Precious Indian Silver atVirginia Museum
are, indeed, is this 18th century rosewater sprinkler from India. Most of India's pre-19th century silver was melted down to make something else. So the recent purcHase of 21 pieces of early silverwork from fndia by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is a boon for those interested in the techniques used by Indian silversmiths in the 17th and 18th centuries. The artisans worked for the great royal houses and, as curator Joseph M. Dye III noted, "This silver from princely India calTies us back to the visually dazzling world of the maharajas, the Mughals and the Taj Mahal." Museum director Michael Brand adds, "The rarity and importance of this collection cannot be overestimated." Objects acquired include unusual court jewelry, a "spectacular" dagger scabbard, and two ornate flywhisks. Rosewater sprinkler, 18th century, India, made of silver, brass, gilding and niello, 12.125 inches (31 centimeters) high.
spAN Publisher Michael H. Anderson
By A. Venkata Narayana
Editor-in-Chief Gabrielle Guimond
Fulbright Program
Students' Star Trek
Broader Horizons
Editor Lea Terhune Associate Editor A. Venkata Narayana Hindi Editor Govind Singh Urdu Editor AnjumNaim Copy Editor Dipesh K. Satapathy Editorial Assistant K. Muthul..l1Il1ar Art Director Hemant Bhatnagar
An Interview with Thomas A. Farrell
Reaching for Normality By Nachammai Raman
Getting Tough with Traffickers By Lea Terhune
Vishakha Desai
Asia Society's Next Generation ~ By K. Muthukurnar
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Below the Bottom Line
~ Q
~ aJ
o aJ
Deputy Art Directors Sharad Sovani Khurshid Anwar Abbasi
Stay-at-HomeParentsAre Back
Production/Circulation Manager Rakesh Agrawal
By Kim Clark
The Anti-Diva
Printing Assistant AJok Kaushik
By Rob Hoerburger
Business Manager R. Narayan
Himachal Monks Win Grammy By Lea Terhune
Research Services AIRC Documentation Services, American Information Resource Center
The Myth of '18 to 34' By Jonathan Dee
Front cover: A gray wolf (Canis lupus). The largest wolf species that roams Asia, North America, Europe, Scandinavia and the Middle East, gray wolves can adapt to extreme climatic conditions. Photograph by Gary Kramer, courtesy USFWS National Image Library. See story on page 51. Note:
SPAN does not accept unsolicited manuscripts and materials and does not assume responsibility for them. Query letters are accepted.
Published by the Public Affairs Section, American Center, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 11000 I (phone: 23316841), on behalf of the American Embassy, New Delhi. Printed at Ajanta Ltd., 95-B Wazirpur Offset & Packagings Industrial Area, Delhi 110052. The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Government. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Editor. For permission wlite to the Editor. Price of magazine, one year subscription (6 issues) Rs. 125; single copy, Rs. 30.
Patents Go Global By Evan I. Schwartz
On the Lighter Side Overcoming
Dyslexia
By Betsy Morris
Wolves: Did They Originate in South Asia? By Dipesh Satapathy
A VisualFeast Masala: Diversity & Democracy in South Asian Art By Lea Terhune
A LETTER
FROM
oung people and their concerns are underlying themes in this issue, with stories that range from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's interaction with students to changing trends among working parents. We begin with "India Questions," by A. Venkata Narayana, which details Secretary Powell's meeting with students during his recent visit to New Delhi. The lively dialogue was televised on NDTV 24X7. Next, in "Students' Star Trek," Narayana tells of two Indian schoolboys, Saatvik Agarwal from Delhi and Vignan Pattamatta from Hyderabad, who were chosen for a 10-day tour at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They were there when the latest Rover mission touched down on Mars. Narayana also talked to U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Tom Farrell, and learned of a new Fulbright program plan that reaches out to a more diverse group of students than ever before, outlined in "Fulbright Program: Broader Horizons." Children are among the primary victims of trafficking, and the most vulnerable are children of trafficked parents. In "Reaching for Normality," Nachammai Raman investigates some successful programs in Tamil Nadu that give the children of sex workers better options and protect then, from being coerced into prostitution. The United States has intensified its efforts to fight trafficking and the criminal organizations that perpetuate it, recognizing that it is a task that demands international cooperation. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Alex Acosta told Lea Terhune about some of the firm anti-trafficking measures initiated by the U.S. domestically and abroad. See "Getting Tough with Traffickers." More parents are opting to give their young children full-time attention, as Kim Clark relates in "Stay-atHome Parents Are Back." A problem confronted by many parents is coping with a serious learning handicap that has only been recognized in the past 30 years. "Overcoming Dyslexia," by Betsy Morris, tells the story of several of the world's most successful, billionaire entrepreneurs who struggled with dyslexia and turned it into their biggest asset. ,
Y
THE
PUBLISHER
Despite the fact that people under 30 usually haven't much spending power, advertisers have targeted them for decades. Jonathan Dee debunks this strategy in "The Myth of '18 to 34.''' One young woman, however, has broken out of the norm and then some, with her hugely successful first album, "Come Away With Me." Rob Hoerburger profiles singer Norah Jones in "The AntiDiva." The Grammy-winning performer, of course, is the daughter of Indian music great Ravi Shankar. The visual arts community offered a rare treat this spring at the William Benton Museum of Art in Storrs, Connecticut, with the exhibition "Masala: Diversity and Democracy in South Asian Art." In "A Visual Feast," we share some of the works in this exciting exhibition, which drew from South Asian folk art, poster art and contemporary art of the Diaspora and the West. On the economic front, "Below the Bottom Line" presents a collection of short essays by various thinlcers about the social responsibility of corporations in the modern world. C.K. Prahalad, Samuel Ostrow, Jeremy Rifkin and Vijay Govindarajan, among others, discuss the impact of corporations pursuing goals such as ending world hunger, seeking social justice and redistributing wealth. And "Patents Go Global," by Evan 1. Schwartz, examines the thorny question of how to standardize the patent process in a way that is internationally acceptable: no easy thing when more than a hundred different licensing regimes exist. Our cover highlights a new collaborative study done by the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, with support of the Smithsonian and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that has yielded some surprising information. "Wolves: Did They Originate in South Asia?" by Dipesh Satapathy, surveys the background and results of the rese:lrch. We hope you enjoy these and the other features in this issue.
1ndia eounPowe[[ In his first-ever dialogue with students in India, the Secretary of State shared his insights and perceptions about the growing U.S.-India relations. .S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is known for his dialogue with world leaders, but equally important to him are his interactions with young people. For that reason Powell, former chairman of America's PromiseAlliance for Youth, made time between his
U
meetings with Prime Minister Vajpayee and other top officials for a unique event with the people who are India's future. In March, about one hundred students from Delhi schools and colleges assembled at the Maurya Sheraton Hotel to interact with Powell for the filming of
"I
enjoy this kind of audience more than I do appearing before my [U.S.] Congress or on normal television shows, because your questions are almost always direct to the heart of an issue. They're candid, they're open, they're honest."
NDTV 24X7 news channel's "India Questions" program, moderated by Prannoy Roy. Powell has participated in similar events with youthful audiences in the U.S., the bestknown being an MTV "global discussion" appearance in which he advocated condom use to prevent the spread of HIV /AIDS, a stance that raised some controversy, but which he defended. "It's the lives of young people that are put at risk by unsafe sex," he told critics, emphasizing the need for protection. His strong commitment to giving young people every opportunity within their communities, whether it is health care, education, a decent home life, or simply letting them have a voice, led to the NDTV appearance, which was his first interaction with a young audience in India. As he told one journalist, "I very much enjoy talking to young people. They usually go right to the heart of an issue. They usually have more candor than adults." Certainly, this group of young Indians had provocative questions and opinions, which they candidly expressed. Subjecfs ranged from India-Pakistan relations, Iraq, elections, outsourcing to space cooperation. Powell opened with a warm introduction: "It is a great pleasure to be with you and have this opportunity to talk to the young people of India, the future leaders of India. Back home in the United States before I became Secretary of State, when I was working with youth programs, I used to go around the country, speaking to young people from ages six all the way up to 18 or 22. And I enjoy this kind of audience more than I do appearing before my [U.S.] Congress or on normal television shows, because your questions are almost always direct to the heart of an issue. They're candid, they're open, they're honest." The students were preoccupied, first and foremost, with world affairs. Iraq was much on their minds, and Powell fielded several questions about it, including that of one
young woman who asked about the war in Iraq, "Do you believe it was a mistake and does America owe an apology?" Powell did not, and he justified the action by saying that whether or not weapons of mass destruction were found, "Saddam Hussein always had the intent to have and he has used weapons of mass destruction, not only against his own people in Halabja 16 years ago, but against Iran." To a question about sweeping antiAmericanism across the world post-Iraq War, he said, "We are aware that part of the antiAmerican attitude that exists, particularly in the Muslim world, has to do with the crisis between Israel and Palestinians." About Iraq, he said, "I think that over time, people will see that a democracy is being created, people are living a better life, but a dictator is gone." Once steady progress is made, he maintained, opinion on Iraq should change. "I hope that in time attitudes will shift. We try to convey the message to people that America is fundamentally a nation that believes in peace, democracy, and the rights of men and women." Commenting on recent India-Pakistan peace initiatives, Powell admired the commitment of Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf to work toward a lasting peace settlement. He emphasized that the U.S. will not act as a mediator between the two countries "This is a matter for India and Pakistan to ultimately resolve. The Line of Control has become quiet in recent months. We hope the ceasefire holds." Both India and Pakistan must be engaged, he said, "Ultimately, the two sides will have to, through negotiation and dialogue, find the solution to the difficult problem of Kashmir." Powell disagreed with one young man's perception that America is acting as the "Big Brother" of the world, who created a mess that needs to be cleaned up rather than preventing the mess. "We do believe in prevention and if you look at what we are doing with our foreign policy, we are doing everything we can to establish free trade agreements with nations around the world. That's part of prevention: helping people participate in the global marketplace so they can provide a livelihood for their people. The purpose of prevention is to put hope in the hearts of peo-
0
pie and to bring infrastructure development, find jobs, health care, and a better future for themselves." Concem about nuclear issues was evident in questions about Pakistan and proliferation in general. Powell said that he hoped that the Pakistani govemment was not connected to scientist A.Q. Khan's nuclear networks. "As you know, both India and Pakistan have a nuclear deterrent that they both maintain. We have been concemed about the activities, however, of Khan, who is considered the father of the Pakistan nuclear deterrent, but he went from doing that to actually marketing this knowledge and the equipment associated with this knowledge, to countries such as Libya, North Korea, and others. This we found reprehensible and we have been studying it for many years with our intelligence agencies, and finally we got a strong case that we could take to President Musharraf." When quizzed about the number of nuclear weapons possessed by the United States, Powell did not provide exact figures, but said, "I hope for the day when there are no nuclear weapons because no one has a need for them. No one has done more than the United States to move down the path of disarmament with respect to nuclear weapons. But they can't all suddenly go away, unfortunately, because there is still the requirement for a deterrent. It is important for all of us to come together to make sure that this club has no need to get any larger." Moving on to the economy, a participant pulled no punches when he asked, "The United States of America is always upholding the cause of free trade. But when it comes to outsourcing, particularly with reference to India, the United States wants to clamp down and protect American jobs. So that's kind of hypocritical. Do you support outsourcing or are you against it?" Powell countered, "Outsourcing is a natural effect of the global eco-
utsourcing is a natural effect of the global economic system and the rise of the Internet and broadband communications. You're not going to eliminate outsourcing." II
nomic system and the rise of the Intemet and broadband communications. You're not going to eliminate outsourcing. But at the same time when you outsource jobs it becomes a political issue in anybody's country. People without jobs are a political issue, so what we have to do is make sure that as we participate in outsourcing not only with India-we outsource jobs to other countries as well-we have to make sure that we are at the same time creating jobs for Americans who may have been affected by outsourcing. And that's why in our discussions today with our Indian colleagues, we made the point that we also want to see greater openness to Indian markets, not as a quid pro quo to outsourcing, but just to open up markets in all directions so that when we can do something better than someone else, then that job ought to be sourced back to the United States." He pointed out that India does outsourcing, too, for instance "when Indian companies have the need for services that they can only find in an American law firm or in an American accounting firm. So it's a two-way street." About the new space initiative of India and the United States, Powell explained a new phase of cooperation based on the strengthened. bilateral relationship between the two countries: "We have what is called Next Steps in the Strategic Partnership, where we have taken into account all of the technology and all the capacity India has to work in the civilian nuclear sector and in the space sector, and we have let India know of our concems with respect to what technologies we can provide to India and what we can cooperate on. I just completed discussions with the leadership of your government as to how we can energize this program of Next Steps in the Strategic Partnership. " Powell denied dissension within the Bush cabinet, saying, "I think the President is well served by cabinet officers who are ready to debate the issue and present the President with alternative points of view on the issues of the day." He emphasized the unified stance on policy: "It is working with partners, it is creating alliances, it is helping people achieve a better life, it is helping to feed those nations in the world that are not able to feed themselves." 0
aatvik Agarwal and Vignan Pattamatta were among the 16 boys from all over the world who participated recently in the Mars Exploration Rover mission training program held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. Saatvik, ~ a Class X student of Amity International School in Delhi, and Vignan, a Class IX student of St. Paul's ~ High School in Hyderabad, were selected as "Student Astronauts" by the U.S. Planetary Society after a rigorous selection process, which included essay-writing and quiz competitions, individual presentations about Mars and telephone interviews with NASA scientists. "If you were given one of the two Mars rovers for two days, what experiments you would conduct in order to prove the existence of water in the history of Mars?" was the theme for the essay contest, the first-ever international contest organized by the U.S. Planetary Society (USPS), in which more than 5,000 students participated. The Indian chapter alone has received 250 essays from students aged between 8 and 16. After shortlisting, 16 students from 12 different countlies were selected as Student Astronauts. During the lO-day session, a team of two students-divided into eight batches- sat in the Mars Exploration Rover control room at IPL and studied mission data and images as they anived. Students posted their findings online in a daily logbook summarizing their observations and analyses. Vignan has got the chance of a lifetime to see how the Spirit crisis was handled. Spirit was the first of the two rovers to land. It worked perfectly initially, but later worried mission scientists when it stopped sending data. "This crisis situation enabled me to understand how scientists handle such extreme situations. None of the scientists was feeling tensed or disheartened, rather they took it as a challenge and worked with more vigor. Soon, I saw the Spirit
come back to normal and continue sending valuable data," says Vignan. He also got an opportunity to witness the second rover, Opportunity, land on Mars successfully. "That was the best time that you can have. I worked with the scientists who were involved with both the rovers," says Vignan. Saatvik, who underwent training on a different shift, had his own exciting experience at JPL. He observed the payload on the rovers close up, including the panoramic cameras and the magnets. He pored over thousands of downlinked images from the rovers and analyzed the samples, which might help determine whether life ever existed on the red planet. Then JPL proposed that Saatvik continue his involvement in data analysis when he returned to India: "There is a lot of data which the JPL scientists cannot handle on their own. When they approached me to work on some portions of data and calibrate the images I was really delighted about the offer. JPL will pass on the data to me in a couple of months." He will analyze the magnetic properties in the Martian environment that will be useful for future missions. The U.S. Planetary Society, NASA and the LEGO Company, partners of the Student Astronaut project, are enthusiastic about the response this Saatvik Aganval (above) project has received from young peoof Amity International School in Delhi and ple. "This is the first time that an interVignan Pattamatta (left) of national group of children had pmticiSt. Paul's High School in pated in an active planetary space misHyderabad had a lifetime sion. It complements NASA student experience at Mars missiDn programs that encourage the next genat Pasadena this January. eration of explorers to pursue science, technology ... and promotes the Spilit of international cooperation in discovery," to quote a USPS press release. Is the term "Student Astronaut" a misnomer? Not according to Vignan, who enthuses, "The rovers that are currently working on Mars are equipped exactly like a human geologist, the only difference being that their brains are here at JPL. So when we work on the mission it is almost as good as going to Mars." Their experience of the Mars mission has aroused tremendous enthusiasm. Now they not only think about space but have real knowledge about what it takes to explore it. -A.V. N.
Fulbright Program
Broader Horizons homas A. Farrell is the deputy assistant secretary of state for academic programs in the Bush Administration. He supervises State Departmentsponsored programs such as the Fulbright program and the Freedom Support Act exchanges. He also oversees State Department initiatives that support educational advising and English language teaching outside the United States. A Fulbright Fellow to Pakistan and a Peace Corps volunteer in India 30 years ago, Farrell later served as regional director of the Institute for International Education at Houston, Texas. Farrell was in India to participate in the regional Fulbright Commission meeting held in Goa, which included regional officers and Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca. During his tour SPAN caught up with Farrell for an interview. SPAN: The Fulbright program is shifting its focus to include more young people from smaller towns. Why are you changing your priorities? THOMAS A. FARRELL: We now notice a visible change in relationships between the United States and India. We talk about growing interest between the people of both countries across the spectrum. Now we intend to do things for the less privileged undergraduate students by way of scholarships who otherwise would not even
aspire to study in the United States. We are trying to signal to the Indian youth that through our exchange program many sections of society can participate in the educational exchanges by which the economic life of the nation will improve so that everyone enjoys the benefits of education and global economy. It is a new challenge for us and we plan to pursue the course so that the social and educational discrepancies are reduced over a period of time.
What is the focus of youth exchange programs and who are your target groups? The educational programs are central to our mission. The various aspects of exchanges have often been overlooked because we concentrate so much on leadership development of people, particularly the skills, the enhanced capacities and what the person takes back at the end of program. We are not concentrating on new fellowships but working, for the last few years, to provide opportunities to Muslim
students both in the United States and abroad. We have an Islamic civilization studies as a component of the Fulbright program at a global level that offers special grants to American students to study Islamic civilization. One could apply to study the Islamic culture or Islamic poetry or music. We have an endowments system in the Islamic studies, which helps scholars from the arts, politics or economics to pursue their advance study. We do want people to participate in the program through influence of wider communities in the United States. There is of course emphasis on Islam now but it's not as if we have not had serious engagement on this issue in the long term. One of -the most interesting Fulbright programs was developed in Indonesia 18 years ago. We had young professors come in for studies on a Fulbright scholarship who have made our well-known Islamic studies centers at Harvard, Arizona and Princeton as seats of their studies. We were not exactly teaching them Islam but the American methods of historiography and the standard critical analysis of text. We are engaging them with how we in the United States teach various aspects of Islam in a scholarly environment and look at things from a different perspective. We also give different types of tools to better the skills of teachers at home. The U.S. Congress in recent years has felt the need to spend more money in countries in South Asian region, which has a very large Islamic population. The Congress' mandate will enable an increase in the number of Fulbright students in our youth exchange programs in a substantial way. We have large Muslim populations in countries in Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of Africa. Since 1990 the United States has spent a large amount of money on educational and economic development, educational exchanges, international education in the former states of Soviet Union and the former Warsaw Pact countries. We have worked effectively in the former states of USSR for better relationships and better understanding of the U.S. So why don't we do the same thing in parts of the Islamic world?
There has been a growing mutual understanding between India and the United States in recent years. How do you look at the prospect of this relationship developing in the coming days? We work with students and teachers of both the countries. The various facets of mutual understanding come across in the classroom; certainly giving teachers a chance to understand the American society, history and culture. The mutual exchange program also offers the American teachers an opportunity to visit colleges in India. More than 600 American teachers visit Japan every year, which makes a tremendous impact on Japanese students, scholars and teachers. I believe that the Fulbright Commission in India will come up with some creative ideas in the area. I am very passionate about this so I want to see a lot of Americans and Indians have that kind of life-sharing experience through the Fulbright program.
Recently there has been a fund crisis in the Fulbright program. How do you plan to address this challenge? The Fulbright program is a binational program, which is run through government funding. Both the U.S. and Indian governments share and support this program on 50:50 bases. Private fundraising from business corporations is welcome but essentially it's the responsibility of both governments to run the program. Both governments have actually gotten together and laid out the principles and policies about sharing the funding. The particular disciplines and age groups that they need to focus on in the next couple of years has been agreed upon. Even though the Indian side understands the importance of the program, for some reason or other, it has not been able to share the financial responsibilities and the opportunities that have been fixed in the board meetings.
Because of the recent visa regulations many Indian students have been deprived of admission to American universities. Doesn't this send a discouraging message to prospective students? The United States always recognized intellectual contribution of foreign students and scholars. Their talent is instrumental in maintaining high quality in educational system in America. They contribute in every field, be it the sciences, technology, engineering or humanities. Frankly, we have no intention of telling the world that we do not want to welcome foreign students. Now because of security concerns, we are more careful in issuing visas, but that does not mean a genuine student is being denied the opportunity to pursue academic courses in the United States. Because of the new visa regulations, the universities have to adjust their time schedules, as they will not be able to do things as quickly as they used to do. The U.S. administration is going to work out some easy solutions keeping in mind the security concerns. Education is a $12 billion service industry in the U.S., and I am confident that the administration is not going to ignore this fact completely.
What methodologies do you plan to introduce for the young audience program? We want to give a chance to young students, with diverse backgrounds, to participate in this exciting program. We 'want to ensure that new blood and new thinking is infused into the program by way of selecting the participants who represent diverse areas, not just from the metropolitan areas alone. The U.S. Government wants to reach out to these sections of students. To monitor this program, we will have a regional officer based in India. American college and university students, who are going to be teachers in English, will be selected to work as teaching assistants to Indian professors of English language and conversation in Indian universities and colleges. Similarly, Indian students, who are qualified to teach any Indian language, will be selected to assist some American university professors. With this new focus we look forward to support the bilateral exchange program, which will further help in promoting mutual understanding between the United States and India. - A.V.N.
Text by NACHAMMAI RAMAN Photographs by BARRY FITZGERALD
Giving children of sex workers protection and education is the only way they can escape to a better reality. Community-based programs in Chennai and Pondicherry are showing the way.
ex workers' children are vulnerable prey to pimps, madams and customers on the lookout for young and fresh faces. Two nongovernmental organizations in Tamil Nadu, one in Chennai and the other in Pondicherry, are doing their best to make sure that the children of sex workers don't model on their mothers' careers, wittingly or unwittingly. From the stories sex workers have to tell, it appears that most are sucked into the profession because they were trafficked or forced. For a few, the choice was conscious, impelled by abject poverty. When they had sold all their possessions and mortgaged the house but were still drowning in debt, they learned that selling sex could fetch them a tidy income. Whatever the reason sex workers got into the trade, those who stayed on confess the money was sweet for as long as it rolled in. As sex workers age, the opportunistic eyes of pimps, madams and customers flit to their adolescent daughters. It isn't that difficult to convince women who have viewed their bodies as commodities for the past 20 years and possess no other skills to now regard their children as potential cash cows. "When sex workers are 30 to 35, they're very sure they won't let their girls get into the profession, but when they hit 40, they will let pimps talk them into it because they have no other income," says Chennai-based Indian Community Welfare Organisation (ICWO) founder-secretary AJ. Hariharan. The objective of ICWO's Eagle Eye Intervention, launched in February 2003, is to involve the community in preventing the children of sex workers from going the same route. The approach is two-pronged: to sensitize the community to protect children
S
and to motivate children to go to school. One cannot work without the other because no matter how sensitized the community, a dropout's chances of breaking away from her mother's profession are diminished. This is why ICWO underscores the importance of education. The project that focuses on keeping children in school is called Udhayam. It was started in 200 I as a spinoff from a study on HIV/AIDS sponsored by the Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Society, which receives U.S. funding. "In this study, we found that HIV ranked fifth on sex workers' list of concerns. Their frrst concern was for the future of their children," says project manager Vasumathi Benny. This project has as many as 13 mentoring centers operating in Chennai. The rationale of the mentoring center is to occupy children productively after school. Typically, 15-20 children are assigned to a mentor who lives in the area. The children are expected to go to their respective mentoring centers-be it on somebody's roof or home-to spend an hour on their homework and an hour on creative activities. The mentor guides them both in tackling school as well as personal issues that often make a child underperform in school. "Before these mentoring centers came up, all that used to be on these children's minds was playing marbles and going to movie shoots. Now, it's all changed," says field coordinator K. Pal ani. In north Chennai's Kodambakkam area, that is home to the Tamil film industry and the highest number of sex workers in Chennai, the booby traps for dreamy-eyed marginalized children are many. The electrically powered globe at the entrance of AVM Studios spins indefati~ably, cranking out movies and television
Children of sex workers with puppet show characters teach lessons about avoiding being drawn into sex trade.
series through sun, rain and recession. With the booming cable television market, residences are being turned into film sets as well. When they talk excitedly about the White House in this area, the allusion is not to the edifice on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., but to a large house in nearby Saligramam that serves as a filming location. With studios strung out every few yards and the rags-to-riches stories of stars in the minds of the locals, it's not difficult to see why these children would rather shoot for the celluloid than slog at their books, which they don't even have the money to buy sometimes. Moreover, these children are often stigmatized-and alienated-in school for being the children of sex workers. According to Benny, their parents themselves sometimes prefer to send them to act in bit parts than to school because the long term value of an education falls short against the hard cash they get at the end of a film shoot. Palani explains that children.in their project area are strictly forbidden to be distracted by any film industry activity except when school is out. Kala, secretary of the year-old Indira Female Peer Educators Collective (IFPEC), would prefer a total ban so that children are protected from the cinema bug because "going to shootings" was her road to becoming a sex worker. She relates how her uncle brought her to work in the catering service of a movie studio. Someone suggested to her that instead of toiling at doing dishes, a girl like her could make more money in front of
the camera. Eventually, she ended up in a brothel. "The brothel owner said to me, 'Think it over. Here you give yourself instead of a product, that's all.''' Kala's friends too have similar stories. Kala and IFPEC treasurer Sheeba say they have learned hard lessons from their lives as sex workers: harassment from thugs, crackdown by the police, abuse and violence from customers ...an endless litany. The ultimate and most painful was perhaps rejection by their own families. Sheeba paid for her daughters' weddings, but she attended the weddings as an outsider. Kala has put one of her sons in a boarding school and given away the other one for adoption. She doesn't ever want them to find out the truth about her for fear that her sons will hate her. This is why Kala, Sheeba and their friends are determined to prevent the children they know from being trafficked for sex. "Who we need to talk to most are parents," says Vimala, a cluster mother in the Eagle Eye Intervention program. The role of a cluster mother is to watch the children assigned to her. If a child goes missing suddenly, she attempts to investigate the child's whereabouts and tip ICWO off. The hardest task is, of course, convincing the parents-with whose collusion the child has been A role-playing demonstration at a program for children of sex workers simulates situation in which child is approached to become a sex worker; and subsequently be at riskfor HIV.
trafficked-of the terrible life their daughter will have. Vimala points out, "Pimps and brokers will always lead the parents on to think their daughters can earn a lot of money. They have all kinds of blandishments. 'You are old, but your daughter looks pretty,' they'll say." So far, all of the "rescue" work that the ICWO network has done in the area has been with the cooperation of parents. "We work with the mother. Otherwise it will be extremely difficult," says Hariharan. This is because the legal process related to the rescue of a minor is very involved and full of loopholes. Unless the trafficked child's parents have an interest in delivering their child, the trafficker can easily turn the story around and accuse the rescuer of being the trafficker. Hariharan admits that his team is in the very early stages of the prevention of trafficking and there's a lot more that they need to learn. He thinks the program will evolve in time as their first project, the HIV/AIDS prevention work 路in Mahabalipuram which started with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has done. Although USAID does not fund ICWO's Eagle Eye Intervention program, according to Hariharan, "US AID is looking into developing a partnership with us to combat the trafficking of women and children." Three hours south of Chennai, in Pondicherry, the lure of filmdom is abated. Here, the magnet is liquor. Pondicherry is to Tamil Nadu today what Montmartre was to 19th-century Paris for its exemption from liquor taxes and the consequent bustle of bars and brothels. Rukmini, who works at a bar in Pondicherry's raunchy Kandoctorthottam area, reckons that she's 35 years old, but her eyes add 10 years to that age. She doesn't really know because she's illiterate. She now has full-blown AIDS. Some two decades ago, she was brought to Pondicherry on the pretext that she would be placed as a domestic help, but the house she ended up in was a madam's in Kandoctorthottam. Rukmini says she was beaten into submission. Her first clients lived on the outskirts of Pondicherry. They weren't as bad as the madam. According to her, they even tried to help her escape by giving her bus fare back to her hometown in Coimbatore, except that she didn't know her way. So, she went back to the madam's house. Today, she works to payoff usurious debts incurred in bad times and to indulge her alcoholism. Her friend Manika takes care of her ll-year-old daughter, Sangeetha. And the Society for Development Research and Training (SFDRT) is trying to protect Sangeetha from the perilous future Rukmini is willing to push the child into to pay for her daily dram. Because Sangeetha stays over at SFDRT's night shelter, her safety is ensured after school like that of 24 other children, all offspring of women involved in the sex trade. The night shelter program was started in 2003 as a further level to the organization's Community-based Care and Support Programme for Children and Adolescents in Kandoctorthottam. "Our program is on curbing trafficking and seeing that the children are not vulnerable," according to SFDRT executive director Shyamala Ashok. "What we have done in this area is we have taken a full statistical detail of every child. Two hundred and eighty-six children are
there. Each child, we follow them up with the mother." The program focuses as much on life skills as school education. Children are taught about HIV/AIDS prevention, hygiene and good nutrition in addition to having their progress in school monitored. The children's program started six years ago with a creche. According to M. Chitra, who's been a teacher there for a year, parents were not always cooperative when sending their children to the creche for the first time. "Initially parents showed resistance to bringing their children here. We had to go out to their homes and coax them to let us bring their children here. We'd even have to wash the children's faces in the morning. Now it's changed. The parents themselves bring them here, groomed." Chitra adds jokingly that she's been one of the longest serving teachers at the creche because the area's dangerous reputation causes high staff turnover. Ashok too talks about a period when teachers were "very scared" to come to the area. Workers at SFDRT recall a single month in which there were four murders. Skirmishes and gang violence are only too common in the area, according to them. Nevertheless, SFDRT was able to win people over by drawing a certain number of outreach workers from the community to be catalysts for change. "Ours is very much a community effort. What we're trying to do is to shift the responsibility to the com- . munity, not the government or one family as such," says Ashok. "The awareness is given directly to the community [to monitor child labor, missing children, etc.]." Children from 1-3 years go to the creche; from 3-5 to government kindergartens called anganwadis; and from 5 upward to government schools. Children who are enrolled in school are also required to attend SFDRT's after-school program. Dropouts are given non-formal education. Those children above 5 years whose mothers work at night "orwhose houses are not safe stay over at the night shelter and go directly to school the next morning. With the children watched so closely by a whole community, the chances of their being trafficked are minimized, according to Ashok. "The best way to combat trafficking is by prevention," she says. Overall, Ashok is happy with the direction the program has taken. "It's like this whole area is protected. The government and the police have given us their full support. They don't go into massive raids like what it was before. We've also given the police a kind of awareness as to how sex workers are operating here and how they should be dealt with." She hopes to replicate SFDRT's Community-based Care and Support Programme for Children and Adolescents throughout Pondicherry soon. At the shelter, the children now can sleep soundly dreaming of a better tomorrow in which they might be police officers, soldiers, engineers, doctors and teachers. Their ambitions mayor may not materialize, but solid community programs give them a fighting chance. And at least they know they can dream at night without dismption. 0
About the Author: Nachammai Chennai.
Raman is a freelance
writer based in
ed-light districts populated by sex workers; predatory madams and pimps; illegal migrants; drugs, weapons and other smuggled contraband: these all are linked, and even networked, because international crime syndicates, increasingly, are orchestrating trafficking crimes. Trafficking of persons includes, more often than not, duping innocent persons into forced labor and servitude. It often, but not always, features sexual abuse. Victims are not only forced to work in brothels, they might become slave laborers in homes, restaurants or factories, where they live in substandard, even dangerous, conditions and may be abused physically and sexually. They may pay"large sums of money to be taken to a desirable country where they are promised work, only to die on the way in unsafe, illegal modes of transpolt, or be enslaved upon arrival, not knowing the local language, ,travel docu•
ments confiscated by the "employer." Men, women and children, hundreds of thousands of them every year, fall victim to traffickers. It is a worldwide problem. In the past few years international agencies have gotten tougher with traffickers. The United Nations adopted the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols in 2000, which currently has 147 signatories. Its protocols include the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children and the Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air. The United States, also, has passed legislation to close loopholes and tighten up existing laws. High profile cases, like that of Lakireddy Bali Reddy, helped raise awareness that laws and enforcement needed improvement. Reddy, originally from Velvadam near Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, became a wealthy realtor, restau-
rateur and landlord in Berkeley, California. He also trafficked in minor girls, some as young as 11 years old, whom he brought to California from his village in India and kept them as virtual slaves, abusing them sexually, forcing them to work in his restaurants and keeping them in his substandard tenements. When a teenaged girl died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a malfunctioning heater in one of Redd(s buildings in 1999, the circumstances caused the police and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to investigate further. Reddy, his sons and other relatives were anested, and charged with trafficking persons and visa fraud among other crimes. In June 2001 L.B. Reddy was convicted of several offenses and is serving an eight-year prison sentence in addition to paying more than two million dollars in fines and restitution to victims. Now several U.S. laws give prosecutors more leverage against traffickers and those
Alex Acosta, Assistant Attorney Generalfor Civil Rights, was in India this spring to underline U.S. commitment to working in partnership to nab traffickers.
who engage in sexual abuse, and the means to protect the victims. The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 is one such law, which offers substantial protection to victims. More recently, the PROTECT (Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization) Act of 2003, which aims to curb sex tourism, permits prosecution in the U.S. of Americans who sexually abuse children, although the crime is committed outside the country. Legal residents of the U.S. who are not American citizens and break the law are also liable for prosecution in American courts. Those indicted under the PROTECT Act can face a maximum of 30 years for each offense. According to a U.S. Department of Justice fact sheet, "there is
~ no statute of limitations for crimes involv~ ing the abduction or physical or sexual ~ abuse of a child, virtually in all cases." o ยง The Department of Justice investigates 't such crimes and enforces the laws. Since ~ trafficking-related crimes are transnational, agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office cooperate with governments internationally to nab criminals and share information, strategies and expertise. U.S. Customs monitors activity and helps coordinate criminal investigations against traffickers, since illegal immigration, visa fraud and money laundering are often components of trafficking. A recent example of coordinated efforts is the case of American Michael Lewis Clark, 69, who was indicted in a U.S. federal court on September 24, 2003, on charges of having sex with two boys, 10 and 12 years old, while in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Cambodian National Police arrested him last June. Subsequent investigations showed that Clark, a frequent visitor to Cambodia, may have molested as many as 50 children in the past five years. Clark was taken into custody pending trial. The operation that resulted in his arrest involved Cambodian law enforcement officials, ICE investigators in Seattle, Washington and Bangkok, the U.S. Embassy, the Australian federal police and a child rescue NGO in Cambodia. In India, according to Customs agent Kevin Stephenson at the New Delhi office, "We work with the local police and the CEI." They also liaison with local police in Sri Lanka and with Sri Lanka's National Center on the Exploitation of Children. The focus of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (lNL) is primarily trafficking, to minimize smuggling of illegal drugs into the United States and reduce the effects of international crime on the United States and its citizens. The international reach of such crime requires increasing cooperation with local agencies and NGOs. In the past year, lNL funded an anti-trafficking workshop organized by Pray as Institute for Juvenile Justice and American Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata. This spring Alex Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, visited
India specifically to promote cooperative efforts between the United States and India to fight such crime. While speaking with SPAN, he said that trafficking has become a high priority issue. "Domestically, our own prosecutions are triple the rate they used to be. We have prosecuted III individuals, we have initiated 240 investigations with 144 currently open, and inactive investigations. We recognize that trafficking is not only a domestic issue in the United States but a transnational issue. It crosses borders. We estimate that there are about 900,000 individuals, primarily women and children, who are trafficked each year. We are looking to work with India as well as with other countries to address this issue to create a global effort to combat trafficking." The big worry, Acosta says, is this: "Trafficking in persons is the most rapidly increasing funding source for many organized crime syndicates. What we are trying' to do is work with nations like India at the federal level and in the case of India, at the state level, to cooperate in intelligence, to cooperate in law enforcement and training." He visited Mumbai to participate in the Shared Hope International Conference, which was also attended by the chief minister and the police commissioner. Acosta says he was encouraged at the interest in collaboration shown by the police commissioner. "With other countries we have provided technical assistance. We have also provided and established joint working groups, whether in Eastern Europe or in the Caribbean." He adds, "There are NGOs we have worked with that provide victim services. Something that we consider important is ensuring a victim-centered approach. India has recognized this. We are seeing a shift in prosecutions from prosecuting the victim to prosecuting the trafficker. And that is an important distinction because the victim is just that, a victim. And the way to address this is by prosecuting the trafficker." He notes that in Maharashtra besides prosecuting traffickers, "the state has committed to increasing the facilities and the quality of the remand homes." NGOs are working more closely with the remand homes, to ensure that some of the girls who are victimized have
"Trafficking in persons is the most rapidly increasing funding source for many organized crime syndicates," says Acosta. Smuggling drugs and weapons are closely related to the trade in human beings. an opportunity to start rebuilding their lives, he says. Another step is required, Acosta says. "Girls are rescued. They go to a remand home, they go to a shelter. At some point they are going to be leaving and they need to learn not only a sense of self worth but a skill, so that they do not go right back into the sex trade." He was happy to leam during his visit to St. Catherine's Karunakur Home in Mumbai that one of the girls might get a job at the Oberoi. "Businesses, especially, can contribute to this effort by providing jobs," Acosta says, "So [the women] have an alternative. So that they recognize that there is something other than the sex trade. There are too many stories that you hear of girls running away from the remand home or from an NGO because they've been told that this is their fate, that the only thing that they can do is engage in the sex trade." Acosta emphasizes that many countries are involved in this effort, and he and his staff continue to travel to strengthen the network against trafficking. "India is just one visit," he says. "This is a global effort, where it's not about the United States assisting particular countries, it is about countries showing leadership within their region and working together to address what is a growing, multinational problem that is, in essence, a 21st century syndicate ring." Has there been progress within the U.S. to combat trafficking? "Yes, there has," Acosta says. "Since the Reddy case Congress has passed the Trafficking Victim Protection Act (TVPA). And the TVPA does several important things. It substantially, even drastically, increases the sen-
tences available in these cases. We recently had a case where the individual was sentenced to 17 years for trafficking in women and girls. Second, it expands the definition of trafficking to make clear that coercion or intimidation is part of trafficking. A lot of times, women, especially in the case of younger girls who come from villages, who are somewhat naive, are coerced and threatened. Their cooperation is elicited through false promises, through lures of a better life. There's a case that we prosecuted where girls were promised husbands in America and were lured by being told, 'Come to America, you'll find a husband.' Once there, they were held in captivity in a brothel. But the law makes clear that coercion and intimidation, the withholding of legal documentation, all of those can contribute to trafficking. The requisite proof is a lot easier to establish." He says that the TVPA is much more concerned with the victims. "The law takes important steps to ensure a victimcentered approach. The law provides for a special visa that we call a 'T- Visa,' that allows the victim to remain in country pending trial. You can't prosecute someone without a witness. It allows and it calls for our Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to provide immediate medical care, to provide emergency food, shelter. At this point we have certified over 400 victims to the DHHS under the new law. They get medical care. In the case of women who are trapped in the sex trade, they have the option of being examined for STDs, for AIDS. They get food, shelter; a T-visa that allows them to work while in the country, and are put in contact with NGOs-many of which are funded by U.S. tax dollars-that will provide them services to help them rebuild their lives." What about the traffickers? Acosta says, "Under the new law, if death occurs as a result of trafficking, the trafficker can be sentenced up to life imprisonment. So we are talking very substantial penalties." India, he observes, is a country that gets trafficking crimes coming and going. "You are seeing India is not only a source country, but it is also a destination country where women can be trafficked from
Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan, to the extent that there are a lot of vulnerabilities. Women can be trafficked into India or through India to some of the Gulf countries." The results of his interactions in India, he feels, are positive. "There has been a willingness to engage in a dialogue and to start developing a joint approach to these issues." He also commends some of the developments here in tackling the trade. ''I'm told that there are special trafficking courts in Delhi. To the extent there are, that is certainly something very useful because part of the prosecution is ensuring that the cases move, and steady, timely prosecution is important to justice. I'm told that Delhi, by having special trafficking courts, to the extent that they contribute additional judges to them, will reduce the time delay and thereby increase the timeliness of prosecutions, which is a strong positive. One issue that to some extent handicaps India's ability to address this issue on a national scale is the CBI's limited jurisdiction. I have been told that in the past, I believe last year, there was some talk of federalizing the trafficking issue as a crime. That is something that would certainly be encouraging and would help address the entire Government of India's attention on this." Although some states may take proactive steps to curb trafficking, Acosta affirms, "It is similarly important that that be replicated at the federal level in such a way that the CEI and other law enforcement agencies have the ability to investigate and address the issue nationwide, especially since this is a crime that doesn't occur within a state, but is an interstate crime. You have organized crime syndicates that cover more than simply the city of Mumbai, for example." Acosta is optimistic about fighting transnational crime cooperatively. "Our collaborative efforts in funding anti-trafficking programs have seen some positive results. We have already secured funding for several anti-trafficking programs in India." And he hopes to take it further. He says, "We as an international community have a duty to respond, to eradicate this too-prevalent trade." D
Asia Society~ Next Generation
A
n Asian has been selected to head the New York-based Asia Society for the first time in its 56-year history. Vishakha Desai, 54, is also the first woman to hold the presidency of the society which has until now been guided by former diplomats and academics. The Asia Society was founded by millionaire phi lanthropist John D. Rockefeller III to foster cultural exchange and communication between Americans and Asians. Desai, its sixth president, has 30 years experience in museums and was senior vice president at the Asia Society prior to her appointment. Desai succeeds Nicholas Platt, a former U.S. ambassador, who retires after 12 years in July. While announcing her selection Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, chairman of the Asia Society Board of Trustees, said, "We have chosen Vishakha Desai because she is the best possible leader for the next generation of the Asia Society. Asia has changed. The U.S. has changed. And certainly the importance of Asian Americans in our society has changed. Asia Society has changed as well. Dr. Desai's appointment as president represents a series of exhilarating firsts. Through her 13 years of personal and professional dedication to our organization, she brings an unprecedented understanding of arts and culture in the broader social, political and economic context. Dr. Desai's strengths and vision
combined make her the ideal leader for this important and dynamic organization." Desai who was born in Ahmedabad, received her B.A. degree from Bombay University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. As a high school senior, Desai was an exchange student in California. Before joining the Asia Society in J 990 she worked at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she was curator in charge of Indian, Southeast Asian and Islamic collections. She has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University and Princeton University, and has taught at University of Massachusetts and Boston University. In addition to serving as an academic adviser and commentator for PBS documentaries on Asia, Desai has reviewed film and television programs for the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a scholar of Indian classical art and she performs and teaches South Indian dance. "Am I capable of doing this job and doing it the best way possible and is it coming from my passion and vision internally? Ultimately it is about the work you do and I do think you have to have the drive as far as the work is concerned," Desai told AFP after her selection. Desai aims to bridge the gap between Asia and America, and she
wants to do it by making Asia Society's presence felt outside of New York, across the United States, educating people about Asia. She also wants to forge new links with Asians. "When this organization was founded almost 56 years ago Asia seemed far away and exotic, and very much outside our lives, except for the wars we fought in Korea and Vietnam and with the Japanese." Desai said, "Our mission has never been more important and more relevant. And in the 21st century, the rising powers are in Asia-India and China. Surveys show that the majority of kids cannot identify the ocean separating the West Coast from Asia and Asian Americans are now among the fastest growing ethnic minorities in the country and it is important to bring more of them into the society." John Thornton, head of the search committee and Asia Society trustee, said, "No one is better qualified to succeed Nick Platt and lead the Asia Society. The trustees of the Society have offered their unanimous support for this exciting decision by the committee." Desai already has played a key role in the renovation of the Asia Society headquarters in New York City. She is likely to keep it moving with the times. 0
Be ow the
BottomLine ince the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a number of thought leaders have argued that, while weeding out terrorist cells is a necessary shortterm step, in the longer term one of the things that must be done is to improve the conditions that may have contributed to the breeding of terrorists. Specifically, the gulf between the haves and the have-nots must be narrowed. One commentator recently went so far as to argue for a "new bottom line." "To marginalize the terrorists," he asked Time magazine readers to "imagine a new Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would make a corporation's ability to operate in the U.S. dependent on its ability to prove a history of social responsibility both in the U.S. and around the world." Such unconventional thinking leads to some far-reaching questions:
• Does the modern global corporation have a role in pursuing such goals as ending world hunger, seeking social justice, and redistributing wealth? • Good intentions aside, do corporations have the capacity to have an impact? • How should this capacity be exercised? These are the issues that are addressed by eight thinkers in the following pages. While it is an oversimplification to argue that economic disparity and social injustice are the primary causes of terrorism-certainly religious fanaticism and hatred of the West in general are key factors-few would argue that the wealth gap plays no role. The numbers are damning: For well over a billion people, per-capita income is less than $1 a day. And the disparity between rich and poor is increasing. If the disenfranchised could see a brighter future, would not Osama bin Laden have a less receptive audience for his calls to join his cause?
An Invisible Market Opportunity By C..K .. PRAHALAD Professor, University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration
oday, there are more than four billion people who make less than $1,500 a year. Most of them live in rural villages and urban slums and shantytowns. Over the next 40 years, this group could swell to six billion or more, since the bulk of the world's population growth is expected to come from this segment. The basic needs of these people are served by unorganized sectors such as the local moneylenders. The markets are local, and hard to reach in terms of distribution, credit, or communications. Not entirely surprising, then, that they have been largely invisible to the corporate sector. That is likely to change. This change is unlikely to be motivated by a desire to narrow the global gap between rich and poor because it is a good thing to do or by a fear that the disenfranchised can easily disrupt the lifestyle and the safety of the rich. The change will be motivated by the fact that the bottom of the economic pyramid-the very poor-represents the greatest market opportunity of the future. Indeed, I believe it presents an opportunity for business, government, and civil society to join together to dissolve the conflict between proponents of free trade and global capitalism on the one hand, and environmental and social sustainability on the other. Why has the market opportunity represented by the poor been invisible thus far to multinational corporations? Because orthodoxies held deeply by most firms (and most managers) restrict their ability to be innovative and create a market out of the poor. Multinational corporations must create a framework for an "inclusive" global capitalism. The poor can be a very profitable market-if multinationals are willing to change their business models and realize the game is about volume and capital efficiency. Margins are likely to be very low by current norms, but unit sales can be extremely high. Managers who focus on gross margins will miss the opportunity; managers who innovate and focus on economic profit will be rewarded. Managers must recognize that this market poses a new challenge: How can low cost, good quality, sustainability, and profitability be combined? To illustrate how this challenge can be met, consider the experience of Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), a subsidiary of Unilever PLC, widely considered the best-managed company in India. Like. most multinationals, for over 50
T
years it catered to the needs of India's elite. Then a local firm, Nirma, challenged HLL in its detergent business by creating a new business model that included a new product formulation, distribution, packaging, pricing, and branding. Nirma decentralized the production, marketing, and distribution of the product to take advantage of the abundant labor pool in India and quickly penetrated the thousands of small outlets where the poor shop. The company reinvented the cost structure of the business, enabling the introduction of the product at a price point affordable to those at the bottom-only a third of its competitor's price. As Nirma grew, HLL realized both its new opportunity as well as its vulnerability and responded, somewhat belatedly, with its own offering for this market-drastically altering the traditional HLL business model. Unilever then took the lessons from India to Brazil to great success. The Indian subsidiary has taken the lessons and dramatically expanded its coverage of products and services to the poor, often inventing new approaches and using new technologies. Other multinational corporations are also experimenting. Hewlett-Packard's World e-Inclusion project is a significant initiative to understand this opportunity. Experiments in Costa Rica, Senegal, and among the American Indian tribes in the San Diego area are proving the viability of this idea. Citigroup is experimenting, with great success, with 24/7 service to small depositors with just $25 in India. So, then, the real strategic challenge for managers is to visualize an active market when what exists is abject poverty. They must first develop a commercial infrastructure tailored to the needs of the poor. The elements of this infrastructure-creating buying power, shaping aspirations, improving access, and growing healthy markets-are the keys to opening this market of the poor. If poverty and disenfranchisement constitute a breeding ground for terrorism, then creating real buying power for the poor must be the first priority. To do that, companies must, like HLL, increase the income-earning potential of the poor. Another critical ingredient to breaking the cycle of poverty i~ providing access to credit on a commercial basis. This is not a new concept: During the latter part of the 19th century, the Singer Sewing Machine Co., realizing that few women could afford $125 for the outright purchase of a machine, allowed them to buy on the basis of a $5 monthly payment. The same logic applies on a larger scale to poor people throughout the world. By the late 1990s, the combined sales of the world's top 200 multinationals equaled nearly 30 percent of total world gross domestic product. Yet at the same time, these same corporations employed fewer than one percent of the world's labor force; and of the world's 100 largest economies, 51 are economies internal to corporations. Scores of Third World countries have suffered absolute economic stagnation or decline, and the gap between
rich and poor continues to widen. These trends are not sustainable. If multinational corporations are to thrive in the 21st century, they must seek to generate a broader base of economic activity that is more widely shared than it has been in the past.
"Resentment
and Despair"
2. Corporations have the capacity to have a positive impact on the world, but they need the guidance of markets or of democratic political institutions to define what a "positive" impact is. 3. The capacity can best be exercised by contracting with democratically elected governments to fulfill certain public missions for which there is widespread support, and whose objectives can be defined with a fair degree of clarity and objectivity.
G
lobal corporations are among the most powerful transnational actors in the world today. As such, it is incumbent upon them to playa leadership role in addressing today's daunting social and environmental challenges. Although billions of people around the world enjoyed unprecedented global prosperity at the close of the 20th century, 2.8 billion people (nearly half of humanity) are currently living on less than $2 per day, 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.9 billion have inadequate access to sanitation. Such extreme disparities stoke resentment and despair, creating fertile grounds for terrorism. As the employers of millions of people worldwide, global corporations are in a pivotal position to make an impact for the better on people's lives. In addition to providing living wages, corporations have an obligation to adhere to national regulations and international standards on human rights, labor relations, and environmental responsibility. Corporations can also participate in voluntary initiatives and codes of conduct, such as the ISO 14000 environmental management standards and the United Nations Global Compact. Corporate philanthropy also has a role to play in helping to underwrite international initiatives to combat pressing social, environmental, and health challenges from malaria control to basic health and nutrition. Corporations can take action in many different venues. Their own operations around the world are the logical starting point. Many corporations have also formed partnerships with the United Nations, with private foundations, and with nongovernmental organizations.
What Is "Positive Impact"? By ROBERT B. REICH
The modern global corporation does have a role in ending world hunger, seeking social justice, and redistributing wealth-so long as these activities can be justified as helping to maximize the value of its shares. If not, investors can't be expected to put up the money.
1
"We Must Reject Triumphalism" . By SAMUEL D" OSTROW
aving been privileged to have worked with both American and domestic clients in the Arab Middle East and in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the USSR, I have seen firsthand the dynamics of when, as you put it, the haves meet the have-nots. It is not pretty, and it can be exceptionally dangerous. The modern corporation-whether American, British, German-has to fully rethink its relations with the rest of the world. For too long, it has been, "Aren't we great? We are bringing you our paradigms for and indicia of success, our 'culture,' and our aid." It should have been, "We are part of your world-what can we do together?" Modern corporations and the nations that host them have suffered-and right now that is exactly the right word-too long the attitude that the world can and should be remade in their vision of it, to the degree that there is a "global vision." There are other visions, and the constructs of most modern corporations simply do not accept the reality of them. We have pretenses to inclusiveness, but it comes down to, "It's O.K. if you're a Muslim if you think like we do." Having worked in Muslim countries as I have, I recognize that we don't even scratch the surface of understanding a tradition in which religion and daily life are fully integrated. The United States made a conscious decision as a new nation in the 1780s to separate religion and government. As one with no religious practice, I happen to
H
be an ardent supporter of the absolute separation of church and state. But I respect that Muslims, Hindus, Confucians, and others have a different perspective on the integration of religious practice with daily activity. I am certainly a globalist in my heart and in my professional practice. I know from my experience that there is more to be gained from interaction than to be lost (that, perhaps, reflects that I have no "organized" beliefs that are threatened). But I also understand the need to accept, respect, and act to the very real and, hopefully, very permanent differences in culture, religion, and expectations that not only make our world so challenging but that also provide us with so much to learn, experience, and actually add to the values of the businesses for which we work. The impact of "modern" corporations is obvious-providing jobs, opportunities, a wide range of economic choices, tax revenues, philanthropy, and so forth. But the impact can also be glaring-a sense of the "rightness" and "righteousness" of the "global corporate way of life," of the perceived validation that comes from "winning." To the "have-nots"-who are really in most cases only "the others"-the indicia of corporate-defined "winning" (money, cars, Brioni suits, first-class air travel) are alien in every sense of the word, because they have not understood and do not necessarily want to understand "winning" as modern corporations do. Their values are that different, but equally valid and validating. ~jJj!;g.':~ (~. "
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The first thing I would urge "modern" corporations to do is to reject their own sense of triumphalism. You are not out to "win" market share in the Sudan (or even in Brooklyn)-you are there to meet the needs of people, needs that reflect their interests and values, that may be implicit rather than explicit given their experience, culture, and belief. Otherwise put, take the time to know the customer as best as you can (accepting that you can never know him perfectly), rather than focusing on next quarter's sales contest and treating the customer as only a means to "victory." As Peter Drucker put it: "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. .. .Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy ....All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available." I would argue that the modern corporate focus on salesmanship and promotion is perceived as triumphalism and rejected vehemently by those of other cultures, with other values. Second, modern corporations must demonstrate that they are not factories for assimilation into a corporate "culture" that becomes the be-all and end-all of the lives of people associated with that corporation. There are corporate values (the validity of which must be accepted by all who become part of the corporation). But corporations must also respect that there are also personal and even national values that must be integrated (not assimilated) fully into how business conducts its relationships with employees, customers, governments, and other stakeholders.
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oncerning the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, it is more than ironic that perhaps the largest gulf of all is not between Americans and people in other countries, but rather between CEOs in America and their own workers. How are we going to narrow the former until we take steps to narrow the latter? That said, I am a firm believer in the Friedmanesque concept that the business of business is business-namely, the maximization of profits to shareholders. But I am talking here not about maximizing profits next year or, worse, next quarter. I am talking about maximizing profits over a long time frame, perhaps 10 years in length for industries, like pharmaceuticals, where the span between the time funds are committed for research and the time when the research comes to fruition is extraordinarily long. Contrary to what you read in the press, where companies seeking to maximize near-term profits are laying off employees by the thousands, research I have conducted shows there to be a high and positive correlation between the number of employees in a company and its long-term returns to shareholders. Face it: You can't be a long-term success by throwing workers out in the street. And you can't be a long-term success by turning your back on the needs of the communities-be they American or foreign-in which you operate. One of the exacerbating factors here is the way in which senior-executiv'e pay plans operate. Although pay consultants talk a good game about so-called "long-term incentives," such plans don't really exist except in a handful of companies. To be sure, a stock option has a 1O-year term of exercise, but, typically, you can begin to reap gains after only one year. Americans really don't need to be "incented" to engage in short-term behavior; they absorb that in their mothers' milk. Rather, they, and especially they, need to be offered strong moti-
vation to look to the very long term. If we can redesign incentives to force CEOs and other senior executives to take that long-term view, then, in that long term, the companies that win that game will have done the most for their workers and their communities. In short, and in my view, doing good for your shareholders-once again, in the long term-and doing good for the broader world community do not have to be mutually exclusive goals.
"Re-Globalization From the Bottom Up" By JEREMY
RIFKiN
he social responsibility of corporations should not be the starting point of discussing what they can or should do to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots; instead, we should ask ourselves: What is the proper role of commerce in the world today? The orthodoxy, promoted by Tony Blair and other world leaders, is that if we create a healthy global economy-by opening up trade and removing barriers between nations-we will create the conditions for a healthy society. That orthodox thinking is wrong from the get-go. The problem is that we have come to understand commerceand government as well-as being primary institutions rather than secondary ones. Commerce doesn't create culture; culture creates the conditions for commerce. What is culture? It happens when people create a language, codes of behavior, social trust and capital-a story that binds them together. When a culture is well developed, then commerce and government follow. So if culture is the wellspring, it should change the way we look at geopolitics now. If we understand, then, that commerce is a beneficiary of culture, that would eliminate any kind of corporate arrogance; it would make companies see that they're not really in charge, and that they have to listen carefully to the communities they do business with, because if culture is destroyed, they can't operate. One of the things we learned after September 11 is that commerce needs a predictable environment. If the culture has been ripped apart, there's no social capital left to maintain commercial relations. This is what we learned when the Soviet Union collapsed. We rushed to put in businesses, but most of them failed. Why? Because the communists had eliminated civil society-the culture. The struggle that's emerging today is between globalization and culture. The extremists in the Islamic world are simply the pathological edge to a reality that's emerging. But people also sense it's deeper than just a pathological edge. The idea behind globalization is that all we need are commercial relationships and we'll do well. It doesn't take into consideration that people's
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primary identity is cultural; it's how they create their sense of being, their place and scheme in the world. If under globalization, people feel marginalized in terms of who they are, then they'll feel humiliation-a word that's come up often recently in the Islamic world. Civic society itself has been marginalized. Government is being pared down, so it's less involved in people's lives. At the same time, corporations are less local, more global, and operating in cyberspace. What's needed is empowerment of communities as an antidote to globalization, so there will be a balance between the two. What can a corporation do? Social investment is not enough. There should be a seamless web of connections, communications, and partnerships between corporations and civil society. I used to be on the board of directors of the Point of Light Foundation. Under its aegis, companies allowed staff to take time off each week to work with community groups-but with no specific benefit expected to return to the company. U sing that as a model, I would advocate that companies tithe 10 percent of their employees' time for spending time in the community where their businesses operate, creating social capital and empowering culture. From this there will be no direct returns, but the company will be seen as a good partner. and a good player. Corporations can no longer think in terms of top-down involvement in communities. We need re-globalization from the bottom up, with shared partnership between the three sectors-government, commerce, and civil society. Corporations can no longer exploit their relationships with communities by having their logo or brand name appear on every local festival or art show. Responsible and successful companies realize tliey have to be invited in by civil society organizations with no expectation of an immediate payback. This goes well beyond having a social conscience or a lofty mission statement. Companies have to realize that they exist by the good grace of the communities in the countries in which they operate. If they don't partner with those communities, then they'll have to work with organized crime or fundamentalism.
Private Investment Is Not Enough By VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN CHRIS TRIMBLE
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he shock and sadness created by the events of September 11 left nearly everyone asking the same question: "What can I do to help?" There were few good answers-none sufficient to fully overcome our collective sense of frustration and powerlessness. Blood has been given, funds donated, thoughtful and patriotic messages broadcasted and published.
Gradually, we must redirect our energies from immediate recovery to long-term prevention of terrorism. Of course, no single cause can be isolated and eliminated. Progress will require the coordinated efforts of multiple nations through diplomacy, policy, and force. What role does this leave for global corporations? A difficult process for many senior executives is accepting the reality of the limited power of their positions-even over affairs within their own companies. Scarce resources will be wasted if corporations overextend their efforts into the proper realm of governments. Without diminishing charitable direct assistance in a time of substantial public need, CEOs should focus their greatest energies where they can have the greatest impact: creating economic growth. We can be certain that poverty and inequality contribute to conflict; we can be certain that world prosperity is a necessary precondition for world peace. Global corporations can and do playa critical role in the development of impoverished nations, by dramatically accelerating the accumulation of capital, knowledge, and technology upon which economic development depends. But their full potential is far from realized. Too often, by simply exporting existing offerings throughout the world, global corporations satisfy the needs of only the richest of the rich. That leaves the tremendous demands of the poor
untapped. Multinationals can meet these demands by creatively developing innovative products and services, and developing the distinct operating practices necessitated by Third World business environments. How many are actually doing so? The challenges of incubating and growing such start-up ventures within the context of global corporations are significant. The aspiring "intrapreneur" in a developing nation faces many frustrations. The CEO who focuses on removing those barriers makes a contribution to more .than just the bottom line.
Poverty Is an Issue of Peace By JAMES WOLFENSOHN
t is time to realize that we live together in one world, not two. The effects of inequality and destitution are felt not only by poor people in developing countries, because poverty is not just a matter of equity or social justice-at the end of the 'day it is an issue of peace. In a world where poverty is persistent, stability is unlikely, and long-lasting peace almost impossible. Poverty touches everybody. It affects nongovernmental organizations, civil society, governments, and, of course, the private sector. The issue of poverty becomes particularly crucial for the private sector because as business looks to expand over the next 25 years, it finds that the most rapidly growing markets are, in fact, in the developing world. By 2025, the world's population will have increased by two billion people, all but three percent of whom will live in developing countries. So executives perceive poverty reduction to be in their own interest. But can the private sector really playa role in the fight against poverty? We at the World Bank are convinced the answer is yes. The private sector has a unique and irreplaceable responsibility in development because it is, far and away, the largest source of employment and investment in developing countries. In fact, in recent years there has been a significant change in the role of private enterprise in developing countries. A decade ago, for every dollar the private sector invested in emerging economies, development agencies invested two. Today, foreign investment outstrips aid five to one. However, it is not only investment that makes a difference in development. To understand what is needed to generate equitable growth, it is essential to understand what poverty is. Poverty is about more than inadequate income or even low human development. It is multidimensional and complex. It is about lack of fundamental freedom of action, choice, and opportunity. It is voicelessness, powerlessness, insecurity and humiliation. Market-oriented reforms, if combined with social and institu~ tional development, can deliver economic growth to poor people. Growth, such as that generated by private investment, is the most powerful force for sustained poverty reduction. It is crucial, but it is not enough. Experience has shown us that growth leads to larger and quicker reductions in poverty, if measures are taken to empower the poor and to enhance their security. Companies alone, of course, cannot solve the challenges associated with social responsibility, be they human-rights issues, relationships with local communities, or the fight against corruption. To make progress in the fight against poverty, we must all work together-developing and developed countries, international institutions, civil society, and the private sector. 0
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More women are shelvingsnccessM careers. to be with their growing cbildren.Andif
mom is them
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year ago, Kristin Jacobsen was doing the stressed-out, working-parent drag. Each weekday she dragged her screaming twoand-a-half-year-old daughter to a day-care center near her Skokie, Illinois, home. Each night, the 36-year-old reference librarian dragged work home that she couldn't complete on the clock at her half-time job at Northwestern University. Her feet were dragging too: She was pregnant again. Double the child-care expense, double the stress, she thought at the time. Jacobsen was running herself ragged and doing a less-than-perfect job at work and homeand wondering why. "I thought I had the best of both worlds," says Jacobsen. "Instead, I had the worst." But now that her husband was in a fast-track job as an economist for a consulting firm, Jacobsen realized the family could live without her $18,000-a-year paycheck. So, risking career suicide and imagining much loneliness, Jacobsen quit to raise her children.
circles, staying at home has become a new status symbol. "Fom years ago, if you said you were a stay-at-home mom, you could hear a pin drop," says Cheryl Gochnauer, author of the Stay-at-Home Handbook. Now, "there's a little bit of envy." The trend is not some nostalgic return to The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, the classic 1950s and '60s television show, which featured an apron-clad, highheeled wife doting on her two children and husband. For one thing, today's young families are far more egalitarian and busi-
Today's young families are far more egalitarian and businesslike than those of yesteryear. They are more able to find new ways to trim costs so that losing the second income is not as painful as feared.
"~ " ~ "~ ~ ~ ~
TURNING POINT. Jacobsen
need not have worried about being lonely. A growing number of professional moms are making a similar choice. In a development that is surprising economists as much as parents like Jacobsen, the two-generationlong trend toward families with two working parents seems to have finally reversed. Though they are nowhere near as common as they were in the 1950s, the share of young families with one stay-at-home parent has grown from its low of 38.9 percent in 1997, through the recent economic boom and bust, to 41.3 percent in 2001. In all, the number of married couples with at least one child underage six and one fulltime caretaker parent has grown by 169,000 in the past four years, now topping 4.6 mj)Jion. That increase may not sound like much. But it represents a turning point, says Amitai Etzioni, a George Washington University socioeconomist. When you have a one-percentage-point change in a nation as large as the United States, "it is a big deal," says Etzioni. "Here you have more than two over a long enough time to smooth out blips." The shift is already starting to sway the court of public opinion. In many
nesslike than those of yesteryear. In one of 11, for example, it is Ozzie who changes diapers full time. For another, today's Harriets are typically older and thus a little better off and more financially sophisticated than their 1950s counterparts, allowing them to find new ways to trim costs so that losing the second income is not as painful as feared.
BAnLE LINES. The switch in loyalties from paycheck to playpen may be one reason the "mommy wars" are drawing so much attention these days. The wincingly funny portraits of the guilt-ridden rivalry between working and caretaking parents in
1 Don't Know How She Does It have propelled the book to bestseller lists. In scientific circles, child-development researchers are debating whether the benefits of full-time parental care are offset by the financial costs. The controversy is also taking on political importance. Even as more well-off parents choose to raise their youngsters, U.S. Congress is debating whether to further toughen work requirements for welfare recipients and deny that choice to more low-income parents. Nevertheless, the new opportunities for rebalancing work and family responsibilities are being spread beyond the wealthy, who've always had the luxury of raising
their own kids. The biggest increase in stay-at-home parents of young children, in fact, has been seen in families with incomes of $50,000 to $100,000 a year. And fully half of all families with a stay-athome spouse earn less than $47,000 a year. Typical of the latter group is Sherry Rennie of Rialto, California. Since the 31year-old quit her part-time job managing a dog kennel last May, she, her steelworker husband, and their two sons have been living on his $18-an-hour salary. It has meant sacrifices. The family can afford to eat out
Because today's parents are waiting longer to have children, they are further up the career ladder and so have more earning power than parents of previous generations. Today's parents also are the beneficiaries of the first real raises American workers have seen in a generation. It was only in 1996 that the typical American worker started earning more than the $548 (in 2001 dollars) a week that he or she made in 1979. Real wages have risen another eight percent-to almost $600 a week-since then.
of father I didn't want to be." Shocking himself as much as anybody else, the selfdescribed macho guy took over the rearing of their children so his wife could continue to pursue a career she loves. Hanis has plenty of company these days. Though the number of stay-at-home dads dropped in the early 1990s, the ranks rebounded in 1999 and accounted for at least a quarter of the upsurge in all stay-athome parents since then. Harris organizes play dates and regular outings with a dozen other stay-at-home dads and their children. "We choose our parks by which ones have the best-looking chicks," jokes Harris.
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at their favorite Italian restaurant only about once a month. Even then, the four split one pizza and one submarine sandwich. But it's worth it, says Rennie. "There is no stress, no screaming in the morning trying to get everybody ready and out the door." Sometimes, Rennie runs into working moms who say they are jealous of her luck. "Well, luck didn't have a whole lot to do with it," she says. The reason so many parents are choosing the child-rearing route is simple: More families, like the Rennies, are earning the $36,000 a year that economists say is the minimum needed to support a family of four in a lower-middle-class lifestyle.
~ EnHE."' •. If the good news is that the ~ American economy has generated more jobs ~ that can support a family, the flip side is that • ~ the growing stress and time demands of 8 those higher-paying jobs often force parents CL to make an all-or-nothing choice between work and family. Kate Lauderbaugh, 40, left her job as a vice president of technology for a Chicago bank in 1998 to care for her kids because she found herself working about 48 hours each week, not 40. The bank had an on-site day-care center, "but that was just a way for them to suck more work out of you," says Lauderbaugh. "I just couldn't do it anymore." As employers try to do more with less, Lauderbaugh's tale is becoming all too common. The "family friendly" policies of many employers "are just a lot of foggy, lovely lip service," says Joanne Brundage, founder of Mothers and More, a networking group for parents who've DADDY'S HOME, TOO. Since wo- taken time out of work to care for their kids. For example, in a survey by Catalyst, men's real earnings have risen three times as fast as men's in the past 15 years, a group that studies women's corporate progress, more than half of women who unprecedented options have become available for couples like Marc Harris, 38, switched from full-time to part-time status reported that their workloads remained the and Jeana Chico sky, 34. After their second child was born three years ago, the couple same. Some 10 percent said their duties moved from Texas to Tennessee, when actually increased. Given the tough economy, there's little Chicosky was promoted to president of likelihood employers will significantly a commercial printing company. Harris improve their "famjly friendly" policies didn't want to open another construction soon. "Most companies are under so much firm right away because it would have meant long days away from his kids. pressure to be productive," says Mama Hayden, a member of the executive board Harris remembered how he had missed his of the Society for Human Resource traveling salesman father, whom he often Management. "No one has extra people saw only on weekends. "I knew what kind
anymore" to fill in for absent workers. Hayden, who heads human resources for Nazareth National Bank in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania., says her firm has been losing more employees because of "family conflicts," a major worry as it takes time and money to replace good workers. Nazareth offers flextime and telecommuting where possible but is constrained by security and customer demands. "We are a bank. I don't know how we could make it more family friendly and still have people come to work," says Hayden. Other surveys show today's manic, insecure jobs, combined with a "nesting" reaction to continued threats of terrorism, are reducing workers' job satisfaction and willingness to forgo a family for a career. Susan Mitchell, a demographer and author
to booming demand and a push to upgrade quality, the tab for child care has jumped 60 percent in the past decade, twice the rate of inflation. The average center charges about $5,000 annually per child, but top-quality centers or in-home nannies can cost two to four times that price. For mothers like Jacobsen, the cost of child care was the clincher. More than half of her take-home pay went toward her elder daughter's care. To cover her second child, she would have to work more hours. While she felt an emotional tug home, says Jacobsen, "the primary reason was financial." While the causes of this trend are straightforward, its effects are fiercely controversial. So far, science has only partially confirmed the conventional wisdom that it's better for kids to be raised by a
actually fare better when both parents work, especially if one works only part time and if the parents like their jobs. In fact, jobs that help teach a parent negotiating, coping, and other skills may actually improve family life, says Linda Waite, a University of Chicago sociologist who studies working parents. Many of the disadvantages of working can be offset by top-quality day care. But finding that isn't easy. In 1995, university researchers found that only 13 percent of day-care centers actually promoted the healthy development of children. There's also plenty of debate over the effects of forfeiting a second income on a family's long-term financial health. Economic research shows, for example, that for every year out of the labor force, a par-
Accelerating the drive home has been the skyrocketing cost of child care, which has jumped 60 percent in the past decade.
of American Generations, says workers under age 35-those most likely to have young children-show the strongest shift away from work and toward family. "They are saying: 'My job stinks. My salary is frozen. What kind of idiot would be loyal to an employer?' " Accelerating the drive home has been the skyrocketing cost of child care. Thanks
full-time parent. On the plus side, research shows that, on average, youngsters getting round-the-clock attention of a parent get more sleep, are not as fat, and score three to four points higher on intelligence tests than those whose parents both work full time. The averages hide wide variations, however. Full-time parental care seems to benefit infants the most. Many older kids
ent reduces his or her lifetime earnings by at least two percent. Leslie Stratton, a Virginia Commonwealth University economist, calculates that a one-year hiatus from a job paying $30,000 a year would reduce your total lifetime earnings by $50,000 in today's dollars (the $30,000 salary plus the loss of future compounded raises).
~ ly adds up," she says. Indeed it does, says ~ Stay-at-Home Handbook author Gochnau@ [E er. Even a parent making $30,000 a year o j might actually end up with more cash at ~ the end of the month by quitting to take o . ~ care of the farruly.
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But many of those who've taken the leap home say those losses can be at least partly recouped in other ways. When Sharon Rutberg of northern California gave up her job as a lawyer to care for her one-year-old daughter in 1997, she and her husband, Bryan, then a manager at Hewlett-Packard, had already figured out a way to live on half their former income of roughly $120,000. First to go: the housecleaning
service and restaurant meals. When shopping for clothes, the family bypassed Nordstrom and headed for Target. They used their savings to payoff all their credit cards. Soon, Rutberg noticed that the sting of a lower income was easing. After all, she wasn't paying $800 a month for child care, and she was saving a hefty chunk in commuting, dry-cleaning, lunch, and other work-related costs each month. "It all total-
HIDDEN ASSET. But the big payoff came a few years later. Once Bryan was free to devote more time and energy to his job, his career took off. When Sharon began handling the child and home care, Bryan says he was able to travel on business more and felt released from "a whole layer of stress." Now an executive at McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm, Bryan says he earns far more than both of them earned together six years ago. That, he says, is because his wife is "CEO of 525 Nottingham Lane." While Bryan's story is unusual in the speed of his ascent, men with stay-at-home wives, for whatever reason, typically earn annual raises two percentage points higher than those of men whose wives work full time. Two points-while nothing to sneeze at-usually doesn't make up for the missing second income, however. As a result, even committed stay-at-home parents often end up returning to work when their kids reach school age. Indeed, while the percentage of parents of younger kids who quit work has been rising, the percentage of families with older kids, ages 6 through 17, and two working parents has remained stable for the past six years at the same high level: 69 percent. Jacobsen, for one, is already toying with the idea of going back to work. She misses the intellectual stimulation of the library. "Winnie the Pooh just doesn't do it for me." She worries that without her salary, she and her husband won't be able to save money for retirement or their daughters' college tuitions. "I think my kids are much happier with me home, but some parents are better parents if they work," says Jacobsen. "I struggle with it." The choices she struggles with are not easy ones. But at least more of today's parents have a choice. D About the Author: Kim Clark is a senior writer with U.S. News & World Report.
The
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There are few things more difficult than following up a hugely successful first album, So why isn't Norah Jones worried? he gang of eight were holed up on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen, on a blustery day in November, for their next multimillion-dollar job. Everything was going smoothly until it was the affable sideman's turn to pelform. His trigger fmger, usually so nimble, Stalted twitching. He wasn't happy. They weren't happy. And so they all looked to the ringleader, a small, solid woman in the center of the room, to make the call. "That's cool," said Norah Jones, leaning over the control board at Avatar Studios to Adam Levy, after he once again tried a guitar solo for a song called "Toes." The gang was actually Jones and her band plus her producer and engineer; they were in the second week of recording Jones's new album, "Feels Like Home." "But let's try it again," she added delicately. It is, of course, her voice that astonishes. Only now it was nothing like the singing----deep, moody, yearning-that helped make her debut album, "Come Away With Me," the surprise hit and Grarnmy champion of 2002-03. Her speaking voice is several registers higher and several generations lower, perkier, more ''Let's go out for some beer and pizza" than ''I'm all alone in this deserted cafe." Her upbeat tone was meant to inspire Levy; it was only when he went back into the studio, out of earshot, that Jones said, with the sidelong glance of her singing self, "I know he can do better." Levy resumed with a couple of different approaches-first a light blues lilt, then a darker, heavier tint. Jones said she liked both solos but couldn't choose between them. Levy tried to break the deadlock by teasing Jones with a few mood-setters: "Can it be darker in there?" and "Wanna break up with me?" and "Got a cigarette?" Jones laughed but was soon pacing the room, her gleaming black hair bunched on top of her head, her dark-rimmed librarian's glasses fixed over slightly drooping eyes, her knee-length sweater \yrapped around her curvy frame.
She looked like some with-it choirmistress or the helpful assistant manager of a food co-op. Her crossed arms seemed to indicate not just authority but also a sort of discomfort with it. At one point she crouched under a ledge between two speakers, as if simultaneously burrowing into the sound and hiding from it might help her find the right groove. But still she could not decide. "Oh, this has been our problem-child song," she said. "Or maybe I'm just being a perfectionist." Such perfectionism has become her hallmark. It's what helped give "Come Away With Me" its preternatural sound-no other musician in"her early twenties has recently been so conversant with both Hank Williams and Hoagy Carmichael-and the exactingness is understandable given that "Feels Like Home" was probably the music business's most-anticipated release of 2004. (It was released on February 10.) If the new album generates a small fraction of what its predecessor did, it could keep a few developing countries running for years. The making of "Feels Like Home" also marks the culmination of a two-year "tornado," as Jones puts it, during which she had little time for anything but touring and recording. "I think we came out on the right end," she said. "But I have no friends." That's not true. There's her band, plus the 17 million people worldwide who bought "Come Away With Me," not to mention an entire music industry, desperate for hits, that is depending on her, even though very few artists have produced back-to-back phenomena. Just ask Alanis Morissette or Lauryn Hill. It's a lot of weight for 24-year-old shoulders to bear, especially considering that Jones often seems as if she would like nothing better than to shoot pool with her band. And now the tornado is starting to whip up again. "I am," she said, "so tired." "Come Away With Me" was more than just a force of nature. It was a small miracle. The album, with its pearly style-skimming (a plink of jazz here, a splash of country there, several lap-
one each for Mardin; the engineer, Jay Newland; and Jesse Harris, who wrote Jones's signature song, "Don't Know Why"-changed the plan. As the album refused to budge from the Top 10, its success seemed to rankle Jones, who canle from a jazz background, in which popularity and art, and popularity and cool, have inverse relationships. "She called me up when the album was at something like two million and said, 'How can we ~ stop it?''' said Bruce Lundvall, ffi the president of Blue Note o ~ Records, who signed Jones in ~ 2001. "I said: 'What do you
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~ ;~~:~~~,~~? The Group Hang: Kevin Breit, Andrew Borger, Norah Jones, Daru Oda, Lee Alexander and Adam Levy.
pings of pop), had the luxury of incubating during Jones's twoyear apprenticeship in New York, performing in venues often barely bigger than a walk-in closet. Its low-fi sound was romantic and elegant but positively antediluvian: mostly acoustic, quiet in an age of hip-hop histrionics, something of a sonic anti boom. The greatest hope Jones had was that it would sell enough to let her make another one. But then "Come Away With Me" started to spread slowly, almost pointillistically, into the musical psyches of "80-year-old grandmas and seven-year-old girls and everyone in between," as its producer, Arif Mardin, said recently. The success happened without the usual promotional tools, a Top 10 pop radio hit or a high-concept video, on a boutique jazz label, Blue Note, whose executives usually listen for talent first and chart positions later, if at all. Julian Fleisher, a New York nightclub singer who released his own album of smart, genre-busting pop in 2002, said: "It was like Howard Dean. It was a grass-roots success that people heard about in their living rooms. That's where I heard it first-in someone's living room." Even before the album came out, Jones herself was sick of the songs, which she had been playing for months. "I just want to get to the next album," she told me two years ago. She sloughed off any suggestion that "Come Away With Me" might be a hit, even said she thought she would have to move out of her $l,OOO-amonth apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for a cheaper place. There was one occasion when her burgeoning fame did impress her; she was in Canada trying to buy a winter hat-Jones loves hats-and had her credit card denied, until the sales clerk recognized her as "that singer from TV." Jones got a kick from the experience but figured the days of carrying her own amps to gigs wouldn't be ending any time soon. Then those 34 million ears and eight Grammys-five for Jones and
I can't pull it off
Jones chalks up Lundvall's well-worn version of events to the typical spin and yam of the music business. ''I'm not naive," she said. "I didn't think they'd pull it off the shelves. Ijust didn't want to do anything else to push it, like put out a dance remix or do another video. I just said: 'The record is going great on its own. Why do anything else?' " Still, as the ride with "Come Away With Me" got wilder and Jones got richer, she dug in her anti-diva flats. She refused to walk down the red carpet at the Grammy Awards and showed up for a major photo session wearing a dress from Target, which she kept on. She told the photographer, "It's who I am." ack in the studio, Jones folded herself into tIle lap of Lee Alexander, her bass player, songwriting collaborator and boyfriend. Most of the people in the world that Jones is closest to were in the room: Alexander; the guitarists, Levy and Kevin Breit; and Daru Oda and Andrew Borger. Oda, a harmony singer, has known Jones since they were 15 and met at Interlochen camp for the arts; Borger is Oda's boyfriend and also the drummer. The only person missing was Jones's mother, Sue, and even she would be there later to witness a session with Dolly Parton, who sings a duet with Jones on Alexander's song "Creepin' In." . "It's the group hang that's important," Oda said later, and indeed there were times when Jones seemed to want to be just another girl in the band. She has generously included on the record at least one song that each band member had a hand in writing, which could mean as much as six figures in publishing income to each of them. In concert, her outsize talent and exotic beauty draw all attention to her, but then she hides behind the piano, rarely saying much to the crowd or moving to center stage for a bow. "She's getting a little better at stagecraft," Lundvall said, "but she has some ways to go." Once Jones sprang back into action in tIle studio, however, it was clear that the democratic process went only so far. There were a cou-
B
pie of kinds of legerdemain in play. The first, of course, was musical: laying down the initial tracks for "Carnival Town," Jones announced, "We still don't have anything dreamy," and then produced just that: a mildly smoky drawl that conjured not just a sound but places-roadside honky-tonks and half-empty bedrooms and big moons, a voice of what-ifs and could-bes and might-have-beens. The song seemed so simple-its hook, "Is it lohhhhhne-Iy," clamped on instantly and wouldn't let go-but was in fact sophisticated, with surprising chords and note intervals difficult to sing. Jones nailed her vocal on the fIrst take. It's no wonder so many other artists have asked her to sing with them, from Parton to Willie Nelson to Ray Charles to the hip-hop duo OutKast to Elmo of "Sesame Street": she has a type AB voice with type 0 compatibility. Beyond the consummate musicality, though, "Carnival Town" was also where her "I'm just one of the guys" posture collapsed. When Mardin, the producer, told her that her vocal was good, she said, "Too bad, because the rest of it stank"-referring to the instrumental track, which included her own piano. When Mardin, who has coaxed career-best performances out of high-end female singers like Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and early Simon, suggested a different lyric, she practically ignored him. In fact, there were times when the producer seemed to be little more than a chaperon, though later, in a display of Old World chivalry-he was born in Turkey 71 years ago-he spoke to Jones quietly in the soundproof booth. Jones didn't change the lyric, but she seemed more relaxed after Mardin's visit. All the band members follow Jones's self-effacing lead; the ink still seems wet on the "former" part of their former lives: Oda, a "hopeful downtown cocktail waitress" with a wrist tattoo and one white eyebrow; the lanky, boyish Borger, who until joining Jones's band supplemented his drumming gigs by building the occasional kitchen; and Alexander, the fleece-vested journeyman bassist who suddenly found himself a celebrity songwriter thanks to his contributions on "Come Away With Me." There' a geek-chic aura to the group, who seem to understand the difference between being hip, a transitory, exclusive state, and cool, permanent and inclusive and unconcerned with others' perceptions. The band is also Jones's protection from the UV rays of celebrity. Around the time that she was suddenly being anointed the Savior of Adult Pop Music, the pressure became so intense that Jones started to crack. "We were in Dallas opening for John Mayer," Oda said, "and she was getting snippy, projecting all this negative energy on us. Lee felt it the most. I had to tell her that I didn't really like the way she was acting, that it didn't make us feel good." Jones admitted as much: "It was like when I first started doing all these jazz gigs in New York, some that I loved but some that I hated. And I thought if I had to keep doing them, I would just quit. Or do the ones I liked and wait tables the rest of the time." But she didn't quit; she just found coping mechanisms for the more difficult moments, like when she was stuck in a hotel in Paris doing interviews while the rest of the band did the town. "She stormed into my room one day in Italy at 2 in the morning and started writing 'NoJo's Rules of Sanity,''' Oda said. "No.1: No press; No. 2: Refer to No.1; and so on." At the p@st-Grarnmyparty, Jones found
herself cut off from the band, trapped behind a parade of 200 wellwishers, including the prenuptial Elvis Costello and Diana Krall. She got through it graciously, thanks in part to a steady flow of vodka martinis and cigarettes, but later said that she "hated that party. We had another one all by ourselves the next day." The prolonged success of "Come Away With Me" did galvanize the band. By playing so many concerts, they came to understand one another's musical shorthand innately, and that made for fast recording once they got back into the studio. In fact the new record was almost finished after a week of sessions in April, when the band recorded 11 songs they had worked out on the road. There was talk of releasing the album in October, which spiked the hopes of the ledgerkeepers at Blue Note. But Jones wanted the songs to develop some more and decided to reconvene the band after the summer tour. Which meant that with the album due on December 17, 22 songs-II more had come into play-had to be finished in three weeks. (Jones pared down the lineup later.) By the time I visited the studio again in early December, there was, incredibly, only one song left to record, "The Prettiest Thing," written by Jones, Alexander and Richard Julian, a sometime member of the Jones gang. Things were slightly knottier this time-Julian questioned a lyric change Jones made, and Jones couldn't find the touch she wanted on the Wurlitzer keyboardbut in the end it was still like deep-tissue musical massage. Oda, sitting in the comer knitting a sweater, was practically moving her needles in time to it. It all seemed too easy. Great art would seem to require more than just a few speed bumps. "Oh, who's to say the album is great art?" Jones said. Borger would tell me later: "I don't think the Beatles fought on their second. record. Maybe by the time we get to making our 'Revolver,' we'll be fighting tooth and nail. But if we could make a record as good as 'Revolver,' we'll fight tooth and nail." Jones wandered into the control room while the technicians checked the Wurlitzer. And suddenly she was back to acting her age. "Did you see Justin Timberlake on 'Saturday Night Live' last night?" she asked in her modern-dorm-room register. "His acting was so good." What did she think of his music? "I only know the singles," she said. "They're cool. I do want to get the new Ryan Adams album." Adams, the alt-country rocker who often writes tortured songs about the newly out of love, is a big favorite. "But I just haven't had time to buy records lately." About the only thing that Jones has had time for beyond her own music is food. She loves to eat. Her most indelible memory of the Grarnmy Awards is that she almost fainted, not from hearing titans like Bonnie Raitt, Aretha Franklin and Peter Gabriel call her name over and over but from the lack of food backstage all day. When the meal break came in the studio, Jones pored over the multi-pageIndian-takeout menu and blurted: "Lamb. Can we please have lamb?" And when I suggested that we meet to talk outside the studio, Jones offered to make me dinner. The menu choices were catfish and spaghetti with homemade sauce. "How hot can you take it?" she asked. Jones and Alexander live in a postwar luxury building over-
like Lucinda?" she asked, putting on Lucinda Williams's latest CD, "World Without Tears." Jones praised Williams's "raw, wet" sound. "It's O.K. if you don't. But this first song just kills me." She settled in on the sofa, in front of a copy of "Come Away With Me" sitting on the coffee table. "It has plenty of flaws," she said, pointing to the CD. "I mean, I'm really proud of it, but maybe it's a little too mellow." Indeed, the main criticism of the record was its hypothyroid pace, that it was an album you'd hear in Starbucks. It certainly isn't raw and wet. "I sound younger on it," Jones continued. "I like this new record, but not better; it's just different. I suppose I could be developing other annoying affectations. Everybody said how serious I was, how forlorn"-she spread her fingers and pulled her cheeks down for a fun-housemirror effect-"but I'm not. I'm really silly and dorky." Conspicuously missing from sight were any of her five Grammys. "Oh, they're in the closet. I didn't want my friends to come over and say, 'Who does she think she is, Miss Grammy Whammy?' " I wondered if all of this dodge was just her way of dealing with the pressure of the follow-up, if the only way she could move on from "Come Away With Me"-{)r cope with its success-was to ignore or even disparage it. "How could I not think about it, when every day for six months somebody, my aunt, a journalist, some stranger on the street, asks me how I feel trying to follow up a 17-million seller?" she said. "But a record is just a snapshot of where you are at any time. Making records is fun. It's not some big statement. You're allowed to make mistakes." Alexander arrived, and the food-burritos, chips, guacamole-wasn't far behind. We scooped and speared from one age prayer, the Mahamudra prayer and the another's heaping platters, Mahakala puja. "We didn't know anything about it until we heard about the nomination," Tai except for the guacamole, because Jones ordered individSitupa said. His personal secretary Lama Tenam, ual tubs of it. "You're not a gerin the U.S. at the time, went to Hollywood for the mophobe, right?" Jones said. "I ceremony, just in case. "They didn't tell in mean, it's O.K. if you are." I'm out the name, and 1 had to go up not, but we seemed to have hi~ upon a motif: "It's O.K. if you and get the award." He felt it are/aren't/do/don't." Jones will was a good thing that holy prayers were singled out in this not point fingers at anyone way. According to Buddhist other than herself, or explain her opinions too deeply, even belief, such dissemination will bring blessings to others. When on matters as innocuous as why she prefers the East Village to asked if he met any rock stars at the West. She has a temper, she the Grammys, he laughed: "1 don't know that field, so 1 don't said, but it flared only when I know." -L.T. asked about the fact that she occasionally smokes. "I'm tryAbove: Lama Tenam accepts ing to quit," she said, slamming 2004 Grammy Award on behalf of the Sherab Ling Monastery her hands on the kitchen table.
looking the West Side Highway, a duplex that's just a temporary stop while they have a loft-Jones's only big purchase so far with her newfound gazillions-renovated in the East Village. Jones arrived at her place after I did, in her usual hide-in-plainsight garb, a huge parka and a ski hat. She generally walks the streets unaccosted, her beauty slightly muted by her off-the-rack style. Jones says she does not purposely try to disguise herself"Nobody recognizes me anyway"-it's just how she dresses. The apartment is hardly haute, either: walking around the first floor, you can see just how little time Jones has had for anything extramusical. There's a piano, Alexander's ceiling-high double bass, silos of CDs, audiogeek equipment that Alexander bought off eBay, but no newspapers, no art, no real decor, except the silver foil Christmas decoration that Jones's mother pinned to the ceiling. The room does have a distinct temperature: all the music, from a Ray Charles box set to a John Prine LP to the current Blur CD to the Thorens turntable and speakers with tubes, even the books-David Sedaris, Sylvia Plath, "Vanity Fair"-are set to the same cultural thermostat, about 6.6 degrees Celsius. Because she spent all day going over artwork for the album, she did not have time to buy groceries, and so we ordered in. "Do you
HIMACHAL MONKS WIN GRAMMY
monks at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Left: All in a day's work: the monks at Sherab Ling.
Conspicuously missing from sight were any of her five Grammys. "Oh, they're in the closet. I didn't want my friends to come over and say, "Who does she think she is, Miss Grammy Whammy?' If
Alexander, tall and handsome, like a cross between a grown-up Brady brother and a grown-up Albert Brooks, cleared the plates. "He's a good dish-doer," Jones said. Alexander smirked over his shoulder: "Since I'm the one who does them, I want to get this stuff off before I have to use a chisel." Jones and Alexander have been a couple for four years, and their personal and professional lives have bled together. They write sOlO1gs about the most private matters-which then become very public. "I look at him sometimes and say, 'Oh, you're my boyfriend,' " Jones said plaintively. But she added that if the success had changed her in any substantially negative way, Alexander, who she said is "one of the alltime nice guys," wouldn't have stayed around. "We're still the same people," Oda had told me. "We all still hang out in the same crummy bars and drink the same crummy beer. I think Norah and Lee actually need to find ways to spend money for tax purposes." It was Alexander, quiet through most of dinner, who finally said, "This new album did get inside our heads a little more." He is the one who occasionally turns to Jones and asks, "Can you believe that 17 million people listened to our record?" Maybe because he's about] 0 years older than Jones, he's not afraid to occasionally reflect the sense not just that his ship has come in but also that it will be docked for a while. But Jones treats such talk like an allergen, as if opening even the smallest vent would contaminate her art and her cool. "Sometimes I really feel I have to live my life as if none of this happened," she said. Though Jones claims that she doesn't read much of what's written about her, she does seem to have bought into the other major criticism of "Come Away With Me"-that she did not write most of its songs. Considering her voice, that criticism sounds as valid as the one that says that Bob Dylan should take singing lessons and do a Cole Porter album. This time around, Jones was the writer or co-writer of almost half of the songs. I asked if this direction served her art. "Oh, maybe next time I'll take six months off and really learn how to write songs," she said, adding that she has heard the calls for her to record standards. "But I know all the original versions by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and the rest, and there's no point in anybody else doing them. Someday I'll do an album of standards just for my mom." Jones's mother, Sue, and her father, the sitar legend Ravi Shankar, are sacrosanct subjects for her. She was the product of a relationship they had in the late 1970s, and the only thing Jones will say about Shankar is that they are on good terms now after years of estrangement. Any mention of Shankar used to irritate
Jones, as she didn't want anyone to think she was riding on his coattails. "Now people ask if we'll ever do a duet," she said incredulously. "I mean, I don't know much about Indian classical music, and he certainly doesn't know about Ryan Adams. Not to be confused with Bryan Adams," she said, referring to the worknlanlike Canadian rocker popular when she was growing up. But she was quick to add, "Not that there's anything wrong with Bryan Adams." Coolness without claws, the old-fashioned kind, just like Jones's music and so much of her life. Jones's mother, meanwhile, has been just as wary of her daughter's success, though it was her weaning of Jones on a variegated record collection that set Jones on her path. (There probably weren't many other eight-year-olds growing up in Texas listening to vintage Aretha Franklin in 1987.) Jones said, "When we won the fifth Grammy, the one for Album of the Year, she was in the back of the audience, and she groaned, 'Oh, God, not another one.' " So with her parents basically off limits, talk drifted back to music, as it always does, and to her hopes for "Feels Like Home" and the success of "Come Away With Me." "I'm only 24. How lucky have I been to have made that kind of record? If one-tenth of the people like this one, that's still more than anybody's wildest expectations. 'It's important to remember that you're not all that. It would be great if all those people like this new record. But it's O.K. if they don't." he day before our dinner, I heard "Feels Like Home" start to finish for the first time, on a boombox in a crowded, unheated back room at the studio. Based on what had been coming out of the sessions, I had high expectations. And, in fact, some of the songs were truly gorgeous. But overall an alt-country orthodoxy seemed to rule: it was heavy on the twang, light on the torch. When I opened the door to leave, I found Jones herself in the outer room. Because I was the first person from the outside to hear the record, I thought she might ask my opinion. She didn't. 'Tm just not a needy person," she told me the next day. "I don't crave people's approval." And that could be the key to her art and her success: Norah Jones knows how to say no. To a music business that had been deaf to her kind of music; to the press; to fashionistas of all kinds; and now maybe even to millions of fans who are hoping for another "Come Away With Me." "Norah is very true to her musicality," Lundvall, Blue Note's president, said. "She's made an artistic statement that will be a success no matter how much it sells." Though the songs on "Feels Like Home" are more challenging, less easy on the ears, they do start to take root after a few listens. The album will certainly be a big hit, even if it doesn't sell into the stratosphere or win her another armload of Grammys. Miracles are tough acts to follow, anyway. "What's the point in making the same record over and over?" Jones said. "You can't go back." No, but considering that she has made what she seems to think is a very cool album with her very cool boyfriend and her very cool band, maybe you don't have to lose yourself along the way. D
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About the Author: Rob Hoerburger is a staff writer with The New York Times Magazine.
THE HYTH
T ho says Shakespeare doesn't matter to young people anymore? On a recent episode of "Gilmore Girls," the hour-long flagship drama of the Warner Brothers (WB) television network, Rory Gilmore's high school English class performed scenes from the Bard. Rory, cast as Juliet opposite the handsome and frequently suspended Tristan as Romeo, fretted that the heat of their onstage kiss would expose to her current boyfriend, Dean, the fact that Rory had once kissed Tristan at a party when she and Dean were temporarily broken up. Still, the performance had to be convincing, because it counted for 50 percent of her grade. "People who fail Shakespeare don't get into Harvard," admonished the group's alpha female, named Paris-who, upon seeing that their rehearsal space has not yet been vacated by an adult aerobics class, remarks, "What's with the cast from 'Cocoon'?" Tough stuff for older folks to identify with, to be sure, but we've all had a generation or more to grow accustomed to the fact that, while we ourselves may age, popular culture remains a kind of garden of attenuated youth. And while we may not like it, we all think we understand the reason for it: youth is where the money is.
The WB, after all, is not run by a bunch of teenagers bent on self-expression; it's part of a multibillion-dollar entertainment conglomerate whose programming decisions are based on sober business acumen. So if they took the risk of launching a new broadcast network in 1995-when the network TV audience overall was shrinking-then they must have a pretty good idea of who that audience is and what it wants. Right? Well, if you assume that a TV show's "audience" consists of the people who watch it when it's on, your first conclusion might be that the folks at the WB are laboring under a gross misconception. Nielsen ratings for "Gilmore Girls," when considered as raw numbers, are horrible. Somewhere around five million people watch an average episode, which put it in l2lst place among the 158 shows broadcast in prime time in mid-2002. But if you consider that a TV network's true audience is advertisers, then you're on your way to understanding why Tuesday night is, in fact, a big moneymaker for the WB. The network more than makes up for its abysmal ratings by charging an inflated ad rate for those few viewers its shows manage to attract. A 30-second commercial spot on "Gilmore Girls" costs about $82,000-nearly
three-quarters of the fee for advertising on an episode of, say, "Law and Order: SVU," an NBC program that regularly has about three times the number of viewers. The WB gets away with this because its overall ratings, poor as they appear, were up five percent in the l8-to34-year-old category last season, and while "Gilmore Girls" may be among the least-watched series on television, it's also No.2 in its time slot among viewers aged 18 to 34. Eighteen to thirty-four: for decades, conventional advertising wisdom has attached the adjective "coveted" to this slice of the viewing audience. According to an analysis by the former NBC News president Lawrence K. Grossman, advertisers pay an average of $23.54 to reac~ 1,000 viewers in that age bracket, versus $9.57 per 1,000 over the age of 35. And since commercial television, whatever else it may be, is fundamentally a system for delivering audiences to advertisers, network executives lose a lot of sleep trying to figure out what will hold fast the slippery attention of people in their late teens, twenties and early thirties. It is, as it has been for 40 years, the principle by which a great deal of our popular culture-not just TV, but music, movies, radio-comes into existence.
The odd thing is, there's no real reason for it anymore. People over the age of 50 account for half of all the discretionary spending in the United States. Proportionally speaking, there are more of them than there ever were, and they are voracious cultural consumers. They watch more television, go to more movies and buy more CDs than young people do. Yet Americans over 50 are the focus of less than 10 percent of the advertising. What makes advertising an entertaining field of study is that its twin natures-pop art and dismal science-are never really reconciled. If the notion of the "target demographic" lives on well past the point where it stopped obeying any kind of economic logic, it may be worth wondering how much sound, unsentimental business sense was ever behind this juggernaut to begin with. rand loyalty: this was the concept that turned the minds of young people into an advertising battleground, before television was even invented. Get them early, the thinking went, and if your product isn't junk, then you'll have that customer's fidelity for life. And, of course, advertising aimed at the young has
always had a secondary target as well: those who aren't young but want to appear so, who believe that purchased commodities have the power to stave off time. But in the earliest days of television, when the popularity of network programming was measured mostly by the sales of TV sets themselves, there was no question of "targeting" anything but the broadest possible audience. It wasn't until the 1950s that the A.C. Nielsen Company started breaking down its crude data on the TV audience by age as well as income, geography and other categories-at which point advertisers began to develop more of an interest in some TV viewers than in others. "Embedded within the 18-to-34 cliche is a lot of social and economic history," says Stuart Ewen, author of Captains of Consciousness and several other books on the history of advertising. "The development of that group coincided with the dramatic expansion of the American middle class in the years right after World War II. The notion was that these young people coming out of the war were going to be the engine that drove the American economy." It would be giving advertisers of the late 1940s and '50s too much credit, though, to say that they got onto the
demographic bandwagon right away. The work of such Eisenhower-era ad barons as Rosser Reeves and David Ogilvy relied almost smugly on simplicity and repetition, on what Reeves termed the Unique Selling Proposition drilled mercilessly into the public consciousness: "Wonder Bread Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways," "Pepsi Refreshes Without Filling" . and so on. Indeed, Reeves's famous Anacin ad featuring an animated hammer pounding inside one's head could function as a metaphor for both the intent and the effect of late 1950s advertising in general. The very idea of targeting some demographic niche would have been unknown to Reeves; his own ad-spending mantra was characteristically drab and concise: "the most people at the lowest possible cost." By 1960, though, when Bill Bernbach, the man generally credited as the father of Madison Avenue's "creative revolution," placed a photo of a Volkswagen just above the large-type word "Lemon" (an event that had roughly the effect on advertising that the 1913 Armory Show had on the history of American art), the pendulum had begun its long swing from paternalistic notions of brand loyalty to exuberant iconoclasm. The advertising industry ushered in its own version of the Age of
Aquarius, in which youthfulness-being young, thinking young, speaking young, buying young-was all. To be sure, there was a hard-numbers aspect to the initial explosion of youth-targeted advertising in the 1960s and early '70s. By 1966,48 percent of the U.S. population was under the age of 25. Failure to speak their language meant kissing off half of the market.
This history of Pepsi's advertising campaigns -from the era of "Pepsi Refreshes Without Filling" and Polly Bergen in the early 1950s (top) fo Britney Spears in 2001 (bottom}-typifies the transition from selling the product to proJnising the lifestyle. ~ E o
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Still, this is advertising, in which numbers never tell the whole story. Thomas Frank, in his brilliant study of 1960s advertising, "The Conquest of Cool," offers the example of automobile ads; in the '40s and '50s they preached reliability and endurance (a typical ad might picture a happy nuclear family out for a Sunday drive), but in the 1960s they suddenly aspired to the symbolism of revolution: Oldsmobiles were rechristened "Youngmobiles," consumers were exhorted to join the "Dodge Rebellion" and as staid a make as Buick promised consumers "Now We're Talking Your Language." This all seems understandable enough in the context of the times, until you consider that in
the mid-'60s young adults accounted for only nine percent of all new car sales. So why would the car business bother to target them? The business world, it seems, was going through its own generational insurgency, and the old model of customer relations was tossed gaily out the window. In a society in which young people predominated numerically and were acknowledged as the vanguard of change, the idea of brand loyalty was turned upside down. What advertisers prized in American young people was their disloyalty, their insistence upon the new. The notion of "revolution" (i.e., fashion) could be applied to any and every commodity-and common sense was no obstacle: when Pepsi adopted its wholly metaphorical slogan "Join the Pepsi People Feelin' Free," sales soared. Such ads were never designed to extract riches from the nation's youth"youth" simply became their new subject matter. They posited a plainspeaking friendship between the advertisers and the young, a friendship that was entirely fictional but seemed really cool, and the way to get in on it was to purchase the product being advertised. The genuine counterculture was, of course, tiny in comparison to the legions of people who admired it and wanted to be a part of it in some small, risk-free way-by, for instance, joining the Pepsi Generation. It was a seductively undemanding model, for advertisers and consumers alike, and it kept the business world's focus squarely on the 18-to-34 bull's-eye for the next three decades. How did the TV networks satisfy their advertisers' demand for this newly calibrated audience? Well, if they couldn't always bridge the gap between themselves
and the bona fide counterculture, they could certainly attract the attention of those who wanted at least to feel that they could lay some claim to membership in it by watching TV. "That period-the end of the '60s, the beginning of the '70s-was really an extraordinary moment in our culture," says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "In one fell swoop, CBS canceled a whole bunch of programs that were still fairly highrated-'Mayberry, KED.,' 'Hee Haw,' 'Gomer Pyle'-and replaced them with a very different kind of show." The highest-rated show for the 1970-71 season was the decidedly unrevolutionary "Marcus Welby, M.D."; No.2, though, was "The Flip Wilson Show," and other programs like "The Mod Squad" and "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" sneaked into the Top 20. These hybrids of old forms (sketch comedy, the cop show, the family sitcom) and young subject matter became the entree into the cycles of hip for millions of viewers, and the advertisers who paid for those programs gave their viewers a way to make the idea of permanent revolution not just a philosophy but something they could take home and put on a shelf, or in their closet, or in the fridge. "TV definitely became more researchdriven and more demographically selfconscious in the '60s and '70s," says Mark Crispin Miller, director of the Project on Media Ownership at New York University. "I think one can safely say that entertainment generally is research-driven now, but television, being the most directly responsible to advertisers, was the fir~t to take the plunge." The first, but not the last. Hollywood discovered, somewhere around the release of Star Wars, that movies could also profit by functioning as advertisements for their own merchandise; whereupon they, too, started pitching their work to a younger audience. Commercial radio, determined to lead rather than follow music's fruit-fly-like cycles, undertook the ghettoization of programming intended for anyone above the age of 29. Thus the cultural productions of what Variety
magazine, in its inimitable style, calls the Zitgeist continued to snowball. By the early '80s it had grown into the selffulfilling prophecy (Why are movies designed to appeal to people in their teens and twenties? Because those are the people who go to the movies.) that we're still living with today. twas a long time before anyone cared to notice that the target demographic itself, and its status in American society, had gone through some profound changes. The population bubble caused by the baby boom kept floating up; whereas in 1940 only 6.8 ' percent of the population was 65 or older, as of 2000 that number was 12.4 percent. And the economic news wasn't bullish either. Between 1973 and 1990, median real income for families with children headed by persons under 30 fell an amazing 16 percent. And in 1990, three out of four men between the ages of 18 and 24 were still living at home, the largest proportion since the Depression. "Young people's hopes and prospects for the future have in very real terms become diminished," says Stuart Ewen, "and in a situation like that, obviously you have to rethink whom you're selling to." And what of the theory of brand loyalty-the idea that winning over the young consumer means winning him or her over for life? There the big change has come about not so much in the young but in the old. The baby-boom generation, raised in front of the TV, just never became brandloyal in the way their parents were. Everyone is pretty malleable these days: 67 percent of female heads of household between 18 and 34 were willing, in a Nielsen study, to try a new brand even if it went against their customary buying habits; the corresponding number in the 35-to-64 age bracket was 70 percent. Even the argument that most pop culture is for young people because young people consume the most pop culture has begun to fall apart. ESPN's highly promoted X Games, a kind of "alternative" Olympics featuring skateboarders, BMXers and the like (referred to by The Wall Street Journal as "the Holy Grail of youth
marketing") was outperformed this summer on the network's primary channel by the bargain-basement Great Outdoor Games, a decidedly non-youth-oriented event featuring lumbeljack contests and the talents of various sporting dogs. Over the last decade, the proportion of the national moviegoing audience between the ages of 50 and 59 doubled, while the proportion of teenagers shrank steadily. The percentage of CDs sold to consumers over 45 doubled as well. And yet the romanticization of youth persists: the adjective "coveted" has been joined by the phrase "hard to reach" as a justification for the premium advertisers continue to pay to speak to the 18-to-34 crowd. Put aside for the moment the fact that these so-called hard-to-reach young adults spend an awful lot of time with the TV on-men between 18 and 24 watch more than 20 hours a week, according to the Nielsen people; put aside the fact that those young X Games rebels come plastered head to toe with corporate logos. What logic suggests that, because there are proportionally fewer young people than there used to be, because they have less money than they used to and because it's harder to separate them from that money than ever, advertisers should spend more money trying to court them? It would make as much sense to say that advertisers really ought to pay top dollar for viewers who don't have any spending money at all. If you ask the agencies themselves about the relevance of the target demographic, they're likely to tell you that numbers-oriented research of any kind is so last year. Forty years after creative advertising's Big Bang, the study of demographics is a "science" many now scorn as outdated and crude. "Now they call it psychographics," Thomas Frank says. "They hire sociologists, anthropologists-it's very elaborate." The methodology of today's market research often approaches the mystical. So who's willing to pay the WB extra to reach today's young adults? The ads featured on "Gilmore Girls" themselves paint a portrait of the coveted youth audience. Apparently, they spend as if they still get
an allowance. Wendy's, Snickers, Cover Girl makeup, chocolate milk-there was hardly a product advertised on "Gilmore Girls" that would cost a consumer more than $10. With one glaring exception: new cars. Ford and Honda advertised throughout the Tuesday-night lineup. "These younger folks may not be bigticket purchasers now," says a Ford spokesperson, "but they may one day be. Ford wants to form a relationship with these younger buyers now and grow them up into our various brands." As for Honda, it has, according to a company representative, "pretty much one of the youngest buying demographics of any car company out there. The Civic in particular-almost all the ads on the WB are for Civics. And we're on MTV all the time." And how many of these youth-oriented Civics, sticker-priced at a minimum of $14,000, are actually sold to people under the age of 26? One in five. Not so differ-路 ent from the 1960s. They'll catch on eventually. But advertising is a vast mechanism, risk-averse and inertia-driven, and like most multibilliondollar industries it changes course with all the agility of an oil tanker. And so, for now, the polestar of the target demographic endures. It has gone from an ecstatic confluence of societal change and economic opportunity to a fusty business institution. Of course, it's more than that as well. No matter how many dollars might be squandered in the process, you see in modern TV advertising what you see in, say, Greek statuary: a cultural key, a worldview whose increasing irrelevance to cold economic models only testifies to how compelling it remains for us. In the meantime, the Fox network, eager to reassure advertisers made restless by its drop last year to second place among 18-to-34-year-olds, has just announced that this fall it will become "bold, younger, more noisy." The network's new motto? "It's Good to Be Bad." 0 About the Author: Jonathan Dee is a New York-based author. His most recent book is Palladia.
O
n May 23, 1997, Atlanta inventor Clyde Bryant filed for a U.S. patent on his conception of an improved internal combustion engine. In written descriptions of 26 claims and in 34 pages of diagrams, he disclosed an auto engine that aims not only to bum fuel more cleanly but also to deliver greater torque and higher fuel efficiency than a standard engine. Bryant had already started a company, Entec Engine, to develop the technology, and the business's
Copyright Š 2003 by MIl' Technology Review. Reproduced with permission of MIl' Technology Review in the format Magazine via Copyright Clearance Center.
entire future was wrapped up in this patent application. The process was straightforward enough, costing less than $10,000 in filing fees and legal expenses. But Bryant was immediately confronted with an unavoidable conundrum: because of the global nature of the auto industry, unless he protected his invention worldwide, someone else would be able to patent and market the engine in another country. 'The only way to do it was to file everywhere at once," he says. Bryant's Entec is one of an increasing number of companies stepping into the international patent jungle, where 120 national patent systems challenge inventors with opposing philosophies and examination rules, not to mention translation requirements and separate filing fees. Working with an Atlanta law firm that has an office in Munich, Germany, Bryant learned that failure to file in certain foreign countries soon would result in forfeiting his rights forever. "It's a lot of work to redo the claims for many of these countries," he says. But over the next few months, the law firm churned out applications for Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Australia and Singapore. Through the European Patent Office, Bryant filed an application that would protect his invention in 23 other countries. The cost of all the applications: $78,000 plus a whopping $200,000 in legal fees. When his U.S. patent, number 6,279,550, was issued in August 2001, Bryant rejoiced, but when his European application was granted in November 2002, he learned it would cost almost $7,000 more per country to take the final step of actually getting the patents issued. To pay the tabs, Bryant's startup gave equity to the law firm. The creation of a single global patent system could solve this conundrum for Bryant and other small inventors. Even multinational corporations that can afford to file everywhere are pushing for "deep harmonization," an international initiative aimed at forging a global patent. But in return for eHminating duplicate filing fees, most issuance costs, and translation requirements, such an effort will likely entail stark trade-offs for innovators worldwide. Even as Technology Review's annual Patent Scorecard tracks the number and strength of U.S. patents won by 150 companies in eight high-tech sectors, harmonization looms as a watchword. Harmonization means imposing a single set of global rules and depends on coming up with one answer to a controversial question: what is patentable? U.S. inventors in particular may be forced to abandon America's 200-year-old first-to-invent system of settling disputes between rival inventors in favor of the first-tofile criterion that guides most other nations. "The goal [of harmonization] is brilliant, and there is tremendous pressure to achieve
it," says Joanne Hayes-Rines, publisher of inventors' Digest, the official publication of the United Inventors Association of the USA. "But it's going to be very difficult to get there." Global economics are driving hannonization. The 1990s saw a modest 27 percent jump in the number of inventions seeking patents worldwide. During the same period, however, an explosion of country-by-country filings multiplied the total number of applications on those same inventions nearly fivefold, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, the umbrella association overseeing the harmonization negotiations. "It's a measure of globalization," says Francis Gurry, assistant director general of the organization. About 90 percent of the seven million-plus patent applications filed worldwide each year are filings in more than one country for the same invention, he says. Reducing that number will require forging not only a better global filing system but also a common examination process. The trick, he says, will be getting the big three-the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, and the Japanese Patent Office-"to achieve agreement on the fundamentals of patent law." The U.S. patent system, however, sharply conflicts with other systems. Whereas all other countries grant a patent to the party who is first to file an application, the United States maintains an elaborate legal process for sorting out the precedence of rival inventors-regardless of their filing dates. A 1989 effort to develop a single, worldwide patent system convinced Canada to switch to first-to-file, but treaty negotiations broke down when the United States refused to compromise on this point, mainly because of intense resistance from independent inventors who say it gives the upper hand to big corporations with the resources to file quickly and prolifically. The European "first-to-file system is simple, but sometimes it isn't fair," admits Barbara Cookson, a partner at Nabarro Nathanson, a London-based law firm. "The U.S. system aims to be fair but at a tremendous cost." That's because patent interference suits that aim to resolve competing claims between parties can involve trotting out strings of witnesses and evidence such as notarized lab books and prototypes. Proving who actually invented first can take years and cost millions of dollars. The debate is charged with emotion. The ability to sort out rival claims is "the only piece of armor" a small business has when it's up against a big corporation that files patents early and often, says Don Costar, founder of the Nevada Inventors Association. According to many U.S. inventors, the first patent law signed by President George Washington in 1790 is clear on
the point. Costar believes the principle is embedded even in the Constitution. The drafters "wrote the laws directly opposite to what was happening in England," he says. "They saw that the inventor may be lying in the ditch with his throat cut, while the guy who filed it with the king got all the benefits and riches." Many large corporations, on the other hand, are willing to make the switch. "As a worldwide company, we favor harmonization," says Fred Boehm, IBM's assistant general counsel. "It would eliminate the interference problem in the U.S., and we've
A
unified global patent
system could save billions of dollars. ",The goal is brilliant. But it's going to be very difficult to get there." been involved in a number of those cases." He'd like to see the United States trade away first-to-invent in return for other countries' adopting America's one-year grace period before filing. The grace period allows U.S. inventors to publish papers and speak publicly about their creations without undermining their patent rights. In much of the rest of the world, such activities kill eligibility. Inventors outside the United States "have to operate in total secrecy," says Hayes-Rines. This histonc move is considered likely by those involved in the process. "The first-to-invent issue is passe," says Q. Todd Dickinson, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under President Clinton. Dickinson now represents the American Bar Association in patent harmonization talks held every six months by the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. Despite the fact that the bar association itself is divided on the issue, "I think we can sell first-to-file" to the American public, Dickinson says. "A working assumption in Geneva is that the U.S. will have to come around on this issue at the end of the day." Independent inventors, he says, now have fewer excuses for not filing right away. The Internet provides abundant resources, including the ability to file online, and a one-year provisional application for patent filings, which was introduced in 1995, provides a simple way to lock in a filing date for as little as $80 while the inventor works on a full application. But complications in realizing the switch to first-to-file lurk. Lois Boland, the chief U.S. negotiator on patent harmonization, says that for now, the American strategy calls for leaving the potentially disruptive issue of first-to-invent off the table in Geneva, so as not to rile the passions of independent inventors in the United States. Meanwhile, the current director of the patent office, James E. Rogan, is GOy on the matter. As recently as
October 2002 in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, Rogan declared that he sees no need for the United States to switch. Currently, the U.S. patent office is floating a compromise termfirst inventor to file-in order to dispel the notion that it would be common for a noninventor to rip off an idea and beat the real inventor to the patent office. Other issues now on the table may be even more difficult to handle. Foremost among them is the definition of "patentable subject matter," in other words, reaching universal agreement on what may be patented, a topic of vigorous debate. "The U.S. says that everything under the sun is patentable," says the World Intellectual Property Organization's Gurry. Almost every other country, he adds, disagrees. Among the most contentious subjects are business method patents. The United States typically, and somewhat notoriously, allows patents for business practices such as Amazon.com's single-click Internet shopping, which allows its customers to save their shipping and payment information so they can buy books and other items simply by clicking once on an icon. The United States is also the most generous in granting patents for software and genetic discoveries and treatments. Much of the rest of the world holds "a different view," according to Boland, favoring what's known as a technical-effect requirement to weed out ideas that have no technological component. At the same time, a rift has opened between industrial and developing countries over patents on medicinal plants and other biological resources. Latin American and African nations favor rules requiring that foreign companies seek consent to remove such resources or be forbidden from receiving patents on them. Such rules would replace today's patchwork of regulations, none of which prevent such patents. Supporters of that idea also back a requirement for citing the country of origin in any patent application. "There is absolutely no agreement on this," says Gurry. With so much open debate, officials involved in the negotiations don't expect a document aimed at deep harmonization to be ready before fall this year. Any global patent treaty would have to be ratified by U.S. Congress, and with no specific proposal on the table, it's premature to guess whether ratification is likely. In the meantime, the costs and confusion caused by differences in national patent systems continue to escalate. Boehm says IBM currently spends upwards of $200 million per year on its intellectual-property protection efforts, and redundant coun; try-by-country patent applications comprise a large part of that expense. Independent inventors seldom file global applications at all, says Costar. "When they find out the cost, they drop the idea." As for Entec's engine, Clyde Bryant says his company is negotiating with DaimlerChrysler and a number of other manufacturers over licenses for his technology. Although the price was steep, he says he is relieved to have worldwide protection: the talks with the German auto giant are taking place not in Detroit, but in Stuttgart. 0 About the Author: Evan l. Schwartz is a Boston-based
science and technology writer. He wrote Webonomics and Digital Darwinism, among other books, which tell how to compete and thrive in the rapidly evolving world of e-business.
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onsider the following four dead-end kids. One was spanked by his teachers for bad grades and a poor attitude. He dropped out of school at 16. Another failed remedial English and came perilously close to flunking out of college. The third feared he'd never make it through school-and might not have without a tutor. The last finally learned to read in third grade, devouring Marvel comics, whose pictures provided clues to help him untangle the words. These four losers are, respectively, Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, John Chambers, and David Boies. Billionaire Branson developed one of Britain's top brands with Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Schwab virtually created the discount brokerage business. Chambers is CEO of Cisco. Boies is a celebrated trial attorney, best known as the guy who beat Microsoft. In one of the stranger bits of business trivia, they have something in common: They are all dyslexic. So is billionaire
Craig McCaw, who pioneered the cellular industry; John Reed, who led Citibank to the top of banking; Donald Winkler, who until recently headed Ford Financial; Gaston Caperton, former governor of West Virginia and now head of the College Board; Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko's; Diane Swonk, chief economist of Bank One. The list goes on (see sidebar, "Dyslexic Achievers"). Many of these adults seemed pretty hopeless as kids. All have been wildly successful in business. Most have now begun to talk about their dyslexia as a way to help children and parents cope with a condition that is still widely misunderstood. "This is very painful to talk about, even today," says Chambers. "The only reason I am talking about it is 100 percent for the kids and their parents." What exactly is dyslexia? The Everyman definition calls it a reading disorder in which people jumble letters, confusing dog with god, say, or box with pox. The exact cause is unclear; scientists believe it has to do with the way a developing brain is wired. Difficulty reading, spelling, and
writing are typical symptoms. But dyslexia often comes with one or more other learning problems as well, including trouble with math, auditory processing, organizational skills, and memory. No two dyslexics are alike-each has his own set of weaknesses and strengths. About five to six percent of American public school children have been diagnosed with a learning disability; 80 percent of the diagnoses are dyslexia-related. But some studies indicate that up to 20 percent of the population may have some degree of dyslexia (see sidebar, "How to Help"). A generation ago this was a problem with no name. Boies, Schwab, and Bill Samuels Jr., the president of Maker's Mark, did not realize they were dyslexic until some of their own children were diagnosed with the disorder, which is often inherited. Samuels says he was sitting in a school office, listening to a description of his son's problems, when it dawned on him: "Oh, shit. That's me." Most of the adults I talked to had diagnosed themselves. Says Branson: "At some point, I think I decided that being
dyslexic was better than being stupid." Stupid. Dumb. Retard. Dyslexic kids have heard it all. According to a March 2000 Roper poll (conducted by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut), almost twothirds of Americans still associate leaming disabilities with mental retardation. That's probably because dyslexics find it so difficult to learn through conventional methods. "It is a disability in learning," says Boies. "It is not an intelligence disability. It doesn't mean you can't think." He's right. Dyslexia has nothing to do with IQ; many smart, accomplished people have it, or are thought to have ,had it,
dumb. Kinko's founder, Paul Orfalea, failed second grade and spent part of third in a class of mentally retarded children. He could not learn to read, despite the best efforts of parents who took him to testers, tutors, therapists, special reading groups, and eye doctors. As young classmates read aloud, Orfalea says it was as if "angels whispered words in their ears." In his unpublished autobiography, Orfalea says that to a dyslexic, a sentence is worse than Egyptian hieroglyphics. "It's more like a road map with mouse holes or coffee stains in critical places. You're always turning into blind alleys and ending up on the wrong side of town." He finalIy graduated, but not before being "invited to leave."practically every high school in Los Angeles." One principal counseled his mother to enroll him in u'ade school, suggesting that OIfalea could become a carpet layer. His mother went home and teaIfully told her husband, "I just know he can do more than lay carpet." Charles Schwab was very strong in math, science, and sports (especially golf), which helped him get into Stanford. But anything involving English "was a disconnect." He couldn't write quickly enough to capture his thoughts. He couldn't listen to a lecture and take legible notes. He couldn't memorize four words in a row.' He doesn't think he ever read a novel all the way through in high school. He was within one unit of flunking out of Stanford his freshman year. "God, I must just be really ~ dumb in this stuff," he used to tell himself. ÂŤ "It was horrible, a real drag on me." So @ P horrible that Schwab and his wife, Helen, ~ " created a foundation to help parents of children with learning disorders. It was as if Schwab and the others were wearing a scarlet letter: D for dumb. Until about five years ago Chambers kept his dyslexia a secret. As CEO, he says, "you Dyslexia is a crucible, particularly in a don't want people to see your weaknesshigh-pressure society that allows so little es." One day a little girl at Cisco's Bring room for late bloomers. "People are either Your Children to Work Day forced him out of the closet. Chambers had called on defeated by it or they become much more tenacious," says McCaw. Don Winkler, a her, and she was trying to ask a question before a crowd of 500 kids and parents. top financial services executive at Bank But she couldn't get the words out. "I have One and then at Ford Motor, remembers coming home from school bloodied by a learning disability," she said tearfully. fights he'd had with kids whQ called him Chambers cannot telI this story without
including Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein. Sally Shaywitz, a leading dyslexia neuroscientist at Yale, believes the disorder can carry surprising talents along with its well-known disadvantages. "Dyslexics are overrepresented in the top ranks of people who are unusually insightful, who bring a new perspective, who think out of the box," says Shaywitz. She is co-director of the Center for Learning and Attention at Yale, along with her husband, Dr. Bennett Shaywitz, a professor of pediatrics and neurology. Dyslexics don't outgrow their problems-reading and writing usualIy remain hard work for life-but with patient teaching and deft tutoring, they do learn to manage. Absent that, dyslexia can snuff out dreams at an early age, as children lose their way in school, then lose their self-esteem and dlive. "The prisons are filled with kids who can't read," says Caperton. "I suspect a lot of them have learning disabilities."
choking up himself. "You could immediately identify with what that was like," he says. "You know that pain. She started to leave, and you knew how hurt she was in front of the group and her parents." Chambers threw her a lifeline. "I have a learning disability too," he said. In front of the crowd, he began talking to her as if they were the only two people in the room. "You've just got to learn your way through it," Chambers told her. "Because there are some things you can do that others cannot, and there are some things others can do you're just not going to be able to do, ever. Now my experience has been that what works is to go a little bit slower...." It was the kind of coaching that proved crucial to nearly everybody we talked to: mentors who took a genuine interest, parents who refused to give up, tutors who didn't even know what dyslexia was. Winkler recalls that his parents refused to let their fear of electrocution stand in the way of his fixing every iron and toaster in the neighborhood. "I wired every teacher's house," he says. "I got shocked all the time." His parents owned a momand-pop shop in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. His mother cleaned houses to pay for his tutoring. Chambers, who read right to left and up and down the page, says his parents, both doctors, claim they never once doubted his abilities, even though "I absolutely did." His parents' faith was important to him. So was his tutor, Mrs. Anderson. Even today Chambers remembers tutoring as excruciating: "It might have been once or twice a week," he says, "but it felt like every day." Nonetheless, he adds, "Mrs. Anderson had an influence on my life far bigger than she might hav~ ever realized." If you could survive childhood, dyslexia was a pretty good business boot camp. It fostered risk taking, problem solving, resilience. School was a chess game that required tactical brilliance. Schwab sat mostly in the back of the room. But he was conscientious and charming, and gutsy enough to ask for extra help. Boies took a minimum of math and avoided foreign languages and anything involving spatial skills. OIfalea worked out a symbiotic relationship with classmates on a
group project at University of Southern California's Marshall Business School; they did the writing, he did the photocopying (and got the germ of the idea that led to Kinko's). At Vanderbilt Law School, Samuels spent a lot of time in study-group discussions. "That's how I learned the cases," he says. His friends helped with the reading; he paid for the beer. Better than most people, dyslexics learn humility and how to get along with others. It's probably no accident that Kinko's, Cisco, and Schwab have all been on Fortune's list of the best places to work. "I never put people down, because I know what that feels like," says Branson, who seldom asks for a re~mme either, "because I haven't got one myself." By the time these guys got into business, they had picked themselves up so many times that risk taking was second nature. "We're always expecting a curve ball," says Samuels. Schwab remembers how hard it was to watch his friends receive awards and become "General Motors Scholars, Merit Scholars, Baker Scholars. I was so jealous," he says. Later on, though, some of the prizewinners had trouble dealing with adversity. If, as kids, the dyslexic executives had learned the downside of their disorder inside out, as adults they began to see its upside: a distinctly different way of processing information that gave them an edge in a volatile, fast-moving world. Bill Dreyer, an inventor and a biologist at Caltech, recalls a dinner-party conversation years ago in which he told a colleague how his dyslexic brain works: "I think in 3-D Technicolor pictures instead of words." "You what?" replied the incredulous colleague. The two argued the rest of the night about how that was possible. Dreyer believes that thinking in pictures enabled him to develop ground breaking theories about how antibodies are made, and then to invent one of the first proteinsequencing machines, which helped to launch the human genome revolution. "I was able to see the machine in my head and rotate valves and actually see the instrumentation," he says. "I don't think of dyslexia as a deficiency. It's like having CAD [computer-aided design] il'l your
~yslexia has been demystified, but that doesn't make school much easier i-Ifor kids with the disorder. In the past, "a guy like me could slide through," says Charles Schwab. Today expectations are set higher and earlier by society, leaving little room for late bloomers. The multiple-choice tests increasingly used to determine the best and the brightest are torture for dyslexics. "These are not people who do well on standardized tests because they need context," says Sally Shaywitz of Yale. "Multiple-choice tests are scrawny." Moreover, schools still operate to mass-produce Renaissance boys and girls. "Schools reward well-roundedness," says Dr. Mel Levine, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina medical school and an expert on learning differences. "But so many of the most successful people have brains that are rather specialized. " "So let them specialize!" say the dyslexic business leaders, who began to thrive only after escaping school. "Forget spelling. Use computers," says Dreyer of Caltech. Ditch foreign-language requirements, says Schwab, adding, "It's tough enough to learn English." Trigonometry? "Does anybody ever use it?" asks Orfalea. Adds Dreyer: "My plea is that teachers understand we learn differentl y." In his best-selling new book, A Mind at a Time, Levine writes of the broad spectrum of "neurodevelopmental profiles"-strengths and weaknesses in everything from short- and long-term memory to expressive language, attention, and conceptual thinking. Teachers must realize that the very qualities that trip up a child in school may be the source of his success as an adult. Fidgety kids who crave intense experiences may be completely inattentive to A Tale of Two Cities. But Levine believes such traits have "a funny way of translating into ambition later on." . In fairness, schools can't be expected to address dyslexics' every problem when they have so many troubles of their own: poorly trained teachers, too many children, too little money (although much of what could help dyslexicsbetter reading instruction, for instance-would benefit everyone). And just as teachers need to know that dyslexic children learn differently, the kids themselves must acknowledge their disorder and learn to adapt. In an ongoing study of 41 learning-disabled adults in Pasadena, self-awareness was a top predictor of success. Study director Dr. Marshall Raskind says those who possessed it knew their limitations and special abilities and developed "an acceptance of the learning disability or dyslexia. They saw it as part of themselves but were not overly defined by it." Supportive, tenacious adults are critical to the success of a child with a learning disability. So, parents, don't give up! You need to become a clever tactician to help your child through school. Do your homework. Find a school that fits. Forge a partnership with teachers. If necessary, hire a tutor. Learn your child's passions and play to his strengths. Don't ever let dyslexia define the kid. It helped in Diane Swonk's family "that being dyslexic was like having red hair." When unconditional love and faith are hard to muster, read some success stories. And take heart in the fact that doing well in school is often not a good predictor of doing well in life. 0
brain. I bet these other guys see business in 3-D too. I bet they see graphs and charts of how trends will unfold." In his office, Chambers goes from wounded to animated as he heads to the dry-erase board to show that's exactly what he does. "I can't explain why, but I just approach problems differently," he says. "It's very easy for me to jump conceptually from A to Z. I picture a chess game on a multiple-layer dimensional cycle and almost play it out in my mind. But it's not a chess game. It's business. I don't make moves one at a time. I can usually anticipate the potential outcome and where the Y's in the road will occur." As he's talking, he's scrawling a grid depicting how Cisco diversified into switches, fiber optics, and wireless by acquisition, internal development, or partnering. It was a picture he used to explain his vision to the board of directors back in 1993, when he was an executive vice president and Cisco was a one-product company. It became a road map. "All we did was fill in the chart," he says. Barely pausing, he's drawing again, this time a picture showing the evolution of networking, including the commoditization of telephone services. :He first drew
this picture in 1995. "I'm not always right," he says. He did not foresee the extent of the economic downturn in 2001 or the subsequent collapse in demand. "But we knew there would be industry consolidation and a chance for us' to break away." Like Chambers, Schwab fast-forwards past ~ the smaller, logical steps ~ of sequential thinkers. <.l 8 "Many times I can see a ~ solution to something and ~ synthesize things differ~ ently and quicker than <.l other people," he says. In meetings, "I would see the end zone and say, 'This is where we need to go.' " This annoys sequential thinkers, he says, because it shortcuts their "rigorous stepby-step process." Diane Swonk's former boss and mentor at Bank One always thought Swonk had a "third eye." Swonk, an economist, says it's dyslexia. Although she has worked in the same building for 16 years, she still has a hard time figuring out which track her commuter train is on and which way to turn when she leaves the office elevator. She can't dial telephone numbers. She has a hard time with arithmetic, reversing and transposing numbers. But she revels in higher-level math concepts, and in January 1999, when almost everyone was bemoaning the global financial crisis and fretting about the stock market-then trading at around 9,300-she told the Executives Club of Chicago that the Dow would break 11,000 by year-end. The prediction seemed so surprising that the moderator made her repeat it. She was right then and right again in 2001, when she insisted-even after September 11that the economic downturn would not be as bad as feared. Why not? Because consumers would keep spending. Which they did. "I'm not in the consensus a lot," says Swonk. "In fact, being in the consensus makes me really uncomfortable." Sometimes dyslexics are utterly inca-
pable of seeing things the way others do. Craig McCaw could not understand conventional wisdom that said cellphones would never amount to much. "To me it just seemed completely obvious that if you could find a way not to be tethered to a sixfoot cord in a five-by-nine office, you'd take it. Maybe if your mind isn't cluttered with too much information, some things are obvious." McCaw built the first almost-nationwide cellular company, which he sold to AT&T in 1994 for $11.5 billion. Now he's trying to build a global satellite system to make the Internet as pervasive and portable as cellphones-another seemingly impossible feat. Bill Samuels Jr. couldn't see the improbability of turning tiny Maker's Mark into a national brand in 1975, even though bourbon sales were in a decadelong slump. "I can't write," says Samuels, "but I can organize old information into a different pattern easily." The old pattern was to advertise to the trade. The new one: to bypass both the trade and Madison Avenue with homespun ads to consumers that Samuels wrote himself. Within ten years Maker's Mark had become "perhaps the most fervently sought bourbon in the U.S.," according to Ad Age. "Many times in business, different is better than better," says Samuels. "And we dyslexics do different without blinking an eye." David Boies turned dyslexic deficits into advantages. Because of his difficulty reading from a script, he makes an outline of his -basic points and commits it to memory. Then, unlike trial lawyers who work from a script, he is free to improvise. That enables him to be more dramatic, more flexible. He can break the cardinal rule of cross-examination, which is never to ask a question 'if you don't know the answer (it messes up the script). He can wander around themes, trap witnesses. "It cuts down on the time the witness has to think and predict where you're going," says Boies. On a recent trip to Boston, Richard Branson arrives in a spray of champagne to open a Virgin Megastore, He is a true business celebrity, having come straight from hosting a party in London celebrating the honorary knighthood of Rudy Giuliani (Sir Richard, too, is a knight) and going later
that evening to address the blue-blood Chief Executives' Club of Boston. Branson's success and his dyslexia seem like such a disconnect. He never made it through high school. He has a wickedly unreliable memory; because his mind goes blank at the most inopportune times, he writes important things-like names-in black ink on the back of his hand. He won't use a computer. He's terrible at math. Until recently, he confesses, he was still confusing gross profit with net. He'd been faking it, but not too well. One of his board members finally pulled him aside to give him a mnemonic, or memory aid, which often comes in handy for dyslexics. Pretend you're fishing, the board member said. Net is all the fish in your net at the end of the year. Gross is that plus everything that got away. Branson approaches business completely differently from most. "I never, ever thought of myself as a businessman," he tells the Boston CEOs. "I was interested in creating things I would be proud of." He started Virgin Atlantic because flying other airlines was so dreadful. He knew he could provide better service. There's an irony here, says Branson: "Look, if I'd been good at math, I probably never would have started an airline." Branson is not the only dyslexic CEO who has tried to bluff his way through problems. For years, Orfalea says, "I was a closet bad reader ...! never showed anybody my handwriting until I was in my forties." He cultivated a casual, can't-bebothered-with-it management style that allowed him to avoid the written word. If he recei ved a long letter, for instance, "I'd just hand it to somebody else and say, 'Here, read it.'" He mostly avoided the corporate office and instead went from Kinko's to Kinko's, observing, talking to customers, making changes. He wasn't goofing off; he was vacuuming up information in his own way--orally, visually, multisensorily. For most dyslexic business leaders, reading is still not easy. They tend to like newspapers, short magazine articles, summaries. Says Chambers: "Short reading is fine. But long reading I just really labor over." His staff knows to delive짜 sum-
maries in three pages or less, the major abstract information in the atmosphere," says McCaw. "You don't even know points highlighted in yellow. McCaw says he can read and write. "But to do either where it comes from. But the receptors are highly reactive because they're trying to requires a lot of energy and concentration." He and the others are information overcome what we'll call the lack of reading input." Schwab learned the plots and grazers. "You learn for self-preservation characters of Moby-Dick, A TaLe of Two to grasp the maximum amount of meaning out of the minimal amount of context," Cities, and other great books by reading says McCaw, describing his reading like Classic comics, which told the stories in this: "You don't really view the piece of pictures. Chambers prefers voicemail to epaper. You scan. You may pull something mail because "it's so much easier for me out of it," all the while alternating to understand and visualize by hearing." between "apparent disinterest and maniaBoies flourished in law school (Yale, cal focus." Once McCaw makes short work of the short stack of papers in his in-box, they disappear. Scott Adams, "Dilbert" creator When government investigaDr. Baruj Benaceraff, Nobel Prize winner tors asked to see his files during a routine antitrust James Carville, political consultant Cher, entenainer inquiry in 1985, there were Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., astronaut none. "Craig and a piece of paper do not remain together Erin Brockovich Ellis, activist for very long," his COO told Brian Grazer, producer the investigators. Whoopi Goldberg, entertainer Boies calls dyslexia "priBill Hewlett, co-founder, HP marily an input problem." He John R. Horner, paleontologist is highly selective about the Bruce Jenner, Olympic gold medalist information he takes in and Jay Leno, host of The Tonight Show constantly makes judgments Nicholas Negroponte, director, MIT Media Lab about what's most important: Robert Rauschenberg, artist the five or ten most relevant Nelson Rockefeller, businessman/politician cases, the key points in those Nolan Ryan, Baseball Hall of Farner Raymond Smith, former CEO, Bell Atlantic cases. Always, always, Boies says, he's looking at the big Wendy Wasserstein, playwright Thomas 1. Watson Jr., former CEO, IBM picture, at how the story will Henry Winkler, actor, director end. "You are always trying to figure out where something's going-to put it in context," he says. "It's harder to just read it straight." Seeing the big picture magna cum Laude) in pan because he early on may be the dyslexic's best shortcould learn by listening. "We all associate cut: If you know where you're going, you reading with knowledge and wisdom," he can figure out how to get there. "One of says. "But the Socratic Dialogues are diathe things dyslexics do is learn to get the logues. Teaching tools. There is a differbig picture, to grasp things very quickly ence between knowledge and the means rather than seeing the itty-bitty part," says of acquiring knowledge." Shaywitz. "They have no choice. It's a Managing dyslexia is a lifelong effort. survival skill. But I've been struck by the Winkler, who now teaches a leadership perceptions and relationships they're able course at the University of Michigan to see." Business School, starts his day with brain Dyslexics learn to soak up information exercises he calls Wink's Warm-Ups. in other ways than print. "When you're Sometimes he uses multiplication and not focusing, you're grabbing at the division flash cards. Other mornings he
practices "trigger" words, like "won't" or "didn't," that confuse him. The College Board's Caperton says he almost always has to redial phone numbers, often more than once. Swonk rechecks her calculations five times. Chambers relies on his wife, Elaine, to help him navigate a phone book. He's tenible with written directions. He'll never forget the wild ride he gave Tom Ridge one night. Ridge, then governor of Pennsylvania, had come to Silicon Valley on an economic development mission. After the event, he asked Chambers for a ride to the restaurant where they were to have dinner. "I thought, 'Oh, no!' " says Chambers. He knew immediately that he would get lost. Sure enough, he led Ridge and an entourage of police escorts on a wild goose chase, crossing lanes and stopping at not one but two gas stations for directions. The next day he bought a GPS. "I can laugh about it now," says Chambers. The Cisco CEO does something else every successful business leader should do, but often doesn't: He builds a team to shore up his weaknesses. "I will not spend as much time on individual details," Chambers says, so he hires detail people "who are able to go A to B, B to C, and to take the components apart." McCaw says dyslexics need a translator "who can take that conceptual or intuitive idea and get it into a form that's usable." Because he's more conceptual than analytical, he needs someone who can communicate with people who are the opposite. "One on one, you just drive them crazy," he says. "You come up with a pronouncement, and you have no facts to back it up. It just irritates the daylights out of them. You really need a translator with a foot in both camps." At Maker's Mark, Samuels surrounds himself with "very verbal people who like to communicate what they're doing." Even his production vice president and his CFO-positions that don't normally attract chatty types-are that. way because, he says, "I knew I'd have to find people who would tolerate my need to be talked to a lot." Orfalea recalls that his mother used to console him by saying that when everybody grows up, "the A students work for the B students. The C stu-
dents run the businesses. And the D students dedicate the buildings." Possible clues to the differences between A students and dyslexics can be seen under a microscope at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Some of the most interesting research on the disorder occurs here and at the Shaywitzes' Yale center. In Glen Rosen's Harvard lab, a slide shows how dark clouds of neurons have strayed from their normal path, probably during fetal development, and ended up in tiny clumps called ectopias (ectopia is Greek for "out of place"). Rosen, an associate professor of neurology, theorizes that the wandering neurons cause a "cascade of connectional differences" in brain wiring. Because the ectopias prevent some nerve fibers from going where they should, they migrate at random, wiring regions of the brain not normally connected. Scientists believe
meaningful segments of language, called phonemes. (The word "cat" has three phonemes: kuh, aah, and tuh.) When dyslexic subjects are asked to sound out words, MRl technology, by measuring blood flow, shows relatively less activity in the back of the brain and more activity in the front. In good readers, most of the activity occurs in the back of the brain. Despite all the unknowns, dyslexia is clearl y better understood and treated today than it was a generation ago. Yet in a high-pressure society where straight A's and high test scores count for so much, the disorder still carries a heavy penalty. Boies says nothing has been harder for him than watching the struggles of two of his own children who are dyslexic. "It is awful. Awful. The most difficult thing I've ever done," he says. One of the boys is in high school. The other graduated from Hamilton College summa cum Laude and
this might explain why no two dyslexics are alike and why one, like Branson, might be terrible at math but a good writer, and why another, like Schwab, might be quite the opposite. Researchers used to think that many more boys than girls were dyslexic. (Schools were identifying four times as many boys as girls a decade ago.) But an ongoing study at Yale of 400 Connecticut children indicates that the numbers are about equal. The Shaywitzes believe that most discrepancies in diagnosis are social: Dyslexic girls tend to behave better and work harder than dyslexic boys, and therefore often escape detection. Magnetic-resonance imaging at the Yale lab has shed new light on how the brain works, bolstering the belief that dyslexics have difficulty decoding the smallest
from Yale Law School-despite childhood testing, recalls Boies, that "was not very optimistic in terms of what he would be able to accomplish." Boies wishes that society allowed more room and more time for late bloomers. "In this environment," he says, "you get children who think they are masters of the universe, an'd children who think they are failures, when they're 10 years old. They're both wrong. And neither is well served by that misconception." Where would we be, after all, if the bar had been set so high that none of these guys-not Schwab, not Chambers, not Boies, not Branson, not Dreyer, not McCaw-could have cleared it? D About the Author: Betsy Morris is a staff writer with Fortune.
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is the largest species with representatives found in North America, Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, India and the rest of Asia. The second, red wolf (Canis rufus), is under challenge as to whether it is truly a species of wolf or a hybrid offspring of gray wolves mating with coyotes. The third species is the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) that lives in Africa, and was previously classified as a jackal until DNA studies proved it to be a true wolf. Earlier studies have shown that wolves and dogs share genetic similarities. Dogs originated from multiple wolf ancestors and started distinguishing themselves from wolves about 150,000 years ago. Although the convention is to divide them into Canis lupus and Canis familiaris (domestic dog), many experts feel the two are similar enough to form a single species. Taxonomical jargon describes the two as the wolf-dog clade. Among all wild terrestrial mammals, the gray wolf has the greatest natural range, besides Homo-sapiens, and is found in much of the Northern hemisphere. Out of the 32 odd subspecies of wolves that are currently recognized, two are believed to occur in the Indian subcontinent. Canis lupus chanco or the Tibetan (Himalayan) wolf is found in the trans-Himalayan region and its range extends into Tibet, China, Manchuria, and Mongolia. The Indian wolf c.t. pallipes ranges over much of peninsular India and scientists think it is likely the same subspecies occurs in Iran and Israel. It is much smaller in size compared to other wolf subspecies. Individual wolves may travel up to 1,000 kilometers and that is, perhaps, the reason why in spite of genetic variation different wolf populations show considerable mixing of genes. Little effort has been made in the past to genetically study Indian and Himalayan wolves. It was British resident in Nepal and "Father of Indian Zoology" RH. Hodgson who first described the Indian wolf as a species, Canis laniger, in 1847. The species' very long muzzle, distinct coloration and other features distinguished it from other wolves, he noted. Another British naturalist, W.T. Blanford, who worked for the Geological Survey of India, described the Indian wolf as a species called Canis pallipes in 1888. Blanford distinguished C. pallipes from C. laniger by its smaller size, much shorter and thinner winter coat, and smaller skull and teeth. He, however, clubbed the Himalayan wolf with the gray wolves. The current classification-wherein Indian wolves belong to the c.t. pallipes subspecies and Himalayan wolves to the C. laniger-was put forward in 1941 by British museum taxonomist R.I. Pocock. Late M.P. Shahi, a forest officer from Bihar and a former member of the Wolf Specialist Group of World Conservation Union (IUCN), conducted some limited surveys on wolf statistics in India in 1981-82. Wolves have been a keen area of interest for wildlife researcher Yadavendradev V. Jhala for more than 15 years. Jhala, who teaches animal ecology and conservation biology at WI!, had commenced his research on Indian wolves in 1988 as part of his Ph.D. work at Virginia Tech. When he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., in the early 1990s, he shared his interest with Robert C. Fleischer and Jesus E. Maldonado, his colleagues there. "The project became ~ntriguing to Jesus and myself, and
when we realized we could help out with training and the ancient DNA part, we were very happy to collaborate," Fleischer says. The specific objective of the wolf research project was to collect relevant scientific information on the ecology of Indian wolves and study of their characteristics and evolution. Jhala approached the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) which agreed to finance the five-year project from the U.S.-India Fund, set up in 1987 to support joint scientific research. WI! and USFWS signed an agreement to this effect on February 28, 1996. The project was later extended for two more years. Fleischer visited India to help Jhala and co-researcher Dinesh K. Sharma set up their genetics lab at WI! and also the field sites in Gujarat. He fondly remembers the beautiful wildlife in Velavadar National Park. The team also received funding and volunteer assistance from WI!, National Geographic Society, U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Center for Field Research of Below: A Himalayan wolf (Canis lupus chanco). Bottom: An Indian peninsular wolf (Canis lupus pallipes).
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The Indian subcontinent is home to three distinct won lineages 01which two are very ancient and unique. Wolves evolved in East Asia. The Himalavan woll was an earlv lorm. Earthwatch Institute in Maynard, Massachusetts, Wolf Society of Great Britain, British Airways and Flora and Fauna International. David Ferguson, branch chief for the Near East, South Asia and Africa in the USFWS Division of International Conservation, and Maryland-based nonprofit Conservation Treaty Support Fund, provided coordination and logistics support. The USFWS has been engaged in joint wildlife conservation efforts with the Indian government since the late 1970s, says Ferguson. He says, "We invested in the project because we had supported Jhala in his earher work. He was a talented individual, destined to contribute considerably to the Indian conservation scene." Jhala says the generalities, adaptability and differences in wolf ecology need to be better understood for formulating a conservation strategy for them. The Indian wolf distribution is continuous within Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kamataka and Andhra Pradesh and their number may range between 2,000 and 3,000 in the country, according to Jhala. There may be around 350 Himalayan wolves in India and there is no authentic count for these mammals in Nepal and Tibet. Though the wolf is believed to have evolved as a temperate species, the Indian wolf is well adapted for living in semi-arid and hot environments. The small body size reduces food demands, permitting it to sustain its populations on smaller ungulates (hoofed mammals), rabbits, hares and rodents. As it is assumed that wolves evolved in boreal forest systems praying on large ungulates, it is rather surprising that the Indian wolf generally avoids forests and, instead, prefers scrubland, grassland and semi-arid pastoral or agricultural landscapes. The Indian wolf probably evolved during the drier stages of the Pleistocene (1.8 million to 11,000 years ago) to exploit a relatively unoccupied niche as a top carnivore of the arid zones. The eastern population of Indian wolves found in Orissa, Bihar and parts of West Bengal is an exception and occurs in moister forested habitats. Wolves were studied by the researchers in three sites: The Bhal area of Gujarat including Velavadar National Park, the Abdasa and Banni areas of Kutch in Gujarat and the Ozar area near Nasik in Maharashtra. The team, that included Smithsonian's research nutritionist Olav Oftedal and several other forest officials, volunteers and students, compared over 700 DNA sequences of wolves and dogs from around the world with those of Indian wolves and native dogs. It has come up with some interesting findings. The Indian subcontinent is home to three distinct wolf lineages of which two are very ancient and unique. The peninsular Indian wolves, thought to be Canis lupus pallipes, are genetically different from the rest of the wolves and dogs (the wolf-dog clade), from which they diverged probably about 400,000 years ago. Wolves from the Himalayan region of the eastern Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, parts of Tibet up to eastern Nepal belong to a very ancient,
A red wolf (Canis rufus). Fossil evidence shows the original red wolf range in the United States extended throughout the Southeast, from the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, north to the Ohio River valley and central Pennsylvania, and west to central Texas and southeastern Missouri.
divergent and ancestral lineage of wolves-the Himalayan lineage. It diverged about 800,000 years ago when the Himalayan region witnessed a major geological and climatic transformation-an ideal cradle for development of new species. The lineage of wolves from the northwestern Himalayan region of Kashmir is common to the widespread wolf-dog clade that stretches across the rest of Eurasia and North America, the reseachers found. Hodgson's C. laniger and Blanford's C. pallipes need to be named distinct subspecies, according to the researchers, who obtained genetic material from one of the same specimens Hodgson used one-and-a-half century ago, that is preserved at the British museum, and found it matches their samples of Himalayan wolves. The researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biology Letters last year. Another interesting finding is that wolves evolved in East Asia. The Himalayan wolf was an early form. Only members of the wolf-dog clade spread beyond this region, but the exact reason behind this phenomenon is not clear. One hypothesis says these
wolves might have been trapped in areas of more favorable climate surrounded by glaciers during past glaciation events from which they moved on to their current habitats. It is also not clear why Indian wolves and Himalayan wolves do not breed with each other in spite of a potential overlap in Kashmir. The team also reports that although all Indian and foreign dog samples are genetically linked to the widespread wolf-dog clade, none of the dogs tested share any DNA sequences with either the Indian or the Himalayan wolf. This indicates that Indian wolves-C.Z. pallipes or Himalayan chanco-are not the forerunners of Indian domestic dogs. "Our results suggest that 'Bhutia,' 'Twang,' Tibetan Mastiff and local 'pariah' dog breeds were brought into the Himalayas and peninsular India by humans ... .It seems likely that South Asia is not the region of origin for the domestic dog," the researchers note.
c.z.
North American wolves. Pups peep out of a field of dandelions during Montana spring (leji); an alpha male establishes dominance over the pack (below) during winter in the Rocky Mountains, Montana; a lone wolf howls at sunset (right).
These findings are in tune with those of another study by Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad which also found that the Himalayan and the Indian peninsular wolf populations are genetically unique within themselves and are different from all other wolf populations recorded worldwide, and represent the most ancient wolf lineages. Jhala's team says the findings that these wolves form di tinct and ancient species are of utmost significance from the perspective of conservation. This is because of their reduced numbers and loss of forest habitat. Moreover, little is known about the ecology, behavior and status of the Himalayan wolves. The persecution of wolves, who often attack livestock, is not uncommon in India. These animals are as endangered as the gray wolves worldwide, zoologists feel. C./. pallipes features on schedule'l of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 as an endangered species. Jhala says loss of habitat-that deprives wolves of sites for proper denning and rendezvous-and the resulting depletion of natural prey pose a major threat. Diseases, such as canine distemper-a viral disease affecting the nervous system-and rabies pose another threat. A rabies outbreak in Kutch in 2001-02 killed most members of his study packs, remembers Jhala. Interaction with dogs or other domesticated animals may transmit diseases like parvovirus (common in puppies) and hepatitis to wolves. The Smithsonian is interested in researching biodiversity and conservation issues, says Fleischer. He says: "The wolf project fits very well in our long-term goals and the 'ancient DNA' component (getting DNA from old museum specimens) is a specialty of our lab. The Smithsonian also gained by contributing to the development of research capabilities in other nations-in particular this offered training opportunities to postdocs and students at the WIT." Fleischer and Maldonado are currently at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. What did the USFWS gain? Ferguson says data collected on the Indian wolf is being used in a variety of ways to help enhance its status and ensure its survival. "The [U.S.] Endangered Species Act [of 1973] and the FWS program are for the long-term benefit of the endangered species. Any 'gain' is for the species, its habitats and the reduction of conflicts with humans," he adds. "Though the wolf has probably survived in the Indian subcontinent for the past 500,000 years, its continued existence in the next 100 years is questionable .... With the correct attitudes and actions, we should re its future," Jhala writes in another Bombay Natural History Society. This echoes what Bob Ferris, president of Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife, once : "Wolves are very resourceful. All they need to survive is not to shoot them." 0
A
Visual Feast
MASALA: Diversity & Democracy in South Asian Art By LEA TERHUNE
A fascinating, ambitious exhibition brought together rich streams of South Asian art, from anonymous folk and poster art to serious contemporary the subcontinent
work from
and the Diaspora, with work of
South -Asia -influenced Western artists.
athryn Myers, curator of "Mas ala: Contemporary Art from South Asia and Diaspora," at the William Benton Museum of Art at Storrs, Connecticut (left), put the exhibition together with more passion than paise, but with rich results. The concept of placing anonymous pop and folk art from South Asia alongside the work of contemporary South Asian and Western artists and photographers is an exciting one. It so captivated Myers that she roamed India as a Fulbright fellow, buying up works with her own money, in order to assemble a representative collection. "I came up with the idea for the show after my first trip to India in 1999. Initially it was going to be a show of folk art, which I had been so impressed with after seeing the Crafts Museum in Delhi for the first time," Myers says. "After reading a lot of books when I returned, I was particularly taken by the amazing regional variety
K
SIONA BENJAMIN Finding Home #1 (detail) Gouache on paper
PREMINDA JACOB & COLIN IVES Cite of Cine, City of Signs CD-ROM
ANONYMOUS Islamic poster
ARTIST
ABBY ROBINSON Mosque,jrom the In Camera series Cibachrome
ROBERT KIRSCHBAUM Temple Plan II Color laser-print
and the efforts of NGGs to preserve the traditions which also allowed them to evolve. I began buying folk art for the show on several subsequent trips, including my 2002 Fulbright and also collected over 200 posters-Islamic, Hindu and Christian-as well as documenting street graphics." The exhibition took final shape after she met co-curators Siona Benjamin and Annu P. Matthew. The responses of Western artists exposed to India or Indian art is an unusual aspect to the show and contributes to the sense that, artistically, the lines are blurring between "here" and "there." An East-West dialogue appears to be merging into a creative genre that spans, or at least may be appreciated by, diverse cultures. Julie Evans, one of the Western artists whose work appears in the exhibition, has just completed six months in India on a Fulbright fellowship. She says
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CHITRA GANESH Recognition Digital print
SOHANQADRI Sunyata I Ink and dye on paper
things have definitely moved forward as compared to a decade or so ago, when South Asian artists were relatively unknown. "There are so many Indian artists in New York right now, and there are three or four galleries that just show Indian art, so it's really becoming part of the dialogue." The cross-pollination of artistic traditions happens more and more frequently with South Asian perspectives now part of the New York art scene. Evans says, "The whole globalization thing is changing the look of what art is." Examining new trends is one thing, but documentation of fast fading craft is another purpose of the "Mas ala" exhibition. Kathryn Myers relates, "My impression of India was that art was everywhere, on the streets, in museums and galleries, on rickshaws and trucks, a visual feast. I was also so impressed with the handmade quality, and the variety of street graphics, shop signs, huge film hoardings, wall paintings and cryptic political symbols that I began photographing and categorizing them, which is an ongoing project." She adds, "I realize that many of the signs are now being made through computer and photographic techniques, so I also feel as though I'm documenting an art that may over the years, aside from smaller villages, fade away in favor of new technologies."D
.I
ulie Evans, like many American artists who immerse themselves in India, has been creatively nourished by her visits here. She just completed a six month stay, working part of the time at Sanskriti Kendra near Delhi and the rest in Rajasthan, with Jaipur-based miniaturist, Ajay Sharma. Her recent work has focused on detail. "Things are ornamented so beautifully, elevating the most common rock into a beautiful shrine, so I thought I would have the miniature painter ornament-garland-my paintings," she says. Soon he was instructing her in techniques of miniature painting, the use of one-haired brushes and making the paint, "the kadia and the glue, the mineral colors versus the lac colors." She compares the use of kadia to gouache, which is her medium. "It's basically the same recipe, the same kind of stuff."On the miniature paintings of her collaborator she is enthusiastic: "They're perfect. I am practicing, but I don't know if I could do that." Evans directs The Visual Arts Program in Manhattan, and teaches in colleges in and around New York. She has had solo and group exhibitions and her works are in private and public collections. Her first vislUo India six years ago led Evans to incorporate bindis and other ready-made ornamentation in her small, abstract watercolors. Her vibrant color palette evokes India. "I started collecting all these beautiful sequins. I went to Kinari Bazaar in Delhi and I found bags and bags of the coolest stuff," she says delightedly. Her paintings, done with meticulous attention to detail and in several layers, take two to three months to complete. "It's really meditative. I find that the mandala forms that I'm making-actually the making of them does for me what looking at a mandala is supposed to do for other people. I become sort of lost and transfixed and hours go by, which is a good thing." This was Evans' third visit, and she says that her first trip contributed to a defInite shift in her work. She was affected particularly by "that whole idea'of ornamentation as devotion." JULIE EVANS Untitled, Gouache on paper
For Evans art is her anchor in life. ''I'm problem solving. It doesn't matter to me if what I intend gets communicated or not. I'm always pleased if it does. But I do it for the doing of it. For me it is all about the process, and it absolutely keeps me sane." She likes when people see the India in her work, although, she says, "I never thought that the paintings looked particularly Indian. I'm very conscious of not usurping a culture that's not my own ....When you are in a different culture you are absorbing it as an outsider. You have to chew that up and spit it out in your very own way, and that's what makes it interesting and unique. It's the hybridity, I suppose, or the different way that you see a culture." Evans looks forward to a few months in her New York studio applying her latest India experience before she completes her Fulbright work in Nepal this fall. "I want to bring aspects of miniature painting into large paintings at home," she says, "I just can't wait to get back to work!"