Better and best, are essentially talking about change. It’s about being in a state of change. By definition, once you’re the best there is literally nowhere else to go. Being the best is already a dead end. Being better however merely means you need to be better than who you are today. And in every day following there has to be a spark of growth at the very least. So if you are continuously bettering yourself there can never be a place where you are the best.

The reason for this state of mind is predominantly linked to another concept called the comfort zone. Human nature being what it is, loves to wallow in the comfort zone. Once you hit this comfort zone like a hippo hits a pool of mud, then it’s getting out that’s virtually impossible. And pitfalls in life usually happen when we are in the comfort zone. When we are in a position of bettering ourselves really, there is an intuitive awareness that arises from this process that keeps you alert, that keeps you appreciative and above all, keeps you in a state of anticipation. Growth, however small means that you are not the person that you were yesterday. Hence, when you change the world changes. The key to changing the world is in fact changing oneself. Changing the world is not something that anyone who has a certain maturity and understanding of life will ever attempt to do. Ultimately every one of us who tries to go out to change the world, end up being tyrants.

Every tyrant at one point deluded himself or herself into believing that they were doing it for the greater good. That they were ultimately teachers and the ultimate benefactor was mankind. Sadly, at some juncture all this altruism and goodwill fades and what prevails is one’s need to achieve one’s goals at all costs. This eventually translates into the axiom which every tyrant believes in - that the goal always is higher and better and supersedes the ways. And the minute you reach that juncture, you have become a tyrant.

The fundamental difference in those who change themselves is in believing that the means are always far superior to the goal. That the journey is the destination. So change becomes inevitable, becomes necessary and becomes a state of being. Ultimately though, the simple truth is if you don’t change, you die. Why die? Because our journey to the cemetery began from the day we were born. When we are in a constant state of change, the issue of the destination becomes irrelevant. Every day by itself is a destination. Time then becomes timeless. The minute you stop changing, you get back into the clutches of time and your journey to the cemetery continues.

This does not mean however that death will evade us or that those who believe and practice change every day will never face death. What it means is, to those of us who live in a state of change, every day becomes a chapter by itself. A new one begins the day after. That becomes merely a precursor to the next stage. Every day one is born again. So, clearly it is ultimately best to believe that better is best.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand”

– Abraham Lincoln

(June 16, 1858, Republican State Convention)

There is no real victor in a civil war. For it is a war between brothers. One cannot defeat a brother without losing oneself and this is the explanation of the above phrase.

When two members of a family quarrel, it can either lead to a bitter feud or if managed properly can lead to an effective reconciliation. The American nation survived the civil war primarily because the efforts preceding the war were focussed upon rebuilding a nation, not one fraction subjugating another. Efforts should be made on rebuilding and restructuring the nation as a whole. Where is the need for any prolonged celebration when there has been no invader that has been thwarted? Nor has there been a foreign enemy defeated and the blood shed is the same on both sides. It is time for the nation to recognise that Sri Lanka has survived more than a millennia prior to western colonisation. Wars fought in this land but never on such a trivial basis as language! Civil wars throughout history, fought on distinctions based upon language, culture or religion, have never led to peace and prosperity.

Civil wars fought in Northern Ireland, Spain, Rwanda and the like, have left behind embers that continue to smoulder. What we do not want is a Kashmir in Sri Lanka. This war, in reality, has not been waged against race, colour, creed or language. It has always been a war against terrorism. And this needs to be recognised and propagated. This must be interwoven into the rebuilding of the nation. In this case, the American people have become an example to follow. A civil war that has been successfully laid to rest. The greatest Presidents of the United States from Lincoln to Kennedy to Obama have continued the healing process. If there is one thing that the election of President Obama has proclaimed to the world, it has been that we can coexist as a people despite caste, colour, creed and culture or even language.

War of any kind has never resulted in any long lasting benefit for any particular group, be it victors or losers throughout the history of man. The physical battlefield has always been at best merely a footnote in rebuilding a nation...

It is time to realise that the real war has only just begun. The only war worth fighting. The war that Sri Lanka really needs to win and that being Sri Lanka versus the rest of the world - an Economic War. A war, which is fought with laptops, cell phones, PCs and PDAs. A war by which Sri Lanka will finally be able to take its place amongst the nations of Man.

The real power today is economic strength. Iraq and Afghanistan had been lost long before the advent of troops. The troops merely helped to complete the debacle. The mighty Soviet Union with its numerous satellite states fell without a single shot. As did the monolithic Berlin Wall. Whatever happened to the impenetrable Iron Curtain? The UN has been effectively muzzled. First through GATT and then again by WTO. NATO has been overshadowed by the EU. Even the military might of China and US quaver before the OIC or APEC. Germany, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and even city states like Hong Kong and Singapore exert great influence over global affairs well beyond their military might due to economic clout.

Two of the world’s most industrially powerful nations, Japan and Germany who are the bulwark of the both the European and Asian economic resurgence respectively are nations that do not have physical existing standing armies per se. Both these nations with no military might whatsoever are, on the world platform, giants amongst nations. Both these nations have raised themselves from the ruins of a devastating war and turned themselves into industrial titans by virtue of one single fact – they chose to focus on a real war. An Economic War.

They focussed all their energy, resources and strategies towards rebuilding, renewing, re-energising and re-synergising all of their various resources. The primary resource being always the human capital. Ultimately, the human element in both of these nations have made them into what they are. Look historically at the nations that have commanded and controlled the world’s largest armies and empires. Where are they now? Classic examples of these being the British, the Roman and the Mongol Empire.

Great things can be rebuilt upon the nation coming together, not standing apart. If one wants to see the power of reconciliation, they need not look further than the United States. The coming together of the North and South, post the Civil War created the world’s largest economy. The European nations coming together in the aftermath of World War II created the might of the European Community. However, it must be recognised that it is going to be a long hard road forward. It is actually going to take a greater effort than the one used in the battlefield.

A classic case in point is the German unification. A powerful euphoria engulfed the nation at the time of the fall of the Berlin wall. But one can clearly see the cost of this unification has taken its toll on the nation. Having the economic tools does not by itself guarantee any success on the path to unification. It cannot even facilitate the event. It can at best only provide initial impetus. The real efforts of unification must be engaged in the hearts and minds of the nation. It must be personified via the strategies of rebuilding and restructuring. It is up to the leadership of the nation to clearly show their commitment towards unifying the nation as a whole. This would mean embracing all parts of the nation as one. When man is treated as an equal, he generally responds as one. It is only when inequality emerges that division also arises.

Sri Lanka has the greatest potential of any nation in Asia to turn itself into a strategic commercial hub and industrial powerhouse, sitting both along the east-west trade routes and on the brink of the Indian subcontinent thereby making it a natural gateway to 1.5 billion people. If only, a fragment of this is realised, Sri Lanka will overtake Singapore and possibly Hong Kong within the next decade. Sri Lanka will then with great pride be able to take its place among the brotherhood of nations. That would be the real victory...

This fourth part in the Touchstone series by Vijay Eswaran explores how tides have turned in this ongoing recession.

The initial thunder of the economic crunch has waned and the world has somehow settled into this semi comfortable niche of nonchalance in this midst of arguably the biggest depression to hit this planet, since 1929. The problem though is that for most people who have survived thus far, and who are patting themselves on the back for having done so, are exactly like the people who don’t understand what a Tsunami is, for eg, after the first wave, there is a few more yet to come.

The complexities of the world economic grid today are far more onerous and intricate than they were seventy years ago. Hence, the first aftershocks that took off from ground zero a.k.a Wall Street are still resounding in most of the western world. But in many cases, yet to be completely felt in the third world. The third world countries that are proudly defending their closed economies and their protectionist policies as being the saving grace against this economic tsunami have not yet truly felt the impending damage that is still coming in the wake of the first wave, so to speak. Unlike a regular tsunami, this economic depression is going to be in pincer like movement, hence being on one side of this protectionist wall merely means the waves that are yet to come will hit you from behind.

The isolationist/protectionist policies that some of the third world nations had practised in order to prevent unwanted currency fluctuations and to protect their home grown industries, so to speak, were ill advised at the height of the economic upswing are just at this moment of potential downswing. These policies though having some sort of immediate effect in buffering the initial impact of the crisis are going to be at best a very short to midterm endeavour. The world today has come together as never before. And as I have previously mentioned in my earlier columns, globalisation had to not just come to stay, globalisation is also the only way forward. Globalisation is not about encroaching western dogma or philosophy. It is a historical epoch, inevitable as it is necessary.

With 6 billion people on the planet, where do you go? Today, where information or equally, misinformation, is instantaneous and in abundance, the net result is that anticipation becomes almost like a self fulfilling prophecy. Coming out of this, will require us to have an attitude that is all- embracing of the global village per se and as opposed to shutting down, as opposed to pulling down the shutters and building more walls, in the hope that all this would pass us by, we actually need to build bridges instead, open new windows and rebuild old ones. As I have also mentioned before, the critical component here is human capital. In effect, we are going to have to create new patterns of thinking. It’s going to be innovation and inspiration that is going to pull us out of this particular dilemma that we are all mired in. We have to understand the enemy and, he is us....

In essence, trade will have to continue but the focus therein will have to change. As opposed to providing goods and services, we should be creating new demand instead. We have to go back to the basics. In the haste to meet the brand new world, many third world countries have forgotten the entire economic ecosystem that they were literally bred into. They need to rediscover and explore these forgotten venues. There is yet so much potential within the 3rd world that it is mind boggling and this, my dear friends, is where the new world will emerge from.

The reality is that the world’s biggest markets are not going to remain in the American continent. It actually never really was. In effect, statistically speaking, one half of the world still live in the BRIC countries. And they are currently emerging, developing, seeking, and yearning for products and services that are yet to be delivered into their realm. Products and services that should be developed for them, engineered by them and customised to meet the local flavour. So the illusionary market that we have been feeding for the last 50 odd years will now have to recreate itself. The population of the United States of America is a mere 300 million out of the world population of 6 billion. It’s time that the world economic machinery provided for the rest. Amazing as it may seem, Brazilians, Chinese, Indians, Russians and the like, have their own set of desires, wants and needs. Communication now needs to be set into place and established within the South-South nations as opposed to being routed through Wall Street, London, Paris or the like.

There should be absolutely no reason why they cannot be outsourcing for each other, as opposed to being outsourced by the world. Instead of merely being a resource, they should be a destination. The rest of the world should be looking at studying various accents of Hindi, Portuguese and Mandarin for call centres as opposed to learning a Texas drawl or the New England accent! They should be understanding the difference between Cantonese, Hokkien and Hainanese. They need to understand that Brazilian Portuguese is different from the one spoken in Europe. And that there are over 30 recognised languages in the Indian subcontinent! There is a need to understand that Hamburgers, Pizzas and KFC are not the only way to go, that there are such basic cuisines like Chapatti, Char Kuay Teow and Paella that can become truly global. Globalisation is not westernisation. And what the policymakers need to realise today is that we’re going to have to understand each other better in order to come out of this stronger.

The new centres of economic power and the new arenas of expansion will now have to be re-delineated. With the coming of the World Cup to South Africa, the African nations are going to see certainly a new era of change. Asia, which has been already in the midst of major economic growth and development, will now need to slow down and stabilise. We need to re-engineer our growth and our systems of demand and supply as the shift of economic power moves eastwards. The world is already beginning to look eastwards. The recent Academy Awards being a clear indication of this with Slumdog Millionaire winning 8 Oscars. One clear message that came out of that movie is the fact that slums merely being eyesores or very benignly looked upon as warts on the city’s landscapes are actually a great resource unto themselves. Hence, it is from these slums that great expectations, great potential, can arise. And it is again on a global scale, the countries that are on the lowest end of the economic scale, have the most to gain out of this period of economic turmoil.

Simply put, as costs are realigned around the planet they will have an opportunity to reinvent, re-energise and re-industrialise. Looking eastwards is not just going to be a catchphrase. It’s going to have to be the air that we breathe in the decade to come.

Ten years ago if someone had asked me what my preferred lifestyle would be it would involved a description of houses, cars, classes of travel, holidays and vacations, clothes, techie gadgets etc. Today everything that at one point seemed so important and necessary has become virtually secondary to my real needs. Having achieved a certain level of comfort in the physical sphere, so to speak I’ve now come to realise that my wants will never be satisfied. And that my wants rarely satisfy me, if ever. Hence, if one were to look at a supposed happiness quotient per se I do not believe that I would be able to find any of these in my wants and desires list. My happiness today is derived mostly from my needs and what I need is rarely what I want.

To me the single greatest luxury at this point of my existence is merely time. Time for myself, time with my family, time alone with my wife. Time that I would be able to spend on some of my more off-the-chart pursuits, i.e, my music, my passion for travel to the more exotic corners of the planet, my passion for collectible antiques, my passion for my dogs even! All of these are today real luxuries.

Suddenly it is not so important to be in Paris, New York, Tokyo or even Sydney. It is probably far more important and meaningful to be just at home. To be able to laze about at home pottering around one of my hobbies, playing with my dogs, recalibrating my fountain (a perpetual challenge) or just even spending time with the kids. Hence, my lifestyle requirements have drastically taken a U-Turn. Having said this, it is no nice to be able to walk into a music store and pick up 70 CDs and DVDs and not even remembering how much I paid for it. Its nice to travel First Class and I do not believe I would ever find economy all that appetising. I don’t think I would be interested in travelling if It required to travel coach. As brazenly arrogant as it may sound, all of these things were earned at great sacrifice and great commitment. And to savour the fruits of your labour is wonderful just as much as it is for a farmer to taste a fruit from his own orchard. The actual fruit being irrelevant, the taste coming from merely having achieved. To me, the greatest wealth of all that I have been able to acquire has been that of the wealth of experience. It is irreplaceable. Knowing that I can do this, that I have done this, that if required I can still do it, yet again, is something that is extremely gratifying. But I think the greatest lesson of all has been in understanding that ultimately all of this would not have been possible without His Grace.

Despite everything that I have put into this, and despite the tremendous sacrifices by so many others, I am fully aware that if at all, I live and draw breath in this world of my making, it has been of His making. And I think, that is the greatest lesson learnt. The true wealth is peace of mind. And one can only aspire to achieve this from within and from His Grace. Everything else is temporary.

So, I do not begrudge a single moment of pain nor do I desire or wish to savour a single ounce of gain without first acknowledging, that my greatest wealth of all has been my personal journey with the Lord. If I feel at all fulfilled today, it’s in the knowledge that I have served to the best of my ability. That is truly wealth I can keep.

Vijay Eswaran is back with the third part in the Touchstone series on his blog. To read the earlier parts, please visit www.vijayeswaran.com/blog

Expectation has been the fundamental cause and a very central factor in this current economic crisis that we are all facing. Expectation drove the markets to unheralded heights, just barely 18 months ago. Expectation drove commodities including Oil and Gold to unprecedented stratospheric heights that brought us to the precipice of an energy crisis an year and a half ago. And it is expectation that we have to deal with, conquer and rationalise if we are to do anything at all with restoring and recovering confidence at a global level.

Confidence is ultimately the first and probably most crucial point of the recovery process. It cannot be in the words of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah--arguably one of the architects of Malaysia’s economic success-- a hollow confidence. But a confidence based on clear appreciation of our prospects. The primary lesson the global economy learnt is that false confidence based on irrational hope leads to collapse, disillusionment and pessimism.

Thus, one must first come to terms with reality, embrace it, appreciate it, analyse it and then adapt to the harsh new realities. It’s only then we begin to recognise that the Tsunami has hit, the world has changed and there is no going back. There is only moving forward.

The long-term path to prosperity is through increasing income and expanding business opportunities through productivity and building a drive and propensity to innovate. We need to recognise that the world is essentially still the same. That, in essence, all that has happened is a balancing of the forces that drive the global economy back to even keel. Prior to this, we have tugged, pulled and manipulated the economy out of shape to suit various political and profit motivated strategies and game plans, not realising that there is a global ramification for anything that we do. The pundits would like to blame either globalisation or capitalism as one of the causes of this current situation. Globalisation as I have previously stated is not a process that just evolved in the last decade or two but one that has been around since the beginning of man. Since man began to trade.

Globalisation expanded through every conquest by every empire in the history of mankind. From the East, the Silk Route, carried the knowledge, cultures and traditions of Asia to the West, bringing along exotic foods that became commonplace in western dinner fare, such as the humble noodle. The noodle, which began its journey from southern India in the form of ‘idiyappm’, was carried across the Himalayas into China, evolving into various forms of noodles, becoming the mainstay of Chinese cuisine. Then, continuing its journey, travelling back with Marco Polo via Venice into the western world emerging as the wondrous world of Pasta.

The courts of the Roman emperor had representatives from Africa, the Middle East and even India. The courts of Kublai Khan had representatives from Europe, the Far East and even the distant lands touching the coasts of Africa. The courts of Emperors Ashok and Akbar has translators for Mandarin, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and even Portuguese. Thus globalisation in one form or another has existed from the time that one caveman swapped his battleaxe for an eating utensil.

But what has happened in the last four decades has been galvanised into a tremendous pace of activity and growth, merely by the fact that the population of this world has already doubled from the time I was born, till today. Arguably, it has tripled. That by itself has put tremendous pressure on the process of globalisation. Hence, anything happening in the sphere of business in one corner of the world has its echo in another. Just like the other G word- Global Warming- the Global economy when manipulated, fights back.

Let’s take a look at the other so called cause of the economic crunch - Capitalism. It is supposedly either the boon or the bane of all the economic travails of the planet depending on who you are talking to at the time. The fact that although the United States has endeavoured to practice a certain managed form of capitalism within its own sphere, it does not in any sense of the word mean the free economy prevailed or was in play at that time. A free economy by definition requires a free flow of information, resources and labour inclusive of skill sets and technology, all of which were skewed if not controlled or manipulated to some extent. Thus by no stretch of imagination can one lay claim to the existence of a totally free economy, which is the basis of a Capitalist market, anywhere on the planet. A partially controlled market will only yield partially controlled results. And the longer the controls are in place, the greater the repercussions. Hence, an adjustment had to take place eventually leading to the events of today. Thus, arguably both globalisation and capitalism cannot have been causes of this current state of inequity.

What we have done is sacrificed growth for social equity resulting in massive differences between middle and high class incomes. This has been further exacerbated by us shielding ourselves from learning and changing, which is the basis upon which economies grow. There has to be a systematic change in behaviour or knowledge which has been very much lacking. But all is not lost.

To paraphrase Tengku Razaliegh one more time, each major crisis is either an important opportunity to transform the economy or a major setback to national ambitions. The question is whether our policy making or policy implementing apparatus is set up, motivated and ready to learn from the crisis. Ultimately it is a question of the capability of government and governance. While this may come across as a rather harsh reading, the reality is harsher. The recession is an opportunity for those who are ready to re-gear and retool their economies. It is a time for bold, imaginative steps. It’s time to light the fire under our feet to make transformative improvement in governance and politics.

We don’t just need another stimulus of another ‘package of spending here and there’. What we need is a chance to implement bold projects with an economic purpose and strategy behind them. It’s a once in a lifetime economic challenge and it needs to be met with a visionary sense of purpose. There is a crucial need to restore confidence in our basic institutions, in the political leadership, in the integrity of our administrative systems, in our implicit respect for the rule of law. With all of this in place, a confidence can and will emerge. Economic statistics are mere indicators of activities and expectations. Hence, with the fundamentals in place confidence will emerge renewed and restored and indicators will reflect that. In the words of another great philosopher form the East, Confucius, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Each step will naturally evolve into the next. And with every portion of the journey completed, the next portion becomes even more possible.

In life merely keeping up is moving backwards. The art of surviving is about thinking one step ahead. The art of preparation is about being at least two steps ahead. The art of success begins three steps ahead.

A Touchstone is a charm. Traditionally, it is carried around in the pocket and rubbed when one needs luck.  Starting this week, here is a touchstone to help understand, survive and perhaps even thrive in the current financial crisis that is affecting the world over.

Ancient Chinese saying – In every crisis, there is an opportunity.

We can all see the Crisis, but where is the Opportunity?

The world is in crisis right now. It is by no mistake that the Chinese letter/ hierologlyphic representing opportunity is the same as the one for crisis. In this current time of turmoil and economic depression the world markets are going into free fall, and amidst all these uncertainties, a climate of fear is shaking the foundation of most people’s lives as the companies they work for begin to tremble and in some cases, fall. The process however is nothing new, for mankind has gone through all this repeatedly on an almost cyclical basis since the ancient Egyptian/Indian civilisations. Then, it was nature that was the root cause, that in turn caused economic chaos with the advent of famine, flood, locusts, earthquakes and the like. There has been an economic holocaust in some way or other in almost every corner of the world periodically at every stage of civilisation. Usually though,  this is rarely felt even by their neighbours, let alone the world at large.  However in a world that has become a global village with every advance in technology, it is no wonder that this particular crisis this time around affects one and all.

However reverting to why the Chinese have the terms crisis and opportunity represented by the same hieroglyphic, one would have to go back historically.  Wherein, you will see that it is in these times of trial and tribulation, of crisis and destruction, both economic and otherwise that great fortunes have been made, great careers have taken off and, that leadership has been forged and where mankind has actually evolved onto greater heights by making a leap forward and onwards.  If one were to look at the last century as benchmark, then both the World Wars and the Great Depression were periods when the great media moguls and business barons built empires that have since spanned a century.

Historically, each period of crisis has precipitated a perio od great economic growth. The crash of 1929 for instance, was in a sense, a balancing that was long overdue.  Primarily because it was in the tail end of what was known as the Roaring Twenties. A decade where the world economies spun out of control resulting in a need for balance and the crash of ‘29 was about reversing the equilibrium; arguably thereby, initiating massive growth in its wake. The 1930s then saw the awakening of several economic powerhouses.  However, one cannot see too much of a parallel in this today because there were many other forces at play. Conceptually however, the ebb and flow of the economic tide is just a natural adjustment. On occasion, tsunamis can also happen.  This crisis is perhaps one that is long overdue. Economic pundits have been predicting it from the late 1990s onwards. The US based Ravi Batra’s famous prediction for one , where he expected a sharp rise in the US stock markets in the 1980s, followed by a cataclysmic drop and a depression in or around 1990 and later in 1999 in his book, Crash of the Millennium. A little later maybe, but still on course.

 So much for economic prattle. For the man on the street the basic issue of providing food, shelter and warmth for his family remains the same. Depending on one’s geographical location, this crisis will affect us all at different times and different levels of severity, but it WILL affect us all. So let’s get down to reality per se– that the fundamental asset of economic growth is and always will be the human capital. It is people that continue to make success out of nothing at all and it is people that are going to emerge from the crisis either as lions or sheep. If you choose to step back and let the economic tide carry you, then it is going to unceremoniously dump you high and dry on some barren outcropping. On the other hand if you choose to be a lion, then this crisis is the best possible time. It is the time to avail of all the skill sets, of the infrastructure, of all the technology, of the real estate that you could not or would not have dared to venture into 6 months ago because of cost or availability. This is the time to begin building upon for the next ten years.

People are still your primary assets and they have never been more accessible than in this period. In the world of micro-financing and network marketing for instance, this is the beginning of the Golden Era. While the world adjusts to its new economic climate, people still need the basic goods and services and what better way to get it across to them than via network marketing. Now better than ever, is the time to talk to people about how to change their lives. How to change their perspectives and their outlook because needs and desires have not changed, merely the ability to achieve them.  The methodologies that they have employed for a lifetime have now begun to stumble and even have crumbled.  Here is where a new paradigm shift needs to take place.  Here is where the network marketing industry can come into its own.  When the systems fail,  what better way can you rely upon, can you expound upon, can you build upon,  than just telling people that it’s all simply about people helping people to raise mankind.

 

A citizen's commitment to the country could amount to anything. It could be by finding political voice against a rampaging civic administration, exercising our vote or even encouraging private enterprise that deals with social inequities as a business and not through charity.

We live in a country that demands so little from our citizens.The least we can do is perform our civic duty. Only then can we make fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Societies have always searched for an ideology and an institutional framework to balance collective and private interests. In the last century this struggle played out as a confrontation between two clearly defined ideologies - communism and capitalism.

Capitalism may have grown, but capitalists themselves have started re-examining how to adopt themselves to the 21st Century. Capitalism is built on a few key principles -- entrepreneurship, innovation, investment and organisation are at the heart of capitalism. Investors,who finance the ideas of entrepreneurs to create business,deserve the benefit with returns commensurate with risks. Private property and the rule of law are paramount in such a system. Private enterprise,in a system of transparent transactions,can benefit consumers and provide incentives for business. Capitalism is usually associated with participative democracy. No one really questions these basic problems any longer. The practice of capitalism,however,has not been without problems,and must adopt itself to address these issues. Does capitalism short-change consumers, employees, suppliers and communities? Does it care about the poor and the disadvantaged?

Recently Bill Gates suggested that we should focus on creative capitalism that explicitly recognises the four billion poor and develops market-based solutions to help them.Capitalism can provide economically viable solution to social problems than engage in partisan debates.The debate must focus on solutions,not ideology.The focus should be on dealing with social inequalities as a business and not through make shift arrangements.Profitable business usually grow and sustain themselves.

Without a long-term,self-sustaining solution that reduces poverty,we are likely to create higher levels of inequality. No institution is an island. Private sector institutions are an integral part of society and cannot prosper without reorganising the social context within which they operate.India represents a unique opportunity for developing the practice of capitalism for the 21st century. It has a vibrant private sector and a participatory democracy.It also has inequalities,not just in incomes but also in terms of opportunities. If a country can find a way to make capitalism work by addressing problems of poverty illiteracy,inequalities,disease and subsistence agriculture while creating new opportunities for the poor and oppressed and vibrant business at the same time, the consequence are tremendous. A new nation can be built only with a fresh work ethic which combines discipline with creativity, passion with respect

Silence does not mean the end of speaking. It is not the end of anything. It is the beginning. A great man once said, it’s not so much the words you speak. But the silence in between them that give the fire to your message. Gives the passion to your message.  Silence is best because it allows you control.  Staying in silence for a day if one can manage it is an exercise that will test your will tremendously but leave u with a will to communicate and converse  with conviction.  The will to convince is a tremendous tool We see it all the time. Someone walks up to an individual and tries to convey to him, spends an hour unable to get through. Then someone else walks up to him, and in ten minutes manages to turn the person around. So is it the words, the logic or the language?

 

Or maybe its none of the above. Maybe it is the pause of the conviction that he is able to carry in the same words that his predecessor has used and failed. That force of conviction comes from within. An energy that is invisible, indecipherable, but incisive, impactful, without leaving a tangible mark on both the speaker and the listener. Sitting in the audience when great ones have spoken is something people carry for a lifetime. It leaves an impact not just in the eardrums but in the mid. It changes the way you choose to live your life in an instant.  Hearing Gandhi or Martin Luther King or Mother Tersa, JFK or  Mandela, all of them have left an indelible mark on our history and will continue to leave their mark for eons to come. Their words continue to echo and reverberate in far distant lands from whence it was spoken and there is no accounting for that resonance. For  that power. For that majesty.

The common threads holding Asia are its values and work ethic, making it very attractive for the West to do business here. Businessman Vijay Eswaran analyses why we must capitalize on these strengths.

The world is today service oriented and the service industry is going to shape the face of the planet. The Asian ethos is best suited for it because of its disciplined work ethic.

 

‘Service’ is most fundamentally an Eastern or Asian concept than it ever has been Western. The concept of ‘service’ is something that is ingrained in our culture and traditions. It is the heritage of the Asian continent.

 

The reason that Asia is best suited for the service industry is because we are a people oriented culture. Asian culture and ethos is more people-driven than comparative cultures in the West, which tend to be more individualistic. Team work, communal efforts, working with others, and deriving benefit from it, is intrinsic to the Asian culture.

 

The changes in the service industries, from call centres to outsourcing, which today has created the multimillion dollar BPO industry, with decentralisation as the key word, Asia will evolve into a service hub and that will be the new theme of the new millennium.

 

The Asian work ethos has always evolved in a different way from the other continents, even while sharing similar agrarian backgrounds with Africa and South America. It has, still, retained an essential difference. The European and North American continents have undergone gradual, but significant changes over the last 5 centuries.

 

The gradual migration that happened after the industrial revolution basically developed this mindset of mechanisation, very essential to the industrial revolution of North America and Europe. The craftsmanship that evolved from a purely agrarian platform into designing, tooling and manufacturing, redesigned a whole new breed of people that eventually began to permeate every strata of society.

 

The farmer, who was the main core of the agrarian culture, was relegated to the bottom of the heap. The process of industrialisation diluted certain agrarian social strengths. This process resulted in individualization. Craftsmanship became more and more apprentice- oriented, and instead of a whole family farming together, you now had two strangers doing it, and the thought process moving towards specialization. 

 

In Asia, however, the farmer and the peasants who worked the farmlands, had to make the migration at a far greater speed. An entire generation, a lost generation if you like, was formed towards the mid-19^th through the end of the 20^th Century, throughout different parts of Asia. This ‘lost generation’ saw the leap forward, which however cosmetic, it may have been on the surface, was still not enough to change mindsets of the people. It resulted in them having the mentality of an agrarian farmer, but with the working environment of a manufacturing-driven society.

 

It was a mindset which allowed people to treat their work as they would till the soil. The mundane monotony of mechanization did not frustrate them, neither did it deter them. They went to work with a gusto.

 

When mechanization resulted in mass production, such as in the case of the automobile industry revolutionized by Henry Ford in USA, the impact on Asia was stunning. It enabled the Japanese to make a leap forward because they were able to perfect their craftsmanship and reduce the cost of manufacturing even lower. What you had in the 1960s and the 1970s was a Toyota car produced at one quarter the cost of an American comparative make, but at equal if not better quality. What the Japanese lost in terms of not having the equal or more technical superiority, they made up for, in terms of greater versatility and improvement, adapting the car for the mass. This basic cloning of the latest technology from the West gave Japan impetus in its industrial movement that was incomparable.

 

What we had then was a feudal society with feudal practices and mindsets that evolved into full-blown mechanical, industrialized society. This advantage gave us a work ethic, a work culture that was discipline-driven.

 

This analysis is not to show Asian society as being feudal. The reference to the feudal origins is to prove that it is because of the intrinsic discipline, respecting one’s work as one would respect the land that one tilled, brought about this obedience and self-discipline, which enabled a better work force in Asia. A competent work force which was dedicated and could work long hours. This has brought Japan, Korea, Taiwan, eventually Hong Kong, and today China and India to where they are in the global economy.

 

The Asian work ethos has been about putting together shoulders and surviving as a unit. It is best seen in the hill slopes of Java, and in the Philippines where farmers have fought the odds, cut crevices in the hills, creating terraced farming to grow rice. They overcome them challenges and triumphed over them.

 

What do people come to Asia for? Although beaches are similar everywhere whether in Miami or in the Maldives or Malaysia, the spirit of service is certainly not. The service that one receives in Bali and Thailand, most of Vietnam, Laos, and the rest of the Pacific Rim, is legendary. The concept of service, the ability of the Asian work ethos to embrace and not look upon it condescendingly, is the strength that we can draw upon. This is something that is universal from Japan, all the way across towards India.

 

This is why the lure of Bali, Phuket, Koh Samui, Malaysia, Singapore, the Maldives, is stronger, as opposed to more exotic destinations such as Hawaii, Grand Canyon, Vienna, Venice and the like.

 

Another strong factor binding Asia together is the spiritual connection. Asia is the religious hub of the world. Every major religion known to mankind comes from Asia, from Palestine to India. What strength does that convey? The religions that came from Asia traversed the entire globe, and are now in every corner of the world. If that is not a demonstration of our ability to network with each other, what is? This ability is going to be our strength in the new millennium.

 

Asian countries have many commonalities. The thriving sea routes and overland silk routes have bound us together historically, so much so that there are no real cultural conflicts in Asia, of the kind that are there in the European continent. The commonality is in language, food, in music and the religions. Although we don’t look alike, unlike one half of the African continent, or the South American people and the Indians, Chinese, Malay, and Asiatic races are different, the commonality comes from our approach towards relationships that have been there since the time of the Chinese and the Indian sea farers.

 

Whether or not legal trade agreements ever come into place, whether or not ASEAN works or doesn’t, whether a body like the European Union is ever formed in Asia, we are already there, in a sense. It does not need any government impetus to bring Indians to Malaysia or Malaysians to India, or Singaporeans to China and Chinese to Singapore. If the restrictions were taken off, the flow would be that much faster. The only issues preventing Asia from working together arise from political and social economic differences, which have created artificial barriers. If not, I believe, we would very subtly, silently, but surely, merge to one. And that strength is generally what one does not see from the outside.

 

So, the strength that we will be able to cultivate is the fact that our ability to interact with each other is much more stronger, much more powerful, in Asia than in any other continent. Asian weddings typically compromise of 1000 people at the very least. For a many Europeans and North Americans, having 20 people would make it a big wedding. This defines how people in Asia relate to one another. Nearly two thirds of the world lives in Asia and the mass of humanity that throngs Asia makes us thrive amongst each other.

 

It only makes sense that Asia will represent the next Millennium. But only if we do not get too westernised, not get decimated in our thinking, not get distilled. This will be the true strength of Asia, traversing the future and becoming the true Asian millennium. As the Roman Empire once stretched across most of the known world, followed by that of Genghis Khan, the new Millenium will be then that of an Asian millennium with globalization being the impetus of growth. Then the question is not where Asia is, the question is where Asia is not.

 

This is not a book for someone sitting on a rock contemplating on a lotus pond.  Not for someone who is retiring into a forest and walking the path of zen. This is not a self realization book and not meant for spiritual upliftment of mankind.

This is a day-to-day manual that can be used to create a dossier of one’s own progress thru life. The objective is to stop, think, reflect, introspect. It's is meant to question, challenge the standards that we have become accustomed to. We have allowed ourselves to fall into somewhat of a trap by allowing our habits to dictate our destiny from thought to word, word to deed, deed to habit, habit to character, character to destiny.

The objective of the book is to break the process at the very onset, when at the thinking stage. If thought is the architect of your destiny, then it’s the thought that needs to be the force of change. Its thought that needs to be addressed and challenged.

As we grow in material gains, acquiring various trappings of wealth, we are trapped, ensnared, and locked by it. We don’t seem to be able to get out of this comfort zone. Hence, the process of this book is designed to challenge it.

In essence, the book is designed to look simplistic and designed uniquely in a fashion that is meant to attract the reader's attention and draw him to every page. It's with this in mind that the words and the phrases used are all designed for a  specific purpose, to stop one in their tracks. The attempt here is not so much to overload the individual with information, but to make him find his own solutions within himself. It is my position per se that all of us have answers that are unique and specifically designed for our position in life. These answers though are sometimes very clearly in front of us, usually completely overlooked if not ignored. It’s the purpose of the book to search and find these answers ourselves. Atleast to begin the process that would lead the process.

Answers change, day to day as it were. If it does not, by then, by definition we have not changed. Our ability to analyse, assess and apply these answers in day to day life grows as we grow. Hence, the answers to these problems, appear different to different people. These answers have many levels of understanding and many levels of application. And this process is something that engages you at every level.

Life is not just in colors…its in hues.  Therein lies each of us, the answer within each of us. The quest to these answers actually leads to us asking better questions. And that would be the ultimate purpose of this book.

In essence all of us have an internal source of energy. Something that we acknowledge in many ways. Eastern culture refers to as 'Qi'. In Sanskrit it is referred to as 'Prana'.   It’s a mental/physical/spiritual energy source. Its an internal balance that this energy source creates. This internal balance is between the kinetic and potential, the yin and yang, the negative and positive, the shiva and shakti in Hinduism. This balance of energy is found within us. The sphere of silence forces one to basically tap into this energey and build up its reserves in a way. Its an application of self discipline everyday.  Keeping silent for one hour , we are forced to communicate with oneself.  This helps us get in touch with ourselves instead of living in a façade.

 
We create this artificial barrier between who we are and who we want the world to perceive us to be. We walk around with this mask, assuming the face behind the mask in reality is the mask itself. Here I refer to the masquerade that one is forced to put up to live in the social strata. The three essential questions we have to ask every day:

1. Who we are?
2. Where we are?
3. Where are we going?

 
We need to ask these questions everyday because the answer to these change everyday. The process of analysis helps keep us very much in touch with ourselves. In this process we build up the inner "Chi", the strength in action, the versatility in language.

 
The application of this doesn’t have an immediate or direct  objective. If one doesn’t even achieve the objective just the process of trying everyday is enough because you have embarked on the journey. There is no such thing as the proper time or proper place. There is no waiting for the right time. It must be done everyday, like breathing.  It is the trying that makes all the difference. Eventually, there are people without trying very hard, simply by virtue of their being manage to achieve an hour a day. They actually gain from the process can be lead. The trying is fundamental to the change.

Someone who managed one hour is maybe ahead mentally, physically, spiritually to someone who managed 20 mins a day.  But to someone to who this comes easily, is not growing. For someone who struggles to do this 20 mins, is pushing oneself and hence the percentage of growth is higher.

You cannot define the process by the  1 hour or the 21 days. But define it by how much of a struggle it is for you. Hence, naturally the process of struggling against oneself , however mediocre it may seem to the rest of the planet, is what is important.

I don’t lay any claim to the originality of the process. Something that I acquired gratefully…….. its a labour of love to take it across the planet. The effect it had on my life. By making it a process that I could share with others.