Want to save Elliot’s beach? 3

Here’s the latest salvo Satyanarayanan fired. This time it went to the Corporation Commissioner. Read it below.
Mr. Rajesh Lakhoni, IAS.,
The Commissioner, Chennai Corporation,
113, Ripon Building, Periyar EVR Salai,
Chennai-600003.
Dear Sir,
Sub: Regarding Beautification of Elliots Beach in Division-152.
I am constrained to bring the following to your kind attention and seek appropriate action in public interest to ensure the preservation of Nature and Ecology at the Elliots Beach, Besant Nagar, Chennai.
On January 23, at the invitation of the Asst. Commissioner, Zone-X, Chennai Corporation, I attended a meeting at his office on the subject of Beautification of the Elliots Beach and presented our letter (copy enclosed) listing out our suggestions in the matter. We were emphatic in bringing home the point that the beauty of Elliots Beach or for that matter any beach will be duly preserved if the sands and the sea there are left totally undisturbed without any structures of any kind and that any development activity could be outside the margins of the sand and the water. We voiced our concern at the meeting about the plans and drawings prepared by architects shown at the meeting as part of Elliots Beach Beautification. However we were assured that the people would be informed about the final plans and drawings before execution.
Being so, we were surprised to read the following, in the neighourhood newspaper Adyar Talk for 10-16, Feb.2007, on page 12 under the caption “Beach Face Lift a sensitive issue”, “the beautification drive includes construction of a walkers’ path, a meditation hall, a separate parking area for two-wheelers and cars, modernization of the skating rink and proper lighting facilities. Tenders have been called for and the beach would be handed over to the finest architect firms.”
You will appreciate that the various items of works listed give the impression that they are development works that will invade into the sandy stretch of the Beach. They would militate against the Coastal Zone Regulations and will require clearances from authorities such as CMDA, PWD etc. They would also need wider consultations from not only the residents of the locality but also from independent Environmental and Ecological consultants and advisors. At the worst the proposed development would eat into the already narrow sandy stretch.
We are sensitive to environmental and ecological upkeep and preservation of the Elliots Beach and we regard your appropriate interference on this question will help to dispel our fears. We will be grateful if you could spare the time and effort to discuss the matter with a team of our neighbourhood residents and subject experts.
We await your word on this and we thank you in the name of Ecology and Environment.
Satyananrayanan.
Copy To:The Assistant Commissioner,Zone-X, Chennai Corporation, Adyar, Chennai-600020.
Please get in touch with him to show your support.

Why do you hate America?

Out of the blue, I found this comment by Antibush. It has nothing to do with anything I’ve written in these columns but I thought I’d respond anyway. From Antibush:
“Are we safer today than we were before? We have lost friends and influenced no one. No wonder most of the world thinks we suck. Thanks to what george bush has done to our country during the past three years, we do!”
Here is my answer:
Since 9/11 the US has not had a single terrorist attack. We, in India, have had six (or seven?). These included an attack on our parliament building. It can’t get scarier than that. Google “Kashmir” to find out how many were killed there in these 6 years. So who should be afraid?
Yes, the image of the US has been well and truly beaten. The main reason for that must be the knowledge that “it possessed unchallengeable powers of interference”. It has certainly damaged America’s image in the eyes of the world. But that’s only the image, not the Idea (or Ideal) that is America. It is still a great country or how would you explain the fact that the H1B visa quota allotted to us gets filled up much ahead of the last date?
Now read what Jan Morris wrote for the Guardian:
“Whatever we may think in our moments of despair, America is still a lovable country whose patriotism can still be touching: try restraining a tear when you listen to Irving Berlin’s setting of the words on the Statue of Liberty — the ultimate American text, with music by the emblematic American immigrant. The Great Republic is great still, full still of decent clever people trying to be good. Even now, it is as free as can be expected, and its democracy is fundamentally honest and robust. It laughs at itself, criticises itself, and dislikes itself just as much as we do.
All it needs is someone with a key to unlock that Idea again, and I hope it will be that next President, whoever it is. All its greatest Presidents have been people with a divine spark. The dullards may have been efficient, respected or influential, but the Jeffersons and the Roosevelts, the Lincolns, and the Kennedys have all been, in their different ways, artists.
So may it be a President with the key of original inspiration who can release the Idea from its occlusion. All the ingredients are still there, after all — the kindness, the imagination, the merriment, the will, the talent, the energy, the goddam orneriness, the plain goodness — all there waiting to burst out once more and bring us back our America, blessed and blessing too.”
The US should now worry about its economy and its crime rate. Whatever happened to your gun-control law? How many more kids do you want to be shot at? Where does the country stand on health care? We all hope the new government will turn its attention to those cares.