The single digit growth of 7 per cent year-on-year registered by China’s exports sector in August will cause embarrassment for Beijing which is slated to hold its 20th National Congress meet next month. Though it is almost certain that the powers of the 69 year old Xi Jinping, the country’s President will be enhanced while awarding another five year term to him, the slowing down of the exports sector, one of the pillars of the country’s economic growth, along with the battered real estate sector have led to discontent.
“Though Xi will remain in power, as anticipated, the voices of dissent are rising,” an analyst who has worked in China told India Narrative. Xi’s zero Covid approach has also come under the scanner with a large number of citizens showing their displeasure over his pandemic policies.
Covid related widespread lockdowns in several parts of the country in April and May too impacted the exports sector. In April, the sector grew only 3.9 per cent.
In August, Chinese exports to the US witnessed a decline of 3.8 per cent. In July China’s outbound shipment to the US grew by 11 per cent.
In another major blow to China, the US is looking at imposing stringent export restrictions of semiconductor, used for artificial intelligence and chip making equipment. The move will impact its manufacturing sector. Earlier this year, the Commerce Department in the US already communicated to three companies — KLA Corp., Lam Research Corp., and Applied Materials Inc. to restrict supply. But now the Biden administration is looking to come out with a new set of rules to curb exports.
China, touted as the world’s factory, has been the largest exporter of goods since 2009.
In July, China’s export sector registered an 18 per cent growth.
The South China Morning Post in a recent report said that exports have been a major anchor for China’s economic growth for years, “and their prolonged deceleration could threaten to further stymie the country’s already sputtering economy amid rising global inflation and recession risks.”
When it comes to any terrorism related issue, Pakistan insists on taking the high moral ground and never tires of repeatedly reminding the world about its participation in the most extensive war against terror in history. Thus, herein lies the paradox because ever since 2018, the name of this self-anointed crusader against terrorism continues to figure in the grey list of international terrorism financing monitoring watchdog, Financial Action Task Force [FATF].
Unfortunately, rather than taking necessary actions to address the serious concerns expressed by FATF and end the ignominy of being clubbed with countries like Syria, Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, Uganda and Yemen, Pakistan continues soft pedalling when it comes to curbing terror financing activities. What’s even more astonishing is that in order to mislead its own people, Islamabad merrily accuses FATF of “politicisation” and portrays itself as a hapless victim of international intrigue.
While Islamabad’s ridiculous claim of FATF being ‘politicised’ is indeed laughable, its puerile actions intended to hoodwink FATF are downright hilarious. Have you noticed that very FATF meeting in which Pakistan’s status is scheduled to be reviewed is invariably preceded by the announcement of what can aptly be described as countrywide [and of late, international] ‘terrorist hunting’ season? A few examples:
Just before its February 2020 meet, FATF was told by Islamabad that that Jaish-e-Mohammad [JeM] founder Masood Azhar living in Pakistan and had been listed as an “international terrorist” by the United Nations Security Council in May 2019, was “untraceable”.
For 27 years, Pakistan repeatedly denied that an Indian national named Dawood Ibrahim who had masterminded the gruesome 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts had been provided a safe sanctuary in Pakistan. However, in its 2020 list of designated terrorists released shortly before the October 2020 FATF meet, Islamabad not only included Dawood’s name but also mentioned the details of his residential address and passport. It later contended that despite his name appearing in Islamabad’s list of designated terrorists, Dawood wasn’t present in Pakistan.
Shortly before the 2022 FATF meet, Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] co-founder Hafiz Saeed and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind was purportedly interned in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail after being awarded a prison term on terror funding charges. However, an inadvertent disclosure by an Inspector General of Police after a car bomb attack near Saeed’s house revealed that instead of being in jail, the Mumbai attack mastermind was present at his residence!
With FATF scheduled to meet shortly, Islamabad has once again declared ‘terrorist hunting’ season open. This time the quarry is JeM founder Masood Azhar who masterminded the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the 2019 suicide car bombing of a bus in carrying paramilitary force personnel in Pulwama [Kashmir].
However, the then chief of Pakistan Army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] Major General Asif Ghafoor outrightly denied Azhar’s presence in Pakistan in a rather curious and non-committal manner by saying that “Jaish-e-Mohammed does not exist in Pakistan. It has been proscribed by the United Nations and Pakistan also.”
Islamabad is now claiming that Azhar is hiding in Afghanistan. News reports appearing in Pakistani media have quoted “a top official privy to the development” as saying that “We have written a one-page letter to Afghan foreign ministry, asking them to locate, report and arrest Masood Azhar, as we believe that he is hiding somewhere in Afghanistan.” However, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has not only outrightly rubbished Islamabad’s allegation but also confirmed that Islamabad has not made any such request with regards to the JeM chief.
One can always question the veracity of the Taliban spokesperson’s claim of Azhar not being present in Afghanistan. However, his observation that “Such organisations [JeM] can operate on Pakistan’s soil – and even under official patronage,” [Emphasis added], merits due deliberation, because the Taliban spokesperson is speaking from personal experience. After all, didn’t Rawalpindi secretly host the Afghan Taliban on its soil for nearly a decade?
Remember former US president Donald Trump’s 2018 “They [Pakistan Army] give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan” tweet [Emphasis added]?
One may laugh at the unending litany of ridiculous excuses being made by Islamabad to conceal the reality that its inability to comply with FATF’s observations stems from its enduring honeymoon with terrorist groups. However, the international community’s stoic silence on Pakistan’s brazen perfidy on the issue of combating terror is certainly no laughing matter. In fact, it’s global apathy towards Pakistan’s ‘running with the hare and hunting with the hounds’ approach to terrorism that’s further emboldening Rawalpindi!
Four years ago, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [OCHCR] released a “Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir: Developments in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir from June 2016 to April 2018.” Though it painted a dismal picture regarding the human rights situation in J&K, this document nevertheless failed to evoke any meaningful concerns from the international community, because of its near complete reliance on unsubstantiated inputs.
However, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its press release 193/2018 stated, “Pakistan welcomes the proposal by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a Commission of Inquiry for international investigation into human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir [IoK].” While Pakistan’s Foreign Office [FO] has all the rights to express its views, however bizarre they may be, but using rhetoric to take liberties with facts only exposes Islamabad’s puerile attempts to salvage its tottering Kashmir narrative.
So, while Pakistan’s FO has cunningly referred to J&K as “Indian Occupied Kashmir”, the fact of the matter is the very OCHRC report that it so warmly “welcomes” clearly mentions this region as the “Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir” [Emphasis added]. So, once the UN unambiguously accepts J&K as an integral part of India, isn’t it high time Islamabad realised that just shouting from rooftops won’t make J&K “Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir”.
Nevertheless, solely for the sake of taking this argument to its logical conclusion, let’s for a moment accept that the 2018 OCHRC report inciting New Delhi for human rights excesses in J&K is correct. While discussing this issue, everyone will unanimously agree that the universally accepted “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” idiom should hold good both for J&K as well as Pakistan occupied Kashmir [PoK]. But the problem is that Islamabad wants to both eat the cake and have it too!
While demanding that the international community should haul New Delhi over coals for alleged human rights allegation in J&K, Islamabad has, by saying, “References to human rights concerns in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan should in no way be construed to create a false sense of equivalence with the gross and systematic human rights violations in IoK,” [sic], adroitly used its characteristic bombast to try and seek immunity from being pilloried for its human rights abuses in PoK!
On fast-forwarding to the present, one finds that Islamabad doesn’t seem to have learnt any lessons from its disastrous diplomatic post Article 370 abrogation campaign.
While it may boast of having been able to get UNSC to discuss the Kashmir issue, but the absence of any resolutions supporting Pakistan’s untenable claims on J&K is a clear indicator that its contrived Kashmir narrative has no takers. Furthermore, by boldly announcing that it would approach the International Court of Justice on the Article 370 abrogation issue and then shying away from doing so, Islamabad has wrecked its own feeble case on Kashmir!
Realising that the ‘Kashmir stick’ which it was using for seven and a half decades to beat New Delhi with, is no longer available, Shehbaz Sharif has nimbly picked up the subtle art of whipping up Islamophobia from his predecessor Imran Khan and is fully exploiting the same to divert public attention from the abysmal performance of his government.
Islamabad seems to be so disturbed by delusions of alleged “genocide” in Kashmir and about Muslims being “subjugated” in India, that for Sharif, ameliorating the hardships of the flood affected Pakistanis has become a secondary issue. However, despite the recently released UN report titled “OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China,” which provides undisputable evidence of religious persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China, Islamabad has still come out in support of Beijing’s state sponsored “sinicisation of Islam” pogrom.
The OHCHR report mentions of how “Religious activities are allowed only in Government-approved locations, conducted by Government-accredited personnel, and on the basis of Government-approved teachings and publications.” It also reveals that “Religious activity is strictly prohibited in “state institutions, schools of national education, public institutions and other places” and that “children are not allowed to participate in religious activities.”
Despite the UN report clearly mentioning that “The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups [by China] … may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” by stating that “Pakistan believes in the principles of the UN Charter including respect for political independence, sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs of states,” Pakistan has not only turned a blind eye to brazen Islamophobia in China but has shamelessly come out in support of Beijing.
Islamabad may cantankerously voice its grave concerns regarding alleged ‘persecution’ of Muslims not only in Kashmir but entire India. However, by classifying institutional religious subjugation of Uyghur Muslims through China’s 2014 “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism”, as Beijing’s internal matter, Islamabad has only further confirmed that for monetary considerations, it is more than willing to make exceptions in its global campaign against Islamophobia.
No wonder, when it comes to the issue of standing up against Islamophobia, leave alone the international community, even Islamic nations don’t take Pakistan seriously!
Though reassuring, New Delhi’s recent statement that both India and China have “agreed on disengagement in the area of Gogra-Hot Springs [PP-15]” doesn’t mean that existing perceptional differences regarding alignment of the Line of Actual Control [LAC] between the two countries has been resolved. Nor does it in any way imply that Beijing would hereafter concentrate on mending fences with New Delhi by adopting a more constructive approach rather than maintaining a belligerent stance.
There may also be varying opinions regarding the import of this “disengagement”. While some may hail it as a positive diplomatic development, there would certainly be others who would dismiss it as something inconsequential- citing the duplicitous “Hindi-Chini Bhai, Bhai” [Indians and Chinese are brothers] slogan made by Beijing before attacking India in 1962. However, analysts across the spectrum would agree that the chances of China’s People’s Liberation Army [PLA] using physical force to assert its point of view on the boundary issue with India are now indeed very slim.
However, the Indian army’s professional response proved that Beijing’s assessment was flawed. Instead of being unsettled by PLA’s confrontational actions and indulging in knee-jerk reactions, the India army instead adopted a mature strategy, aptly defined by Indian army’s former Director General of Military Operations [DGMO] Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia as one of ‘No blinking- no brinkmanship’. So, while it sagaciously opted not to escalate violence levels after the Galwan clash, by occupying strategic heights on the Kailash range, it unambiguously demonstrated a firm resolve to counter PLA’s brazen bellicosity.
Braving the near-arctic climatic conditions prevailing in Ladakh for two years , the Indian army has not only firmly stood its ground but even inducted additional forces for stemming any misadventure by the PLA. While effecting quantum increase of field forces on the foreboding heights along the LAC is in itself a massive exercise, doing so in a compressed time frame necessitated by military considerations makes things even more difficult especially when requisite infrastructure at ‘friction points’ is non-existent. Furthermore, additional troops moved into Ladakh had to be suitably billeted and administered to withstand harsh climatic conditions and sub-zero temperatures.
The logistics branch of the Indian army has worked wonders by using ingenuity and improvisation to ensure that the additional forces inducted in Ladakh are administratively well-looked after. However, given the enormity of the task, the arrangements made are by no means ideal and it’s here that the characteristic resoluteness and resilience of the Indian army soldier has once again come to the fore. Braving all odds, its rank and file has picked up the gauntlet by maintaining an effective 24X7 all weather vigil to thwart any PLA designs to change the status quo on the LAC.
Even at the cost of repetition, it would be in order to mention once again that Beijing is known for making extremely complex but very well calculated moves. As such, the PLA’s menacing actions in Ladakh are most certainly not the result of an impulsive decision taken by some intermediary ‘hawks’ within the echelons of China’s political or military hierarchy. So, it would be fair to assume that the PLA’s aggressive actions in Ladakh were duly vetted and approved by the Central Military Commission, China’s uppermost national defence organisation. Accordingly, there’s definitely a method in what otherwise appears to an untrained eye as wanton acts of madness on the PLA’s part .
Given the secrecy surrounding decision making in China, what exactly prompted Beijing to jump the gun and adopt an antagonist view in Ladakh may never be known. However, by accepting to undertake the “disengagement process” in the PP-15 area, it has willy-nilly accepted that its territorial claims in Ladakh and allegations of Indian “intrusions” are dubious. If they weren’t, then why would Beijing agree to disengage from an area that it so vociferously asserts is its own territory?
By braving the elements and taking pre-emptive actions to prevent any ingress by the PLA in Ladakh, the Indian army has clearly demonstrated its firm resolve to safeguard India’s territorial integrity come what may. By not blinking or resorting to brinkmanship, the Indian army has effectively foreclosed Beijing’s attempts to militarily intimidate New Delhi into making any concessions and forced it to take the face-saving “disengagement” route.
So, while political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the LAC alignment issue continue, let’s not forget the crucial role played by the indomitable Indian soldier whose astounding grit and dedication it has effectually demolished the myth of PLA’s invincibility and thereby ensured that the Indian side negotiates from a position of strength!
Are Water Wars Next? If this happens, what are the Implications for India?
Part I – China is facing a monumental Water Crisis: How is China ensuring water security
China’s Water Crisis worsened by Climate Change China is currently facing a two months heatwave of the century, a major water crisis, apart from being hit by a sluggish economy, continuing Covid crisis, and a global geo-political-economic pushback. A multiyear drought could push the country into an outright water crisis, which would not only have a significant effect on China’s grain and electricity production; it could also induce global food and industrial materials shortages on a far greater scale than those wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. An economic powerhouse, adverse impact on her food, energy and materials supply chain management would resonate through markets around the world and create economic and political turbulence for years to come. There is no alternative for water. It sustains life and is essential for growing food and generating energy.
China consumes ten billion barrels of water per day—about 700 times its daily oil consumption. Half century of astronomical exponential economic growth, coupled with robust food security policies that aim at national self-sufficiency, have unfortunately pushed China’s water system (especially North China) beyond a sustainable level. As of 2020, the per capita available water supply around the North China Plain was 253 cubic meters or nearly 50 percent below the UN definition of acute water scarcity. Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and other major cities are at similar or lower levels. Hong Kong has for decades used seawater to flush toilets. Water stressed Egypt for instance has per capita freshwater resources of 570 cubic meters per capita. To make matters worse, a significant portion of China’s water supply is not fit for human consumption.
A 2018 analysis of surface water by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment found that although the quality had improved from previous years, 19 percent was still classified as unfit for human consumption and roughly seven percent was unfit for any use at all. The quality of groundwater, which is critical for ensuring water supplies during drought was worse, with approximately 30 percent being deemed unfit for human consumption and 16 percent deemed unfit for any use. Concurrently, farm and industrial chemicals continue to contaminate the country’s groundwater, setting the stage for potentially decades of additional water supply impairments. Data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization indicate that China uses nearly two and a half times as much fertilizer and four times as much pesticide as the United States does despite having 25 percent less arable land[i]. The over exploitation of aquifers under the Northern China Plain is a core driver of China’s looming water crisis. The most populous portion of China, lives North of the Yangtze River; an area from eastern Sichuan to southern Jilin that is home to more than a billion people, which has seen steady declines in the amount of water in the region’s lakes, rivers, and aquifers since the last decade. As is her want, the CCP (China’s Communist Party) has chosen to conceal the full extent of China’s environmental problems to limit potential public backlash. This lack of transparency suggests that an escalation to acute water distress could be far closer than most outside observers realize; the world must be ready for this hydrographic disaster.
Water scarcity level in China
Water scarcity level in India
Global Water Statistical Data Water covers about 71% of the earth’s surface; 326 million cubic miles of water on the planet; 97% of the earth’s water is found in the oceans (too salty for drinking, growing crops, and most industrial uses except cooling); 320 million cubic miles of water in the oceans. Only 3% of the earth’s water is fresh, of which 2.5% of the earth’s fresh water is unavailable: locked up in glaciers, polar ice caps, atmosphere, and soil, highly polluted, or lies too far under the earth’s surface to be extracted at an affordable cost. About half of the planet’s population (3.6 billion) lives in water-scarce regions. The consequent food and water crisis could be poised to drive up social unrest and massive migration. Such extended droughts also fuel the risk of wildfires.
Water crisis management, especially in North China The irony is that China recognizes the gravity of the crisis but internal politics and fear of public retribution often delays remedial measures. China launched the $60 billion South-to-North Water Transfer Project in 2003 which draws water from tributaries of the River Yangtze to replenish the dry north. To boost rainfall (and sometimes engineer better weather, for example, for Olympics ceremonies and party anniversary events, and now to fight intense heat and drought conditions in summer of 2022), China has also deployed aircraft and rockets to lace clouds with silver iodide or liquid nitrogen, a process known as cloud seeding. It has also relocated heavy industry away from the most water-stressed regions and is investing massively in water management infrastructure, with vice minister of Water Resources Wei Shanzhong estimating in April 2022 that annual investment in water-related projects could hit $100 billion annually. Experts opine that these efforts may be insufficient to forestall a crisis.
Adverse impact on Food Production (Famines precipitated by drought helped topple at least five of China’s 17 dynasties) For the past 20 years, Chinese government policy has offered incentives to farmers to maximize production of corn, rice, and wheat to achieve “self-sufficiency” levels that generally exceed 90 percent. Groundwater extraction played an outsize role in this achievement and transformed the dry North China Plain into the country’s breadbasket. In parts of North China, groundwater levels have declined by a meter per year, causing naturally occurring underground water storage aquifers to collapse, which has triggered land subsidence and compromised the aquifers’ potential for future recharge. Farms on the North China Plain produce approximately 60 percent of China’s wheat, 45 percent of its corn, 35 percent of its cotton, and 64 percent of its peanuts. But to sustain these harvests, farms and cities are pumping water far faster than nature can replenish it. Satellite data suggest that each year between 2003 and 2010, North China lost an amount of groundwater equal to more than twice what Beijing consumes annually. As groundwater levels fall, many farmers are struggling to find new sources. Some are digging larger, deeper wells, often at great cost; but continual overdraws may render water physically inaccessible regardless of pumpers’ willingness to spend on deeper wells and new pumping technology. Drop in North China food production by 33 percent crop loss because of water insufficiency, China would potentially need to compensate by importing approximately 20 percent of the world’s internationally traded corn and 13 percent of its traded wheat. Further, if a drought were to curtail rice yields in southern China or Heilongjiang (in China’s fertile Northeast), that could create even larger market shocks given China’s disproportionate share of rice consumption. All three major staple grains are critical for hundreds of millions of lower-income consumers worldwide, with corn as a staple in Latin America, wheat vital in the Middle East and North Africa, and rice essential across Asia.
Although China has stockpiled the world’s largest grain reserves, the country is not immune to a multiyear yield shortfall. This would likely force China’s food traders, including large state-owned enterprises such as COFCO and Sinograin, into global markets on an emergency basis to secure additional supplies. This in turn could trigger food price spikes in high-income countries, while rendering key food items economically inaccessible to hundreds of millions of people in poorer countries. The impacts of this water-driven food shortage could be far worse than the food-related unrest that swept across lower-and-middle-income countries in 2007 and 2008 and would drive migration and exacerbate political polarization already present both within nations and globally.
Water, the umbilical cord for power generation Despite major investments in renewable energy, nearly 90 percent of China’s electricity supply still requires extensive water resources, particularly hydro, coal, and even nuclear generation, which needs large and steady water supplies for steam condensers and to cool reactor cores and used fuel rods. Managing the cascading effects of a shortfall from any given power source is daunting. If China lost 15 percent of its hydropower production in a year because of low water levels behind dams, a plausible scenario based on real-world experiences in Brazil, it would have to increase electricity output by an amount equal to what Egypt generates in a year. In China’s energy system, only coal-fired plants could potentially boost output by hundreds of terawatt-hours on short notice. Unfortunately, the coal mining and preparation process is often highly water intensive, and if China were compelled to ramp up coal production, it would further strain local groundwater supplies. Seawater can be used for cooling, however, most of China’s coal-fired plants are located inland and rely on rivers, lakes, or groundwater. Analysis by Foreign Affairs magazine of approximately 2,000 utility-scale (300 megawatts or larger capacity) Chinese coal-fired power generation units and their known or likely modes of cooling suggests that about 500 gigawatts of capacity; more than the combined coal power capacity of India and the United States; face elevated risks from a prolonged drought [ii].
Vitally, China’s power shortfalls would directly affect global supply chains, as industrial facilities account for over 65 percent of electricity use in China. To minimize the immediate human impact of broad, uncontrolled blackouts, party officials have shut down industrial facilities to ease the grid load. China is also the world’s largest producer of aluminum, ferro-silicon, lead, manganese, magnesium, zinc, most rare earth metals, and many other specialty metals and materials. Power outages can impact global markets; to illustrate – curtailed magnesium smelter operations in Shaanxi Province, resulted in prices spiking to seven times their level internationally at the beginning of 2022 and European industrial consumers called for government action to ensure supplies. Resultantly, the Chinese and global transition to clean energy will certainly be impaired, once production of rare earth metals and cells reduces due to water and power shortages (polysilicon used for solar cells and the rare earth metals used in wind turbines around the world, and raw materials for cell production for electric vehicle batteries).
Desperate measures for desperate times: Control of water in Tibet, the ‘Third Pole’ The Tibetan Plateau is widely known as the ‘Third Pole’ because its ice fields contain the largest reserve of freshwater outside the polar regions and has accorded China unfettered access to perennial water sources. Asia’s ten great river systems emanate from the Tibetan Plateau and traverse eleven countries, supporting over 2 billion people. The ones of importance to China’s southern and south-eastern neighbours are the Indus (China, India, Pakistan), Brahmaputra (China, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan), Salween (China, Myanmar, Thailand), Mekong (China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam) and Sutlej (China, India, Pakistan). Over 45,000 glaciers seasonally drain into these rivers. Water alone elevates TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region) to geo-strategic importance to the entire region. For India, Tibet holds the tap to three major rivers, the Indus, Sutlej, and Brahmaputra. China’s increasing activities on all of these rivers in recent past has been a matter of immense concern to India[iii].
Chinese actions on rivers of TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region) specially Yarlung Tsangpo
Source: preventionweb.net
Image: A line map of the Yarlung Tsangpo Great Bend, showing previous Chinese dams constructions (in bold) and the proposed site of the newest 60-gigawatt hydropower project at Metog (Source: South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People)
The damming of the River Brahmaputra started during November 2010, with the 7.9 billion RMB 3260-meter Zangmu Hydropower Station 510 MW, which became fully operational on October 13, 2015. China has undertaken a huge project to construct five dams in Shannan Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The precise locations of the project are reportedly in Gyatsa, Jieuxu, Langzhen, Zangmu, and Zhongda in the TAR. The dams are slated to divert the waters of the Brahmaputra River (Yarlung-Tsangpo in Tibet) to China’s water-scare North-western and Northern provinces. China adopted its 14th Five-Year Plan, which included a blueprint amounting to billions of dollars’ worth of projects, including controversial hydropower projects on the Brahmaputra in the TAR. China is embarking upon ambitious “dam-constructing exercises” on all its important rivers. The familiar Three Gorges Project across the Yangtze River is one such project[iv].
From Pune, Gaurav Tingre is a popular social media influencer and car enthusiast who is known to generate quality content revolving around cars, luxury, motivation and positivity. He has attained a dedicated following of thousands of people on his Instagram page (@Gauravtingre). He has also become a famous figure in the car community of India, which wants to look at real individuals who drive national and international luxury and sports cars. He has a brilliant collection of scale Models And he enjoys collecting rare sneakers also.
Gaurav is a partner at Raojee Constructions and Ceramic Pro Pune. And he is the founder member of the Pune Supercar Club and also an active member of the Supercar Community of India.
Pune Supercars Club. This club is independently run by supercar enthusiasts and owners. The club aims to attract supercars from all houses and is dedicated to creating moments for owners that will allow you to enjoy your supercar more regularly and will comprise events and Occasions that can be enjoyed individually and others that the whole family will appreciate. Pune Supercars Club goes on regular Sunday drives to nearby destinations.
On the occasion of the 75th Independence Day of India, Pune Supercars Club organised “Independence Day Drive” in which their meeting point was Balewadi High Street, Pune. There are various supercars on this drive like- Mclaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Jaguar.
They drove down to Conrad, Pune where breakfast was organised. The event was sponsored by Mercedes-Benz Silver Star Pune. They also had a photography contest where hampers were given away to 5 winners.
Pakistan is using all its modern military facilities to crush Baloch people and yet it has failed to do so. In this interview with Vivek Sinha, Editor-in-Chief News Intervention, Dr Naseem Baloch, chairman Baloch National Movement (BNM) explains how Balochistan is struggling for independence from Pakistan.
Vivek Sinha: You have taken over as BNM chairman at a time when Pakistani atrocities over Balochistan are increasing every day. How do you think can the Pakistani atrocities over Balochistan be stopped? Dr Naseem Baloch: Pakistan aims to eliminate the Baloch nation, Baloch civilization and the way of life as it had existed for centuries before Pakistan was created. In pursuing these goals it has, as a substance of state policy, adopted suppression, genocide (including cultural and lingual) and brutal oppression, and I do not expect them to stop as long as they are not satisfied that they have wiped out Baloch identity. On the other hand, Baloch are struggling against it to regain the independence of their land and also to preserve their culture, their identity and their way of life. As a result Pakistan is reacting, and has decided to go to extreme extent to silence the Baloch people into non-existence. In my view, Pakistan has failed to do so. Particularly as long as the resistance against Pakistani occupation exists, it is Pakistan’s failure. When a state with all the modern military powers reacts in a genocidal way to continue its occupation, it signifies its failure. Otherwise normal states talk and engage with nationalities in their domains. Recently we have seen how UK after a long colonial history had learned to handle its differences with the Scottish nation through a referendum instead of brute violence as it did in India. Pakistan has failed to convince our people, so it continues its brutalities, violence and thuggery, and evil manipulation of Balochistan’s political and cultural landscape to continue its occupation and exploitation of Baloch resources.
Vivek Sinha: What are your top priorities as the BNM Chairman? Dr Naseem Baloch: Organization in Balochistan and abroad, selection of experts in BNM and giving them responsibilities accordingly in different departments which we have created recently; for example, foreign, information, human rights and welfare departments. All of them have elected secretaries and are empowered to assign tasks to members. We have plans to further develop and structuralize these departments based on data collection, analyses and record keeping so that the upcoming leadership doesn’t lack records and continue to function smoothly. It eases our works. All departments have already started to function in a coherent manner according to the tasks and work in their respective fields. This would help us, in future, in our covert and overt diplomacy, including highlighting of Human Rights violations and other forms of public diplomacy which might help us in achieving our various goals on the world forums.
Vivek Sinha: Do you trust United Nations and other 5-star human rights organizations to pressurize Pakistan to stop “enforced disappearance” of innocent Baloch people? How do you plan to stop Pakistan’s infamous “kill and dump” policy towards innocent Baloch people? Dr Naseem Baloch: As I mentioned in the previous question that Pakistan is not going to stop its atrocities because it has failed as a state and on the other hand Baloch are not willing to compromise on their liberty. About UN and other Human Rights organizations, I would say that we have not lost hope although they are very much under the influence of a few world powers. Working Group of Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance of UN has visited Islamabad to know about the cases. Even though they were not allowed to enter Balochistan, yet Baloch representatives met them. As our people have lost hope in Pakistan and its justice system, our hope can be UN and other rights organizations. No matter, they have turned a blind eye to Balochistan at this crucial moment, but we hope our international protests, and the unending Pakistani brutality can compel the world including the UN to intervene. Other than that it also helps as a public diplomacy tool increasing awareness in the international community about the plight of the Baloch people and the evil character of Pakistan as an occupying country with no regards to human lives.
Vivek Sinha: What is the total number of Baloch who have been disappeared or killed by the Pakistani regime during the last 25 years? Dr Naseem Baloch: Balochistan is a very vast country. It is very difficult to gather all the information and data of all the persons who are extrajudicially killed or abducted. But, after so much obstacles and restrictions by Pakistan, various organizations including BNM have succeeded to enlist a large number of them. It is clear that thousands have been forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially killed. Pakistani officials have repeatedly accepted most of cases of missing persons one or other way, mostly on their own media platforms. Top government officials in the past including Federal Home Minister Aftab Sherpao, former Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti and Secretary Interior Akbar Hussain Durrani have openly acknowledged to the media about the arrest of more than 20,000 people during their tenures. Non of them was brought forward to the court. Similarly, a devastating high number of extrajudicial killings were registered, surpassing 7,000 dead tortured bodies. According to a BBC report, more than 1,000 Baloch were killed by state forces from 2011 to 2016 alone.
Vivek Sinha:A lady called Naila Qadri tours the world and lectures on human rights violation in Balochistan. Your comments. Dr Naseem Baloch: There are many people who are individually doing their part to highlight the plight of the Baloch people, including many non-Baloch friends. Everyone has the freedom of expression and freedom of speech and we respect that. Ms. Qadri is an experienced activist as she has been member of all the political parties of Balochistan at different occasions. If she has chosen to highlight the issue of grave human rights situation in Balochistan, it will be welcomed by everyone. But one has to be firm and consistent for an extended period on his or her stand, and political commitment so as the people could trust them.
Vivek Sinha:Naila Qadri has also formed a Balochistan government-in-exile. What is this whole story about? Do the people of Balochistan accept this govt-in-exile? Dr Naseem Baloch: I believe, for the sake of legitimacy, such a step would need consensus with the multiple stakeholders in Balochistan’s freedom struggle. It would only work when we start to develop a unified consensus and a minimal level of understanding among ourselves. Otherwise, I only see it as another unnecessary public statement put forward to serve the sentimental emotions of the Baloch public.
Vivek Sinha:Recently Saqib Baloch was murdered in Azerbaijan, which is similar to the murders of Sajid Hussain in Sweden and Karima Baloch in Canada. Do you see Pakistan’s hand in Saqib Baloch’s murder? Why do you think Pakistan is targeting Baloch diaspora? Dr Naseem Baloch: In every movement, diaspora has played vital roles. Baloch Diaspora is not huge and only recently it reached several countries. It is gathering and getting strength now. Pakistan knows that a large number of Baloch youth has escaped and has taken refuge in different countries. Pakistan also knows that after undeclared ban on Baloch political parties like the BNM and BSO, and the brutal kill and dump policy, many political activists went underground or abroad. The activists play vital role in motivating the resistance in Balochistan and are also engaged with other communities to bring about awareness about the Baloch independence struggle. This number and their work has worried Pakistan. So it has decided to target the diaspora. Saqib Baloch is one of them. Two of his brothers were targets of “enforced disappearance”, killed and dumped by the Pakistan Army for their activism. Saqib had managed to escape to Azerbaijan. He was targeted there.
The massive floods that have hit Pakistan couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time. Struggling to keep its economy afloat by relying on the lifebuoy of international loans, the widespread destruction caused by the unprecedented deluge will only make its financial situation even more precarious. While the UN and international community has pledged financial assistance and material aid to ameliorate the suffering of beleaguered Pakistanis, the assistance provided can never be adequate to meet the actual requirement. So, these are indeed desperate times for Islamabad, which obviously call for desperate measures.
However, Islamabad has categorically ruled out importing vegetables from India, and though a very questionable decision, there’s nothing unusual about this. Yet, given the enormity of food shortage and its near empty coffers, one had expected Islamabad to act more responsibly, especially when its own people are facing a severe nutritional crisis. In fact, with Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail telling media that “If we have to import vegetables from India, we will do so”, it was assumed that Islamabad had finally decided to jettison its habitual [and self-defeating] approach of playing politics at its peoples’ expense.
Surprisingly, shortly after the Pakistani Finance Minister’s announcement, local media reported that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had “virtually ruled out the possibility of vegetable imports from India” to overcome shortages caused by the devastating floods. The stated rationale for doing so is his unfounded allegation that “There wouldn’t have been problems about trading with India but genocide is going on there and Kashmiris have been denied their rights”, andhis preposterous claimthat “Kashmir has been forcibly annexed through abolition of Article 370”.
Thus, isn’t it evident that just like any other prime minister of Pakistan, Sharif too remains a hostage of the Kashmir issue? And his argument is indeed comical. While sermonising that “We shouldn’t be doing politics at this point,” hasn’t he himself done the same by saying, “… that minority rights are being subjugated in India.”? At a time when Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are the lowest in the country’s history and its people are facing a humongous food crisis, isn’t foreclosing one of the most cost-effective options of importing essential items from across the Radcliffe Line merely to display a concern for the non-existent ‘subjugation’ of minority rights in India, ill-timed and downright politicking?
This isn’t the only time that Islamabad has first mooted and then itself rejected the idea of importing commodities from India. Readers may recall that in March last year, Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee [EEC] announced that it had allowed its private sector to import sugar and cotton from India. Admitting that while high international sugar prices were very high, while “in India, the prices of sugar are much less as compared to Pakistan,” the then Pakistani Finance Minister Hammad Azhar announced that Pakistan had “decided to reopen sugar trade with India”, as this decision was “in the interest of the people.”
Since the rate of sugar in India then was nearly 20 percent less than that in Pakistan, the ECC’s decision to allow its import was undoubtedly, an extremely sound economic decision. However, the very next day, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid sprung a big surprise by announcing that “We have deferred the import of sugar and cotton till India reverses its decision of removal of Article 370 from Kashmir”. Ironically, this puerile decision came at a time when the then Prime Minister Imran Khan was waxing eloquent on how he was working overtime to better the lot of the common Pakistani by creating a “Naya Pakistan.”
So, just like Imran Khan, Shehbaz Sharif too has conveniently sacrificed the wellbeing of the ordinary Pakistani just to appease both the radical lobby and middlemen community. While Islamabad continues to take the high moral ground by projecting its decision of not importing commodities from India as proof of Islamabad’s solidarity with the pro separatist lobby in Kashmir, but unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that despite its vitriolic rhetoric, Indo-Pak trade continues unabated- thanks to middlemen based in the Middle East.
While on the one hand India is in a good position to export a wide variety of items, Pakistan on the other hand has the distinct disadvantage of being unable to meet its domestic demand for consumables. Thus, Islamabad’s embargo on direct trade with India allows middlemen to make a killing by facilitating import of a wide variety of commodities into Pakistan at price. Needless to say, it’s the consumer who ends up footing the exorbitant brokerage fees demanded by middlemen, which being a completely avoidable expenditure, lucidly reveals how public interests in Pakistan are being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency just to appease unscrupulous middlemen!
Proof of Islamabad’s unpardonable duplicity on trade with India can be gauged from credible media reports that while Islamabad has ruled out direct import of vegetables from India, it’s not averse to importing Indian vegetables sourced from Dubai. This is yet another example of Pakistan’s enduring proclivity for following a penny-wise and pound-foolish economic policy that has contributed to its financial woes. With Islamabad playing such puerile charades by splurging money for rhyme or reason as well as blindly chasing unattainable illusions, it seems unlikely that Pakistan will, in the foreseeable future, be able to extricate itself from the economic mess that it has not only precipitated itself, but unashamedly continues to further exacerbate!
Jeremy Boehm is a lover of music, art, and sports, and loves to spend time with his young family andanimals on his hobby farm on Vancouver Island. Jeremy has a BA with theological and youth ministry emphasis from Calgary and furthered his education in counselling with focus on addiction for a second career in supporting those with substance use disorders. Here we talk about the concepts, and evolution of the concepts of God, in the context of recovery.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, here today with Jeremy Boehm, he is the son of Helmut Boehm. He (Helmut) is the founder, or father, of Wagner Hills. This is in Langley, British Columbia. I wrote an article with an addendum two or more years ago. You sent me the longest email I have ever received. A lot of it was quite vulnerable and confessional in a healthy way. I emailed back relatively rapidly within the last week.
So, you agreed to talk, specifically, the concepts of God that arise in the context of recovery for individuals. You come from, not personally but, knowing some of the communal aspects and individuals who have a theist belief; and they find it helpful in their process of recovering from forms of substance use and/or misuse. So, what concepts of God tend to arise? And how do these arise over time?
Jeremy Boehm: The concept of God, I see a lot goes by different names. If a person is comfortable, with religion, faith, Christianity, and comfortable with the particular religion they grew up with, they would call that concept God or the name they had been given for it by their religion. So often, in different places of substance use/abuse, there is a background of trauma. A person from trauma may not want to remember the source of that trauma and in that case may have some real discomfort with the names and the terminology they inherited that remind them of that trauma. Now, the construct, the theistic construct, may be the same. It may even be a good and benevolent construct.
Some who would report that they didn’t believe in God may still have, in the back of their head, a latent, benevolent, theistic construct. They believe in something or someone cares for them, loves them, made the universe a beautiful place, even if that God made the universe a place with both awful and good in it. They feel that there is something out there that’s kind. Some people will name that construct “the Universe.” For example, I often hear the phrase, “The Universe stepped in and intervened.” It really is a kind personification to say that. Some people will use the name “Creator.” Some people “God.” Some people will avoid the issue. I find that the construct is latent, though. What I mean by latent, is that when people are really in trouble, that’s when this construct comes out.
For example, what I’ve heard from some who would identify themselves as atheist, is that when they were in trouble they reached out. I remember someone saying, “I, actually, confessed that I did, in this deep, deep dark place, reach out. I didn’t even know who I was reaching out to.” Or somebody who had a near death experience at my current work, recently said “I didn’t grow up with this. I grew up with a form of First Nations belief. But actually, I had a vision of Jesus, but, I guess, that was the one in my near death experience who I gravitated towards, or reached out to.”
So this way of relating to God, or not, is also a way of dealing with the trauma. The ‘AA’ way to deal with this difficulty in ‘naming’ or identifying God for those who have had a negative experience that taints their view of God, either by their parents, or abuse, or abuse in the church, you name it, and there are so many reasons, to have negative feelings towards religion, whether it be the Residential Schools, yes, there is every conceivable reason to have something against religion, and to have negative feelings toward the people who claim to practice it, who hurt other people. The approach of AA is to allow the individual to give the deity their own name and definition. “You name your higher power. It can be your cat if you want. You can name it whatever you want. You call the shots” and this can disarm the experience of encountering the higher power, AA talks about. This approach, takes the pain and trauma that have been associated with God, and pushes that aside, and allows people to experience the higher power as they feel comfortable with it.
What I witness in the people I work with in my current work place and from before, is that a majority of them are open to pray, and even are very open about their belief in God, and even, to a certain degree, are evangelistic of each other. What I mean by open, is that they will say, “Let me pray for you,” or, “Here, let me tell you what this is about.” They will fight, occasionally, about the character of that God, or who goes to heaven, but the character of the god I mostly hear about, is benevolent. I also witness that over time, the people who had gone through step work, or who had gone through some kind of a healing process, start to lose the negative images, what I mean by that is, that I think there are incredibly negative images of religion out there of, maybe, a divine punisher.
I think this is what I wrote to you about. That as a teenager, I had a very negative of God as a divine punisher. And I don’t think this construct had anything to do with my parents, or anything else, maybe just teenage rebellion contributed to me forming this construct of a divine punisher. The interesting this I’ve witnessed, is, this image of a divine bad guy out to punish us, slowly melts away as people heal, open their hearts, or open their minds, or whatever you call it, in prayer, and they allow this higher power to just reveal Himself or Itself. They find the openness to allow this being to being to reveal the character, apart from all the religion and negative imagery that was attached with that construct.
As a person finds more revelation or experience with God, I find that they’re experience is a lot like my experience was, and they will come to the conclusion that, “Oh, this isn’t a bad guy. This person cares. There’s love. There’s healing. There’s something really good here.” They get more and more comfortable with more of the terminology, which, before, maybe they didn’t like. They might even feel comfortable enough to explore doctrine and theology and other things they avoided at first because of the painful associations.
Jacobsen: I’m seeing two core concepts here of a god, which, on the surface if not at a deeper level, are diametrically opposed. On the one hand, as you phrased it, a “divine punisher,” on the other hand, a god who cares and loves for you, created a world of good and evil, but there’s a certain redemptive quality within that world as well. So, it’s less a divine punisher, and more a divine carer and nurturer.
Boehm: Benevolent, yes, something good.
Jacobsen: Are there any other manifestations, apart from those two, which you have seen arise in others? For instance, you alluded to one individual who comes from a First Nations background with an unnamed band who, in their own experience – religious experience, had Jesus as the imagery and experience. Are there other ones outside of the image of Christ, a sort of First Nations spirituality as a transition into the image of Christ, or the ones mentioned earlier between a malevolent or a benevolent monotheistic god?
Boehm: If I understand what you’re asking here, certainly what I encountered, especially from First Nations people who had been in a recovery centre where I worked experienced spiritual experiences differently than I had. For example, a bald eagle would fly over and they would report that this was a deeply significant and spiritual experience that came from their culture. So the timing of that eagle flying at that particular moment signified something important about that timing. Certainly, the significance of smudges and of ritual, I think ritual plays a very big part in religion and, to a certain degree, spirituality. But I don’t see religion and spirituality as the same thing. I make a divide.
I’m not the one who came up with this definition of the difference. I don’t know if I can put it very clearly at this time of day. But how I would differentiate these two, is that religion is something humans do, as a ritual to influence god or the forces of nature to work to their desired goal, so that might look, for example like the sacrifice of an animal, or a certain kind of dance to influence the gods to bring rain, or something. Whereas, spirituality is connecting in relationship to the deity, and sometimes this is in a posture of powerlessness, but of intimacy. So that’s how I would define Spirituality and religion differently. Spirituality is connecting; religion is practicing a ritual with the motive of trying to achieve something. Yes, I differentiate religion versus spirituality.
I think, getting back to your question, ‘Are there other forms there?’ Yes, I think what we receive as our ‘early programming’, from our parents, creates an image in those early formative years that has a profound impact on the whether we later think of God as benevolent or evil. Maybe, our parents communicate that God is good, while, on the other hand, abusing us. Or, the reverse might be true. To answer your question, there’s all kinds of things that we develop in our brains at an early age, that later form our expectations of what we will find in God. Those early years, build the brain’s framework of what spirituality and religion is, and then we populate that framework through our experiences.
I think this book that I was describing to you, Finding God in the Waves (Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost My Faith and Found It Again Through Science), really describes that well in terms of the neurology of it. I am really interested in the brain, which I’m sure is obvious, through the correspondence we’ve had so far. But, as is probably also obvious, based on how I have expressed my beliefs to you, I take a step further than the biological formations of frameworks of beliefs that are planted in a child, because I actually believe in a discoverable reality of God. I see a measurable reality in spiritual things, just like I think you can measure the realities of math, physics, and science and so on. In the same way I think you can find ultimate reality about our origin and Creator, and the all the rest. That is if you are, open to the higher power, and warm up to the idea, and let down the guard, set aside the negativity, relax the resolve, or whatever you want to call it, that pushes back against the idea or construct of God. The biggest part of this process is to allow that deity to separate itself from all of the human experiences of evil that have populated our brain with a bad impression or a bad feeling towards that deity, then the deity’s true colours will come through.
You have to be open to it, and let that experience happen. But in the instance that a person is open, I believe a person can uncover the reality of the true deity, the Truth that I understand. That’s what I see in my experiences of working with those is substance use disorder, in the work place. I see that there are lots of names, and lots of understandings and experiences of God. It’s easy to forget that Jesus is already a name that has been translated to English. The term Christ is a Greek word. All of these names, are names that people adopt from themselves to refer to the deity. The way that I see Jesus, as we have named him in English, is that God came down to help us understand who He really is. Back then, people were incredibly confused about what religion just as they are today. Jesus served people and that confused them. He lived in a culture that expressed racism toward its neighbours. His main opponents were ‘Pharisees’. These were people who held a concept of religious law that raised their own social status and provided them with power. When God presents Himself in the world, He’s not rich. He doesn’t hold the stereotypical kingship that people expected him too, in how they interpreted prophecy. He role-modeled this, this serving, this washing of feet, this dying on a cross, this love.
He says, ‘This is what deity is like. Eventually, all the world will know my name.” They won’t know my name because I had the fastest meme or the most powerful seat of rulership in the world in a major empire. Of course, there are much more powerful kings and famous people. It is because over time, people will come to know that the way Jesus lived was the character of the deity. That character is what, I think, will come out to someone who is searching. And those who are in substance use disorder are often searching very deeply for God and using substances or alcohol to medicate or soothe the pain that they wish God could heal. I think what I’ve said about Jesus isn’t a politically-correct thing to say. When I speak this way, some will only hear it said that everyone else is wrong. It will sound intolerant to say that there is a singular reality in spirituality as there is in chemistry for example. It can be offensive to say that only one thing is true. Could it say that someone’s spirituality isn’t true? It’s much easier politically to be subjective, and even to relegate the whole topic to one that can only be considered subjective. I don’t spend time arguing that one religion is right. I say that religions may point to truth. Instead I look for Spirituality that connects us with God, and the way that I derive the character of that God, is that He visited us and showed us. It may be hard to accept for many people that Jesus was God visiting us. To be fair, there have been many charlatans over time who have made false claims and deceived people. How a person like me, or like a recovering substance user, comes to these conclusions about God, has a lot to do with personal experience, learning history, and taking their time as they ease into the ideas. I don’t assume that everybody will come to the same conclusions that I have because everyone has their own experiences that influence their views. I understand that not all people will find the truth, because their experiences or desires, may not lead them to truth. They may choose to deceive themselves. A refusal to believe in climate change might be a good example of that. It can be comfortable to remain ambiguous about certain realities in an effort to dodge responsibility. Or they may have been deceived on a mass scale, or by simply not having the experience to discover the truth.
Jacobsen: Does anyone come to a recovery program with a sense of a belief in a god, but an indifferent god?
Boehm: I’ve asked people that. I am interested in the character of God people perceive. I am particularly interested in the perception of God people have when they come from abuse. Some of my personal experience in counselling people from abuse is just felt impossibly tragic.
Particularly in some of the most horrific abuse, I was interested in what people’s view of the deity was. Is their view of deity affected? Well of course, yes. But the strange thing was, that for some reason, some of those with the most tragic abuse could still imagine a benevolence creator. I don’t know why. For whatever reason, it seems that tragic abuse from a parent can somehow co-exist with a benevolent view of God. I suppose, in the same way that people believe that good and evil both exist, people can believe in a good god even while their neighbours are burned alive. They are able to see how evil and good can be at war, and can both exist. So yes, some people who come to a recovery centre, and who are deeply wounded from trauma, have a view of a God who doesn’t care. What is so interesting to me, is those who despite their experiences believe in a benevolent one. It’s really puzzling.
Jacobsen: At the outset of the recorded conversation, at least, you mentioned trauma as the foundation for individuals coming to a lot of centres for recovery or programs for recovery? What are the common patterns of trauma experiences and – let’s say – symptomatology around it, even qualitative symptomatology?
Boehm: That’s a good question, Scott. I don’t feel qualified to answer it, to tell you the truth. I think my experience is too limited. I could tell you what I saw, but I feel like that is much too big a question – as are all of these questions really. I’d be arrogant [Laughing] to say I am qualified to answer anything your asking, other than to speak from my experiences. I feel like my counselling and my clinical experiences were much too brief to say what the common experience is for trauma. Only that, “Yes,” trauma was present in so many cases and was a root pain that was medicated through substances and through other behaviours too. It feels like just about every story included trauma. Here is an interesting part of the symptomatology. The consequences of using substances and alcohol to numb the pain, is that the use of these substances and the behaviour and consequences from the use create more consequences. So over time, the consequences of the medicating behaviour may be much greater than that of the trauma that lead to the behaviour. And in a few exceptions, I’ve heard that the addiction was the main problem-causer … in this person’s recollection, they didn’t have a painful beginning, but simply started drinking a lot at a very young age with their siblings and friends. Now of course, the neglect that could allow that to happen is a sort of abuse in itself, but this person perceived that they hadn’t begun to drink to cover pain, but that it was the alcohol from an early age that caused so many problems and so much pain. As I heard them, I wondered if it wasn’t both. A lot of people have a hard time remembering memories of trauma. They might blank out whole years or sections of life in their memory. But using alcohol and substances to numb pain is a very common means of dealing with pain, and in the perceived experience of a substance user, it is reported as a very effective way. There are other ways of course too.
The trauma story occurs generationally. The substance-use provides enough consequences in the family to cause disturbance, I think, in the oxytocin systems in a baby’s developing brain, so that rather than developing a sense of safety, of being soothed by the parent, the baby adapts with the instinct to self-soothe when the cycles of attachment with the parent are interrupted. Those basic cycles in the first 7 months, as I understand it, are so disturbed when a mother and father, are involved in substance use disorder. And this has the effect of passing this trauma from generation to generation. I think I am repeating myself, so I think I should finish with that.
Jacobsen: When an individual has an indifferentist experience of a god or a malevolent experience of a god, both grounded in a sense of trauma in personal history, or collective, how are they making that spirituality, as defined before as connecting to something, rather than human beings trying to get something, manifest itself in a recovery setting? How are they making that connection when it happens in their own words?
Boehm: Yeah! I think it’s a brilliant question. I think it starts with, “What do I got to do? How do I have to bargain to get out of here, out of trouble, out of my addiction, out of whatever? I’ll do whatever to get out of this misery.” It almost always starts with “Help. How can I bargain?” That might progress to “I don’t have anything to bargain with. I don’t have any currency that God or the deity needs. There’s nothing I can bargain with. Why should He be particularly put out, if I hurt myself, or if I do what he wants or not, or anything? Is there anything I can do that would effect the deity anyway? There’s nothing I can do, or not do, that is bargaining material.”
Once they realize their “bankruptcy,” I think, this is the AA term for this, where they might express, “I don’t have anything I can manipulate or control God with. I am not an equal player in this relationship.” Then when they come to this conclusion, there are a lot of uncomfortable feelings that go on. I think the discovery of benevolence happens in that moment. And it feels like being wrapped up in your parents loving arms, and forgiven [Laughing]. You’ve done something really naughty and can’t undo it. They forgive you and love you, only because you’re you and because they’re them, and because of love, not because you are able to fix the situation, or make it up to them, or do anything to bargain with them for forgiveness. You can’t argue your way into being forgiven.
I think the transition from the religious side of it – “I am doing this to get something” – to the spiritual connection side occurs when the person hits that point of bankruptcy or surrender where they admit “I am hopeless. I can’t do this. I have no traction.” Following this, they arrive at, as I described in my letter to you, the identity of considering themselves as a “child of God”. They gain the sense that they are worth something, simply because God made them and loves them, and not because they do anything, or perform anything, or become moral, or have the ability to flawlessly follow all the religious rules. They transition from wondering, “Am I moral enough?” to recognizing, “I am loved.” At that point, they experience the benevolence of God and I think, they make a deep connection.
Some people hear the voice of God or have visions, and gain a sense of communion, and connection with God, just like people might do with their closest human lovers or family. They’re like, “Wow, I am present with God. I feel His presence.”
Jacobsen: Is this transition from malevolence or indifference to benevolence a fulcrum grounded on, basically, conditionality to unconditionality of a sense of love?
Boehm: Yes, I think that’s it, Scott. That’s exactly what I was trying to say. When you find out, you can’t meet the conditions. What could you do anyway? Especially, you feel helpless with substance abuse disorder and the hopelessness of being unable to change. There is such a vivid picture of helplessness, especially there. I believe that the transition to a belief in God’s malevolence occurs just at that point when a person realizes that God’s love is unconditional, it’s the love, that’s the ticket. Well put.
Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited as well as many other books and ebooks about topics in psychology, relationships, philosophy, economics, international affairs, and award-winning short fiction.
He is former Visiting Professor of Psychology, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia and Professor of Finance and Psychology in SIAS-CIAPS (Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies).
He was the Editor-in-Chief of Global Politician and served as a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, eBookWeb, and Bellaonline, and as a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent. He was the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101. His YouTube channels garnered 20,000,000 views and 85,000 subscribers.
*Previous interviews listed chronologically after interview.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We will likely encounter moments of repetition in this session, in question and response.
What is free will? What are the ways in which “will” has been defined?
Prof. Shmuel “Sam” Vaknin: Free will is a useful fiction, akin to god or the afterlife: only agents with free will can be held morally responsible.
Free will comprises three conditions:
The ability to choose and act otherwise;
Having control over one’s choices and actions;
That the choice or act are rationally motivated.
The very concept of free will is founded on convenient delusions such as time or causation. Whereas teleology is prohibited in all sciences (we do not attribute purposeful actions to objects and animals, for example), it mysteriously permeates philosophy and more specifically the field of ethics.
Jacobsen: What are the ways in which “freedom” or “free” have been defined?
Vaknin: Both the external world and our internal one serve as constraints. We cannot choose or act contrary to Nature or to our individual nature. What we call “change” is merely a transition between different constrained systems. So, ostensibly, free will is a myth, there is no such thing.
But this (nomological) determinism is merely optical (compatibilism).
First: there are always other options. If someone puts a gun to your head, you are still possessed of free will: you can choose to die (in Judaism, one is instructed to choose death over certain transgressions).
But, much more importantly, in complex systems the number of probable pathways is so enormous that for all practical purposes we can never specify all or even most of them (chaos theory, quantum mechanics). So, these systems, as far as we are concerned appear to be either random (libertarianism) or subject to free will (agency).
Jacobsen: What definitions of “free”, “will”, and “free will”/“freedom of the will”, simply exist in the realm of fantasy, magical thinking?
Vaknin: Free will is a conscious, introspected experience of the degrees of freedom in systems (such as the brain or society). It reflects the fact that our ability to know the world is limited by our finitude and mortality. Our descriptions of reality – including psychological reality – will always be subject to uncertainty, indeterminacy, and apparent randomness.
This is a terrifying realization which produces anxiety (angst in existentialism). It implies an external locus of control (our lives are determined from the outside by forces and processes we will, in principle, never fathom).
We defend against such helplessness and lack of autonomy and agency by deceiving ourselves into believing that we are exempt from the laws of nature and can alter the ineluctable course of events.
But this is a useful bit of self-deception and should be perpetuated, for two reasons:
Owing to our inability to secure all the information about reality, free will feels real!
The concept of free will guarantees the acceptance of moral responsibility and the reactions to it: desert, blame, guilt, and restorative justice.
Jacobsen: Apart from simplistic considerations of semi-dismissal, as in it is fantasy or magical thinking, is free will a complex illusion of human perception and cognition, even a non-conscious mental trick bundled in the languages – everything: semiotics, semantics, syntax, etc. – used to speak about it, a mistake of intuition of sorts?
Vaknin: The BELIEF in the freedom to choose and do otherwise – regardless of whether such liberty is merely an illusion – is the foundation of human civilization, its core.
Free will is an article of FAITH. It is not a fact or a hypothesis or a theory. It has no truth value (it is not true or false). It has no ontological status, only an epistemological one.
Jacobsen: What forms of free will, if it’s to exist at all (or, indeed, not), would fit the modern scientific universes of discourse for plausibility?
Vaknin: None., Modern science is dichotomous: determinism vs. randomness (probability). In both approaches, there is no place for free will (the intelligibility problem). If the universe is preordained and predestined (by god) then, of course, individual agency is counterfactual. If, on the other hand, events are random, there can be no will, choice, or even action, all of which imply intentionality.
Some would say that Man converts the random into the structured, is an agent of increasing order in the universe. Humans, in this view, are AGENTS of determinism, the shapers of reality.
But this is just kicking the can down the road: we are still faced with randomness when human decisions and actions to increase order are undertaken.
Jacobsen: A bit of a longer question narrowed more within tighter philosophical and natural philosophical terms. In a prior session, you spoke on Kant, free will, nomic causation/causation by laws (of nature) versus causation resulting from free will, and a god. As has been phrased by others… “ultimately, of what is the will free?”
Vaknin: Every single philosopher I ever heard of grappled with the question of free will and tried to square the circle.
Ultimately, it is just a question of frame of reference and level of description. The same substance can be described as 2 atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen – or as wet, cold water. Both descriptions are valid statements about the reality of the substance – and yet they have nothing in common.
From a fine-grained point of view of the world, free will is a confabulation. But from a human being’s perspective, free will is a very useful organizing and explanatory principle. It helps to make sense of life and provide one with self-efficacious guidance.
Jacobsen: Apart from the above mentioned considerations of the arguments, switching more to a personal voice, you have a ToE in Chronon Field Theory (CFT). Does free will exist in CFT?
Vaknin: Moreso than in any other theory I am aware of. The Chronon Field Theory is all about Time as a field of potentialities. As some of these potentials materialize, they constitute input – but not to any deterministic process! They feed into other probable processes or events. “Choice” and “action” easily fit into this view of the world because our brains are just another such superposition.
Jacobsen: With everything, and the stance on free will, any final words of anxiety and discomfort if not anguish and torture?
Vaknin: I don’t do comfort. But thank you for giving me the opportunity. Every thinker whose work I have read has miserably failed in tackling the thorny topic of free will. Even the most rigorous amongst them made fools of themselves in plain view.
Don’t go there. There is a thin line separating overthinking from inanity and overanalyzing from stupidity. Don’t cross it.
Free will exists the same way Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes most definitely exist. It is real. It is a force to reckon with. It shapes our minds and lives. It exerts a huge influence on multiple spheres. What more do we need to know?
Shoshanim: Thank you, Doc.
Lily’s Lily: You are very welcome, survivor!
Previous Electronic ‘Print’ Interviews (Hyperlinks Active for Titles)
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