The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : `Nurture selfless service to boost nation-building'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 30, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

`Nurture selfless service to boost nation-building'

"In the U.S. there are checks and balances in every field and there is little room for manipulation of the laws of the land."

Thomas Abraham

"India with its highly diverse culture is like the city of Sugarland in Texas. With its strong local economy and steady overall growth rate, Sugarland is the safest city in the whole U.S.," claims Thomas Abraham alias Tom, who happens to be the first Indo-American to be elected Council Member at Large Position-I of the city of Sugarland.

Mr. Abraham of Vattamodiyil House in Kuzhikkala near Kozhencherry is a mechanical engineer by profession. He has been in U.S. politics as a member of the ruling Republican Party for the past 18 years.

He was one of the special invitees at the State dinner hosted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by President George W. Bush during the former's visit to the U.S. in July. He was also a State guest of the Tamil Nadu Government and had addressed the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2001.

He says the Sugarland model of development is not a distant dream for India, provided it nurtures a social psyche that makes people aware of the socio-cultural reality and propagate mutual respect in society, above all religious and racist differences.

Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Abraham said that the success of Sugarland on various fronts owed greatly to its social equality and mutual respect among different sections of society.

"It is high time an Indian saw his countrymen as Indians, above all their religious, castiest, racial and political differences. Our elected representatives should not forget the fact that they are working for the people who have elected them," says Mr. Abraham.

"In the U.S. there are checks and balances in every field and there is little room for manipulation of the laws of the land."

According to Mr. Abraham, India is a fast-growing economy and it is high time to nurture "selfless service in order to boost the nation-building process".

Mr. Abraham says that Kerala with its rich tourism potential needs to ensure a better sanitation system to attract world-class tourists to its tourist centres.

The Government should adopt every village and improve sanitation facility there in the larger interests of promoting tourism industry and strengthening the local economy.

Of late, China has realised this and launched extensive village-level sanitation improvement programmes, he adds.

"It is equally important to be a good host for the promotion of the tourism industry and the local people should be made aware of the importance of being a good host, without compromising the native moral and ethical values," Mr. Abraham says.

Radhakrishnan Kutoor

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