What's Wrong With This Picture?

Delhi has staged a 10K race while pollution levels soar to 16 times above anything considered safe.

The culprit is known as PM 2.5. 60 ppm is considered the maximum safe level. Parts of Delhi have hit 999 ppm. PM 2.5 is especially dangerous because the particles can be absorbed in the lungs and then pass into the bloodstream. From there the particles can breach the blood-brain barrier.

Young people are particularly vulnerable to PM 2.5 pollution and the impacts are widespread. Several recent articles confirm that half of Delhi's school kids have stunted lung development and will never completely recover. It's a story repeated in other Indian mega-cities.

Which raises the question of why organizers went ahead with this 10K race, especially when some of the kids obviously lack even rudimentary face mask protection.

A Seismic Jolt That Most Won't Even Notice

Just consider it the 21st century version of the "Great Game,"  the superpower struggle to wrest control of South Asia.  While it used to be a contest between Russia and Britain, today the players are Washington and Beijing.  The latest round goes to China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which seems to be evolving into something akin to our side's NATO.

India and Pakistan have began accession to a regional security group led by China and Russia after two days of summits which Russian President Vladimir Putin held up as evidence Moscow is not isolated in the world.

The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, meeting in the Russian city of Ufa on Friday, a day after the BRICS emerging economies held a summit there, said the invitation to the two Asian nations showed a "multipolar" world was now emerging.

Those words will have pleased Mr Putin, who says the United States has an outdated vision of a "uni-polar" world dominated by Washington and wants to show Russia has not been weakened by Western sanctions over its role in the Ukraine crisis.

The potential ramifications of this are as fascinating as they are worrying.  China is acquiring a land bridge that connects it via Pakistan to Iran and, from Iran, to Iraq.  Iran, at the moment, could really use a powerful benefactor.  Two would be even better.  Look at the map above.  Go from Iran to Pakistan, India and China, then on to Russia and south to the Caspian and the "Stans."  Now do you see what they're locking up?

Then look at the neighbouring waters.  China is already muscling into control of the South China Sea. With India and Pakistan aboard, that could spread to the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and, if Iran runs for cover, the Persian Gulf.

Next up, take a look at what this new geopolitical reality would mean to Southeast Asia - Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Bangladesh and Nepal. They're sort of sewn up.  

Then consider what this means in the context of the American position in the arc extending from Japan to Saudi Arabia, an area the US has been struggling to dominate.  This is not good news for Washington although it's not much of a surprise either.  This deal has been in the works for a couple of years.

One other thing.  If I were the Saudis or Israel, I'd be shitting bricks at the prospect of Iran backed by the muscle of Moscow and Beijing and, worse still, the "other side" being able to manipulate oil markets through control of the reserves of Iraq, Iran and the Caspian Basin.

My, my, my.  It's hard to say how much of this is America's own doing from marching NATO to Russia's doorstep to trying to contain China, primarily from contesting Chinese domination of the South China Sea, trying to recruit India to leave China's sea lane access to the Middle East vulnerable in the Indian Ocean and aligning the nations of the Asia Pacific toward Washington and away from Beijing.  None of those gambits seems particularly bright right now.

India Doing Its Bit to Torch the Planet

Forget about China.  The greatest driver of runaway global warming may be India.  While the EU, the US and China are gearing up for major cuts in CO2 emissions, India is heading in the other direction and fast.

"India's development imperatives cannot be sacrificed at the altar of potential climate changes many years in the future," India's power minister, Piyush Goyal, said at a recent conference in New Delhi in response to a question. "The West will have to recognise we have the needs of the poor."

Goyal has promised to double India's use of domestic coal from 513 million metric tons last year by 2019, and he is trying to sell coal-mining licenses as swiftly as possible after years of delay. The government has signaled that it may denationalise commercial coal mining to accelerate extraction.

"India is the biggest challenge in global climate negotiations, not China," said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development. 

...But India's coal rush could push the world past the brink of irreversible climate change, with India among the worst affected, scientists say.

Indian cities are already the world's most polluted, with Delhi's air almost three times more toxic than Beijing's by one crucial measure.

Irreversible climate change?  We're already long past that point.  That horse has left the barn - for good.  Even the World Bank gets it, warning this week that we're already "locked in" to 1.5C of warming, climate change and all the extreme weather disasters that will create.  Believe it or not, that's a pretty conservative assessment.  Bear in mind that the World Bank assessment isn't based on any future emissions.  They're working on the greenhouse gases we've already released to the atmosphere, not what we're going to be adding next year or by mid-century or even further in the future.  

In other words what India has in mind, Canada too for that matter, is simply going to add to that 1.5C projection.  And it's our dollar short/day late attitude that invests most western peoples that will at least double if not treble that forecast by 2100.

Another point to bear in mind is that what we're dealing with already - the droughts, flash flooding, the severe storm events, the Polar Vortex and such is the result of just 0.8 degrees Celsius of warming we have already experienced since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.  Just 0.8C, about half of the 1.5C warming the World Bank research says we've already 'locked in.'  Just half.

Something even more important to bear in mind.  We are - today - November, 2014 - effectively at 1.5C.   In 2015 and 2020 and every year thereafter, we'll be adding to that 1.5C.  We'll be adding greenhouse gas emissions to take it from today's 1.5C to 2C, 3C or, quite possibly, even 4C.  It takes years, decades, even centuries for the heating of today's emissions to fully take hold.  That's what we bequeath to our grandkids - and that's monstrous of us.  In the history of our species I doubt there's been any generations that played such a diabolical stunt on the future generations they themselves brought into being.

And don't, as Indian minister Goyal said, write this off to something potential that might happen many years in the future.  It's happening now.  I can see the traces plainly all around me and, unless you're purposefully looking the other way, you can too.

It's not going to be our great, great, great, great granchildren who might have to deal with very grave threats.  It's our own children - mine and yours - for whom this will be the most significant event in their lives, that will be with them forever and they'll have to confront it at some level for the rest of their lives.  For their children, your grandchildren or great-grandchildren, well they'll be born into it.  It's all they'll ever know.  And that's the world we're building for them today one for which they may well bitterly curse us.

India - Superbug Time Bomb

India is the worst but it's not alone.  All of the emerging economic superpowers share the same problem - the abuse of antibiotics.

For India, it's the result of a population coming into new wealth that still has just one doctor for every 1,700 people.  You get sick, you get pills, off you go.  Too often those pills are antibiotic.

Together with India, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa account for 76% of the global increase in antibiotic use.

If the warnings we get from our medical establishment are accurate, these countries and their societies could be heading for real trouble.  This has the makings of a "perfect storm" - inadequate health care infrastructure, antibiotic abuse, the rise of antibiotic-resistant diseases and all the health impacts of climate change including a critical shortage of freshwater for sanitation and personal hygiene as well as pest and disease migration.

And, of course, given our globalized economy, we're hardly immune to what happens on the other side of the Earth.  If you don't understand this, take a look at the Spanish Flu of 1918, where it originated (it wasn't Spain) and how it spread around the globe.  Then remember back then we didn't have 7.6-million air passengers hopping around the world daily.

The Tibetan Plateau - Asia's Armageddon?

To Asia's three nuclear powers, the Tibetan plateau represents life or death. China, India and Pakistan are all dependent on the headwaters of rivers that are fed by the glaciers in Tibet.  The geo-political enormity of these rivers drove China to invade and occupy Tibet in 1950.

What happens in the Himalayas powerfully impacts the security of these three Asian powers.  That's why a new study on the state of the plateau is particularly worrisome.

The report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences concludes that the Tibetan plateau has experienced double the average level of global warming and that the past fifty years have been the warmest in the past two millennia.  Further warming is predicted for the balance of this century that could accelerate the retreat of Himalayan glaciers and the spread of desertification.

The rivers fed by the Himalayan ice fields constitute the water supply to hundreds of millions of people in Asia.  These rivers include the Yellow and the Yangtze, the Mekong, the Bhramaputra and Salween, the Indus and the Ganges.

Arms Race Update - India Warns Kashmiris to Prepare for Nuclear War

Indian officials are warning residents in their part of Kashmir to dig bomb shelters and gather a two week supply of food and water in preparation for a possible nuclear exchange.

The notice, published Monday by the Kashmir police in the Greater Kashmir newspaper, advised people to build toilet-equipped basements large enough to house the entire family for two weeks. If there is no basement, residents should construct bunkers in their front yards, the notice advised.

The shelters should be stocked with candles, battery-operated lights and radios and nonperishable food and water that is regularly replaced to ensure it is fresh, it said.

During an attack, it advises drivers to dive out of their cars toward the blast to save themselves from being crushed by their soon-to-be tumbling vehicles. It also warns residents to keep contaminated people out of their shelters.

“Expect some initial disorientation as the blast wave may blow down and carry away many prominent and familiar features,” it advises.

This is probably just sabre-rattling from the Indian side.  Let's hope so.  There's not much chance of world powers compelling India and Pakistan to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, not when those world powers are upgrading their own nuclear arsenals.


Asia, from the Kamchatka Peninsula to the Indian Ocean is becoming insanely bellicose today.    China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Pakistan seem caught up, in various ways and degrees, in ultra-nationalistic belligerence.   The United States, meanwhile, has reacted like a moth to a candle and may inadvertently help destabilize the region.

Even the Harper government seems to want a piece of the Asian action.  It was just months ago that Peter MacKay, gushing after face-time with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, proclaimed that it was essential that Canada establish a permanent and substantial military presence in the region.

Arms Race Update - Indian Navy to South China Sea

India has served notice that its navy is ready to sail into the South China Sea to protect the country's oil interests there.

Indian Navy Chief Admiral D.K Joshi said that, while India was not a territorial claimant in the South China Sea, it was prepared to act, if necessary, to protect its maritime and economic interests in the region.

"When the requirement is there, for example, in situations where our country's interests are involved, for example ONGC ... we will be required to go there and we are prepared for that," Joshi told a news conference.

"Now, are we preparing for it? Are we having exercises of that nature? The short answer is yes," he said.

 ...India has sparred diplomatically with China in the past over its gas and oil exploration block off the coast of Vietnam.

Any display of naval assertiveness by India in the South China Sea would likely fuel concern that the navies of the two rapidly growing Asian giants could be on a collision course as they seek to protect trade routes and lock in the supply of coal, minerals and other raw material from foreign sources.

Admiral Joshi described the modernization of China's navy as "truly impressive" and a source of major concern for India.

Are Things Heating Up in the Himalayas?

For a while, India and China even claimed to have finally settled their dangerous border dispute.   If they ever had a deal, it seems that deal is in doubt.

The land in question is the northernmost Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Himalayan region of Aksai Chin.   In new Chinese passports those regions are shown as belonging to the People's Republic.   India has responded by stamping the Chinese passports with its own map showing the regions as Indian.

China and India went to war along this border in 1962.  Since then India has claimed China has illegally occupied its territory in Aksai Chin while China has claimed the state of Arunachal belongs to it.

There is a great deal at stake up here including access to freshwater resources both countries deem vital.

Is Steve at Risk in India?

Steve Harper has brought his own convoy of armoured cars to India.  TorStar reports the RCMP "at least two" of the prime minister's vehicles, including an armoured limo, to ferry him about during his visit.

Neither the PMO nor the RCMP will comment on why the security India provides wasn't adequate for Steve.   Maybe the Prince of Dankness figured if American Presidents can ferry along their own wheels, so should he.

Ah, it's only money.

Harper and wife Laureen started their day in Agra where they toured the Taj Mahal and came away awestruck at the sight of the majestic landmark.

“It’s iconic. If you’re going to come to India, you have to see this. This is the thing. Believe me it’s worth seeing. I recommend it to anyone,” Harper told reporters after his Monday morning visit.

 

Harper Stirs the Asian Pot

"Don't Let On You Want to Bomb His Country"

 To Mittsy Romney, Russia is America's biggest geo-political foe.  To Harpo, it's China that most endangers Canada.

China, really?   The same China we're selling our Tar Sands to, and in partnership with whom we're building our Northern Gateway pipeline to transport diluted bitumen across British Columbia to Kitimat where it will be loaded into Chinese state-owned and operated supertankers, that China?   The same China that will be refining our bitumen into crude oil products that could be fueling its new, blue water navy, and its equally new stealth fighters, and all of its tanks and other military machinery, that China?  Ooooh yeah, baby, that China.

So what would suggest the Harper neo-Cons have China in their crosshairs?   There are several telltales.

Our government's utter obsession with the F-35 is one.   Why would Canada opt for a pathetically small number of supposedly stealthy, light attack bombers except if we contemplated some use for that sort of warplane, i.e. a first strike against an adversary with modern, sophisticated air defences?   Truth be told, there aren't many countries that fit that bill that aren't already on our side.  Russia and China, however do fit the bill.

And remember DefMin Peter "Airshow" MacKay's gushing remarks in September after his meeting with his American idol, Leon Panetta?   At the time, MacKay called for Canada to establish a "permanent, visible [military] presence" in Asia, adding, "We have to be there in quality and quantity in the coming years."  MacKay has been busy seeking forward basing rights in places like Singapore.   What could that possibly be about?

Now, Harper has added his piece to this childish puzzle.   He's en route to India along with his wife, Darlene.  In an exclusive interview with PostMedia, Harper said that Canada needs India as a strong ally for reasons of "geopolitical global security."

"I think they're a logical partner and ally of western countries... they face many of the same security issues we face.  In some ways more imminently."

So, just what security issues do Canada and India have in common, issues that India faces "more imminently"?   It's not Russia, that much is for sure.   India is still pursuing the strong
decades-old military/industrial partnership with Russia that has served it very well.   Hmmm, if Russia's out that leaves - you guessed it - China.  And India, which got into a shooting war with China back in Nehru's days over a perpetual border dispute, can be said to have "imminent" issues with the People's Republic.

In other words, you won't strain your eyes reading between the lines to see that Steve and Peter and the whole damned Neo-Conservative government of Canada see very real security issues between our country and the very same one they're bending over backwards to help to our bitumen resources.

It sounds contradictory but, always bear in mind, that it's American foreign policy that we're adopting, not our own.   Flogging bitumen to anyone who'll have it is domestic policy.   Deciding who is our friend and who is our enemy is something we'll leave up to Washington.   There, contradiction resolved.

The Jewel in the Crown - India

India has nothing but friends these days, that is if you leave out Pakistan.   Russia's her friend, has been for generations.   China wants to be India's BFF.   And America is also courting India's affections.

US Def-SEc Panetta was in New Delhi, laden with roses and chocolates, to proclaim India the "linchpin" in America's new strategy for Asia.

Panetta swept away America's historic distrust of India during the Cold War when America chose to shop weaponry to Pakistan, saying, "Our two nations I believe have finally and irreversibly started a new chapter of our history".

"Security ties with India have steadily improved but US officials have yet to realize the goal of a game-changing partnership that could check China's role, analysts say.

"India favours improving military ties and buying weapons from the United States but does not want to become a full-fledged American ally, preferring a degree of breathing space, analysts say.

"Panetta's visit has focused in part on the planned withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, with India concerned about a dangerous vacuum after foreign troops exit.

"The United States favoured a more active role for India in Afghanistan, Panetta said in his speech."

China is currently trying to induct India into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an Asian counterpart to NATO.   India is also still pursuing military joint ventures with Russia and has recently rejected American offers, including the F-35.

Panetta might have been on the money when he called India the "linchpin" of America's military policy in Asia.   A linchpin is what keeps a wagon wheel from falling off the axle.  It's indispensible.  America knows India is indispensible to its pan-Asian strategy.   India knows it.   So do China and Russia.   Let the games begin.

Yet the measure of America's ability to re-invent itself in south Asia may be decided in Islamabad, not New Delhi.   There Panetta, fresh from serenading India, is scolding Pakistan, warning that Washington is reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan's refusal to crush insurgent strongholds that threaten Afghanistan.   Panetta keeps trying to drive a square peg into a round hole, insisting that all of south Asia fall in line with Washington's bi-polar Asian policy.

Panetta needs India if the U.S. is to have any hope of containing China for very long yet, in the process, he's giving Pakistan powerful incentives to back the insurgents and handing China its own vehicle to contain India and push back against American expansionism.  

America's Asian policy is collapsing under the weight of its own incoherence and its rivals are waiting to pick up the pieces.

Arms Race Update

Korea may not yet be able to successfully launch a long-range missile but India can.   India has test fired a nuclear-weapon capable, Agni-V missile capable of reaching Beijing or Shanghai and plenty of cities in Europe also.

India's DefMin singled out China in his announcement.  He noted that China has had long-range missiles for decades and the Agni-V just gives India a similar capability.

So, how did China respond?   See if you can make any sense at all out of this take from the Times of India:

"The Chinese foreign ministry suggested Thursday that India's Agni-V launch should not be viewed as an arms race in the way of better relationship between the Himalayan neighbours.

"'We are not rivals but cooperative partners. We should cherish the hard-earned momentum of cooperation,' Liu Weimin, spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry said."

If India and China are going to succeed as new economic superpowers they're really going to have to work on their skills in diplomatic bullshit tossing.

Indian Women Push Back with Slutwalk.

It's often called the 'biggest democracy on earth' and it is, sort of, but India remains one of the five worst countries in which to be a woman - right alongside Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Congo and Somalia.  In India, a woman's lot often leads to sexual harassment, rape and abduction.   Now Indian women may have had enough.   One sign of this is the "Slutwalk" protest staged today in the Indian capital, Delhi.

The BBC's Mark Dummett in Delhi says the organisers are trying to challenge the mindset that the victims of sexual violence are to blame for the crimes committed against them.

He says Delhi can be a very difficult city for women, with sexual harassment commonplace, and rapes and abduction all too frequent.


And according to a recent survey, India remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women.

One protester told our correspondent: "Every girl has the right to wear whatever she wants, to do whatever she wants to do with her body. It's our lives, our decisions, unless it's harming you, you have no right to say anything."

Another protester said: "There are a lot of problems for women in Delhi because a lot of women do face sexual harassment and just a couple of weeks ago the chief of police of Delhi said that if a women was out after 0200 she was responsible for what happens to her, and I don't think that's the right attitude."
  
India recorded almost 22,000 rape cases in 2008, 18% up on 2004, the National Crime Records Bureau says.

China, India's Demographic Time Bomb

When the current upheaval hit the Arab world it quickly emerged that one driving force was youth underemployment.   These countries had opened colleges and universities that churned out grads for whom there weren't nearly enough jobs to go around.  The kids weren't alright and eventually they took to the streets.

This underemployment phenomenon isn't limited to the Arab world.  It is also setting in with the emerging economic superpowers, China and India.   They too have been churning out grads faster than their economies have been able to absorb them.  That's one of the main reasons the Chinese censored internet accounts coming out of Egypt.

But India and China are facing another demographic time bomb - a surplus of young men and a deficiency of young women for them to marry.

Abortion of female foetuses has led to a massive surplus of young unmarried men in India and China, raising fears of an outcast group that could threaten the social fabric.

The trend took root in the 1980s when ultrasound technologies made it easier to detect foetal sex early, according to the analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
 
Sons have traditionally been preferred in parts of China, India and South Korea for social, cultural and financial reasons.


The phenomenon was first spotted in South Korea in the early 1990s, when the sex ratio at birth (SRB) - typically 105 male births to every 100 female - rose to 125 in some cities.

 ''These men will be unable to marry, in societies where marriage is regarded as virtually universal, and where social status and acceptance depend, in large part, on being married and creating a new family,'' said the study's authors, led by Therese Hesketh, of University College London's Centre for International Health and Development. 

Arms Race Update - India Surges Ahead

India's economy may be smaller than its regional rival China's but its appetite for advanced weaponry isn't.   For years to come India is set to be the world's #1 buyer of foreign weaponry, primarily state of the art hardware from Russia.

With defence spending for the coming year pegged at just under $33-billion, India remains light years behind the debt-ridden United States where military spending throughout its vast military/industrial/civilian-warfighting complex is estimated to exceed a trillion dollars annually.

India, which has its own, indigenous military/industrial sector capable of designing and producing advanced missiles and even nuclear powered submarines, builds a lot of Russian equipment, especially aircraft, under licence.   The country is positioned to be Russia's main export customer for its new stealth fighter-interceptor.

China now appears to be locked into a major arms race with India.   Fueling this are border disputes, particularly involving Himalayan headwaters; US/India containment threats; and Indian domination of the Indian Ocean, a major sea lane route for Chinese access to the Middle East.   China employs Pakistan as a proxy to ramp up pressure on India and, in turn, threaten India's access to Middle East and Central Asian fossil fuel resources.

The estimates of India's arms appetite come from the Swedish International Peace Research Institute.  SIPRI (www.sipri.org) has found that, while India accounts for 9% of all weapons imports, close behind are China and South Korea at 6% each followed by Pakistan at 5%.

The United States continues to dominate weapons exports followed by Russia with 23% of the global trade, Germany at 11% and France at 7%.   Arms shipments from 2006 to 2010 were up 24% over the period 2001 to 2005.

India Sounds Climate Change Alarm

It's about bloody time.  The Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment has released a report on the sheer havoc that will descend on the world's largest democracy within twenty years.  Yeah, that's right, within the next two decades.

More flooding, more drought and a spreading of malaria would occur, as the disease migrates northward into Kashmir and the Himalayas, according to the report by 220 Indian scientists and 120 research institutions.

The temperature rise, which could be even more extreme along the coasts, would cause drastic changes in India's rain cycles that threaten water supplies and agriculture — the key source of livelihood for most of India's 1.2 billion people.

The report comes out just weeks before the Nov. 29 start of the U.N. climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, where nations will try again to reach a global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions thought to contribute to global warming.

" ""There is no country in the world that is as vulnerable, on so many dimensions, to climate change as India is," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said in a statement released with the report on Tuesday. "We must continue this focus on rigorous climate change science."

India's many ecosystems and proximity to the equator make it particularly sensitive to climate change, experts say. The fact most of the country relies on freshwater sources, rather than desalinating sea water, amplifies the threat of global warming on society.

The report also says sea levels will continue to rise, threatening India's more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) of coastline.

Mangrove forests along West Bengal's coastlines "would definitely go underwater," said Sidarth Pathak, a climate policy official with Greenpeace India. Coastal cities such as Calcutta, Mumbai and Chennai might also face a threat, he said.

Now, just in case you're profoundly stupid enough to say, "It's India, who cares?", I'd like to share a few thoughts with you.  Anyone who thinks India is the only country in that region that will be hard hit is delusional.  Anyone who thinks India won't be destabilized by this even dumber.  Anyone who can't grasp that three of the nations in line to be hammered by this are nuclear powers and all three of them are dependent on and have rival claims to the Himalayan glacier feeds is as dumb as dirt.

Worse still, anyone who thinks that Canada will be immune from the repercussions of this is a fool.   Do you think these countries don't already have us fingered as the key culprits in global warming?   Do you think they've somehow overlooked the literature about how we Westerners are responsible for most of the climate-change driving carbon emissions already in the atmosphere?  Do you think they won't be able to link their suffering to our indulgence and do you think, even for a minute, they won't be viewing us by our steadfast refusal to take the lead on climate change initiatives?  If you do think any of these things, all I can say (with a genuine pre-apology) is you're a fucking idiot.

Here's something else you might think about - a common grievance is a powerful force to unite otherwise disparate nations.

I want you to think about these things because I know those dumb shits, Harper and Ignatieff, and all the other Petro-Pols of Parliament Hill, won't.  Any change that can occur is going to come from the bottom up.  That means you and me, not our Parliamentary Peckerheads.   You have to agitate for action.  You have to demand better from these jackasses and, if you don't get it, you have to work to have them ousted.  Waiting for them to wake up is not an option.   There's simply not enough time left.

India, Land of Destabilizing Extremes

India is a land of extremes.   It has an extremely high percentage of its extremely large population living in extreme poverty.  It also has an extremely small percentage of extremely wealthy living in extreme luxury.

First and foremost of India's elite is Mukesh Ambani, India's wealthiest man, who has just moved into a new home along with his mother, wife and their three children.  The 'home', pegged at a cost between $1-2 billion, comprises 27-overheight stories that bring it to the size of a 60-story tower.   The house, called "Antilla," comes complete with 600-servants.  At 37,000 square meters, it's larger than Versailles.  Asia Times reports that Ambani's new digs are raising a few eyebrows:

Ambani's castle in the sky has generated heated debate in India and outside. While some have gushed about its "post-modern" look or praised it as an iconic home that will inspire others to aspire for more, others have dismissed it as "obscenely lavish" and a "visual eyesore." Indeed, from the outside it does look like a tall pile of books of varying sizes.

More damning are the ethical questions being raised. How can Ambani live in a billion dollar home when the vast majority of people in this country live in conditions of abject poverty? Around 37,000 square meters of floor space for a family of six, in a country where it is normal for a family of that size to live in a single room and share a single toilet with hundreds of others in the neighborhood, seems not just excessive but obscene.

It's hard to see how India will negotiate its economic ascendancy without seismic social upheaval.   In a nation almost entirely in the "definitely have-not" category it won't be hard for some firebrand to mobilize the public against the ostentatious wealth of the very few.   People like Ambani with his genuinely stupid house are practically begging to be scapegoated.   In a land of such extremes, Antilla is a profoundly extreme provocation.

What Is Going On With the Commonwealth Games in Delhi?

The 2010 Commonwealth Games may turn into a hyper-expensive Indian track meet.   The games were supposed to be India's opportunity to showcase the country as a modern, emerging economic superpower but the image that is being presented is not quite what the organizers hoped for.

We, in North America, didn't hear much about it but the Delhi games have turned into a world-class boondoggle.   Originally budgeted for 6.5-billion rupees the games are now scheduled to cost 115-billion which is a 98-billion rupee overrun.   When the overrun is itself 14-times the entire original budget you can pretty much assume a lot of corruption in the works.

For that kind of money, however, you would expect world class facilities.   So far, no.   Yesterday a pedestrian overpass built to link the athlete's village to the venues collapsed.   Not exactly a confidence builder.   And then there's the village itself.   Representatives of several Commonwealth nations have slammed the buildings as incomplete, dirty and unfit for human habitation.   That last one is the kicker.  Indian organizers have two days to rectify problems some observers claim would take at least two weeks.   The problems are bad enough that some teams are theatening to stay home while others are delaying travel plans for their athletes until they see if the Indian organizers can pull a rabbit out of their...  well, you know.

And, of course, there's been a devastating monsoon deluge and a spike in terrorist attacks to weigh on visiting athletes' minds.  Australian swimming great Dawn Fraser advises her compatriots to consider
boycotting the event as she fears the security situation could turn the Games into "another Munich", referring to the 1972 Olympic attacks in which 11 Israelis were taken hostage and subsequently killed by Palestinian gunmen.  Three time Olympic champion Usain Bolt is giving the Delhi games a pass.   So is four Olympic gold medalist cyclist Chris Hoy.

Canada, Scotland, Ireland and New Zealand are balking at participating in the games that begin on October 3rd.

Imagine a country where less than a third of its people have access to a basic toilet squandering 98-billion rupees on 'overruns.'   It truly is mind-boggling.

Climate Change Hammers South Asia

Citizens driven to take shelter in the subways. Electricity blackouts, severe water shortages, gasoline pumps run dry, civilians dying in the streets, others flooding hospitals. Rocketing price increases for basic food stocks.

Sounds like a nation under attack. It is. It's India and its attacker is climate change. Indians are beset by an intense heatwave that's been going on for weeks. This is the hottest summer India has had since records were first kept.

The country now awaits rescue in the form of the annual monsoon rains which it is hoped will arrive today. From The Guardian:

"The capital has sweltered under intense heat for weeks though, having endured temperatures of around 45C last week, dust storms and scattered rain brought some relief over the weekend. The new air-conditioned metro has seen record numbers of passengers as travellers abandon buses, taxis and auto rickshaws.

"Parts of the city have suffered prolonged electricity blackouts and, in outlying suburbs, water shortages. In upmarket Mehrauli village, residents were forced to buy from private suppliers plying door to door with tankers. In the new town of Gurgaon, entire apartment blocks have run short. In the city of Nagpur, Maharashtra, petrol pumps ran dry after railway wagons which normally carry fuel were switched to supply water.

"The Indian Meterological Department attributes the record heat to lack of atmospheric humidity, hot dry winds blowing across the south-western Thar desert and the effects of last year's El Nino cycle."

Even mountainous Nepal is beset by drought this year. The UN's World Food Programme reports that upwards of two million Nepalese now face a high risk of food shortages.

"The 2008/2009 winter drought - one of the worst in the country’s history - has destroyed crops across Nepal, with wheat and barley production reduced by 14 and 17 percent respectively. Crop yields in some districts in Mid- and Far-Western Nepal – which received less than 50 percent of average rainfall during the period from November 2008 to February 2009 - have dropped by more than half.

"The report – which was produced by MOAC, WFP and the FAO – estimates that 40 of the 75 districts are food deficit because of the drought and also expresses serious concerns about the nutrition situation across Nepal. Half of children under the age of five in these districts are stunted, while 39 percent of children are underweight and 13 percent are severely malnourished."

Here, on Canada's "wet" coast, we gripe about enduring a wet and cold spring. When you look at what's going on around the rest of the planet, cool and wet doesn't seem all that bad.

India - A Country In Trouble

Here's a clear sign of India's troubles. Half the population have cell phones. Less than a third have access to a proper toilet.

In a nation with a growing population already exceeding 1.2-billion people, that's 800-million without "access" to proper sanitation. From AFP:

"..It is a tragic irony to think in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones," so many people "cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said UN University director Zafar Adeel.

...Proper sanitation "could do more to save lives, especially those of young people, improve health and help pull India and other countries in similar circumstances out of poverty than any alternative investment," Adeel said.

Poor sanitation is a major contributor to water-borne diseases, which in the past three years alone killed an estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five worldwide, according to the study.