Trading Aid for Professionals: Is it Right?
In nineteen fifties after a few years of independence of India there was a rush of Western countries setting up first rate educational institutions for the best and brightest young mostly men in the country. There were new medical institutes and Engineering colleges and some Universities with established reputations were helped to further upgrade them. The result was the output of well-trained brilliant graduates ready for challenging jobs. Unfortunately, the country had no facilities to provide these. Consequently, a large number of these graduates emigrated to the Universities and the countries of their ex-professors. Western countries scored a huge return for their investment in education by receiving the cream of the crop for their own benefit. Although I have no claim to being the ‘crème de la crème’, I was one of these who left India after attending one of these institutions, never to return. I remember this loss of talent being lamented as the brain drain in India, although very little was done to reduce it. There was a sort of payoff. During the series of economic crises in India in the sixties the money sent by these emigrants reduced the balance of payment deficit. As the economy developed the brain drain reduced and is relatively down to a trickle now although in numbers it is still quite large, tens of thousands every year. On the benefit side, the emigrants have encouraged foreign investment which has helped bring about a mini-revolution. But no one can argue that this even remotely makes up for the huge loss of talent.

The New Yorker of last week had two articles by authors with Indian names. Universities in the West and the industrial and government research facilities are staffed with people of Indian (and other Asian) origin. Some of our best writers and journalists are second generation immigrants lost to the mother country. India is not mentioned in the biography of an award winning writer with Indian ancestry who has written eloquently about her parents’ culture. My own daughters are making an above average contribution to communities they live in and regard themselves, rightly, fully Canadian. Talking about this phenomenon with my wife it occurred to me that the Third World countries that gladly received the Western aid, didn’t just suffer the loss of better brains, they lost a part of desirable gene pool – the people with tradition of high achievement from generation to generation. Thus, their loss and Western gain was not short term, as the term brain drain implies, but long term. It is here to stay. The investment in Indian education fifty years ago continues to pay high dividends to the West and will do so for generations to come.

The negative impact of well-intentioned aid on recipients goes further than human resources. Commodity production has been encouraged resulting in collapse of product prices and common misery, equipment has been given which couldn’t be used. If the long term welfare of recipient countries is the goal of Western foreign aid we need to consider all aspects of the aid to developing countries. We have to consider the need a few years down the road, whether it is the college graduates, capacity to use and maintain facilities for the equipment, market for the product to be manufactured, impact on price of increasing production of a specific commodity etc.. In this respect, the efforts of some of our provinces to attract the medical and other professionals from these countries because of shortages here are counterproductive for the long term harmony on this planet and must be protested. If morality were the only issue Canada would have a quota system for immigrants from developing countries which is weighted by skill and education level to represent the population of the native country rather than our needs.

This comment is contrary to the belief that all humans are born equal and have equal rights. However, there is plenty of evidence that genes play an important part in life. It is time we took their impact into consideration in our policies related to the development in the Third World. Even if one did not believe in success genes, there is no issue about immorality of depriving poorer countries of their most productive human assets leave alone assisting them in developing products that can’t be used soon after facilities are in operation.

Beast and the Burden

Ravi, my dear friend since the college days, often says in all seriousness that he never understood why women, particularly of a mature age, ever get involved with men. Women should know from their experience with fathers and brothers and present and past partners that men are beasts. For some strange reason they think that they can tame the beast and make him a beast of burden. A few no doubt succeed and it gives hope to others. But most women end up living with a beast and shouldering the burden themselves.

Numerous studies in all parts of the world have shown that in spite of countless campaigns by women, they bear a considerably higher share of family responsibilities than men do. This starts at the young age where girls help with chores much more than their brothers and happens even in households where women have jobs with greater responsibility than their husbands. Women in highly demanding professions – medicine, law, finance, you name it - decide the fate of men (and women too) during the work day. Yet, they leave what they are doing at the appointed hour and rush to schools or baby sitters to pick up their children, then go home and cook the dinner while their husbands are downing ‘two for the price of one’ drinks in ‘Happy Hour’ at the bar, presumably developing new business contacts. Is it any wonder that most senior executives are men and women have a glass ceiling which stays just above their heads generation after generation?

It is observations like these which prompt Ravi’s dilemma. He points out that the old adage “When you are young you are foolish” may apply to bright young girls who fall for young men to get their sex fix. One can also appreciate mothers of young children putting up with a heavier load and humouring their men to protect the family unit so the children would have a father. But why, oh why, would a mature single woman with adult children no longer at home want a man in her life? Is the solitary life so unpleasant that one would trade it for the servitude to the bloated ego of an often inconsiderate and sometimes violent person? And why is this man generally older, sometimes with serious health concerns? If it were for sex, women would be looking for younger men with more vitality. It could be the nurturing gene that leads them to an older helpless person who needs to be taken care of. Or it may be their martyr complex that demands a justification for the feeling of “Poor me”. There may be instances where financial considerations in the form of maintenance during lifetime and an inheritance after his death play a part. It may be a combination of some or all of these factors that prompts women to do what Ravi finds so incomprehensible.

Being a mere male with not many brain cells I do not have an answer for Ravi. But I do tell him that I am grateful the women feel the way they do towards older males, being one myself. However, my gratitude does not extend to anything more than minimal help with chores when I am not busy otherwise. That is in the genes too. Men are takers – women are givers. As long as humans have inhabited the earth, women have given men the life and sustenance and men have not only taken every kindness as their due, they have taken women for granted as well.

Ravi believes that if men do not realize the inherent unfairness of their attitude and do not take on larger share of responsibilities, women will give up on them and start pairing with each other in ever greater numbers. Men should take heed: recent medical developments make them superfluous in the process of procreation.

When I am on my way to the bar after work, Ravi’s warning crosses my mind and sends a shiver down the spine. It takes several drinks to wash away the feelings of guilt and the fear of consequences.

9 published comments

Change Afghan culture
Re: Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan growing, says U.S. general, Oct. 1.

The tribes living in remote mountainous regions are solitary people with distinct cultures which they are determined to preserve at all cost. The problem in Afghanistan is no different than those in Tibet and North East India. China is resolving the problem by diluting the indigenous population by mass immigration while the Indian army has been fighting for 50 years without resolution. Our soldiers will die in Afghanistan until we give up -- unless the West can devise a strategy to change Afghan culture. Unfortunately for the U.S. general, changing ancient cultures takes time and needs peace to develop infrastructures for education and transport.
(Ottawa Citizen, 12/10/09)
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Breathing room
Re: "Alberta faces long road to clear $7B deficit;Top economist predicts province will continue struggling for five years," The Journal, Oct. 9.
While I have a great respect for the ability of economists to predict the future, I do not believe that putting Alberta's resource-based economy with low taxes in the same basket as Ontario's highly-taxed industrial economy makes sense. If the royalty situation does not improve in spite of higher oilsands production, Alberta has room to reinstate health-care premiums and introduce a sales tax; if deficits persist, they will not break the back of citizens.
Unfortunately, Ontario does not have additional tax capacity and will continue to suffer from deficits.
(Edmonton Journal, 11/10/09)
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Emulate Ernie
Re: "Energy report finds power ratio at three times demand," and "More cracks in Tory club wall," Don Braid, Opinion, Oct. 7.
Enmax is in the business of supplying electricity and if they don't see the need for power lines, who will use them when they are built? It seems to me that the massive victory in the last election has gone to the heads of Ed Stelmach and his ministers, and whether it be health, power, royalties or education, they know it all and Albertans have to live with whatever they decide. It is time the Tory MLAs took a cue from Ernie Isley and bolted the party. There is no other way to bring these dictators to their senses.
(Calgary Herald, 08/10/09)
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Speaking of disparities
According to the annual United Nations Human Development Report (Canada Ranks Fourth In Quality Of Life – online, Oct. 5), “these gains [by migrants] often directly benefit family members who stay behind as well as countries of origin indirectly.” I suggest that it is the educated and enterprising people who emigrate and that these direct gains do not make up for the contribution they would have made to the developing countries if they had stayed behind.
(Globe and Mail, 06/10/09)
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Power’s the goal
Monte Solberg ("Elections are about issues, nor power," Sept. 15) is repeating the mantra of Preston Manning when he founded Reform. Whatever his pretension, Solberg knows elections decide who will wield the power and that discussion of how the important issues of the day would be tackled by different parties is important only because it helps voters make a choice. The solutions presented during the election are not binding and the winners often handle issues differently than they promise. The proper forum for discussion is Parliament, where issues are debated in every session, not the pressure cooker of elections. Elections are interesting because power is at stake -- power to deal with issues as much as the rewards of power, not because any party propounds novel solutions for issues of the day.
(Calgary Sun, 17/09/09)
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Fix Bosco, don't close it
Re: "Youth home to shut down; Announcement comes three months after Bosco runaways charged in murders," The Journal, Sept. 10.
It must have taken a lot of public money to establish a facility like Bosco Homes. I can understand the concern over the circumstances that led to two youths being charged in connection with the deaths of two neighbouring residents.
Given our society's problems, troubled youths are not going to disappear and will need some place to stay where they can be treated for their problems. I would have thought that it would be better to fix the problems at Bosco Homes than to close the facility.
(Edmonton Journal, 9/11/09)
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Emissions compromise
Re The Costs of Climate change (Sept. 7)
Both India and the developed countries have valid points. Blaming each other is not going to solve the problem. The solution may lie in setting emission standards based on either the population or the area of each country, or some combination of both. This way the developed countries will have to reduce their emissions while the developing countries will have an incentive to develop with efficient technology.
(Globe and Mail, 08/09/090
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Self-defeating
Re: "NDP may try to keep Tories in power, party's national director says," Herald Online, Sept. 2.
The story makes it clear that Michael Ignatieff is barking up the wrong tree if he believes the NDP and the BQ will support him to bring down the Tories. These parties run their polls too, and they know when it will be in their particular interest to bring down the government. They will be in opposition whether it is Stephen Harper or Ignatieff who calls the shots. While it may not be critical for the BQ, it will be foolish for the NDP to bring down the government when Tory support is holding and the Liberals are ahead in the polls, mainly at the NDP's expense. Jack Layton may be a socialist, but he has no wish to commit political suicide.
(Calgary Herald, 05/09/09)
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It is all in the lag
Since the Canadian economy suffered the least over the past year, it's to be expected that it has much less to recover than other developed economies (Canada To Lag G7 economies: OECD - online, Sept. 3). Therefore, rather than worrying over the lag, we should worry that other economies are not recovering faster and that the lag is not as large as it should be.
(Globe and Mail, 04/09/09)
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Quantum of Energy

Two runners have died in marathon races in Alberta over last few days. One moment they were hurtling forwards as fast as they could manage, next moment they had collapsed and passed away. The medical examination revealed the malfunction of the organs in the bodies which resulted in unfortunate deaths. I suggest we need to look deeper to determine the true cause of the unfortunate incidents

According to ancient Hindu scriptures every living being has a soul which comes with a quota of energy to last his/her life time. The individual is, of course, at complete liberty to live in the way she/he fancies and to spend the quantum as he/she wishes. The size of quantum depends on the actions of the bodies in which that soul resided in the past lives; higher current station and bigger quantum are granted for good deeds in former lives, conversely selfish and cruel deeds beget lower form of life and small quantum. The soul becomes cooler as the quantum shrinks and freezes solid when the whole of it is spent and person’s living days in the current body are over. When the body is cremated the soul warms up and departs to its next abode where a new life begins with a fresh quantum, the size determined by gods based on their evaluation of the merits of the life lived. The scriptures do not say what happens to the soul if the body is buried. Presumably, the soul stays frozen till the day of Resurrection.

This idea has had a great impact on me personally. I am married to a much younger woman of a different faith. So much younger that her father accused me of cradle snatching when I asked for his approval of our marriage and we had to elope. I do not want to leave a young widow and two orphans behind and it is of utmost importance to conserve the quantum I still have. That is why I avoid physical work as much as possible, either in the office or at home. Pushing a pen and using the few brain cells do not consume much and my colleagues have the same attitude albeit for reasons of their own. It is at home where my ingenuity is tested. The family can’t be persuaded about the validity of Quantum theory of energy although they have no problem with much more complex theorems in quantum mechanics. The children want me to swim or play hockey with them, wife wants me to do chores which include hard physical work like loading the dishwasher, emptying the garbage bins, digging the flower beds and trimming the bushes. I do manage to get out of doing such exhausting activities once in a while by pretending tiredness but most of the time I have to do them to preserve peace in our humble abode. I carry the burden of anxiety about dwindling quantum on my own; no doubt a consequence of not leaving my meager possessions to a religious order in former life.

The impact of quantum idea on Hindu culture through the ages is immense. This is why Yoga is a low energy form of exercise and Indians do not train for physical fitness as hard as the men and women in other cultures do. Consequently, the Indian physique is generally small and Indians do not distinguish internationally in athletics or sports. That may be why the average life span in India is shorter than in the West: most of the Indians were not able to live a noble life due to prevailing poverty and the quantum of energy granted to them became progressively smaller with each successive generation. It may even explain the strange fact of Indian history: no foreign invader was ever defeated by the reigning Indian king of the day; his soldiers did not want to waste a part of their already small quantum in fighting. It is to be hoped that the economic growth of last few decades will enable many people to become philanthropic, return with bigger quantum in the next life and thus reverse the direction of the pendulum in a generation or two when the average quantum and the physique would grow to such an extent that the soldiers will be willing to spend a little of their precious energy to defend the country and athletes and sportspersons will not be sparing in training and win Olympic gold medals and World championships in sports. If in the process some of them exhaust their quantum prematurely and pass away, so be it.

Son’s Reconciliation

My family history is strange, even for someone born and brought up in India when it was the jewel of British empire. My mother was born in a landowning family. Although the only child, she was deprived of her inheritance because of her gender. My father, the son of a well-to-do civil servant, focused on sports and fun as a teenager and did not finish grade school. He was a debonair young man who won the heart of his fourteen year old cousin by uncle’s marriage who resisted all sane advice and insisted on marrying him. My mother loved him to her dying day although he never earned a rupee, never helped with the chores and left it to her to fend for the family. She did this by first selling her jewellery and silk sarees that came with her dowry, and when these ran out, begging from her mother and rich aunt at whose mansion she had met my father. I never heard a word of complaint from her mouth about my father’s inability to provide for the family. Her only comment was “at least he doesn’t drink or gamble.” She had a grade two education but loved to read whatever was available. A proud woman, she inculcated in her three sons a desire to do well. They worshipped her and spent their childhood years avoiding their father.

The motto of my life, even after he was long dead, was “not to be like my father.” He was a poor student, I worked hard to be the top in the class; he was a good sportsman, I avoided sports; he could spend the whole day apparently doing nothing, I had to be busy every second I was awake; he was religious, I became an atheist; he did not provide for his family, I worked long hours to make sure my wife and daughters got everything they needed to develop their talents, whether to become an Olympian or the respected professionals. Unlike my mother, I never had a good word for my father and never grasped what she saw in him. It took a long discussion on my childhood with a psychologist friend for me to start seeing him and his relationship with my mother in a new light. “He does not have any bad habits” meant that he respected my mother and never had a harsh word for her. It meant he was proud of her and their children and never uttered an unpleasant word about them outside the home. It also meant that he said his piece but left it to us to decide its worth. If I were to be honest, I could not claim any of the above.

During my visit to India last year I had several discussions about him with my brothers. One of them pointed out that social customs of the day prevented our father from doing menial jobs which would have reduced the ‘standing’ of the family in society, making it harder for the children to grow up to be successful. Similarly, my mother could not work as a maid or a cook without her sons ending up in menial jobs too. In any event, such jobs would not have provided the means family needed for anything but the most basic necessities. My uneducated mother understood these implications and wanted more, much more, for her sons than mere survival. She wanted them to grow up into adults others looked up to, not looked down upon as her rich cousins tended to do. Strange though it may seem, I chose to disregard this aspect till recently. It is now obvious to me that the dye was cast for my father in his teenage and for my mother at birth. Thanks to his upbringing by an alcoholic mother my father, who was a decade younger than his siblings, did not develop the confidence needed to run a business nor the personality to supervise people. My mother was of the wrong gender to inherit the wealth and status due to her but she retained a burning ambition to recover it through her progeny. It has taken me most of my years to appreciate what should have been clear long ago: It is to the immense credit of both my parents that they were able to hold the family together and maintain a respectable social status, whatever the emotional cost, for the sake of the future of their children. “Children is all we had” my mother said to me the last time we met before she passed away. I now realize that my father’s love for my mother - which she reciprocated fully - kept the family together and enabled us brothers to make the best of the genes we inherited. I owe a huge debt, not only to my mother which I always acknowledged, but also to my father who struggled with his inner demons in silence all his life. I so regret that it is now too late to tell him this realization in person.