Showing posts with label Distributive Justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Distributive Justice. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Scared of #aliens ? They are there, right here on our planet!


By: Masood Rezvi[1]
No, you guessed it wrong!

I am not going to tell you about a personal experience of a UFO sighting. The aliens will not be coming from deep outer space to ruin us, but they will ruin the Earth and go. They are right here!
They are not humanoid in appearance; they are full-fledged humans, members of our own species, the Homo sapiens, fulfilling all scientific criteria for being classified as members of the human species having a set of fully functional 44 + XX or 44 + XY chromosomes, one of the ABO, Rh+ or Rh- blood groups and proteins fully identical to those that we have in our bodies. They will not come from outer space to rob us and plunder the earthlings for the benefit of the dwellers of the planet on which they were born. They were born on this very planet and are plundering it. In a century or so, if we have to believe many of the scientists, including none else but Stephen Hawking, their excesses would push the globe to the sixth mass extinction, which according to the scientists will not be anything less in severity than the previous five cataclysms that the planet faced, and the process for which has already set in - irreversibly -according to many of these scientists.

They are the 1% of the human population controlling 50% of world wealth.[2]

It is not that they are unaware of all these scientific warnings; they are fully aware, more aware than me or you; aware but not worried, not ready to mend heir ways. They are not worried because they have another plan in place. They plan to fly off to some other colony in space, while the remainder of the humanity will be left down on this planet to face the slow and painful extinction from the effects of a heated toxic atmosphere and aquifers, and depleted ozone layer and oxygen level in the air.
And let me tell you especially for the benefit of those who still doubt organic evolution and always put their favourite question to me “Tell me if humans and present-day chimpanzees evolved from something like chimps, why something else is not evolving from humans?”;  that according to the overwhelming majority of - rather all of - the mainstream biologists, there was a common ancestor species from which two lines of progeny diverged, one finally becoming humans and the other chimps; once again – the future prospective aliens think – two lines will diverge from present day humans, one leaving the Earth, which I prefer to call Homo machiavellius, because of their high score on the Mach scale[3], and the other that will be left down on Earth to rot, the Homo gaius (Gaia being mythological personification of mother Earth). These two species will be that ‘something else’ which will evolve from humans; provided of course, that the cataclysm does not overtake and destroy us all, much before this dream of some, and nightmare of others materialises, as prophesied by all the major religious scriptures! Those of you, who have studied life sciences even up to the twelfth standard with some seriousness, must be able to remember that for organic evolution to take place three conditions become necessary - genetic divergence, mating barrier and the selection pressure. I am not sure how much the personality trait Mach is influenced genetically,   but supposing that its expression is controlled to a significant degree by a set of genes in human genome, we can easily say that the prospective aliens the progenitors of the species Homo machiavellius and the majority of the remaining humans are genetically divergent as far as concentration of Mach genes is concerned in the two populations, and perhaps that is why the high Mach about 1% of world population, have been able to push through the surface of normal humanity a slim protuberance, almost as high as the rest, on top of  the economic pyramid forming its extremely thin but elongated top, controlling 50% of economic resources on the globe. Once they fly off to another planet as has been reportedly suggested by Stephen Hawking in an article Abandon Earth—Or Face Extinction on bigthink,[4] The requisite mating barrier between them and the poor Earthlings will stabilise giving them even higher concentration of Mach genes and other such traits which will help them prosper to some future time horizon, while the earthlings will, if at all they survive, slowly degrade to something more like a chimpanzee, than like the present-day middle-class humans.

When I first propounded this idea in my book Tightening Noose of Poverty[5] last year it was said that I did so at the expense of a blurred boundary between fiction and theory[6] but unfortunately at that time I was completely unaware that none else but Hawking did suggest the imminent cataclysm and that the only way for humans to survive it was to settle some independent colonies in the space. He is reported to have said that "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.”[7]

What he did not say was, who among the present day humans will be able to avail themselves of such a luxury of survival, and which others will be doomed. Of course, that is not an aspect which might interest a theoretical physicist but is of great concern to a socio-economist.  It has been reported that only 1% of the world population controls 50% of the wealth today, and the other 99% is having access to the remaining 50% only, and the gap has sharply increased in the recent past. If we plot the wealth as percent of total global wealth on the vertical axis of a graph and the percent world population having access to it the picture that emerges will be as under

Figure 1 50% of world wealth controlled by 1% of population

The same picture becomes even more striking if we see it in the form of the economic pyramid or wealth pyramid:

Figure 2 In the middle on the top of the pyramid encircled in red is the thin 1% population controlling 50% of the world wealth, other 99% form the base of the pyramid

A plain inspection of the picture is enough to tell that the portion encircled in red is an unhealthy outgrowth sucking-in life and nutrients from the area below it, and if this process is not halted it will result in the death of the entire system. It is not one pyramid. It rather looks like the pyramid of super-rich standing on the grave of humanity.

Now, reverting back to the thought of the ominous day when some humans move out of plant Earth to settle somewhere else, perhaps not much logic is required to prove that only those encircled in red will have the access to the technology to travel to any such safe destination(s) away from Earth, and will take along with them, most of the remaining assets on this planet. The remaining humans, not encircled in figure 2 with red, to which I and perhaps you too belong, will remain poorer and much more helpless than ever before in an extremely dangerous environment on Earth!
In my book Tightening Noose of Poverty,[8] I tried to explain this eventuality with the help of the following diagram.

Figure 3 Formation of Homo machiavellius and Homo gaius

If hundred years down the line, the nightmare comes true I will not be alive to witness it. You will also perhaps be dead before that, but the baby that you are expecting next year or her baby will be there. So, either ensure your ascent to the peak of the Machiavellians or try to correct the situation before it is too late.

The decision is yours but the time to decide is too short, much shorter than you might be thinking.


Friday, 27 May 2016

Proceedings of the National #Seminar on #Growth with #Justice at #Lucknow on April 10, #2016


The Compendium of the papers received for the Seminar is available at the following links in

Mr Masood Rezvi CMT, Ms Samina Javed Secretary and Hon'ble Mr Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza Patron Inviting the Guests for Lighting the Inaugural Lamp
A  national level seminar on Growth with Justice was organised on April 10, 2016, at Unity Degree College jointly by the Lucknow Educational And Development Trust (LEAD Trust) and Unity Degree College. Hon’ble Mr. Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza was the Chief Guest.  Besides him, reputed academicians  like Prof. R. S. Yadav (Former Pro VC, University of Lucknow, Lucknow), Prof. M.
Mr H. K. Mazhari Hon Trustee, Prof R. S. Yadav and Prof B. N. Singh Patron
Varma (Dean faculty of Education, University of Lucknow, Lucknow), Prof. Somesh Kumar Shukla (Head of the Department of Commerce, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, Prof. B. N. Singh (Former Professor and Head, Department of Plant Breeding, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Former Director Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack and Former Director Research, Birsa Agricultural University Ranchi), Prof. A.B. Siddiqui (Principal, Unity Degree College)  and Prof Pushpendra Mishra (Associate Professor Commerce, Dr. Shakuntala Mishra Rehabilitation University, Lucknow) etc  were present.

Mrs Sameena Imtiyaz, Prof Somesh K Shukla, Prof R. S. Yadav and Prof M Varma
Veteran practitioners of development schemes of the governments like Mr. H. K. Mazhari IAS (Former Commissioner and Secretary, Urban Development Government of Meghalaya) and Mr. S. M. A. Rizvi IAS (Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh) attended the seminar and deliberated in details on Urban Development.

Mr Humayun Rasheed ADJ
The judiciary was represented by Mr. Humayun Rasheed (Additional District Judge, District Kaushambi) and Mr. Murtaza Hasnain Khan Advocate (Max Law Firm). 

From the medical profession, Dr. M.M. Sarfaraz Ali Khan and from the pharmaceutical industry Mr. Syed Hussain Taj Rizvi (Regional Sales Manager, M/S Biorex Health Care Pvt. Ltd.) were present.
The state department for school level education was represented by Mr. Asghar Mehdi (Finance and Audit Officer, Department of Basic Education, Barabanki).




(Other videos are available at  LEAD Channel and the slides are available at LEAD slides




Prof R. S. Yadav and Prof Somesh Kumar Shukla
Senior bankers like Mr. S. Alim Rizvi, former Assistant General Manager, (Union Bank of India), Mr. Ajmal Husain (Chief Manager, Bank of India), Mr. M.V. Rangacharyulu (Senior Faculty Punjab National Bank Staff College, Panchkula, Haryana) and Mr. S. K. Singh (Director, PNB RSETI, Ramgarh, Jharkhand) participated.
Prof M Varma and Prof Somesh Kumar Shukla


The point of view of social organisations claiming to represent the oppressed classes and women was echoed by Mrs. Tahira Hasan (President, All India Progressive Women Association, Lucknow) Mrs. Rafat Fatima from Tahrik-e-Niswan (A feminist organisation) was also present  and the issue of higher education to Minority Communities was taken up by Mr. Mohammad Allam (PG Teacher Minto Circle, Aligarh Muslim University). Mr. Zamanat Ali, Local Secretary, Anjuman-e-Wazifa-e-Sadat-wa-Momineen, Aligarh (A very old philanthropic organisation busy in providing interest free education loan to needy students) was also present.


Mr M. V. Rangacharyulu and Mr. S. M. A. Rizvi IAS
(Mrs. K. M. Rizvi and Dr Dinar in the Background)
The progressive farming community was represented by Mr. Anil Mishra (Farmer, Village Sidhnath, Asiwan, Mianganj, Lucknow), who had volunteered to try along with some of his friends the biofortified wheat seeds under the HarvestPlus programme, provided by LEAD Trust and Centre for Research and Development, Gorakhpur.

Many other people presented their papers.  The papers submitted by the participants were published by the Lucknow Educational And Development Trust (LEAD Trust) in the form of a compendium entitled Growth with Justice (ISBN: 1519227078 ISBN-13: 978-1519227072) at Create Space Independent Publishing Platform USA and is available at Amazon globally.

The LEAD Patrons Prof B. N. Singh and Hon'ble Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza

Hon'ble Mr Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza and Mr H. K. Mazhari IAS (Retd)
Hon'ble Mr Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza, Mr H. K. Mazhari Mr Masood Rezvi and Prof A. B. Siddiqui


Mr H. K. Mazahari, and Mr. Masood Rezvi 

Mr H. K. Mazahari, Mr. Masood Rezvi and Prof Pushpendra Mishra

Ms Samina Javed and Ms Sumana Zafar


Mrs. M M Sarfaraz Ali Khan and Dr. M M Sarfaraz Ali Khan (Ms Maria and Dr Urusa in the Background)


Mr. M. F. Shah, Mr. Murtaza Hasnain Khan and Mrs. Tahira Hasan

Mr S M A Rizvi IAS and Mr S K Singh Director RSETI


Mr Rangacharyulu, Mr Rizvi IAS and Mr S. K. Singh
(Mrs K. M. Rizvi, Mr Hussain Taj and Mr Faheem)
Mrs Rafat, Mr Mehdi, Mr Allam and Mr Shailendra

Mr Zamanat, Mr S. Alim Rizvi and Mr Mishra

Mr Zamanat Ali and Mr S. Alim Rizvi

Dr Arif Hasnain Khan


Dr Sadaf Khan

Dr S M Ali Rizvi and Dr Dinar Fatima

Mr Masood Rezvi and Dr A. S. Yadav


Vote of thanks by Prof A. B, Siddiqui
The purpose of the seminar was not purely academic, and it was desired to yield some direction for
the future programs of the LEAD Trust to start playing its humble role as a facilitator of both growth and just distribution.

The papers presented by Mr. H. K. Mazhari entitled “Urbanisation a Key Facilitator to Economic Growth”, by Prof. B. N. Singh “India Versus Bharat: The Urban-Rural Divide” and of Mr. S.K. Singh “Guaranteed Success with RSETI” were especially helpful in throwing up some areas where a beginning can be made.
Mr Masood Rezvi, Mr. S. K. Singh, Mr Swadesh Deepak,
 Ms Samina Javed, Dr. A. S. Yadav Ms Asma Jawed etc


On the basis of above, in the review meeting, the following morning  chaired by Prof B. N. Singh at the State Guest House Lucknow and attended by Mr Mazhari, Mr Masood, Ms Samina and Ms Sumana the following roadmap of activities was suggested for the trust for the year 2016:


Mission statement
Description
Campaign Against Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs).
Extremely dangerous pesticides are being freely used in India. RTI/PIL to be preferred against this crime against humanity
Project Owners:

Clean India, a beginning to be made in and around the Unity Degree College/ Shahr Bano Begum Girls School, Sidhnath, Miagunj, Unnao
It is huge work but very important and relevant in view of the insanitation prevailing in rural and urban areas. We can initiate an awareness programme on the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of the liquid and solid waste;
As a first step, we should urge people to completely shun the practice of open-air defecation in the villages choosing two to three villages on a pilot basis.
Project Owners:
Ms Sumana Zafar


Legal Awareness Programme
Need of the day. Will be restricted to the laws which may be relevant to poor and depressed class who many times, are exploited by the law makers, the law enforcers and the defenders of the law
Project Owner:
Next Seminar/Workshop to be held on the role of bankers in the development of small business and artisans in the changing economic scenario.
This seminar will be much better organised with participants coming from bankers DIC and RSETI but also those who are seeking assistance and their experience they have in getting the necessary institutional support.
Project Owner:
A book/Books on zari / chikan workers
This topic came up during the meeting of Trustees the next morning, as a first step towards amelioration of the condition of the local urban poor. The idea was to bring out the problems that the zari chikan workers are facing in getting adequate means of livelihood to keep their chullah’s burning.
The work will be valuable if it suggests a road map for the rejuvenation of the original artisan’s (the workers') economic returns   apart from describing their status and associated problems of the industry.

Let us prepare a blueprint for welfare of the workers in the form of the proposed book.
Project Owners:
Ms. Sumana Zafar





The above roadmap is in addition to the book on "Inflation" which is being written by Mr. Masood Rezvi.



Wednesday, 18 May 2016

Text of the Inaugural Speech of Hon'ble Mr Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza* at the National Seminar on Growth with Justice on April 10, 2016


Growth and Justice are the two fundamental necessities of the human society. The impetus for growth is an insatiable instinct of the human race and perhaps the most fundamental drive which distinguishes it from all other known forms of life. The desire to grow has been the fuel for the engine which has brought us to this stage of developmental supremacy over all other living creatures From the primitive nomads not much different from chimpanzees, we have grown to a stage where we are capable of listening to the birth-cries of a black hole far, far away in the fathomless universe which took place million years ago.  

In this journey however, we have reached to a juncture, where we all must address a few fundamental questions. And the most basic of these questions will be - whether our growth can be called a healthy growth? A very common lay-man analogy will perhaps clarify the seriousness of the question. If we see a pot- bellied young child gaining weight very fast, but not growing the limbs and other organs proportionately, and who is in a habit of messing up and soiling his own living room, destroying the furniture and breaking the window panes, will we say that the child is healthy? No, never! Without any medical examination, even the most ordinary onlooker will tell that the poor child has become unhealthy physically and mentally.

Some recent reports disturbingly tell that the gains of the human race have now becoming comparable to the plight of that sick child.

There have been reports and claims, and of course which can be observed even by a common person, that the distribution of resources is becoming very heavily lopsided. It has been reported that 50% of the world resources are being owned and controlled by only 1% of the population while the other 99% of the population is making itself content with the remaining 50% of the resources only. There are also reports that, not an ordinary doomsayer or a clergy, but a scientist of the stature of Prof. Stephen Hawking has prophesied that the planet earth is going to be destroyed within a couple of centuries! Brother Masood Rezvi has dwelt upon the subject passionately in his recent book “ Tightening Noose of Poverty ” published by the LEAD Trust.

The situation clearly calls upon for an immediate attention on distributive justice. The law-framers, the judiciary, the academia, the technocrats, the urban planners and developers, the rural experts,  the media, the bureaucracy, and of all, we the people; must seriously work towards a reliable standard of Growth with Justice. Distributive justice has to be ensured on legal front, economic front, sociological front, educational front and technological front etc, for a long term survival, development and well-being of the human species.

This seminar is a joint effort by the LEAD Trust, Unity Degree College and Justice Murtaza Husain Educational Welfare Trust in this regard. I congratulate the organizers, the Trustees, the Principal and faculty members of Unity Degree College for collecting an impressive galaxy of experts, thinkers, academicians and practitioners  in different relevant fields to brainstorm on the subject and wish that this effort will not end with this seminar but will continue for the times to come. I am sure this humble effort will go as a mile-stone in the annals of the history of growth with justice.