Monthly Archives: August 2004

DNC creates IALC. Let’s grab us some power.

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Apparently and Indian American Leadership Council (IALC) was one of the groups that got formed during the Democratic National Convention. What is the IALC? As reported by the IACPA and by the Pacific News Service:

Unlike the Indian American Republican Council (IARC) formed last year by Republican sympathizers in the community, the IALC is not an independent body, but a wing of the [Democratic National Committee] working within the party structure. Besides the IALC, there are five other DNC leadership Councils: the WomenÂ’s Leadership Council, the Hispanic American Leadership Council, the Asian Pacific Leadership Council, the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council and the African American Leadership Council. The goal of each Council is to raise $2.5 million until November 2, 2004.

The use of the word sympathizers really stood out to me in the above paragraph.

I am no novice to politics. I know how the game is played and that cash rules everything, but reading this article it was so apparent that raising money for a cause seems to be more important than defining or debating the cause. I am not blaming the IALC for the impression this story left on me. It could simply be the way the article was written. Continue reading →

McCurry

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Reading this article all I could think of was the Eddie Murphy classic Coming to America where he works at fast food restaurant named McDowell’s that was a total rip-off of McDonalds.

While the Hyderabad-born owner, Mr Anil Jintoorkar, feels that red (kumkum) and yellow (haldi) are the traditional, auspicious Indian colours and also proven marketing colours, the multinational fast foodchain McDonalds thinks red and yellow are their colours.

Yet another egregious example of a multinational corporation pushing around the little guy.

“sanju” is pissed, y’all

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and he’s not “aboot” to take it! from the TOI:

MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt says he would sue for defamation a Canadian paper that has labelled him a terrorist.
Calgary Herald , a leading daily in Canada, has allegedly branded Sanjay Dutt a terrorist from India and wondered about the wisdom of allowing such elements into the country.
“It was a long half-page article ripping my reputation into bits. I’ve never been more hurt in my life,” Sanjay Dutt said from Los Angeles sounding acutely upset. He left Calgary where he was shooting for Anubhav Sinha’s Dus.

i have no idea what he may or may not be guilty of with regards to terrorism, but i DO know he is, without a shadow of a doubt, guilty of terrible highlights and horrible facial hair. click the TOI link for his pic, you’ll see.

Anju Bobby George stretching for long jump gold

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Anju Bobby George is India’s best shot at an individual medal in Athens and was the flag carrier during the opening ceremonies. She placed third in women’s long jump at the 2003 World Athletic Championships in Paris and has been training with men’s long jump record holder Mike Powell in California:

Her husband Bobby, a champion triple-jumper, was the youngest of eight brothers moulded by their father into a volleyball team. The George Brothers would play on the volleyball court in their Kerala home at Peravoor and, though all were adept, Jimmy was the star. He played for India and on the European circuit before being killed in a car accident in the 1980s. Jimmy’s popularity — he played the sport for 17 years — was such that the Italians, the World Cup winners, constructed an indoor stadium and named it after him.

Track and field begins Wed., Aug. 18, and continues through the end of the Olympics.

Update: George just landed an endorsement contract with Nike.

in memory…

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my happiness over india-pendence day diminished after reading salon:

Aug. 15, 2004 | NEW DELHI (AP) — A bomb exploded during an Independence Day parade in India’s remote northeast on Sunday, killing at least 15 people, officials said, just an hour after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to fight terrorism. The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom was suspected of being behind the attack in Assam state and a second one later in the area, said Assam Inspector General of Police Khagen Sharma.
Dilip Saikia, a local lawmaker, said 15 people were killed in the powerful blast in the grounds of a local college in Dhemaji, where the parade was being held. Most of the dead were school children, who had come to see the parade, Saikia told The Associated Press over telephone from Dhemaji. The remote town is 1,015 miles northeast of New Delhi.

57 years later…we may be free of the brits, but we are still enslaved by hate, terror and violence. sigh.

Lost in Translation

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Hello Mutineers – I’m en route to a biz trip so posting will continue to be light BUT, I did want to point out this list of “Hard to Translate Words” from Marginal Revolution.

1 ilunga [Tshiluba word for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time. Note: Tshiluba is a Bantu language spoken in south-eastern Congo, and Zaire]

Alas, this list appears far from comprehensive – there’s only a single Desi word –

8 selathirupavar [Tamil for a certain type of truancy]

I have no idea what it means… any candidates for other devilishly hard to translate terms from the homeland, beta?

Mohini sans tahini

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Mohini is pronounced MO’-hi-nee, NBC people. It does not rhyme with tahini sauce! It’s really not that hard. You make it sound silly when you say it that way, Elfi Schlegel. And you’ve got her parents’ names reversed:

Bhardwaj’s mother, Kaushal, is from Russia and her father, Indu, is from India.

Great NBC video of her previous competitions, including a vault with a double twist and a jaw-dropping back flip-forward flip combo. Watch her in the Olympics this Sunday and Tuesday nights. The coaches just promoted her to competing in all four events, not just vault. Go, Mo!