Students of history know that thousand of years back, the Greek state of Sparta was in an economic mess like the one we are facing with today where a tiny elite rules the roost and a majority of people don’t know where their next meal would come from when God sent a reformer known as Lycurgus who enforced in Sparta a system of governance billed of three principles austerity, good law and order and economic equality.
To start with he nationalized all agricultural land and then splitting it in equal parts divided it among the inhabitants of Sparta. He tried to force the elite of his country to declare gold in their possession and deposit it in the state treasury when he felt that the hoarders of gold were reluctant in the matter he declared that henceforth iron and not gold will be the currency of the state .
This step broke the back of the tiny elite which comprised the filthy rich of his country and also ended rampant corruption that was the order of the day when he came to power. Many third world countries of the world certainly today need a messiah of his type. Blessed are people of the countries like England Canada and Scandinavia whose rulers have introduced social welfare systems realizing that no power on earth will be able to block communism making inroads in them.
Postscript: Experience of hindsight reveals that in nine out of ten cases the fire brigades of the municipal bodies reach quite late at the places where they were supposed to reach for extinguishing fire. More often than not the civil administration had to call upon the local armed forces or cantonment boards to send their fire brigades to help assist for extinguishing fire. The local governments have to give priority attention to improving the fire brigade system as every year many invaluable lives are lost and official and private property worth millions of rupees are gutted on account of failure of the fire brigade system to put out fire promptly.
Unless the fire brigade system is patterned on the armed forces and reasonable pay scale is provided to its staff which is trained on modern lines as how to put out fire the present fire brigade system wont be able to deliver.
