Articles and Poems

Jews and Their Influence in the United States

- Rabindra Mishra

Benjamin Franklin, the 18th century American statesman, warned the Americans in 1787 that if the Jews were not constitutionally excluded from the United States they would swarm into the country, dominate the land and change the form of government according to their wishes in less than 200 years. Today, many Americans feel that Mr Franklin’s precognition has come true.

Over 5.5 million Jews living in the United States make up the largest Jewish community in the world although Israel is fast catching up. This figure constitutes only about three per cent of the total US population, however, their influence in the affairs of the United States is more than any other ethnic community living there. Jews are prominent in every sphere: from education to arts, economy to politics.

After the World War II, Jewish participation intensified in American scientific, scholarly, literary, artistic, theatrical and musical activities. Albert Einstein, a Jew of German origin, greatly contributed to the development of American physics. Two American Jewish authors, Saul Bellow and Issac Bashevis Singer, won the Nobel prize in literature. More than one-fourth of all the Nobel prizes awarded to Americans since 1901 has gone to the Jews.

Over 80 per cent of college-age Jews attend college, and 71 per cent of all Jews between the ages of 25 and 29 hold college degrees. By the 1980s, some 50,000 Jews (17% of the total) held academic positions in colleges and universities. Similarly, 10 per cent of American professors were Jews and in most prestigious universities the proportion reached 30 percent in as early as 1970, which is higher today. Ninety-five per cent of the American Jews live in urban areas in the United States, with 80 percent concentrated in 12 major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Washington D. C., Detroit ect. They own large companies and enjoy great influence in management and communication sectors.

The Jews have not changed the form of the US government as predicted by Benjamin Franklin but they have been influencing the politics and the government decisions to a large extent. Many important positions surrounding the President have been held by Jews since the days of Franklin Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt’s most trusted advisers were Jews. President Nixon had Henry Kissinger, a Jew, as secretary of state, and Madeline Albright, the present American secretary of state, also inherits Jewish blood.

In present day America, every aspirant to the presidency makes efforts to win the Jewish support because of the hold of this community in important cities which are crucial for winning the polls. Besides, Jewish money counts a lot in election campaign fund. One report shows that out of 100 American billionaires, 20 were Jews.

So who are the Jews anyway ?
The followers of Judaism, the Jewish religion are Jews. The term is also used to refer to those who claim descent from the ancient Hebrews, a Semitic people of the Near East. The term came into use in medieval Europe, based on the Latin name for Judeans, the people of Judah. According to the Bible, the original home of the Hebrews was Mesopotamia (the ancient country between the Tigris and Euphrates river in Iraq). A semi-nomadic clan, they initially migrated towards the south-east of Canaan (Palestine) and from there to Goshen district of Egypt. When these people were subjected to oppression by Pharaohs in the 13th century BC, a deliverer in the person of Moses led them to freedom. Under his leadership, they moved towards Mount Sinai, where they received the Ten Commandments, which became the foundation of Judaism, Christianity, and much of Islamic tradition.

From Sinai, they marched for new settlements towards Palestine and from there they dispersed in various parts of the Mediterranean area. By the end of the 17th century, Jews were found throughout Europe and in all Muslim countries. It was in 1654 that the first group of 23 Jews migrated to the United States settling in New Amsterdam. Since then Jewish migration to the United States has been continuous.

Jews had to struggle for their survival and social standing wherever they went for the most part of their history. The policy of the Czar government in Russia was to remove the Jews from their economic positions and force them to convert to Russian Orthodox religion. Such pressure triggered the largest mass migration in Jewish history. Between 1881 and 1914, about two million Jews from Russia and some Eastern European countries migrated to the United States.

In the early 20th century, European Jews still suffered discrimination and persecution. With the emergence of Nazism in 1933, Germany and its satellites had killed six million Jews, reducing the European Jewry from 9.5 million by almost two-thirds. Never in their 3,000-year history had the Jews suffered a holocaust of such a magnitude. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution with a two-thirds majority to partition Palestine and establish a Jewish state. On May 14, 1948, Israel proclaimed its independence depriving the Palestinians of their right to share half the territory, and flouted the UN resolution. After the creation of Israel the Diaspora Jews, mainly concentrated in the United States and the then Soviet Union, and the Israeli Jews maintained a close relationship.

Today numbering less than 15 million all over the world, Jews form the most prominent section in every society. Especially in the United States, there influence has been consistently growing after the 1787 constitution abolished the provision of religious test for office or public trust. It is due to their influence that no American government dares to take any stance against Israel, which has the second largest Jewish population in the world, with about 4 million Jews. As the US policies has a direct bearing on world politics, the influence of the Jews in the affairs of the US has always been a matter of interest for governments around the world.

Virgins, Myths and Men

- Rekha Shrestha

Not only the Eastern society, but all the societies in the world have a number of myths about the power and mystery of virgins. For instance, in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Kunti gives birth to Karna through the interventions of the sun God. Later on, her virginity is restored and she chaste enough to marry with Pandava. the same event we can find in the Christian mythology: Mother Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. Still she was declared virgin so that Yusuf married her. In many agrarian communities, virgin is regarded as being endowed with the power of fertility.

Kumari Pooja assumes special importance in Nepal where young virgin girl is worshipped for her mysterious powers. Kings of Nepal, the most celebrated Hindu Kingdom in the world, have had worshipped virgin goddess Kumari for long. During the eight day (Asthami) if the great Nepali festival Durga Pooja, Kanya Kumaris - non menstruating girls between the age of three and seven - are worshipped as living goddesses or as the envoys of mother goddess.

In Tantra, intercourse with a virgin was one of the methods of attaining psychic powers. The myth of the virgin being was receptacle of the divine seed, which is found is all societies, is brought out most vividly by the cult of Virgin Mary.

However, myths are myths. The influential question that arises here is : Why are myths on the virginity of a woman so deeply rooted in society and why is the same not the case with that of a man ? A woman is expected to protect her chastity with all her wits. Whereas for men, having woman is a part of ritual rites of a passage that makes him truely ‘masculine.’ In all patriarchal societies including ours, the sexuality of young woman is controlled so that she will be easily accepted by the other families for marriage. In Islamic counties, young, nubile are compelled to undergo virginity tests before she gets married. Traditionally is these communities, the wedding sheet are inspected on the night after nuptial to check the sings of blood - which would have appeared had the girl been a virgin. Even in the European countries, regarded as highly civilised societies, Islamic-type tests conducted. For instance, Lady Diana too had to undergo a virginity test when she married Prince Charles. But to all the women of the world’s dismay, Prince Charles did not have to.

The gross misinterpretations of a virgin as a woman who has her hymen intact is a mere by-product of Victorian morality, to use English terminology, according to feminist writer Marilyn Frye. In her perception, the word virgin originally means a woman who is sexually and socially free. She argues: "In male dominated societies, there are no virgins in this sense. Most women are married, betrothed or possessed by men keeping in mind the constricting norms of our social notions.

In the urban areas of Nepal, however, there has been slight change in the attitudes of people over the decades. Many Nepali intellectuals no longer value mere chastity in women. they are also slowly beginning to accept the idea of women’s freedom. But still, except in some rare cases, even inter-caste marriage is far away cry.

The bottom line : Is the ideal virginity an achievable norm or a dream image conjured by men ? Freud hypothesises that the ideal represents the desire within the human being, while the super-ego represents the ideals one wants to maintain. Our desires may drive us in different directions but our super-ego monitors them. Behaviorists employ a model of positive and negative reinforcements, and of behavior modification through this process to root out socially unaccepted behavior.

Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that one has ideals of reflection so that in aiming for them, one can come out somewhere in the middle. Virginity is not the issue, but humility is. Our society is too judgmental on women who lack a hymen despite the fact that rape cases, unwanted sexual intercourse are the chief causes of most of the tragedies.

If we don’t change our attitude towards the existing myths about virginity and if we keep on conserving such myths then, obviously, we may no longer be suitable enough to be entitled as the ‘most intelligent’ of animals. Because Scientists have proved that a girl may break her hymen while doing sports like swimming, jogging, horse-riding. Faiths in such irrelevant myths only jeopardise the trusted and honeyed relationships of couples.

Politics or Policies matter?

- Rajesh Giri, Amsterdam

Today’s rapidly growing economies are classified as Newly Industrializing Countries or NICs and most of the NICs are located in Asia. Despite the current economic crisis, which remains as a mystery, NICs experienced a rapid economic growth over the last 40 years. Economic growth refers to an increase in the productive capacity of an economy.

Japan was the first country to experience a rapid economic growth in Asia. Its economy continued to expand rapidly from the mid-1950s through the 1960s. The annual growth rate averaged close to 11% in real terms for the decade of the 1960s. This compared with 4.6% for the West Germany and 4.3% for the USA in the period from 1960 to 1972. And it was well above twice Japan’s own average prewar growth rate of about 4% a year. It is generally agreed that the rapid expansion of Japan’s economy from the late 1950s through the 1960s was powered by the vigorous investment of private industry in new plant and equipment. The high level of saving of Japanese households provided banks and other financial institutions with large funds for heavy investment in the private sector. The rapid increase in capital spending was associated with the introduction of new technology, often under license from foreign companies. Investment for modernization made Japanese industries more competitive on the world market. This created new products and brought Japanese enterprises the benefits of mass production and improved productivity per worker.

Another factor behind Japan’s economic growth during this period was the availability of an abundant labour force with a high level of education. Reasonably large numbers of young people entered the labour force every year. There was also a heavy migration of agricultural workers to manufacturing and service jobs located mostly in the larger cities. In 1960, the Japanese government established Income Doubling Plan, every 10 year, so that the government’s economic policies aimed to encourage saving, stimulate investment, protect growth industries and promote exports. During this period, Japan benefited from an expansionary world economic climate caused by the availability of an abundant supply of relatively cheap energy from abroad. Despite a few short recessions, the Japanese economy enjoyed a long period of prosperity. In 1960s-70s, the real growth rate was averaging close to 12%. The main factor behind this growth was rising capital investment and to obtain economies of scale, build additional facilities to increase export capacity, and acquire equipment needed to respond to changes in the economic and social environments, such as labour-saving tools and pollution-cutting devices. Increases in exports due to the stronger price competitiveness of Japanese products also supported the sustained rise in business activity.

Within 25 years, Japan established one of the largest financial centers in the world. Soon, so-called high-performing Asian economies (HPAEs), notably, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and later Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China India and Vietnam, start following Japan’s policies. This process is also known as the ‘flying geese phenomenon.’ Since late 1970s these countries have experienced between 8-11% economic growth. Countries that were more open to international trade have enjoyed a more rapid rate of economic growth. This is especially true with China because it suffered greatly under pure communist economic policies in the 1950s and 1960s. However, in the 1970s, Mao Zedong initiated ‘Great Leap Forward’ economic programs and established ties with the West since then many things have changed radically. China began a program of economic liberalization. Since 1980s, trade liberalization and reforms have accelerated. China’s rate of per capita income growth, during 1985-95, was 8.3% per year. Most importantly, China, South Korea and Taiwan established universal primary education to empower women. This helped to increase people’s standards of living while reducing the high birth rate and expanding labour intensive industries.

Not surprisingly, in 1995 the Singapore economy registered a growth rate of 8.8%, pushing its per capita GDP to more than US $28 thousand, a level above that of the United States. In January 1996, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) removed Singapore from the list of recipient countries of official development assistance, and reclassified it into a new category of countries, ‘more advanced developing countries.’

The rapid economic growth, in the HPAEs, have been powered by the expansion of domestically manufactured exports. This enabled them to overcome the constraints of their small domestic markets. The export manufacturers have increased their competitive edge by turning to more technology- and capital- intensive operations and producing high-value-added products. The private capital investment represented more than simple access to funds. The HPAEs entrepreneurs generally seek strategic alliances and joint ventures in which the foreign investor also brought specific expertise, access to markets, technological enhancement or other critical capabilities. Generally, all HPAEs governments welcomed direct foreign investment through decentralization and liberalization polices. So that the foreign investors were also able to assess and manage a variety of risks including currency fluctuation, changes in the political climate and most importantly lack of liquidity

in the investment. Consequently, the pure financial investors to effectively invested their capital in the rapidly growing economies. This required the further development of traditional capital markets, and eventually increased global competitiveness.

During the same period, countries like Nepal and many other developing nations experienced a strong negative relationship between exchange rate distortions and economic growth. The government’s interference on the economy was one of the several factors that affected growth. A study found that annual growth rates in real GDP in countries with highly distorted exchange rates were 2-4 percentage points lower than in countries without exchange rate distortions. Many of the least developed countries’ (LDCs) economy was hampered primarily because of a high population growth and density, low industrial output, limited natural resources, difficult topography, geopolitical crisis, a weak human capital base with extremely poor levels of education and health, poor public management capacity. Furthermore, the still existing feudal system, nepotism, political instability and frequent civil unrest affected economic growth. While the HPAEs were experiencing rapid economic growth, the poorest countries were facing wars such as Iran-Iraq war and Vietnam war.

Some countries experienced famine because of extreme physical factors such as crop disease and pests, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, land slides, droughts. This process was accelerated by humans’ physical interactions with the environment through over grazing and population pressure. For example, in 1984, Ethiopia experienced the worst famine problem in human history. Drought itself was not the sole cause of famine but the effects of drought was worsened by changes in agricultural practice caused largely by increased population density leading to over-grazing and land degradation. These factors worsen the economic structure because many LDCs’ exports were based on primary products. For example, Nepal’s main exports are primarily based on primary commodities which are prone to a large price fluctuation. The exports growth was very slow compounded by inelastic price for their primary products but a high income elasticity for imported manufacture goods and services. LDCs often restrict international trade through a variety of trade policies. However, indirect restrictions on trade through overvalued exchange rates are often the most important factor in restricting trade. As a result, the economic growth slows down because only countries that are more open to trade tend to have sounder all-around economic policies. Also, technical progress helped develop a highly competitive substitute. For example, the introduction of synthetic rubber severely affected countries which specialized in the production of natural rubber for exports.

Because of HPAEs’ openness to the world markets and efficient government policies, they were able to achieve rapid economic growth and to promote progressive development towards even further advances in the free trade and investment environments. As we know the impressive growth of China 13.2% in 1992 and 13.4% in 1993. East and the Southeast Asian regions continue to be a center for the world’s most dynamic economic activity. In contrast, LDCs differ from the NICs such as standards of living, levels of productivity, geographic size, population, historical background, industrial structure, and human, natural and physical resources.

Most importantly, human capital or the knowledge, skills, abilities and capacities remained insufficient. Malnutrition has often increased the cycle of poverty. There are many sources and types of inequalities including rural vs. urban, entrepreneurs vs. others, those with political and social connections vs. those without, and religious, ethnic and racial differences among people.

Collections of poems by  Hind Vaidya
Chesterfield

May-June, May-June

May, the month of golden fields
You wake up with birds singing
Dandelions and Daises
Like full-sovereign and silver coins
While floppy globes wait to blow
Butter cups start to open
Plantains laying low
Lift the flower cones up
Blue flowered Bird’s eye
Keeps smiling in between
Soon there will be showing off
Bird’s foot trefoil
Forget-me-not in river side
May, the month of lace
On road verges and hedgerows
Primulas and Pansies, no one can ignore

June, the month of ox-eye Daisies
Wild roses, fox-globes and Poppies
Oxford Ragworts, Clovers and Lupines
Campions in hedgerow and road sides
Red Admirals, Tortoise-shells, Cabbage White
On Campions, Dead nettles and Clovers
Starlings and Sparrows balance on electrical wire
Trees keep shaking with the rhythm of the wind
While grasslands wave like in the Ocean
And cotton seeds start flickering and falling
Like a snowfall in summer.

***

Diwaker and Prabhaker
(dedicated to Arati & Abhinna)

Your married life to zoom
Lovely buds to bloom
A gift of life
You have given
Twins: Diwaker and Prabhaker

So sweet! So beautiful!
Congratulations to Arati & Abhinna
It may not be easy
To raise twins
But your love will nourish them
Each and every moment
And even in their dreams
Each one is so special
As an unique individual
Diwaker, three minutes older
May lead his brother
And Prabhaker has his own way of
Making himself
A centre of attraction
What a wonderful way
Of innocent communications
Noise, smiles and gestures
And cry if they need to
Prabhaker seems to communicate
A lot with his grandma
Both are lucky to have
Love and laps of Grand parents
You have found the
Wonderful gift of love
In the whole world.

Not one but two sons
Hard work! But worth it!
They make your life
Meaningful and fruitful
With a stream of
Endless Love and Joy
That money can not buy.

School is our temple

- Prerna Thapa, Age 13

Where we learn to read;
pass your life being simple
and learn to suceed in it.
To get sucess in every step

Let's study hard from today;
To keep our country forward
In the competetive world of today.
Our progress depends on our own zeal
Pollution and diseases we must first kill.

Bird

- Ranjan Shakya, Age 7

I am a bird
I like to sing
I have two wings
I fly here and there
To find my food
I have a beak

I feed my birdies
With my beak
I build my nest
I lay eggs in it

I like to chirp always
I always wake up people
Early in the morning

So do not catch me
Do not kill me
And do not put me in a cage