Posts Tagged ‘U.S.’
Project Welcome Home Troops
Project Welcome Home Troops
When we think of change and empowerment, the traditional target segments includes women, children and youth. Enhancing access to educational, economic and health resources is the most common approach for empowering communities. However, for some people the challenge is dealing with their fears, anxieties and personal traumas. The usual tendency is to view these challenges as personal and not the responsibility of the community. Such challenges may afflict the individual but these originate in and impact the community at large. We can’t expect to empower communities when some members are struggling to deal with their personal anxieties.
One such segment is the veterans returning home from the conflict zones. Normalizing their lives and integrating them into the mainstream is crucial to creating healthy communities. In the midst of other competing priorities relating to development goals, the tendency is to overlook the needs of the veterans. Even though it’s not on the priority radar of the non-profit community, addressing the psychological needs of the veterans is crucial.
20% of U.S. returning veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, experiencing emotional numbness, anxiety, insomnia, flashbacks and nightmares that result in difficulty returning to their normal home and work life. Without tools to manage these symptoms, some veterans are left to cope through alcohol and drugs. About 18 veterans in the U.S. commit suicide every day, a rate now higher than that of combat fatalities.
Open to veterans of all ages and from any war, Project Welcome Home Troops uses transformational breathing techniques to reduce anxiety, deal effectively with strong emotions, increase resiliency and energy, and improve overall performance. Researched at the University of Wisconsin, these techniques are taught over a six-day course and help veterans take back control of their minds and emotions, as they continue the practices on their own.
Can India Move from Gilded Age to Progressive Era?
Jayant Sinha and Ashutosh Varshney have in an interesting article, contented that “both in its rot and heady dynamism, India is beginning to resemble America’s Gilded Age (1865-1900).” The article in Financial Times, titled “It is time for India to reign in its robber barrons“, Sinha and Varshney question the possibility of India’s transition from Gilded Age to Progressive Era. The transition, to my mind, is improbable if not impossible.
For those uninitiated in American history here is a brief overview of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. The term Gilded Age was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 book, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Following the plot of Twain and Warner’s novel, the term Gilded was used to characterize the age of economic growth, entrepreneurship and widespread corruption in America. During the 1870s and 1880s, the U.S. economy grew at the fastest rate in its history, with real wages, wealth, GDP, and capital formation all increasing rapidly. A national transportation and communication network was created, the corporation became the dominant form of business organization, and a managerial revolution transformed business operations. The super-rich industrialists and financiers such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew W. Mellon, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Flagler, Henry H. Rogers, J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt of the Vanderbilt family, and the prominent Astor family were attacked as ‘robber barons’ by critics, who believed they cheated to get their money and lorded it over the common people. Political corruption, corporate arrogance and social malaise of the Gilded Age led to desire for reforms and culminated in the Progressive movement in 1900. The main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to expose and undercut political machines and bosses. Disturbed by the inefficiencies and injustices of the Gilded Age, the Progressives were committed to changing and reforming the country. Click to continue…
Tale of Two Terrorists in Two Democracies
Ajmal Kasab and Faisal Shahzad are familiar names for most Indians and Americans. Kasab was the only terrorist in the gang of ten who was arrested alive during the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. Shahzad was arrested early this week for planting a car bomb in the Times Square in New York City. Kasab was arrested while operationalizing a terror strike; Shahzad was nabbed following the cues from the car which he had planted. Kasab’s connection to Pakistan was established, Shahzad Pakistani connection is evident and under scrutiny.
Afghanistan Election Runoff - For Whom?
The runoff vote for Afghan Presidential elections has been scheduled for November 7. What is expected to emerge out of this internationally sponsored democratic exercise? Is the runoff an attempt to provide the Afghan people with a truly representative government or does the international community merely want to assert its partnership with the de jure and de facto Government of Afghanistan?
President Obama’s Speeches are Aimed at Uncertainty Reduction
R.L. Health and J. Bryant in their book Human Communication: Theory and Research stated, “Interactions are expected to increase predictability with the goal that this will lead to the ability to predict and explain what will occur in future interactions.” This explanation is the core of the Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) of Communications. Simply stated the URT emphasizes that reducing uncertainty is the central motive of communication. The four major foreign policy speeches of President Barak Obama epitomize the central tenet of the URT. Contrary to popular perception, President Obama is not attempting to induce changes in behaviors of nation-states or other non-state actors. He is simply reducing uncertainty in international affairs by clearly explaining the basis and goals of U.S. foreign policy under his Administration. The stated goals are marked by an element of continuity and the speeches are merely contextual communication of the same. Click to continue…
Replacing Huntington with Morgenthau in U.S. Foreign Policy
Islam has emerged as a dominant influence in U.S. domestic and foreign policy in recent years. A variety of issues ranging from Islam as an organizing principle of the socio-political systems to the nationalistic expressions of Islam; from Islam as a political force to Islam as an international threat – the U.S. and Islam have interacted in every possible way. Yet clouds of distrust have thickened and a sense of hostility marks mutual relations. Despite the positive rhetoric of President Obama not much has changed on the ground. Is there any approach that the U.S. can adopt for reconciliation with the followers (both nation-states and common people) of Islam? Click to continue…
Sympathize, Empathize or Rationalize: Obama Administration’s Policy Choices in Pakistan
As the AFPAK strategy session concluded in Washington arguments for and against providing aid to Pakistan dominated the op-ed columns and the blogosphere. The U.S. cannot deprive Pakistan of essential aid because there are fears that the Country might collapse. At the same time U.S. aid will not solve most of Pakistan’s problems. So what should the Obama Administration do? Can the U.S. merely feel sorry for the state of affairs in Pakistan or should the challenges facing the Pakistan be recognized and a cooperative counter-Taliban effort be continued? Or should the U.S. rationalize in terms of delineating the respective responsibilities of the Pakistani Government and the international community? Click to continue…
Kerry-Lugar Bill: An Opportunity for Democratic Pakistan
The Kerry-Lugar Bill, presented before the Senate yesterday, seeks to apply the Afghanistan prescription suggested in Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea to Pakistan. The very title of the book is a suggestion on the best strategy to be pursued in Afghanistan: the Western style of speeding up operations doesn’t work; slowing down and building relationships would help to achieve the desired objectives. Though slowing down is not an option in Pakistan but building relationships is a viable strategy and this is what the Kerry-Lugar Bill intends to do. In the words of John Kerry, the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act (Kerry-Lugar bill) seeks to “fundamentally change America’s relationship with the people of Pakistan.”
[Photo Courtesy: Boston Globe, May 5, 2009]
The most important element of the proposed bill is the repeated reference to the ‘people of Pakistan’. U.S. commitment to the needs of Pakistani people is proposed to go beyond the fluctuating government to government relationship. The people of Pakistan cannot be punished for the inability of their Government to optimally utilize U.S. military aid to counter terrorism. The justification for reducing and conditioning military aid to Pakistan is as strong as the rationale for increasing non-military aid to the country. Click to continue…
Pakistan Beyond ‘AFPAK’
The Obama Administration before taking office was well aware that Pakistan would be the most compelling threat for the U.S, foreign policy in the coming days. President Obama’s AFPAK strategy was presented as an attempt to restructure America’s approach in dealing with the Al-qaeda- Taliban challenge. In terms of strategy and approach President Obama’s Pakistan policy appears sound, but it needs to be realized that the nature and degree of crisis confronting Pakistan is yet to be fully grasped. The greatest test for the Obama Presidency will not be to deal with the Taliban threat but to fully comprehend the Pakistan challenge. Click to continue…
Ambassador Husain Haqqani on “How Pakistan is Countering the Taliban”
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the Unites States Mr. Husain Haqqani has defended Pakistan’s Taliban strategy in the WSJ today.
Mr. Haqqani has excelled in the performance of his duties as Pakistan’s top diplomat in the U.S.; he has presented elaborate arguments rationalizing the recent policy decisions of Pakistani government vis-à-vis the Taliban. Even though I appreciate Mr. Haqqani’s diplomatic skills I strongly disagree with him. Certain claims made by Mr. Haqqani in his submission are faulty and biased:
According to Mr. Haqqani the panicked reactions of the type witnessed in the U.S. media over the last few weeks — after the Taliban drove into Buner, a town 60 miles north of the capital Islamabad — are not conducive to strengthening Pakistani democracy or to developing an effective counterterrorism policy for Pakistan. The panicked media reactions were not confined to the U.S. alone. The Pakistani media was equally rather more apprehensive of the Taliban’s entry into Buner. The scenes of a little boy selling newspapers on the streets of Lahore while shouting out the headlines as ‘Taliban have entered Islamabad’ reflected the anxiety and fear in the Pakistani media. Moreover, Mr. Haqanni needs to realize that counter-terrorism policy is based on empirical data and critical evaluations rather than merely media reports. Click to continue…