गैरबराबरी से परेशानी क्या है?

December 28th, 2021

भारत में रह रहे 50% परिवारों के पास औसत तौर पर Rs.66,000 की पूंजी है – जो एक बड़ा झटका आने पर परिवार को सड़क पर ले आता है. इस देश के सबसे अमीर 10% लोगों के पास इस देश की 65% संपत्ति है – और उनमें से भी सबसे अमीर 1% लोगों के पास देश की संपत्ति का 33% हिस्सा है.

समाज की संपत्ति के बंटवारे में गैरबराबरी सिर्फ ग़रीब, मज़दूर, मध्यम वर्ग और अमीर “बोस” कॉर्पोरेट वर्ग के बीच ही नहीं है – ये जाती की बुनियाद पर भी बटी है. हाल ही में प्रकाशित एक रिपोर्ट के हिसाब से इस देश के 50% अनुसूचित जनजाति से लोग गरीबी रेखा के नीचे है, ये आंकड़ा अनुसूचित जाती के लिए 33.3% है और पिछड़ा वर्ग के लिए 27.2% है. जबकि देश की बची हुई जनसंख्या में 15.6% लोग गरीबी रेखा के नीचे है. ये साफ़ है की इस देश में अनुसूचित जनजाति और अनुसूचित जाती बेहद मार खाई हुई है उस समय जब की देश में हर जाती और धर्म के लोग गैरबराबरी और गरीबी से ग्रस्त है.

यह हकीकत के बावजूद अक्सर लोगो से सुना है की लेकिन वो मेहनत करते है तो अमीर है, वो तेज़ दिमाग है, वग़ैरा-वगेरा. इस हालात को बनाए रखने के लिए जो चीज़े हमें सिखाई गई है उन्हें दोहराते है.

लेकिन ये 10% और 1% सबसे अमीर लोग इतनी पूंजी का क्या करते है? घर में गेहूं चावल भर कर रख लेते है? फ्रिज ख़रीद लेते है? सबसे महंगी कार और हवाईजहाज खरीदने के बावजूद इस वर्ग के पैसे में कमी नहीं आती तो फिर ये पूँजी का क्या होता है?

इस सम्पति से मिलती है राजनीतिक ताकत। खरीदते है समाज के संसाधन – कॉलेज, पानी, रेलवे स्टेशन, हवाई अड्डे, बिजली उत्पाद करने वाले बिजली घर. साफ़ लफ़्ज़ों में कहें तो ये देश को खरीदते है.

आप में से अगर किसी को लोकतंत्र शब्द सुना सुना लग रहा हो तो गुज़ारिश करूँगा की सोचने की कोशिश करें की ऐसे हालात में लोकतंत्र की क्या इस्थिति हो सकती है – याद दिला दूँ की इस देश में राजनैतिक पार्टियों को कॉर्पोरेट्स बिना हिसाब पैसा दे सकते है.

यह भी याद दिला दूँ की ये 10% और 1% का वही अमीर वर्ग की है जिनकी कार और मॉल के लिए आज के शहर बने है, यह वही वर्ग है जो इस देश के कार्बन उत्सर्जन और प्रदूषण के लिए जिम्मेदार है. ये लूट है. ये खून है. ये गैरबराबरी है.

 

 

 

 

Posted in crimes of powerful, India | Comments Closed

Hierarchy of Professional Ethics in Civil Engineering

December 13th, 2021

The Preamble of the ASCE Code of Ethics reads: “Members of The American Society of Civil Engineers conduct themselves with integrity and professionalism, and above all else protect and advance the health, safety, and welfare of the public through the practice of Civil Engineering.”

 

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The new-old boogies of oil and gas industry

December 7th, 2021

World Petroleum Congress was held in Houston, Texas on 06.12.2021. Where “executives from Saudi Aramco, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron, speaking at the World Petroleum Congress in Houston on Monday, blamed demand for renewables and lack of investment in fossil fuels for recent fuel shortages and price volatility.”

The things that need more attention according to the oil and gas giants are “”Energy security, economic development and affordability are clearly not receiving enough attention.” Energy security and economic development on a dead planet? The economic development of the last century – especially since the neoliberal period has been that of massive concentration of wealth and power and people losing access to essential energy needs. And the worry about affordability once again shows how the state and its subsidies and fundings are essentially what makes a technology, sector, or industry feasible under contemporary capitalism.

The industry is also raising the boogieman of inflation and social unrest. Which are not unlikely but not inevitable and both are guaranteed in a scenario where the world enters irreversible cascading climate collapse.

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India Arms Production and Export Boost

December 7th, 2021

“Combined arms sales by the three Indian companies in the Top 100 grew by 1.7 per cent. In 2020 the Indian Government announced a phased ban on imports of certain types of military equipment to bolster self-reliance in arms production.” – SIPRI.

 

Posted in The Warlords (national security) | Comments Closed

Some corporate-climate-green-washing myth busting.

December 7th, 2021

A new report by T&E shows that the new “green” hydrogen fuels – which are made by turning electricity into hydrogen which when combined with CO2 produces a liquid fuel similar to petrol or diesel – are as, or maybe more polluting than existing fossil fuels. But the oil and gas and the automobile industry is pushing hard for these fuels. India under Modi has initiated a National Hydrogen Mission which is supposed to be a major part of the net-zero effort. Although the sector is waiting for the policy document to come and “a strong regulatory framework to be created keeping the interest of investors in mind.”

The level of NOx pollutants is equal to conventional fuels while CO (carbon monoxide) toxic production was higher in e-fuel tests.

India will soon be responsible for 3rd of the world’s air conditioning demands given the rise in extreme heat events in the region. But the ability to purchase and make billing investments is within a very small section of the population – my educated guess would be that it is roughly equal to the population owning private cars, i.e. around 2% of the national population.

Once again the only hope out of this entangled situation is the state sector coming to help the market -agencies like Energy Efficiency Services Limited will have to produce cheaper and more efficient air conditioners for the masses.

Meanwhile, European Environmental Bureau released a report on the repairability and replaceability of batteries in consumer electronics. Most new electronic gadgets do not allow for repair or replaceability of batteries creating more pollution, waste, overproduction, and burden of costs.

Posted in climate crisis, crimes of powerful | Comments Closed

AI can expedite democratization in construction industry

September 19th, 2021

Sam Dolgoff in a very important article The Relevance of Anarchism to Modern Society wrote that “[t]he progress of the new society will depend greatly upon the extent to which its self-governing units will be able to speed up direct communication — to understand each other’s problems and better coordinate activities.” That this is the case is illustrated by the application of Enterprise resource planning software at workers’ owned manufacturing plants:

“[T]his proved to be an effective communication strategy for the 100% employee-owned company, which relied heavily on teamwork and collaboration as part of its company culture.
Abbate is excited to see how streamlined, digital communication is being embraced by employees. For example, he tells the story of how an employee who did not want a computer on the shop floor is now providing constructive feedback on jobs using the digital information he now has at hand.
“The ERP system is a point of engagement on the shop floor — people are now talking the same language that we’ve been talking in the production meetings and scheduling. Our new communication system gives more opportunity to provide feedback.”
[T]he ultimate goal in streamlining communication was to provide transparent information to everybody.”

In the construction industry, Building Information Modeling (BIM) softwares have the potential for achieving the same goals. BIM software can design the works project, estimate the material required, store scheduling data, maintain inventory based on this data, and can be changed in real-time over the lifecycle of the project. Providing workers on-site with all the information needed for the day-to-day tasks and updating the project based on site activities.

On the other hand, new AI-based Optioneering programs allow the generation of multiple options for a project based on the needs. If a community requires ground connectivity from A to B within a city these programs can generate several options based on the geological and geographic data and the social and environmental decision-making criteria we input. Some projects might have smaller embodied carbon, while others might displace the least amount of informal settlements, while the third might just be the easiest and most profitable for the contractors. If the communities are allowed to become part of the options process and based on informed judgment in deciding the criteria for project selection then this technology has the potential for a genuine democratization of the construction industry. As mentioned in a previous post the pre-tender planning process is very crucial for the future of sustainable infrastructures. cities and life on the planet.

Posted in anarchism, of engineering and engineers | Comments Closed

The generation of skilled (construction) workers.

September 14th, 2021

NYT recently reported that “a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey found that 88 percent of commercial construction contractors reported moderate-to-high levels of difficulty finding skilled workers, and more than a third had to turn down work because of labor deficiencies.” Like all other sectors construction in India is also largely labour intensive and productivity is not primarily driven by technological or process improvements. But this fact aside, the general picture is very likely similar in India with the generation of skilled steelworkers, carpenters or masons retiring and the new generation is not trained enough for the kind of work society needs today and is not interested in construction work.

The planning framework suggested in the previous post must therefore include an industrial and construction workforce development program. In manufacturing, work can be divided into minute repetitive small tasks but on the worksite, the nature of work keeps changing to varying degrees as the project progresses – so the intensive division of labour ad hence making do with unskilled workers is very difficult. The alternative to a skilled construction workforce is delays in project completion (i.e. waste of time and material and human resources) and/or unsatisfactory quality of work.

Posted in activism, of engineering and engineers | Comments Closed

Climate considerations in contemporary public work tenders

September 12th, 2021

 

 

The current pre-tender public works procedure looks something like this: a primary investigation by the concerned department is undertaken to assess the financial and technical feasibility of the proposed project with approximate estimates, which when gets the consent of the department goes for a detailed investigation that if gets the technical approval comes out as the document for tender and work contract – including drawings, bill of quantities and specifications.

Nowhere in this two-stage investigation and approval process, ecological feasibility is examined as an independent factor in the work project. But this stage is quite crucial as the project once notified for tender almost never gets terminated and extensively revised for environmental reasons. Which is understandable because at this stage a lot of material resource, manpower, and political calculas has already been mobilized. Therefore, climate and environmental activists should focus on the policy framework determining the initial approval of public infrastructure projects.

Such a framework must become the law of the land – like the Climate Change Act 2008 in the UK. But given the fact that India is reluctant to even revise its climate goals that is a very difficult task. And even such a law with strict emission targets will not be sufficient to govern particular projects because the impact of a single work, especially small projects like single lane roads, is usually very low even over the infrastructure’s lifetime. But the cumulative effect of all projects in a region or of a megaproject with various sub-projects – like Sagar Mala do have a massive greenhouse impact.

Hence the need for planning. Planning will not only make the ecological assessment and hence the construction of a range of public infrastructure (and possibly private infrastructure) within the biophysical limits of the planet but also give the opportunity to make more just and equitable infrastructure – where the relationships of various projects and their relationship with society and classes within it is better scrutinized.

Posted in climate crisis, of engineering and engineers | Comments Closed

Infrastructure for a free society?

August 27th, 2021

It is a curious fact that anarchist-communists have so far given merely scant attention to the issue of infrastructure in a free society. Kropotkin famously focused on fields, factories, and workshops but not on flyovers, canals, and water pipelines. Reclus gave passing remarks on the importance of modern transit systems to a cosmopolitan free world. Since then, activists and scholars of the workers’ control movement have focused on manufacturing and recently on services and logistics.

While 100% of the built environment that humans and many other species now inhabit is constructed by underpaid, unappreciated and forgotten workers on sites using largely tools and apparatus developed, improved, and perfected over millennia by the working intellectual-craftspeople.

While also, the infrastructure sector is one of the largest contributors of GHGs and at the same time one of the best tools for emission mitigation and social adaptation. Infrastructure reflects and perpetuates social inequalities. And at the time of terminal global economic downturn, it is the sector getting the most attention in corporate board rooms and parliaments. All this calls for more and serious attention to the engineered world around us and its future.

Posted in anarchism, of engineering and engineers | Comments Closed

An engineers contribution to class struggle.

August 21st, 2021

I learned yesterday that Mike Cooley had passed away almost a year ago. Ever since I came across his work in the mid-2010s it has shaped my social thinking and activity in definitive ways. He along with Seymour Melman and Tony Mazzocchi was a pioneering example of what the intersection of engineering, labour organizing, demilitarization, and radical environmental and health activism ought to look like.

The value of this intersectional politics has increased multifold during our period of chronic emergency – from covid to daily and diverse impacts of climatic collapse, from dismantling of standard employment structures to the historic rise in unemployment. Mike was instrumental in preparing the Lucas Plan. A corporate plan that aimed to transform the war economy to civilian economy and produce socially useful products under worker control.

Mike summed up what socially useful production sought to achieve like this: “We have, for example, complex control systems which can guide a missile to another continent with extraordinary accuracy, yet the blind and the disabled have to stagger around our cities in very much the same way as they did in medieval times.”

Now we have vehicles that can “see” but the disabled, because they are not a profitable market, still await the 21st century. This is not due to technological insufficiency or unavailability but due to capitalism’s preference for profitable and wasteful production, just like it was not profitable for capitalist institutions to fund preventive research on the coronavirus when epidemiologists started warning in 2016 or even produce ventilators or hospital beds.

If the military spending and the incalculable cost of what our society has to forego to sustain it continue to increase at the same pace there is no way to transform our economy to an even a version of capitalism that can prevent irreversible dive toward uninhabitable earth.

But we can neither progress towards producing and constructing what the degrading environment demands nor cut military budget nor prevent job loss because these are not technocratic matters that some right kind of corporate or political leadership or some technological breakthrough can realize. As Mike always noted that these demands are a direct threat to corporate and political managerial power over society. They can only be won by power struggle – by class struggle.

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