Citydwellers or Citizens?

Urbanisation has been a subject of constant interest to me. Now since half of the world will be urban by 2025 - as par an UN report, Urbanisation and urban centres escalate on the agenda of policymakers and on to the public conscious. I live in Pune, a city which is on verge of becoming the new IT destination of India. With a network of quality educational institutes, large student population, good traditions, and nearness to Mumbai, Pune is expanding at an explosive rate (the best indicator of a city's growth is the property rates - in Pune, the rates have quadrupled in a short span of 3 years!). But, on the other hand, the infrastructure issues in Pune are rising at an unbelievable rate. Traffic, housing & pollution are the case in point. I won't say as to what is ailing Pune...it's the burgeoning population, an easy guess. Rather, I would say 'what can change this situation?'. The answer for me is the citizens. However, in city, you 'dwell' not 'live'. My thoughts are echoed in this well-thought article in Live Mint. The writer is Ramesh Ramnathan.

However, while these debates about infrastructure, public transport, water and sanitation, affordable housing, environment and urban planning are critical, they miss one key ingredient: the identity of the urban citizen.Our urban centres do not have an essential rooting, an organic connection between the urban citizen and the city she lives in.Examples abound: There is no mechanism to stop the illegal violation of the neighbourhood park, no system to prevent the neighbour’s residence from being converted into a hospital that could soon dump toxic waste in the storm drains, no opportunity to participate in decisions on local development, no grass-roots answer to manage the voter roll errors which are upwards of 50%, no space to even vent one’s frustrations.While the urban resident can see herself as a producer of urban goods and services, or as a consumer of urban comforts, she cannot so easily see herself as a citizen.These gaps exist for everyone, even for those working in government. Be it a Supreme Court judge, a cabinet secretary or an employee of the railways, they know all about the empty edifice of citizenry and often come to terms with their civic emasculation by leveraging their positions and titles. Even for the elite, this same sense of disconnection prevails: the industrialists, the writers, the media, the film-makers, the intellectuals, and even the activists. None of us can individually survive in the city without the coping mechanisms that our particular position offers us—our networks, our identities. Strip away these identities, and the hollow shell of citizenry provides cold comfort. Imagine if this is true for the “empowered” urban Indian, what it could be doing to the 35% and more of the urban dwellers who are the urban poor. They are twice forsaken, once because of their state, and once by the state.

A second-class citizen - livemint

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India's economy | What's holding India back? | Economist.com

But over the past 15 years it has been transformed into a far more powerful beast. Its companies have become worldbeaters. Without India's strength, the world economy would have had far less to boast about.Click here to find out more!Sadly, this achievement is more fragile than it looks. Many things restrain India's economy, from a government that depends on Communist support to the caste system, power cuts and rigid labour laws. But an enduring constraint is even more awkward: a state that makes a big claim on a poor country's resources but then uses them badly.

India's economy | What's holding India back? | Economist.com

Last surviving U.S. World War I veteran - CNN.com

Soon, he was deployed to war and headed overseas on the Carpathia -- the same ship used in the rescue mission of the Titanic.art.buckles.cnn.jpgWorld War I veteran Frank Buckles entered the Army at age 15. "I didn't lie," he said with a laugh this week.Click to view previous image1 of 4Click to view next imageHe drove ambulances in Britain and France for soldiers wounded during World War I.A few decades later, Buckles was in the Philippines as a civilian, on December 7, 1941, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He was taken as a prisoner of war for 39 months in Manila, eating his meals out of a single tin cup.More than 60 years later, he still clings to that cup, the one that sustained his life. Weathered with age, the cup has flecks of white paint chipped off. He keeps it as a reminder of his sacrifice for the country he so loves. He also still has his dog tags.At age 107, there's not much the war veteran, POW and West Virginia farmer hasn't seen. But this week, this quietly accomplished man was humbled.Buckles, the last known surviving World War I U.S. veteran, met the president of the United States and received a standing ovation at the Pentagon.

Last surviving U.S. World War I vet honored by president - CNN.com

Commision for Excellence - Students are Human Resources Too...

Declining standards of education have always been a cause of worry for educators and parents world over. In countries like India, the classrooms crammed with children and non-performing teachers is a regular feature (apart from teacher absenteeism in rural and remote areas). 'How to make the teachers perform?' is the question of the millennium for policy-makers. One simple to imagine way-out can be incentivising the teachers for good performance. If the passed students' percentage is above mark, then the teacher becomes eligible for bonus. In USA, the educators are playing with a new idea - kind of idea which seems simple enough only after you hear it. Why not incentivise the performing students? This is actually a natural corollary of bonuses for teachers. If my students are performing well and if it is due to them that I am getting bonus (after all even after a dedicated teacher, a spoilt child can spoil the spoils!), why not passing on the benefits? The issues involved will come to fore only as time passes, but...read on this NYTimes piece about an innovation -

If students show marked improvement on state tests during the school year, each teacher at Public School 188 could receive a bonus of as much as $3,000.School districts nationwide have seized on the idea that a key to improving schools is to pay for performance, whether through bonuses for teachers and principals, or rewards like cash prizes for students. New York City, with the largest public school system in the country, is in the forefront of this movement, with more than 200 schools experimenting with one incentive or another. In more than a dozen schools, students, teachers and principals are all eligible for extra money, based on students’ performance on standardized tests.

Each of these schools has become a test to measure whether, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg posits, tangible cash rewards can turn a school around. Can money make academic success cool for students disdainful of achievement? Will teachers pressure one another to do better to get a schoolwide bonus?

So far, the city has handed out more than $500,000 to 5,237 students in 58 schools as rewards for taking several of the 10 standardized tests on the schedule for this school year. The schools, which had to choose to participate in the program, are all over the city.“I’m not saying I know this is going to fix everything,” said Roland G. Fryer, the Harvard economist who designed the student incentive program, “but I am saying it’s worth trying. What we need to try to do is start that spark.”Nationally, school districts have experimented with a range of approaches. Some are giving students gift certificates, McDonald’s meals and class pizza parties. Baltimore is planning to pay struggling students who raise their state test scores.

Critics of these efforts say that children should be inspired to learn for knowledge’s sake, not to earn money, and question whether prizes will ultimately lift achievement. Anticipating this kind of argument, New York City was careful to start the student experiment with private donations, not taxpayer money, avoiding some of the controversy that has followed the Baltimore program, which uses public money.

Next Question: Can Students Be Paid to Excel? - New York Times

Zen Habits interview with Stephen Covey

Zen Habits is one blog which churns out most useful content day after day. Mainly focussed on welbeing and productivity, this blogs is one of the best and most useful resources on this subject for a common man. Recently, Zen Habits interviewed Stephen Covey, the famous writer of '7 Habits of Highly Effective People'. Here is one answer which I liked very much (especially, the quote - "The greatest battles of life are fought out every day in the silent chambers of one’s own soul."). Read on -

ZH: To give us some insight into your life, what is your typical morning routine on a work day, that incorporates some of your principles into your everyday life?Covey: I make an effort every morning to win what I call the “private victory.” I work out on a stationary bike while I am studying the scriptures for at least 30 minutes. Then I swim in a home pool vigorously for 15 minutes, then I do yoga in a shallow part of the pool for 15 minutes. Then I go into my library and pray with a listening spirit, listening primarily to my conscience while I visualize the rest of my entire day, including important professional activities and key relationships with my loved ones, working associates and clients. I see myself living by correct principles and accomplishing worthy purposes. One of my favorite quotes is, “The greatest battles of life are fought out every day in the silent chambers of one’s own soul.” (David O. McKay) Much of this listening and visualizing work is very challenging, so I win the private victory when I have made my mind up and commit to live by correct principles and to serve worthy purposes.

Zen Habits

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