Without getting into the complexities of war, may I bring to the fore Carl von Clausewitz’s famous observation - war is nothing more than a continuation of political intercourse with the mixing in of other means. The 1970s movie Cross of Iron used it erronously – War is a continuation of politics though other means.
No wonder. Today politics is largely economic. Governments stay or are ousted depending upon how they strengthen their economy.
Politics is heavily loaded on the economic front and the guardians of politics, governments, make no mistake about it, would leave no stone unturned. They would rather embrace one of the easiest tools – WAR. It not only improves the economy of the eventual winner but also distracts its citizens from other, perhaps more serious issues.
And what rules in an economy?
Toothpaste, mobile phones and soft drinks. And beauty creams.
The countries today are largely capitalists and the private players in the commodities and products market constitute the very backbone of any economy. So, wherever you see war, is it for the profits of these private players. If yes, nice puppeteering!
Beauty creams. Targetting the young female population to change their fate once and forever, to make it big in career, life and love, one must use all those jelly-like substances. No wonder, some have adverse consequences upon long term use and incompatibility. But the makers are not concerned. They are not concerned so long as your pockets are depleted to fill their own. Zero-sum game.
The lack of concern is alarming. Not a single seller has come up with any societal issues concerning their target population – women. Look at the Indian example. The sex ratio is sliding. Here are the figures:
Source: Level and Pattern of Consumer Expenditure, 2004-2005, NSSO, MOSPI, Government of India, December, 2006
Table 1R and Table 1U, pages A-1 though A-24
The data reflects the position through estimation between July 2004- June 2005
Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per 1000 males
A country as large as India with such a highly skewed sex ratio does not auger well for its people. We are all aware of the adverse effects of such a skewed sex ratio.
• Social unrest
• Dowry deaths
• Child marriage
• Bride selling
• Kidnapping
• Rape
• Polyandry
And of course as one of my friends said, “...there wont be as many gals to marry...”.
As you can see in the above table for figures between the period July 2004 and June 2005, more reds are in the urban side. Whereas one would have expected that with affluence and education, at least the urban populace would bring in balance; one can well see that knowledge, information, power, science are being abused in one of the gravest crimes against humanity. Pre-natal sex diagnosis is banned in India, and though laws are in place, it is being blatantly being ignored. What with corruption raging the corridors of the nursing homes and people’s minds.
The central and state governments must enforce laws against sex selective abortions, as well as the killing of newborn girls. Daughters should get the right to perform the last rites of their parents’ equivalent to that of sons. The government should amend the existing laws of inheritance. The daughter should be accepted as heir to ancestral property legally as well as socially. Campaigns to encourage people to view girl-children as socially and economically desirable need to be launched. Rather than one more advertisement campaign on glowing skin and hair care.
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