercial shipments. Here is the rumor:

UPS is shipping anything under 50lbs for free to Haiti. You can send food clothes or shoes...and American Airlines is taking doctors and nurses to Haiti for free

Even one of the famous celebrities in Bollywood, Priyanka Chopra tweeted this until I told her it was a scam:

If you can, pls let every1 know that UPS is shipping parcels under 50lbs to #HAITI for free tdy! Pls donate! :)

Read about UPS Scam about 50 lbs here.

The United States of Fighting Terrorism

      When Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a US military psychologist opened fires on his fellow military personnel, it sent shock waves throughout America at a time when the White House was busy formulating Afghan policies. Many media networks hastily termed it as an act of Islamic extremism only to be aptly cautioned by President Obama.

    This unfortunate incident transmitted a signal to Americans that they still seem unwilling to accept. American magazines and television networks after ‘deep digging’ falsely associated this to his alleged ties with Islamic clerics. They went on further to claim that real reason behind this act can probably never be known. Really? Is it that hard to see something that is so obvious? Even without taking any psychology courses, I can rightly claim that every human being has his breaking point. For Hasan, this was his breaking point.

    If Hasan were an Islamic extremist- a ‘jihad’, he would have done things differently to cause more damage, like use explosives which is rather characteristic of ‘infiltrators’ to make a statement.  Experts and advisers to the White House have expressed clearly that the threat to a nation’s sovereignty is a stronger revolutionary force that calls for action than religious extremism. And, Hasan’s breakdown at a point when he was about to be stationed in Afghanistan testifies to the claim above. Hasan’s outburst has to be attributed to the transnational US military operations that undermine Afghan sovereignty rather than a misconstrued religious fanaticism association.

    One thing that surprises me is Americans’ reaction to 9/11 attacks and their behavior as if all of this ‘mess’, which the US calls ‘war on terror’, started with that unfortunate incident. US-backed CIA has led assassination attempts of country presidents like Fidel Castro, Sukarno and overthrown democratically elected governments in Iran and Indonesia only to reinstate US-favored regimes. US military, despite UN warnings has compromised other countries’ sovereignty by direct military attacks and other sanctions to fiddle in internal affairs, among which Gulf War, Vietnam War and Korean Wars are just a few to name. It has maintained a biased and one-sided support for Israelis backed by rich Jewish New Yorkers that discernibly angers the Arab world sparking anti-US sentiments.

    Perhaps, the US dreams of staging yet another glorious victory over 9/11 perpetrators just the way it did with Japan over Pearl Harbor attacks. But, Uncle Sam needs a word of caution here since he is not the only nation with nukes now.

   Borrowing ideas from Thomas Friedman, the US due to its misdirected policies in the past has projected itself as “The United States of Fighting Terrorism”. The US, in doing so has not only gained enemies but more importantly has lost its edge in innovation and control over global economy. Think of the glorious Cold War decade when the US maintained enormous political and economic control over the world without firing a single missile. Military offence begets hatred and more resistance. The US needs to reinvent itself as the “500 pound Economic gorilla” if it wants to maintain its stronghold because, it is economic prosperity that translates to greater leverage on global issues.

-Purushottam Shah

Note: The above article originally appeared in the Trinitonian, a  student run independent campus weekly newspaper of  Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.

Alleviating Poverty Through Microcredit

Microcredit is a concept first experimented with in Brazil by Accion International. Contrary to popular belief and expectations, it turned out that poor people with little or no financial security paid back all of their loans at a rate better than the conventional rate of most commercial banks.

It was then given a new dimension after a young professor at Chittagong University, Muhammad Yunus started Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his extra-ordinary success with microcredit in poverty alleviation in Bangladesh and many other countries. Grameen Bank today is a part of the great Grameen Foundation which serves various sectors in Bangladeshi society. Grameen has also partnered with other multinational companies(such as Danone, the French Yogurt Company) to serve poor people better.

Microcredit has turned to be a miracle compared to the inefficacy of hundreds of billions of aid and charities poured out to poor nations in the past centuries.

The following video featuring Muhammad Yunus will help you understand the concept of Microcredit better.

Why Poverty still exists

I love Mahatma Gandhi's statement, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."

And, this in a way hints at why poverty still exists in the world. Year after year, G8 and other rich industrial nations meet to discuss on this issue, make commitments to give away at least 0.1% of their GDP to developing nations. And yet, poverty seems never to abate. Some nations such as India, China and Brazil have made some progress and pulled out people from under the poverty line of $1 per day. Yet, more slip under the line in other nations, visibly more so in the nations of Africa. There are many nations which have had negative average growth rate in the last 50 years.

Millions are pledged and given away in aid by philantrophists too. Gates Foundation and another prominent philantrophist Bono of U2 have donated millions to these needy nations and people. So, where does the answer lie? Will the cows in Europe continue to be subsidized at 2 dollars daily while more than half of the world's population lives on less than 2 dollars daily? What do you call fairness?

Where does the solution lie? Is foreign aid ever going to help these nations come out free from this entangled web of poverty? I have my doubts. Instead, a new hope has been instilled in me after I came to know about the works of Muhamud Yunus of Bangladesh who started the idea of microfinancing through Grameen Bank. His organization, Grameen Bank today has several other sister organizations. And, it has made a significant difference in tens of thousands of Bangladeshi lives. He likes to call his style of business as 'social business'. This new term, 'Social Business' was alien to me before I came across his ideas, but not after that. I have started to believe the key to poverty eradication lies in social business. Foreign dependence in current form has not been able to alleviate poverty on a meaningul scale, let alone eradicate altogether.

I suggest you google the term 'Social Business' to know more about this term.

Wikipedia defines it as, "A social business is one which aims to be financially self-sufficient, if not profitable, in its pursuit of a social, ethical or environmental goal."

Juvenile militarization in America

Did you hear about the bill that is being prepared by some lawmakers and entertained by two republicans that’ll render carrying guns lawfully even inside campus vicinities at Texas State University? And another special provision of this bill is that it will allow guns to be carried by students or anyone without having to conceal it. US already has laws that allow one to carry licensed guns for one’s protection but they have to be concealed. If this law is passed, it would basically mean that people could flaunt the size and luster of their guns, could carry it in the open, hanging from their pockets, or wear around their necks like a necklace or maybe just carry it in their hand all the time. Every street would then become a classic Hollywood scene; people would not have to watch Bond movies anymore to see people carrying guns everywhere. Criminals too would not have to conceal their guns since no one would know who is carrying it lawfully or unlawfully. Who would want to mess around with a person carrying a loaded gun?

I wonder what will become of recreational parks. If you walk down to a park to get some fresh air, you might be greeted with an unattended gun, left out there by mistake or someone might have forgotten it like people forget their belongings like bags, or could have fallen from their pockets like sometimes our pens or wallets do. What will be the repercussions?

The lawmakers argue this law will make the universities safe. Texas state senator Jeff Wenworth said, “I don’t want to wake up one morning and hear on the news that some madman went on a campus and picked off Texas students like sitting ducks.” Furthermore, McCarthy, a member of the national pro-gun group argued, “We think that everyone who can legally own a gun should be able to carry openly. Criminals want an easy target. When they see you can fight back they’re going to go somewhere else.” Applauds. America is setting an example of curbing violence through a new method by starting it right from home. Giving everyone a gun to fight against a possible criminal or thwart any criminal activities is their argument. They believe this will shoo away the criminals and madmen just like a scarecrow scares the shit out of crows. But where would these criminals go then? Possibly to other parts of Texas, or maybe other universities in Texas. What then? Other universities too would have to adopt these rules if they are to protect their students against criminals directed towards them from other places. Soon, the suit will follow and all of American colleges would adopt this law. Am I going too far? Well, 11 universities in the US already allow concealed guns on their campus premises. Is this shocking?

Let’s say whole of American universities will pass this law out of need or desperation and rational judgment. Then would the criminals and madmen emigrate to other countries? Sounds too unreasonable, doesn’t it? After all, what would a madman even care? A madman would still go on a shooting spree, no matter his opponents are carrying guns or not. He would not have any rational judgment; he would not shoot innocent people in the first place if he had any. What would the criminals do? They would do what they have always done-come up with ingenious ideas to target innocent people who are not carrying guns or maybe old people. Additionally, they might start using semi-automatics and advanced weapons. This will give rise to a new age cold war between civilians and criminals and even within civilians or criminals.

But America seems to be on the right track. Are they thinking that the world will follow this after them as the 21^st century fashion? Is America thinking that Israel will distribute free guns to Palestinian civilians for self-protection against Hamas’ insurgents? It’s like waging another war to stop an existing war. This law will backfire severely. At a time when the US federal state is having a tough time curbing violence, equipping everyone with a gun will only make it harder to distinguish between a civilian and a perpetrator. But this will definitely add to the militarization of America. American youths would be more willing to join US Army and America would be better prepared for the third world war if it were ever to break out in the imminent future. Here goes the Black Eyed Peas song, “Where is the love?...Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria. Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema, Yo’ whatever happened to the values of humanity…instead of spreading love we are spreading animosity”.