Haiti shattered by quake
vivek rai
New Delhi, January 22
A strong earthquake stuck Haiti on 12 January. Haitian officials say the number who have died as a result of the quake is likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000, and that 75,000 bodies had already buried in mass graves. The extent of damage is not yet known.
The BBC’S Mark Doyle, reporting from Leogane, said the village had been left looking worse than most war zones –as if it had been carpet-bombed, then pounded with a relentless artillery barrage.
Seismologists have long worried about the island of Hispaniola (shared by Haiti and The Dominican Republic). It sits on the Gonave micro-plate, a small strip of the earth’s crust squeezed between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. This makes it vulnerable to rare but violent earthquakes. (excerpt from The Economist)

Life after catastrophic quake
Everywhere you go, you see people scrabbling in rubble. A few shops have opened their doors again and in the main market there are cabbages, carrots, and charcoal for sale. But prices have rocked because of limited supply. Mark Doyle BBC News

Snapshots
Haiti is a tiny country comprised of half of the island of Hispaniola (shared by Haiti and The Dominican Republic), the poorest in the western hemisphere. Two-third of the population depends on the agricultural and other allied activities mainly subsistence farming which is frequently devastated by natural calamities like tropical storms.
Economic engagement with U.S. has created some room for emerging apparel sector. Apparel sector’s contribution is about two-third of the Haitian export and nearly one-tenth of GDP.
Against this backdrop, Haiti suffers from hyperinflation accompanied with severe trade deficit, lack of investment and under developed infrastructure. At this juncture, since 2004, about 8, ooo peacekeepers from UN maintain law and order in Haiti, despite such arrangements, people are illegally migrated from Haiti to neighbouring countries.
At the large extent, the government relies on formal international assistance for fiscal sustainability.

Newsmaker: A new appointee [The NSA]

After outgoing NSA M. K. Narayanan received a gubernatorial assignment, appointment of Mr. Menon as a National Security Adviser to Prime Minster of India received a considerable amount of media attention in recent past. NSA has wider-ranging responsibilities in the domain of external affairs, inner security and long –term strategic planning.
Siddhartha Varadarajan , External Affairs editor of the Hindu reviewed the function of NSA from its inception. He says, “the NSA’s is by definition a plodding job in which he/she has to put lots of small things together, in especially in order to cover for the inadequacies of the Indian bureaucratic system.
Despite Sharm El Sheikh imbroglio, Mr. Menon’s diplomatic career is very impressive. Everybody knows that foreign diplomacy is in his vein and Mr. Menon have an excellent record in South Block. He had played a key role in negotiating much-hyped Indo –US civil nuclear deal, along with Sham Saran. In his diplomatic stint, he was closely affiliated with optimum approach – J. N Dixit approach- “neighbourhood first”. In 2006, he appointed as foreign secretary of India because of acumen and intellectual reputation and superseded 12 seniors to the post.
The next national security advisor (NSA), whose appointment is expected before Republic Day, is likely to focus on the problems of diplomatic engagement rather than be involved in operational intelligence coordination, government sources indicated on Tuesday.

Purvanchal, still waiting for inclusive justice

Eastern UP-popularly known as Purvanchal- is an aspirant state of the Union is standing at the brink of collapse because of marginalisation and absence of collective political bargaining power. At the large extent, numerous studies have made in recent years on the trends of poverty and under-development in Indian states but none of them are focused on “Purvanchal”. In era of inclusive growth, excluded majority are living on the fringe of development.
At this juncture, the spatial disparity among the districts within and across the respective region is remarkable. Such disparities are creating a large chunk of internally displaced people in India. Historical evidence suggests that migration in “Purvanchal” is not new. Earlier, people were forcefully displaced by mighty Colonial Power. Now interplay of some opportunities in metros is generating and sustaining the displacement of the people across socio-economic class.
I assumed that “Purvanchal” is extremely layered and conservative society in Uttar Pradesh and rest of the county. But, Bhojpuri is only bonding factor in the least-developed region of India.

Obituary: Jyoti Basu, a tarchbearer of Communism in Bengal and rest of India

Jyotindra Basu, a pragmatic comrade is passed away. His sad-demise has created a vacuum which cannot easily be filled. Jyoti Basu was born into a middle class family. Professionally, his father was doctor. After completing under-graduation studies from Presidency College, Calcutta (now Kolkata) , he majored in Law in UK. In Britain, he was involved in left-leaning activities. Mr. Basu was much influenced by R P Dutta, a noted prolific author and communist philosopher. Early Jyoti was actively involved in trade union politics of India. After bifurcation of Communist Party of India, he became one of the nine members the politburo of newly formed CPM. He was the longest-serving chief minister of any Indian state for the Left Front.
Thoughout life he played a crucial role in propagation of communist-secular ideas and values in West Bengal and rest of the country.