Shantaram

"The world is run by 1 million evil men, 10 million stupid men, and 100 million cowards. The evil men are the power – the rich men and the politicians, and the fanatics of religion – – whose decisions rule the world, and set it on its course of greed and destruction. ... The stupid men, who number ten million, are the soldiers and policemen who enforce the rule of the evil men. ... They are often brave, I'm sure, but they are stupid, too, because they give their lives for governments and causes that use their flesh and blood as mere chess pieces. Those governments always betray them or let them down or abandon them, in the long run. ... And the hundred million cowards, they are the bureaucrats and paper shufflers and pen-pushers who permit the rule of the evil men, and look the other way. ... They are managers, and officials, and mayors, and officers of the court. They always defend themselves by saying that they are just following orders, or just doing their job, and it's nothing personal, and if they don't do it, someone else surely will. They are the hundred million cowards who know what is going on, but say nothing, while they sign the paper that puts one man before a firing squad, or condemns one million men to the slower death of a famine."

Life

So less a time, and vastness spread,

forever and ever, in the path ahead.

I stand and see, with fatigue & loss,

a journey that far, will never be close.

I start my steps, already I lost,

for in this race, time is my host.

Melancholy thoughts, my mind I blind,

will never find things, I want to find.

I can't read books, I want to read,

nor listen to whom, I want to heed.

Not know things that, I want to know,

for there's no rock, that stop its flow.

I recognize my cause is lost,

still persistent to give my most.

The majesty, wonder, just a peek,

a little glimpse, that's all I seek.

The path leads on, but I will rest,

for in my time, I did my best.

Who Am I?

Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, and a type of participatory democracy, in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget. Participatory budgeting allows citizens to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent. When PB is taken seriously and is based on mutual trust local governments and citizen can benefit equally. PB has the potential to provide social inclusion and social equity in the decision making of the allocation of resources in communities with low socioeconomic statuses.

Most broadly, all participatory budgeting schemes allow citizens to deliberate with the goal of creating either a concrete financial plan (a budget), or a recommendation to elected representatives. In the Porto Alegre model, the structure of the scheme gives subjurisdictions (neighborhoods) authority over the larger political jurisdiction (the city) of which they are part. Neighborhood budget committees, for example, have authority to determine the citywide budget, not just the allocation of resources for their particular neighborhood. There is, therefore, a need for mediating institutions to facilitate the aggregation of budget preferences expressed by subjurisdictions.

PB generally involves several basic steps:

1. Community members identify spending priorities and select budget delegates
2. Budget delegates develop specific spending proposals, with help from experts
3. Community members vote on which proposals to fund
4. The city or institution implements the top proposals

A comprehensive case study of eight municipalities in Brazil analyzing the successes and failures of participatory budgeting has suggested that it often results in more equitable public spending, greater government transparency and accountability, increased levels of public participation (especially by marginalized or poorer residents), and democratic and citizenship learning.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) programs are innovative policymaking processes. Citizens are directly involved in making policy decisions. Forums are held throughout the year so that citizens have the opportunity to allocate resources, prioritize broad social policies, and monitor public spending. These programs are designed incorporate citizens into the policymaking process, spur administrative reform, and distribute public resources to low-income neighborhoods. Social and political exclusion is challenged as lowincome and traditionally excluded political actors are given the opportunity to make policy decisions. Governments and citizens initiate these programs to (i) promote public learning and active citizenship, (ii) achieve social justice through improved policies and resources allocation, and (iii) reform the administrative apparatus. Participating Budgeting programs confront Brazilian political legacies of clientelism, social exclusion, and corruption by making the budgetary process transparent, open, and public. By moving the locus of decision-making from the private offices of politicians and technocrats to public forums, these public forums foster transparency. Participatory budgeting programs act as “citizenship schools” as engagement empowers citizens to better understand their rights and duties as citizens as well as the responsibilities of government. Citizens, it is hoped, will offer helpful and creative solutions to the myriad social and economic problems found in Brazil’s urban centers and small towns. Citizens learn to negotiate among themselves and vis-à-vis the government over the distribution of scarce resources and public policy priorities. It is important to keep in mind that there is no precise or exact model for PB programs. While there are similar tenets and institutional mechanisms, PB programs are structured in response to the particular political, social, and economic environment of each city or state. While alluding to the differences, this report will present a synthesis of the most representative cases.

More info on PB (click)

Harvard Graduation Speech - The Most Powerful

Rassundari Devi – “Amar Jiban”

RASSUNDARI DASI  “AMAR JIBAN: Review of a very inspiring and motivating book “Amar Jiban” , tracing the life of the first full length autobiographical writer in Bengal -Rassundari Dasi.

Dasi, Rassundari (c 1809-?) a self-taught woman to leave behind an important autobiography. In the age of 19th century Reformism in Bengal, the first full length autobiography was written not by a man but by an unknown, self taught, high caste Hindu housewife from a conservative rural household – Rassundari Dasi.

Rassundari Devi, wrote a story of her life, Amar Jiban (“My Life”), that was published in 1876. This detailed memoir revolves around her day to day experiences as a housewife and mother. Obsessed with a desire to read, she stole a page from a book and a sheet of paper from her son and kept them hidden in the kitchen where she furtively pursued her education.

Rassundari was born in a remote village in Pabna into a poor family. In her father’s house a missionary lady had a small pathshala where boys went for lessons. As a female, she of course had no access there, but she would sit close by and pick up the rudiments of reading by watching the boys learn. At the age of 12, Rassundari was married off to Sitanath Ray, a landlord in Faridpur. A Vaisnavite like her husband and his family, Rassundari was deeply religious.1n her autobiography she states that the impetus to read, an act forbidden to Hindu females of the time, was born from an ardent desire to read religious texts specially the chaitanya bhagavata.

Rassundari fascinating autobiography records the details of her life, her childhood, marriage, the daily round of domestic chores in a large joint family, the clandestine manner in which she taught herself to read anew in her husband’s household at the age of 25, and later to write, by secretly studying her husband’s religious manuscripts. The book contains a picture of the changing rural world, the status and role of women and Rassundari’s own views on changing times and life in this earth.

Rassundari was widowed at the age of 59 in 1868 and the following year she finished and published the first version of her autobiography Amar Jiban (My Life). (Ghulam Murshid, however, is of the opinion that it was first published in 1875) She added a second part in a new version published in 1897 when she was 88. Jyotirindranath Tagore wrote the preface to this edition. Unfortunately there is no mention of her in the standard histories of literature from those times, nor is her death mentioned. Rassundari’s life was lived out far from the din and hustle of Calcutta, the cultural epicentre of Bengal. Yet she has the honour of being the first writer of an autobiography in Bengal, a genre just coming into vogue.

Written in chaste Bangla, Rassundari’s Amar Jiban portrays the changing world of rural Bengal and situates woman there. In her life and text Rassundari maintained many of the restrictive norms and rituals enjoined upon a traditional Hindu housewife, yet through her dispassionate, objective style and subject matter, through the very act of writing, forbidden to women not so long ago, Rassundari Dasi was engaged in a unique act of emancipation.

 Post Contributed by: Vijeta Pai, India