Dnyeyam-Know Yourself

launch of rti website

2008-05-29T21:10:00.002+05:30

An environmental activist - Mr Rishi Aggarwal, has invited us all for the launch of the website www.rtidirectory.in.

For long a need has been felt for a platform where citizens who have made applications under Right to Information Act could share the information coming out of their responses. The website has a simple interface for uploading your RTI Applications and it's responses. There are still some changes which need to be carried out on the website.

By using this website we all could get to know how others have filed their RTI applications on governance issues and the responses received from the authorities. This way we would learn many things not only on how to file better RTI Applications but also how to improve upon the same by observing the responses received by others on the same issues that we are very much concerned about.

He cordially invites us all to the launch of the website. Mr. Shailesh Gandhi has graciously agreed to launch the website and hope to see many of you.

Venue: Marathi Patrakar Sangh, Opp. C.S.T.Station,
Azad Maidan. Date: Saturday, 31st May, 2008. Time: 4 - 6 pm

You can start uploading your RTI applications and responses. Should you need any help please do get in touch. Preeti Viswanathan ( preeti_viswa@yahoo.com ) has been of valuable assistance in the past few days and should you need help in scanning and uploading she can assist you.

PROTEST WALK...

2008-05-28T17:59:00.000+05:30

Dear friends and members of Print and Electronic Media,

This is to inform all of the Protest Walk planned to let the authorities know of the need to provide uninterrupted and encroachment-free and risk-free walking space for pedestrians. This is the Sahasi Padyatri campaign, initiated by Dr Krishnaraj Rao.

Many residents of Sion-Matunga-Wadala-Dadar - Antop Hill and members of F-North ward Citizens' Federation would participate in this protest walk.

The details are :-

Venue :-- From Lakhamsee Nappoo Road (Opp. Chheda Stores - Opp. Matunga C R Station) upto Post Office on Bhandarkar Road.

Day, Date and Time :-- Friday, 30/5/2008, 5 - 7 pm.

All are requested to spread the word to all concerned citizens and activists.

Friends in the print and electronic media are requested to depute your journalists / correspondents to cover this event.

Do make it a point to attend, even if you are late.

a lesson

2008-05-23T11:39:00.001+05:30

A man was sick and tired of going to work every day while his wife stayed home. He wanted her to see what he went through so he prayed:
"Dear Lord: I go to work every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home.I want her to know what I go through, so please allow her body to switch with mine for a day. Amiin. "

God, in his infinite wisdom, granted the man's wish. The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as a woman.He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate, awakened the kids, Set out their school clothes, fed them breakfast, packed their lunches, Drove them to school, came home and picked upthe dry cleaning, took it to the cleaners And stopped at the bank to make a deposit, went grocery shopping,

Then drove home to put away the groceries, Paid the bills and balanced the cheque book.He cleaned the cat's litter box and bathed the dog.Then it was already 1 P.M. and he hurried to make the beds, do the laundry, vacuum, dust, and sweep and mop the kitchen floor. Ran to the school to pick up the kids and got into an argument with them on the way home.Set out milk and cookies and got the kids organized to do their homework,

Then set up the ironing board and watched TV while he did the ironing. At 4:30 he began peeling potatoes and washing vegetables for salad, breaded the pork chops and snapped fresh beans for supper. After supper, he cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, folded laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed.

At 9 P.M. he was exhausted and, though his daily chores weren't finished, he went to bed where he was expected to make love, which he managed to get through without complaint.

The next morning, he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed and said, "Lord,I don't know what I was thinking. I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home all day. Please, oh please, let us trade back."

The Lord, in his infinite wisdom, replied, "My son, I feel you have learned your lesson and I will be happy to change things back to the way they were.You'll just have to wait nine months, though. You got pregnant lastnight."

33.33% reservations for women...

2008-05-21T20:17:00.002+05:30

The Bill draft for 33.33% reservations of seats in Loksabha for women has been tabled for dissection and discussion during ensuing Monsoon session.The bill was first tried during 1996.The matter had been under persuasion prior to 1996 back to 1986 when women groups and movements sought space of their own in decision making process in all the bodies of Indian democracy.However, the Govt. during Rajiiv Gandhi's tenure, allowed to play up the issue by allowing 33% reservations for women in local bodies in rural and under previledged parts of the country on trial basis.It proved to be successfull despite odds and resistance in some parts.The 'meak and mute' women folk proved that they can be good decision makers and executives in local management.

And a myth systematically created and maintained by male chaunists against women's' natural inabilities' got crashed just within a span of 10 years.Corruption came down and material and civil development went up.The programme also brought about quality changes in women as the level of their empowerment kept rising.

The upward mobility proved one more fact; the Men folk preferred to keep it's mouth shut up when the women folk opened it to talk and speak , discuss and interact, ask questions and seek answers ...

A true all new Indian woman came to stay without any need to look back any more.
The bill has again been resisted by the same lot that went against it during 1996.The bill was failed for five times during the last decade.But thanks to empowerment of women ,the bill has now entered the corridors of Indian Parliament.

Why resistance ?
We have 3 reasons in main:
1. What if the women really happen to prove that they are at par even in decision making at the highest level or prove to be quite effective in planning and development within India ?
2.Why go for 33.33% reservations for women within existing 545 seats ?; why not add 33.33% seats for women by creating new seats altogether ..needn't touch the prevailant 181 seats at all ?
3.why don't settle for 20% seats within 545 ?

Let's deal with them here in brief :
1.The women on Indian lands have proved that they are matured enough to deal with 'rough and tough' poltical behaviour from male counter parts.Their voting patterns have changed to such an extent that even the hard chore male chaunist parties have acceeded to them in private if not in public.The gains secured at local body level soon after women were allowed to deal with local issues have provided sound answers.But still mine- is bigger -than -you phobia has herded the males towards awesome cynicism and their male ego is hurt.
Renuka Chaudhari is so right when she said ,"we are in process of educating men" .(Tehleka latest issue )
That should answer the reason No.1 above.
2.33.33% res.for OBC women within 33.33% is a political calculation .We have some 545 seats now and they include around 200 seats from OBC -sections.!And they made no demand for reserving something for OBC women within this 200 lot from their respective parties ! The same people are now asking for 33.33% res.for OBC within .They are afraid of losing 181 seats to women alone and the heat is so unbearable for them.So the demand for additional 181 seats for women without touching the 545 cake ! if it happens we may have 726 MPs in next elections and any issue concerned with social-economic-gender justice needing Parliamentary nod by majority vote would be failed by 545 MPs with both male and female MPs on one side against 181 from other side all females .
The demand for additional seats is illogical and irrational and tricky at least at this juncture.No one should acceed to it as a precautionary measure.
3.The third reason is nothing but polarisation of men and women in 80:20 ratio .What it means ?
One may recollect well the talk by Pravin Togadia when BJP didn't make it back to the top in 2004 elections.He said ;these two leaders have insulted 80 crores of Hindus !(he excluded 20 crores from 'other 'religions obviously !)
In reality, no such polarisations can ever happen.

As for now the overall %age of women in parliament is less than10 % (2004;539/36 women MPs). The beans are spilled just because the parties concerned can have the powers to rope in the women of their choice in certain free or constituencies earmarked for women at present.The elected females may or may not hold higher offices or remain sitting MPs for next five years resisting anything that might come in the way of gender justice.
It's sure to close the parliament doors for women knocking with bare hands . Say NO to this 20% before it's too late .

The best and sensible course would be
1. to discuss the bill in every detail and get nod for whole 33.33% reservation for women within the existing capacity .
2.The issue pertaining to 33.33 % within for OBC holds no water as it's OBC/dalit sects alone that will opt for more than 30% seats for women during national elections.The share of so called upper class women is not more than 3 % .It's a myth that these 'Bob-cut' women would cut into the OBC share ;it's an anti-OBC and anti women stand in the first place.
3.The issue need be tackled with due regard to provisions of IC in the background and as a matter of Human right more than male female talk show ;and it's absurd and lacks minimum sensibility to the core issue.
It's time the males raise to a cause of humanity and be honest to it.

Open for views and comments...

-- Pradeep Deshpande (Socio-Eco-Politico Writer)

enforcement of rule of law

2008-04-23T22:23:00.002+05:30

Dear friends,
You are invited to attend the collective meeting of various citizens' groups, NGOs, Community Based Organisations, Social groups etc. to demand the Rule of Law from our Government.

The details are :--
Anniversary Meeting on May 3 – "Enforce the Rule of Law!"
A network of citizen groups that comes together to raise a voice that no politics can ignore. This is now required and is planned at:
St. Xavier's College Hall, Mahapalika Marg (halfway between VT and Metro) at 5.00 pm on Saturday, May 3, 2008

"Enforce the Rule of Law!" is the theme. Failure to do this by various authorities causes nearly all of our city's troubles, from violation of land use regulations and poor civic services, to disappearing open spaces and deteriorating law and order. Politics and their nexus with vested interests are increasingly responsible. The Rule of Law is our only defence.
Citizens, mobilized systematically, become the "numbers" that add force to the Legislative and Executive powers, the Judiciary and the Fourth Estate. On May 3, we will continue to fashion a Fifth Estate of all citizen organizations to tackle issues that affect us all and to press for political reform.

The program on May 3 involves brief addresses by leaders of our partner organizations including Mr. Julio Ribeiro and Dr. Sheilu Sreenivasan, The keynote address will be delivered by Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud. AGNI's Vice Chairman and Managing Trustee, Mr. D. M. Sukthankar will preside. We are considering continuing a "Pledge" program that began in Andheri on Sunday, April 6, 2008. Over 500 citizens at a Rally pledged to vote for persons who stood for the Rule of Law.

Please try to mobilise your associates and partners, all the organizations with whom you are in touch (residents' organizations, NGOs, parishes, clubs etc) to request them to attend on May 3 at St Xavier's.

Co-hosted by:
AGNI, Association for Democratic Reforms, Awaaz Foundation, Bombay Catholic Sabha, CitiSpace, Dignity Foundation, F- North Ward Citizens' Federation, H/West Federation, Juhu Citizens' Welfare Group, Khar Residents' Association, Lok Satta Movement, MITRA (Movement against Intimidation, Threat and Violence against Activists), Mohalla Committee Movement Trust, NAGAR, PRAJA and Public Concern for Governance Trust.

horn ok please...

2008-04-08T20:09:00.002+05:30

It's all your's for a while to share ...
Just how many years begin with new year in a year ...
All we have seconds, minutes,hours, days and months ...
And still very few moments we prefer to share...
When colors are bright and flags right ...
And we keep them changing hands and shoulders to move on...
The new people have found a fresh identity in those fest and feasts...
Quietly forgetting they send us songs of communal harmony...
And synchronized culture...
and still we love to celebrate them with the 'others' at bay...
We have so much love for the stones and fabrics with colors...
We hoist and fly...
And just hesitate to look at those tri- colors and...t
he straps in them torn in communal hate and killer instincts
with no sign of shame on our national face...
and human appeal...
How we meet and share those happy new years on internet
years after years with words and lines...
like we meet on the high ways...
those paint peeled sos signs of warning...
Horn...OK....please...

-- Pradeep Deshpande (Socio-Eco-Political Writer)

Obscene Remarks On Women...

2008-03-26T20:24:00.003+05:30

The Letter

Subject: Complaint regarding derogatory remarks against women in a reputed radio channel in Mumbai.

Respected Madam/Sir,

While we consider media as the 4th pillar of democracy in our country, we can also observe that it is not performing up to its mark, particularly in the case of women.There are many T. V. serials, movies, reality shows, album songs which portray negative, derogatory and regressive images of women and enforce women only as sex objects, objects of desire or the ones who can be controlled easily by coercion. This directly & indirectly puts women as a secondary citizen and therefore they do not enjoy equality of status in the society. These negative images enforce gender stereotypes, gender insensitivity and therefore create gender inequality. In a society like India where culture, tradition is spoken every now and then, moral policing is rampant, but at the same time people wish to watch these negative, regressive images of women and do nothing about it. Previously it was (it is still) rampant only in T.V. serials, movies, album songs. But now after the 'Radio FM' revolution in the country, even they have started to line up with audio-visual media.

Recently a reputed radio channel from Mumbai, Radio 91.1 FM (Radio City) on 21st March 2008 in 15:05-15:10 Pm played a clip which made a derogatory remark on air. It goes like this: "woh muuchh hi kya jise fera nahi jaata, woh ladki hi kya jise chheda nahi jaata." ('What Is A Mustache That Can't Be Curled Up, What Is A Girl Who Is Not Teased.')

When eve teasing is rampant all over the country (with its graph increasing), women cannot move out freely, they are always tensed about who is the next to tease them (physically, mentally or verbally), this statement from a reputed radio channel is sure to enforce eve teasing. Instead of going against eve teasing during holi festival, they are reinforcing it. This is an utter shame on the part of the 4th pillar of our democracy: marred by insensitivity towards female gender. Moreover it even enforces patriarchy, superiority of the male gender over the female by talking about men having a mustache and directly relating it to teasing women.

We as citizens of India, request you to take a quick and stern action against the radio channel, the content writer, the content editor and the radio jockey himself. We expect a public apology from the company and from all of them who are related to the show. (on a particular date & at a particular time) and also that the company should be fined as per the rules and regulations of our respected Constitution.

We hope this serious issue is redressed quickly and adequate measures are taken that such remarks are not passed; particularly on air. (be it any form of media)

In Solidarity,
Dnyeyam- Know Yourself.

Join The Online Campaign:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/obsceneremarks/

Complaint Against A Radio Channel In Mumbai

2008-03-26T14:45:00.007+05:30

A few days back, on 21st March 2008, a statement was made on the radio channel: radio city radio 91.1fm in Mumbai, in between 3.00-3.10pm. It goes like this:
"woh muuchh hi kya jise fera nahi jaata, woh ladki hi kya jise chheda nahi jaata." ('What Is A Mustache That Can't Be Curled Up, What Is A Girl Who Is Not Teased.')

This statement violates:
Fundamental Duties with regards to women and also violation of Self Segulatory Guidelines for the Broadcasting Sector, 2008. (content certification rules, 2008, theme 7: harm & offence, point no.8) It also misuses Fundamental Rights: Freedom Of Expression (Art.19) as enshrined in the Constitution.

Dnyeyam- Know Yourself has decided to have a take on this and ask the radio channel to publicly apologise for this derogatory remark passed on women/girls. We have witnesses who have listened to this statement.

We have tried mailing the letter (as written below) to the press and to the visual media so that they take this statement and publish or report it in their respective media; but with no success. We request you to go through the letter, sign it and forward it in your friends list so that it revolves through the internet and later on we can send it to responsible heads so that a stern action is taken against the radio channel.

We expect your support to the fullest in regaining sensitivity and equality amongst both the gender and both the sexes so that sexism through and in the media is controlled.

P.S.:

1) If you know any person or a group who have listened to Radio 91.1fm on that date & time please do tell them to contact us on dnyeyam@gmail.com

2) Please join the online campaign on the following url: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/obsceneremarks/

Thanking You.
In Solidarity,
Dnyeyam- Know Yourself.

book marks display at new india centre, colaba.

2008-03-13T12:24:00.004+05:30

206 book marks had been made by the members of Dnyeyam- Know Yourself, of which 77 were exclusively made on 'Women'. There were 8 posters made on 'Women' with messages written on them.

poster 1 stucked at new india assurance, fort, mumbai

2008-03-05T17:02:00.003+05:30

STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE !!!

A Simple Message, but speaks a lot...
typically Baba Amte stlye!
Yes, Hands Are Not For Beating, But For Building!
This message is not only for the girl child or a woman but for all...

Domestic Violence, faced by many girl children, not only in the third world but also in the first world, house wives (rather home makers) even office going women face this brutality.

As there is a transformation from traditional women- being home makers to todays modern office-corporate going woman, parallely there is a transformation in the problems faced by the same woman. Yes, the woman as a sex or rather gender remained the same but problems started variying... from the food gathering-hunting stage, the agricutural era, the industrial era and todays the intellectual era wherein most of the work had to be done by the woman in the house (dominated by the eldest woman) and today she is handling dual responsibilities each having multiple roles. Even though the urban woman is economically empowered (although not all) she doesn't have a say in the house which she belongs to. (be it maternal or in-laws) The man still continues to be the key decision maker in the house which allows him to dominate over her. Following the rules of patriarchy (indirectly manusmriti) he ensures that she is kept docile, dominated and obeys his 'orders' .

How does he ensures this? Simply by controlling her through physical, mental & emotional violence. Some feminists would argue that anatomy is not the reason of this 'dominant-dominated' relationship, but it is a fact. It is the most simplest way of contolling any human being: be it another man himself, a girl, a child or a woman. These physical sanctions give man the edge to control the woman in his house. To add to worse, our Indian culture and tradition doesn't allow to retaliate against a man; thus she suffers in silence. Even after a revolution in the IT sector, even after modernisation, the woman has sanctions. (indicating that there is no connection between the socio-economic status of a woman and modernisation)

There are many reasons for domestic violence apart from patriarchical culture. Where domestic violence is not only about physical beating or physical sanctions it also includes mental-emotional torture, non-consensual sexual relationships. Frustration on man in his work, (outside home) his inability to earn and the current reason is his inability to earn more than his wife: which is actually considered to be 'unmanly'. Unsatisfactory sexual relations between the husband and wife leads to marital rapes. (including physical sanctions) Conflicts between the daughter-in-law & her in-laws leading to domestic violence are not a passe. Many a times the mother-in-law is the perpetuor of the sanction. Now-a-days media instead of showing progreessive images of women, shows regressive images. Outright portrayal of domestic violence in 'their' daily soaps effectively concludes in the 'mind of the man' that he is the only authority in the family, he has the sole power in the family to make or break 'major' decisions in the family. He takes for granted that he has all powers over all women in his house and that they should behave according to his 'whims & fancies' , which he calls 'rules of his house'.

But we all should understand that "All That Is Personal Is Political". This means whatever is happenning in a personal life of a woman (be it positive or negative) has implications in the social, economic & political life which again boomerangs into the woman's personal life.

We all have to speak against domestic violence: of all types- physical, mental, emotional & sexual. The woman has to start speaking up against it and the man has to support her in this struggle against domestic violence. The man should understand that he is because of a woman and the woman should understand that she has all rights to speak against any kind of injustice she faces.

Lets build our struggle to beat domestic violence!

-- Sachidananda.
(Eternal Happiness)

fund raising program...

2008-03-05T00:03:00.003+05:30

Dnyeyam- Know Yourself, is a social organization working towards Women empowerment, Reforms In Education & Know Your Rights.

We are making ‘Book Marks- With A Message’ as its fund raising program and selling it at Rs. 2/-, Rs. 3/- & Rs. 5/-
The messages are in English, Hindi & Marathi.

Dnyeyam- Know Yourself, is having a poster exhibition on the eve of International Women’s Day at New India Centre, Colaba, Mumbai on 7th March 2008 from 3 pm to 6 pm.
We are even selling those Book Marks on that day.
Interested can attend the exhibition.

Dnyeyam- Know Yourself is Urgently Needing Volunteers for the exhibition and also for helping them in their work.

Please do contact us on our e-mail.

-- Dnyeyam- Know Yourself Team.

book marks made by members of Dnyeyam- Know Yourself

2008-03-04T23:28:00.006+05:30

so tru in this millenium...

2008-02-15T16:03:00.001+05:30

Book On Communalism...

2008-02-02T20:53:00.000+05:30

COMMUNALISM

Illustrated Primer by
RAM PUNIYANI

Publisher: Mumbai Sarvodaya Friendship Center, Mulund, Mumbai.

Contribution: Rs. 60/- Pages 128.

This book deals with the phenomenon of sectarian violence and politics in a very lucid manner. The phenomenon of communalism has come as a major threat to our democracy in current times. This phenomenon is also breaking our plural values and inter- community amity.

Contents- Babri Demolition, Post Babri Violence, Godhra, Gujarat Carnage, Citizens Tribunal report, India's synergetic traditions, mixed heritage, Rise and growth of Communalism, Values of India's Freedom movement, Gandhi, Muslim and Hindu communalism, Doctoring mass consciousness, Hindutva, RSS and exploited sections of society, Tasks for Secular Movement, Vande Matram controversy, Ram Setu or Adams bridge, Terrorism, Civilizations, clash or alliance.

The book is in the form of brief answers to the prevalent myths in a very simple style. It is richly illustrated with pictures, cartoons and tables. It gives a comprehensive view of the problem of communalism as being faced by the
nation. A must read for all concerned with defense of democratic and secular values.

for further details contact:

proton54@gmail.com

peoples' participation....

2008-01-19T20:46:00.000+05:30

"When People Can Vote In Crores For Any Reality Show & Select The Right Candidate Why Can't They Do The Same In Political Voting?"

This is The Irony Of Peoples' Participation In Democracy!

-- Sachidananda.

(Eternal Happiness)

imp info...

2008-01-11T20:23:00.000+05:30

This is Important information about a web site called www.saferindia.com

This is a site of an NGO started by Retd. IPS Officer Ms Kiran Bedi, you can go to this site an log your complaint regarding any crime if the police at your place is not accepting your complaint or it remains unattended. Then this NGO will mail your complaint to the DGP of your area. You can also use this mail as the legal document in case of filing a case in the court of judgment. This is to be noted that this site is directly administered by Ms Kiran Bedi so all your mails directly goes to her.

Friends please spread this information in your network so that any one in such need can go to this site and launch his/her complaint.

from shailesh gandhi... rti activist

2008-01-02T22:18:00.000+05:30

For me the last year has been immensely fulfilling, rewarding and joyous. The Right to Information is slowly showing the potential of being the biggest change agent for India’s democracy. The elite is focusing on the great growth of GDP, Sensex, salaries and malls and has faith that this millennium belongs to India. The Government claims a reduction of those below poverty line, but its own statistics reveal that over 40% children suffer from malnutrition, and over 70% of the population lives at less than Rs.20 per day. Violence and turmoil are increasing and might overtake all the gains. When 25% of our districts have significant Maoist, Naxalite, -VIOLENT,- influences, something is going wrong terribly with this non-inclusive model of development. The perception is that those in power,-the elite,- are depriving the Citizens of India, of their wealth and rights.

Citizen empowerment with Right to Information might change this grim scenario, since participative democracy can bring a more inclusive and fairer growth. During 2007, i conducted over 150 lectures and workshops on RTI, reaching around fifteen to twenty thousand people. This is a movement with many workers like me,- which is growing,- and has the potential of empowering each Citizen to realize her potential as the Sovereign Citizen of India.

Let us look forward to an India where participatory democracy is now taking root.
It could become a Nation with a sustainable human development.

A Very Happy, Joyous and Caring and Informed New Year to you and your family.

Love
bharti & shailesh gandhi

end 2007.

Love shailesh.
All my emails are in Public Domain.

www.satyamevajayate.info

2008...

2008-01-02T22:13:00.000+05:30

Let's try to be happy and make other happier in 2008

H-appy are those in power

A-nd with their purses bulging with money

P-an and ATM cards and stocks..

P-eople with nothing of these may

Y-ell at themselves for their 'destined 'way of life..

N-one of them hold a thing to lose or pawn

E-ars all turned against their cries,bays and yells

W-ith no drops in eyes and words in mouth to speak out..

Y-et some around wish and wish and wish into the

E-ars with no drums inside ..to hear

A-nd they pray for those innocent dead for heaven

R-ight they're for the 'cheers 'all over this flattened world...

Good bye 2007 ;Welcome 2008 !!!!

--Pradeep Deshpande (Socio-Economic Political Writer, Mumbai)

proton54@gmail.com

MAY OUR SOULS REST IN PIECES!

2007-12-30T13:17:00.000+05:30

More than the sadist, fascist and terrorist motives behind the political assassination of B.Bhutto in Rawalpindi on 27th Dec.2007 at 6.00pm (ist) ,there have been eventualities in Pakistan during recent past, that 'ensured' political killing of of the most honored leader in Pakistan. The declaration of emergency for a short time,preparations for democratizing the under/over estimated nation in turmoil all the time in 2008, January, Musharaff's flat yes to US by giving up his Military uniform and come at 'par' with civilian dress, the unwarranted welcome to Nawab Shariff ,Pakistan people global cry for regulating democracy in the nation,frightened military set up confused both by people on one side and terrorist attacks from the other, Musharaf's last attempt to be in power etc. are some of them.for such a nation, silly problems like poverty, unemployment, high costs,scarcity of food etc. have been out of reference at any moment of time.

It's time to realize that both the future and safety of Indian secular democracy are more dependent on the democratic norms to work effectively, in Nepal, Bhutan, Srilanka and Pakistan .It also need to be reckoned that in India , we also do have a section within that abhors secular democracy and upholds strongest psyche to restore 'those great old times' when India used to enjoy 'golden' days for centuries together....(?)

So, such minds must be happy over Bhutto's killing who by and large set out for democratizing Pakistan by getting it rid of Military controlled (and US guided) democracy in her mother land ruined under the able and most unstable rule of Musharaff. It should worry us more in reality !
Both the killed and killers have been killed in the recent unfortunate event leaving NO proof and the one that NEVER will be sought or asked for .They might all join hands in the paradise now and look down towards the earth to 'enjoy' how the next moves will take place in a new Pakistan-in-the making.

Bhutto paid her life.She will be a legend like Indira Gandhi hereafter. And for us, she will be one more page full of history book to remember for next generation.. till all these surround nations realize to live peace rather than kill and get killed for mythical political ends. Our homage to the killed soul of a much fascinating lady who fell prey to the attacks from Political Islamic terrorist moves.
May her soul rest in peace and for the rest lot of pieces have yet to be assembled for the rest of life ..as long as it stays here.

So let us be prepared to pay homage to ourselves well in advance!

Hate kills: harmony works.We just know this much.

******************************************************************

-- Pradeep Deshpande.
(Socio-Economic-Political Writer)

feature in mulund-powai plus (toi) 24th nov 2007

2007-11-27T17:07:00.000+05:30

It took only 15 minutes for an enthusiastic group of youngsters to explain the various uses of the RTI and how one could sucessfully file an application for necessary information. During the innovative street play devised by Dnyeyam, a youth group, Mulundkars watched as two young men, modelled on the popular duo Munnabhai and Circuit, discussed the RTI.

The play was first performed on November 17, outside Mulund east station and then outside Chintamani Gardens, and drew a lot of spectators.
“The only way to help end a problem is by developing awareness about it, and what better way than through the most traditional medium of street plays,” share the founders of the group.

“Using characters such as Munnabhai and his loyal friend Circuit, is a great idea as it immediately appeals to people,” says Bharti Mane, a spectator. The play brought to the forefront the reason for the RTI Act, the importance of using it and the correct way by which an application can be made to rightfully obtain information.

The actors relied on time-tested tactics to attract the attention of the busy citizens. They began by striking a steel plate with a spoon. “If we call ourselves a democratic country, then the RTI is one of the tools that confer power on the common man.
Until and unless people know their rights, they can’t fight oppression,” points out Umakant Nadkar, a member of the group. The RTI Act has been in the news for many years now, yet, most people are not aware about it. And even if they are, most of them do not want to get hassled with the paperwork involved.

“I had not heard about the RTI Act, but now have enough basic knowledge and will find out more about it. And yes, I will use it when the time comes,” says Mahesh Soni, a spectator. Pramod Konzarkar, a senior citizen, who watched the play, strongly feels that the youth should participate in more awareness building causes and spread information about educational reforms, pollution and so on. He believes that such grass-root efforts are not a “waste of time”, but in fact a timely investment, which definitely has a long term effect.

One of founders notes, “We need to have more such street plays on a consistent basis, only then will it have a deeper impact and develop sensitivity among people. We have to inspire them to take up issues on their own.”

campaign for questioning...

2007-10-28T23:26:00.000+05:30

Citizen's campaign for accountability continues.
Starting on 2nd October, there have been four meetings,- 2 by Agni, one by Juhu Citizen's and one by Janhit Manch. There has been one succesful and visible protest demonstration by H-west ward Citizens trust. The movement now gathers momentum.
Also attaching the Hoarding at Marine Drive.
Next two events
1. Press conference by 'I love Mumbai' at Mumbai Patrkar Sangh at 4.30pm on Monday, 29 Oct. on Crawford Market

2. A meeting of friends and citizen has been organized on the subject of Crawford Market sale of FSI and pocketing of Rs.6000 cr of wealth of the city of Mumbai by few existing licensees with the connivance and support of some officials and possibly many corporators.
It is symbolic of the malaise that has been spreading like cancer. But thanks to a serious and studied initiative of people like Shailesh Gandhi there is a good chance that such scams can not only be exposed but can be stopped and the citizen teach politicians a practical lesson that they cant get away with such loot . This is possible if we follow the Satyagraha .
As a member of informed middle class citizen of Mumbai we appeal you to attend the meeting and have the concepts clarified and see what we all can do and go beyond casual criticism and take some practical step without requiring to get u onto the streets.
place : Hall of Makarand Society, Savarkar marg, Mahim
time 6.30 pm 1`st Nov thursday
pl come and bring ur likeminded friends and family members
Love shailesh.

All my emails are in Public Domain.

www.satyamevajayate.info

RTI WORKSHOP

2007-10-24T17:11:00.000+05:30

Forum for Public Interest is organizing a free workshop on "Right toInformation Act" by Mr. Shailesh Gandhi on 25th Oct, 07 from1 pm to 6 pm at Nalanda- Lower Parel, S B Marg, Kamala Mills Compound.

Call: 20310400 for registration.

Love,
shailesh.

All my e-mails are in Public Domain.

www.satyamevajayate.info

crawford market bachao... bhrashtachar hatao

2007-10-18T19:57:00.000+05:30

Please see if you can inform people about this and also come yourselves.
On 26th Bombay Catholic Sabha is organising a meeting, 7th march Mahiti Adhikar Manch,
Dr. Ajay Kothari-renowned ENT specialist of Khar,- is trying to organise the medical fraternity.
Let us all make our efforts. The cumulative effect may be tremendous:
Janhit Manch led by the redoubtable Shri Bhagwanji Rayani launches its first JAWABDYA on Vijayadashmi:
CRAWFORD MARKET BACHAO
BHRASHTACHAR HATAO
Rs . 1000 crores of public loss is at stake !
So, let's oppose this proposal for Mumbai's sake !
Crawford Market, the 138 year old heritage structure is virtually being donated.
Neither was a tender floated, nor were bids invited.
On 11-10-2007 , the BMC house passed this proposal by voice vote unanimously within a minute.
The developer would be spending Rs.105 crores and earning Rs.1050 CR.
That is 10 rupees profit for every one rupee spent !
The estimated return on investment is 1000% !
If this isn't corruption, what is?
This proposal is also in violation of the heritage norms.
The FSI of 4 will create a massive pressure on the crumbling infrastructure.
Public Meeting - Question your Corporator
Venue : Shri Vile Parle K.V.O. Seva Samaj, Amarsons Bhavan, 68, Misquitta Road, Opp.Railway Crossing, Vile Parle (East), Mumbai – 400 057
Day & Date : Sunday, 21st October, 2007
Time : 10 am to 11.30 am
Invitees : You all and the Corporators and MLAs.
Contact Person : Utsal Karani (93249-91030)

letter to gurudas kamat... jawabdya campaign

2007-10-18T19:54:00.000+05:30

Am giving letter sent to Shri Gurudas Kamat below. Please write letters to various Corporators and political leaders, to save your 5000 rupees.
Next meeting by Janhit Manch at Vile Parle (e) on 21st; 10am to 11.30am.
Bombay Catholic Sabha meeting at Chembur on 26th evening.
Many other organizations are also gearing up. If you plan a meeting do share the information
shailesh gandhi
B2 Gokul Apartment, Near Asha Parekh Hospital,Poddar Road, Santacruz (W),Mumbai-400054 ,
Tel: 32903776, 9867327305 Email: shaileshgan@vsnl.com
16 October, 2007
To,
Shri Gurudas Kamat,
19, G.R.G.Road, Near Acharya Garden, Chembur, Mumbai 400071. Tel: 25212727
Sub.: Public loss of 1000 Crores on CRAWFORD MARKET ‘REDEVELOPMENT!
Dear Shri Kamat,
I write to you since i am perturbed by a decision of various political parties in the MCGM on 9/11. This is regarding the proposal for the ‘redevelopment’ of Crawford Market. It has been shown clearly by simple calculations that the present proposal deprives the Citizens of a huge loss of their money, without any logical reason being offered. We are sacrificing a very important part of our Heritage structures and skyline for which we are only caretakers for the future generation. However, even if we assume that some people do not value it, the financial implications of a Public loss of over 1000 crores are evident. I am giving the main implications of the proposal:
Area of Plot
22472
Sq.mts.
RTI info
Area with licencees
6206
Sq.mts.
RTI info
Proposed Building
65690
Sq.mts.
RTI info
MCGM gets
26495
Sq.mts.
RTI info
Developer and tenants get
39195
Sq.mts.
RTI info
Construction Cost
16000
Per Sq.mt.
Assumed
Sale Price of Property
350000
Per Sq. mt.
Assumed
Construction Cost to of building
105
Crores
Calculated
MCGM gets free of Construction
42.4
Crores.
Calculated
Developer and tenants get extra
32989
Sq.mts.
Calculated
Ie. Profit at Public cost by
1049.6
Crores.
Calculated
Note: 10.7 sq.ft.= 1 Sq.mtr.; Construction cost Rs. 16000 per sq. mtr. is equal to Rs. 1495 per sq.ft.
Sale price of Rs.350000 per sq.mtr. is equal to Rs. 32710 per sq.ft.
The data on the proposed construction and the sharing of area has been obtained by the undersigned under RTI. When this proposal is applied to the other 101 Municipal Markets the total loss to Public will be over 6000 crores. If MCGM gives the construction on contract, or decides on the developer by competitive bidding, it can earn over 6000 crores! Each Citizen including the poorest loses Rs.5000. Citizens had approached 95 Corporators individually during July, August 2007 to explain how this proposal was a huge loss to the Public. 86 Corporators across all parties, including over forty Corporators from your party had agreed that the proposal was in not Public interest. Congress MP Shri Milind Deora wote to Corporators of all parties to defeat this retrograde proposal. Yet, on 9/11 the Corporation has passed this proposal which will deprive each Citizen,-including the poorest suffering from hunger,- of Rs. 5000. Citizens have started a JAWABDYA abhiyan to ask Corporators the reasons for this treachery. Some of your Corporators at a meeting at Colaba stated that the proposal was bad and they had opposed it, but had to fall in line because of orders from their leader. On close questioning by Citizens, they said you were the leader. We request you to reconsider this and publicly assure us that your party would ask for the proposal to be scrapped. If there are any plausible reasons for allowing this proposal, please let the Public know. If we get no plausible reasons for stealing 5000 rupees of each of us, we will obviously conclude, it is because of GREED and CORRUPTION.
The only duty of elected representatives is to serve and safeguard the people. I am sure you will do your duty.
Yours truly,

shailesh gandhi

jaago

2007-10-16T22:15:00.000+05:30

Yaha aapne suna hai
Yaha aapne padha hai
Bahut varshon se chalta aaya-
Yaha ek inquilab hai.

Thukrayie nahi ise-
Kahi thokar kha chuke.
Ab thokar nahi khani-
Isliye likh rahe.

Partantra me kaha tha-
Bharat chhodo, swadeshi apnaao.
Swatantra mein yehi kiya-
Bharat bhi chhoda, videshi bhi apnaaya.

Udhar mein jaakar swadeshi apnaaya!
Sanskritik mandal basaya,
Mandir-Masjid banvaya…
Par Bharat ke liye kacchu na kiya.

Udhar mein jakar unako dosh diya!
Mandir-Masjid-sanskritik mandal
Banavane ke liye-
Raaste par utar aaya!
Par Bharat ke liye kacchu na kiya.

Udhar mein jaakar-
Bharat ko doshi thaharaaya
Ki Bharatvaasio ki neenda
Swades ki taraf anguliyaa bhi uthayi-
Bhool hi gaye- chaar anguliya apni taraf hi uthi!

Khub piili pepsi-coke, khub piili bisleri-
Khub khaaya lays, khub khayi maagi.
Khub pahanaa nike, khub pahana levis-
Har din jaate hai mcd’s pizzahut
Har din hote hai barista.

Par- bhool gaye plaachimada- bhool gaye dahanu!
Bhool gaye nandigram- bhoolhi gaye singur!
Bhool gaye raigad- bhool bhi gaye pen!

Arrey jaago, jaago sonewaalo jaago-
Daur naya nahi hai, yaha daur purana hai.
Naye package mein daur purana-
Hamare saamne aaya hai.

Thukra do is package ko-
Apnaao naariyal nimbu paani.
Juhu beach ka gola, pune ka chivda.
Mathura ka petha, kolkata ka rossogulla.
Inhi ko apnaao bhai, inhi ko aapnaao.

Pukar rahi hai yaha mitti-
Ab vakt aaya hai.
Karz hampar hai mitti ka-
Ada karna hi farz hai.

Yaha Bharat ki jaroorat hai-
Yehi samaj ki maang hai.
Hum tum yahi par rahe-
Aur desh ke liye-
Kacchu to Karen.

Jaago…

-- Sachidananda.
(Eternal Happiness)

Tribal Insctincts Feature In TOI 13 Oct 2007

2007-10-14T13:59:00.000+05:30

BOLLYWOOD & BHAGWAD GITA

Priyanko Sarkar meets youngbloods itching to change the world—but who aren’t quite sure how

There were three bodies on the tracks. A shapeless form in a burqa and two others. The burqa was still, the smaller bodies breathing raggedly. Abhijit Alka Anil, who happened to be at Bhandup station on that November morning in 2005, was among the hundreds watching in silence. The railways’ stained stretchers arrived but there weren’t enough porters. Abhijit stepped forward to help and hurried to the nearby hospital hoping the children at least would be saved. It wasn’t a heavy load—the baby was nine months old, the girl three years. One died on the way, the other in hospital. “The whole station was just watching but no one came forward,” he says.

Abhijit went home, related the story and learnt his first lesson. “I was yelled at for a whole week for getting mixed up in a police case,” he says. “Revolution begins at home. It’s only now, after three years of social service that my parents have begun to accept my decision.”

His decision was to choose social work as a career. “I was a hardcore capitalist till 2003. Then, my sociology professor introduced me to socialism and Che Guevera. Ever since, I have decided to be a social worker,” he says. His family reluctantly realised that this was no passing infatuation but something deeper. Abhijit enrolled for a Masters in social work at Nirmala Niketan, dropped his surname, and formed a group called Dnyeyam.

Dnyeyam, a name plucked from the Bhagwad Gita, was formed impulsively last year at a movie theatre in Mulund where Rang de Basanti was being screened. That’s where Abhijit met Umakant Nadkar, an old colleague. Suitably fired by the film’s rousing call to arms, the two boys discussed the movie, the rotten system, politics, and other things. Before leaving, they had decided to form a group. “The word Dnyeyam, from Chapter 13 of the Gita, means ‘object of knowledge’,” says Abhijit. “But
we have tweaked it and for us it means ‘know yourself’—all knowledge must begin within us.”

Over time, through a network of common friends, the group grew to 21 members. But once the RDB fever had evaporated, the number shrank to 12. Some members are from Pune and Aurangabad and correspond over the phone and on email. The group meets every Sunday for marathon five-hour-plus sessions, when they discuss ways in which to shake the youth out of their consumerist stupor—youth, who, according to them, are getting too American in their thinking and living.

Abhijit, now 23, is fond of quoting from Thomas Friedman’s best-selling book, The World is Flat. The NYT columnist, he says, came to Bangalore looking for Indians and found only Americans. “We aren’t against boozing or one-night stands. We just want the youth to realise that there is an India out there which needs help,” he says. The group is disgusted with the ways of their peers— “educated youth who spit on the road and litter. All they want is money, even their parents take a back seat”.

To go beyond jaw-jaw, the Dnyeyams decided to tell people about the new civil weapon, the Right to Information Act. But they soon found it wasn’t that simple. They were short on manpower and funds—even to register the group would cost them Rs 10,000. After much breast-beating, it was decided to start small. New members were admitted on a fee of Rs 150 — “about the cost of five cigarette packets” and each member was expected to skim at least Rs 50 from their pocket money and put it into the Dnyeyam piggy bank. On the strength of this touching but terribly limited fund, two RTI lectures were held at Bhandup and Thane. They also collected 1713 signatures on the Khairlanji dalit killing and forwarded the list to the President. The workshops had guest lecturers like RTI crusader Shailesh Gandhi and writers like Pradeep Deshpande and Sulabha Brahme, who taught the group an invaluable lesson: you need patience to tackle bureaucratic sloth and you need to know an issue inside-out before you decide to march on it.

The group has three agendas: women’s empowerment, reforms in education and rights awareness. “We also want to promote the spirit of nationalism,” says Namrata Salunkhe. In order not to sound like a bunch of bores, they have coined some catchy one-liners. “The attitude of our group is: Try me rather than why me,” says Nikhil Kasarpalkar, a genetics research student. Chimes in Umakant Nadkar: “Join us. We need no education, just dedication.” Shamika Chavhan, the youngest member, declares that the problem is that “80% of the youth don't care about anything apart from their jobs and the remaining 20% have no clue about how to help even if they want to”.

Perhaps they could dial Dnyeyam.

ADMISSIONS OPEN

Anyone can join

The membership fee is Rs 150 and Rs 50 per month thereafter

To join email dnyeyam@gmail.com or visit www.dnyeyam.blogspot.com

public meet... JAWABDYA

2007-10-11T22:37:00.000+05:30

On Saturday, 6 October, Agni alongwith 9 other organizations had called a JAWABDYA public meeting at SMPS school at night. Agni coordinator Mr. Laxmidas Thakker who is a very prominent social worker of Mulund, and treated with great respect by Citizens and politicians was the main moving spirit for the meeting. He told the audience that he had personally written and talked to the eighteen Corpororators of Mulund-Bhandup to invite them to come to the meeting to meet Citizens on the Crawford market issue. Though about six had indicated that they would come, only Shri Mhaske,- of BJP,- had come. The other Corporator present was Shri Mohsin Haider of SP, from Andheri. This shows that Corporators who come for our votes, are unable to even come face to face with Citizens.

Former Commissioner Shri Sukhthankar presided and Mr. Gerson Da’cunha was also present to guide the meeting. Shri Mhaske first declared that he accepted that the decision was bad. He said he had to follow the orders of his party leaders. He accepted that Corruption was the reason for this proposal being passed. As Citizens questioned closely, he promised to write to his party leaders to ask for any rational explanation.

He agreed that he was embarrassed by the close questions being asked by Citizens about his conduct.

Shri Mohsin Haider disarmed the audience by thanking them for not tearing his clothes for the treachery in which the Corporators were all involved. He admitted that his party had wrongly supported this proposal and said he was publicly apologizing for it. He said that as atonement.for its mistake the SP had asked for the proposal to be reopened. He stated that the proposal could be reconsidered by the Corporation after three months. If adequate Public pressure was brought, it could force a change in the decision. He also suggested that since under Section 520(b), the CM had the power to overrule any decision of the Corporation which leads to loss of Public money, Citizens should write to the CM asking him to invoke his powers. Shri Haider said it was necessary for Citizens to defend their money and interests, otherwise the Corporators would continue with their Corrupt actions.

Mr. Sukhthankar,-former Chief Secretary and Municipal Commissioner,- also exhorted the audience to become vigilant for their interests and ensure that the Corporators are individually held accountable. He expressed surprise and dismay at the blatant corruption which this episode had displayed.

Many more meetings are being planned by Bombay Catholic Sabha, PCGT, Agni,

H-west ward, Mahiti Adhikar Manch, Janhit Manch and many other organizations.

A true Citizen’s movement is beginning to stir. It will exercise for the Sovereignty of the Citizen and enforce the accountability of their elected representatives.

shailesh gandhi

7 October, 2007.

jawabdya...

2007-10-11T22:32:00.001+05:30

It is significant coincidence that the first JAWABDYA meeting was held on 2nd October at Kaifi Azmi garden at JVPD. The meeting was organized by Juhu Citizen’s Group and started with a lovely rendition of Bhajans including ‘Vaishnavajan to tene Kahiye’. This perhaps heralds the Citizens actively moving the governance towards SWARAJ. Three Corporators –Adolf D’souza, Jyotsna Dighe( Cong) and Chhaya Bhanji (SS) had come to interact with about 50 Citizens. Anand Desai conducted the meeting very ably and told me that most of the work had been done by Vimal Thakore.

Citizens expressed their condemnation of the way in which the Crawford market scam was occuring by a complicity of all parties. They pointed out the impact of this decision was a loss of over 1000 crores and applied to all Municipal Markets this would mean over 6000 crores;- a loss of over 5000 for each Citizen. The fact that a heritage we have inherited and are caretakers for, is sought to frittered away was also made. Citizens demanded that the new RG, PG policy which seeks to give away our properties should not be passed. Anil Desai also raised the issue of the Ronsons garden which is also being given away. In short a strong demand was made to stop all practices by which OUR property was being given away to a chosen few.

Adolf agreed and the other two Corporators while agreeing with the Citizens said that these matters were decided by the party bosses. Citizens insisted that since the Corporators had individually canvassed for votes, they would be held personally accountable. Ultimately Ms. Jyotsna Dighe committed that she would take up the matter with her party leader and give an answer within a week to Citizens. Ms. Chhaya Bhanji also promised to take up the matter with her party leaders. She also said that a similar proposal was to come up for another 21 markets in the Corporation in the coming week, and she would safeguard our interests. All three corporators also promised to stop the Ronsons garden giveaway. Members of H-west ward said they have started a signature campaign and will be organizing a JAWABDYA meeting within a week. They were also thinking of a human chain.

On Saturday, 6th October, Agni is holding a JAWABDYA Public meeting at Sheth Motibhai Pacchad Rashtriya Shala, V.P. Road, Near Lion’s Club, Mulund (west), Mumbai 80. The main organizer is Agni Coordinator Shri Laxmidas Thakker (32911966). The meeting will be from 7.30pm to 9.30pm and amongst the speakers will be Shri Sukhthankar Gerson Da Cunha and many Corporators.

This is an interesting and promising beginning to the JAWABDYA ABHIYAN.

Bombay Catholic Sabha and PCGT are also likely to lead this campaign. A Citizen’s Campaign appears to be building which might result in:

Saving our 6000 crores.
Stopping the RG/PG proposal and all proposals to give away our properties.
Make a beginning for us to hold our elected representatives accountable INDIVIDUALLY.
Let us all put our shoulder to this. WE CAN SUCCEED.

shailesh gandhi

Mera Bharat Mahaan..
Nahi Hai,
Per Yeh Dosh Mera Hai.

for further details contact: shaileshgan@gmail.com

citizens sovereignty

2007-10-11T22:32:00.000+05:30

Wanted to share this with as many friends as possible:

Contempt of Citizen’s Sovereignty

It is well recognized that the center of a democratic setup is the individual Citizen who is a sovereign in her own right. She gives up part of the sovereignty to the State in return for a Rule of Law. The Instrumentalities of the State exist to serve the Citizens who are the Masters. The Masters have the right to scrutinize and question their Public servants about the actions that are taken on their behalf. The existence and legitimacy of the Public servants is derived from the service they provide to the Citizens. Some special privileges and immunity may be given to the Public servants only to ensure that they can function to serve this objective. Otherwise the key principle of democracy is equality before the law. “Be they ever so high, the law is above them.”

Let us now look at three sets of Public servants as an example and test the principle of the respect and protection they need, to be able to discharge their duties for the Citizens. Take the elected representatives, the Police and the Judges to test this principle. The elected representatives have the highest legitimacy because they subject themselves to an approval by the Citizens every five years. It can be argued that they need to be able to command respect from the Citizens, without which respect for the laws they frame will not be forthcoming. They frame policies, which have political and financial impact on the present as well as future generations. They have to face people directly in every conceivable place and time, and if special privileges or protection against criticism is not given to them, they will not be able to discharge their functions. Let us now picture a policeman who has to enforce the law. He again faces Citizens,- even enraged or inflamed mobs,- and must function in the midst of all the dirt and grime to enforce the law. If Citizens do not respect him,- or believe he is corrupt and a criminal himself,- can he discharge his law enforcement function to the Public? On the other hand a judge sits in a cloistered and protected environment and dispenses justice to supposedly uphold the law. He is in a very safe and secure environment and discharges his functions at his own languorous pace comfortably sitting in a chair.

And yet, the judges have given unto themselves the supernatural power to try Citizens for contempt if they speak or write critically about their conduct. This has been brought out very starkly in the way they have used the Contempt provisions against journalists recently. Allegations have been made against former Supreme Court Chief Justice Shri Sabharwal by a set of eminent Citizens who have demanded an enquiry. It is commonsense that if any impropriety has been committed the responsibility will lie with those making the allegations. By no perverse logic can the journalists who reported these be held guilty. However, the Delhi Court by this decision has presented us with an opportunity to question and rectify a grievous anomaly in our democratic functioning. We can certainly understand the need for the Court to have the powers to try for Contempt if its orders are not implemented. But the privilege of being able to terrorize Citizens and media into not examining or questioning their actions or decisions is an anachronism. Criticism strengthens all democratic institutions and the power of the Citizens to question their Servants is Supreme. If allegations and charges of impropriety or corruption render Public Servants ineffective then we must consider extending the warm obfuscating cloak of ‘Contempt powers’ to all of them. Surely the need for them to have it is higher? We have made allegation against MPs and MLAs, carried out sting operations against them, and nobody including the Courts have argued that this is the cause of our misgovernance. Charges have been leveled against the DGP of Maharashtra, Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers and nobody contends that these are responsible for misgovernance. If anything a greater need for transparency and accountability has been felt and the Right To Information Act is one of the recent manifestations of this. It is worth remembering that the Courts,- which made lofty pronouncements of the Right To Information being a fundamental right of Citizens,- have been laggards at implementing them. The Delhi High Court first asked for Rs.500 as application fee, compared to 10 rupees in most States and the Central Government and the Bombay High Court illegally refused to subject itself to this law for a full year!

A myth is being propagated that the judiciary is much better than the other instrumentalities of the State, by this weapon of contempt. This is untrue and most probably the same diseases which afflict the rest of our governance exist in the Courts. All voices are terrorized into silence by muzzling. Nobody knows the truth; and the peril is that the decline could be more than elsewhere because of this cloak of Contempt with which the judiciary protects itself. The recent cases of the Zee and the Midday journalists should awaken us into demanding that the Courts exercise some wisdom and maturity in using this law. Let us stop mouthing the cliché, “ We have faith in the Judiciary,” and give the clear statement that we shall question, since it is our fundamental right.

The Court has no authority to make Laxman Rekhas for its Masters-the Citizens of India. It is we who will draw the Citizen’s Rekhas which the Public servants shall not cross. When a Prime Minister of India tried to muzzle our Freedom of expression and press, we defeated her at the elections. For unwarranted or motivated allegations, the Citizens including the Prime Minister and judges have the protection of the laws on defamation. There is absolutely no justification for the judges to give themselves the power of the Lord to be above all criticism. I hope the Supreme Court will in the present cases, exercise its discretionary powers with wisdom, but it is necessary for us to remove the clauses relating to Criminal contempt of Court, and retain only the Civil Contempt provisions so that they may be used by the Courts to stop contempt of their orders.

shailesh gandhi: shaileshgan@gmail.com

RTI Activist

letter to the municipal commissioner

2007-10-11T22:29:00.000+05:30

Sending letter sent to Municipal Commissioner. I am also sending below the list of organisations which are together in opposing this
Corruption by our Jaichands. If any other organisations wish to join, please let me know.

shailesh gandhi
B2 Gokul Apartment, Near Asha Parekh Hospital,Poddar Road, Santacruz (W),Mumbai-400054. Email: shaileshgan@vsnl.com

Ganesh Chaturthi, September, 15, 2007

To,

Dr. Jairaj Phatak,

Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai,

MCGM, Mumbai 400001.

Sub.: Proposed redevelopment of Jyotiba Phule market.

Dear Sir,

You are aware that Citizens have been explaining how the proposed ‘Redevelopment Proposal’ for the Jyotiba Phule Market is against Public Interest. We had explained that in its present form, it would mean Public giving away a profit of over 1000 crores in this proposal alone. Our estimate is that over 6000 crores will be lost to the Public if this same proposal is applied to all the Municipal Markets, which means stealing about 5000 rupees from every Mumbaikar. We spoke 93 Corporators, out of which 85 Corporators across all parties agreed with our contentions and financial calculations. Yet, the House has passed this proposal without giving any reasons and with our elected representatives doing a treacherous turnaround which would do Jaichand proud. We are launching a ‘JAWABDYA ABHIYAN’ to get their explanations and make them learn accountability.

The undersigned had also met you to explain the astronomical financial loss to Public. You had readily agreed that there was no justification for doing this without adequate transparency, and a proper process of tendering. We believe that the Municipal Commissioner has the power to stop the implementation of a proposal in Public interest, and this power has been excercised earlier. We are sure you will agree that this is a fit case for excercising the power you have been given, to meet your obligations to the Public Service you have chosen. Your position represents the checks and balances we have provided in a democracy, and when our elected representatives act completely unreasonably driven only by CORRUPTION, it is your duty to protect our interests.

As proposed, a monstrosity of 65690 sq.mts is to come up which will have a very adverse impact on the traffic and infrastructure of the already crowded area. The Grade 1 Heritage prectinct will be lost forever –snatched from our future generations by the greed of a few. I am also giving an alternate proposal which could lead to a new market being built, giving 10% more space to the existing licencees and either a profit of about 611 crores or an area of 17446 sq.mts. to allow MCGM to house PAPs. This would have the advantage of allowing MCGM to carry out some of its important road widening and other projects which are held up, since it cannot offer the alternate space. All this can achieved by building with an FSI of just 1.5 and constructing a new building of 25435 sq. mts. as the attached sheet shows. It would be very easy to preserve the Heritage prectinct as well. We are sure you will do your duty to the Citizens whom you have served so well.

I hope we could meet so that I could explain this proposal to you personally.

We could fix a time and date which is mutually convenient.

Best regards,

Yours truly,

shailesh gandhi

Mera Bharat Mahaan…

Nahi Hai,

Per Yeh Dosh Mera Hai.

Alternate Proposal to preserve the Sanctity of Jyotiba Phule’s name in the Market

Area of Plot
22471.75
Sq.mts.

Area with licencees
6205.98
Sq.mits.

Heritage Building
5515
Sq.mts.

Proposed Building FSI 1.5
25435
Sq.mts.

Area to give to licencees (10% extra)
6827
Sq.mts.

MCGM gets
18609
Sq.mts.

Assumptions

Construction Cost
16000
Per Sq.mtr.

Sale Price of Property
350000
Per Sq. mtr.

Construction Cost to of building
41
crores

MCGM sells to recover cost of Construction
1163
Sq.mtr.

And Makes Profit
611
Crores

Or, houses PAPs in extra area
17446
Sq.mts.

Note:

10.7 sq.ft.= 1 Sq.mtr.

Construction cost Rs. 16000 per sq. mtr. is equal to Rs. 1495 per sq.ft.

Sale price of Rs.350000 per sq.mtr. is equal to Rs. 32710 per sq.ft.

The present proposal is an affront of the CORRUPT to the fair name of

Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.

A proposal which restores Public Interest will be a tribute to this name.

May Lord Ganesh give wisdom to everyone to follow

The virtuous path of Public Service;

To Be inspired by the ideals of Jyotiba Phule,

And not desecrate his name and memory with their CORRUPTION.

shailesh gandhi

Ganesh Chaturthi, 2007

Supporting Organisations

For Saving Our Interests against our CORRUPT Jaichands

1.BCAS Foundation

2. Federation of H-West Ward, Citizen’s trust.

3. Bandra Reclamation Area Voluntary Organisation.

4. Gen. A.K.Vaidya Nagar Rahivasi Sangh

5. Bandra Bandstand Residence Association

6. Nagar

7. Clean- air

8. Clean Sweep

9. S North Ward Citizen’s Federation.

10. Gazdar Scheme Residence Trust

11. Oval Cooperage Resident’s Association.

12. Khar Resident’s Association

13. Mahiti Adhikar Manch

14. Juhu Scheme Resident’s Association

15. Whistleblower’s India

16. Agni

17.JVPD tenants and Resident’s Association.

18. Bombay Catholic Sabha

19. F/North Ward Citizen’s Forum.

20. I Love Mumbai

jawabdya abhiyaan

2007-10-11T22:24:00.000+05:30

September 12, 2007
Yes, the proposal to implement the Crawford Market was passed yesterday in the House in BMC. S.K.Nangia, Bhaskar Prabhu, Francis and I were there to witness this treachery by our Corporators.
But we will now do the following:
1. Try the means outlined below to stop this proposal.
2. Launch a JAWABDYA CAMPAIGN.
The Citizens movement for accountability will come out stronger at the end of this.

JAWABDYA ABHIYAN

Background: It is common knowledge that the Crawford Market redevelopment plan passed in the BMC house on 11 September will result in a Public loss of over 1000 crores. This was also explained to, and understood by about 85 BMC Corporators including the House leaders of the Shiv Sena, BJP, Congress, Samajwadi Party and MNS. Citizens have spoken to them, and various important Corporators like Shubha Raul, Ravindra Waikar, Sunil Prabhu, Yogesh Sagar, Rajhans Singh, Shailaja Girkar, Vijaya Dhulla, Upendra Doshi and Asma Sheikh had agreed that the proposal was not in Public interest and they would oppose it.

Yet this passed with the tacit support of all these parties.

The reason for this dishonesty is clearly seen by the Citizens as brazen CORRUPTION.

Without any sting operation, the evidence is there for all to see.

Only the NCP and Adolf D’souza walked out of the house to protest.

We will approach the Commissioner to stop this proposal. We have been advised that he can do it, and we expect that the Commissioner will be more true to Public Interest than our elected representatives. If that fails, there are some prominent Citizens willing to take the matter to Court.

However, let us also take this opportunity to bring demand greater accountability from our elected representatives. Let us launch a

“ Jawabdya Abhiyan”. Ask them to give us answers to our questions, and explain this reality of the evidence of CORRUPTION to Citizens. We will try and do it by separate meetings with our Corporators at various places. Let us question them intensely for the next three months, so that they realize there is a political cost for their CORRUPTION. They took our votes as individuals, and must answer our questions as individuals.

These are the suggested questions. Also, please innovate to keep this issue in the minds of Citizens. Let us not forget the Jaichands.

We elected you as a Corporator to serve and safeguard our interests. We feel you have let us down, and want answers to our following questions.

1. Do you agree that you are personally responsible to your constituents? Yes / No.

2. Did you act against Public interest because of orders from your party leaders? Yes / No.

3. Citizens see that the passing of this proposal was an act against Public

Interest which is a loss to every Mumbaikar of Rs.1000. We feel the only

reason for this action is CORRUPTION. Do you agree?

Yes / No

4. If you do not agree please give us the reasons for so many Corporators not safeguarding our interest?

Name of Corporator: Party:

Meeting/ Telephone:

Place of meeting or telephone number on which you spoke.

Name and phone number of Citizens:

for further details contact shailesh gandhi on: shaileshgan@gmail.com

the 6000 cr update

2007-10-11T22:17:00.000+05:30

The Citizen's effort to save 6000 crores has now been able to reach 90 people who can stop this. This list has 82 Corporators, 2 MPs, and 2 MLAs
apart from three senior party leaders and the Municipal Commissioner. Various Citizens have reached them by personal meetings and by Telephone.
Suresh Nangia, Silloo Marker, Laxmidas Thakker , Aftab Siddique, Gerson da'cunha, Vidya Vaidya, Daphne Warapen, Sandeep Jalan, G.R.Vora, Maria D'souza,
John Miranda are amongst the Citizens who have been able to contact and talk to them. The champion is Rajesh Drak who alone with a sweet voice has been able to contact over 30 -all on the telephone! I have persuaded him to share his talk, and am reproducing it below, for all of us to learn how effective he has been. I know others
are also trying. A little effort please; if we can reach about 180 Corporators by end August, we might be able to save our 6000 crores.
Modus Operandi of eliciting responses
Guess the mother tongue from the name & speak in the language of receiver, viz.Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, English, etc.
Specimen talk given below (1 for caller, 2 for receiver) :
1) Hello, Juhu sey Rajesh Darak bol raha hoon. Kya ek minute apse phone pe baat kar sakta hoon?
2) Kya hai?
1) Crawford Market development ke barey main
2) Boliye
1) Kuch dino pehle BMC mein yeh proposal aane wala tha, jisme builder ko Rs.105 crore ka kharch hone wala tha aur Rs.1050 crore ka napha hone wala tha. Matlab 1 rupaiye ka kharch aur 10 rupaiye ka nafaa. Kya aapko nahi lagta ki isme public ka bahoot nuksan hota tha?
2) Haan par woh proposal to aaya hi nahi.
1) Agar bhavishya mein dubara ees roop mein yeh proposal laya gaya to aap uska virodh karenge na?
2)....................
1) Dhanyavaad saheb / madam
2) .......................
Rajesh Darak
The list so far:

Id Name of Person Party Position Citizen's name Meeting at Telephone Date & time Proposal bad Proposal good Reasons
1 Sanjay Raut Shiv Sena MP shailesh gandhi Saamna off.
10 July, 6.00pm Agrees

2 Jairaj Phatak
Municipal Comm. shailesh office at MCGM
12 July, 2.00pm Agrees

3 Adolf D'souza Independent Corporator 50 Citizens Nimkar library
21July, 6.30pm Agrees

4 Ravindra Waikar Shiv Sena Corporator vidya, pk das, srg off. At MCGM
19 July, 4.30pm Agrees

5 Ravindra Pawar NCP Senior leader shailesh
20520766 19 July, 11.00am Agrees

6 Vidya Chavan NCP Corporator shailesh telephone 9967356011 20 July, 10.00am Agrees

7 Asif Zakaria Congress Corporator 50 Citizens Nimkar Library
21 July, 6.30pm Agrees

8 Milind Deora Congress MP shailesh Khetan Bhavan
23 July, 4.00pm Agrees

9 Shailaja Girkar BJP Corporator S.K. Nangia personal
26 July, 11.30am Agrees

10 Yogesh Sagar BJP Corporator S.K.Nangia; Sandeep; Rajesh personal
26 July, 1.30pm Agrees

12 Vijaibhai Girkar BJP VP, State S.K.Nangia
9820180595 27 July, 10.20am Agrees

13 Jaya Singh Tiwana Congress Corporator S.K.Nangia
66992230 27Jul, 12.40pm Agrees

14 Aslam Shaikh Congress Corporator S.K.Nangia; Rajesh
9820397011 27 Jul, 12.50pm Agrees

15 Shubhada Gudekar Shiv Sena Corporator S.K.Nangia
9820397011 27 Jul, 4.50pm
Yes will meet
16 Ashish Shelar BJP Corporator shailesh gandhi; Daphne Bandra residence
28 Jul, 10.30am Agrees

17 Upendra Doshi Congress Corporator G.R.Vora
Telephone 28 Jul, 12.35pm Agrees

18 Anahita Mehta Congress Corporator shailesh gandhi
9820524441 29 Jul, 9.50am Agrees

19 Ashok Sawant Shiv Sena Corporator Aftab Siddique

2 Aug 7.45pm
No comment

20 Jayant Siroya Congress Corporator Aftab Siddique

28 Jul, 7pm Agrees

21 Terattil Alice Johnson Congress Corporator Aftab Siddique; Sandeep

28 july, 7.30pm Agrees

22 Tushar Aphaley MNS VP Bandra (W) Aftab Siddique

23 July,8pm Agrees

23 Mangesh Sangle MNS Corporator Aftab Siddique

23 Ju, 8.30pm Agrees

24 Baba Siddique Congress MLA Maria D'souza
Telephone 30 Jul, 9.30pm Agrees

25 Raghunath Thevai Congress Corporator Silloo Marker

30 July, 7.30pm Agrees
15 party workers present
26 Sheetal Mhatre Congress Corporator Sandeep Jalan
9867322422 30 July, 5pm Agrees

27 Amin Patel Congress Corporator Sandeep Jalan
9820105761 1 Aug, 2.30pm Agrees

28 Dyanmurti Sharma BJP Corporator Sandeep; Rajesh
9867714946 30 Jul, 5.30pm Agrees

29 Vinod Shekhar Congress Corporator Sandeep Jalan, Gerson
9821177222 1 Aug, 8.15pm Agrees

30 Bhalchandra Mhatre Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9821879246 6 Aug, 7.30pm Agrees

31 Sujata Patekar Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9820702712 6 Aug, 7.35pm Agrees

32 Vinod Ghedia BJP Corporator Rajesh Darak
9820325579 6 Aug, 7.45pm Agrees

33 Namdeo Khursange NCP Corporator Rajesh Darak
9867169753 6 Aug, 7.50pm Agrees

34 Vinay Patil Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9820821420 6 Aug, 7.55pm
No comment Party decides
35 Simantini Narkar Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9869011135 6 Aug, 8.05pm
No comment Party decides
36 Pravin Shah BJP Corporator Rajesh Darak
9322704829 6 Aug, 8.10pm Agrees

37 Bharat Kini BJP Corporator Rajesh Darak;Nangia
9833370332 6 Aug, 8.20pm
No comment

38 Kshtija Pujari BJP Corporator Rajesh Darak
9892882195 6 Aug, 8.35pm Agrees

39 Ajanta Yadav Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9867034967 6, Aug, 8.40pm Agrees

40 Geeta Yadav Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9892850871 6 Aug, 8.50pm Agrees

41 Baldevsingh Manku Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9869215151 6 Aug, 9.00pm
No comment Party decides
42 Dr. Ram Barot BJP Corporator Rajesh Darak
9869080789 6 Aug, 9.05pm Agrees

43 Anita Ghag MNS Corporator Vidya Vaidya, Tushar Aphale
9892289321
Agrees

44 Bhomsingh Rathod Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9869044884 7 Aug, 9.40pm Agrees

45 Sadashiv Patil Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9821416005 7 Aug,10.10pm
No comment Party decides
47 Dikshita Shah Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9324435499 7 Aug, 10.25pm
No time

49 Sunil Prabhu Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9821093488 7 Aug, 10.35pm Agrees

50 Sumangal Koltharkar Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9223270734 7 Aug, 10.40pm Agrees

51 R.R.Patil Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9867112171 7 Aug 10.45pm Agrees

52 Dilip Shinde Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9819322322 7 Aug, 10.50pm Agrees

53 Sayyad Bargena SP Corporator Rajesh Darak
9870477866 7 Aug, 11.00pm Agrees

54 Kamlesh Yadav Congress Corporator S.K. Nangia
9820331378 5 Aug Agrees

55 Shiv Kumar Jha Independent Corporator S.K.Nangia
9323042901 5 Aug Agrees

56 Rajul Vyas Congress Corporator S.K.Nangia
9869928901 7 Aug Agrees

57 Sandhya Doshi NCP Corporator S.K.Nangia

7 Aug Agrees

58 P.U. Mehta Congress MLA S.K.Nangia
9820181020 27 Jul, 12.30pm Agrees

59 Shirish Chowgule MNS Corporator Vidya Vaidya, Tushar Aphale
9820371991
Agrees

60 Mangesh Sangale MNS Corporator Vidya Vaidya, Tushar Aphale
9820349166
Agrees

61 Parmeshwar Kadam MNS Corporator Vidya, Tushar
9222124443
Agrees

62 Shaila Lande MNS Corporator Vidya, Tushar
9833201646
Agrees

63 Rajendra Lad MNS Corporator Vidya, Tushar
981632347
Agrees

64 Suhbha Raul Mayor
shailesh gandhi

8 Aug, 5.25pm Agrees

65 Pramod Mandrekar Congress Corporator shailesh
9821166447 8 Aug, 5.35pm Agrees

66 Raj Hans Singh Congress Corporator shailesh

11 Jul, Agrees

67 Raghunath Jhaveri Congress Corporator G.R.Vora

Agrees

68 Upendra Doshi Congress Corporator G.R. Vora

28 Jul, 12.35pm Agrees

69 Kavita Rodricks Congress Corporator John Miranda Corporator's home
11 Aug, 10.00am Agrees

70 Vilas Chawry Independent Corporator Daphne Warapen

No comment

71 Maske BJP Corporator Laxmidas Thakker
932440776 14 Aug 8.30am Agrees

72 Kotak Manoj BJP Corporator Laxmidas Thakker
25690532 14 Aug, 8.40am Agrees

73 Hamid Shah BJP Corporator Laxmidas Thakker
25610104 14 Aug, 10.15am Agrees

74 Avtarkaur Sobti Congress Corporator Laxmidas Thakker
923290016 14 Aug, 8.50am Agrees

75 Rajul Patel Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9323801469 8 Aug 9.20pm Agrees

77 Devendra Amberkar Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9322290027 9 Aug, 9.15pm Agrees

78 Jyostna Dighe Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
98213213222 9 Aug, 9.20pm Agrees

79 Bharti Ghongade Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9892732191 15 Aug,11.45am Agrees

80 Barudgar Aziz Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9867157777 18Aug,6.40pm Agrees

81 Jayanti Siroya Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9869201931 18 Aug,6.45pm Agrees

82 Shailesh Parab Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9322515448 15 Aug,11.50am Agrees

83 Sheikh Sabirabi Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
200574751 15Aug,11.55am Agrees

84 Ramesh Latke Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9869008179 18Aug,7.05pm Agrees

85 Clive Dias Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9821336231 18Aug,7.10pm Agrees

86 Roshan Dudwadkar Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9870000281 18Aug,7.15pm Agrees

87 Kamlesh Rai Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9820006067 18Aug,7.20pm Agrees

88 Nitin Salagara Congress Corporator Rajesh Darak
9867656612 18Aug,7.25pm Agrees

89 Manohar Panchal Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak
9869184184 18Aug,7.30pm Agrees

90 Shashikant Patkar Shiv Sena Corporator Rajesh Darak

4 further details contact: shailesh gandhi on: shaileshgan@gmail.com

RTI WORKSHOP...

2007-10-10T20:22:00.000+05:30

Indian Merchants' Chamber

Intensive half-day Workshop organized by

Indian Merchants' Chamber, Mumbai on

Right to Information

Conducted by

Mr Shailesh Gandhi

(RTI activist)

Saturday, 13th October, 2007 from 12.30 pm to 6.30 pm

in the Kilachand Conference Room (2nd Flr), IMC

Programme

12.30 pm
Registration and Tea

1.00 pm to 2.00 pm
Historical, political and legal perspective of Right to Information and its importance

2.00 pm to 4.00 pm
Provisions of RTI Act, 2005

4.00 pm to 4.15 pm
Tea Break

4.15 pm to 5.15 pm
Case Studies

5.15 pm to 6.30 pm
Practical workshop exercise

There is no participation fee. Citizens interested in participating should register with Mr S N Gaitonde / Mr Shailesh Joshi on Tel. No. 2204 6633 extn. 133 / 114 or by email: asst@imcnet.org;gs8@imcnet.org

This event is organized by the Anti-Corruption Cell of IMC, whose Chairman is Mr. J F Ribeiro and Co-Chairman is Mr. Satish Sahney.

RTI SEMINAR ON 15TH AUGUST 2007 IN THANE

2007-08-15T22:53:00.000+05:30

save 6000 cr...

2007-07-19T20:27:00.000+05:30

shailesh gandhi
B2 Gokul Apartment, Near Asha Parekh Hospital,Poddar Road, Santacruz (W), Mumbai-400054.
Tel: 32903776 Email: shaileshgan@vsnl.com

Public could lose 1000 Crores on CRAWFORD MARKET ‘REDEVELOPMENT!

And a Total of over 6000 crores over all the MUNICIPAL MARKETS

People can stop this loot if they take the issue to heart. Every Mumbaikar including the poorest loses about 5000 rupees in this. Citizens who would like to join this effort and understand how they can contribute in saving our money are invited to a meeting to understand and discuss this:
Date: Saturday, 21st July, 2007
Time: 6.00pm to 8.00pm
Venue: Khar Nimkar Library, C.D. Marg, Between S.V. Road and Madhu Park, Khar (W).
About 10 minutes walk from Khar Station. 2 mins from S.V. Road's Khar Stn. bus stop.

You can save 5000 rupees belonging to you and all the Mumbaikars with a little time.

If the poorest Citizen who has some land on which there are tenants, and wants to develop it, what does he do? He approaches some builders and figures out who will offer the highest sum to him. This simple principle is not occurring to the MCGM. When I was in primary school, we used to be given arithmetic sums, which said there are 50 mangoes which must be divided amongst 3 people in a proportion such that A gets 40%, B gets 30% and C gets 20%. How many mangoes will each get? In the later years in school, the idea that there could be a cost associated was introduced and all of us would also calculate the cost of such a division. However-unbelievable, as it might appear- the MCGM proposes to act as if their officers never studied beyond the primary school and is about to gift over 1000 crores of the Citizens property in Crawford market- and a few thousand crores across all Municipal Markets!

I read about the development and privatization of the Crawford Market in the papers, and decided to investigate this transaction. The information given under Right To Information from the Market department of MCGM in the beginning of 2006 made horrifying reading. I obtained copies of the proposal using RTI. Trying to read the bureaucratic language and the reams of complex nonsense spewed forth is enough to confuse any Citizen.

The primary reason for this grand policy and proposal is that the MCGM claims it is very concerned about its duty to provide Markets to Citizens. It laments that since it does not have resources- in fact it designs every policy to ensure impoverishment of the Public,- it seeks to give all the benefits to the tenants and developers. Under this policy, the tenants negotiate with the developers, and MCGM gives extra FSI- which will ultimately lead to greater demands on the infrastructure. In return, MCGM takes some constructed space- calculated as a percentage.

Using Right To Information I have obtained a complex web of bureaucratese which refers to a number of interlinked resolutions which will actually fulfil the objective of impoverishing the City. I am giving below, the financial implications of the proposal. All the figures have been taken from the proposal obtained from the Market Department of MCGM. I have made only two assumptions:

1. The cost of construction would be Rs. 16000 per sq. mtr. (which would be about Rs 1495 per sq. ft.)

2. The price per sq. mtr. of the commercial premises would be Rs. 350000 per sq. mtr. (which would be about Rs. 32710 per sq. ft.)

When I calculate the financial implications of this, it means the Public,- the owner of the land,- gets free construction cost of just about Rs. 42 crores and allows the tenants and developer to gain over Rs. 1000 crores!

What can be done? :
1. There are enough private developers of Markets, and the MCGM should desist from developing Markets. In this case, I do not believe anybody has analysed the impact on the traffic and amenities when 6205 sq.mtrs. becomes 65689 sq. mtrs! We are creating a nightmare, apart from changing the Heritage skyline. If this view is accepted a smaller structure could be built where a better market could come up.

2. If there are strong reasons for this development, which I am not able to comprehend and the infrastructure solutions exist, MCGM could give a contract for about Rs. 105 crores and stand to gain over 1000 crores. Alternately, tenders could be floated to completely handle everything in which case too, MCGM would get over 900 crores.

This same model is presently proposed to be adopted over all the 100 Municipal markets and will mean that some people would gain over 6000 crores at Public expense...

Last October the Corporation faced with these facts, stopped the proposal. Once the elections were over, the proposal has again been mooted. It was proposed to be passed last Thursday on 12 th July by the Corporation. Some of us approached the leaders of various political parties in the Corporation and outside. The result was that the proposal has been stalled presently. I met the Municipal Commissioner who also agreed that this work should be done by the process of inviting tenders so that the Public gets its rightful share. However, the proposal could again be revived and passed if we are not vigilant.

We have a plan which could be executed if some Citizens participated. The idea is that we will explain all the calculations and the way the scheme is likely to hurt our interests at a meeting. We are hoping Citizens will,- subsequently in the next ten days,- meet Corporators, legislators, MPs and other political leaders in the City, and discuss the proposal and how it is against Public interests. These meetings would be fixed indepently or in small groups. They will make notes of the reactions and comments from the political leaders they meet. We will collate the reactions of the political leaders and put them in Public domain. If we can succeed in this, we might find a way to enforce accountability from our political representatives. I expect the total effort will not take more than about 10 to 20 hours of your time. Rs.6000 crores is worth that effort.

Do spread the word an invite friends to join.

Article In Mulund-Powai Plus

2007-07-16T22:20:00.000+05:30

To Read The Article On RTI Seminar BY Shailesh Gandhi In Mulund-Powai Plus click below:

http://www.mulundpowaiplus.com/fullStory.asp?articleID=MUP4ART0713200734150

13th july 2007

post in your comments at the blogsite itself.

thanking you,

Dnyeyam-Know Yourself.

Your Right To question ???

2007-07-05T22:42:00.000+05:30

hi all, we as Dnyeyam- Know Yourself

under our objective Know Your Rights are having Right To Information Awareness Seminars in colleges, corporates, offices.

if your college/corporate/office is interested in holding a rti seminar please contact us on our e-mail id dnyeyam@gmail.com

remember:

"you have the right to question, make use of it."

Gender Justice, Why & How?

2007-06-03T14:22:00.000+05:30

There's hardly any qualitative distinction between a child and a grown up woman when it comes to defining of an ideal child or woman .They are ideal and praiseworthy when they listen, obey and follow the man or men whom they belong to both socially and individually. Women all over have more or less accepted their secondary social status either under compulsions or obligations or both .They are expected to compromise and that just means 'Get back or else …!' They are supposed to be the peace keeping force at least at family level if not at the global level. There's hardly any society or even a democracy in the modern world that speaks out against this historically in built societal role of women.
In case they dare resist or protest, there's an ultimate weapon flashed against them; The Religion. Indeed it's a weapon used by one and all in male-chaunistic world to
define the women's role. The man's worldly religion (that survives on myths, mystification, morals and marriages about women all over) has ever been busy in transforming woman's natural capacities into 'natural restrictions' For them, its God sent, eternal and hence unchangeable. We would never know if the Almighty ever thought about gender justice or at least general justice while playing Chief Justice of the Universe! In a sense, God and Religion in the civilized societies have proved to be the worst grounds of pessimism to keep the women from enjoying social, economic and gender justice. The political systems designed and developed by the men have also been proved to be systems functioning against human rights of the enslaved men and more so in case of women's human rights. The men's God, Religion and politics have no room for Eva.
May be it's our problem and we have to solve it in our own interest. We have democratic societies, culture, religions and a fine blend of them, laws, rules and regulations that have some views and counterviews about women around. They also keep talking a lot about their roles, rights, duties, of course again in terms of their status as mother, wife and daughter. No Great Escape for the poor lot called women folk. The women all over the World longed for nothing more than equal social status within their societies and nations but still appear to be languishing without securing anything much tangible to their credit. Is it because there's something called male superiority to women that holds the men folk back just because they keep doing certain jobs that seek more physical strength which the women folk lacks ? When it comes to natural build up of the body proper, nature has endowed the female with awesome capabilities to bear and rear her off springs. We call the earth 'the mother 'precisely for her in built capabilities to hold every thing she creates and procreates including her 'Masters' who boast themselves to be stronger than the 'Mistresses' for no absolute reason. But then, even the reasoning has been gagged and women have been non plussed for centuries.
The presumption is still effective and influential even though science and technology have made us realize that physical power or strength has nothing to do with productive efficiencies. A Car, a type writer, a computer or plane won't question your sexual status but knowledge, training, skills and alertness while working or operating them .The S& T has cleared lot of myths and doubts about women's capacities and capabilities but the
fundamentalists and communalists have maintained strongest apprehensions against the near half of the humankind through out.

The globalization process also rose to encourage discussions on empowerment of women that came up during the fourth International Women's Conference held in Beijing in 1995. Earlier, UN Decade for Women(1975-85) spoke out for gender justice in the context of ever growing fundamentalism and communalism that played heavy weight against women empowerment that came up for world wide debate during Beijing conference. The women representatives from various nations in all continents spoke and shared their plea, experiences, observations, comments and well defined plans to create a place of their own in the men's world. There was something quite common and mutual in their plight irrespective of their nationality; communal forces and their outfits had succeeded in strengthening their hold on key spheres of the state or nation and society challenged and shared by their own mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. They also held at ransom the Constitutions and judiciaries followed by Communalization of culture, Media, Religion, Ethics. Morals and life styles that dared locate some space and vent for their sexual counterparts all over. The issue in main for the fundamentalists was so much simple; " How dare women divorcees, widows, deserted, and single women and minors stay without male protection?" It means the fundamentalists and communal politicians in each well established civilized society have had something in common to share ;Dear Women, never take our love for granted ; it comes with a tag.. You deserve NO liberty.
Yes! Communal Politics has played a succeeding role in determining the role and rights and limits of women of course without their consent!
Though the G-process opened flood gates for welcoming empowerment of women in key spheres in developing competent nations ,mainly to serve the imperial interests and it allowed certain space for women to speak out their case , the over all process also restricted areas of operation and they in main consisted of beauty contests, fashion shows , ideal moms and hubbies,sexuality etc. that carried and spread the inherent message of secondary and subjugated citizenship for women in the man's trans national marketing process and promoted pro male mental set up.
For now, woman is effectively projected by all the MNCs as viable and easily available means of consummation and consumption .For them (MNCs) the new woman is one all set ready for a go to make her man happy .Our eyes are sour to the sight of half clad beauties sitting or spreading over newest models of cars and bikes .First you will see the luring beauty that's looking at you and roll your eye balls over the vehicle which you hardly can afford to own .But nothing wrong in fantasizing in owning both the beauty and the beast for a moment and You have carried the message; both are created for you and you alone! The Media has played a role in the process. They carry those lustrous ads and the modern happy-go-like nucleus families fantasize with the characters for a while. So is case with No .of other products which project women in their conventional roles; they are free to choose any one of them! Is this new woman is really free (of chains) or just free of charge?
But this is again is not without hidden roles of communal politics and culture. The beauties are from Europe or US since western culture and religion have been projected to
be 'liberal 'in attitude towards women. They love half clad women moving around like tail wielding cows .But show a beauty from Islamic world and they are sure to get another 9/11 within no time. Come India and see the Ideal women popularly known as Bhaaratiya Naari doing her surf washing, carrying cup of coffee or tea for the just returned seemingly tired hubby or a kid jumping straight into the kitchen for a Maggie soup or noodle plate and the ideal mom clad in designer saari serves him what HE wants with a smile.
For Indian male and female, culture and religion move hand in hand and they perform their age old duties as if they are human rights .Even the Indian Constitution has not dared question the practice but allows to continue unhindered. This has proved to be a fine case as to why IC has not made inroads in the family norms designed and nourished since Manusmriti times. As a matter of fact, both IC and Manusmriti have come up with some compromise; IC to take care of political and economic Rights and duties of the Indian citizens and Manusmriti will survive peacefully within the four walls of Hindu families' as it is religion and culture for them with which they identify themselves .Manusmriti just outlines codified duties for man and woman and asserts those duties as eternal. If you flip through some pages, you will come across a fact that it's the Right of man to see to the effective ands result oriented adherence to the duties designed and devised exclusively for woman !The Indian society still prefers to identify it's existence in tune with Manusmriti rather than Indian Constitution .
Yes! It's a matter of choice for free Indians but still so much chained to the social system that never spoke in favor of liberty, equality and fraternity and socio-economic-gender justice.
Let's have a look at the Indian women folk. A recent statistics observes that 85 per cent women in India are religious in practice. They are Hindu in general sense. What about those women with other followings? They are not Hindus in the first place; belong to 'other' religions and faiths and mostly the women belonging to tribal or 'uncivilized' lot that constitute 8 per cent of Indian demography .They (the tribal) have cultures but not religion of their own. Can we say these 15 per cent women lot is secular and enjoys every right conferred on them by the Indian Constitution? Or rather they go by primitive standards of gender justice? This 15% lot must be in parliament or Assemblies by such standards but you still find them in their jungles, Churches and mosques.

Muslim women, they have a different story altogether .When Islam in origin speaks out for equal status and respect for women, the Islamites all over have designed a distinct language of their own and each Muslim woman in India knows well what it stores for her! She is under complete control of introvert Muslim men, clergies, leaders and their fatwa.

If you think Buddhist women enjoy equal status, just meet some of them; they can't call their husbands by personal names, their hubbies or male folk doesn't help them in household work; the women go out to fetch water while the Buddhist males assemble nearby doing nothing. While Jains(trading community) who believe in non-violence etc. have women with single social job; raise rates of dowry for their highly placed sons and nieces and celebrate when a son is born in the family! Equal rights for women? It's western and foreign to us!

The Indian Constitution has conferred equal socio-fundamental rights to each Indian citizen regardless of gender, religion, caste, creed and place of domicile within political and geographical boundaries of India since 26.1.1950. The Indian socio political scenario suggests something else for Indian women. They are destined to learn and practice the religious duties enshrined in Manusmriti that was 'kind enough' to confer lowest status to Indian women in the stratified versions of Manusmriti. So it's here lies the reason why
we have 85 per cent of women practising religious duties for; life time ambitions that include in main, a good husband, healthy kids, stable income and some security .

We now have a Government that says, 'Literate woman means literate family' .And on the face of it we have some around to say 'Literate woman means religious woman '.The learned city dwelling woman has proved to manage both of these features and that must speak out for her in built capabilities to compromise anything that comes her way. That's her version of empowerment; she opts to acquire more and more form man's world step by step without hurting his ego, buying his nod salted with some convenient murmurs worth ignoring.
does cater needs of the vulnerable women in various areas of operation ;they need education, training in self employment, better wages and earnings , some encouragement for saving their own earnings, need a legal and ethical support to protect them from atrocities unleashed on them by their husbands and in-laws , local leaders and Police administration.
They also seek defense against forced marriages and unrestricted flesh trade and prostitution which again have religious sanctions. Rapes have now become a rule to stay rather than exception. Rapes, sexual abuse and sexploitation of women were unknown during pre-historic times .But they have now become cruel most means of control over female body surrounded and justified by fundamentalists, fascists, communal politicians, MNCs ,cynic policy makers, male chaunistic political parties and communalized societies at the root level. The feminist version of 'Our Body Ourselves" has hardly any taker even when the humankind has stepped in 21st century.

Case for empowerment

Background

The issue of women empowerment came into live debate in India during 90s when the then Congress Govt. was apparently busy in sorting out the aftermaths of Dunkel Draft that solicited unilateral globalization process that went duly in favour of US imperialism. Conversion of GATT into WTO. The GOI probably for the first time since independence, sought consensus on the India's role and share in globalization process that initially boasted to bring together all the nations on the earth for all round material development and progress and war less world. Nicknamed 'Global Village ', the process had an hidden agenda to gain and regain due support from the less fortunate nations recognized by the UN and its auxiliary units to ensure imperial interests in the New World Order .It soon turned out to be a clash of sharing world markets and MNC sharks from the West world had to retreat two step backward when some Asian nations set their tigers free to face those sharks.

We need understand what made the powerful nations to switch over from unilateral globalization debate sprinkled with awesome sanctions on nations that questioned political motives behind the so called New World Order to enter into amicable 'dialogues' with less fortunate nations including India . It was a resolute measure to rule the world under the guise of Whiteman's Burden II .The first one opened it's jaws and paws during 18th century during industrial revolution era followed by building up of industrial societies during British colonialism. The Burden II has been unleashed by the US imperialism and is here to stay with 'reachable and rechargeable' compromises with frightened but alert nations .India was instrumental in devising GATT during 1948 and India is still instrumental in mitigating the tensions created during last two decades or so while switching over from GATT to WTO regime .India did pay a price for the episode by agreeing to take up structural adjustments back home( privatization, liberalization and globalization popularly known as KHAUJA – Khasagikaran, Udarikaran and Jagatikikaran).

Will and Ariel Durant defined the new world order in their unique way,'
" The fear of capitalism compelled socialism to widen freedom and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality."

Since India is a unique nation that has combined salient features of both capitalism and socialism during post independence era for planned economic development, we have no way but to view and review the process in the context of what the Durant preferred to observe as it fits well to Indian situation and psyche.

The Indian Govt. ventured into the 'New World Order ' by honoring the 'dialogues' with horny G-8 and launched heavy preparations to convince the Indian voting class simultaneously about its strategic moves and measures to direct the g-process to India's advantage in the long run. One of the measures adopted was Empowerment of the deprived sections including women by allowing some space in high level decisions making process and dignified self employment
It came in package for development, construction of free express high ways inter- connecting all zones, project funding, roping in NGOs, dis-investment measures ,33% Reservation for women in Parliament, State Assemblies , local Bodies and Panchyats, small saving schemes for self employed women and group insurance of the rural artisans ,bank-funding for housing and higher education , measures to raise purchasing power of the employed sections ,promotion of marketing co-operatives, Reservations and filling of posts for OBCs, support new avenues for generating employment and self-sustaining jobs etc.

It also came up with another line of measures; closure of non-performing production units both in Govt. and private sector, VRS, reduction of grants, grant-in-aid and other financial assistance by lessening burden of on plan expenditure for rural industrialization etc.
It as well came with modest smile to welcome the fresh white men burdened with their briefcases full of proposals, offers, collaborations, investment and market plans, take over designs ,electronic house hold appliances and gadgets , donations , project aids, Soft loans, ATM cards, soft drinks , designer clothes, burgers , home delivery system, health care aids , Viagra and pills , call centers and you can make your own additions in the list . All these measures have some share in the making of New Urban India!

Case for women empowerment

Let's ponder for a while over what exactly we mean by Empowerment of women.
Is it something the women in India and elsewhere wish to acquire in the Man's World with or without struggles? How the Government keeps soliciting for women empowerment and tries to keep from it at the same time? What is holding the political parties back over the issue of 33% Reservations in legislatives? Is it the case for earmarking 30% of the seats for OBC and other categories within 33% still under debate? Do we have any plans on hand or mind to curtail drop out rates of girls at primary and secondary level? Can we say women in corporate and service sector efficiently working at par with their male counter parts can be an ideal case for empowered women? Do we have any logical answers for increasing atrocities on new women in the same old way ? Can we dare say a woman farm worker demanding a mere Rs.10 or 20 rise in her wages deserves gang rape by the land lords or their Crop Protection force in broad day light in public? Or at least have we any answers for those women outfits with extreme right wings parties and fundamentalist groups instigating their male foot soldiers to gang rape and destroy the Muslim women and girls during communal riots? What is our stand towards nuns and sisters attacked and paraded naked by the fascist groups within free India now planning for women empowerment?

The circumstances and ground realities compel one to categorize the empowering women in India in the following way;

1. Empowerment of women under Constitutional provisions that are known only to
the students of Political Science in Colleges and the toiling women have no
Knowledge of their citizenship and rights (The rural India)
2. Empowerment of women step by step with religious approval and consents from
Husbands both liberal in attitude and henpecked ones. (The great Indian middle
Class mainly located in cities and towns.)
3. Empowerment of women in affirmative sense in all areas with a view to identify
Their political space and involve them in decision and policy making process in
7.
Progress from village to national level.(The Indian Dance of Democracy)
4. Empowerment of women by honest implementation of the fundamental rights
Provided under Indian Constitution, refurbished through the Mandal
Commission's recommendations and incorporated in UPA's Common Minimum
Program. (Yet undecided consensus among political parties ranging from
Extreme right to extreme left wing parties and paths.
5. Empowerment of women through NGOs and women groups by extending
Funds and facilities by the Govt. (Role of true representatives of the people in
A secular democracy with due commitment and ideological clarity.) .

As it may, the fifth category is to stay to pursue the case for the first four categories. Indeed, the ngos have been supporting the cause of women empowerment in a big but scattered way. The development process is project based, time bound and isolated .It therefore calls for unifying the efforts or at least share and keep the interactions alive.
The Indian secular democracy aims at sustainable socio-economic and gender justice and empowered woman is to respond positively by extending helping hand to those yet in waiting for empowerment with or without any help from men around them.

The women in the past made the earth live worthy for human kind. The present women feel powerless and much disturbed as human beings. The future belongs to women empowered.
After all, what the men want from women?
Peace on Earth. Peaceful society. Peaceful mind .Women can create it if only the men don't disturb it and accept a society based on peaceful co-existence of men and women……… Rest will follow!

--Pradeep Deshpande (Socio-Economic-Political Writer)

common sense & social common sense

2007-05-30T14:00:00.000+05:30

The difference bet. common sense and social common sense is hostorical one; that shows how serious we are about ourselves. Read on...

for common sense:
Q/1; Gaiya kyaa detii hai?
A. Gaiya duth detii hai.

for social common sense:
Q/2. Kyaa Gaiya suchmuch dudh detii hai?
A. Nahii, Hum un-kaa dudh chhin lete hain;Gaiya ka dudh un-ke bachhadeke liye hota hai hamaare bachon'ne liye nahi.
Q/3. Kyaa gaiya hamare ghat aakar kahatii hai kin mere paas bhut dudhhai. Aap thoda le sakhate?
A.Nahi.Hum use Kheen-chke laate hai and dudh nikaal lete hai.

Expl:
We are under gross influence of pre-formulated language, we are taught from childhood onwards and we keep them using without straining our brains and that results in accumulated common sense.The same C/S is percolated in Q/A format for centuries without any change until a new Q. is raised as to the truth worthiness of the Q/A set or doctrinated in our thought process as seen in this dialogue.Since we are social beings besides human beings, we are expected to have a quest and taste for new questions/problems/issues which are in main , social one in form and content.If we take cognizance of them , it helps us lead towards real questions at a social level.This is where we learn to upgrade ourselves from common sense to social common sense .In other words, it brings us down to our real senses and we prepare ourselves to look into and towards the truth surrounded by myths by means of languages/uses as a weapon against our own consciousness.

--Pradeep Deshpande.(Socio-Eco-Politio Writer)
(24-04-2007)

why respect a woman???

2007-05-30T13:52:00.000+05:30

we should respect woman because we are part of her body...
she's independent and we are dependants..naturally...
She existed even before myth God created the myth..Adam first and eve later...
She is naturally empowered and we are not...
our moral duty is just to accept her empowered stature and feel secure...
and not the other way round...
If you think she is what you 'made' of her to create male empire around her...
chain her to your religion, God, culture , thoughts and deeds , justifications...
painted her body the way you like to look like... and
the so called modern and free woman depicted in art and ads...
as a complete woman and she obliges with a forced smile...
with even tear filled eyes, it just means she is bearing all the male weight...
on her body and mind... and that proves all her natural empowerment...
Change your attitude towards a woman and
she will change the world for you
and for herself...
She is the earth and we are the world...
the earth is round and the world is flat...
we made it but...
we couldn't change the shape of the earth...
Find a woman within...
it's all she needs from you...
Never say I love you...
say I love to love you...

-- Pradeep Deshpande.(Socio-Eco-Political Writer)
(18-04-2007)

a doc turned marxist...

2007-05-30T13:49:00.000+05:30

Che Guevara
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Ernesto Guevara de la Serna

Born
June 14, 1928 Rosario, Argentina
Died
October 9, 1967 La Higuera, Bolivia
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara or El Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. As a young man studying medicine, Guevara traveled roughrough[›] throughout Latin America, bringing him into direct contact with the impoverished conditions in which many people lived. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to the conclusion that the region's socioeconomic inequalities could only be remedied by revolution, prompting him to intensify his study of Marxism and travel to Guatemala to learn about the reforms being implemented there by President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.
Some time later, Guevara joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement, which seized power in Cuba in 1959. After serving in various important posts in the new government and writing a number of articles and books on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the intention of fomenting revolutions first in Congo-Kinshasa, and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a CIA/U.S. Army Special Forces-organized military operation.[1] Guevara was summarily executed by the Bolivian Army in La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967.[2]
After his death, Guevara became an icon of socialist revolutionary movements worldwide. An Alberto Korda photo of him (shown) has received wide distribution and modification. The Maryland Institute College of Art called this picture "the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century."[3]
Contents
[hide]
1 Family heritage and early life
2 Guatemala
3 Cuba
4 Disappearance from Cuba
5 Congo
5.1 Expedition
5.2 Interlude
6 Bolivia
6.1 Insurgent
6.2 Capture and execution
6.3 The Bolivian Diary
7 Legacy and criticisms
7.1 Legacy in Cuba
7.2 The "Cult of Che"
8 Timeline
9 Guevara's published works
10 See also
11 Source notes
12 Content notes
13 References
13.1 Printed matter
13.2 Websites
14 Further reading
15 External links
//
[edit] Family heritage and early life

Birthplace of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Rosario Another view
Ernesto Guevara lineage, Guevara became known for his dynamic personality and radical perspective even as a boy. He idolized Francisco Pizarro and yearned to have been one of his soldiers.[4] Though suffering from the crippling bouts of asthma that were to afflict him throughout his life, he excelled as an athlete. He was an avid rugby union player despite his handicap and earned himself the nickname "Fuser" — a contraction of "El Furibundo" (English: "The Raging") and his mother's surname, "Serna" — for his aggressive style of play. Ernesto was nicknamed Chancho or pig by his schoolmates because he rarely bathed- something he was rather proud of.[5]

Guevara on a burro at the age of 3
Guevara learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by the age of 12.[6] During his adolescence he became passionate about poetry, especially that of Pablo Neruda Neruda[›]. Guevara, as is common practice among Latin Americans of his class, also wrote poems throughout his life. He was an enthusiastic and eclectic reader, with interests ranging from adventure classics by Jack London, Emilio Salgari and Jules Verne to essays on sexuality by Sigmund Freud and treatises on social philosophy by Bertrand Russell. In his late teens, he developed a keen interest in photography and spent many hours photographing people, places and, during later travels, archaeological sites.

With his parents and siblings in 1936
In 1948 Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. While a student, he spent long periods traveling around Latin America. In 1951 his older friend, Alberto Granado, a biochemist, suggested that Guevara take a year off from his medical studies to embark on a trip they had talked of making for years, traversing South America. Guevara and the 29-year-old Granado soon set off from their hometown of Alta Gracia astride a 1939 Norton 500 cc motorcycle they named La Poderosa II (English: "the Mighty One, the Second") with the idea of spending a few weeks volunteering at the San Pablo Leper colony in Peru on the banks of the Amazon River. Guevara narrated this journey in The Motorcycle Diaries, which was translated into English in 1996 and used in 2004 as the basis for a motion picture of the same name.
Witnessing the widespread poverty, oppression and disenfranchisement throughout Latin America, and influenced by his readings of Marxist literature, Guevara decided that the only solution for the region’s inequalities was armed revolution. His travels and readings also led him to view Latin America not as a group of separate nations but as a single entity requiring a continent-wide strategy for liberation. His conception of a borderless, united Ibero-America sharing a common 'mestizo' cultureIbero-America[›] was a theme that would prominently recur during his later revolutionary activities. Upon returning to Argentina, he expedited the completion of his medical studies in order to resume his travels in Central and South America and received his diploma on 12 June 1953.Diploma[›]
[edit] Guatemala
On 7 July 1953, Guevara set out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. During the final days of December 1953 he arrived in Guatemala where leftist President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán headed an elected populist government that, through land reform and other initiatives, was attempting to bring an end to the U.S.-dominated latifundia system. In a contemporaneous letter to his Aunt Beatriz, Guevara explained his motivation for settling down for a time in Guatemala: "In Guatemala", he wrote, "I will perfect myself and accomplish whatever may be necessary in order to become a true revolutionary."[7]
Shortly after reaching Guatemala City, Guevara acted upon the suggestion of a mutual friend that he seek out Hilda Gadea Acosta, a Peruvian economist who was living and working there. Gadea, whom he would later marry, was well-connected politically as a result of her membership in the socialist American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) led by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, and she introduced Guevara to a number of high-level officials in the Arbenz government. He also re-established contact with a group of Cuban exiles linked to Fidel Castro whom he had initially met in Costa Rica; among them was Antonio "Ñico" López, associated with the attack on the "Carlos Manuel de Céspedes" barracks in Bayamo in the Cuban province of Oriente,[8] and who would die at Ojo del Toro bridge soon after the Granma landed in Cuba.[9] Guevara joined these "moncadistas" in the sale of religious objects related to the Black Christ of Esquipulas, and he also assisted two Venezuelan malaria specialists at a local hospital. It was during this period that he acquired his famous nickname, "Che", due to his frequent use of the Argentine interjection [[Che]] (pronounced /tʃe/), which is used in much the same way as "hey", "pal", "eh", or "mate" are employed colloquially in various English-speaking countries. Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil (where the interjection is rendered 'tchê' in written Portuguese) are the only areas where this expression is used, making it a trademark of the Rioplatense region.
Guevara's attempts to obtain a medical internship were unsuccessful and his economic situation was often precarious, leading him to pawn some of Hilda's jewelry. Political events in the country began to move quickly after May 15, 1954 when a shipment of Skoda infantry and light artillery weapons sent from Communist Czechoslovakia for the Arbenz Government arrived in Puerto Barrios aboard the Swedish ship Alfhem. The amount of Czech weaponry was estimated to be 2000 tons by the CIA[10] though only 2 tons by Jon Lee Anderson.[11] (Anderson's tonnage estimate is thought to be a typographical error due to how few scholarly sources support it.) Guevara briefly left Guatemala for El Salvador to pick up a new visa, then returned to Guatemala only a few days before the CIA-sponsored coup attempt led by Carlos Castillo Armas began.[12] The anti-Arbenz forces tried, but failed, to stop the trans-shipment of the Czechoslovak weapons by train. However, after pausing to regroup and recover energy, Castillo Armas' column seized the initiative and, apparently with the assistance of US air support, started to gain ground.[13] Guevara was eager to fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed militia organized by the Communist Youth for that purpose; but, frustrated with the group's inaction, he soon returned to medical duties. Following the coup, he again volunteered to fight but his efforts were thwarted when Arbenz took refuge in the Mexican Embassy and told his foreign supporters to leave the country. After Gadea was arrested, Guevara sought protection inside the Argentine consulate where he remained until he received a safe-conduct pass some weeks later. At that point, he turned down a free seat on a flight back to Argentina that was proffered to him by the Embassy, preferring instead to make his way to Mexico.
The overthrow of the Arbenz regime by a coup d'état backed by the Central Intelligence Agency cemented Guevara's view of the United States as an imperialist power that would implacably oppose and attempt to destroy any government that sought to redress the socioeconomic inequality endemic to Latin America and other developing countries. This strengthened his conviction that socialism achieved through armed struggle and defended by an armed populace was the only way to rectify such conditions.
[edit] Cuba
Further information: Che Guevara's involvement in the Cuban Revolution

After the battle of Santa Clara.The tank is a Sherman with a 76 mm cannon. [2](1 January 1959)
Guevara arrived in Mexico City in early September 1954, and shortly thereafter renewed his friendship with Ñico López and the other Cuban exiles whom he had known in Guatemala. In June 1955, López introduced him to Raúl Castro. Several weeks later, Fidel Castro arrived in Mexico City after having been amnestied from prison in Cuba, and on the evening of 8 July 1955 Raúl introduced Guevara to the older Castro brother. During a fervid overnight conversation, Guevara became convinced that Fidel was the inspirational revolutionary leader for whom he had been searching, and he immediately joined the "26th of July Movement" that intended to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. Although it was planned that he would be the group's medic, Guevara participated in the military training alongside the other members of the 26J Movement, and at the end of the course was singled out by their instructor, Col. Alberto Bayo, as his most outstanding student.[14] Meanwhile, Hilda Gadea had arrived from Guatemala and she and Guevara resumed their relationship. In the summer of 1955 she informed him that she was pregnant and he immediately suggested that they marry. The wedding took place on August 18, 1955, and their daughter, whom they named Hilda Beatríz, was born on February 15, 1956.[15]
When the cabin cruiser Granma set out from Tuxpan, Veracruz for Cuba on November 25, 1956, Guevara was one of only four non-Cubans aboard. non-Cubans[›] Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, about half of the expeditionaries were killed or executed upon capture. Guevara writes that it was during this confrontation that he laid down his knapsack containing medical supplies in order to pick up a box of ammunition dropped by a fleeing comrade, a moment which he later recalled as marking his transition from physician to combatant.Knapsack[›] Only 15–20 rebels survived as a battered fighting force; they re-grouped and fled into the mountains of the Sierra Maestra to wage guerrilla warfare against the Batista regime.
Guevara became a leader among the rebels, a Comandante (English translation: Major), respected by his comrades in arms for his courage and military prowess,[16] and feared for what some have described as ruthlessness: He was responsible for the execution of many men accused of being informers, deserters or spies. In the final days of December 1958, he directed his "suicide squad" (which undertook the most dangerous tasks in the rebel army)[17] in the attack on Santa Clara that turned out to be one of the decisive events of the revolution, although the bloody series of ambushes first during la ofensiva in the heights of the Sierra Maestra, then at Guisa, and the whole Cauto Plains campaign that followed probably had more military significance.[18] Batista, upon learning that his generals — especially General Cantillo, who had visited Castro at the inactive sugar mill "Central America" — were negotiating a separate peace with the rebel leader, fled to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959.
On February 7, 1959, the victorious government proclaimed Guevara "a Cuban citizen by birth" in recognition of his role in the triumph of the revolutionary forces. Shortly thereafter, he initiated divorce proceedings to put a formal end to his marriage with Gadea, from whom he had been separated since before leaving Mexico on the Granma, and on June 2, 1959, he married Aleida March,Children[›] a Cuban-born member of the 26th of July movement with whom he had been living since late 1958.

TIME magazine, August 8, 1960
He was appointed commander of the La Cabaña Fortress prison, and during his five-month tenure in that post (January 2 through June 12, 1959),[19] he oversaw the trial and execution of many people, among whom were former Batista regime officials and members of the "Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities" (a unit of the secret police know by its Spanish acronym BRAC). According to José Vilasuso, an attorney who worked under Guevara at La Cabaña preparing indictments, these were lawless proceedings where "the facts were judged without any consideration to general juridical principles" and the findings were pre-determined by Guevara.[20]
Later, Guevara became an official at the National Institute of Agrarian Reform,INRA[›] and President of the National Bank of CubaBNC[›]. He signed all Cuban banknotes issued during his fourteen-month presidency with his nickname, "Che".Signature[›]. Throughout his time in the Cuban government, Guevara refused his due salaries of office, insisting on drawing only his meagre wages as army commandante in order to set a "revolutionary example".[21]
During this time his fondness for chess was rekindled, and he attended and participated in most national and international tournaments held in Cuba.[22][23] He was particularly eager to encourage young Cubans to take up the game, and organized various activities designed to stimulate their interest in it.
Even as early as 1959, Guevara helped organize revolutionary expeditions overseas, all of which failed. The first attempt was made in Panama; another in the Dominican Republic (led by Henry Fuerte,[24] also known as "El Argelino", and Enrique Jiménez Moya)[25] took place on 14 June of that same year.

Che Guevara with Fidel Castro (Havana - April 1961)
In 1960 Guevara provided first aid to victims during the La Coubre arms shipment rescue operation that went further awry when a second explosion occurred, resulting in well over a hundred dead.[26] It was at the memorial service for the victims of this explosion that Alberto Korda took the most famous photograph of him. Whether La Coubre was sabotaged or merely exploded by accident is not clear. Those who favour the sabotage theory sometimes attribute this to the Central Intelligence Agency[27] and sometimes name William Alexander Morgan,[28] a former rival of Guevara's in the anti-Batista forces of the central provinces and later a putative CIA agent, as the perpetrator. Cuban exiles have put forth the theory that it was done by Guevara's USSR-loyalist rivals.[29]
Guevara later served as Minister of Industries,MININD[›] in which post he helped formulate Cuban socialism, and became one of the country's most prominent figures. In his book Guerrilla Warfare, he advocated replicating the Cuban model of revolution initiated by a small group (foco) of guerrillas without the need for broad organizations to precede armed insurrection. His essay El socialismo y el hombre en Cuba (1965) (Man and Socialism in Cuba) advocates the need to shape a "new man" (hombre nuevo) in conjunction with a socialist state. Some saw Guevara as the simultaneously glamorous and austere model of that "new man."
During the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion Guevara did not participate in the fighting, having been ordered by Castro to a command post in Cuba's westernmost Pinar del Río province where he was involved in fending off a decoy force. He did, however, suffer a bullet wound to the face during this deployment, which he said had been caused by the accidental discharge of his own gun.[30]
Guevara played a key role in bringing to Cuba the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. During an interview with the British newspaper Daily Worker some weeks later, he stated that, if the missiles had been under Cuban control, they would have fired them against major U.S. cities.[31]
[edit] Disappearance from Cuba

Che Guevara addressing the UN General Assembly (New York City - 11 December 1964)[32]
In December 1964 Guevara traveled to New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to speak at the UN (listen, requires RealPlayer; or read). He also appeared on the CBS Sunday news program Face the Nation, met with a gamut of individuals and groups including U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy, several associates of Malcolm X, and Canadian radical Michelle Duclos,[33] and dined at the home of the Rockefellers.[34] On 17 December, he flew to Paris and from there embarked on a three-month international tour during which he visited the People's Republic of China, the United Arab Republic (Egypt), Algeria, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Dahomey, Congo-Brazzaville and Tanzania, with stops in Ireland, Paris and Prague. In Algiers on 24 February 1965, he made what turned out to be his last public appearance on the international stage when he delivered a speech to the "Second Economic Seminar on Afro-Asian Solidarity" in which he declared, "There are no frontiers in this struggle to the death. We cannot remain indifferent in the face of what occurs in any part of the world. A victory for any country against imperialism is our victory, just as any country's defeat is our defeat."[35] He then astonished his audience by proclaiming, "The socialist countries have the moral duty of liquidating their tacit complicity with the exploiting countries of the West." He proceeded to outline a number of measures which he said the communist-bloc countries should implement in order to accomplish this objective.[36][37] He returned to Cuba on 14 March to a solemn reception by Fidel and Raúl Castro, Osvaldo Dorticós and Carlos Rafael Rodríguez at the Havana airport. Two weeks later, Guevara dropped out of public life.

Guevara with members of his "reception committee" at Havana airport (Havana - 14 March 1965)
He strongly supported Communist North Vietnam in the Vietnam War, and urged the peoples of other developing countries to take up arms and create "many Vietnams".[38]
Pressed by international speculation regarding Guevara's fate, Castro stated on 16 June 1965, that the people would be informed about Guevara when Guevara himself wished to let them know. Numerous rumors about his disappearance spread both inside and outside Cuba. On 3 October of that year, Castro revealed an undated letter[39] purportedly written to him by Guevara some months earlier in which Guevara reaffirmed his enduring solidarity with the Cuban Revolution but declared his intention to leave Cuba to fight abroad for the cause of the revolution. He explained that "Other nations of the world summon my modest efforts," and that he had therefore decided to go and fight as a guerrilla "on new battlefields". In the letter Guevara announced his resignation from all his positions in the government, in the party, and in the Army, and renounced his Cuban citizenship, which had been granted to him in 1959 in recognition of his efforts on behalf of the revolution.
During an interview with four foreign correspondents on 1 November, Castro remarked that he knew where Guevara was but would not disclose his location, and added, denying reports that his former comrade-in-arms was dead, that "he is in the best of health." Despite Castro's assurances, Guevara's fate remained a mystery at the end of 1965 and his movements and whereabouts continued to be a closely held secret for the next two years.
[edit] Congo
[edit] Expedition

Listening to a Zenith "TransOceanic" shortwave receiver are (seated from the left) Rogelio Oliva, José María Martínez Tamayo (known as "Mbili" in the Congo and "Ricardo" in Bolivia), and Guevara. Standing behind them is Roberto Sánchez ("Lawton" in Cuba and "Changa" in the Congo).
During their all-night meeting on March 14–March 15, 1965, Guevara and Castro had agreed that the former would personally lead Cuba's first military action in Sub-Saharan Africa.Algeria[›] Some usually reliable sources state that Guevara persuaded Castro to back him in this effort, while other sources of equal reliability maintain that Castro convinced Guevara to undertake the mission, arguing that conditions in the various Latin American countries that had been under consideration for the possible establishment of guerrilla focos were not yet optimal.[40] Castro himself has said the latter is true.[41] According to Ahmed Ben Bella, who was president of Algeria at the time and had recently held extended conversations with Guevara, "The situation prevailing in Africa, which seemed to have enormous revolutionary potential, led Che to the conclusion that Africa was imperialism’s weak link. It was to Africa that he now decided to devote his efforts."[42]
The Cuban operation was to be carried out in support of the pro-Patrice Lumumba Marxist Simba movement in the Congo-Kinshasa (formerly Belgian Congo, later Zaire and currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Guevara, his second-in-command Victor Dreke, and twelve of the Cuban expeditionaries arrived in the Congo on 24 April 1965; a contingent of approximately 100 Afro-Cubans joined them soon afterwards.[43][44] They collaborated for a time with guerrilla leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila,Kabila[›] who helped Lumumba supporters lead a revolt that was suppressed in November of that same year by the Congolese army. Guevara dismissed Kabila as insignificant. "Nothing leads me to believe he is the man of the hour," Guevara wrote.[45]

Guevara teaching guerrilla tactics to Congolese forces. His plan was to use the liberated zone on the western shores of Lake Tanganyika as a training ground for the Congolese and fighters from other liberation movements. To his left is Santiago Terry (codename: "Aly"), to his right, Angel Felipe Hernández ("Sitaini").
Although Guevara was 37 at the time and had no formal military training, he had the experiences of the Cuban revolution, including his successful march on Santa Clara, which was central to Batista finally being overthrown by Castro's forces. His asthma had prevented him from being drafted into military service in Argentina, a fact of which he was proud given his opposition to Perón's government.
South African mercenaries including Mike Hoare and Cuban exiles worked with the Congolese army to thwart Guevara. They were able to monitor his communications, arrange to ambush the rebels and the Cubans whenever they attempted to attack, and interdict his supply lines.[46][47] Despite the fact that Guevara sought to conceal his presence in the Congo, the U.S. government was fully aware of his location and activities: The National Security Agency (NSA) was intercepting all of his incoming and outgoing transmissions via equipment aboard the USNS Valdez, a floating listening post which continuously cruised the Indian Ocean off Dar-es-Salaam for that purpose.NSA[›]
Guevara's aim was to export the Cuban Revolution by instructing local Simba fighters in communist ideology and strategies of guerrilla warfare. In his Congo Diary, he cites the incompetence, intransigence, and infighting of the local Congolese forces as the key reasons for the revolt's failure.[48] Later that same year, ill with dysentery, suffering from his asthma, and disheartened after seven months of frustrations, Guevara left the Congo with the Cuban survivors (six members of his column had died). At one point Guevara had considered sending the wounded back to Cuba, then standing alone and fighting until the end in the Congo as a revolutionary example; however, after being urged by his comrades in arms and pressured by two emissaries sent by Castro, at the last moment he reluctantly agreed to leave the Congo. A few weeks later, when writing the preface to the diary he had kept during the Congo venture, he began it with the words: "This is the history of a failure."[49]
[edit] Interlude
Because Castro had made public Guevara's "farewell letter"[50] to him — a letter Guevara had intended should only be revealed in case of his death — wherein he had written that he was severing all ties to Cuba in order to devote himself to revolutionary activities in other parts of the world, he felt that he could not return to Cuba with the other surviving combatants for moral reasons, and he spent the next six months living clandestinely in Dar-es-Salaam, and Prague. During this time he compiled his memoirs of the Congo experience, and wrote the drafts of two more books, one on philosophy[51] and the other on economics.[52] He also visited several countries in Western Europe in order to "test" a new false identity and the corresponding documentation (passport, etc.) created for him by Cuban Intelligence that he planned to use to travel to South America. Throughout this period Castro continued to importune him to return to Cuba, but Guevara only agreed to do so when it was understood that he would be there on a strictly temporary basis for the few months needed to prepare a new revolutionary effort somewhere in Latin America, and that his presence on the island would be cloaked in the tightest secrecy.
[edit] Bolivia
[edit] Insurgent
Speculation on Guevara's whereabouts continued throughout 1966 and into 1967. Representatives of the Mozambican independence movement FRELIMO reported meeting with Guevara in late 1966 or early 1967 in Dar es Salaam, at which point they rejected his offer of aid in their revolutionary project.[53] In a speech at the 1967 May Day rally in Havana, the Acting Minister of the armed forces, Major Juan Almeida, announced that Guevara was "serving the revolution somewhere in Latin America". The persistent reports that he was leading the guerrillas in Bolivia were eventually shown to be true.

Map of Bolivia showing location of Vallegrande
At Castro's behest, a 3,700 acre parcel of jungle land in the remote Ñancahuazú region had been purchased by native Bolivian Communists for Guevara to use as a training area and base camp Camp[›]. The evidence suggests that the training at this camp in the Ñancahuazú valley was more hazardous than combat to Guevara and the Cubans accompanying him. Little was accomplished in the way of building a guerrilla army. Former Stasi operative Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, better known by her nom de guerre "Tania", who had been installed as his primary agent in La Paz, was reportedly also working for the KGB and is widely inferred to have unwittingly served Soviet interests by leading Bolivian authorities to Guevara's trail.[54] The numerous photographs taken by and of Guevara and other members of his guerrilla group that they left behind at their base camp after the initial clash with the Bolivian army in March 1967 provided President René Barrientos with the first proof of his presence in Bolivia; after viewing them, Barrientos allegedly stated that he wanted Guevara's head displayed on a pike in downtown La Paz. He thereupon ordered the Bolivian Army to hunt Guevara and his followers down.
Guevara's guerrilla force, numbering about 50 and operating as the ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia; English: "National Liberation Army of Bolivia"), was well equipped and scored a number of early successes against Bolivian regulars in the difficult terrain of the mountainous Camiri region. In September, however, the Army managed to eliminate two guerrilla groups, reportedly killing one of the leaders.
Despite the violent nature of the conflict, Guevara gave medical attention to all of the wounded Bolivian soldiers whom the guerrillas took prisoner, and subsequently released them. Even after his last battle at the Quebrada del Yuro, in which he had been wounded, when he was taken to a temporary holding location and saw there a number of Bolivian soldiers who had also been wounded in the fighting, he offered to give them medical care. (His offer was turned down by the Bolivian officer in charge.)[55]
Guevara's plan for fomenting revolution in Bolivia appears to have been based upon a number of misconceptions:
He had expected to deal only with the country's military government and its poorly trained and equipped army. However, after the U.S. government learned of his location, CIA and other operatives were sent into Bolivia to aid the anti-insurrection effort. The Bolivian Army was being trained and supplied by U.S. Army Special Forces USMilitary[›] advisors, including a recently organized elite battalion of Rangers trained in jungle warfare that set up camp in La Esperanza, a small settlement close to the guerrillas' zone of operations.[56][57]
Guevara had expected assistance and cooperation from the local dissidents. He did not receive it; and Bolivia's Communist Party, under the leadership of Mario Monje, was oriented towards Moscow rather than Havana and did not aid him, despite having promised to do so. (Some members of the Bolivian Communist Party did join/support him, such as Coco and Inti Peredo, Rodolfo Saldaňa, Serapio Aquino Tudela, and Antonio Jiménez Tardio, against the Party leadership's wishes.)
He had expected to remain in radio contact with Havana. However, the two shortwave transmitters provided to him by Cuba were faulty, so that the guerrillas were unable to communicate with Havana. (In this, and in many other respects, Manuel Piñeiro, the man to whom Castro had assigned the task of coordinating support for Guevara's operations in Bolivia, performed abysmally.) To further complicate matters, some months into the campaign, the tape recorder that the guerrillas used to record and decipher the one-time pad-encoded radio messages sent to them from Havana was lost while crossing a river, making de-coding such messages more difficult.Message[›]
In addition, his penchant for confrontation rather than compromise appears to have contributed to his inability to develop successful working relationships with local leaders in Bolivia, just as it had in the Congo.[58] This tendency had surfaced during his guerrilla warfare campaign in Cuba as well, but had been kept in check there by the timely interventions and guidance of Castro.[59]
[edit] Capture and execution

Rodríguez with the captured Che Guevara(La Higuera, Bolivia - 9 October 1967)

The schoolhouse in La Higuera where Che Guevara was executed at 1:10 p.m. on 9 October 1967.
The Bolivian Special Forces were notified of the location of Guevara's guerrilla encampment by an informant. On 8 October, the encampment was encircled, and Guevara was captured while leading a detachment with Simeón Cuba Sarabia in the Quebrada del Yuro ravine. He was finally captured after being wounded in the legs and having his rifle destroyed by a bullet. According to some soldiers present at the capture, during the skirmish as they approached Guevara, he allegedly shouted, "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead."[60] Although the truth of this statement can be debated, as the Bolivian forces may have wished for Guevara to look like a coward.
Barrientos promptly ordered his execution upon being informed of his capture.Barrientos[›] Guevara was taken to a dilapidated schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera where he was held overnight. Early the next afternoon he was executed. The executioner was Mario Terán, a Sergeant in the Bolivian army who had drawn a short straw after arguments over who got the honour of killing Guevara broke out among the soldiers. Guevara received multiple shots to the legs, so as to avoid maiming his face for identification purposes and simulate combat wounds in an attempt to conceal his execution. Che Guevara did have some last words before his death; he allegedly said to his executioner, "Don't tell them I died on my knees."[61] His body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to neighboring Vallegrande where it was laid out on a laundry tub in the local hospital and displayed to the press.[62] Photographs taken at that time gave rise to legends such as those of San Ernesto de La Higuera and El Cristo de Vallegrande.[63] After a military doctor surgically amputated his hands, Bolivian army officers transferred Guevara's cadaver to an undisclosed location and refused to reveal whether his remains had been buried or cremated.Amputation[›]
The hunt for Guevara in Bolivia was headed by Félix Rodríguez, a CIA agent, who previously had infiltrated Cuba to prepare contacts with the rebels in the Escambray Mountains and the anti-Castro underground in Havana prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion, and had been successfully extracted from Cuba afterwards.[64][65] Upon hearing of Guevara's capture, Rodríguez relayed the information to CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia, via CIA stations in various South American nations. After the execution, Rodríguez took Guevara's Rolex watch and several other personal items, often proudly showing them to reporters during the ensuing years. Today, some of these belongings, including his flashlight, are on display at the CIA.
On October 15, Castro acknowledged that Guevara was dead and proclaimed three days of public mourning throughout Cuba. The death of Guevara was regarded as a severe blow to the socialist revolutionary movements in Latin America and the rest of the third world.

Che Guevara's Monument and Mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba
In 1997, the skeletal remains of Guevara's handless body were exhumed from beneath an air strip near Vallegrande, positively identified by DNA matching, and returned to Cuba. On 17 October 1997, his remains, along with those of six of his fellow combatants killed during the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia, were laid to rest with full military honors in a specially built mausoleumMausoleum[›] in the city of Santa Clara, where he had won the decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution.
[edit] The Bolivian Diary
Also removed when Guevara was captured was his diary, which documented events of the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia.[66] The first entry is on November 7, 1966 shortly after his arrival at the farm in Ñancahuazú, and the last entry is on October 7, 1967, the day before his capture. The diary tells how the guerrillas were forced to begin operations prematurely due to discovery by the Bolivian Army, explains Guevara's decision to divide the column into two units that were subsequently unable to reestablish contact, and describes their overall failure. It records the rift between Guevara and the Bolivian Communist Party that resulted in Guevara having significantly fewer soldiers than originally anticipated. It shows that Guevara had a great deal of difficulty recruiting from the local populace, due in part to the fact that the guerrilla group had learned Quechua rather than the local language which was Tupí-Guaraní. As the campaign drew to an unexpected close, Guevara became increasingly ill. He suffered from ever-worsening bouts of asthma, and most of his last offensives were carried out in an attempt to obtain medicine.
The Bolivian Diary was quickly and crudely translated by Ramparts magazine and circulated around the world. There are at least four additional diaries in existence — those of Israel Reyes Zayas (Alias "Braulio"), Harry Villegas Tamayo ("Pombo"), Eliseo Reyes Rodriguez ("Rolando")[67] and Dariel Alarcón Ramírez ("Benigno")[68] — each of which reveals additional aspects of the events in question.
[edit] Legacy and criticisms
Further information: Che Guevara in popular culture

In its mid-November (#46) 2005 issue, the German newsweekly Der Spiegel writes about Europe's "peaceful revolutionaries" whom it describes as the heirs of Gandhi and Guevara.
While pictures of Guevara's dead body were being circulated and the circumstances of his death debated, his legend began to spread. Demonstrations in protest against his execution occurred throughout the world, and articles, tributes, songs and poems were written about his life and death.[69] Latin America specialists advising the U.S. State Department immediately recognized the importance of the demise of “the most glamorous and reportedly most successful revolutionary”, noting that Guevara would be eulogized by communists and other leftists as “the model revolutionary who met a heroic death”.[70]
Such predictions gained increasing credibility as Guevara became a potent symbol of rebellion and revolution during the global student protests of the late 1960s. [71] Left wing activists responded to Guevara's apparent indifference to rewards and glory, and concurred with Guevara's sanctioning of violence as a necessity to instill socialist ideals.[72] The slogan 'Che lives!' began to appear on walls throughout the west,[73] while Jean-Paul Sartre, a leading figure in the movement, encouraged the adulation by describing Guevara as "the most complete human being of our age".[74]
Typically, responses to Guevara's legacy followed partisan lines. The US State Department was advised that his death would come as a relief to non-leftist Latin Americans, who had feared possible insurgencies in their own countries.[70] Subsequent analysts have also shed light on aspects of cruelty in Guevara’s methods, and analysed what Fidel Castro described as Guevara’s “excessively aggressive quality”.[75] Studies addressing problematic characteristics of Guevara's life have cited his principal role in setting up Cuba's first post-revolutionary labor camps, his unsympathetic treatment of captured fighters during various guerrilla campaigns, and his frequent humiliations of those deemed his intellectual inferiors.[76] Though much opposition to Guevara's methods has come from the political right, critical evaluation has also come from groups such as anarchists and civil libertarians, some of whom consider Guevara an authoritarian, anti-working-class Stalinist, whose legacy was the creation of a more bureaucratic, authoritarian regime.[77] Detractors have also theorized that in much of Latin America, Che-inspired revolutions had the practical result of reinforcing brutal militarism for many years.[78]
[edit] Legacy in Cuba
In Cuba, Guevara’s death precipitated the abandonment of guerrilla warfare as an instrument of foreign policy, ushering in a rapprochement with the Soviet Union, and the reformation of the government along Soviet lines. When Cuban troops returned to Africa in the 1970s, it was as part of a large-scale military expedition, and support for insurrection movements in Latin America and the Caribbean became logistical and organizational rather than overt. Cuba also abandoned Guevara's plans for economic diversification and rapid industrialization which had ultimately proved to be impracticable in view of the country's incorporation into the COMECON system.

Monumental image on Cuban Ministry of the Interior, based on Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick's graphic of Alberto Korda's March 1960 photo. During Guevara's tenure as Minister of the Ministry of Industries (MININD) from 1961 to 1965, this building was the MININD's headquarters and his office was on the top floor.
As early as 1965, the Yugoslav communist journal Borba observed the many half-completed or empty factories in Cuba, a legacy of Guevara's tenure as Minister of Industries, "standing like sad memories of the conflict between pretension and reality".[79]
The Cuban state continued to cultivate Guevara’s cult of personality, constructing numerous statues and artworks in his honor throughout the land; adorning school rooms, workplaces, public buildings, billboards, and money with his image.[80] Children across the country begin each school day with the chant "¡Pioneros por el Comunismo, Seremos como el Che!" (English: Pioneers for Communism, We will be like Che!). Guevara's mausoleum in Santa Clara has become a site of almost religious significance to many Cubans,[73] while the nation’s burgeoning tourist industry has benefited greatly from the ongoing international interest in Guevara's life. Some 205,832 people visited the mausoleum during 2004, of whom 127,597 were foreigners.
Reverence among Cubans for Guevara's memory is by no means universal. Many Cuban exiles have spoken of Guevara in less than favorable terms, and he is remembered by some as the "The Butcher of la Cabaña", a reference to Guevara’s post-revolutionary role as “supreme prosecutor” at the Cabana fortress. The epithet was repeated by Cuban-born musician Paquito D'Rivera, who wrote an open letter castigating fellow musician Carlos Santana, for wearing a T-shirt displaying Guevara’s image to the 2005 Academy Awards ceremony.[81] Similar sentiments have been shared by Cuban-American actor and director Andy Garcia, who stated in 2004 that "Che has been romanticized over the years, but there is a darker side to his story. He looks like a rock star, but he executed a lot of people without trial or defense."[82] Garcia’s 2005 film The Lost City, which was reportedly banned in several Latin American countries, portrayed a ruthless brutality at the heart of the Cuban revolution.[83] Actor Jsu Garcia as Guevara is shown casually shooting wounded Batista foot soldiers where they lie.[84]
[edit] The "Cult of Che"
Despite the controversies, Guevara's status as a popular icon has continued throughout the world, leading commentators to speak of a global "cult of Che". A photograph of Guevara taken by photographer Alberto Korda [85] has became one of the century's most ubiquitous images, and the portrait, transformed into a monochrome graphic, is reproduced endlessly on a vast array of merchandise, such as T-shirts, posters, coffee mugs, and baseball caps.[86]
In Latin America, the perceived failures of the neo-liberal reforms of the 1990s intensified opposition to the Washington consensus,[87] leading to a resurgence in support for many of Guevara’s political beliefs including Pan-Americanism, support for popular movements in the region, the nationalization of key industries and centralization of government.[88] In Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, a group with ideological roots in Guevarism were re-elected to government after 16 years. Supporters wore Guevara T-Shirts during the 2006 victory celebrations.[89] Bolivian president Evo Morales has paid many tributes to Guevara and installed a portrait of the Argentinian made from local coca leaves in his presidential suite.[90] In 2006, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who has been known to address audiences in a Che Guevara T-shirt,[91] accompanied Fidel Castro on a tour of Guevara’s boyhood home in Córdoba, describing the experience as “a real honor”. Awaiting crowds of thousands responded with calls of “We feel it! Guevara is right with us!" [92] Guevara’s daughter Aleida also transcribed an extensive interview with Chávez where he outlined his plans for “The New Latin America”, releasing the interview in book form.[93] Guevara remains a key inspriational figure to the Colombian guerrilla movement, the FARC,[94] and the Mexican Zapatista group.[95]
In North America, Western Europe and many regions outside Latin America, the image had been likened to a global brand, long since shedding its ideological or political connotations, and the obsession with Guevara has been dismissed by some as merely "adolescent revolutionary romanticism".[73] In the United States, a country often the focus of Guevara inspired protests in the hemisphere,[96] his image was removed from a CD carrying case after significant public opposition which compared Guevara to Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler. Retail group Target Corporation issued a public apology for producing the item. [97]American, Latin American and European writers, Jon Lee Anderson, Régis Debray, Jorge Castañeda and others contributed to demystify the image of Guevara via articles and biographies, which detailed his life and legacy in more unidealistic terms; and, in the case of Octavio Paz, was accompanied by a critical indictment of the Marxism espoused by many in the Latin American left.[98] Political writer Paul Berman went further, asserting that the "modern-day cult of Che" obscures the work of dissidents and what he believes is a "tremendous social struggle" currently taking place in Cuba. [99] Author Christopher Hitchens, a supporter of the Cuban revolution in the 1960s, summarised Guevara's legacy thus: "Che's iconic status was assured because he failed. His story was one of defeat and isolation, and that's why it is so seductive. Had he lived, the myth of Che would have long since died." [73]
[edit] Timeline
Che Guevara Timeline[hide]
[edit] Guevara's published works
In English (translations)
Back on the Road: A Journey to Central America (Harvill Panther S.), The Harvill Press, paperback, ISBN 0-8021-3942-6.
Bolivian Diary, Pimlico, paperback, ISBN 0-7126-6457-2
Che Guevara: Radical Writings on Guerrilla Warfare, Politics and Revolution, Filiquarian Publishing LLC, paperback, ISBN 1-59986-999-3.
Che Guevara Reader: Writings on Guerrilla Warfare, Politics and History, Ocean Press, paperback
Che Guevara Speaks, Pathfinder, paperback
Che Guevara Talks to Young People, Pathfinder, paperback
Critical Notes on Political Economy, Ocean Press, paperback
Guerrilla Warfare, Souvenir Press Ltd, paperback, ISBN 0-285-63680-4.
Our America and Theirs, Ocean Press (AU), paperback, ISBN 1-876175-81-8.
Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, Monthly Review Press, paperback, 1998
Self-Portrait: Che Guevara, Ocean Press, 320pp, paperback, 2005
Socialism and Man in Cuba: Also Fidel Castro on the Twentieth Anniversary of Guevara's Death, Monad, paperback
The African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo, Grove Press, paperback.
The Diary of Che Guevara, Amereon Ltd,
The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey, Perennial Press, ISBN 0-00-718222-8.
In Spanish
Cuadernos de Praga – Guevara's notebooks written during his clandestine stay in Prague in 1966 (PDF)
Diario del Che en Bolivia – Guevara's diary of the guerrilla war in Bolivia
Obras Escogidas – Guevara's selected works in Spanish, including his most important speeches (PDF)
Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria: Congo – Guevara's complete Congo Diary in Spanish, (PDF)
Pensamiento y acción – A selection of Guevara's writings in Spanish, including El socialismo y el hombre nuevo (PDF)
[edit] See also
Topics related to Che Guevara
Political events
Involvement in the Cuban Revolution Cuban-Soviet relations La Coubre explosion Cuban Missile Crisis
People
26th of July Movement Fidel Castro Carlos Fonseca Laurent-Désiré Kabila Félix Rodríguez
Legacy
In popular culture Che Guevara (photo) Guevarism Colegio César Chávez
Other
Guerrilla warfare Foco Socialism Marxism Summary execution Extrajudicial punishment

Cuba Portal
[edit] Source notes
^ Death of Che Guevara National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 5 - Declassified top secret document
^ Rostow, Walter W. Memorandum for the President:"Death of 'Che' Guevara", dated 11 October 1967. Online at GWU National Security Archive accessed 08 October 2006.° Ryan, Henry Butterfield. The Fall of Che Guevara: A Story of Soldiers, Spies, and Diplomats, New York, 1998: Oxford University Press, pp 129-135.
^ Maryland Institute of Art, referenced at BBC News, "Che Guevara photographer dies", 26 May 2001.Online at BBC News, accessed January 4, 2006.
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 446. "At one time I wanted to be one of Pizarro's soldiers; but [to fulfill] my quest for adventures and my yearnings to overlook climatic moments, that isn't a necessity any longer; today it is all here, and with an ideal to fight for, together with the responsibility of leaving an example." -- excerpt from a December 1959 letter to his parents.
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 28.
^ Digital Granma Internacional, "Simultaneous chess game on 37th anniversary of Che’s death", 13 October 2004. Online at Granma International English Edition, accessed January 5, 2006.
^ Guevara Lynch, Ernesto. Aquí va un soldado de América. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés Editores, S.A., 2000, p. 26. "En Guatemala me perfeccionaré y lograré lo que me falta para ser un revolulcionario auténtico." This statement in a letter written in Costa Rica on 10 December 1953 is important because it proves that, whereas many authors have asserted that Guevara became a revolutionary as a result of witnessing the US-sponsored coup against Arbenz, he had in fact already made the decision to become a revolutionary before arriving in Guatemala and indeed went there for that express purpose.
^ Radio Cadena Agramonte, "Ataque al cuartel del Bayamo" Online, accessed February 25, 2006
^ Granma.cu, "Walking towards sunrise" Online, accessed February 25, 2006
^ U.S. Department of State, "Foreign Relations, Guatemala, 1952-1954". Online, accessed March 04, 2006
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 144
^ U.S. Department of State. "Foreign Relations, Guatemala, 1952-1954". Online, accessed March 04, 2006
^ Holland, Max."Private Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy: William Pawley and the 1954 Coup d'Etat in Guatemala", Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 7, Number 4, Fall 2005, pp. 36-73
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 194.
^ Taibo, Paco Ignacio II. Ernesto Guevara, también conocido como el Che, p. 104. See also The Guardian online, Making of a Marxist, Online, in Guevara's words "Since February 15 1956 I am a father: Hilda Beatriz Guevara is my first-born" accessed October 6, 2006.
^ U. S. Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Biographic Register on Ernesto 'Che' Guevara". Online, accessed July 12, 2006."Commander of one of the largest of the five rebel columns (Column 4), he gained a reputation for bravery and military prowess second only to Fidel Castro himself."
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, "Suicide Squad: Example Of Revolutionary Morale (an excerpt from Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War - 1956-58). The Militant Online, accessed March 27, 2006.
^ Castro, Fidel (editors Bonachea, Rolando E. and Nelson P. Valdés). Revolutionary Struggle. 1947-1958. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: MIT Press, 1972, pp. 439-442.° Castro, Fidel. (December 27, 1983). Speech given in Palma Soriano, Cuba. Online. In this speech, given at the dedication of a publishing house and commemorating the 25th anniversary of the taking of Palma, Castro discussed the importance to the revolution of the taking of Palma on the way to Santiago. He talked about the previous recent fighting at Guisa, Baire, Jiguani and in the Sierra Maestra and how as a result of revolutionary successes the Cuban army in Bayamo was unable to consolidate forces with its surrounding units. Castro went on to describe the strategic importance of the revolutionary position along the banks of the Cautillo River as a position from which the army at Bayamo could be contained while, on the other side, the army at Santiago could be targeted once Palma was taken and the revolutionary forces re-armed. With respect to the planned attack against Santiago, Castro said: We established our defensive line on the Cautillo River. We had Mapos surrounded, but there was still Palma. There were approximately 300 enemy soldiers. We had to take Palma. We were also anxious to take the arms that were to be found in Palma, because when we left La Plata, in the Sierra Maestra, because of the latest offensive, we left with 25 armed soldiers and 1,000 unarmed recruits. We armed those troops along the way. We armed them during the fighting, but we really finished fully arming them in Palma. Castro then described the battle in detail and mentioned how, after the overthrow of Batista, the final war orders to the rebels were issued from Palma on January 1, 1959.
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 372 and p. 425
^ "Executions at La Cabaña fortress under Ernesto "Ché" Guevara". Document written by José Vilasuso. Online accessed October 18, 2006. In this document Vilasuso (who, along with most of the other legally-trained participants, quit due to its excesses) described the La Cabaña tribunal as the “Purging Commission”. He described a process where “[t]he statements of the investigating officer constituted irrefutable proof of wrongdoing” and where "[t]here were relatives of victims of the previous regime who were put in charge of judging the accused." He also provided vivid recollections of the final hours of the condemned with their family and friends, and he gave a graphic description of the execution details. He recalled that Guevara "chastised us all: 'Don’t delay these trials. This is a revolution, the proofs are secondary. We have to proceed by conviction. They are a gang of criminals and murderers. Besides, remember that there is an Appeals Tribunals [sic]'." But the Appeals Tribunal, according to Vilasuso, "never decided in favor of the appeal. It simply confirmed the sentences. It was presided by Commander Ernesto Guevara Serna."
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 503
^ chessgames.com, "Miguel Najdorf vs Ernesto Che Guevara". Online at chessgames.com, accessed January 5, 2006.
^ ar.geocities.com/carloseadrake/AJEDREZ/, Ernesto "Che" Guevara – Ajedrez Online, accessed June 29, 2006.
^ Puerto Padre website, "Cronologia" (List of anniversaries) Online at Puerto Padre website, accessed January 4, 2006.
^ Peña, Emilio Herasme," La Expedición Armada de junio de 1959", 14 June 2004.Online at 'Listín Diario (Dominican Republic), accessed January 4, 2006.
^ Cuban Information Archives, "La Coubre explodes in Havana 1960." Online, accessed February 26, 2006; pictures can be seen at Cuban site fotospl.com.
^ Defensa Nacional, "SABOTAJE AL BUQUE LA COUBRE" Online, accessed February 26, 2006
^ The Miami Herald, "Dockworker set ship blast in Havana, American claims". Online, accessed February 26, 2006
^ Guaracabuya.org, "Recuento Histórico:El porque el PCC ordenó volar el barco "La Coubre".Online, accessed February 26, 2006
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 508.
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 545: "In an interview with Che a few weeks after the crisis, Sam Russell, a British correspondent for the socialist Daily Worker, found Guevara still fuming over the Soviet betrayal. Alternately puffing on a cigar and taking blasts from an inhaler, Guevara told Russell that if the missiles had been under Cuban control, they would have fired them off. Russell came away with mixed feelings about Che, calling him 'a warm character whom I took to immediately... clearly a man of great intelligence though I thought he was crackers from the way he went on about the missiles.'"
^ Chronology (1964-66). MISIÓN PERMANENTE DE LA REPÚBLICA DE CUBA ANTE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS. Permanent Missions To The United Nations. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
^ Montreal Gazette, "Liberals picked the wrong issue". Online, accessed February 26, 2006‡ Guaracabuya.org, "TERRORISTS CONNECTED TO CUBAN COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT". Online, accessed February 26, 2006
^ Gálvez, William. Che in Africa: Che Guevara's Congo Diary. Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1999, p. 28.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, (editors Rolando E. Bonachea and Nelson P. Valdés), Che: Selected Works of Ernesto Guevara, Cambridge, MA: 1969, p. 350.‡ Ernesto Che Guevara, "English Translation of Complete Text of Algiers Speech", Online at Sozialistische Klassiker, accessed January 4, 2006.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, (editors Rolando E. Bonachea and Nelson P. Valdés), Che: Selected Works of Ernesto Guevara, Cambridge, MA: 1969, pp. 352-59.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, "English Translation of Complete Text of Algiers Speech", Online at Sozialistische Klassiker, accessed January 4, 2006.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, "English Translation of Complete Text of his Message to the Tricontinental", or see Original Spanish text at Wikisource .
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, "Che Guevara's Farewell Letter", 1965. English translation of complete text: Che Guevara's Farewell Letter at Wikisource.
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 628
^ Miná, Gianni. An Encounter with Fidel, Melbourne, 1991: Ocean Press, p 223.
^ Ahmed Ben Bella. "Che as I knew him". Online at Le Monde Diplomatique, accessed June 19, 2006. Heikal's account of Guevara's conversations with Nasser in February and March of 1965 lends further credence to this interpretation. See Heikal, Mohamed Hassanein. The Cairo Documents, pp 347-357.
^ Gálvez, William. Che in Africa: Che Guevara's Congo Diary, Melbourne, 1999: Ocean Press, p 62.
^ Gott, Richard. Cuba: A new history, Yale University Press 2004, p219
^ BBC News,"Profile: Laurent Kabila", 26 May 2001. Online at BBC News, accessed January 5, 2006.
^ African History Blog, "Che Guevara's Exploits in the Congo", Che Guevara's Exploits in the Congo Online at African History, accessed January 5, 2006.
^ Mad Mike Hoare Site, "Mad Mike". Online at Geocities.com, accessed January 5, 2006.
^ Ireland's Own, "From Cuba to Congo, Dream to Disaster for Che Guevara". Onine at irelandsown.net, accessed January 11, 2006.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, translated from the Spanish by Patrick Camiller, The African Dream, New York: Grove Publishers, 2000, p.1.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, "Che Guevara's Farewell Letter", 1965. English translation of complete text: Che Guevara's Farewell Letter at Wikisource.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, Apuntes Filosóficos, draft.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, Notas Económicas, draft.
^ Mittleman, James H. Underdevelopment and the Transition to Socialism - Mozambique and Tanzania, New York: 1981, Academic Press, p. 38
^ Major Donald R. Selvage - USMC, "Che Guevara in Bolivia", 1 April 1985. Online at GlobalSecurity.org, accessed January 5, 2006.
^ Taibo, Paco Ignacio II. Ernesto Guevara, también conocido como el Che, Barcelona, 1999: Editorial Planeta, p 726.
^ U.S. Army, "Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Activation, Organization and Training of the 2d Ranger Battalion – Bolivian Army (28 April 1967)". Online at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB5/che14_1.htm, accessed June 19, 2006.
^ Ryan, Henry Butterfield. The Fall of Che Guevara : A Story of Soldiers, Spies, and Diplomats, New York, 1998: Oxford University Press, p 82-102, inter alia.
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, "Excerpt from Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria: Congo", Online at Cold War International History Project, accessed April 26, 2006.
^ Castañeda, Jorge G. Che Guevara: Compañero, New York: 1998, Random House, pp 107-112; 131-132.
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p.733. "When they were a few feet away, a short, sturdy highland Indian named Sergent Bernardino Huanca broke through the bush and pointed his gun at them. He later claimed Che had told him "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead."
^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
^ Richard Gott, "Bolivia on the Day of the Death of Che Guevara". Online at Mindfully.org, accessed February 26, 2006
^ El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado, "Galeria Che Guevara". Online, accessed April 27, 2006
^ Rodriguez, Felix I. and John Weisman. Shadow Warrior/the CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles (Hardcover), New York: 1989, Publisher: Simon & Schuster
^ NewsMax, "Félix Rodríguez:Kerry No Foe of Castro". Online, accessed February 27, 2006
^ Ernesto Che Guevara, "Diario (Bolivia)". Online, accessed February 26, 2006.
^ Major Donald R. Selvage - USMC, "Che Guevara in Bolivia", 1 April 1985. Online at GlobalSecurity.org, accessed January 5, 2006;
^ Alarcón Ramírez, Dariel dit "Benigno". Le Che en Bolivie, Paris: 1997, Éditions du Rocher
^ Carlos Puebla,"Carta al Che". Online, accessed February 26, 2006.° Carlos Puebla,"Hasta Siempre, Comandante". Online at BBC News, accessed February 26, 2006.
^ a b U.S. Department of State : Guevara's Death, The Meaning for Latin America p.6. October 12, 1967: Thomas Hughes, the Latin America specialist at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research providing an interpretive report for Secretary of State Dean Rusk
^ "The Cult of Che". Time Magazine. Friday, May 17, 1968.Online. Accessed October 24, 2006
^ Trento, Angelo. Castro and Cuba : From the revolution to the present". p.64. Arris books. 2005.
^ a b c d The Guardian. "Just a pretty face?" Online. Accessed October 25 2006
^ Michael Moynihan, "Neutering Sartre at Dagens Nyheter". Online at Stockholm Spectator. Accessed February 26, 2006
^ Fidel Castro on Che Guevara : Speech by Fidel Castro was given on October 18, 1967. Online. Ocean Press Pty Ltd website. Accessed October 24, 2006.
^ Samuel Farber, "The Resurrection of Che Guevara", Summer 1998. William Paterson University online, accessed June 18, 2006.° Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 567. "Once, when he took economist Regino Boti with him to the farm and tested some of the men on their reading comprehension. One man did so badly that Che insulted him, saying: "Well, if you keep studying maybe you'll get to be as smart as an ox in twenty years" and turning on his heel. The poor guajiro was so humiliated he began crying. Boti went back to talk to Che, telling him that he had been wrong to be so harsh, to go back and talk like a man, to lift his spirits again. Such episodes were commonplace."
^ Libertarian Community, "Ernesto "Che" Guevara, 1928-1967". [1]
^ The Killing Machine: Che Guevara, from Communist Firebrand to Capitalist Brand. The Independent Institute. online. Accessed Nov 10, 2006.
^ Hugh Thomas. Cuba : The pursuit of freedom p 1007
^ "Cuba's face". Stanford University Germanic Collections.Online. Accessed October 24, 2006
^ Paquito D'Rivera, "Open letter to Carlos Santana by Paquito D'Rivera in Latin Beat Magazine", 25 March 2005.Find Articles Online, accessed June 18, 2006
^ "Andy Garcia Tells His Cuba Story, at Last". NewsMax.com. Friday, May 5, 2006. Online. Accessed October 24, 2006.
^ Don’t Let This Movie Get Lost Kathryn Jean Lopez. National Review. Accessed October 24, 2006.
^ Stylus Magazine. The Lost City, Movie Review Online. Accessed 26 October 2006.
^ BBC News, "Che Guevara photographer dies", 26 May 2001.Online at BBC News, accessed January 4, 2006.
^ CBC Radio One, "Discussion about Che Guevara". Online, accessed February 26, 2006.
^ BBC News. How the US 'lost' Latin America. Online accessed 10 January 2007° Washington Post. Anti-U.S. Protests Flare at Summit. Online accessed 10 January 2007. “Backed by a giant portrait of the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. Chavez addressed the crowd for more than two hours. Many people at the rally seemed inspired by Chavez and his defiant message.”
^ Foreign Affairs. Latin America's Left Turn. Online accessed 10 January 2007
^ Photograph of Sandinista election victory parade Online
^ BBC News. Evo Morales 'padlocked' in palace Online accessed 10 January 2007° Spiegel News online. Capitalism Has Only Hurt Latin America Online accessed 10 January 2007° The Latin American and Caribbean Information Center of the Florida International University. President Evo Morales pays tribute to Che Guevara Online accessed 10 January 2007
^ Guardian Online. Hugo Chavez superstar. Online accessed 10 January 2007
^ MSNBC News. Castro, Chavez tour Che Guevara’s home. Online. accessed 10 January 2007
^ Amazon books. Chavez: Venezuela and the New Latin America - Hugo Chavez Interviewed by Aleida Guevara. Online. accessed 10 January 2007
^ Leeds University. The impact and legacy of Che Guevara’s Foco Theory, with special reference to guerrilla warfare in Colombia. Online. accessed 10 January 2007
^ BBC News. Profile: The Zapatistas' mysterious leader Online. accessed 10 January 2007
^ Washington Post. Anti-U.S. Protests Flare at Summit. Online accessed 10 January 2007.
^ Target pulls Che Guevara CD cases - Associated Press, December 24, 2006
^ Paz, Octavio (1995). Obras Completas 9, Ideas y costumbres I: la letra y el cetro (edición del autor), México: FCE. °Review of Jon Lee Anderson's Che Guevara, A Revolutionary Life. Bertrand de la Grange. "This shining book, that does not hide the dark side of this icon of the international left." Online, accessed December 21, 2006°Review of Régis Debray : Alabados sean nuestros señores. Una educación política. "Its picture of the Argentine guerrilla is harder at heart and less friendly. The Che Guevara of these memories is an implacable, cruel man." Online Accessed December 21, 2006°Castañeda, Jorge (1997). Compañero: vida y muerte del Che Guevara, Vintage.
^ Paul Berman, "The Cult of Che", 24 September, 2004. Slate Online, accessed June 18, 2006.
[edit] Content notes
^ rough: During his youthful travels, Guevara carried a minimal amount of money and tried to spend it only on food. While making their 1952 trip, he and Alberto Granado received along the way several "collections" given to them by local people and/or other travellers who were concerned about their apparent destitution. It is hoped that the following lists will cast further light on the circumstances in which they made this trip and the meaning of the phrase travelling rough.
· Conveyances used: motorcycle "La Poderosa II" (broke down completely and was abandoned in Santiago de Chile on 2 March 1952); various launches; steamboat; freighter (as stowaways); taxi; bus; various trucks (hitch-hiking); Land-Rover (lent by a friend); train; horse; riverboat; raft "Mambo Tango"; Indian dugout canoe; sea plane; armored police van; cargo plane
· Nights spent in: houses of friends, acquaintances and strangers; hospital rooms; police sentry box; shack; shed; jail cell; outside "under the stars"; garage; lean-to; kitchen of forest ranger's cabin; hayloft; police barracks; boathouse; hut; fire station attic; derelict ("haunted") house; cab of truck; Centre for the Prevention of Yellow Fever; police headquarters; forest ranger sentry post; railroad station; Chilean National Guard barracks; bus station; boarding house; guest house room; "dump"; municipal parks (in Miami)
Additionally, in 1950 Guevara made a solo tour of the northern provinces of Argentina on his motorized bike "Micrón" (1950); in that same year, he also travelled up and down the eastern coast of South America aboard petrol tankers and other ships while working as a male nurse in the Argentine Merchant Marine and visited many port cities along their routes.

^ Basque: Re origin of the surname Guevara — "Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gebara, a habitational name from a place in the Basque province of Araba. The origin and meaning of the place name are uncertain; it is recorded in the form Gebala by the geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century ad. This is a rare name in Spain." Dictionary of American Family Names, Patrick Hanks, ed., London: 2003, Oxford University Press. His mother, Celia de la Serna, had also inherited Basque blood through her father, Juan Martín de la Serna Ugalde. One of Celia's collateral ancestors was the last Viceroy of Perú, General José de la Serna e Hinojosa, who was likewise of documented Basque origin. [3] NB: For detailed genealogical information about Che Guevara, including his family tree, see Genealogy of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna.

^ Galway: The Lynch family was one of the famous 14 Tribes of Galway. The misconception exists that Ana María Isabel Lynch was born in Ireland, whereas she was actually born (1868) in San Francisco, California, USA where her father, Francisco Lynch, had traveled from Argentina during the Gold Rush years. Francisco had married a young Californian widow, Eloísa Ortiz, ca. 1860 and they had several other American-born children in addition to Ana Isabel. The man Ana Isabel would eventually marry, Roberto Guevara Castro, had also been born in California, USA of an Argentine father and a Californian mother who was the grand-daughter of the Spanish aristocrat Don Luís María Peralta who had been given large land grants (including 44,800 acres encompassing the East Bay region of California) by the King of Spain. Despite the fact that they were both born in the Bay area of California, Ana Isabel and Roberto did not meet until after their respective families had returned to Argentina in the 1880s. During Che's childhood, listening to his Grandmother Ana Isabel's tales of frontier life in California was one of his greatest delights.

^ Neruda: It is unclear whether he was familiar with the poems in which Neruda praised Fulgencio Batista, a principal future antagonist. A book of Neruda's poetry was found in Guevara's knapsack when he was captured in Bolivia.

^ Diploma:
"In March (1953), he passed his finals and obtained his diploma as a physician. His specialty was dermatology. A few months later he went back on the road, never to return to Argentina until he had become the world-famous Comandante Che Guevara." Source: James, Daniel. Che Guevara: A Biography, New York: Stein and Day, 1969, p. 71.
Also: "12 de junio de 1953.- La Facultad de Ciencias Médicas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires le expide a Ernesto Guevara de la Serna el certificado de haber concluido la carrera de medicina. Esto se refleja en el legajo 1058, registro 1116, folio 153. Después participa en una fiesta de despedida que sus compañeros de la Clínica del doctor Salvador Pisani le hacen en la hacienda de la señora Amalia María Gómez Macías de Duhau." Source: Che en el tiempo

^ Ibero-America: In a brief speech at the San Pablo leprosarium in Peru on the occasion of his 24th birthday, Guevara said: "Although we're too insignificant to be spokesmen for such a noble cause, we believe, and this journey has only served to confirm this belief, that the division of America into unstable and illusory nations is a complete fiction. We are one single mestizo race with remarkable ethnographical similarities, from Mexico down to the Magellan Straits. And so, in an attempt to break free from all narrow-minded provincialism, I propose a toast to Peru and to a United America." Source: Guevara, Ernesto Che, Motorcycle Diaries, London: Verso Books, 1995, p.135.

^ non-Cubans: "There were four non-Cubans on board -- Guevara, from Argentina; Gino Doné, an Italian; Guillén, a Mexican; and the pilot Ramón Mejía del Castillo ('Pichirilo'), a Dominican who had been on the abortive Cayo Confites expedition." Source: Thomas, Hugh. Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom, Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, April 1998 (Updated edition), p. 894.

^ Knapsack: "Quizás esa fue la primera vez que tuve planteado prácticamente ante mí el dilema de mi dedicación a la medicina o a mi deber de soldado revolucionario. Tenía delante de mí una mochila llena de medicamentos y una caja de balas, las dos eran mucho peso para transportarlas juntas; tomé la caja de balas, dejando la mochila ..." (English: "Perhaps this was the first time I was confronted with the real-life dilemma of having to choose between my devotion to medicine and my duty as a revolutionary soldier. Lying at my feet were a knapsack full of medicine and a box of ammunition. They were too heavy for me to carry both of them. I grabbed the box of ammunition, leaving the medicine behind ...".) First published in an article in Verde Olivo, La Habana, Cuba, February 26, 1961. Subsequently published in the book, Guevara, Ernesto Che. Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria, La Habana, Cuba: 1963, Ediciones Unión.

^ Children:
With Hilda Gadea (married 18 August 1955; divorced 22 May 1959):
* Hilda Beatriz Guevara Gadea, born 15 February 1956 in Mexico City; died 21 Aug 1995 in Havana, Cuba
With Aleida March (married 2 June 1959):
* Aleida Guevara March, born 24 November 1960 in Havana, Cuba
* Camilo Guevara March, born 20 May 1962 in Havana, Cuba
* Celia Guevara March, born 14 June 1963 in Havana, Cuba
* Ernesto Guevara March, born 24 February 1965 in Havana, Cuba
With Lilia Rosa López (extramarital):
* Omar Pérez, born 19 March 1964 in Havana, Cuba (Source: Castañeda, Jorge G. Che Guevara: Compañero, New York: 1998, Random House, pp 264-265.)

^ INRA: appointed Director of the Industrialization Department of the National Institute for Agrarian Reform on October 7, 1959

^ BNC: appointed President of the National Bank of Cuba on November 26, 1959

^ Signature: "If my way of signing is not typical of bank presidents ... this does not signify, by any means, that I am minimizing the importance of the document — but that the revolutionary process is not yet over and, besides, that we must change our scale of values." — Ernesto Guevara, quoted by Aleksandr Alexeiev in "Cuba después del triunfo de la revolución" ("Cuba after the triumph of the revolution"), Revista de América Latina (Moscow), no. 10, October 1984, p. 57 (referenced in Castañeda, op. cit, p. 169).

^ MININD: appointed Minister of Industries on February 23, 1961

^ Algeria: In September 1962, Algeria asked Cuba for assistance when Morocco declared war on it over their dispute concerning the territory formerly known as the Spanish Sahara. Cuba responded by sending a contingent of Cuban officers and troops totalling 686 men and some 60 tanks to support the Algerian forces. Shortly after news of the landing of the Cuban troops at Oran leaked to the press, King Hassan II of Morocco agreed to sign a cease-fire with President Ben Bella of Algeria. The Cuban expeditionary force remained in Algeria for six months, during which time they set up the military equipment they had brought and trained their Algerian counterparts in its use. Guevara played a major role in organizing and executing the Cuban deployment. Sources: Piero Gliejeses, "Cuba's First Venture in Africa: Algeria, 1961–1965", Journal of Latin American Studies, no. 28, London: Cambridge University Press, Spring 1996, p. 188 and Castañeda, pp. 244-245.

^ Kabila: In May 1997, Laurent-Désiré Kabila overthrew the government of Mobutu Sese Seko and became President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He held that position until his assassination on January 16, 2001 and was succeeded in the presidency by his son, Joseph Kabila.

^ NSA: "The intercept operators knew that Dar-es-Salaam was serving as a communications center for the fighters, receiving messages from Castro in Cuba and relaying them on to the guerrillas deep in the bush. Guevara transmitted his progress reports and requests for supplies back through that same channel. Every day at 8:00 A.M., 2:30 P.M., and 7:00 P.M., one of Guevara's radio operators would also make contact with the jungle base at Kigoma." Source: Bamford, James, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, New York: Anchor Books, 2002 (Reprint edition), p. 181.

^ Camp: The purchase of the acreage in the Ñancahuazú region was in direct contravention of Guevara's directive that the land for the camp should be purchased in the Alto Beni region. When presented with the fait accompli that the Bolivian Communists had acquired land in the Ñancahuazú region instead, he at first complained but eventually decided to utilize it in order not to lose time while waiting for them to purchase a parcel in the Alto Beni.

^ USMilitary: "U.S. military personnel in Bolivia never exceeded 53 advisors, including a sixteen-man Mobile Training Team (MTT) from the 8th Special Forces Group based at Fort Gulick, Panama Canal Zone. Commanded by Major Ralph ('Pappy') Shelton, the MTT set up a training camp near Santa Cruz. The advisors arrived on April 29 and instituted a 19 week counter-insurgency training program for the Bolivian 2nd Ranger Battalion. The intensive course included training in weapons, individual combat, squad and platoon tactics, patrolling, and counter-insurgency. The Bolivians responded well to the training and quickly developed into a spirited, confident, and effective counter guerrilla unit." — Che Guevara in Bolivia by Major Donald R. Selvage.

^ Message: For example, on August 31, 1967 Che wrote in his diary "Hay mensaje de Manila pero no se pudo copiar.", i.e. "There is a (coded radio) message from Manila ('Manila' being the code name for Havana) but we couldn't copy it." The content of this message has not been revealed, but it may have been of critical importance since by then Castro and the other Cubans who were directing the guerrillas' support network from Havana had to be aware of their dire straits.

^ Barrientos: Although Barrientos never revealed his motives for ordering the summary execution of Guevara, some of his associates have suggested that he took this decision primarily in order to avoid the spectacle of a "show trial" that would have brought unwelcome international attention to Bolivia, and that he was also concerned that, had Guevara been sentenced to a lengthy term in a Bolivian prison, he might have escaped or eventually been released (as in Fidel Castro's case), and subsequently resumed his guerrilla activities.

^ Amputation: Castañeda, Jorge G., Che Guevara: Compañero, New York: 1998, Random House, pp. xiii - xiv; pp. 401-402. Guevara's amputated hands, preserved in formaldehyde, turned up in the possession of Fidel Castro a few months later. Castro reportedly wanted to put them on public display but was dissuaded from doing so by the vehement protests of members of Guevara's family.

^ Mausoleum: On December 30, 1998 the remains of ten more guerrillas who had fought alongside Guevara in Bolivia and whose secret burial sites there had been recently discovered by Cuban forensic investigators were placed inside the "Che Guevara Mausoleum" in Santa Clara. Also inside the mausoleum is the original letter[100] Guevara wrote to Castro in which he stated that he was leaving Cuba to fight abroad for the cause of the revolution, resigned all his party, military and governmental posts, and renounced his Cuban citizenship.

[edit] References
[edit] Printed matter
Alarcón Ramírez, Dariel ("Benigno"). Memorias de un Soldado Cubano: Vida y Muerte de la Revolución. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores S.A., 2002. ISBN 84-8310-014-2
Alarcón Ramírez, Dariel dit "Benigno". Le Che en Bolivie. Éditions du Rocher, 1997. ISBN 2-268-02437-7
Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. New York: Grove Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8021-1600-0
Bamford, James. Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency. New York: Anchor Books, 2002 (Reprint edition). ISBN 0-385-49908-6
Bravo, Marcos. La Otra Cara Del Che. Bogota, Colombia: Editorial Solar, 2005. “I’d like to confess, papá, at that moment I discovered that I really like killing.” Guevara writing to his father.
Castañeda, Jorge G. Che Guevara: Compañero. New York: Random House, 1998. ISBN 0-679-75940-9
Castro, Fidel (editors Bonachea, Rolando E. and Nelson P. Valdés). Revolutionary Struggle. 1947-1958. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: MIT Press, 1972. ISBN 0-262-02065-3
Feldman, Allen 2003. Political Terror and the Technologies of Memory: Excuse, Sacrifice, Commodification, and Actuarial Moralities. Radical History Review 85, 58-73.
Escobar, Froilán and Félix Guerra. Che: Sierra adentro (Che: Deep in the Sierra). Havana: Editora Política, 1988.
Fuentes, Norberto. La Autobiografía De Fidel Castro ("The Autobiography of Fidel Castro"). Mexico D.F: Editorial Planeta, 2004. ISBN 84-233-3604-2, ISBN 970-749-001-2
Gálvez, William. Che in Africa: Che Guevara's Congo Diary. Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1999. ISBN 1-876175-08-7
George, Edward. The Cuban Intervention In Angola, 1965-1991: From Che Guevara To Cuito Cuanavale. London & Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass Publishers, 2005. ISBN 0-415-35015-8
Gliejeses, Piero. Cuba's First Venture in Africa: Algeria, 1961–1965, Journal of Latin American Studies, no. 28, London: Cambridge University Press, Spring 1996.
Granado, Alberto. Travelling with Che Guevara - The Making of a Revolutionary. New York: Newmarket Press, 2004, ISBN 1-55704-640-9 (hardcover), ISBN 1-55704-639-5 (pbk.)
Guevara, Ernesto "Che". Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria
Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (editors Bonachea, Rolando E. and Nelson P. Valdés). Che: Selected Works of Ernesto Guevara, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969. ISBN 0-262-52016-8
Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (editor Waters, Mary Alice). Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War 1956-1958. New York: Pathfinder, 1996. ISBN 0-87348-824-5 (See reference to "El Viscaíno" on page 186).
Guevara, Ernesto "Che", translated from the Spanish by Patrick Camiller. The African Dream, New York: Grove Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0-8021-3834-9
Guevara Lynch, Ernesto. Aquí va un soldado de América. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés Editores, S.A., 2000. ISBN 84-01-01327-5
Heikal, Mohamed Hassanein. The Cairo Documents. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1973. ISBN 0-385-06447-0
Holland, Max. Private Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy William Pawley and the 1954 Coup d'État in Guatemala in Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 7, Number 4, Fall 2005, pp. 36-73.
James, Daniel. Che Guevara: A Biography. New York: Stein and Day, 1969. ISBN 0812813480
James, Daniel. Che Guevara. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8154-1144-8
Kahn, David. The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing. New York: Macmillan, 1967. ISBN 0684831309
Matos, Huber. Como llegó la Noche ("As night arrived"). Barcelona: Tusquet Editores, SA, 2002. ISBN 84-8310-944-1
Miná, Gianni. An Encounter with Fidel. Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1991. ISBN 1-875284-22-2
Morán Arce, Lucas. La revolución cubana, 1953-1959: Una versión rebelde ("The Cuban Revolution, 1953-1959: a rebel version"). Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Universitaria, Universidad Católica, 1980. ISBN B0000EDAW9.
Peña, Emilio Herasme. La Expedición Armada de junio de 1959, Listín Diario, (Dominican Republic), 14 June 2004.
Peredo-Leigue, Guido "Inti". Mi campaña junto al Che, México: Ed. Siglo XXI, 1979. PDF version.
Rodriguez, Félix I. and John Weisman. Shadow Warrior/the CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989. ISBN 0-671-66721-1
Rojo del Río, Manuel. La Historia Cambió En La Sierra ("History changed in the Sierra"). 2a Ed. Aumentada (Augmented second edition). San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Texto, 1981.
Ros, Enrique 2003. Fidel Castro y El Gatillo Alegre: Sus Años Universitarios (Colección Cuba y Sus Jueces). Miami: Ediciones Universal. ISBN 1-59388-006-5
Ryan, Henry Butterfield. The Fall of Che Guevara : A Story of Soldiers, Spies, and Diplomats. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-511879-0
Taibo, Paco Ignacio II. Ernesto Guevara, también conocido como el Che. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 1999. ISBN 84-08-02280-6
Thomas, Hugh. Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, April 1998 (Updated edition). ISBN 0-306-80827-7
Vargas Llosa, Álvaro. The Killing Machine: Che Guevara, from Communist Firebrand to Capitalist Brand in The New Republic
Villegas, Harry "Pombo". Pombo : un hombre de la guerrilla del Che : diario y testimonio inéditos, 1966-1968. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Colihue S.R.L., 1996. ISBN 950-581-667-7
[edit] Websites
ABC.es. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
African History. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
BBC News. Retrieved on June 19, 2006.
CBC Radio One. Retrieved on June 20, 2006.
Che-Lives (RevolutionaryLeft.com). Retrieved on February 26, 2006.
chessgames.com. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
CIA Biographic Register on Che Guevara. Retrieved on July 12, 2006.
CNC TV. Retrieved on February 26, 2006.
CNN News. Retrieved on March 26, 2006.
Cuba SI. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
Cuban Information Archives(cuban-exile.com). Retrieved on 27 June 2006.
Cuban Aviation. Retrieved on February 26, 2006.
El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
Ernesto Che Guevara - Ajedrez. Retrieved on June 29, 2006.
Find Articles. Retrieved on June 18, 2006.
Florida International University. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
FrontPage Magazine. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
Granma Internacional Digital. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
Guaracabuya. Retrieved on February 26, 2006.
History News Network. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
Ireland's OWN: History. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
Latino Studies Resources. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved on June 19, 2006.
libertarian community and organising resource. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
Listín Diario. Retrieved on January 4, 2006.
MadMikeHoare.com. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
Mindfully.org. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Czech Republic. Retrieved on June 18, 2006.
National Security Archive at George Washington University. Retrieved on June 19, 2006.
NewsMax. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
Periódico 26, Las Tunas, Cuba. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
Radio Bayamo. Retrieved on February 26, 2006.
Radio Cadena Agramonte. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
Sitio del Gobierno de la República de Cuba. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
Slate. Retrieved on June 18, 2006.
Sozialistische Klassiker. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
Stockholm Spectator. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
The Independent Institute. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
The New Humanist. Retrieved on February 26, 2006.
The New York Sun. Retrieved on June 27, 2006.
TIME magazine. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
Universidad de Córdoba. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
U.S. Department of State. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
USA Today. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
Viden er magt. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
vigile.net (DOSSIER). Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
William Paterson University. Retrieved on June 18, 2006.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
[edit] Further reading
Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him, by Humberto Fontova, New York: Sentinel HC, ISBN 1-59523-027-0 (Hardcover)
Guerrilla Warfare, Ernesto Guevara, Brian Loveman and Thomas M. Davies Jr., Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska, June 1985, ISBN 0-8032-2116-9 and September 1997, ISBN 0-8420-2678-9
Manifesto: Three Classic Essays on How to Change the World, Ernesto Che Guevara, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Marx, New York: Ocean Press, 2004, ISBN 1-876175-98-2
The Che Guevara Reader, Collection of Guevara's works edited by David Deutschmann, New York: Ocean Press, ISBN 1-876175-69-9
[edit] External links
English
Che Guevara Monument and Mausoleum in Santa Clara in EcoSur magazine, October 2005
Che Guevara - A legacy of struggle by Daniel Waldron in Socialist View, No. 13 Winter 2004, an Irish socialist journal.
Che Guevara - symbol of struggle -by Tony Saunois
Compañero Che Guevara : Childhood, Youth, and Asthma in Argentina
Ernesto Che Guevara at Rodovid - family tree and genealogical information about Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara: Bibliography of Writings and Speeches - by Ocean Books (N.B.: this list includes his published works only)
Exposition of photos by Guevara
Guevara, Ernesto (Che) (1928-1967) physician and revolutionary by Edmundo Murray in Irish Migration Studies in Latin America (November-December 2005)
The Che Guevara internet archive – written works, pictures, and speeches
The night Che Guevara came to Limerick in the Scotsman newspaper, 28 December 2003
The importance of being Ernesto by Joe Rayment.
A critical biography of Che Guevara

Spanish
Alta Gracia, Argentina – Museo Che Guevara
Che – Etimología y utilización del término Che en la Wikipedia en espaňol
Che, Guía y Ejemplo Photos Cuban Ministry of culture: videos of Che Guevara
Ernesto Guevara, Anatomía de un Mito, por Pedro Corzo
Che: anatomía de un mito - Video
Che: más mito que realidad!
Fragmento de Che Guevara: el documental (video)
Los libros: compañeros inseparables de Ernesto Che Guevara
Revista Social Che Guevara Noticias, Fotos, Videos del Che, Documentales, Canciones, Foros de Debate, Ayuda Comunitaria, Acciones conjuntas

Other languages
Che Guevara - a collection of links (in Danish, with links to websites in various other languages including English)

Source: Microsoft Encarta 2006

one of the most inspiring speech ever in history...

2007-05-30T13:31:00.000+05:30

History Will Absolve Me

Honorable Judges:
Never has a lawyer had to practice his profession under such difficult conditions; never has such a number of overwhelming irregularities been committed against an accused man. In this case, counsel and defendant are one and the same. As attorney he has not even been able to take a look at the indictment. As accused, for the past seventy-six days he has been locked away in solitary confinement, held totally and absolutely incommunicado, in violation of every human and legal right.
He who speaks to you hates vanity with all his being, nor are his temperament or frame of mind inclined towards courtroom poses or sensationalism of any kind. If I have had to assume my own defense before this Court it is for two reasons. First: because I have been denied legal aid almost entirely, and second: only one who has been so deeply wounded, who has seen his country so forsaken and its justice trampled so, can speak at a moment like this with words that spring from the blood of his heart and the truth of his very gut...
From a shack in the mountains on Monday, July 27th, I listened to the dictator’s voice on the air while there were still 18 of our men in arms against the government. Those who have never experienced similar moments will never know that kind of bitterness and indignation. While the long-cherished hopes of freeing our people lay in ruins about us we heard those crushed hopes gloated over by a tyrant more vicious, more arrogant than ever. The endless stream of lies and slanders, poured forth in his crude, odious, repulsive language, may only be compared to the endless stream of clean young blood which had flowed since the previous night—with his knowledge, consent, complicity and approval—being spilled by the most inhuman gang of assassins it is possible to imagine. To have believed him for a single moment would have sufficed to fill a man of conscience with remorse and shame for the rest of his life. At that time I could not even hope to brand his miserable forehead with the mark of truth which condemns him for the rest of his days and for all time to come. Already a circle of more than a thousand men, armed with weapons more powerful than ours and with peremptory orders to bring in our bodies, was closing in around us. Now that the truth is coming out, now that speaking before you I am carrying out the mission I set for myself, I may die peacefully and content. So I shall not mince my words about those savage murderers.
I must pause to consider the facts for a moment. The government itself said the attack showed such precision and perfection that it must have been planned by military strategists. Nothing could have been farther from the truth! The plan was drawn up by a group of young men, none of whom had any military experience at all. I will reveal their names, omitting two who are neither dead nor in prison: Abel Santamaría, José Luis Tasende, Renato Guitart Rosell, Pedro Miret, Jesús Montané and myself. Half of them are dead, and in tribute to their memory I can say that although they were not military experts they had enough patriotism to have given, had we not been at such a great disadvantage, a good beating to that entire lot of generals together, those generals of the 10th of March who are neither soldiers nor patriots. Much more difficult than the planning of the attack was our organizing, training, mobilizing and arming men under this repressive regime with its millions of dollars spent on espionage, bribery and information services. Nevertheless, all this was carried out by those men and many others like them with incredible seriousness, discretion and discipline. Still more praiseworthy is the fact that they gave this task everything they had; ultimately, their very lives.
The final mobilization of men who came to this province from the most remote towns of the entire island was accomplished with admirable precision and in absolute secrecy. It is equally true that the attack was carried out with magnificent coordination. It began simultaneously at 5:15 a.m. in both Bayamo and Santiago de Cuba; and one by one, with an exactitude of minutes and seconds prepared in advance, the buildings surrounding the barracks fell to our forces. Nevertheless, in the interest of truth and even though it may detract from our merit, I am also going to reveal for the first time a fact that was fatal: due to a most unfortunate error, half of our forces, and the better armed half at that, went astray at the entrance to the city and were not on hand to help us at the decisive moment. Abel Santamaría, with 21 men, had occupied the Civilian Hospital; with him went a doctor and two of our women comrades to attend to the wounded. Raúl Castro, with ten men, occupied the Palace of Justice, and it was my responsibility to attack the barracks with the rest, 95 men. Preceded by an advance group of eight who had forced Gate Three, I arrived with the first group of 45 men. It was precisely here that the battle began, when my car ran into an outside patrol armed with machine guns. The reserve group which had almost all the heavy weapons (the light arms were with the advance group), turned up the wrong street and lost its way in an unfamiliar city. I must clarify the fact that I do not for a moment doubt the courage of those men; they experienced great anguish and desperation when they realized they were lost. Because of the type of action it was and because the contending forces were wearing identically colored uniforms, it was not easy for these men to re-establish contact with us. Many of them, captured later on, met death with true heroism.
Everyone had instructions, first of all, to be humane in the struggle. Never was a group of armed men more generous to the adversary. From the beginning we took numerous prisoners—nearly twenty—and there was one moment when three of our men—Ramiro Valdés, José Suárez and Jesús Montané—managed to enter a barrack and hold nearly fifty soldiers prisoners for a short time. Those soldiers testified before the Court, and without exception they all acknowledged that we treated them with absolute respect, that we didn’t even subject them to one scoffing remark. In line with this, I want to give my heartfelt thanks to the Prosecutor for one thing in the trial of my comrades: when he made his report he was fair enough to acknowledge as an incontestable fact that we maintained a high spirit of chivalry throughout the struggle.
Discipline among the soldiers was very poor. They finally defeated us because of their superior numbers—fifteen to one—and because of the protection afforded them by the defenses of the fortress. Our men were much better marksmen, as our enemies themselves conceded. There was a high degree of courage on both sides.
In analyzing the reasons for our tactical failure, apart from the regrettable error already mentioned, I believe we made a mistake by dividing the commando unit we had so carefully trained. Of our best trained men and boldest leaders, there were 27 in Bayamo, 21 at the Civilian Hospital and 10 at the Palace of Justice. If our forces had been distributed differently the outcome of the battle might have been different. The clash with the patrol (purely accidental, since the unit might have been at that point twenty seconds earlier or twenty seconds later) alerted the camp, and gave it time to mobilize. Otherwise it would have fallen into our hands without a shot fired, since we already controlled the guard post. On the other hand, except for the .22 caliber rifles, for which there were plenty of bullets, our side was very short of ammunition. Had we had hand grenades, the Army would not have been able to resist us for fifteen minutes.
When I became convinced that all efforts to take the barracks were now useless, I began to withdraw our men in groups of eight and ten. Our retreat was covered by six expert marksmen under the command of Pedro Miret and Fidel Labrador; heroically they held off the Army’s advance. Our losses in the battle had been insignificant; 95% of our casualties came from the Army’s inhumanity after the struggle. The group at the Civilian Hospital only had one casualty; the rest of that group was trapped when the troops blocked the only exit; but our youths did not lay down their arms until their very last bullet was gone. With them was Abel Santamaría, the most generous, beloved and intrepid of our young men, whose glorious resistance immortalizes him in Cuban history. We shall see the fate they met and how Batista sought to punish the heroism of our youth.
We planned to continue the struggle in the mountains in case the attack on the regiment failed. In Siboney I was able to gather a third of our forces; but many of these men were now discouraged. About twenty of them decided to surrender; later we shall see what became of them. The rest, 18 men, with what arms and ammunition were left, followed me into the mountains. The terrain was completely unknown to us. For a week we held the heights of the Gran Piedra range and the Army occupied the foothills. We could not come down; they didn’t risk coming up. It was not force of arms, but hunger and thirst that ultimately overcame our resistance. I had to divide the men into smaller groups. Some of them managed to slip through the Army lines; others were surrendered by Monsignor Pérez Serantes. Finally only two comrades remained with me—José Suárez and Oscar Alcalde. While the three of us were totally exhausted, a force led by Lieutenant Sarría surprised us in our sleep at dawn. This was Saturday, August 1st. By that time the slaughter of prisoners had ceased as a result of the people’s protest. This officer, a man of honor, saved us from being murdered on the spot with our hands tied behind us.
I need not deny here the stupid statements by Ugalde Carrillo and company, who tried to stain my name in an effort to mask their own cowardice, incompetence, and criminality. The facts are clear enough.
My purpose is not to bore the court with epic narratives. All that I have said is essential for a more precise understanding of what is yet to come...
I stated that the second consideration on which we based our chances for success was one of social order. Why were we sure of the people’s support? When we speak of the people we are not talking about those who live in comfort, the conservative elements of the nation, who welcome any repressive regime, any dictatorship, any despotism, prostrating themselves before the masters of the moment until they grind their foreheads into the ground. When we speak of struggle and we mention the people we mean the vast unredeemed masses, those to whom everyone makes promises and who are deceived by all; we mean the people who yearn for a better, more dignified and more just nation; who are moved by ancestral aspirations to justice, for they have suffered injustice and mockery generation after generation; those who long for great and wise changes in all aspects of their life; people who, to attain those changes, are ready to give even the very last breath they have when they believe in something or in someone, especially when they believe in themselves. The first condition of sincerity and good faith in any endeavor is to do precisely what nobody else ever does, that is, to speak with absolute clarity, without fear. The demagogues and professional politicians who manage to perform the miracle of being right about everything and of pleasing everyone are, necessarily, deceiving everyone about everything. The revolutionaries must proclaim their ideas courageously, define their principles and express their intentions so that no one is deceived, neither friend nor foe.
In terms of struggle, when we talk about people we’re talking about the six hundred thousand Cubans without work, who want to earn their daily bread honestly without having to emigrate from their homeland in search of a livelihood; the five hundred thousand farm laborers who live in miserable shacks, who work four months of the year and starve the rest, sharing their misery with their children, who don’t have an inch of land to till and whose existence would move any heart not made of stone; the four hundred thousand industrial workers and laborers whose retirement funds have been embezzled, whose benefits are being taken away, whose homes are wretched quarters, whose salaries pass from the hands of the boss to those of the moneylender, whose future is a pay reduction and dismissal, whose life is endless work and whose only rest is the tomb; the one hundred thousand small farmers who live and die working land that is not theirs, looking at it with the sadness of Moses gazing at the promised land, to die without ever owning it, who like feudal serfs have to pay for the use of their parcel of land by giving up a portion of its produce, who cannot love it, improve it, beautify it nor plant a cedar or an orange tree on it because they never know when a sheriff will come with the rural guard to evict them from it; the thirty thousand teachers and professors who are so devoted, dedicated and so necessary to the better destiny of future generations and who are so badly treated and paid; the twenty thousand small business men weighed down by debts, ruined by the crisis and harangued by a plague of grafting and venal officials; the ten thousand young professional people: doctors, engineers, lawyers, veterinarians, school teachers, dentists, pharmacists, newspapermen, painters, sculptors, etc., who finish school with their degrees anxious to work and full of hope, only to find themselves at a dead end, all doors closed to them, and where no ears hear their clamor or supplication. These are the people, the ones who know misfortune and, therefore, are capable of fighting with limitless courage! To these people whose desperate roads through life have been paved with the bricks of betrayal and false promises, we were not going to say: ‘We will give you... ‘ but rather: ‘Here it is, now fight for it with everything you have, so that liberty and happiness may be yours!’
The five revolutionary laws that would have been proclaimed immediately after the capture of the Moncada Barracks and would have been broadcast to the nation by radio must be included in the indictment. It is possible that Colonel Chaviano may deliberately have destroyed these documents, but even if he has I remember them.
The first revolutionary law would have returned power to the people and proclaimed the 1940 Constitution the Supreme Law of the State until such time as the people should decide to modify or change it. And in order to effect its implementation and punish those who violated it—there being no electoral organization to carry this out—the revolutionary movement, as the circumstantial incarnation of this sovereignty, the only source of legitimate power, would have assumed all the faculties inherent therein, except that of modifying the Constitution itself: in other words, it would have assumed the legislative, executive and judicial powers.
This attitude could not be clearer nor more free of vacillation and sterile charlatanry. A government acclaimed by the mass of rebel people would be vested with every power, everything necessary in order to proceed with the effective implementation of popular will and real justice. From that moment, the Judicial Power—which since March 10th had placed itself against and outside the Constitution—would cease to exist and we would proceed to its immediate and total reform before it would once again assume the power granted it by the Supreme Law of the Republic. Without these previous measures, a return to legality by putting its custody back into the hands that have crippled the system so dishonorably would constitute a fraud, a deceit, one more betrayal.
The second revolutionary law would give non-mortgageable and non-transferable ownership of the land to all tenant and subtenant farmers, lessees, share croppers and squatters who hold parcels of five caballerías of land or less, and the State would indemnify the former owners on the basis of the rental which they would have received for these parcels over a period of ten years.
The third revolutionary law would have granted workers and employees the right to share 30% of the profits of all the large industrial, mercantile and mining enterprises, including the sugar mills. The strictly agricultural enterprises would be exempt in consideration of other agrarian laws which would be put into effect.
The fourth revolutionary law would have granted all sugar planters the right to share 55% of sugar production and a minimum quota of forty thousand arrobas for all small tenant farmers who have been established for three years or more.
The fifth revolutionary law would have ordered the confiscation of all holdings and ill-gotten gains of those who had committed frauds during previous regimes, as well as the holdings and ill-gotten gains of all their legates and heirs. To implement this, special courts with full powers would gain access to all records of all corporations registered or operating in this country, in order to investigate concealed funds of illegal origin, and to request that foreign governments extradite persons and attach holdings rightfully belonging to the Cuban people. Half of the property recovered would be used to subsidize retirement funds for workers and the other half would be used for hospitals, asylums and charitable organizations.
Furthermore, it was declared that the Cuban policy in the Americas would be one of close solidarity with the democratic peoples of this continent, and that all those politically persecuted by bloody tyrannies oppressing our sister nations would find generous asylum, brotherhood and bread in the land of Martí; not the persecution, hunger and treason they find today. Cuba should be the bulwark of liberty and not a shameful link in the chain of despotism.
These laws would have been proclaimed immediately. As soon as the upheaval ended and prior to a detailed and far reaching study, they would have been followed by another series of laws and fundamental measures, such as the Agrarian Reform, the Integral Educational Reform, nationalization of the electric power trust and the telephone trust, refund to the people of the illegal and repressive rates these companies have charged, and payment to the treasury of all taxes brazenly evaded in the past.
All these laws and others would be based on the exact compliance of two essential articles of our Constitution: one of them orders the outlawing of large estates, indicating the maximum area of land any one person or entity may own for each type of agricultural enterprise, by adopting measures which would tend to revert the land to the Cubans. The other categorically orders the State to use all means at its disposal to provide employment to all those who lack it and to ensure a decent livelihood to each manual or intellectual laborer. None of these laws can be called unconstitutional. The first popularly elected government would have to respect them, not only because of moral obligations to the nation, but because when people achieve something they have yearned for throughout generations, no force in the world is capable of taking it away again.
The problem of the land, the problem of industrialization, the problem of housing, the problem of unemployment, the problem of education and the problem of the people’s health: these are the six problems we would take immediate steps to solve, along with restoration of civil liberties and political democracy.
This exposition may seem cold and theoretical if one does not know the shocking and tragic conditions of the country with regard to these six problems, along with the most humiliating political oppression.
Eighty-five per cent of the small farmers in Cuba pay rent and live under constant threat of being evicted from the land they till. More than half of our most productive land is in the hands of foreigners. In Oriente, the largest province, the lands of the United Fruit Company and the West Indian Company link the northern and southern coasts. There are two hundred thousand peasant families who do not have a single acre of land to till to provide food for their starving children. On the other hand, nearly three hundred thousand caballerías of cultivable land owned by powerful interests remain uncultivated. If Cuba is above all an agricultural State, if its population is largely rural, if the city depends on these rural areas, if the people from our countryside won our war of independence, if our nation’s greatness and prosperity depend on a healthy and vigorous rural population that loves the land and knows how to work it, if this population depends on a State that protects and guides it, then how can the present state of affairs be allowed to continue?
Except for a few food, lumber and textile industries, Cuba continues to be primarily a producer of raw materials. We export sugar to import candy, we export hides to import shoes, we export iron to import plows... Everyone agrees with the urgent need to industrialize the nation, that we need steel industries, paper and chemical industries, that we must improve our cattle and grain production, the technology and processing in our food industry in order to defend ourselves against the ruinous competition from Europe in cheese products, condensed milk, liquors and edible oils, and the United States in canned goods; that we need cargo ships; that tourism should be an enormous source of revenue. But the capitalists insist that the workers remain under the yoke. The State sits back with its arms crossed and industrialization can wait forever.
Just as serious or even worse is the housing problem. There are two hundred thousand huts and hovels in Cuba; four hundred thousand families in the countryside and in the cities live cramped in huts and tenements without even the minimum sanitary requirements; two million two hundred thousand of our urban population pay rents which absorb between one fifth and one third of their incomes; and two million eight hundred thousand of our rural and suburban population lack electricity. We have the same situation here: if the State proposes the lowering of rents, landlords threaten to freeze all construction; if the State does not interfere, construction goes on so long as landlords get high rents; otherwise they would not lay a single brick even though the rest of the population had to live totally exposed to the elements. The utilities monopoly is no better; they extend lines as far as it is profitable and beyond that point they don’t care if people have to live in darkness for the rest of their lives. The State sits back with its arms crossed and the people have neither homes nor electricity.
Our educational system is perfectly compatible with everything I’ve just mentioned. Where the peasant doesn’t own the land, what need is there for agricultural schools? Where there is no industry, what need is there for technical or vocational schools? Everything follows the same absurd logic; if we don’t have one thing we can’t have the other. In any small European country there are more than 200 technological and vocational schools; in Cuba only six such schools exist, and their graduates have no jobs for their skills. The little rural schoolhouses are attended by a mere half of the school age children—barefooted, half-naked and undernourished—and frequently the teacher must buy necessary school materials from his own salary. Is this the way to make a nation great?
Only death can liberate one from so much misery. In this respect, however, the State is most helpful—in providing early death for the people. Ninety per cent of the children in the countryside are consumed by parasites which filter through their bare feet from the ground they walk on. Society is moved to compassion when it hears of the kidnapping or murder of one child, but it is indifferent to the mass murder of so many thousands of children who die every year from lack of facilities, agonizing with pain. Their innocent eyes, death already shining in them, seem to look into some vague infinity as if entreating forgiveness for human selfishness, as if asking God to stay His wrath. And when the head of a family works only four months a year, with what can he purchase clothing and medicine for his children? They will grow up with rickets, with not a single good tooth in their mouths by the time they reach thirty; they will have heard ten million speeches and will finally die of misery and deception. Public hospitals, which are always full, accept only patients recommended by some powerful politician who, in return, demands the votes of the unfortunate one and his family so that Cuba may continue forever in the same or worse condition.
With this background, is it not understandable that from May to December over a million persons are jobless and that Cuba, with a population of five and a half million, has a greater number of unemployed than France or Italy with a population of forty million each?
When you try a defendant for robbery, Honorable Judges, do you ask him how long he has been unemployed? Do you ask him how many children he has, which days of the week he ate and which he didn’t, do you investigate his social context at all? You just send him to jail without further thought. But those who burn warehouses and stores to collect insurance do not go to jail, even though a few human beings may have gone up in flames. The insured have money to hire lawyers and bribe judges. You imprison the poor wretch who steals because he is hungry; but none of the hundreds who steal millions from the Government has ever spent a night in jail. You dine with them at the end of the year in some elegant club and they enjoy your respect. In Cuba, when a government official becomes a millionaire overnight and enters the fraternity of the rich, he could very well be greeted with the words of that opulent character out of Balzac—Taillefer—who in his toast to the young heir to an enormous fortune, said: ‘Gentlemen, let us drink to the power of gold! Mr. Valentine, a millionaire six times over, has just ascended the throne. He is king, can do everything, is above everyone, as all the rich are. Henceforth, equality before the law, established by the Constitution, will be a myth for him; for he will not be subject to laws: the laws will be subject to him. There are no courts nor are there sentences for millionaires.’
The nation’s future, the solutions to its problems, cannot continue to depend on the selfish interests of a dozen big businessmen nor on the cold calculations of profits that ten or twelve magnates draw up in their air-conditioned offices. The country cannot continue begging on its knees for miracles from a few golden calves, like the Biblical one destroyed by the prophet’s fury. Golden calves cannot perform miracles of any kind. The problems of the Republic can be solved only if we dedicate ourselves to fight for it with the same energy, honesty and patriotism our liberators had when they founded it. Statesmen like Carlos Saladrigas, whose statesmanship consists of preserving the statu quo and mouthing phrases like ‘absolute freedom of enterprise,’ ‘guarantees to investment capital’ and ‘law of supply and demand,’ will not solve these problems. Those ministers can chat away in a Fifth Avenue mansion until not even the dust of the bones of those whose problems require immediate solution remains. In this present-day world, social problems are not solved by spontaneous generation.
A revolutionary government backed by the people and with the respect of the nation, after cleansing the different institutions of all venal and corrupt officials, would proceed immediately to the country’s industrialization, mobilizing all inactive capital, currently estimated at about 1.5 billion pesos, through the National Bank and the Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank, and submitting this mammoth task to experts and men of absolute competence totally removed from all political machines for study, direction, planning and realization.
After settling the one hundred thousand small farmers as owners on the land which they previously rented, a revolutionary government would immediately proceed to settle the land problem. First, as set forth in the Constitution, it would establish the maximum amount of land to be held by each type of agricultural enterprise and would acquire the excess acreage by expropriation, recovery of swampland, planting of large nurseries, and reserving of zones for reforestation. Secondly, it would distribute the remaining land among peasant families with priority given to the larger ones, and would promote agricultural cooperatives for communal use of expensive equipment, freezing plants and unified professional technical management of farming and cattle raising. Finally, it would provide resources, equipment, protection and useful guidance to the peasants.
A revolutionary government would solve the housing problem by cutting all rents in half, by providing tax exemptions on homes inhabited by the owners; by tripling taxes on rented homes; by tearing down hovels and replacing them with modern apartment buildings; and by financing housing all over the island on a scale heretofore unheard of, with the criterion that, just as each rural family should possess its own tract of land, each city family should own its own house or apartment. There is plenty of building material and more than enough manpower to make a decent home for every Cuban. But if we continue to wait for the golden calf, a thousand years will have gone by and the problem will remain the same. On the other hand, today possibilities of taking electricity to the most isolated areas on the island are greater than ever. The use of nuclear energy in this field is now a reality and will greatly reduce the cost of producing electricity.
With these three projects and reforms, the problem of unemployment would automatically disappear and the task of improving public health and fighting against disease would become much less difficult.
Finally, a revolutionary government would undertake the integral reform of the educational system, bringing it into line with the projects just mentioned with the idea of educating those generations which will have the privilege of living in a happier land. Do not forget the words of the Apostle: ‘A grave mistake is being made in Latin America: in countries that live almost completely from the produce of the land, men are being educated exclusively for urban life and are not trained for farm life.’ ‘The happiest country is the one which has best educated its sons, both in the instruction of thought and the direction of their feelings.’ ‘An educated country will always be strong and free.’
The soul of education, however, is the teacher, and in Cuba the teaching profession is miserably underpaid. Despite this, no one is more dedicated than the Cuban teacher. Who among us has not learned his three Rs in the little public schoolhouse? It is time we stopped paying pittances to these young men and women who are entrusted with the sacred task of teaching our youth. No teacher should earn less than 200 pesos, no secondary teacher should make less than 350 pesos, if they are to devote themselves exclusively to their high calling without suffering want. What is more, all rural teachers should have free use of the various systems of transportation; and, at least once every five years, all teachers should enjoy a sabbatical leave of six months with pay so they may attend special refresher courses at home or abroad to keep abreast of the latest developments in their field. In this way, the curriculum and the teaching system can be easily improved. Where will the money be found for all this? When there is an end to the embezzlement of government funds, when public officials stop taking graft from the large companies that owe taxes to the State, when the enormous resources of the country are brought into full use, when we no longer buy tanks, bombers and guns for this country (which has no frontiers to defend and where these instruments of war, now being purchased, are used against the people), when there is more interest in educating the people than in killing them there will be more than enough money.
Cuba could easily provide for a population three times as great as it has now, so there is no excuse for the abject poverty of a single one of its present inhabitants. The markets should be overflowing with produce, pantries should be full, all hands should be working. This is not an inconceivable thought. What is inconceivable is that anyone should go to bed hungry while there is a single inch of unproductive land; that children should die for lack of medical attention; what is inconceivable is that 30% of our farm people cannot write their names and that 99% of them know nothing of Cuba’s history. What is inconceivable is that the majority of our rural people are now living in worse circumstances than the Indians Columbus discovered in the fairest land that human eyes had ever seen.
To those who would call me a dreamer, I quote the words of Martí: ‘A true man does not seek the path where advantage lies, but rather the path where duty lies, and this is the only practical man, whose dream of today will be the law of tomorrow, because he who has looked back on the essential course of history and has seen flaming and bleeding peoples seethe in the cauldron of the ages knows that, without a single exception, the future lies on the side of duty...’
The right of rebellion against tyranny, Honorable Judges, has been recognized from the most ancient times to the present day by men of all creeds, ideas and doctrines.
It was so in the theocratic monarchies of remote antiquity. In China it was almost a constitutional principle that when a king governed rudely and despotically he should be deposed and replaced by a virtuous prince.
The philosophers of ancient India upheld the principle of active resistance to arbitrary authority. They justified revolution and very often put their theories into practice. One of their spiritual leaders used to say that ‘an opinion held by the majority is stronger than the king himself. A rope woven of many strands is strong enough to hold a lion.’
The city states of Greece and republican Rome not only admitted, but defended the meting-out of violent death to tyrants.
In the Middle Ages, John Salisbury in his Book of the Statesman says that when a prince does not govern according to law and degenerates into a tyrant, violent overthrow is legitimate and justifiable. He recommends for tyrants the dagger rather than poison.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica, rejects the doctrine of tyrannicide, and yet upholds the thesis that tyrants should be overthrown by the people.
Martin Luther proclaimed that when a government degenerates into a tyranny that violates the laws, its subjects are released from their obligations to obey. His disciple, Philippe Melanchton, upholds the right of resistance when governments become despotic. Calvin, the outstanding thinker of the Reformation with regard to political ideas, postulates that people are entitled to take up arms to oppose any usurpation.
No less a man that Juan Mariana, a Spanish Jesuit during the reign of Philip II, asserts in his book, De Rege et Regis Institutione, that when a governor usurps power, or even if he were elected, when he governs in a tyrannical manner it is licit for a private citizen to exercise tyrannicide, either directly or through subterfuge with the least possible disturbance.
The French writer, François Hotman, maintained that between the government and its subjects there is a bond or contract, and that the people may rise in rebellion against the tyranny of government when the latter violates that pact.
About the same time, a booklet—which came to be widely read—appeared under the title Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos, and it was signed with the pseudonym Stephanus Junius Brutus. It openly declared that resistance to governments is legitimate when rulers oppress the people and that it is the duty of Honorable Judges to lead the struggle.
The Scottish reformers John Knox and John Poynet upheld the same points of view. And, in the most important book of that movement, George Buchanan stated that if a government achieved power without taking into account the consent of the people, or if a government rules their destiny in an unjust or arbitrary fashion, then that government becomes a tyranny and can be divested of power or, in a final recourse, its leaders can be put to death.
John Althus, a German jurist of the early 17th century, stated in his Treatise on Politics that sovereignty as the supreme authority of the State is born from the voluntary concourse of all its members; that governmental authority stems from the people and that its unjust, illegal or tyrannical function exempts them from the duty of obedience and justifies resistance or rebellion.
Thus far, Honorable Judges, I have mentioned examples from antiquity, from the Middle Ages, and from the beginnings of our times. I selected these examples from writers of all creeds. What is more, you can see that the right to rebellion is at the very root of Cuba’s existence as a nation. By virtue of it you are today able to appear in the robes of Cuban Judges. Would it be that those garments really served the cause of justice!
It is well known that in England during the 17th century two kings, Charles I and James II, were dethroned for despotism. These actions coincided with the birth of liberal political philosophy and provided the ideological base for a new social class, which was then struggling to break the bonds of feudalism. Against divine right autocracies, this new philosophy upheld the principle of the social contract and of the consent of the governed, and constituted the foundation of the English Revolution of 1688, the American Revolution of 1775 and the French Revolution of 1789. These great revolutionary events ushered in the liberation of the Spanish colonies in the New World—the final link in that chain being broken by Cuba. The new philosophy nurtured our own political ideas and helped us to evolve our Constitutions, from the Constitution of Guáimaro up to the Constitution of 1940. The latter was influenced by the socialist currents of our time; the principle of the social function of property and of man’s inalienable right to a decent living were built into it, although large vested interests have prevented fully enforcing those rights.
The right of insurrection against tyranny then underwent its final consecration and became a fundamental tenet of political liberty.
As far back as 1649, John Milton wrote that political power lies with the people, who can enthrone and dethrone kings and have the duty of overthrowing tyrants.
John Locke, in his essay on government, maintained that when the natural rights of man are violated, the people have the right and the duty to alter or abolish the government. ‘The only remedy against unauthorized force is opposition to it by force.’
Jean-Jacques Rousseau said with great eloquence in his Social Contract: ‘While a people sees itself forced to obey and obeys, it does well; but as soon as it can shake off the yoke and shakes it off, it does better, recovering its liberty through the use of the very right that has been taken away from it.’ ‘The strongest man is never strong enough to be master forever, unless he converts force into right and obedience into duty. Force is a physical power; I do not see what morality one may derive from its use. To yield to force is an act of necessity, not of will; at the very least, it is an act of prudence. In what sense should this be called a duty?’ ‘To renounce freedom is to renounce one’s status as a man, to renounce one’s human rights, including one’s duties. There is no possible compensation for renouncing everything. Total renunciation is incompatible with the nature of man and to take away all free will is to take away all morality of conduct. In short, it is vain and contradictory to stipulate on the one hand an absolute authority and on the other an unlimited obedience...’
Thomas Paine said that ‘one just man deserves more respect than a rogue with a crown.’
The people’s right to rebel has been opposed only by reactionaries like that clergyman of Virginia, Jonathan Boucher, who said: ‘The right to rebel is a censurable doctrine derived from Lucifer, the father of rebellions.’
The Declaration of Independence of the Congress of Philadelphia, on July 4th, 1776, consecrated this right in a beautiful paragraph which reads: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness; That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.’
The famous French Declaration of the Rights of Man willed this principle to the coming generations: ‘When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for them the most sacred of rights and the most imperative of duties.’ ‘When a person seizes sovereignty, he should be condemned to death by free men...’
I believe I have sufficiently justified my point of view. I have called forth more reasons than the Honorable Prosecutor called forth to ask that I be condemned to 26 years in prison. All these reasons support men who struggle for the freedom and happiness of the people. None support those who oppress the people, revile them, and rob them heartlessly. Therefore I have been able to call forth many reasons and he could not adduce even one. How can Batista’s presence in power be justified when he gained it against the will of the people and by violating the laws of the Republic through the use of treachery and force? How could anyone call legitimate a regime of blood, oppression and ignominy? How could anyone call revolutionary a regime which has gathered the most backward men, methods and ideas of public life around it? How can anyone consider legally valid the high treason of a Court whose duty was to defend the Constitution? With what right do the Courts send to prison citizens who have tried to redeem their country by giving their own blood, their own lives? All this is monstrous to the eyes of the nation and to the principles of true justice!
Still there is one argument more powerful than all the others. We are Cubans and to be Cuban implies a duty; not to fulfill that duty is a crime, is treason. We are proud of the history of our country; we learned it in school and have grown up hearing of freedom, justice and human rights. We were taught to venerate the glorious example of our heroes and martyrs. Céspedes, Agramonte, Maceo, Gómez and Martí were the first names engraved in our minds. We were taught that the Titan once said that liberty is not begged for but won with the blade of a machete. We were taught that for the guidance of Cuba’s free citizens, the Apostle wrote in his book The Golden Age: ‘The man who abides by unjust laws and permits any man to trample and mistreat the country in which he was born is not an honorable man... In the world there must be a certain degree of honor just as there must be a certain amount of light. When there are many men without honor, there are always others who bear in themselves the honor of many men. These are the men who rebel with great force against those who steal the people’s freedom, that is to say, against those who steal honor itself. In those men thousands more are contained, an entire people is contained, human dignity is contained...’ We were taught that the 10th of October and the 24th of February are glorious anniversaries of national rejoicing because they mark days on which Cubans rebelled against the yoke of infamous tyranny. We were taught to cherish and defend the beloved flag of the lone star, and to sing every afternoon the verses of our National Anthem: ‘To live in chains is to live in disgrace and in opprobrium,’ and ‘to die for one’s homeland is to live forever!’ All this we learned and will never forget, even though today in our land there is murder and prison for the men who practice the ideas taught to them since the cradle. We were born in a free country that our parents bequeathed to us, and the Island will first sink into the sea before we shall consent to be the slaves of anyone.
It seemed that the Apostle would die during his Centennial. It seemed that his memory would be extinguished forever. So great was the affront! But he is alive; he has not died. His people are rebellious. His people are worthy. His people are faithful to his memory. There are Cubans who have fallen defending his doctrines. There are young men who in magnificent selflessness came to die beside his tomb, giving their blood and their lives so that he could keep on living in the heart of his nation. Cuba, what would have become of you had you let your Apostle die?
I come to the close of my defense plea but I will not end it as lawyers usually do, asking that the accused be freed. I cannot ask freedom for myself while my comrades are already suffering in the ignominious prison of the Isle of Pines. Send me there to join them and to share their fate. It is understandable that honest men should be dead or in prison in a Republic where the President is a criminal and a thief.
To you, Honorable Judges, my sincere gratitude for having allowed me to express myself free from contemptible restrictions. I hold no bitterness towards you, I recognize that in certain aspects you have been humane, and I know that the Chief Judge of this Court, a man of impeccable private life, cannot disguise his repugnance at the current state of affairs that compels him to dictate unjust decisions. Still, a more serious problem remains for the Court of Appeals: the indictments arising from the murders of seventy men, that is to say, the greatest massacre we have ever known. The guilty continue at liberty and with weapons in their hands—weapons which continually threaten the lives of all citizens. If all the weight of the law does not fall upon the guilty because of cowardice or because of domination of the courts, and if then all the judges do not resign, I pity your honor. And I regret the unprecedented shame that will fall upon the Judicial Power.
I know that imprisonment will be harder for me than it has ever been for anyone, filled with cowardly threats and hideous cruelty. But I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.
(15-04-2007)
Source: Microsoft Encarta 2006

THE BUDGET...

2007-05-30T13:26:00.000+05:30

The present President of India is the first ever one to note price rise of essential commodities and expecting the UPA Govt.to curtail them during his formal speech in the Parliament right before Budget sessions were to move for the 2007-08 tenure. It's his last speech as President and may retire this year.Even PM and FM have shown their concern over the hovering prices.

Ironically we don't have union or groups or outfits to cry against rising prices ;no morchas, strikes, bandh or even letters to the Press reacting on the price rising.Political parties have been mum over the issue.

Is it because the people of this unique nation are enjoying better purchasing power though they constitute only 35% of the total ? Or it's because the 65% have not thought that food, clothing , housing, health, education etc.are no more basic needs for them ? Or we have nothing for them to offer?

We have some 22% saving rate pa. as compared to just 7% in US or Canada .It means the well paid working class in the organised/Govt.sector/service sector has been able to save up to 22% of their total earnings after spending on essentials .As against this, we have some 7 crores as jobless indians who are fed well though fed up with joblessness.Those in unorganised sector(mostly producing class and using traditional technology ,lack marketing sense,and developing a trend to change workplaces .) have been reassured with better wages, group insurance ,skill development confined to rural parts.The walk-the-talks on empowerment during 90's (neo-globalisation era) have begun to show the results with lessening resistance all over.
But even this empoverished section has not opposed the current high price situation.

The reason for price rise is not due to scarcity of goods and services ;the classical economic demand and supply theory has lost its glory and glare .The demand is growing for everything; the supply is growing to keep pace and so the production process with better technology in all most all sectors .This is mainly because we are now passing through a second phase of industrial society and everyone living in such a society has realised that he or she to work more to earn more to pay more in the form of costs and prices which in turn make up higher purchasing power.This is also because the Indian economy has become stable and unshakable ..and the whole credit goes to Indian secular democratic economic system now in it's 60th.Price rise itself may not be an index to show the growing economic rate but the capacity to pay the rised price is!

Then it should not be a matter of concern for high minds like Prez,PM or FM to speak out for price rise when the republic around is quiet .They could have kept mum too when the people are not raising their voices (all bills being paid by all who get them everymonth without any murmur) .The concern is for those who are still falling far behind and no one is there to hear their muffed voices or cries;the lot is busy in moving upward in the given situation ;their only demand is;Pl.let us do what we are doing ;we'll overcome the odds.Just protect us from communal hates, riots, killings and being suspects for terrorist attacks.

The trio from Delhi is speaking out for THEM ..the poor but no more wishes to remain poor forever and they are now around 35% on the other side of the Indian economy.Those in the first group of well off sections(35%!) do not want the 35% on the other side and everyone now knows why it's so.

In case our peace talks turn out to be a success, the national exp.on budget for defence would come down heavily on both sides (let it shatter the US imperial economy for a decade at least) and the 'savings' would go to level the empowerment needs ;we can create a stable society through a stable governement.

Let us prepare ourselves to pay for it both in cash (taxes) and kind (communal harmony) .
Wish you all the best of financial year 2007-08.

--By Pradeep Deshpande (Socio-Economic- Political Writer)
(01-03-2007)

on reservations...

2007-05-30T13:22:00.000+05:30

The issue, Reservation of posts/share for Dalits in both Govt and private sector is back in debate well after a gap of about 16 years.The spirit and motivation of the share was literally wiped out during 1992 babri demolition which was directed against dalits more than Muslims in the first place. RSS combine succeeded in demolishing the issue itself .The Congress and lefts including OBC/dalit bandwagons preferred to remain mere onlookers since 1992.Some self styled dalit leaders did try to bring up the issue at times, but could not secure much as the moves were more political than an honest strive for social justice for the down troddens.

All the existing political parties India have joined hands to do away with the very idea of social justice.Those dalits/obcs fortunate enough to enjoy substantial upward mobility from down trodden status to middle class during last 40 yeara have stopped even thinking about the reservation issue.When the Govt during 1990s made some policy decisions to empower the dalits/ muslims/women by allowing them to enter the Govt.services in tune with provisions under Indian Constitution and also with an objective to streamline the economic progress by invloving such sects, it sent shivers in RSS camp which is all set against any kind of social justice to the down trodden Hindu sects.The rising middle class ( all sects) fell prey to the tactics played by RSS combine and went against Muslims who share in Govt service all over India is not even 2%.The lord Ram , took away everything that was earmarked for dalits and dalits were" illussioned enough' to wipe out babri as if it contained jobs underneath.

During his PM ship Mr.Vajpeyi said," Govt is not for employment".Now here's UPA Govt that is secular, Garibo-n-ke saath etc. and still it's mum on the reservations both in Govt and private sector.Lip service in all hues and sheds is in full swing when not single Govt agency or private unit has opened mouth about the reservation.The reason is not much in discussion.
1.90% top positions in Central Govt sector(IAS/IFS?IAAS etc) are retained by upper castes who are instrumental in deciding whether the reservations are to be shut or kept open.
2.The Fifth Pay Commission recommendations came along with a tag which nobody cared to read;Higher scales also means scaling down of new jobs; The Ideal Govt is one that Governs least;VRS applicable with lumpsums and the post/s would be abolished once VRS is cleared. No fresh recruitments in Class I and II except some for III and IV which are more or less earmarked for the children of the low paid employees in case he/she dies during service tenure etc.
3.Govt.have not declared the posts available;filled in; never to be filled in; abolsihed for ever.And nobody has asked the Govt to declare the figures which is but a mockery of Right to Information now.
4.As for jobs in private sector; the jobs are available for smart, English speaking youths, Comp.operators etc.highly low paid ;but caste/religion/sex no bar.
5.The real problem lies in rural/semi urban parts where you find youths with lower academic capabilities mostly hailing from lower/subcastes having no means of livelihood either in villages or in cities.These the slaves nobody from Govt or private sector wants to 'buy'.These are the slaves making beelines in cheap city bars and night clubs for jobs . And the Mah.Govt in India has banned the night bars as they are against Indian Cultures!
6. 90% private sectors(big firms Co.collaberations) are owned by Hindu families who do not have any special regard for dalits or OBCs and they the main supporters of BJP and RSS and you know how much they'love' the lower Hindus .The only way out is to make the Govt. fall in line with what the IC has provided for the upliftment of dalits ;this is an area where those strive for soica-economic justice ;the debate on rese.in Govt/private sector will only lead to deviate from the main issue.

--Pradeep Deshpande (Socio-Eco-Political Writer)
(01-02-2007)

2007-05-30T13:18:00.000+05:30

"We Are Realists...
We Dream The Impossible."

(24-01-2007)

Inqilab Jindabad

2007-05-30T12:35:00.000+05:30

rahega jindabad yaha inqilab
shanti se, aman se…
pyaar se, vishwaas se…

hoga ek naya savera, hogi nayi subha—
ek doosare ke saath se sabke aadhar se…

dikhegi is savere ki roshni, uska tej—
ek naye roop mein, ek naye rang mein
ek naya anubhav, ek naya inqilab—

INQILABI HAI HUM

-- Sachidananda.
(Eternal Happiness)
(24-01-2007)

Come out of the NEGATIVES...

2007-05-30T12:28:00.000+05:30

YOUTH??? Manjunath who died a hero, Sania Mirza now becoming a Youth Icon, Narian Karthikeyan first Indian to race F1, Pune’s pride Shital Mahajan –the only Indian woman to take a jump on the North Pole and many others like them… But on the flip side, lovers butchering their partners, fathers raping three-year old girls, children, youth ending their lives on the spur of the moment, Vijay Nakula an aspiring IITan ending his life because of depression, 4 boys aged just 20,19,17,16; killing 16 month old baby and 54 year grand mother, one night stands, flings and much more like these…

Reason? Stress? No. It is more than just Stress. The main reasons behind this are Money, Power, Fame and that too asking for it instantly! Last but not the least, nobody to bank upon if anything goes wrong i.e. loose, unfaithful bonds of relationship. These ‘(in)famous’ dragons are eating up today’s youth, their way of thinking, thus their acts, completely twisting their psyche to a negative note. No doubt the base is the same- Stress. Stress- a trickle down effect from the society down to our parents and lastly to their pupils. It’s a mad race to be the best of the best in this highly competitive world, thus never ending wants, unable to cope up with them, therefore a consistent unhappy life, so the ‘acts’ done to satisfy one’s wants. But does these acts satisfy one’s wants? You know the answer. But still they are done, to satisfy the hunger of the dragon and therefore the repercussions.

There may be many examples like this, probably more inspiring; but let me cite. At the age of 17, being very naïve, knowing nothing about the outside world, it was the first time that I came out of a cocoon to pursue engineering near Shirdi. First year result: 9 A.T.K.T.’s out of 10! Flunked for the first time in 17 years… I thought I should give another shot, but same result! 2 years wasted; with all the money. Then I came back to Mumbai and got admission in a private college but due to technical problems I decided to take a drop. So in the first formative years of my life I failed miserably. But those 3 years were really like hell. Society pinning, nailing, me all the time, all my ‘so called’ friends turning away, nobody to share my emotions, relatives and others looking down upon me, targeting me as a ‘Big Looser’, even my parents lost hope at some point of time. I was even told “Engineering is not in your blood”; that too in front of few people. I had taken to smoking, lost all confidence, always thought that life is a waste, I had gone for counseling sessions in the Institute of Psychological Health because of serious depression, but I never thought of ending my life or killing those who nagged me. On the contrary I decided to give a fight and remove the stamp of a ‘Failure’ from my face. It was just at that point I was introduced to Reiki, an alternate therapy that includes healing and meditation (for self and others). It is through Reiki that I came out of the negative completely and to my astonishment I emerged as the topper in my First Year B.A. Once a very shy guy on stage, having very less self-confidence is now bagging prizes in one-act plays, elocutions, debates etc. I was on TV once on NDTV and 4 times on MTV. Both were discussion shows on political and social topics. It was a powerful urge to get out of the negative by doing something positive. And it was through Reiki that I got my Mentor. In fact I am standing on my own two feet, confident, having right kind of attitude towards life, moreover able to understand life only because of Them. I know this is just the start; and I have to go a long long way.

Likewise there are many alternate therapies like Yoga, Meditation, Art of Living; etc. that one can avail to remove stress, tension, and depression from life. So why end life? Reach out for a helping hand and you are sure to get one. Talk to closest of your friends, share your emotions, try finding a solution amidst problems and empower yourself with any of the alternate therapies. Negative doesn’t go until and unless something positive is done. It’s like drawing a longer line above the shorter one. But on the contrary today’s youth is thinking more negative amidst negative, which adds to the gray scale. Does any failure mean- End of Life or Addictions? No it just means that you have to put in a bit more than before and go ahead. Next a ‘30 gm Certificate’ of any ‘so-called’ degree doesn’t mean everything. Life is beyond that. It is the attitude that counts your altitude, not degree. You become a B.A. or a B.E. or M.B.A. everything has its own unique importance, don’t differentiate. Even if you are not a graduate and are doing excellently well in your field of interest; then nothing like it. The right approach is to work upon weaknesses and convert them into strengths.

“Dreams shatter…
They ought to.
Put them together To a totally different one
And go for it!”

Whole of our life is wasted in analyzing, thinking about others, but not our mind, not our inner self. It is only that if you know yourself in totality then you can know others in clarity. Don’t try to give meaning to your life. It has been given to you when you were born. Try finding out that. How? Very simple! Start talking to your inner self and see the difference.

If a nation’s youth is weak the whole of the nation is weak. Youth is the foundation of any nation, it empowers the nation… A DNA reader (26th Nov.2005) said, ‘The young Indians should join force to work towards cleaning Indian society of corruption.’ It is not going to happen ‘this’ way, neither by mere talking about it. Youth of similar interests, having same goals like him, others should come together make a Youth Force beyond religion, caste, class, creed, politics or sex - those who want a change and are ready to work for a cause, come together and start off! Youth should understand themselves first if they want to make any change in the surroundings. They should empower themselves in a very positive manner so that they can empower others. Only then things can start to change and it is only then we can look forward to a better future.

“Every Second is a NEW one…
Every new second brings new HOPE…
The world lives on HOPE.
Live on CONFIDENCE…
This will give you the Energy to face Anything.”

-- Sachidananda.
(Eternal Happiness)
(24-01-2007)

Published in DNA, Mumbai on 21st Jan 2006

2007-05-30T12:24:00.000+05:30

The downside of being a topper…

It was the 1st time in 21yrs. that I came 1st in my college. It isn’t that I used to be the one among the top 10; in fact I had flunked in engineering for three years thus ‘blackening’ the face of my family unable to show my face in the society and all that…

Now you would think I would be gloating about my success and be proud of it, no it is not so. On the flip side being a topper in FYBA not at all satisfies me. Reason? There are reasons, read on further…

What do we do? Mug up things and ‘vomit’ them in the exams; exam-oriented studies, no conceptual thinking, no analysis of what we are studying, no connection between what we study and what the market needs from us. What’s the use of such studies, only to test our mugging skills? Subjects like humanities should be made more practical. These can be made more interesting and useful only when the syllabus is connected to the outside world. Humanities contain society, its changes, human beings and their behavior with the society. The hows and the whys of humanities can’t be learnt within the four walls of the classroom. Students have to go out understand, analyze the situation, and conceptualize it before they appear for any kind of exam. The syllabus should be devised in such a way that the students automatically conceptualise things and don’t mug up.

In today’s scenario, there is no exposure to the students during the course of the study. It is only after a basic education, which we unfortunately call as graduation, that the student is exposed to the market needs. Until then he is cloistered in the four walls of the classroom. And what if the student is weak in mugging? He then can’t fill the pages of the answer-sheet and thus scores less in the exams, then is branded as a ‘duffer’ since quantity matters not the quality. Nobody looks for the type of answer you’ve written nut for no. of supplements you’ve attached to your main. Why the hell are we studying? Moreover some actually attempt suicide for this ‘30 gm certificate’ called as graduation. Don’t they understand that what they are studying under the name of graduation has nothing in it except for a stamp? But even they would have known this does the present system of education lets them to forget it? Does the marks-culture; percentage-culture lastly that’s hovering let them forget it? This pressure trickles down from this kind of a culture to the society, then to the parents lastly to the students who try and do suicides! Again this isn’t only in humanities, while talking to students of different careers they had the same thing to say-“At last marks matter”. How can one judge the intellectuality of a student only through marks?

This 100 yr. old system of education has to be revamped, right from scratch. Give importance to projects, seminars, and field trips so that the students’ personalities are developed at the same time they also learn life-skills, which no subject in graduation teaches. Education right now doesn’t provide knowledge it just gives you information because unless and until information is practically applied it remains as it is and it is only after application that it transforms into knowledge. Knowledge of that kind remains in the students’ mind even after they’ve done their graduation.

Today I’m the saddest person by being a topper. What I’m studying or rather mugging up is just for the heck to complete my graduation and show people that unfortunately I too am one amongst you who has given up original thoughts and succumbed to textbook.

--Sachidananda.
(Eternal Happiness)
(24-01-2007)