THE PARADOX OF FOOD FIXATION IN ECONOMICS OF CONSUMPTION

Production ,Consumption and waste management are the three important components of any Economy.Consumption is more elastic than Production and waste can be recycled for consumption are the corner stones on which successful economies hinge.

 

Increase in Population means increased Consumption an important aspect of human affairs; there are various kinds of consumption and the most important component is Food Consumption a key driver of economies. Economists like Amartaya Sen have tried to concentrate their studies on food economics around the world and Globalized economies of today influence the production and consumption of food on a global scale.When we say Food Economics the focus is on two things. Firstly the prevention of Poverty and Secondly the control of food wastage and recycling it for consumption.

 

The challenge of the Globalized World would be to reach a state of zero poverty and at the same time keep the overall cost of food low and both go hand in hand. One of the reasons of Poverty can be traced to the phenomenon of  ‘Food Fixation”.What is food fixation? It is the belief of communities that food entails just a set of items they are habituated to consume and the general lack of awareness of other forms of palatable food that would equally serve the purpose. Imagine a man trapped in a jungle. He has no source of food which he calls food. He has no access to food creating a situation of  Poverty..poverty not because of economic circumstances but from a lack of awareness.There might be many shrubs that could be temporary food .Incidentally the definition of food is something when consumed gives energy with no side-effects. Just to survive he could kill some animal for food…..just stating as an example. Poverty in his context is from a lack of awareness than from economic circumstances. The world at large suffers from this fixation from which it has to be un-entangled and various kinds of food supply chains can be created around the world that reduce the cost of food.

The United Nations as an organ could help in this context by making it mandatory for International  flights to carry food of various kinds from one destination to another free of cost where-ever possible. Such an activity would address poverty and reduce the cost of food by harmonizing consumption. Wastes of various kinds engendered around the world must be harmonized in a collective way and converted into some form of food for distribution world –wide.This needs a concerted effort from Governments of Countries at large under the aegis of the United Nations.Plants convert waste into food a most fragrant component of nature and such dynamics have to be globally exploited.

In short Food Fixation is the belief of communities that a certain set of items only constitute food to exception of other possibilities and should be remedied through global interactions to expand this set to other possibilities too, so that communities can accept various kinds and sets of food there-by broad basing consumption and bringing down global inflation.

 

BLOG STATISTICS

 

LEG BYE CARTOON

 

THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

 

 

The study and exploration of Human Rights and Human Rights Law has of late become a matter of serious concern both in lay man circles and in judicial circles and Human Rights law is going to form a major input of Jurisprudence. Many  judgments  made by courts could today involve Human Rights in the ultimate analysis and could influence  judgments.

 

Basically Human Rights involves Humans and a special field of study under it covering   Women’s Rights, Child rights and rights of the disabled. Constitution is the ultimate law of the  country  and in various articles guarantees various forms of rights that add up to dignified living.

 

A right is a duty of the State and Duty is the right of a state. In other words  Human Rights is something the State must provide and Duties are something that individuals must perform towards the State.

 

What is Human Rights  basically ? It has two components. First is the basic supply of requirements of individuals by the State and secondly it is to ratify or measure any misuse of State machinery to the detriment of any individual. Both these components add up to Human Rights Law. Civilized societies have higher order understanding and implementation of Human Rights.

 

What are basic necessities of an Individual. Some of these are discussed in the Maslows  Need Hierarchy. At the fundamental level is the biological needs like food and water and the like which must be provided by the State mechanism. The next level is the Security  needs.. it would involve shelter  and the protection of an individual’s  personal belongings. The next level is affiliation needs like the right to make purposeful associations and friendships and other legally approved associations like Marriage..Next comes ego needs..the need to own possessions of any kind  and finally Actualization needs..the right to express oneself in various forms and  mannerisms. State has to provide these basic inputs. In many cases in Courts Human rights form an intrinsic component and also the basis on which judgments  can be made and challenged.

 

The second component of Human Rights is to protect the individual from the excesses of the State.State cannot exercise wrongful confinement of individuals, forced disappearances,torture both of a physical and mental kind,criminal intimidation so on and so forth. Such situations come under the Human Rights regime and can be deliberated so.

 

Under Human Rights come certain special  provisions for women ,child and the disabled.Women have certain special rights under certain conditions and the subject matter would need a separate discussion. Under Child rights come children and infants who have an intrinsic right to be fed. They need not pay consideration for food but must be given food of adequate quality for free.Children must be given their right to express themselves. So is rights of disabled.Rights of disabled is in the form of reservations or specialized provisions.

 

The above is in a nut shell what Human Rights are all about and the subject continues to grow vociferously with time and would be an area of serious concern of Human Beings around the globe.

leg bye cartoon

 

THE CONCEPT OF BIG BALL

 

I have always been an ardent admirer and a player of Basket Ball. Ever since this game was introduced in our school in the early 1970’s I have played this game at few levels. I was formally trained in Basket Ball by a Karnataka State player  Somakumar  who used to play for ITI. It was a one month coaching camp with two hour sessions in the morning and evening and was handled by a bunch of senior coaches. I used to be in the Basket ball  court of NIT Calicut most of the time sometimes even playing in the rain.

 

Rules of Basket ball have been modified from time to time and now we have a three pointer rule..a penalty area marked by a semicircle and goals from outside this area get three points. Fair enough to the skill of shorter players.

 

Strictly speaking Basket Ball is an unfair game. I sometimes meet  Mr.Aman Sharma  Basket Ball coach at SAI sports authority of India and we discuss such issues. Unfair because it is widely a tall mans game.Even countries and teams field tall players who have a distinct unfair advantage over the shorter ones. When I watch this game played in some countries some very tall people make a mockery of the game hanging from the basket and inserting almost their complete hands into the basket and the like. Players have evolved and changed but the game has not evolved at the pace at which it should have.

Mr.Aman Sharma,

Basketball Coach,SAI

 

What Iam trying to suggest is that the rigour involved with the game must be increased which would necessitate a new game called BIG BALL being introduced ,very much a modern day Basket Ball but with increased rigour and new set of norms.

 

The rigour of the game can be enhanced by increasing the height of the basket by exactly one feet…the ball could weigh some 200grams more than the present ball weight; increase the length and breadth of the court by some twenty percent and there could be six players on each side…but THE GAME CALLED BIG BALL WORKS WITH A COLLOSAL RULE.IF THE AVERAGE HEIGHT OF THE PLAYERS IN A TEAM WERE TO EXCEED SIX FEET THEY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO PLAY CONVENTIONAL BASKET BALL BUT MUST PLAY THE NEW GAME CALLED BIG BALL.

Sporting pundits around the world must consider this new sport and fine-tune its laws even further..but a new game like this will increase the spoils of the Sporting World and benefit all stake holders.

WEATHER AND POWER SYSTEMS

 

Power Systems and the environment is a very scarcely discussed issue but one of utmost significance. Various economics of Power Systems ly in the environment because Power Systems per se is one of the major  system that is constantly exposed to the vagaries of the environment. By and large the Environment would mean the weather at whose mercy Power Systems operate.

 

Transformers of various kinds, Transmission cables, Breakers, Relays, Fuses,Power Electronic Devices,  and  Insulators all come under the pressures of  Weather.

 

Let us see how weather influences Transmission cables. It can vary the resistance, inductance and the capacitance of cables altering line to line voltages and also the phase voltage. Sometimes such influences are not properly taken into account. Such variations can influence power delivered and such vagaries exist every single minute for any cable that is outdoor. Over a period of twenty four hours it is influenced by varying degrees of temperatures and add to that such fluctuations over a year. It can also influence the frequency of the system. Various countries must be having various kinds of  defense mechanisms for such issues and also note that such influences are not uniform over a long distance. Power losses can be traced to such phenomena. Underground cabling could be one of the ways this problem can be mitigated but environmental influences of a different kind hamper underground cablings.

 

Transformers of various ratings bear the brunt of environmental influences…from rain to cold weather to heat. I have seen many bushings of transformers literally burning themselves out in the rain..a very dangerous and delicate phenomena. Pressure inside the transformer must be properly maintained as it can lead to transformer bursts…Laminations inside the transformer get heated varying transmission properties. Transformers  are largely placed in the open because of natural cooling that it gets. Transformer oil properties change with weather. Predictive maintenance on  Transformers  is often undertaken to prevent breakdowns. Many a times Single phasing happens at the Transformer points because some fuse gives away because of Environmental influences. Rusting of Transformer surfaces and possible leaks can result from such situations. Transformer behavior variations can lead to variation in Power System parameters in a very pronounced way. Windings could get heated up influencing the input and output voltages. Breakers associated with Transformers that are manually operated get stuck sometimes and in an emergency to disconnect power would be difficult.

 

Relays are sensitive electromagnetic equipment that come with Electrical systems. They are costly to replace but form an important protective aspect of Power Systems. Extreme fluctuations in weather lead to relay misbehavior and to my observation very often overlooked by the maintenance personnel. Nuisance tripping of relays is one of the issues .Relays have to be constantly reset to compensate for weather influences.

 

Various countries face various kinds of such issues if not handled preemptively can lead to mal judgment’s  of various kinds leading to larger breakdown times and complications.The essence of the matter is that environment influences Power Systems and for location to location design of systems must take note of such issues and compensate for them in advance at the design stage itself if possible and also take corrective action from time to time. . How forces like weather influence a particular Electrical component must be properly estimated and periodic actions initiated; Weather is an umbrella under which Power Systems work and  Power Systems Engineers around the World must acknowledge it first in their day to day engagement of this sector.