— Nivedita Kashyap

Multiple Meanings of Democracy: Citizen Voices From Across the World

By: Nivedita
07-12-2011
culture

17:00 to 18:30, 6th December, Bangalore

The Globalbarometer Survey measures public opinions on democracy through surveying of ordinary people. The goals of the Globalbarometer are:

  1. To generate a worldwide base of scientifically reliable and comparable data on public opinion about democracy, prosperity, and human security.
  2. To strengthen institutional capacity for survey research in all participating countries.
  3. To disseminate survey results to popular and policy audiences.

The executive board meeting of the Globalbarometer survey on 6th & 7th December is hosted by Jain University. The Centre for Research in Social Sciences and Education (Jain University) along with Centre for Public Policy at IIMB hosted an event to share the findings of the various surveys conducted all over the world with academics in the city. The panel of experts consisted of representatives of different barometers (regions) within the survey.

The panel consisted of:

  1. Prof. Yogendra Yadav, CSDS, Delhi (Moderator)
  2. Prof. Robert Mattes, representing the Afrobarometer, from South Africa
  3. Dr. Yun Han Chu, representing the East Asia barometer, from Taiwan
  4. Prof. Christian W Haerpfer, representing the Eurasia barometer, from the UK
  5. Prof. Mohammed Al Masri, representing the Arab barometer, from Jordan
  6. Dr. Marta Lagos, – representing Latinobarmetro, from Chile

Each panelist spoke about the results of the survey from their region. The two survey questions common across all regions were:

  1. The open ended question: What does democracy mean to you?
  2. Respondents were asked to rate three political issues (like Political rights, fair elections etc.) & economic issues (development, social mobility etc.) as essential, important & not important

The answers depended on the history & context of the country where the survey was conducted. It was found in Africa that those who thought economic issues were more important are far less likely to agree with the ideals of democracy. Prof. Mattes paraphrased Joseph Schumpeter – people support any regime which provides the common goods.

In the Arab survey, they found close to 30,000 different definitions for democracy. About 70-80% of Arabs are in favor of democracy & not in favor of technocrats or authoritarianism. 20-30% of Arabs, mostly in Saudi Arabia are in favor of a system based on Sharia law.

Prof. Haerper spoke about democracy in former Soviet Union. People in ex-USSR are only just getting used to the freedom – free market economy, freedom from unlawful arrest, freedom of association & even the freedom to travel freely. The absence of communism, state planning & the KGB is a basis for democracy in the region & it will take years for the ideals of democracy to take root.

The Latinobarometro results showed that each of the 18 countries surveyed have 18 different ideas of Democracy. Nicaragua has been under the same party almost continuously from 1979 & yet Nicaraguans consider their country democratic. Guatemala however does not consider their country democratic; Dr. Lagos says it is because of the discrimination against the 50% of indigenous Mayan speaking Guatemalans.

Prof. Yadav concluded that democracy should expand to cover a range of human aspirations instead of just confirming to checklist of ideas.

The Globalbarometer is in the process of putting together & consolidating the results from across the world.

The event was incredibly timely. I am involved in research studies at work which follow the survey methodology and the discussion about the difficulties of capturing certain ideas in a survey resonated with me. The surveys prove beyond doubt that multiple variations of democracy exist & foisting one idea over the other is just wrong.

The panel was truly international, having a representative from every major region of the world (except the US & western Europe – indeed it was a refreshing change to listen to a panel without them).  The highlight for me came after the session. I spoke with Dr. Lagos about the Fujimoris & democracy in Peru – probably my first in-person discussion about politics in Peru after returning to Bangalore.

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The 2011 Think Fest

By: Nivedita
20-11-2011
culture

Just a little note here that I was at the Think Fest organized by Tehelka & Newsweek in Goa, 1-3 November. The talks which I attended:

  1. Mani Shankar Aiyar & Pervez Hoodbhoy in conversation with Barkha Dutt : Seven ways to save Pakistan. My favorite session at Think.
  2. Omar Abdullah with Barkha Dutt: Omar Abdullah has the most difficult job in India.
  3. Frank Gehry & Thomas Pritzker : Where Frank Gehry spoke about his buildings and was very endearing.
  4. Arvind Kejriwal & Shekhar Singh : It was all about the Jan Lokpal bill, obviously. Watching them, I felt like I was watching TV.
  5. Sam Pitroda‘s keynote: Made more significant because of my work for the Karnataka Knowledge Commission,
  6. Esther Duflo & Abhijit Banerjee: I expected a lot more from the talk having seen Duflo’s TED talk but the conversation was mostly about a chapter from their book, Poor Economics. I did get Poor Economics signed by them though.
  7. Biophysicist Gregory Stock & cardiologist Naresh Trehan: Where they had quite an argument about the future of genetic engineering.
  8. Amir Khan & Tarun Tejpal: Fanboy interview with Amir.
  9. Shukria Barakazai (Afghan MP), William Darlymple & Christopher Dickey (Newsweek Correspondent): Where they spoke about Democracy & Afghanistan. Shukria’s story was fascinating (video here). The context was Darlymple’s book about the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1939 and the parallels with the current conflict in Afghanistan. Great connections between historical & contemporary events made throughout the conversation.
  10. Pavan Sukhdev: Introduced to his work at Think, banker who’s turned environmentalist. Believes  protecting environment is good for the GDP.  Influential ex-bankers who speak for the environment is a good thing.
  11. Pavan Varma &  Ashis Nandy with Tarun Tejpal:  Where they spoke about the most persistent mistakes we Indians make.

Talks I wish I could have attended: This one & This one.

Tehelka was spot on in their attempt to get disparate ideas on one stage. The event was entertaining, thought provoking & went perfectly on schedule. I could not ask for more.

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Feeds and WordPress

By: Nivedita
08-10-2011
wordpress

I am trying to pull in some of my feeds (flickr, last.fm, youtube, tumblr etc.) for display on my wordpress page.  I seem to have the following options to do so:

  1. Use service specific plugins: This method involves the least bit of effort. All one needs to do is find a plugin which parses the RSS feed of a particular service and gives me a hook to put into the page template. FlickRSS is a good one for Flickr. The trouble is, not all services have well written plugins for their feeds. Which leaves me with options 2 & 3 for the remaining services.
  2. Use a generic plugin:  Use a generic RSS fetching plugin for WordPress (like Feedlist) which can grab any RSS feed. These plugins however display only the URL of the data and do not format the content based on the content type. For example, only URLs to Flickr photos or Youtube videos are displayed instead of photo or video thumbnails. The plugin has to be modified for each feed.
  3. Use the WordPress function fetch_feed which uses SimplePie for feed retrieval. A custom function has to be written for each feed type. I prefer this to option 2 because if I need to edit PHP I might as well use  a WordPress function directly instead of using a plugin.
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Peru playlist

By: Nivedita
20-07-2011
culture, music, peru

I am making a Playlist of Peruvian dance and music meant mainly for my friends at home and for me when I feel saudade for Peru.

The playlist as it stands now:

  1. Chabuca Grande – One of the most popular Peruvian singers, she created and interpreted a vast number of Criollo waltzes with Afro-Peruvian rhythms
  2. Adictos al Bidet – Lima based ska group
  3. La Sarita – Their sound is alternative hard rock fused with a latin flavor, peruvian folkloric music and afroperuvian sounds. La Sarita have a huge underground following in Latin America. Cariñito is a very popular Peruvian folk song. Saw them live in  Ayacucho, Peru, April 2010
  4. Novalima – Founded by four friends from Lima with a shared passion for traditional Afro-Peruvian music and modern DJ culture, Novalima searches for the common ground between past and future, between tradition and innovation. Saw them live at Dragon de Barranco, Lima, Peru, April 2010
  5. Huayño from Huancavelica.
  6. Danza de las tijeras – Folk dance from the south of the Andes
  7. Cumbia / Huayño mix - The first few songs are Peruvian Cumbias, music popular in the coast and in the Amazon part of Peru and the last 2 are huayños, music from the mountains
  8. Eva Ayllón – A very popular contemporary Afro-Peruvian musician
  9. Dina Paucar – Popular huayño singer
  10. Chacalon – A very popular Peruvian singer and musician. ‘Soy Provinciano’  is one of his classics
  11. Bareto - A very popular peruvian band that plays a fusion between Peruvian folk music, ska, cumbia, and other latin rhythms. Saw them live at Festival de la Vendimia, Ica, Peru, March 2010
  12. Susana Baca (Toro Mata) – Toro Mata is a song influenced by Afro-Peruvian musical styles (this song is classified as a landó), and over the years, has become a popular anthem for Peru. A dance of “Toro Mata” also developed, which mocks and parodies the stylized waltzes of European conquistadores.
  13.  Marinera: National dance of Peru
  14. La Mente: Mixes dub reggae, dancehall and Amazonian cumbia, merging them with electronic beats into a style they call “electropical”. Saw them live at Sergento Pimienta, Barranco, Lima, March 2010

 

 

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Easter weekend in Ayacucho

By: Nivedita
24-04-2011
culture, peru, travel

I spent Easter Weekend in Ayacucho last year. Ayacucho is off the gringo trail (Lonely planet’s must-see tourist trail) and around the year very few travelers (compared to Cusco or Arequipa) visit Ayacucho. That, however, changes come Easter weekend. The town’s easter celebration is said to be one of the grandest in Peru. Plus, the days between crucifixion and resurrection are supposed to be a period when sins do not exist and hence an excuse to party like crazy (at least, thats what my friends from Lima told me, but it’s not like they need an excuse to party like crazy so I’m not sure if this is actually true).

I had decided to go to Arequipa first, spend a few days trekking the world’s deepest canyon there and then go to Ayacucho in time for the easter weekend. This was not very convenient because

  1. There was no direct route from Arequipa to Ayacucho because the cities lie in the Andes. Not highway friendly.
  2. I needed to double back from Arequipa almost until Lima before getting the exit on the panamericana to Ayacucho.

But I decided to do it anyway.

Lima - Arequipa - Ayacucho

I left Arequipa on a Wednesday night bus and I reached Pisco Thursday morning after a night long bus journey (including a 3 hour stop to unsuccessfully repair the AC on the bus and a snoring co-passenger which made sleep impossible (Peru and Bolivia’s buses are a blog post in itself)). I caught one of the many colectivos (informal buses) and haggled with the driver until he got the price down to 30 soles for an 8 hour drive (which was what I was told it would cost).

We started around 11 in the morning after the colectivo filled up. The journey was one of the most beautiful road trips I have ever been on. Central Peru (Huancayo, Huancavelica, Ayacucho, Abancay) is an area I would love to go back and explore. This area is relatively untouched by the crazy tourism of south Peru, partly because until early 2000s this area was affected by the worst of the Sendero Luminoso violence.

So after crossing pastures dotted with llamas and alpacas, green mountains and the occasional waterfall (and a lunch of corn and cheese – Andean staple!) I reached Ayacucho city (capital of Ayacucho province) around 5 in the evening. The city seemed too full of people after my morning journey.

Friday morning was spent just walking around Ayacucho’s main square and bumping into friends from Lima. By evening, people were dressed in black and were carrying candles to mourn the crucifixion. The bible was read in Quechua (the language sounds absolutely beautiful) and the body of jesus was carried around the main square by the town’s elite (like how Indian religious processions are conducted by priests, though this one did include women who were carrying an idol of  the Virgin Mary).

Saturday was in complete contrast with Friday. There was a bull run in the morning and after that the entire town joined the visitors in a proper juerga on the main square. We stayed up the entire night for Sunday morning’s spectacular resurrection procession which included a huge pyramid of candles  (any searches for easter weekend in Ayacucho will bring up  this image).

The town treats this is an occasion to welcome outsiders and to celebrate with them. Ayacucho has a lot more to offer – remains of pre-Incan settlements, museums, arts & crafts (like this retablo), old colonial homes and churches, plenty of walks and treks and a very different side of Peru.

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Learning languages

By: Nivedita
12-04-2011
culture, language, spanish

I started Spanish classes sometime early 2007.  The classes used to be 6 hours a week and each level was around 70/80 hours. I then did two levels more, so by the end of 2007 I had about  200 hours of classroom Spanish study. I then took a long break (to travel New Zealand) and in the middle of 2008 I decided I want to pick up my Spanish education where I’d left it.

However, I knew by then that though classroom studying gave me a basic idea of how the language was structured and how the grammar worked, it got me nowhere close to actually speaking the language nor understand spoken Spanish. So even though I joined intermediate classes in Spanish back in Bangalore, I started looking online for more effective ways (at least for me) to learn Spanish.

The language learning blogosphere has it’s own little niche with *plenty* of advice for language learners. Most recommend immersion (being surrounded by the language) as the best way to learn a language. Now, the chances of finding a Spanish immersion environment  in Bangalore are probably worse than finding a bar in Bangalore which does not play rock music.

So until I found a way to buy my tickets to South America I needed to create an immersion environment for myself here in Bangalore. By then, I’d found Coffee Break Spanish and Arvind had got me the Michel Thomas series and I’d figured out that I learn best when I listen to Spanish being taught or just generally spoken. That was around the time I had a total commute time of 3 hours to work. That proved to be a blessing in disguise. I used to listen to Spanish podcasts during the commute and then as my classes taught me more grammar I moved on to podcasts intended for Spanish *native* speakers (like Hablemos de Cine an excellent podcast by a Mexican and Peruvian about Cinema).

Flashforward to October 2009, I had a job in Lima working for an e-business company and I could finally move to a जीता, जागता (living, breathing) Spanish immersion environment. I won’t deny that the first couple of months were tough, Peruvians talk really fast and Lima has it’s own slang – vocabulary that I’d never heard before. I had no choice but to speak Spanish at my workplace and I also had in mind the dire warnings in a blog I used to read about the perils of hanging out only with English speaking expats and not using Spanish enough and staying an armchair spanish learner for the rest of your life.

Also, it helped a lot that I was in love with South American culture and that Peruvians are really patient and friendly and not snooty at all. By the end of my year in Lima I was quite happy with the way I spoke and understood the language.

I am back in Bangalore now and apart from missing Peru, I also miss speaking regularly in Spanish. I do interpretation for visiting Spanish speaking businesses  sometimes but it’s just not the same. I miss my friends,  the endless talks over chela (slang for beer) and the fiestas and even the kombis of Lima.

To keep in touch with Spanish and through it, to keep in touch with the culture I left behind, I still read, listen and teach Spanish. A side effect of this has been a general interest in learning new languages, I do French-Spanish intercambio (exchange)  with a friend I met through my student and I’m always on the lookout to do a Portuguese intercambio.

For me, learning a new language has been like broadening my senses to a new world and to a new way of thinking. To quote AJATT (another favorite language blog) you don’t learn a language, you get used to it. And the pleasure I get being able to have a conversation with my Spanish speaking friends in their language is worth all the work I’ve put into learning it.

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DELE 2011

By: Nivedita
21-03-2011
language, spanish

The DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a foreign language) for 2011 is coming up in May. The exam offers 6 different levels of certification of proficiency in Spanish as recommended by the CEFR.

If you want to take a quick check on which level you’d fit in, use this online test provided by the virtual classroom of Instituto Cervantes. At the end of about 60 questions (it took me around half hour to finish it) you’ll have an idea where you stand.

Prueba de Nivel

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Amen, Brother

By: Nivedita
30-01-2011
culture, music

Yesterday I went to Bacchus to see two electronica acts perform.

The second act was by a DJ who used so much drum loop from the song “Amen, Brother” that it felt like an episode of the powerpuff girls.

The “Amen Break” as the drum loop is called, is 5.20 seconds long and performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit, The Winstons. I recognise the Amen Break only because of this brilliant 2004 video by Nate Harrison.

Powerpuff girls uses the Amen Break in it’s credits theme.

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