It is true that the media broadened its reach and now its focus is very narrow. This is today’s media. Before fifteen years there was only very few channels in India, that we could count in fingers. After globalization there is a boon in the media industry. Today we can see a selection of media. Like the slogan of BBC (Putting news first) Indian media are in tough competition for putting their news first. For that they are ready to go the extreme level. Sting journalism is the baby of today’s media. But here a question would arise. The question of credibility. All the media corporates should give the reply to this. Public is not fools. If they are fools, all the medias are machines that working for fools. So we can estimate the deeds of current media.
People are very familiar with ‘breaking news’ of the current media. Also in print media we can see the big charts, figures without any source. How can we believe that these figures and calculations are true without any source? Day by day media is changing its path. They are focusing to very narrow and silly subjects. When we watch the ‘main head lines, breaking news and front page news’ we can understand that the real focus of media. Today there is no value for the ethics in journalism. We can see the fabricated stories, sting operations etc..
‘Is good journalism is a bad business’ recently there was a hot debate about this topic. It was about the current media. Yes good journalism is a bad news. Nowadays we call all the medias are ‘industries, corporates etc.. What happened to our media? Why are they giving more concentration to page3 news? Why are our media personalities running after celebrities? Is today’s journalism has any moral values? The media has to promote their contribution to the country for a complete development. Media is for the people. The future of our country is in the hands of the Indian media. Media is the watchdog of our country. So media should never deviate from its obligation and ethics. Media has a prominent role in nation building process. Today we can see the exact proportion of advertisements and news in print media and in electronic media. It is too much. Media should concentrate on their duties and the purpose. They should have a good intention, ideology and moral values.
What is a good journalism? How to media should focus on issues? It is the high time to think about this subject. In India media enjoying a good freedom. People giving too much attention and respect to media. It is good that the action of media should be quick. But today we can see for catching the attention of the public our medias are fabricating stories and news. Media should not be biased. They should focus on the problems of the public than sensationalizing the subjects. People want good news. They are fed- up with Page3 news. There are only a few channels and newspapers that still giving good attention to the real news. They are not corporates and also they are keeping moral values and ethics. Media should be transparent. Today some of our newspapers and channels are monopoly of some big fishes.
Nowadays majority of medias are crossing the limits and interfering people’s private life. Media should raise its voice against corruption, terrorism and unscrupulous politics. Media can change the present pathetic situation of our society. Media should act according to the pubic interest. In early days media influenced us in a positive way. Today we can see the impinging of media into personal life. People are expecting something different from media. They want to imbibe good things from the media. Media should keep their moral code. Otherwise the readers and the casters will lose their faith in the media.
This situation will change only through the aspiring journalists. These budding journalists try to cultivate the moral value of good journalism. What the public really need from the media? Media is as powerful as democracy. Without a powerful media, a nation cannot become developed. Media is for the people.
Monday 3 December 2007
India lacking in airline
People are not satisfied with the service of the airlines in India. But when the private companies entered the domestic airline market. The situation changed. But still we need more domestic airline services. According to Sir Richard Branson (U.K based Virgin Airlines) India has lack of infrastructures. He is still planning to open the Virgin airlines in India. But the application is pending with the Government of Indian. The main issue of Indian is the airline market is not opened to true competition. At present the Indian Government does not allow international airlines to acquire a direct or indirect stake in domestic airlines. There are total eleven domestic airlines in India. Air India, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Air Sahara, Kingfisher Airlines, Air Deccan, GoAir, Spice Jet, IndiGo, Jagson Airline, Paramount Airways. Through out the world people are waiting for India's next stride on Airlines. India needs more infrastructures for airlines. It is still unclear that why India is not ready for an open competition? Indian government's aviation policy is abysmal. The recent incidents reveals that India facing big problems in aviation sector. Indian aviation ministry should rethink about why Sir Richard Branson plans to invest in Indian. Indian government has not yet ready to make a decision on Richard Branson's interest. If the India government should give more concentration on aviation, airline sector become the top booming sector in the country. The passengers are also commenting about the lack of infrastructures for airlines in India. Government of India's ministry of aviation cannot give an exact reply to the foreign investors. The state owned flight service India Airlines has many drawbacks. The eleven flight services in our country are not sufficient for passengers. India should concentrate on the infrastructures. India has lands still unexplored. We should open the aviation market for competition. It is the high time to think about new strategy for inviting international airlines.
AICC attempts to gag media
Journalists are not terrorists. The
deeds of India's fourth estate are
indisputable. Nobody can imagine
a world without the media. Even
today, the media face threats and
challenges.
In India, we have freedom of the
press. But some incidents have
directly affected this freedom.
All India Congress Committee
(AICC) meeting was held at
Talkatora indoor stadium at New
Delhi on the 17th of this month.
Media persons could not enter the
venue because of extreme security.
At the same time, news broke
about the arrest of the terrorists
who plotted to hijack Rahul
Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
When the security guards got this
information they allowed nobody
to enter the stadium. The day
before the meeting AICC had
announced that everybody should
enter the meeting hall before
6.30am on the scheduled day.
AICC's media secretary Veerappa
Moily and Tom Vadakan
approached the securities to give
permission to the media persons to
enter the hall. But the securities
were very adamant. All the
journalists protested against this.
The journalists were treated like
terrorists even after they showed
their press card.
This is the first incident of its
kind in the history of an AICC
meeting. How can India claim that
our security is flawless? If a
terrorist group really wanted to
sabotage the Talkatora indoor
stadium on that day, it would not
have been very difficult for them.
The 13 December 2001 Parliament
attack and the repeated blasts in
Hyderabad on 25 August 2007 only
prove the ease with which such
operations can be conducted. After
all how can the security personnel
argue that the presence of
journalists would affect safety
measures? If the Prime Minister
would go late to a meeting how
would the securities treat him?
India is a democratic country.
Everybody is entitled to enjoy the
freedom that comes with it. Yet,
journalists face atrocities. The
repercussions of this incident
would be very high. The AICC
meeting is over but who will take
the responsibility for the freedom
denied to the press of a democratic
nation? Who has more power in
AICC-the committee members or
the security personnel? Who are
the real culprits?
It is dubious whether the action
against the journalists was preplanned
or not. Nowadays the
assaults against journalists
especially from the politicians, are
rising. This misbehavior reveals
the degrading values of Indian
society. Media is for the public and
not for the politicians. By telling
the truth journalists do a service to
the society.
In other words, it is high time to
think about the values of
journalism and politics.
deeds of India's fourth estate are
indisputable. Nobody can imagine
a world without the media. Even
today, the media face threats and
challenges.
In India, we have freedom of the
press. But some incidents have
directly affected this freedom.
All India Congress Committee
(AICC) meeting was held at
Talkatora indoor stadium at New
Delhi on the 17th of this month.
Media persons could not enter the
venue because of extreme security.
At the same time, news broke
about the arrest of the terrorists
who plotted to hijack Rahul
Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
When the security guards got this
information they allowed nobody
to enter the stadium. The day
before the meeting AICC had
announced that everybody should
enter the meeting hall before
6.30am on the scheduled day.
AICC's media secretary Veerappa
Moily and Tom Vadakan
approached the securities to give
permission to the media persons to
enter the hall. But the securities
were very adamant. All the
journalists protested against this.
The journalists were treated like
terrorists even after they showed
their press card.
This is the first incident of its
kind in the history of an AICC
meeting. How can India claim that
our security is flawless? If a
terrorist group really wanted to
sabotage the Talkatora indoor
stadium on that day, it would not
have been very difficult for them.
The 13 December 2001 Parliament
attack and the repeated blasts in
Hyderabad on 25 August 2007 only
prove the ease with which such
operations can be conducted. After
all how can the security personnel
argue that the presence of
journalists would affect safety
measures? If the Prime Minister
would go late to a meeting how
would the securities treat him?
India is a democratic country.
Everybody is entitled to enjoy the
freedom that comes with it. Yet,
journalists face atrocities. The
repercussions of this incident
would be very high. The AICC
meeting is over but who will take
the responsibility for the freedom
denied to the press of a democratic
nation? Who has more power in
AICC-the committee members or
the security personnel? Who are
the real culprits?
It is dubious whether the action
against the journalists was preplanned
or not. Nowadays the
assaults against journalists
especially from the politicians, are
rising. This misbehavior reveals
the degrading values of Indian
society. Media is for the public and
not for the politicians. By telling
the truth journalists do a service to
the society.
In other words, it is high time to
think about the values of
journalism and politics.
Thursday 27 September 2007
'Has the media broadened its reach only to narrow its focus’?
It is true that the media broadened its reach and now its focus is very narrow. This is today’s media. Before fifteen years there was only very few channels in India, that we could count in fingers. After globalization there is a boon in the media industry. Today we can see a selection of media. Like the slogan of BBC (Putting news first) Indian media are in tough competition for putting their news first. For that they are ready to go the extreme level. Sting journalism is the baby of today’s media. But here a question would arise. The question of credibility. All the media corporates should give the reply to this. Public is not fools. If they are fools, all the medias are machines that working for fools. So we can estimate the deeds of current media.
People are very familiar with ‘breaking news’ of the current media. Also in print media we can see the big charts, figures without any source. How can we believe that these figures and calculations are true without any source? Day by day media is changing its path. They are focusing to very narrow and silly subjects. When we watch the ‘main head lines, breaking news and front page news’ we can understand that the real focus of media. Today there is no value for the ethics in journalism. We can see the fabricated stories, sting operations etc..
‘Is good journalism is a bad business’ recently there was a hot debate about this topic. It was about the current media. Yes good journalism is a bad news. Nowadays we call all the medias are ‘industries, corporates etc.. What happened to our media? Why are they giving more concentration to page3 news? Why are our media personalities running after celebrities? Is today’s journalism has any moral values? The media has to promote their contribution to the country for a complete development. Media is for the people. The future of our country is in the hands of the Indian media. Media is the watchdog of our country. So media should never deviate from its obligation and ethics. Media has a prominent role in nation building process. Today we can see the exact proportion of advertisements and news in print media and in electronic media. It is too much. Media should concentrate on their duties and the purpose. They should have a good intention, ideology and moral values.
What is a good journalism? How to media should focus on issues? It is the high time to think about this subject. In India media enjoying a good freedom. People giving too much attention and respect to media. It is good that the action of media should be quick. But today we can see for catching the attention of the public our medias are fabricating stories and news. Media should not be biased. They should focus on the problems of the public than sensationalizing the subjects. People want good news. They are fed- up with Page3 news. There are only a few channels and newspapers that still giving good attention to the real news. They are not corporates and also they are keeping moral values and ethics. Media should be transparent. Today some of our newspapers and channels are monopoly of some big fishes.
Nowadays majority of medias are crossing the limits and interfering people’s private life. Media should raise its voice against corruption, terrorism and unscrupulous politics. Media can change the present pathetic situation of our society. Media should act according to the pubic interest. In early days media influenced us in a positive way. Today we can see the impinging of media into personal life. People are expecting something different from media. They want to imbibe good things from the media. Media should keep their moral code. Otherwise the readers and the casters will lose their faith in the media.
This situation will change only through the aspiring journalists. These budding journalists try to cultivate the moral value of good journalism. What the public really need from the media? Media is as powerful as democracy. Without a powerful media, a nation cannot become developed. Media is for the people.
People are very familiar with ‘breaking news’ of the current media. Also in print media we can see the big charts, figures without any source. How can we believe that these figures and calculations are true without any source? Day by day media is changing its path. They are focusing to very narrow and silly subjects. When we watch the ‘main head lines, breaking news and front page news’ we can understand that the real focus of media. Today there is no value for the ethics in journalism. We can see the fabricated stories, sting operations etc..
‘Is good journalism is a bad business’ recently there was a hot debate about this topic. It was about the current media. Yes good journalism is a bad news. Nowadays we call all the medias are ‘industries, corporates etc.. What happened to our media? Why are they giving more concentration to page3 news? Why are our media personalities running after celebrities? Is today’s journalism has any moral values? The media has to promote their contribution to the country for a complete development. Media is for the people. The future of our country is in the hands of the Indian media. Media is the watchdog of our country. So media should never deviate from its obligation and ethics. Media has a prominent role in nation building process. Today we can see the exact proportion of advertisements and news in print media and in electronic media. It is too much. Media should concentrate on their duties and the purpose. They should have a good intention, ideology and moral values.
What is a good journalism? How to media should focus on issues? It is the high time to think about this subject. In India media enjoying a good freedom. People giving too much attention and respect to media. It is good that the action of media should be quick. But today we can see for catching the attention of the public our medias are fabricating stories and news. Media should not be biased. They should focus on the problems of the public than sensationalizing the subjects. People want good news. They are fed- up with Page3 news. There are only a few channels and newspapers that still giving good attention to the real news. They are not corporates and also they are keeping moral values and ethics. Media should be transparent. Today some of our newspapers and channels are monopoly of some big fishes.
Nowadays majority of medias are crossing the limits and interfering people’s private life. Media should raise its voice against corruption, terrorism and unscrupulous politics. Media can change the present pathetic situation of our society. Media should act according to the pubic interest. In early days media influenced us in a positive way. Today we can see the impinging of media into personal life. People are expecting something different from media. They want to imbibe good things from the media. Media should keep their moral code. Otherwise the readers and the casters will lose their faith in the media.
This situation will change only through the aspiring journalists. These budding journalists try to cultivate the moral value of good journalism. What the public really need from the media? Media is as powerful as democracy. Without a powerful media, a nation cannot become developed. Media is for the people.
Monday 3 September 2007
Mt firstStory Idea.
Richy D Alexander
2nd September 2007
Story Idea
The power of politics; EWS (Economically Weaker Sections quarters) people are still suffering. New shopping complex will come on EWS.
The BMP (Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, now it is BBMP) constructed 1,512 flats (42 blocks in all with 32 flats in each block) on a 13- acre plot during 1987-1992 (for Rs. 2.23-crore HUDCO loan) for the economically weaker sections. But now it is a slum, due to the inefficiency of the BBMP and the Karnataka state government. Several times (over 300) flats collapsed owing to poor quality of construction. The recent time (July 2007) some buildings were collapsed 3 people killed. There are no basic facilities such as drinking water, road and drainage for the over 1500 families residing in the area. The monthly rent is Rs- 500-1000 depending upon the size of the house. I got the relevant information (with headlines and the date) from the following newspapers:
Part of EWS quarters at Ejipura collapses (Sunday, Oct 16, 2005) The Hindu.
BMP to raze EWS quarters at Ejipura (Friday, Jul 23, 2004) The Hindu.
Torsteel says 20 blocks in Ejipura unfit (19 Nov 2003) Times Of India.
EWS Quarters residents to get homes (16 June 2007) Times Of India.
BMP urged to reconstruct EWS quarters at Ejipura (Monday, Oct 30, 2006) The Hindu.
New shelter for 432 families (Monday, July 23, 2007) Deccan Herald.‘Construct more flats to relocate residents of EWS Quarters’ (Monday, Nov 27, 2006) The Hindu. I studied all these reports. When I spoke to the deprived people of EWS quarters I could understand that. The offers that given by the government and the BBMP were just words. That is the power of politics. Any time anybody (POLITICIANS) can give promises. I saw and understood the plight of the people. People who lost their homes are living in zinc sheds, it seems like a jail, no electricity, no toilets, no bathrooms. The wastes are accumulating here and there. The people cannot even breathe fresh air. I spoke the officials of the EWS. Their statements were absolutely contradictory. I saw the weeping of the people. This story is a heart-breaking one. I feel that this story can reveal the nexus between the politicians and the officials.
One thing is still remaining unanswered, who gave the permission to the Maverik Holdings and Investments Private Limited construct a business complex? In EWS quarters. The latest news is, they would acquire half of the plot to promote its business. The people protested against this. I saw the rowdies (goonads) in EWS. People complained to me that, these anti-social elements are the troops of Mr. X. Louis, president, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Youth Social Welfare Association. These gangsters always disturb the poor people. They tried to molest a lady in EWS quarters. She was weeping and she said her life is insecure here. The allocations of fund are still in absurd. There are some questions still remaining unanswered, why the demolition and reconstruction work is stopped, what is the role of Maverik Holdings and Investments Private Limited Company? What is the duty of Mr. X Louis and his ‘troops’ in EWS quarters?
I spoke with Mr. Faizel an youngster who lives in EWS (Faizel, Contact Number: 9980840631), Mrs. Vijay Lekshmi (9902981150), Mrs. Lissy, Mr. Akram, Mrs. Renu, she is a lecturer working in Oxford college, Bangalore (9980332240). These people are living in EWS quarters. I want to interview Mr. R.Ashok, the Health Minister of Karnataka state, Mrs. Thejaswani, MLA, Dr. S.Subramanya, Mayors, BBMP Commissioner, Mr.Nagaraj, BBMP Joint commissioner. The commissioner and joint commissioner did not give their interview. I tried to speak with the private secretary of the commissioner of BBMP. But he denied my questions and he skipped-off. The health minister and the other officials gave false promise to the EWS people. I want to hear all the clear statements from the above personalities about EWS quarters, why the reconstruction was stopped? I want know about the allocation of fund for the renovation of EWS.
I want to visualize this story after the interview with the politicians and the officials by arranging a public meeting of the people of EWS, Mr. X. Louis, other members of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Youth Social Welfare Association, MLA, Commissioner of BBMP, Joint Commissioner of BBMP, chief Engineers, in the presence of Media persons. (All the channels and the Press persons from Bangalore).
The above story is obviously an interesting one to the public, especially the local audience. Because they want to know what is happening their left and right. The locals gave the full support to me. This subject has a public interest. Development means it start from the grass root level, but what is happening here?
End of Matter
2nd September 2007
Story Idea
The power of politics; EWS (Economically Weaker Sections quarters) people are still suffering. New shopping complex will come on EWS.
The BMP (Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, now it is BBMP) constructed 1,512 flats (42 blocks in all with 32 flats in each block) on a 13- acre plot during 1987-1992 (for Rs. 2.23-crore HUDCO loan) for the economically weaker sections. But now it is a slum, due to the inefficiency of the BBMP and the Karnataka state government. Several times (over 300) flats collapsed owing to poor quality of construction. The recent time (July 2007) some buildings were collapsed 3 people killed. There are no basic facilities such as drinking water, road and drainage for the over 1500 families residing in the area. The monthly rent is Rs- 500-1000 depending upon the size of the house. I got the relevant information (with headlines and the date) from the following newspapers:
Part of EWS quarters at Ejipura collapses (Sunday, Oct 16, 2005) The Hindu.
BMP to raze EWS quarters at Ejipura (Friday, Jul 23, 2004) The Hindu.
Torsteel says 20 blocks in Ejipura unfit (19 Nov 2003) Times Of India.
EWS Quarters residents to get homes (16 June 2007) Times Of India.
BMP urged to reconstruct EWS quarters at Ejipura (Monday, Oct 30, 2006) The Hindu.
New shelter for 432 families (Monday, July 23, 2007) Deccan Herald.‘Construct more flats to relocate residents of EWS Quarters’ (Monday, Nov 27, 2006) The Hindu. I studied all these reports. When I spoke to the deprived people of EWS quarters I could understand that. The offers that given by the government and the BBMP were just words. That is the power of politics. Any time anybody (POLITICIANS) can give promises. I saw and understood the plight of the people. People who lost their homes are living in zinc sheds, it seems like a jail, no electricity, no toilets, no bathrooms. The wastes are accumulating here and there. The people cannot even breathe fresh air. I spoke the officials of the EWS. Their statements were absolutely contradictory. I saw the weeping of the people. This story is a heart-breaking one. I feel that this story can reveal the nexus between the politicians and the officials.
One thing is still remaining unanswered, who gave the permission to the Maverik Holdings and Investments Private Limited construct a business complex? In EWS quarters. The latest news is, they would acquire half of the plot to promote its business. The people protested against this. I saw the rowdies (goonads) in EWS. People complained to me that, these anti-social elements are the troops of Mr. X. Louis, president, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Youth Social Welfare Association. These gangsters always disturb the poor people. They tried to molest a lady in EWS quarters. She was weeping and she said her life is insecure here. The allocations of fund are still in absurd. There are some questions still remaining unanswered, why the demolition and reconstruction work is stopped, what is the role of Maverik Holdings and Investments Private Limited Company? What is the duty of Mr. X Louis and his ‘troops’ in EWS quarters?
I spoke with Mr. Faizel an youngster who lives in EWS (Faizel, Contact Number: 9980840631), Mrs. Vijay Lekshmi (9902981150), Mrs. Lissy, Mr. Akram, Mrs. Renu, she is a lecturer working in Oxford college, Bangalore (9980332240). These people are living in EWS quarters. I want to interview Mr. R.Ashok, the Health Minister of Karnataka state, Mrs. Thejaswani, MLA, Dr. S.Subramanya, Mayors, BBMP Commissioner, Mr.Nagaraj, BBMP Joint commissioner. The commissioner and joint commissioner did not give their interview. I tried to speak with the private secretary of the commissioner of BBMP. But he denied my questions and he skipped-off. The health minister and the other officials gave false promise to the EWS people. I want to hear all the clear statements from the above personalities about EWS quarters, why the reconstruction was stopped? I want know about the allocation of fund for the renovation of EWS.
I want to visualize this story after the interview with the politicians and the officials by arranging a public meeting of the people of EWS, Mr. X. Louis, other members of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Youth Social Welfare Association, MLA, Commissioner of BBMP, Joint Commissioner of BBMP, chief Engineers, in the presence of Media persons. (All the channels and the Press persons from Bangalore).
The above story is obviously an interesting one to the public, especially the local audience. Because they want to know what is happening their left and right. The locals gave the full support to me. This subject has a public interest. Development means it start from the grass root level, but what is happening here?
End of Matter
Wednesday 29 August 2007
Political leadership of India
Political leadership of India
How long will we suffer the inscrutable leadership? We celebrated our 60th Independence. But it is clear that still we are in the chains, we are not yet free. India is a democratic nation, are we satisfied with our political leadership? Today we have perilous political leadership. How can we say that India is a developing nation? We faced famine, recession, etc.. But now have the caliber to change our country a developed.
We need political and economic freedom. In some part of the country there still exist cast discrimination. In some states there exists small percentage of illiteracy. Our politicians have a lack of integrity. Corrupted, unscrupulous people are now India’s political leaders. Are they committed to the country? Obviously no. We all know this fact. So why are we keeping silence. It is the high time to react. Every Indians got a vivid idea about the super Indian politics.
It is high time to revamp our outdated politics and also by the mean time we need powerful politicians. Most of the contemporary politicians are corrupted. Such politicians are actually intimidating our country. India’s greatest curse is these types of mentally outdated and expired politicians. For the past many years India’s political leadership was too dormant. India’s politicians are not exact “politicians” they are “politricians”.
Indian politics are impinging our day-to-day life. We should realize that India is the land of powerful voices. Why did our freedom fighters sacrifice their life? We want a liberal politics. We need powerful hands. Politics is a part our integrity. Wake up and realize the truth. India is eagering for the powerful voices and hands.
Richy D Alexander
How long will we suffer the inscrutable leadership? We celebrated our 60th Independence. But it is clear that still we are in the chains, we are not yet free. India is a democratic nation, are we satisfied with our political leadership? Today we have perilous political leadership. How can we say that India is a developing nation? We faced famine, recession, etc.. But now have the caliber to change our country a developed.
We need political and economic freedom. In some part of the country there still exist cast discrimination. In some states there exists small percentage of illiteracy. Our politicians have a lack of integrity. Corrupted, unscrupulous people are now India’s political leaders. Are they committed to the country? Obviously no. We all know this fact. So why are we keeping silence. It is the high time to react. Every Indians got a vivid idea about the super Indian politics.
It is high time to revamp our outdated politics and also by the mean time we need powerful politicians. Most of the contemporary politicians are corrupted. Such politicians are actually intimidating our country. India’s greatest curse is these types of mentally outdated and expired politicians. For the past many years India’s political leadership was too dormant. India’s politicians are not exact “politicians” they are “politricians”.
Indian politics are impinging our day-to-day life. We should realize that India is the land of powerful voices. Why did our freedom fighters sacrifice their life? We want a liberal politics. We need powerful hands. Politics is a part our integrity. Wake up and realize the truth. India is eagering for the powerful voices and hands.
Richy D Alexander
Global Terrorism
Global Terrorism
The impact of globalization was very much. It entirely changed our life. We gained a lot of things. We got both the good and evil through the globalization. Now we realized what is global terrorism. As global terrorists are constantly hitting new targets, the risk of possible new threats is accordingly increasing. What the last attacks proved in reality is that the capability of terrorists access to subways, which are considered to be surrounded with protective measures. What are global terrorists trying to achieve and when are the countries struggling against global terrorists right or wrong in their attitude towards them? The real damage that all terrorist attacks cause is the trace of chilling fear that stays in people’s minds. This situation can be described as the second wave impact of terror on massive parts of public on a large scale. Terrorist organizations are not structures, which are strong with their own capabilities. The solidification of these groups depends on the wrong reactions to their deeds. Terrorist organizations act with the purpose of speeding up societal disintegration and decomposition and at this point, they have to follow a strategy that completely contradicts with that of state forces. Both, societies and states must do what they are required to do, search for their responsibilities, and look at the other side of the mirror after each bomb attacks. If there is a growing trend of global terror and the clash among different cultures and beliefs is increasing, the terrorists are responsible for this picture. The people of the part struggling against terror must not disintegrate and must develop collective measures. Struggle against terror requires sincerity. The first condition is to remove the double-standard among countries. To realize this, disregarding the boundaries, countries must act collectively. We must take into our minds that terrorism is a fact that can be manipulated despite its origins, actors and places. At this point, the thought that “your terrorist” or “my terrorist”, namely the concept of possessiveness, should be avoided and the issue should be looked at from the general framework. India has suffered for the past nearly two decades from terrorism in Punjab, in Jammu and Kashmir and in other parts of India. Countless innocent lives have been lost to the terrorist's bombs and guns. In January 2000, the United States and India announced the establishment of a Joint Working Group on Counter terrorism. We could see that how many terrorist attacks happened in India. Terrorism is a threaten to our nation. The past so many years we faced many terrorist attacks. The terror attack at IISC Bangalore in 2005, the parliament attack in 2001 and the recent Hydrabad bomb blast were greatly affected our country. The 9/11 and the London terror plot revealed that all countries in the target list of the global terrorists. We cannot predict the terrorist attack but we can prevent by the cooperation of all countries. We need a global unity.
Richy D Alexander
The impact of globalization was very much. It entirely changed our life. We gained a lot of things. We got both the good and evil through the globalization. Now we realized what is global terrorism. As global terrorists are constantly hitting new targets, the risk of possible new threats is accordingly increasing. What the last attacks proved in reality is that the capability of terrorists access to subways, which are considered to be surrounded with protective measures. What are global terrorists trying to achieve and when are the countries struggling against global terrorists right or wrong in their attitude towards them? The real damage that all terrorist attacks cause is the trace of chilling fear that stays in people’s minds. This situation can be described as the second wave impact of terror on massive parts of public on a large scale. Terrorist organizations are not structures, which are strong with their own capabilities. The solidification of these groups depends on the wrong reactions to their deeds. Terrorist organizations act with the purpose of speeding up societal disintegration and decomposition and at this point, they have to follow a strategy that completely contradicts with that of state forces. Both, societies and states must do what they are required to do, search for their responsibilities, and look at the other side of the mirror after each bomb attacks. If there is a growing trend of global terror and the clash among different cultures and beliefs is increasing, the terrorists are responsible for this picture. The people of the part struggling against terror must not disintegrate and must develop collective measures. Struggle against terror requires sincerity. The first condition is to remove the double-standard among countries. To realize this, disregarding the boundaries, countries must act collectively. We must take into our minds that terrorism is a fact that can be manipulated despite its origins, actors and places. At this point, the thought that “your terrorist” or “my terrorist”, namely the concept of possessiveness, should be avoided and the issue should be looked at from the general framework. India has suffered for the past nearly two decades from terrorism in Punjab, in Jammu and Kashmir and in other parts of India. Countless innocent lives have been lost to the terrorist's bombs and guns. In January 2000, the United States and India announced the establishment of a Joint Working Group on Counter terrorism. We could see that how many terrorist attacks happened in India. Terrorism is a threaten to our nation. The past so many years we faced many terrorist attacks. The terror attack at IISC Bangalore in 2005, the parliament attack in 2001 and the recent Hydrabad bomb blast were greatly affected our country. The 9/11 and the London terror plot revealed that all countries in the target list of the global terrorists. We cannot predict the terrorist attack but we can prevent by the cooperation of all countries. We need a global unity.
Richy D Alexander
Monday 27 August 2007
A decade after liberalization; Is India growing in the right direction.
A decade after liberalization; Is India growing in the right direction.
Liberalization is one of the most controversial issues that recently we hear. Its pathos and havocs are being popularly discussed. This was accepted by India before thirteen years. The aim was the quick and rapid development in all economic territories. The liberalization paved the way for huge private investment mainly in industrial and service sectors. When we analyze the increase in the private investment due to the liberalization, we have to evaluate its effects and defects also. We can see an increasing trend in the private investment in public sectors and service sectors. When India become a republic the public sectors and the private sectors were being safeguarded giving monopoly for the welfare of the general public. The government control was mainly for the welfare of the people. The prime motive of this sector was not profit maximization but service maximization.
The liberalization movement helped for decreasing the inflationary rate, created more employment opportunities, earned more foreign exchange and overall the financial system of the country became more stable. Due to the rapid industrialization, unemployment is curtailed. As more employment opportunities are created, the income earning capacity of the people increases. Hence, the status of the people also increased. The liberalization will help the allround development of the people of a country and the country become a developed nation. When we measure the development of a country based on the increase in the per capita income, the accurate temperature of the development may not be measured. Always the development should be in compromise with the physical development and the inner development.
Liberalization aims at the maximization of physical development. In the path of this development, more inequalities are created. The gulf between the haves and have not increases, even it will not affect the per capita income. Here a majority class is being depressed and suppressed by the haves. Else, the liberalization leads to capitalism and the result will be old evils of capitalism. The last ten decade, India is also in the way of capitalism, because a large number of private investors have doubled their working capital and the profit earning capacity. Once, the government controlled the share of the public sector undertaking. But now the gigantic private investors control the share market. As the control is in the hands of the private investors, they change the economic system according to their whims and fancies. As the profit maximization is the prime aim of the investors, they do not care the welfare of the public. In the last decade of liberalization, several employees were retrenched. The welfare of labour class is not protected. The investors need only the experts and efficients. But in the society of labourers there are efficient and inefficient based on the surroundings in which man live. So this differentiation has created an ethical problem and has created a society, which is full of fire, covered by ashes. The great result of liberalization (negatively) is the creation of these dissimilarities.
In India several socio-cultural organization has researched and pointed out the harms of liberalization. Moreover as I pointed out earlier, in liberalization the investors do not care in the development of the primary sectors of the economy. Once our country and our great leaders gave more importance to the agriculture sector. The development of India can expect only through the agricultural sector, because more than 70% of the people in our country live in the villages and they directly or indirectly depend on agriculture and traditional works. This is the backbone of our county and economy. But the investors neglected this sector and several farmers and traditional workers of different states had committed suicide, because their existence was dangerously hampered. This dissatisfaction is not the dissatisfaction of a minority class, but the discontent or dissatisfaction of a majority class. Now the government has agreed that there are defects in the liberalization policies. It is a good symptom of economic revitalization and again some control of the government in the private investors.
Hence, we should see that liberalization is a better means of development. But it is like a chariot without a charioteer, it is like a flood without proper water management. In short, I would like to say that always there should be a compromise with the effects and defects of liberalization and should be at the maximum welfare of the people, because the people in a country are its most valuable assets.
Richy. D. Alexander
Liberalization is one of the most controversial issues that recently we hear. Its pathos and havocs are being popularly discussed. This was accepted by India before thirteen years. The aim was the quick and rapid development in all economic territories. The liberalization paved the way for huge private investment mainly in industrial and service sectors. When we analyze the increase in the private investment due to the liberalization, we have to evaluate its effects and defects also. We can see an increasing trend in the private investment in public sectors and service sectors. When India become a republic the public sectors and the private sectors were being safeguarded giving monopoly for the welfare of the general public. The government control was mainly for the welfare of the people. The prime motive of this sector was not profit maximization but service maximization.
The liberalization movement helped for decreasing the inflationary rate, created more employment opportunities, earned more foreign exchange and overall the financial system of the country became more stable. Due to the rapid industrialization, unemployment is curtailed. As more employment opportunities are created, the income earning capacity of the people increases. Hence, the status of the people also increased. The liberalization will help the allround development of the people of a country and the country become a developed nation. When we measure the development of a country based on the increase in the per capita income, the accurate temperature of the development may not be measured. Always the development should be in compromise with the physical development and the inner development.
Liberalization aims at the maximization of physical development. In the path of this development, more inequalities are created. The gulf between the haves and have not increases, even it will not affect the per capita income. Here a majority class is being depressed and suppressed by the haves. Else, the liberalization leads to capitalism and the result will be old evils of capitalism. The last ten decade, India is also in the way of capitalism, because a large number of private investors have doubled their working capital and the profit earning capacity. Once, the government controlled the share of the public sector undertaking. But now the gigantic private investors control the share market. As the control is in the hands of the private investors, they change the economic system according to their whims and fancies. As the profit maximization is the prime aim of the investors, they do not care the welfare of the public. In the last decade of liberalization, several employees were retrenched. The welfare of labour class is not protected. The investors need only the experts and efficients. But in the society of labourers there are efficient and inefficient based on the surroundings in which man live. So this differentiation has created an ethical problem and has created a society, which is full of fire, covered by ashes. The great result of liberalization (negatively) is the creation of these dissimilarities.
In India several socio-cultural organization has researched and pointed out the harms of liberalization. Moreover as I pointed out earlier, in liberalization the investors do not care in the development of the primary sectors of the economy. Once our country and our great leaders gave more importance to the agriculture sector. The development of India can expect only through the agricultural sector, because more than 70% of the people in our country live in the villages and they directly or indirectly depend on agriculture and traditional works. This is the backbone of our county and economy. But the investors neglected this sector and several farmers and traditional workers of different states had committed suicide, because their existence was dangerously hampered. This dissatisfaction is not the dissatisfaction of a minority class, but the discontent or dissatisfaction of a majority class. Now the government has agreed that there are defects in the liberalization policies. It is a good symptom of economic revitalization and again some control of the government in the private investors.
Hence, we should see that liberalization is a better means of development. But it is like a chariot without a charioteer, it is like a flood without proper water management. In short, I would like to say that always there should be a compromise with the effects and defects of liberalization and should be at the maximum welfare of the people, because the people in a country are its most valuable assets.
Richy. D. Alexander
Thursday 23 August 2007
The life of Che Guevera
The Life of Che Guevara
Edited by Richy.D. Alexander
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas.
As a young man studying medicine, Guevara traveled rough throughout South 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 socio-economic 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.
While in Mexico in 1956, Guevara joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement, which seized power from the regime of the dictator General Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959. In the months after the success of the revolution, Guevara was assigned the role of "supreme prosecutor", overseeing the trials and executions of hundreds of suspected war criminals from the previous regime. 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 military operation supported by the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces. Guevara was summarily executed by the Bolivian Army in the town of La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967.
After his death, Guevara became an icon of socialist revolutionary movements and a key figure of modern pop culture worldwide. The Maryland Institute College of Art called Che Guevara’s picture "the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century."
Family heritage and early life
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Rosario, Argentina, the eldest of five children in a family of Spanish and Irish descent; both his father and mother were of Basque ancestry. One of Guevara's forebears, Patrick Lynch, was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1715. He left for Bilbao, Spain, and traveled from there to Argentina. Francisco Lynch (Guevara's great-grandfather) was born in 1817, and Ana Lynch (his grandmother) in 1868. Her son, Ernesto Guevara Lynch (Guevara's father) was born in 1900. Guevara Lynch married Celia de la Serna y Llosa in 1927 (one of her non-lineal ancestors was José de la Serna e Hinojosa, Spanish viceroy of Peru), and they had three sons and two daughters.
Birthplace of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Rosario. The building was erected by Enrique Ferrarese and designed by Arq. Bustillo.
Growing up in this leftist-leaning, Ernesto 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. 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" ("The Raging") and his mother's surname, "Serna" — for his aggressive style of play. Ernesto was nicknamed "Chancho" ("pig") by his schoolmates because he rarely bathed, something he was rather proud of.
Guevara on a burro at the age of 3
Guevara learned from his father and began participating in local tournaments by the age of 12.[9] During his adolescence, he became passionate about poetry, especially that of Pablo 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.
In 1948 Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. As 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 ("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, directed by Walter Salles.
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' culture was a theme that would prominently recur during his later revolutionary activities. Upon returning to Argentina, he expedited the completion of his medical studies, completing his education as a medic in order to resume his travels in Central and South America and received his diploma on 12 June 1953.
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 President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán headed the second fully democratic and modern government in the whole latin american region 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."
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, and who would die at Ojo del Toro bridge soon after the Granma landed in Cuba. 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 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. He maintained a distance from any political organization, even though his political thinking at that time manifested a clear sympathy towards communism. Despite Guevara’s financial woes, he rejected an offer to work as a state medic when it transpired that he would have to affiliate himself with the Communist Party of Guatemala. Political events in the country began to move quickly after May 15, 1954 when a shipment of Škoda 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 Czechoslovak weaponry was estimated to be 2000 tons by the CIA though only 2 tons by Jon Lee Anderson.
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. 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's column seized the initiative and, apparently with the assistance of US air support, started to gain ground. 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 offered 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.
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 dictatorship 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 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.
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. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, about half of the expeditionaries were killed or executed upon capture. Guevara wrote 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. 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, During the guerrilla campaign, Guevara was also feared for his ruthlessness, and was responsible for the execution of a number of men accused of being informers, deserters or spies. In March 1958, Guevara was tasked with directing a training camp for new volunteers high in the Sierra Maestra at Minas del Frío, one of a number of military schools set up by the 26th of July Movement. Though wishing to push the battlefront forward and frustrated by his more stationary role, Guevara spent the period developing contacts with sympathetic locals. He also conducted a brief relationship with eighteen-year-old Zoila Rodríguez, the daughter of a local guajiro.
As the war extended throughout eastern Cuba, Guevara and a new column of fighters were dispatched west for the final push towards Havana. In the final days of December 1958, he directed his "suicide squad" (which undertook the most dangerous tasks in the rebel army) in the attack on Santa Clara that turned out to be one of the decisive events of the revolution (although the 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). Batista, upon learning that his generals — especially General Cantillo, who had visited Castro at the inactive sugar mill, Central Oriente — were negotiating a separate peace with the rebel leader, fled to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959.
On February 7, 1959, the 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. On June 2, 1959, he married Aleida March, a Cuban-born member of the 26th of July movement with whom he had been living since late 1958.
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), 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 known by its Spanish acronym BRAC). José Vilasuso, an attorney who worked under Guevara at La Cabaña preparing indictments, said that these were lawless proceedings where "the facts were judged without any consideration to general juridical principles" and the findings were pre-determined by Guevara. It is estimated that between 156 and 550 people were executed on Guevara's extra-judicial orders during this time.
Later, Guevara became an official at the National Institute of Agrarian Reform, and President of the National Bank of Cuba. He signed all Cuban banknotes issued during his fourteen-month presidency with his nickname, "Che". Throughout his time in the Cuban government, Guevara refused his due salaries of office, insisting on drawing only his meager wages as army commandante in order to set a "revolutionary example".
During this time his fondness for chess was rekindled, and he attended and participated in most national and international tournaments held in Cuba. 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, also known as "El Argelino", and Enrique Jiménez Moya) took place on 14 June of that same year.
In 1960 Guevara provided first aid to victims when the freighter La Coubre, a French vessel carrying munitions from the port of Antwerp, exploded while it was being unloaded in Havana .
Courtesy: The Motor Cycle Diary
Edited by Richy.D. Alexander
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas.
As a young man studying medicine, Guevara traveled rough throughout South 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 socio-economic 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.
While in Mexico in 1956, Guevara joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement, which seized power from the regime of the dictator General Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959. In the months after the success of the revolution, Guevara was assigned the role of "supreme prosecutor", overseeing the trials and executions of hundreds of suspected war criminals from the previous regime. 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 military operation supported by the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces. Guevara was summarily executed by the Bolivian Army in the town of La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967.
After his death, Guevara became an icon of socialist revolutionary movements and a key figure of modern pop culture worldwide. The Maryland Institute College of Art called Che Guevara’s picture "the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century."
Family heritage and early life
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Rosario, Argentina, the eldest of five children in a family of Spanish and Irish descent; both his father and mother were of Basque ancestry. One of Guevara's forebears, Patrick Lynch, was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1715. He left for Bilbao, Spain, and traveled from there to Argentina. Francisco Lynch (Guevara's great-grandfather) was born in 1817, and Ana Lynch (his grandmother) in 1868. Her son, Ernesto Guevara Lynch (Guevara's father) was born in 1900. Guevara Lynch married Celia de la Serna y Llosa in 1927 (one of her non-lineal ancestors was José de la Serna e Hinojosa, Spanish viceroy of Peru), and they had three sons and two daughters.
Birthplace of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Rosario. The building was erected by Enrique Ferrarese and designed by Arq. Bustillo.
Growing up in this leftist-leaning, Ernesto 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. 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" ("The Raging") and his mother's surname, "Serna" — for his aggressive style of play. Ernesto was nicknamed "Chancho" ("pig") by his schoolmates because he rarely bathed, something he was rather proud of.
Guevara on a burro at the age of 3
Guevara learned from his father and began participating in local tournaments by the age of 12.[9] During his adolescence, he became passionate about poetry, especially that of Pablo 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.
In 1948 Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. As 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 ("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, directed by Walter Salles.
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' culture was a theme that would prominently recur during his later revolutionary activities. Upon returning to Argentina, he expedited the completion of his medical studies, completing his education as a medic in order to resume his travels in Central and South America and received his diploma on 12 June 1953.
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 President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán headed the second fully democratic and modern government in the whole latin american region 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."
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, and who would die at Ojo del Toro bridge soon after the Granma landed in Cuba. 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 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. He maintained a distance from any political organization, even though his political thinking at that time manifested a clear sympathy towards communism. Despite Guevara’s financial woes, he rejected an offer to work as a state medic when it transpired that he would have to affiliate himself with the Communist Party of Guatemala. Political events in the country began to move quickly after May 15, 1954 when a shipment of Škoda 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 Czechoslovak weaponry was estimated to be 2000 tons by the CIA though only 2 tons by Jon Lee Anderson.
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. 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's column seized the initiative and, apparently with the assistance of US air support, started to gain ground. 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 offered 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.
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 dictatorship 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 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.
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. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, about half of the expeditionaries were killed or executed upon capture. Guevara wrote 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. 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, During the guerrilla campaign, Guevara was also feared for his ruthlessness, and was responsible for the execution of a number of men accused of being informers, deserters or spies. In March 1958, Guevara was tasked with directing a training camp for new volunteers high in the Sierra Maestra at Minas del Frío, one of a number of military schools set up by the 26th of July Movement. Though wishing to push the battlefront forward and frustrated by his more stationary role, Guevara spent the period developing contacts with sympathetic locals. He also conducted a brief relationship with eighteen-year-old Zoila Rodríguez, the daughter of a local guajiro.
As the war extended throughout eastern Cuba, Guevara and a new column of fighters were dispatched west for the final push towards Havana. In the final days of December 1958, he directed his "suicide squad" (which undertook the most dangerous tasks in the rebel army) in the attack on Santa Clara that turned out to be one of the decisive events of the revolution (although the 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). Batista, upon learning that his generals — especially General Cantillo, who had visited Castro at the inactive sugar mill, Central Oriente — were negotiating a separate peace with the rebel leader, fled to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959.
On February 7, 1959, the 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. On June 2, 1959, he married Aleida March, a Cuban-born member of the 26th of July movement with whom he had been living since late 1958.
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), 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 known by its Spanish acronym BRAC). José Vilasuso, an attorney who worked under Guevara at La Cabaña preparing indictments, said that these were lawless proceedings where "the facts were judged without any consideration to general juridical principles" and the findings were pre-determined by Guevara. It is estimated that between 156 and 550 people were executed on Guevara's extra-judicial orders during this time.
Later, Guevara became an official at the National Institute of Agrarian Reform, and President of the National Bank of Cuba. He signed all Cuban banknotes issued during his fourteen-month presidency with his nickname, "Che". Throughout his time in the Cuban government, Guevara refused his due salaries of office, insisting on drawing only his meager wages as army commandante in order to set a "revolutionary example".
During this time his fondness for chess was rekindled, and he attended and participated in most national and international tournaments held in Cuba. 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, also known as "El Argelino", and Enrique Jiménez Moya) took place on 14 June of that same year.
In 1960 Guevara provided first aid to victims when the freighter La Coubre, a French vessel carrying munitions from the port of Antwerp, exploded while it was being unloaded in Havana .
Courtesy: The Motor Cycle Diary
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