Posts Tagged ‘world’
The Capitalization of Che Guevara
May 13th, 2013, posted in ChARACtERs, Ink On PAPER, No Smoking, POEPLesThis is something which I found online and sharing with you guys. Enjoy :
The cigar smoking bearded young man with deep eyes stares at you from beyond the grave… through the tee-shirts and from the Facebook walls and in the posters of countless youth hostels across India. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara lives on relentlessly marketed in every conceivable consumer item of youth life today.
Che the failed revolutionary is a grand success as a youth icon.
Perceived by a vast majority of youths as a rebel who fought for a just cause, he comes in handy to declare one’s own inner rebel. A youth who wears Che on his extended epidermis that we call as Tee-shirt, it’s a proclamation that he is a co-rebel in the cause. Forget that the youth in question may actually be toiling in the call center for consumers in the US of A Forget that the youth in question may drink Coca Cola and burp fried chickens with Kentucky labels. Still with Che’s stern eyes peering out of his chest, he can consider himself the quintessential rebel – the eternal angry youth. In other words it is the easy way out to be a rebel and at the same time lead a life confirming to all consumerist and peer pressures.
But the problem is not just merely about making a superficial statement of being a pseudo-rebel. Che is also a Trojan for certain memes. In adoring Che, unknowingly these memes get internalized and enter the youth psyche. It is not unlike the worm malware tunneling into your system. The youths begin to venerate the ideology that created Che and the violence that is inherent in it. In fact violence has been cardinal to Che’s life philosophy. It’s not mindless brutal violence but cold blooded calculated violence.
In the famous – or is that notorious- ‘Message’ he sent his comrades from Bolivia, he wanted them to develop “hatred as an element of struggleâ€. He elaborated the point further:  “unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine.†The supreme irony is that the youth who wears Che on his clothing may even be wearing him as an icon of universal humanism! And slowly the poison enters his system: the poison of hatred for the ideological enemy – the demonizing and dehumanizing of ‘the other’.
Che made diary entries when he was leading his ‘revolutionary’ life. They reveal a pathological killer in love with murder. For example, in January 1957, Guevara had a problem. Che developed doubts about one of his comrades Eutimio Guerra – that Guerra might be a spy. In his own words let us hear how he solved the problem: “I ended the problem with a .32 caliber pistol, in the right side of his brain…. His belongings were now mine.† The pattern is repeated in diary entries – Che’s solution seems to be simple: when in doubt, kill.
Even Che’s martyrdom was an after-constructed myth. The reality of Che’s martyrdom is far from being a socialist martyr fell by the despicable capitalist and imperialist forces. In reality information about Che’s movements in Bolivia which were passed on to the army, seemed to have originated from Cuba and reached CIA through Soviet hands. The treacherous source seems to be ‘Tania’, girl friend of Che, outside his wedlock, who was actually a honey trap from East Germany working for Soviet KGB. Socialist regimes were as much to blame, perhaps more so to blame as that ‘imperialist Satan’ US, which we all love to hate. And even in the end when he actually had an opportunity to become a martyr fighting the army, Che voluntarily surrendered himself to the authorities. He came out of his hiding with hands raised, pleading to spare his life as he was ‘more valuable to you (Bolivian army) alive than dead’.
The peak of paradox is that the very capitalist forces which Che despised so completely were the ones who had converted his face into a youth icon. Marketing Che as the face of the rebel youth started in 1997 – coinciding with the spread of globalization. As Che merchandise –from basketball caps to coffee cups- generates profits in the market, the photo has also generated copyright battles. In the globalized economy, Che is the coke and cola of revolution international. And like coke and cola, he has replaced in developing countries the local –more related and more rooted revolutionary icons.
“I became a Communist. Communism made me a man” – Che Guevara. By ‘becoming a man’, many systems of organized thuggery mean the first taking of life.
Quote – “War to a young man is what childbirth is to a woman” – Hitler
Fact – Criminal gangs in Chennai as well as Sicilian criminals use the same slang term for murder and sexual encounter.
It is a mark of criminally diseased minds that they are incapable of distinguishing between the creation and destruction of life.
Nevertheless youths do need an icon. They need an icon, who can enthuse the consumed youths of this consumerist age, with ideals to live and grow by. The world needs an icon who can charge the youth to become harbingers of true reform not in little bits and pieces but “root-and-branch reformâ€. We need an icon to galvanize the international youth into action by appealing to their innermost being and their most profound love. We need a personality who can assure the youth of today with conviction that Love and not brutal violence that shall bring the final victory. We need as our icon someone who will ask us at our face, “Do you love your fellow men? Where should you go to seek for God — are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, need help ? Why not help them first? Why go to dig a well on the shores of the Ganga? Believe in the omnipotent power of love. Who cares for these tinsel puffs of name?â€
Pakistans Branchless Banking Becoming Model For The World
July 8th, 2012, posted in Ink On PAPER, PAKiSTAN, TEChNoLoGYA very interesting article and which is true as well.. So, I thought why dont share with the people of mutual interest with it.
Pakistan is becoming one of the countries with tremendous growth in the development of branchless and mobile banking is witnessed despite of the fact it is still on the way of its maturity stage.
The branchless and mobile-banking are penetrating at accelerated pace throughout the country with number of players in the banking and cellular phone operators are entering into the emerging financial sector.
Customers are increasingly utilizing the advanced transaction services for money transfer, utility payments, bank accounts and home remittances through different companies led by banks or mobile operators.
The overall transactions through branchless banking have reached Rs 3,700 per day. There are 17,448 branchless banking agents serving currently more than 357,598 accounts at their different outlets.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) statistics, Around 16 million branchless banking transactions, worth of Rs. 59 billion, have been conducted only in July-September period in Pakistan.
The two major branchless banking models have emerged in Pakistan “Easypaisa†by
Tameer Microfinance Bank and “Omni’ by United Bank Limited and marked a success story with a span of just two years, the combined daily transaction volume of the two services already averages over 175 thousand, with an average size of Rs 3,700.
In addition to them, there are different banks and mobile operators have introduced their branchless banking services such as First Microfinance Bank‟s collaboration with Pakistan Post, and Dubai Islamic Bank pilot project. MCB Bank and Askari Bank are both expected to roll out their pilot test shortly.
Recently Orascom Telecom (Mobilink) has also obtained a license to establish a nation-wide Microfinance Bank namely Waseela MFB to start microfinance operations through a branchless banking platform.
Similarly, NADRA has designed a distribution platform under the brand name “e-Sahulat†to provide online payment and collection facility for the general public as well as for organizations.
Moreover, a few other players are undertaking feasibility / market surveys to assess branchless banking prospects.
The early successes of mobile banking in Pakistan are attributable to the collaborative efforts of a wide range of stakeholders, including government, regulatory authorities, development agencies, NADRA, telecom operators, financial institutions, and technology firms.
The mobile phone subscription has seen explosive growth in Pakistan with total subscription now reaches to 110 million across customers in all income segments with growth continues apace.
The fast mobile penetration and its continuing strong growth fuels expectations that transformational branchless banking models would prove a game-changer in improving access to finance in Pakistan.
The branchless banking regulations only allow bank-led model, it encourages multiple approaches for developing partnerships. The partnership models include one-to-one (one bank having joint venture/agency agreement with one teleco/non-bank), one-to-many (one bank with many telcos), and many-to-many (many banks with many telcos).
This is aimed to create space for experimentation as well as to keep prudent supervisory oversight. The government is further encouraging innovation by piloting the use of branchless banking to distribute government payments.
The permissible activities under branchless banking are opening account, fund transfer, cash-in and cash-out, bill payments, merchant payments, loan disbursement/repayment etc. These activities may be offered through a variety of channels such as mobile phones, retail agents, ATMs, smart cards, and POS. The resulting convenience and low transaction costs are expected to be critical to greater financial inclusion.
In a recent CGAP brief, Pakistan has been showed as one of the fastest developing market for branchless banking in the world. Pakistan has been declared as laboratory of innovation for branchless banking with a variety of business models are emerging that involves a wide range of players, including mobile network operators (MNOs), technology companies, and even a courier business.
The World Economic Forum’ global report on Mobile Financial Services gave extensive coverage of Pakistan, praising the country for its fast developing branchless banking.
The branchless banking institutional environment, which includes elements of regulatory proportionality and consumer protection, scores within the top quintile of the country sample included in this study.
The mobile financial services to unbanked population will further develop its end-user environment. The individuals appear less literate are being empowered to adopt these services, the study said.
It is heartening to note that the emerging branchless banking models have experienced impressive initial growth. However, these models are still in an early phase experimentation, requiring understanding of critical issues and taking measures to expand retail networks and leverage technologies.
Once these models reach to a degree of maturity, the inter-operability will come in to facilitate customers to send money to anyone with account at any bank, and do cash-in and cash-out with agent of any bank.
The SBP readily adopted the strategy of expanding microfinance outreach through exploiting the channels of mobile phone sector situated throughout the country. It has focused on providing an enabling environment to market players, persuading them to benefit from new opportunities, and offering them appropriate incentives for market development, with the ultimate objective of broadening and deepening financial inclusion.
According to a recent study conducted by Telenor Group and Boston Consulting Group, the wider access to mobile financial services in Pakistan could lead to the creation of 1 million new jobs by 2020. An estimated US$2 billion could be added annually to government revenues, helping raise Pakistan’s GDP growth by 3% by creating increased access to credit, hence prompting new business creation, and by formal remittances and increased savings.
Mobile financial services can facilitate public services by providing e-government options and help reduce costs of financial transactions.â€
According to the study, the percentage of Pakistan’s adult population using mobile financial services could go up from the current 2% to 35% by 2020.
The existing and anticipated businesses and outlines the key challenges and opportunities that are likely to shape the market over the next 12 months.
