The Hindu : Kerala News : Holding a mirror to the future

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Sunday, Feb 17, 2008
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Holding a mirror to the future

‘Keralites are great migrants and they prosper wherever they go … ’

David M. Malone

A diplomat and author on international security issues, David M. Malone, Canada’s High Commissioner in India, gives G. Krishnakumar a clear perspective about the emerging world scenario.

“Climate change, water supply and water quality are the coming big issues in international relations,” Mr. Malone says, giving a hint to future political equations.

He says India and Canada share an unwelcome phenomenon and that is “melting ice.” “This is very bad news for both the countries for different reasons,” he says.

In Kochi recently, Mr. Malone delivered a lecture on “International economic cooperation” at the School of Management Studies on the Cochin University of Science and Technology campus on Tuesday.

He says, “We see a bit of it (environmental factors) in the media. We are going to see a lot more.”

Pointing out that the student community of today is going to deal with these issues in their own professional ways, Mr. Malone says, “We do not yet know how this network of international cooperation is going to face these challenges.”

“We better all hope that the existing network will do the job. The tensions will rise and the likelihood is we will have new forms of tension.” Elaborating on the challenges before big and small countries across the globe, Mr. Malone says that migration will be another big issue that can trigger conflict.

Saying that Keralites are great migrants and they prosper wherever they go and often they come back to Kerala eventually, he says, “This is a happy case of migration.”

“But when you think of millions of people flooding India from Bangladesh, from Nepal, this is an uncontrolled form of migration, which India has been very generous about accommodating today. But if climate change causes Bangladesh to drown, will India be prepared to accommodate a 130 million Bangladeshis,” he asks.

Describing energy as another major issue facing the world, Mr. Malone says it is not just India that is short of energy supplies. Saying that countries have been counting on oil for a lot too long, he says that “oil is running out.”

“We have been much slow to look for alternatives, particularly cheap ones, and so, there is a growing tension around energy supplies,” he says.

A former Canadian Ambassador to the U.N., Mr. Malone says the challenge before India is “how does it organise its economic policy when the Non-Alignment Movement is not doing very well these days and the group of 77 is simply too large to serve the interests of many of its members.”

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