Alternative Perspective
 Issue 31, May 11, 2003
Compiled by Madhukar Shukla

 Alternative Perspective is an attempt to widen our awareness about issues related to business, environment, role and influence of media, geo-politics, culture, etc. It aims to share, on a regular basis, some of those pieces of news and information, which do not find place in the highly monopolised mainstream media. Please feel free to share/ forward/ distribute this newsletter to others who may be interested.



Note: The URLs of sources used in the text are numbered and given at the end of the Newsletter.

In This Issue:
  • Is Secularism an Obsolete and Outdated Doctrine?
    We all "know" that as societies and nations become more educated, developed and richer, they become more secular. Apparently, living in the media bubble... well, we are ill-informed!!!. As this article points out, most societies become more religious as they become more educated and prosperous, and that secularism (i.e., insenstivity to presence of the Divine in their day-to-day lives) is apparently an outdated mental model (shared by an insulated minority on the planet). In fact, to understand the socio-political realities that impact us, it may be a good idea to get "cured" of this illusion (as prescribed through the six-step course). Though unsettling, it makes sense specially if one appreciates that even the most secular of all nations is inherently religious if you scratch its history[1] or study its media flow[2]. In context of current happenings, the fact that religeous forces left to themselves can create better order and peace than the secular authority[3] also gives credence to this view that being religeous, after all, is not all that bad and primitive.
    http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/03/brooks.htm

  • Do You Want Democracy or Do You Want Peace?
    Another belief which we take for-granted - and "know" - is that democracy leads to peaceful co-existance. Surprisingly, the empirical and historical evidence does not corraborate this!!!... in fact, as this article shows (though written in context of self-contradictory doctrine of the US/UK deciding that Iraq should have a democratic government), that democratic regimes are more likely to have ethnic conflicts - nowadays, termed as terrorism - than the non-democratic ones... interesting and thought-provoking to understand the reasons why the two - Democracy and Peace - don't go together.
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/ostrowski/ostrowski43.html

  • Why US$ Lost Out to Iraqi Dinar?!!!
    Now this is something of a mystery!!... why should the Iraqi Dinar - the currency of a fallen regime, bearing the face of Saddam Hussain, and unsupported by an Iraqi Central Bank - gain in value against US$. Before the invasion/liberation, Iraqi currency used to be traded at 4000 Dinar/US$; two weeks later it had gained value of 1600 Iraqi Dinar/US$... Of course, in due course US$ will gain value, but this episode does provide a microcosm of what can/will have to US$ when pitted against other currencies - specially, in a less volatile environment...
    http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=1217

  • Educating The Young Minds: The Politically Correct Way!!!
    Reasons maybe different, but all regimes determine and filter the kind of information the young, impressionable minds should get exposed to. We all know about the censorship, which the dictatorial fundamentalist regimes impose on information. But less is known (and acknowledged) about the censorship in the "free" world - where references in textbooks to Mickey Mouse, Harry Potter, ice cream, owl, quarrelling parents, ski trips, dolphin, etc. are in the "banned" list. In fact, the authors are given a list of "banned" words and descriptions[4] which should not occur in the school textbooks - which include such "politically incorrect" words, such as hut, busybody, bookworm, old wives' tales, yacht, etc., and mind-corrupting descriptions, such as old people with walking sticks, nurturant women, native Americans performing rain dance, absent-minded old people, etc.... if you ever suspected that life is Mad Hatter's Party, well, here is the proof!!!
    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,6382818,00.html

  • WTO: The Invisible Government
    One of the purposes of WTO is to promote "free trade" by removing obstacles and barriers to free movement of goods, services and capital. Unfortunately, often these "obstacles and barrier" happen to be factors, such as labor rights, environment, human rights, consumer rights, local culture, social justice, national sovereignty, and even democracy. This article gives brief summaries of the so-far 20 rulings made by WTO since its formation in 1995. A must read, if you have time now... because, in course of a few months, it will be too late to make any difference!
    http://www.ifg.org/analysis/wto/inv_govt.htm


    Other Sources Quoted in the Newsletter:
    [1]: http://www.forerunner.com/ccbc/X0004_Christian_Nation.html
    [2]: http://religiousbroadcasting.lib.virginia.edu/televangelism.html
    [3]: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/127/nation/Clerics_group_emerges_as_shadow_rule_in_Iraq%2B.shtm
    [4]: http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/02/news_pf/Columns/Language_police_use_e.shtml


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