Go hi-tech or go bust
Lan Xinzhen

To Li Zhonghai, a manager of a wholesale market for agricultural products in a southern Beijing suburb, the biggest industry change in recent years is price. “Most of the agricultural products’ prices have dropped,” said Li, who is a seven-year industry veteran.
After entering into the World Trade Organization (WTO), more and more foreign agricultural products have been exerting enormous influence on China, now only formerly a big agricultural power. Ten years ago, China was the largest soybean producer. However, confronted with low-priced imported soybeans, many farmers cut the planting area of soybeans, making China only the fourth largest soybean producer in the world.
But what really is the future for Chinese agriculture? Will Chinese agriculture, which has endured for several thousand years, gradually be devoured by imported products?
Tariff too low
Tang Renwu, a professor with the School of Management of Beijing Normal University, believes that the constant falling price of agricultural products is due to the opening up of the agricultural product market.
From December 11, 2001, China adopted a tariff quota to agricultural products. A tariff quota refers to a certain quota on imports, above which a higher tariff is applied. The lower tariff rate applies to imports within the tariff quota.
From the December date, China was obliged to import 9.4 million tons of wheat, 5.3 million tons of rice, 7.2 million tons of corn, 894,000 tons of cotton and 3.3 million tons of soybeans every year with a 1 percent tariff (all part of the new tariff quota). This amounts to much lower tariffs on imports, and leads to a price fall of domestic grain products as well as vegetables.
Professor Tang Renwu pointed out that in 2002, the second year after China’s entry into WTO, the vegetable price hit a record low and dropped 36 percent compared to the prices in the previous six years. In 2002, the wheat price was only about 0.9 yuan per kg. Pushed by the government, the price of major agricultural products climbed in 2004, but declined afterwards.
As for city dwellers, the price decline is without doubt good news, as they can buy foods at a cheaper price. However, for farmers whose income is much lower than that of the city dwellers, this adds fuel to their frustration.
“China’s accession to the WTO, directly or indirectly, has lead to the price decline of agricultural products, which takes a toll on farmers’ income,” said Tang.
Tang pointed out that another disadvantage brought about by China’s accession to the WTO is that many farmers have lost their jobs. China has a vast population but with limited land, leading to small-scale farming. Farmers are confined to their land. They labor on their farms in busy seasons and do other small businesses in town in the off seasons. Meanwhile, they do sideline businesses like breeding. After China’s accession to the WTO, hit by imported products that are highly subsidized by developed countries, the price of sideline products also dropped, forcing farmers to give up the side businesses. Therefore, many farmers have virtually nothing to do in a less demanding season.
But some other experts still believe that accession to the WTO also has a good impact on Chinese agriculture. Lu Liangshu, an academician from Chinese Academy of Engineering, stated that in the long run, the accession is good for farmers, although in the short term, the negative impact is more profound.
Lu suggested that because of accession, advanced agriculture technology and management experience will improve the level of the Chinese agriculture industry.
“It is an advantage brought about by WTO,” said Lu.
Ma Xiaohe, a researcher with the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that enhancing agricultural cooperation in the agriculture field will bring in capital and technology, thus help change the traditional agricultural production pattern.
Ma pointed out that the majority of Chinese agricultural products are produced in large quantities, but their quality is much lower than that of developed countries. Therefore, they are not competitive in the international market. After China’s entry to the WTO, the international cooperation and the inflow of foreign agricultural products will force domestic farmers to adopt new technology and strive to improve product quality so as to boost competitiveness.
Think concrete jungle
The Chinese Government has done a lot to ease the negative impact on agriculture brought about by WTO accession. For instance, the government purchases the surplus grains from farmers at a protective price, speeds up the countryside infrastructure construction and has abolished the agriculture tax since this year. Although those efforts have provided limited help on improving the competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products, they have, after all, relieved the pressure on farmers and guaranteed the grain output.
Above all, people are more concerned about the future development of Chinese agriculture. “Chinese agriculture must be modernized,” said Professor Tang Renwu.
Nearly everyone recognizes the importance of agriculture modernization, which has in effect become a slogan in the past several decades. The current situation is that most of the arable land is cut into small pieces and distributed to each farm household and large-scale mechanized farming is still something beyond Chinese farmers’ reach.
Tang believes that narrowing the urban-rural gap is a better way. The agricultural population in most developed countries has fallen below 10 percent of the total population. The UK’s agricultural population was 2.6 percent in 2005. It was also 3.9 percent in the United States, and 6.7 percent in Canada. In addition, in those countries, farms have been changed into enterprises and the differences between agricultural enterprises and other companies have been virtually eliminated.
Hence, the first thing to be resolved is the agricultural population, which makes up 70 percent of the overall Chinese population. It is imperative to industrialize and urbanize the rural area, Tang said.
According to statistics from Ministry of Construction, the urbanization level has increased to 41.8 percent in 2005 from 17.9 percent in 1978. The urban population also increased to 540 million from a mere 170 million in 1978, which means that many farmers became city dwellers.
In spite of the huge progress, the Chinese agriculture population is still enormous and the agricultural production pattern and structure need upgrading.
China has launched a “new countryside” campaign, which is believed to be an effective method for solving problems relating to agriculture. The government wants to speed up the effort to transform the urban and rural structures and bridge the gap between the two.
But it won’t be easy for Chinese agriculture to be modernized overnight, as there are many conflicts and problems to be resolved.
“If the current slash on domestic agricultural products can really stimulate our agricultural modernization, it is after all worthwhile,” Li said.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review  Articles Exchange Item)


The missing Muslims of India
Momin Iftikhar

Six decades have passed since the Indian politicians, including titans like Gandhi and Nehru, have been extolling secular credentials as the bedrock of Indian democracy which provided level playing fields to all minorities. The Quaid had challenged this enticing chimera by claiming that Muslims in an undivided India would always be at the mercy of the Hindu majority unless constitutional guarantees were provided to secure the community’s political and economic interests. He set the course for the struggle’ for Pakistan by enunciating his Two Nations Theory after exhausting all options of reconciliation with the Hindu leadership and trying out all options and avenues for a political settlement. How farsighted and true was he in his analysis of the complex situation is brought out by the statistics gleaned by the Sachar Committee, whose leaked out details have begun to rake trouble by reflecting the grinding misery and squalor in which the Muslims in India are finding themselves.
Sachar Committee, headed by Justice (Retired) Rajinder Sachar, owes its existence to the electoral promise of the incumbent UPA Government and has been mandated by the Indian Prime Minister to carry out a national survey of the social, educational and economic status of Muslims in India. Committee’s report is based on facts collected from eight States; namely Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka,Kerala, Andhara Pradesh and Delhi. The Muslim population in these St<=:1tes comprise 56% of the around 14 million Muslim population of India. The Report was due to be published in June this year but leaking out of some of its findings caused such a furor that compelled the Indian Government to stall its formal presentation on one pretext or the other. It is now scheduled to be released. during the current month. Leaked o!Jt findings of the Sachar Report make appalling statement concerning the pathetic state of Muslims living in India. If education forms the basic block of social advancement of a community then Muslim community stands out starkly as the lowliest of the low - even behind the scheduled castes (SC) and Scheduled tribes (ST) of India. As many as 54.6% Muslims in rural India and 60% in urban areas have never attended any school and are illiterate. Only 0.8% of Muslims in rural areas are graduates while this figure is 3.1 % in urban areas. Only 1.2% Muslims are post graduates. Officialdom in India and the political hierarchy across the spectrum of ideological divides is likely to shrug off such harrowing backwardness to Muslim propensity for Madrassah education and lack of motivation and cerebral vigor. However the inadequate or rather abysmal state of educational facilities provided by the Government in the Muslim majority areas in various towns and cities tells a totally different story. The Sachar Committee has Cited the case of a suburb of Jaipur where, for about 1.2 lac Muslims, there is only one primary school with “improper building” and insufficient number of teachers. This state of neglect and marginalization is an apt reflection of trickle down effect that is reaching the Muslims Community in a supposed “India Shining”.
Discrimination in the education sector, as brought out by the Sachar Report, is only matched by the scanty share of Muslim population in Government jobs and Public Sector Units (PSU) vis-a-vis their population percentages (12 % at national level). As a sample of the obtaining state of affairs it is instructive to browse through the share of Muslims, in the jobs pie, in States having the greatest share of Muslim population. Assam (30.9% Muslim population - highest in any Indian State), West Bengal (25.2% - second in Muslim density) and Uttar Pradesh (18.5 - 4th in Muslim preponderance) have only 11.2%, 4.2% and 5.1 % share of Muslims in the State sponsored jobs. It should be instructive to note here that the low percentages of jobs tell only partial story of Muslim deprivation and backwardness. This is so because bulk of the jobs held by the Muslim community belong to the lowest strata of the organizational ladder. The highest percentage of
Muslims in “higher positions” in State PSU is in Kerala (9.50/0) - the most forward looking and liberal of the Indian States - while the lowest is West Bengal which has zero representation of Muslims in the higher echelons of the management.
Sachar findings that there is no state where - representation of Muslims matches their population share illuminates another dimension of the Indian politics and the Muslim marginalization. A stark picture emerges where no political party seems to concern itself with the’ decrepit state of Muslim affairs. While the BJP led Government can’t really be blamed for ignoring the welfare of the Muslim community due to its communal leanings, it is the idealistic political segment viz the Leftist Parties and the Congress - patron
saint of secular elements of political dispensation in India - that appear to be doing the maximum damage to the Muslim interest. Or how else one explains the .sorry state of affairs in West Bengal where Left Front Governments have held un interrupted sway for three decades and where second largest preponderance of Muslims (25.2%) is contrasted against one of the lowest share (4.2%) in the Government employment? This also holds true for UP and Bihar where for the past 15 years Governments have been led by political leaders which claim themselves to be the champions of the Muslim interest. The statistics however poignantly serve to lay bare the major culprit for Muslim deprivation that has always pretended to remain in forefront in claims to champion their cause - the Congress Party, which has remained in power during three fourth of the period since partition with scant regard to their welfare and advancement on the social ladder.
If one gets overwhelmed with the depressing statistics reflecting poorly upon the condition of Muslims in India, at least one set of figures provide comic relief - depending upon one’s propensity to indulge in dark humor. Against their share of 120/0 population, prisons happen to be the only place where Muslims are over represented. While Sachar Commission has: made public no figures regarding West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhara Pradesh, those indicated by remaining states are symptomatic of the disgusting state of the prevailing affairs. In Maharashtra, jails hold a chunk of 32.4% of inmate population who are Muslim against a population share of 10.6%; while in Gujarat, percentage of Muslim inmates is 26.2 against a population segment of 9.1. %.
Muslim community constitutes bottom of the heap in India and the reality is lost upon no one. The Sachar Committee is not by any means the first attempt by an Indian Government to gauge the depth and extent of Muslim marginalization in India. A similar Commission; headed by Dr. Gopal Singh was set up in India in 1980, when Indira Gandhi was in power, and which came up with very identical findings. The fact that there has been no action by any following Indian Government to initiate measures to arrest the downward slide of Muslim community stands out to outline the institutionalized apathy that marks the Muslim affairs in India.


The one who has never done it should cast first stone
Col (R) M. Zaman Malik

There has never been so much global turmoil, disarray and lack of global purpose as there is today. We are inexorably moving towards disaster and upheaval that the New World Order of the WTO’s materialism emerging in the wake of global village will never be able to end before its own end. The die has definitely been cast. There is no recipe. We can not go back. Move forward is irrevocable. I am putting it bluntly, because, rightly or wrongly, I believe 100 % in what I say. Nemesis is on toes to overtake us. Can the interfaith declaration “Towards a Global Ethic,” (Like that of 1993 Parliament of the world religions in Chicago), be of some help? One can try it hoping for the best, soon enough. But if the hearts remain devoid of self-lessness, it can only accelerate our doom. On top of that pre-emptive – the order of the day; do not recognize such like mechanisms now.
Religious strife, throughout history has been the cause of unbearable wars and conflicts – a major blight, increasingly abhorrent to the people of all faiths. But the political parties that provided it with increased impetus, from West to East, are responsible for their eloquently visible practices, in using religion for their own political and nothing but political ends. Without going to war themselves the so-called Islamic leadership quotes the examples of the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH), as though thereby they were absolved of going to war themselves, by the Holy Prophet. If they quote the name of any ‘fabrication’ that absolved them of going to war, they must be charged under relevant crime and dealt with accordingly by the superior Courts of the Country, unless they quote one single example where they fought a single battle along with either ‘Mujahids’ or Pakistan Armed Forces. God knows how far do they feel just and fair about themselves, when they cheat the people in the name of religion and constitution whenever it suits them? Was Gen Zia-ul-Haq, not in uniform as well as the COAS besides being their choicest Ameer-ul-Momineen? Didn’t he commit the offence of ‘High Treason’ as far as the constitution is concerned? At least, Gen Musharraf was given confidence vote by the majority including the MMA! Can you provide the needed leadership in the currently fast developing scenario that if not handled with care can lead us to a most dreadful end? This is probably, the only reason why the people want Gen Musharraf stay as the Head of the state also. Otherwise, the corruption that is prevalent does not entitle him to stay even for a short period. The sounds of corruption are heard loud and clear, from the houses of the teeming millions. What if you are yourself only the honest fellow/your Prime Minister is also like you an honest man that we needed so badly; while the most corrupt civil bureaucracy and advisors are let loose at usurping the people’s life blood; your honesty means nothing!
Every thing comes to an abysmal end when materialism and religion join hands! Our American allies with their Fundamentalist administration ask only North Korea and the Muslim states on earth, not to resort to having nuclear potential, so much needed by them for their own survival. It does not lie in US mouth which has caused unparallel destruction in the world constantly, since 1945. The era that emerged in the West, particularly, after 1970s, is based on class basis and not on religious basis. Rich are one class all over the world and poor are another in the same way. Religion is everywhere only in name. This is superfluous and transitory phenomenon because after this no one will think of religion in this world having been governed by the psyche and temptation of pure materialism.
“Whenever there is a decay of righteousness; O Bharta, and there is exaltation of unrighteousness, then, I myself come forth, for the protection of the good, for the sake of firmly establishing righteousness; I am born from age to age.” Buddha believes in the Law of ‘cause and effect’. He appears when the causes and conditions are propitious and after that is reconciled, he disappears. From Buddhism we move to Jainism which is known by the people of the Subcontinent. Now let us consider Judaism, Christianity and Islam, for it is these religions which are most directly concerned one way or the other involving them in the ongoing process of self destruction across the globe.
The prophet Moses, after delivering God’s Laws to the people of Israel, made this concluding charge to them, clearly predicting the dispersion of the Jews: “Keep all the Commandments that I lay upon you this day... if you do not obey the Lord, your God, then all maledictions shall come to you...” You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to occupy - The land of Palestinians who came from Canaan. The Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other.
....Among those nations, you will find no peace, no rest for the sole of your foot. ... these are the words of the Covenant which the Lord Commanded Moses to make with Israelites in Moah...” (Deuteronomy 27:1; 28:1, 2, 15, 63-65; 29:1) -AS surely as the prophet Mose’s thus prediction, he forecast the return of Jews: - Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:
“When these things have befallen you in all the countries to which the Lord your God has banished you, if you turn back to Him and obey Him heart and soul, then the Lord your God will gather you once again from all countries to which he scattered you first, and from there he will fetch you home and bring you into the land your forefathers occupied, and you will occupy it again. Then he will bring you prosperity and make you more numerous than your forefathers were. Today, I offer you the choice of life and good, or death and Evil...but if your heart turns away and you do not listen, I tell you this day that you will perish...” (Deuteronomy 29:2; 30:1-5, 17-18).
The dispersal of Jews and their subsequent return to Palestine (marks the period before the Global Upheaval manifests the Divine retribution), and these are both predicted accordingly in the Holy Quran: “The Moses said... We broke them and dispersed them as separate peoples in the earth because they were rebellious against the laws We gave them, and We imposed upon them those who inflicted upon them grievous torment... (7:165, 168).” We said unto the children of Israel: “When the Promise of (the last days and) the hereafter cometh to pass, We shall bring you back as a crowd gathered out of various nations.” (17:104). With regard to after the Axial Shift, which is identical with (34:4) and also with (65:8). “The Day when We shall roll up the heaven as a recorder rolled up a written scroll; as We began the first Creation, We shall repeat it. It is a promise binding upon us. Lo! We are to perform it.” Say, O Muhammad: “I have warned you all alike, although I know not whether nigh or far that which ye are promised is.” (21:104). I invite the attention of the reader to 55:37; 18:47; 56:1-6; 67:16-18; 67:30, 69:13-18; 73: 13-14, 17; 75:7-12; 81:1-3-6-11-14-26-28; 82:1-9; 84:1-6’ 22-25; 99: 1-5 and 101:1-11.
please read, 5:110-116-117) “Jesus, son of Mary said: O children of Israel! Lo! I am the Messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was revealed before me in the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who comes after me, whose name is, praised One. Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!” Such was Jesus, son of Mary: this is a statement of truth, concerning which they doubt” (61: 6-19:33-34). The reader may read the Portents of the last hour. He may read: (25:30 and 3:42, 45-46, 48-49,51and 19; 29-32). And of course he can not afford to miss: This day I have perfected your life-transaction for you, and completed my favour to you, and have chosen for you as life transaction. Al-ISLAM” (5:3).
It can never be The USA, the servant of the same people whose account has been given at length above. The world would never embrace the ignominy that stands to repeat itself, if it also suffers from repeating what the Jews had done. Yes, the ‘one who has never done it may try to cast the first stone!
Can America who needs to cast the first stone itself (Disarmament); stop others from attaining Atomic power for them? It was high time that it did so!
Nuclear Holocaust: Quran describes as a lethal cloud which comprises a deadly radiant smoke: “Then watch for the day when sky will bring forth a manifest smoke,
That will cast a shadow upon people. This will be a painful suffering. (44:10-11).
The nature of this cloud is further qualified by the following verses:
‘Now move towards what you have been denying,
‘Now on towards a three – pronged shadow,
‘Neither affording shade, nor protecting from the blaze;
It throws up flames like huge castles,
As though the castles were dusky yellow camels. (77: 29 -33)
The Jews, it seems, have been the main problem and the main concern of God Almighty. And now what we see day in and day out, daily, the Holocaust seems inescapable and hence.....?