The Indian Weekender, 2 April 2021

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Editorial A Global Concert for a new Global Era? Promising the best and most realistic way to advance a new world order, the Global Concert promises peace and prosperity for every human being. Well, the murmurs were already there in the pre-Covid era that the plans are afoot to change the present global governance and usher in a new world order. But now things have slowly started falling in place. Influential think tanks and world bodies are flush with new insights or analytical interpretation of the so-called new world order, which could usher in a new era of cooperation and economic and social prosperity for all nations, irrespective of their ideological base and past histories. A recent article published by the influential Washington-based Centre for Foreign Relations (CFR), written by veteran diplomat and CFR’s president, Dr. Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at CFR and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, argues for a new international setup which will try to undo or overcome the fallacies of the past and instead try to setup a system which hears every voice and caters to the common well being. In their article, Dr. Haass and Kupchan assert that most of the current world’s problems stem from the fact that the existing international governance architecture, which was framed soon after WWII, is outdated and not up to the task of preserving global stability. They regard the current global setup as too US-centric and term it as a club of democracies, which is poorly suited to fostering cooperation across ideological lines. Terming G-7 and G-20 as mere talk shops and the UNSC as grandstanding and responsible for a paralysis among veto-wielding permanent members, they urge for establishing a new world setup. The Global Concert The duo suggests forming a Global Concert (GC) of powers -- which will be an informal steering group of the world’s most influential countries, and will be casted in the mould of the nineteenthcentury’s Concert of Europe. It was a grouping of Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria formed in 1815, and successfully preserved peace for a half-century in the absence of a dominant power amid ideological diversity. Emerging after containing the bloody Napoleonic Wars, the grouping relied on a mutual commitment to conduct regular communications and the peaceful resolution of disputes to uphold the territorial settlements. The blueprint for a new Global Concert, terms it as the best vehicle for managing a world not dominated by the US and the West. The proposed members would be China, the EU, India, Japan, Russia, and the US, giving it a geopolitical clout while protecting it from becoming an unwieldy talking shop, and collectively representing roughly 70 per cent of world GDP and global military spending. The GC will have a completely different and thin hierarchical system to ensure efficiency and ensure quick response and decision-making. The member states would send senior permanent representatives to a standing headquarters in a place determined through mutual agreement. Summits would occur on a regular basis and as needed to address crises. Although they would not be formal members, four regional organisations -- the African Union, the Arab League, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the Organisation of American States -- would maintain permanent delegations at the concert’s headquarters. When discussing issues affecting these regions, concert members would invite delegates from these bodies and other relevant countries to join meetings. The concert would not replace the United Nations but will leave the operational oversight to the UN and other existing bodies. Instead it would be a consultative, not a decision-making body, addressing emerging crises, fashioning new rules of the road, and building support for collective initiatives. It would thus augment, not supplant, the current international architecture, by sitting atop it to speed up decisions that could then be taken and implemented elsewhere. A contemporary concert, like its nineteenth-century forbearer, would enable sustained strategic dialogue. It would bring to the table the most influential states, regardless of their regime type, thereby separating ideological differences over domestic governance from matters requiring international cooperation. It would shun formal procedures and codified rules, instead relying on persuasion and compromise to build consensus. The GC advocates further stress that the GC would also seek to generate collective responses to longer-term challenges, such as combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as well as terrorist networks, promoting global health, forging norms in cyberspace, and combating climate change. As these important matters often fall between institutional cracks which the concert could fill. The GC votaries further say that establishing a global concert would be no panacea, however. Convening the world’s heavyweights hardly ensures a consensus among them, and success would often mean managing, not eliminating, threats to regional and global order. Need for a new world order The moot paramount question is why a new GC is being mooted now, particularly after the Covid-pandemic. Or in other words, as the conspiracy theorists say, was the pandemic created in order to test the tenacity and resilience and response of the global community to such a threatening scenario, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Or was it staged to analyse the response time and also hope of any camaraderie between different nations on an issue afflicting all of them, as the more demanding issue as compared to it but with less apparent results i.e. the Climate Change has been unable to solicit from them due to a hunger for profit and more luxuries? In addition, the idea does not spell out how territorial issues would be resolved or how sovereignty would be implemented? It gives the member states the right to take unilateral action when they deem their vital interests to be at stake, though in the same breath it says that ideally, sustained strategic dialogue would make unilateral moves less frequent and destabilising. However, the silver lining is that the idea gives India a place at the top table, perhaps for the first time in history, and also due to the P5’s hesitancy to include India at the UNSC. But the move besides adding to India’s prestige would also make it responsible to work for the collective good and retain, nurture and strengthen those values, for which space has been shrinking recently in India. Thought of the week "Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus." – Alexander Graham Bell Indian Weekender : Volume 13 Issue 03 Publisher: Kiwi Media Publishing Limited Content Editor: Sandeep Singh | sandeep@indianweekender.co.nz Chief Technical Officer: Rohan deSouza | rohan@indianweekender.co.nz Sr Graphics and Layout Designer: Mahesh Kumar | mahesh@indianweekender.co.nz Graphic Designer: Yashmin Chand | design@indianweekender.co.nz Accounts and Admin.: 09-2173623 | accounts@indianweekender.co.nz Media Sales Manager.: Leena Pal: 021 952 216 | leena@indianweekender.co.nz Sales and Distribution: 021 952218 | sales@indianweekender.co.nz Editor at Large: Dev Nadkarni | dev@indianweekender.co.nz Views expressed in the publication are not necessarily of the publisher and the publisher is not responsible for advertisers’ claims as appearing in the publication Views expressed in the articles are solely of the authors and do not in any way represent the views of the team at the Indian Weekender Kiwi Media Publishing Limited - 133A, Level 1, Onehunga Mall, Onehunga, Auckland. Printed at Horton Media, Auckland 02 April – 08 April 2021 Fri Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu On-and-off rain and drizzle 22° 14° Partly sunny 24° 13° Parlty sunny 25° 14° Clouds and sun 24° 15° A touch o dafr This week in New Zealand’s history 25° 25° 5 April 1871 NZ's first overseas diplomatic post created Copyright 2020. Kiwi Media Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved. Sunshine and pactcy clouds 26° 15° A few morning showers 26° 17° It is no surprise that New Zealand’s first overseas diplomatic posting was to the United Kingdom. 7 April 1856 First state secondary school opens The first state secondary school in New Zealand, Nelson College, opened in temporary premises in Trafalgar St with a roll of just eight boys. It eventually attracted boys from around the country as well as the local area. It now has a roll of over 1000 and continues to take both boarders and day pupils. 8 April 1873 Julius Vogel becomes premier Julius Vogel was the dominant political figure of the 1870s, serving as colonial treasurer and premier on several occasions, and launching massive programmes of immigration and public works. 8 April 1913 Smallpox epidemic kills 55 Mormon missionary Richard Shumway arrived at Auckland from Vancouver on the steamer Zealandia for a hui attended by Māori from around the country. Sweating and sneezing as he pressed noses with the visitors, Shumway thought he was suffering from measles – bad enough for those without immunity to it. In fact he had smallpox, an incurable disease which quickly spread across the northern North Island. 9 April 1850 Sisters of Mercy arrive in New Zealand Nine Sisters of Mercy arrived in Auckland on the Oceanie with Bishop Pompallier and a number of priests. The Irish nuns of the order were the first canonically consecrated religious women to become established in New Zealand. 9 April 1932| Unemployed disturbances in Dunedin During the ‘angry autumn’ of 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, unemployed workers in Dunedin reacted angrily when the Hospital Board refused to assist them.
The Indian Weekender Friday, March 26, 2021 FIJI 13 Fijians to bear cost for 14-day quarantine Fijians involved in non-essential travel, protocols with a cost of over $18 million to Those exempted are: endorsed scholarships. including visiting friends and family, the Fijian Government, which covered meals, • Fijian citizens who have travelled overseas • Fijian citizens employed under the will have to bear their own cost for the accommodation, swab tests, transportation and before 28 March 2020 and are now returning Government-to-Government arrangement to mandatory 14-day quarantine beginning today, March 29, 2021. In a statement Government confirmed that it will no longer cover the cost of nonessential repatriation. Since March 2020, more than 12,800 Fijians have been repatriated other costs. New charges apply to: • Fijian passport holders. • Fijians residing overseas and are dual passport holders or; • Permanent residents of another country. home; • Patient and the approved companion who is supported by the Fijian Ministry of Health and Medical Services to seek medical assistance/intervention overseas; • Students returning after the completion of which the Fijian Government is a party to, for example, workers returning under labour schemes. • Returning Fijian Government officials, servicemen and Fijian Diplomats (including spouse and children under 18 years of age) through Fiji’s COVID-safe quarantine • The charges will cover the cost of meals and studies, with their approved dependents, who have travelled for official purposes. accommodation. on Government-sponsored or Government 100,000 doses of vaccines from India received by PM The AstraZeneca vaccines were handed over to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama at the Nadi International Airport. Speaking at the handover, Bainimarama says these vaccines have been produced by the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India. He says the vaccines are also the same that Fiji procured through the COVAX facility – another initiative working hard to see our people protected. The Prime Minister says this batch of doses will go immediately towards protecting the remainder of our front liners; our doctors, nurses, quarantine and hotel workers, and members of our Disciplined Forces. It will also kick-start the second phase of our vaccine roll-out, which will include the more vulnerable segments of our population. Bainimarama also says that he is proud to report today that they have successfully administered more than 6,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines on schedule to our front liners. $250k NZ assistance for cyclone affected villagers CYCLONE affected villagers along the coast of Macuata have received a boost as the New Zealand Government injected another $250,000 for cyclone recovery purpose. The New Zealand High Commission’s Counsellor Development Virginia Dawson who visited Naividamu villagers said they would continue to support and help cyclone affected communities recover from the impacts which destroyed houses and livelihoods. “We are proud to be working with ADRA to provide support to help with recovery from these events,” she said. Naividamu village Self Help Project head Pita Ramasima described the assistance as answers to their prayers. “The NZ Government, earlier this year gave us chainsaws to rip timber and that ha shelpe dus very much.” ADRA Fiji Country Director Iliapi Tuwai said such assistance has greatly helped families recover from the impacts of the cyclone. The funding assistance is in partnership with ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) under the NZ Aid Programme. WHO aims to vaccinate 20 percent of Fiji’s population by 2021 Speaking on FBC TV’s ‘4 the record’ show, WHO Representative to the South Pacific, Dr Akeem Ali says the WHO has a partnership called COVAX where they have come together to procure vaccines from manufactures. He adds there are three vaccines that have emergency use license from WHO and it is being made available across the world. “For that program, Fiji is one of the countries that is benefitting, we have 92 countries that are called AMC countries, these are advanced market commitment. COVAX has agreed with manufacturers to make sure that those vaccines become available so Fiji is receiving one of those vaccines that has become available through that system, and is receiving that AstraZeneca vaccine.” As of last Thursday, a total of 6278 individuals in the three divisions have received the first jab of the COVID-19 Astrazeneca Vaccine. BOOK ADS IN NEWSPAPER The most widely circulated WEEKLY publication for Kiwi-Indians and the most popular news platform with a strong online, social media, and print. We deal with all major advertising: Digital, Social Media and Newspaper Print advertising. PROPERTY AUTOMOBILE EDUCATION Call us for a customised advertising solution with Indian Weekender 021 952 216 Email sales@indianweekender.co.nz / leena@indianweekender.co.nz www.indianweekender.co.nz IMMIGRATION MORTGAGE EVENTS NEW ZEALAND Over a ton of colour to be used at Krishna Holi 2021 event in Kumeu The Indian Weekender Friday, February 12, 2021 11 RIZWAN MOHAMMAD T he biggest Holi event in the country on Sunday, February 14 at ISKCON Temple in Kumeu will put over one ton of colours for 10,000 visitors to play with celebrating the annual Hindu festival. Holi is one of the most popular and widely celebrated festivals for the Indian community after Diwali that is celebrated by the diaspora and the adjoining communities across the globe. The annual festival of colour falls on March 28-29 this year, and the religious element of the festival signifies the triumph of good over evil. It is observed a the end of winter and advent of spring month (in the Indian subcontinent), and spiritual part of the festival starts with Holika Dahan (burning demon Holika) also known as Chhoti Holi and the following day as Holi. In its 9th year, Krishna Holi event at the iconic Hare Krishna Temple in Kumeu, West Auckland attracts thousands of people from all walks of life, different ethnicities and faiths to be a part of a colourful and joyous event. Speaking with the Indian Weekender, Krishna Chandra from the temple said they are excited to see the festive season of Holi back after a gloomy year of Covid-19 in the country. “Holi at the Krishna Temple is one of the most vibrant events in our calendar- we see families dressed white clothing visi the temple and then dance and drench in dry and wet colours from noon till early evening,” Krishna Chandra, secretary and spokesperson of Hare Krishna Temple said. The temple spread over 100 acres start the free event at 11 a.m. and will have stalls that distribute at least ten to 12 colours, and there will also be watercolours for the visitors. A giant LED screen is also installed on the stage with a DJ and live music for the attendees to dance and have fun. “It’s a family-friendly- tobacco and alcoholfree event. People of all ages can have fun as there will be colour stalls, water stations, food stalls, changing rooms, showering stations for people drenched in colour,” Mr Chandra said. He added tha the temple stocks colours to be sanitisers are in place for people, arrangements used at the festival at least 2-3 years at a time. for children activities, so that everyone gets to The temple will be used over a ton of colour at enjoy the even to its fullest. the event both in its dry form and with water. “We have volunteers, security to usher “We have given 200 kgs of colour to fire vehicles to park in the appropriate places, brigade who will mix it in their water tank manage the oncoming and returning traffic, and then splash it on the visitors at different and make sure visitors feel comfortable at the intervals. event,” Mr Chandra added. “Since this year’s event coincides with The event organisers have appealed the Valentine’s Day, we have kept valentine theme visitors to come in white dress as colours tend event like previous years will be high octane, gifts and gift station too at the venue for the to exhibit its vibrancy on white clothing, get full of energy and good vibes,” Mr Chandra public to celebrate the occasion there,” Mr spare clothing to change after playing with added. Chandra added. colour and food and water arrangements have ISKCON Temple is located on 1229 Mr Chandra says all arrangements in been made a the venue. Coatesville-Riverhead Highway, Kumeu, West terms of Covid QR Code scanning and hand “Hol is always a fun event and Krishna Holi Auckland, and the event starts at noon to 5 p.m. Hare Krishna temple to host ‘Saatvik food festival’ RIZWAN MOHAMMAD T he Hare Krishna Temple in Kumeu, West Auckland is hosting its annual food festival event on Saturday, February 13, for the community. More than 3000 people are expected to attend the event where they will be served saatvik vegetarian food, tour the temple premises and have a relaxing family-fun day. “Our Hare Krishna Food Festival is very popular amongs the wider Kiwi community in Auckland, people from all faiths and ethnicities come to the temple, take a tour of the place knowing about the deities, the ISKCON establishment, its works for the community and have snacks and food during the day,” Krishna Chandra, secretary and spokesperson for Hare Krishna temple told the Indian Weekender. The event is said to be quiet, and exhibit a relaxing environment where people get to meet new people, make friends, experience the calmness being with nature, have Saatvik (pure) vegetarian food and have good family day. “This event is happening just one day before our most popular Krishna Holi event which is will be loud, full of energy, playfulness, music and dance,” Mr Chandra added. The events will start at 2 p.m. and end at seven in the evening. Besides the food festival, Krishna Temple organises lunch event every Sunday at its premises where 300-400 people come, chant mantras, meditate, spend some time with nature and dine with the community members. “It is a soothing atmosphere at the temple, chanting mantras with the community, knowing more about the religion, what can they do a the temple and how can they make a difference in the community by serving others and the less privileged. “There are also children’s activities organised so that they engage themselves and also have a good time at the temple,” Mr Chandra said.
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