[sacw] SACW (24 Nov. 01)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire
24 November 2001
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

------------------------------------------

#1. Two articles on Taliban, Afghanistan Situation & Pakistan (M.B. Naqvi)
#2. Bangladesh : A journalist arrested for investigating violence=20
against the Hindu
minority (Reporter Sans Frontiers)
#3. Bangladesh Hindus 'will not go back' Refugees face an uncertain=20
future in India (BBC)
#4. Don't Leave Afghan Women Out (Emma Bonino)
#5.Between Here and There: Feminist Solidarity and Afghan Women (Shahnaz Kh=
an)
#6. A World Not Neatly Divided (Amartya Sen)

________________________

#1.

Karachi Nov 22:

A question that is exercising the minds of friends and foes of Taliban
is about their future. There is now a general recognition that the
hurried conclusion drawn from the rapidity of their military power=92s
collapse, following the first three weeks of intensive bombing, needs
revision in the light of subsequent dogged but hopeless fight they have
put up in Kunduz and Kandhar.

It was earlier thought that all assessments of the Taliban=92s true
strength had overrated them. Some analysts here say that there is the
danger of bending the stick in the other direction: Sections of US media
are now worried that the Taliban may not have become a part of history
after their hold on power has been broken and their formal resistance in
some cities ends which may be soon enough. The US observers see the
danger of their retreating to the mountains and villages to carry on a
guerilla war against the US-led Coalition. Apparently the Pentagon is
taking the threat seriously and planning a long, arduous war by
deploying a lot of ground troops of the requisite kind in Uzbekistan,
Pakistan and Tajikistan. How should one assess the chances of Taliban=92s
guerilla war against the coalition that now incongruously include both
India and Pakistan?

One ground for taking the Taliban threat seriously cannot be disputed:
Their motivation is strong. They are all fighters for God and Islam.
Taliban are too fanatical and single-minded not to be taken seriously;
their indoctrination is to be presumed thorough. No other Afghan group
could have withstood the intense US bombing the way they did for so
long. Also, the supply of fresh recruits to their cause may be taken as
given. Having conceded all this there remains, the question of the
nitty gritty of a guerilla war. There is yet another factor favouring
Taliban and disfavouring their enemies is the nature of the terrain: it
is ideal for guerillas which has plenty of hideout places for ambushing
regular forces. But that about sums up the positive side---for the
possibilities in the informal war by the holy warriors.

What everyone seems to have in his mind encrusted is two facts: first,
there was the massive romanticising of the Mujahdeen by the entire
western media in the 1980s. Afghan fighters were given qualities and
effectiveness that approached superhuman. Since they were fighting a
superpower and it was a climactic phase in the cold war, western media
went all out to ensure a setback for the Soviets. And that was not too
long ago; there are enough vestiges of that left in their minds of both
the senior media persons and decision makers in the west. That inclines
them to believe any proposition that assumes heroic qualities in Afghan
fighters. That is how the plans may be in place for a long-term
deployment in the area and ostensible belief in the likelihood of a long
anti-guerilla war against Taliban.

But are there any real chances of Taliban being able to conduct a long
and sustained guerilla action against an Afghan government that is sure
to be handpicked by the US in the name of the Coalition? No one can
know better the Americans about how precisely was the much romanticised
Jehad against the Soviets was organised and sustained. It required a
sanctuary that Pakistan provided---at great long-term cost to itself.
Then the US pumped in $ 9 billion directly in that war. The Arab
regimes put in another $ 9 billion. Then there were large contributions
by western allies of the US. In addition the CIA, and its pupil the
ISI, between them found innovative ways of finding more money. In all
anything between $ 40 to 60 billion were pumped into Afghan=92s---and
official Pakistani --- hands to the regret of most Pakistanis who rue
that chapter of history which bequeathed the Kalashnikov and heroin
culture.

Can all this be repeated or replicated today? Who will now bankroll
Taliban and who will provide them a safe sanctuary? The spirit in
Taliban may thirst for such a long war of attrition. But their flesh
cannot cope with it unless it gets regular injections of money and
suitable war materials. The 1980s Mujahedeen were as much Islamic
fanatics as are Taliban, minus some excesses and rigidities. But both
have little in common with, say Chinese Red Army or Vietcongs. The
1980s Jehad was funded massively by the US and its friends. Without all
the conditions that were met in 1980s and help the Mujahedeen received,
Taliban cannot dream of undertaking a long war. With Pakistan having
cynically ditched them, they shall have no sanctuary or money from the
west or even the Arabs. So, is the Taliban chapter now closed?

Taliban are not yet a yesterday=92s story. They will survive because an
ideology has been evolved in the last 50, 60 years. Madressas and much
Urdu literature is constantly producing the prototypes of Taliban.
Additional crude and extreme qualities of Taliban are a product of
Afghanistan=92s and Pushtoon cultures, tribalism and old Pushtoon mores.
They will survive in fastnesses of Afghanistan and in pockets, mainly in
Pakistan=92s tribal belt, and will go on making life difficult for the
Kabul government-to-be. There will perhaps be a guerilla war. But it
will too low intensity and sporadic to make headlines or even matter. It
will in fact be of more use to the US which shall then have an excuse to
go on staying in central Asia where there will be more profits to be
made. Only Afghanistan will suffer because even this low intensity
guerilla activity may prevent its reconstruction.

oooo

Karachi Nov 23:

Although the Taliban may continue to hold on in an ever-shrinking
pocket in the South, their regime in Afghanistan has been finally
defeated. This was signalled, in historic symbolism, by the fall of
Kabul. Eventually even their Southern readout would also be smashed by
the combination of American bombing, Northern Alliance=92s military
assaults and the inevitable dissidents among the military commanders
still owe allegiance to Taliban. Whether a guerilla war will ensue is
likely enough, but it is sure to remains quite a low-intensity one.

The Taliban chapter has to be treated as closed, in Afghanistan. But
the most devastating effect of Taliban defeat is not likely to be so
much on Afghanistan as it affects the politics of Pakistan. Led by ultra
rightwing thinker Gen. Hamid Gul, a former ISI Chief, and supported by
all the religious parties on the Right, has called the fall of Kabul to
be as serious a Pakistani defeat as was the surrender by Pakistan Army=92s
Eastern Command in Dhaka on 16th December, 1971.

The entire rightwing is in mourning, religious as well as
quasi-secular. Insofar as the religious lobbies are concerned, they are
blaming just one person: President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for the
betrayal of the Islamic Afghan regime. The latest to blame him is
another retired Gen. Nasirullah Babar whose claim to fame is the boast
that the whole Afghan war of 1980s was, in its origins, master-minded by
him. He said =91one minute=92s cowardice has caused Pakistan to lose what
it had gained by 28 tears=92 labour=92

The anti-American and anti-Musharraf demonstration by religious parties
have more or less ended. Some relatively feeble protests are still
continuing; each Friday is being observed as a Protest Day by the
religious parties, mostly separately with diminishing attendance. The
Karakorram Highway appears to be still partially blocked although some
traffic has been resumed on a reduced scale. The rapidity with which
the Taliban power has collapsed has more or less stunned the entire
country (Pakistan) in which the religious parties and their spokesmen
are manifestly bewildered and confused.

The Musharraf government is of course still trying to perform an
impossible feat: of running with hares (religious parties) and hunt with
the hounds (the international Coalition against Terrorism). Some
apologists of the military government have claimed virtue for the
Musharraf regime by saying that it has been forced to take firm action
against the top extremist religious leaders, as is shown by the house
arrests of Qazi Hussain Ahmed the Jamaat-i-Islamic Chief, Moulana Fazlur
Rahman, JUI (Jamiat-i-Ulemai Islam) Chief, Moulana Samiul Haq, another
Chief of a JUI splinter, and most dramatically Moulana Sufi Mohammad.

Sufi is the chief of TSNM of Malakand Agency and had taken a lashkar of
4000 tribal fighters to Afghanistan in order to fight shoulder to
shoulder with Taliban. The Lashkar seems to have lost a fairly large
number of fighters in the battles for Jalalabad and Kabul; the estimates
of fatalities range from 200 to 800. Many of these fighters have sneaked
back to Pakistan through mountain paths. But the Sufi came with a batch
of 30 persons carrying a large amount of heavier weapons through a
border checkpost. The group was not allowed to enter Pakistan with all
those arms.

What is interesting is the fact that border security forces negotiated
for several days with Sufi and ultimately he was arrested and it was
reported by the press that he had been sentenced to 3 years R. I. under
Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) by the Tribal administration. The
fact that he had been sentenced to 3 years has been denied and that the
Tribal administration had negotiated with him for several days before
taking any action shows that the regime is still using kid gloves when
dealing with religious party leaders. This also underlines its
reluctance to take harsh action against them.

Insofar as mainstream parties are concerned, they have quickly supported
the American-led Coalition, except for the loyalists of Nawaz Sharif,
for their own reasons. But the dominant mood among them too is gloomy
and anxiety characterises most sections of the society. There is
large-scale recrimination as to who is responsible for all national
failures at frequent intervals. Some people are plainly blaming it on
the military for its compulsive takeovers. Military regime=92s apologists
zero in on politicians and blame them of all manners of deficiencies and
faults, including their political ineptitude.

The writer Ayaz Amir in Dawn has castigated the entire semi-secular
ruling elite, civilians and military, for its selfishness, short
sightedness and the inability to grasp basic facts of modern life.
Blaming one another, rather than a deep, honest soul searching, is the
name of today=92s game in Pakistan.

_____

#3.

Press freedom
23 November 2001

Reporters Sans Fronti=CBres
International Secretariat
Asia =82 Pacific Desk
5, rue Geoffroy Marie - 75009 Paris France
T=C8l : (33) 1 44 83 84 70
Fax : (33) 1 45 23 11 51
E-mail : asie@r...
Web : www.rsf.org
www.press-freedom.org

BANGLADESH
A journalist arrested for investigating violence against the Hindu
minority

In a letter addressed to the Home Minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury,
Reporters Without Borders (RSF =82 Reporters sans Fronti=CBres) asks for th=
e
immediate release of journalist Shaharier Kabir, detained for "possessing
inflammatory information which can jeopardise the stability of the
country." RSF accuses the government for using an emergency law to
imprison the journalist who was only reporting the situation of hundreds
of Hindus suffering religious violence in Bangladesh. "This decision runs
counter to your party's recent electoral promises, which committed you
not to use emergency laws against the press," declared Robert M=C8nard,
RSF's general secretary.

According to the information obtained by RSF, on 23 November 2001, a
Dhaka court placed the independent journalist and documentary producer,
Shaharier Kabir, in detention in accordance with the Special Powers Act
of 1974. The day before, the journalist was questioned by the police for
several hours at Dhaka international airport, when he arrived from
Calcutta. The police chief asserted to the press that Shaharier Kabir was
"in possession of inflammatory documents which can endanger the stability
of the country". The police indeed seized his videotapes, his notes and
his passport. The journalist had gone to India to cover the humanitarian
situation at the Bangladesh border. Hundreds of Hindus, suffering
religious violence mostly at the hands of supporters of the ruling
parties, have taken refuge in India. A few days before his arrest,
Shaharier Kabir was interviewed by the BBC and gave some details about
the violence committed on Hindu civilians.

In accordance with the Special Powers Act of 1974, Shaharier Kabir may be
detained for 90 days. More than two thousands people demonstrated in
Dhaka on 23 November to demand his release.

Sharahier Kabir is a highly respected columnist in Bangladeshi liberal
circles. He regularly writes for the daily Dainik Janakantha. He has
published several investigative books notably about the war of
independence in 1971 and the slaughters committed by the Pakistani army
and its Bangladeshi allies. He also questioned Bangladesh Nationalist
Party and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders about these exactions.

[...]

Reporters Sans Fronti=CBres defends jailed journalists and press freedom
throughout the world, that is, the right to inform and be informed, in
accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Reporters Sans Fronti=CBres has nine branches (Austria, Belgium, France,
Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland),
representatives in Bangkok, Tokyo, Washington and Abidjan and more than a
hundred correspondents worldwide.

_____

#3.

BBC News
Thursday, 22 November, 2001, 16:23 GMT
Bangladesh Hindus 'will not go back'

Refugees face an uncertain future in India

By Moazzem Hossain in West Bengal

Hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindu families who have crossed the border=20
into India to escape repression at home are refusing to return to=20
their country.

They are now living with their relatives and friends in the border=20
districts of West Bengal and intend to stay there permanently.

In the frontier town of Bongaon in West Bengal, I found several=20
Bangladeshi Hindu families who fled following last month's general=20
elections.

The rise of Islamists worries minorities

To escape any possible move by the Indian authorities to send them=20
back, these families were apparently hiding in a village near the=20
Thakurnagar railway station.

All these families have horrific stories to tell.

Dipali Adhikari, who did not give out her real name for fear of=20
reprisals against relatives in Bangladesh, related how she and seven=20
other members of her family had managed to cross the border.

Horrific tales

Several days after the election, a group of armed men entered their=20
house of and looted everything they had.

They poisoned the family's fish pond, the main source of their income.

Then they turned to Dipali pointing a knife at her.

"They demanded 100,000 Taka [$1,770] as the fee if we wanted to live=20
in that village," she said.

"Otherwise, they threatened me, we had to leave the country".

Some families have broken up

"It was not just me, other Hindu families in our village too were=20
subjected to similar torture."

"We also heard stories of Hindu women being raped and murdered by=20
armed hoodlums in neighbouring villages" Dipali said.

After this incident, Dipali's family decided to migrate to India.

They contacted a man in the border area who arranged their safe=20
passage to India in exchange of money.

We ran through jungles and over ditches the whole night and didn't=20
stop until we crossed the border

Mita Rani Dipali left behind her old parents to look after their=20
ancestral home.

Mita Rani Roy was not so lucky.

I met Mita in a village in Malda, in northern West Bengal.

Mita Rani fled her home carrying her one-year old baby with a group=20
of Hindu families when their village came under attack at midnight.

"We ran through jungles and over ditches the whole night and didn't=20
stop until we crossed the border", Mita said.

Her husband Anil Chandra Roy was not at home the day Mita fled the country.

"I have lost contact with my husband since then."

Refugee children don't know what to expect

"I don't know if he knows that we are in India."

Neither Dipali nor Mita Rani wants to return to Bangladesh after=20
their horrifying experience since the government of Prime Minister=20
Khaleda Zia came to power in Bangladesh.

Political divisions

In Bangladesh, Hindus are generally perceived as supporters of the=20
Awami League party of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hindus believe the League holds secular ideals.

Shiekh Hasina's party experienced a humiliating defeat in the=20
elections and she accused her opponents of rigging the polls and=20
intimidating minority voters.

Since the elections, many reports of widespread violence against the=20
Hindu community and destruction of their property have appeared in=20
the Bangladeshi press.

Back in Bangladesh, I visited Dipali's village in the southern=20
Bagerhat district, where her parents are among the few remaining=20
inhabitants.

Border guards told to stop migrants

The Hindu-majority village looked deserted.

Dipali's father Ganesh Boiragi told me nearly half of the 250=20
families in the village had left for unknown destination.

Mr Boiragi said he also intended to leave the country as Hindus were=20
no longer safe in that area.

There are confusing reports of the number of Hindus who have left=20
Bangladesh since the elections.

Bangladesh Refugee Welfare Council, a Calcutta- based group=20
representing Bangladeshi Hindu immigrants in India, claims nearly=20
100,000 people entered India over the last month-and-a-half.

The Council's Secretary, Bimal Majumdar, says many Bangaldeshi Hindus=20
conceal their identity fearing deportation.

However, West Bengal's Left Front government has dismissed the=20
figures as highly exaggerated.

The Front's Chairman, Biman Bose, says the recent migration of=20
Bangladeshi Hindus to India has not reached that alarming level.

"But whatever is the case, we have requested the government to take=20
up the issue with Bangladesh to ensure the safety and security for=20
minority Hindus in their country, Mr Bose told the BBC.

Refugees want to stay in India

The Bangladeshi Government consistently denies any case of Hindu=20
migration to India.

A government inquiry has found most media reports of alleged=20
repression of Hindus as exaggerated.

A senior Bangladeshi minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, says there was=20
very little truth in what the media have been reporting on the issue.

"In only a few cases have we found instances of repression of minority Hind=
us."

"In those cases we are taking action against officials who failed to=20
protect the lives of the minorities."

But civil rights groups are unhappy with the way the government is=20
dealing with the issue.

Ain O Salish Kendro, a human rights organisation in Dhaka, has filed=20
a petition in the High Court asking for an independent inquiry of the=20
alleged repression of Hindus.

______

#4.

Don=92t Leave Afghan Women Out

International Herald Tribune (Paris Daily)
21/11/2001
Emma Bonino*

As the Taliban regime in Afghanistan collapses in the face of U.S
bombing and a ground offensive led by the Northern Alliance, the moment
of truth is approaching for the main victims of Taliban rule: the women
of
Afghanistan. The international community =97 in the form of the U.S., the
European powers most involved in the present conflict, and the UN =97
must seize the moment and insist on the inclusion of women at every
level
of the country=92s new provisional government. This is the key demand of a

new campaign launched in the past few days by the Transnational Radical
Party. The campaign, which already has the backing of hundreds of
Members of Parliament across Europe, is appealing to the international
public to observe an =93international day of fasting and non-violent
protest=94
on Nov. 24. The event is intended to put pressure on political leaders
around the world to move beyond rhetorical commitments to the rights of
Afghan women by taking concrete steps to ensure the full participation
of
women in the new Afghan government.

Putting women in power in Kabul is not just a form of reparation for
those
who suffered most grievously at the hands of the Taliban regime. It is a

necessary pre-condition to re-start development (including the
development of democ-racy) in a country brought to its knees by over 23
years of civil wars and occupation. Before the civil war, Afghan women
took an active part, especially in the urban areas, in the development
and
modernisation of the country, some-times occupying roles normally
reserved for men in the Muslim world. Many women practised in the legal
and medical professions, or held positions of responsibility in the
civil
service. However, the condition of Afghan women began to deteriorate
rapidly at the beginning of the 1990s with the war between the various
Afghan factions and the rise to power of the Taliban, who reduced them
to
slavery, depriving them of the most elementary rights and making them
literally invisible. The barbaric, bloody Taliban regime deprived them
of
the right to study, to work and to vote, the right to equality before
the law
and even the right to circulate freely. During more than ten years of
theocratic rule, women were subjected to compulsory segregation in the
home, the wearing of the burqa on the few occasions they were allowed to

go outside =97 always accompanied by relatives=97 public stoning, absolute
submission to men, and daily abuse and rape, often resulting in suicide.

In 1998 in Kabul, during a visit as European Commissioner for
Humanitarian Aid, I denounced the condition of women in Afghanistan,
and was arrested by the Taliban. At that time I was alone in my
struggle. I
hope that I will not remain so, now that everyone, even the governments
of
the democratic world, has finally noticed the intolerable abuse that
Afghan
women have suffered for at least ten years. There is, however, only one
way to ensure that the issue of the rights of women is discussed during
the negotiations for the constitution of the provisional government of
Afghanistan: to ask for and obtain their full, direct participation in
the new
government. Anything else would risk being nothing more than ineffectual

denunciation, soon forgotten when the Afghan question is no longer in
the
spotlight of the international press. In order to ensure that this very
reasonable proposal is accepted, strong pressure must be exerted on the
governments of the United States and of the other countries taking part
in
the military operations, on the United Nations, on the leaders of the
Northern Alliance and on King Mohammed Zaher Shah.

The Transnational Radical Party is calling on people around the world to

show their support by dedicating one day, Nov. 24, to fasting and other
forms of non-violent protest. The appalling plight of the women of
Afghanistan went largely unnoticed by the West for most of the past
decade. This time, we have a chance to do something concrete to make
sure such suffering is never allowed to happen again. It=92s up to all of
us to
see that the opportunity is not lost.

*Emma Bonino is a member of the European Parliament and a
former European Commissioner.

______

#5.

Shahnaz Khan, "Between Here and There: Feminist Solidarity
and Afghan Women," _Genders_ 33 (2001), at
<http://www.genders.org/g33/g33_kahn.html>

[ 73 k long article those interested in obtaining copies of the full=20
text should write to: <aiindex@m...>

______

#6.

The New York Times
November 23, 2001

A World Not Neatly Divided

By AMARTYA SEN

CAMBRIDGE, England -- When people talk about clashing civilizations,=20
as so many politicians and academics do now, they can sometimes miss=20
the central issue. The inadequacy of this thesis begins well before=20
we get to the question of whether civilizations must clash. The basic=20
weakness of the theory lies in its program of categorizing people of=20
the world according to a unique, allegedly commanding system of=20
classification. This is problematic because civilizational categories=20
are crude and inconsistent and also because there are other ways of=20
seeing people (linked to politics, language, literature, class,=20
occupation or other affiliations).

The befuddling influence of a singular classification also traps=20
those who dispute the thesis of a clash: To talk about "the Islamic=20
world" or "the Western world" is already to adopt an impoverished=20
vision of humanity as unalterably divided. In fact, civilizations are=20
hard to partition in this way, given the diversities within each=20
society as well as the linkages among different countries and=20
cultures. For example, describing India as a "Hindu civilization"=20
misses the fact that India has more Muslims than any other country=20
except Indonesia and possibly Pakistan. It is futile to try to=20
understand Indian art, literature, music, food or politics without=20
seeing the extensive interactions across barriers of religious=20
communities. These include Hindus and Muslims, Buddhists, Jains,=20
Sikhs, Parsees, Christians (who have been in India since at least the=20
fourth century, well before England's conversion to Christianity),=20
Jews (present since the fall of Jerusalem), and even atheists and=20
agnostics. Sanskrit has a larger atheistic literature than exists in=20
any other classical language. Speaking of India as a Hindu=20
civilization may be comforting to the Hindu fundamentalist, but it is=20
an odd reading of India.

A similar coarseness can be seen in the other categories invoked,=20
like "the Islamic world." Consider Akbar and Aurangzeb, two Muslim=20
emperors of the Mogul dynasty in India. Aurangzeb tried hard to=20
convert Hindus into Muslims and instituted various policies in that=20
direction, of which taxing the non-Muslims was only one example. In=20
contrast, Akbar reveled in his multiethnic court and pluralist laws,=20
and issued official proclamations insisting that no one "should be=20
interfered with on account of religion" and that "anyone is to be=20
allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him."

If a homogeneous view of Islam were to be taken, then only one of=20
these emperors could count as a true Muslim. The Islamic=20
fundamentalist would have no time for Akbar; Prime Minister Tony=20
Blair, given his insistence that tolerance is a defining=20
characteristic of Islam, would have to consider excommunicating=20
Aurangzeb. I expect both Akbar and Aurangzeb would protest, and so=20
would I. A similar crudity is present in the characterization of what=20
is called "Western civilization." Tolerance and individual freedom=20
have certainly been present in European history. But there is no=20
dearth of diversity here, either. When Akbar was making his=20
pronouncements on religious tolerance in Agra, in the 1590's, the=20
Inquisitions were still going on; in 1600, Giordano Bruno was burned=20
at the stake, for heresy, in Campo dei Fiori in Rome.

Dividing the world into discrete civilizations is not just crude. It=20
propels us into the absurd belief that this partitioning is natural=20
and necessary and must overwhelm all other ways of identifying=20
people. That imperious view goes not only against the sentiment that=20
"we human beings are all much the same," but also against the more=20
plausible understanding that we are diversely different. For example,=20
Bangladesh's split from Pakistan was not connected with religion, but=20
with language and politics.

Each of us has many features in our self-conception. Our religion,=20
important as it may be, cannot be an all- engulfing identity. Even a=20
shared poverty can be a source of solidarity across the borders. The=20
kind of division highlighted by, say, the so-called=20
"antiglobalization" protesters =97 whose movement is, incidentally, one=20
of the most globalized in the world =97 tries to unite the underdogs of=20
the world economy and goes firmly against religious, national or=20
"civilizational" lines of division.

The main hope of harmony lies not in any imagined uniformity, but in=20
the plurality of our identities, which cut across each other and work=20
against sharp divisions into impenetrable civilizational camps.=20
Political leaders who think and act in terms of sectioning off=20
humanity into various "worlds" stand to make the world more flammable=20
=97 even when their intentions are very different. They also end up, in=20
the case of civilizations defined by religion, lending authority to=20
religious leaders seen as spokesmen for their "worlds." In the=20
process, other voices are muffled and other concerns silenced. The=20
robbing of our plural identities not only reduces us; it impoverishes=20
the world.

Amartya Sen, the master of Trinity College, Cambridge, won the Nobel=20
Prize in economics in 1998.

<http://www.nytimes.com/subscribe/help/copyright.html>Copyright 2001=20
The New York Times Company

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