Monthly Archives: December 2004

Gen. Musharraf goes to Washington

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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf paid a visit to Washington, D.C. over the weekend, where he met with U.S. President George W. Bush, and more notably, gave a series of tantalizing interviews to the capital’s press corps.

During a closed door meeting, Bush and Musharraf discussed the war on terror, trade between their two countries, and the Palestine-Israel conflict. In a joint press conference where Bush did most of the talking, he praised his Pakistani counterpart, saying, “our relationships are good, they’re strong, and they will remain that way.”

In turn, Musharraf congratulated Bush on his victory in last month’s elections. “All that I would like to say, that I’ve come here basically to congratulate the President very sincerely, with all my sincerity, for having won the elections,” he said.

The lovefest between the two men ended shortly after the brief photo opportunity. Free of the White House muzzle, Musharraf sounded off on a number of topics in subsequent interviews with various media outlets:

Search for Osama Bin Laden: “He is alive, but more than that, where he is, no…we don’t know where he is.” — Washington Post/Yahoo!
India and Kashmir: “I’m very optimistic of the future.” — AFP/Yahoo!
U.S. request for access to nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan: “It shows a lack of trust.” — Washington Post/Yahoo!
World’s safety after Iraq invasion: “I think it’s less safe, certainly…we have landed ourselves in more problems.” — Wolf Blitzer/CNN
Purchase of U.S. F-16 fighter jets: “We discussed the F-16 issue…that is all I would like to say.” — AFP/Yahoo!
Timetable for democratic elections in Pakistan: (Crickets chirping)

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Britain goes after Honorless killers

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Sky News and the Washington Times report on Britain’s decision to press for prosecution in 117 so-called “honor killing” cases.

More than 100 deaths and disappearances of Asian women are being reinvestigated to ensure they were not victims of ‘honour’ crimes.

They can involve suicides, false imprisonment, forced marriages – and even murder, as happened to Heshu Yones, 16.

Heshu was stabbed to death two years ago in Acton, London, by her Kurdish father – who believed she had dishonoured the family by having a boyfriend.

There are 117 other suspected ‘honour killings’ currently under investigation in the UK alone.

Suicides among such women in Britain are three times the national average.

When this sort of stuff happens in Afghanistan we think we can only do so much about it, but when it happens in a “lawful” developed country we should take decisive action which is what Britain seems to be doing. In other countries, like France for example, when the government tries to step into cases like these it further radicalizes the youth (Muslim youth in the case of France) who feel their customs are under attack. Some clerics fuel this paranoia with lectures on how good Muslims should follow Sharia law. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli has been doing an excellent series of stories on this phenomena of the growing radicalization of the Muslim youth in Europe.

Tunku vs. Arundhati

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(from the tipline – thanks JT!) This sort of stuff is usually a tad too political for SM BUT, since it’s a desi-writer taking on another desi-writer, I figured it was well within Sepia Mutiny’s posting guidelines 😉

The fact that it’s by a WSJ staff writer I follow from time to time – Tunku Varadarajan – & that he provides a BEAUTIFUL skewering of Arundhati Roy was merely the icing on the cake –

When a friend learned that I was pondering a piece critical of Ms. Roy … he e-mailed me reprovingly to ask whether that would not be a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. But second thoughts can strike at the speed of light. No sooner had he hit the “send” button than he hit it again: “There are certain fish, however, in certain barrels, that cannot be ignored.” …A certain segment of the American intelligentsia connects gleefully with exotic leftists like Ms. Roy. In fact, the Ms. Roys of our age, and their fans and subsidy-givers in the West, enjoy a touching symbiosis. Arundhati Roy, I’d venture to say, is George Soros’s political poster girl. Ms. Roy and her type pay the ultimate compliment to America by holding that all world events occur at America’s behest and that the six billion non-Americans on the planet are but helpless pawns, incapable of doing anything–especially anything bad–without Uncle Sam’s imprimatur.

Those are just a few of the plentiful nuggets in a very well written & succinct piece.

Life after being “Fired!”

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A fairly famous “loser” has just started a brand new organization called the Coalition for the Advancement of the Republic (CAR). What is the purpose of this organization?

The Coalition for the Advancement of the Republic (C.A.R.) has been created to espouse common sense conservatism matched with the conviction that progressive change must be embraced. Although our government requires progressive reform, on the balance, government should be kept as small and transparent as possible.

C.A.R is non-partisan. On such issues as conservation, immigration, environmental protection and enlightened land use policies, we are aligned with “liberals.” On others issues such as trade and regulation, we are aligned with traditionally conservative policy. On many issues, such as tort, tax, health care and entitlement program reform – we find common ground with mainstream good government advocates.

Underpinning all our positions is a consistent demand for accountable and limited (which is not to say inactive) government, and a faith in the efficacy of economic and individual freedom. The notion of individual responsibility is among the greatest assets of American society and must be passionately promoted.

A quick click on the “about us” link will reveal the fact that CAR was founded by none other than the bow tie wearing Republican Raj Bhakta, of Apprentice fame.

The website includes a series of essays that I will only assume have been written by Raj. Since foreign policy is my chief area of interest I clicked on the link and discovered an essay titled, “A Short Case for Closer Relations with India.“

One of the keys to a successful long-term Asia policy is a strong India. India is the only nation in the region that can balance the ever-developing Chinese colossus. India is a natural ally. In the future, when China could potentially threaten our vital interests, it would be very pleasing to know that an American-equipped and allied Indian Army of five million men is garrisoned on China’s border.

India has the manpower to put millions of boots on the ground in trouble spots. Indian troops, like their programmers, are cheap and effective. Imagine what a fine ally India would make in Iraq. The United States, for a few billion dollars, as opposed the hundreds of billions our own troops and contractors cost, could place several hundred thousand Indian troops in, say, Fallujah. We could then get busy with rebuilding the country’s infrastructure and showing the Arab world the great things that America can do for them.

India, at the same time, is sufficiently weak internally so as not to pose a threat to the United States for a very long time – at least seventy or eighty years.

Ummm. The above paragraph is just a rough draft I hope. There are a number of policy problems in just these three paragraphs that Mr. Trump would not be happy about (if Trump knew anything about foreign policy). Check out the other essays for yourself before deciding whether we should hire Raj for this job.

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“Pack your shit … and get your ass to Fallujah”

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Mutineers may remember Lt. Neil Prakash whom we profile a few weeks back here. Well, LT Neil – aka “Red Six” has been cajoled by a few of us into starting a blog and sharing his experiences.

One excerpt – ARMOR GEDDON: 5 November (D-3): Return from R&R

“Pack your shit, check under your pillow, and get your ass to Fallujah.” Under my pillow, [my platoon sergeant] left me all the maps, friendly graphics, and enemy graphics, and some intelligence reports. …”Pray for rain,” the captain said. The whole city was littered with more IEDs than probably anywhere else in Iraq. I wasn’t surprised. The insurgents had gone 6 months unmolested within the city limits. “The insurgents use cheap det. cord and when it gets wet, the IEDs usually don’t set off.”

Women are not ATMs

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As if dowry deaths, gender-influenced abortions and other social ills didn’t make me ill enough, now I can read about NRIs who return to India and marry purely for fiscal reasons, with the intent to abandon their naive new brides;

Baljeet Kaur gave her life savings and a scooter as dowry to marry Harvinder Singh in 1986 with the promise she would leave Punjab and join him in Canada where he drove a taxi.
A few weeks later, after pocketing 400,000 rupees (8,510 dollars), Singh went back to Canada, promising his then 24-year-old pregnant bride he would return for her within a year.
“But he never come back,” Kaur said. “Whenever I asked my in-laws about him, they used to beat me and tell me to get lost. After a couple of years, I moved to my mother’s house. My son doesn’t even know who his father is.”
Kaur is one of an estimated 16,000 women in the Punjab who have been abandoned by suitors working abroad who come back home briefly in hopes of finding a wife who can pay a dowry.

Sixteen-thousand. That’s insane. And before you question my use of the word “intent” in my introduction, read on:

“It’s a very planned crime by the entire family,” said Adarsh Sharma of the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCD) which is investigating the cases.

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Beyonce on Bollywood

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The Times of India recently ran an interview with the Bootylicious Beyonce in which she described her fascination for the Indian film industry.

I’m a fan of a few Bollywood films. I have seen Devdas and Lagaan , both great films. I loved Devdas — the actress was amazing! I cried towards the end of the film,” she reveals, adding that she also liked Bend It Like Beckham.

When asked if she would ever be interested in doing a film, Beyonce seemed to be down, answering,”Why not?!” Indian films are very colourful. It can be fun to do a film like that at least once. Given a chance, I’d love to do an Indian film.”

And for the encouraging part of the interview, especially for the desi guys, Beyonce noted “I think Indian men are fairly good looking, at least the actors in the movies!” Continue reading →

Ash in Newsweek

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It isn’t that we can’t get enough of her, well, maybe it is, but we thought we too would assist in the sepia conspiracy to make Aishwarya a global star, so click here to see an interview she recently gave to Emily Flynn of Newsweek Magazine.

Many things amaze me about Ash, two nice bits from the interview, her desire to always reprazent for desi cinema, and of course, the persistent and long-standing Ash is the next Bond-girl rumor. At this point, the producers of Bond need to cast her, just to give some sort of credence to the rumor mill.

Fair and Balanced News

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Voice of America does a nice little story on the most accessible source of news in America’s number one media market: South Asian newsstands in New York.

New Yorkers love to read the news, and there are hundreds of mainstream and specialized newspapers to satisfy their needs. But the men and women behind the counters at the thousands of city newsstands and magazine stores are not nearly as diverse. These days, most New York news dealers are South Asian immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Enterprising émigrés from the region can also be seen running restaurants and other small businesses throughout the Big Apple. But the experience of Mombai-born Mohammed Khali is typical of the many South Asian immigrants who sell newspapers and magazines. Despite his old-fashioned smock and the calm, easygoing manner that many associate with India, Mr. Khali has been a New York newsagent for 27 years. He says most of the city’s newsstands are run by South Asians “because they get the jobs right away and we newsagents always need help.” Mr. Khali adds that although “there are a lot of people who are engineers and doctors and most of them are very well educated people, it’s the easiest work that they can find.”

Still, his own family is perplexed that he has not left the newsstand business to become a professional. “Mostly all my family is right here,” says Mr. Khali, “in Atlanta, Boston, California, Arizona [and] Detroit. They are engineers and everything. And I am the only [one] playing around here in the newsstand. They wonder why. I tell them I really enjoy it!”

I can relate to how Mr. Khali feels. Unlike other successful Indians who become mostly doctors and lawyers, I have shunned the life of wealth and beautiful women so that I can blog and bring the people the news that they want, dare I say need, to hear. It is a noble profession. Right? [crickets chirp in the background]

Alas, the life of a newsstand owner isn’t as glamorous as it may seem:

Not all of the dealers are quite as experienced in the ways of New York. Rajeena Patel emigrated only recently from his village in Gujarat State in western India. For him, adjusting to city life, the English language and Western ways has been hard. “Good life in India, but no money,” he says. “Here is always money, but no life.” Mr. Patel notes that gender roles are unfamiliar. “In India, [the] woman is always home, [and has] no job,” he says. “And here, I go home, [and] my wife is going to [her] job.”

The transcript of this audio story can be read here.

South Asian obsession favored in Compton

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Last night’s edition of Fox 11 News in Los Angeles had a segment about a cricket club thriving in a most unlikely location — the much-maligned city of Compton.

Compton, which is widely-known for violent crime and as the birthplace of gangsta’ rap, plays host to one of Southern California’s most successful cricket teams.

Activist Ted Hayes founded the Compton Cricket Club as a way to offer kids an alternative to crime and gangs. “The idea of cricket is to teach people how to respect themselves and respect authority, so they stop killing each other,” said Hayes to Fox 11 News.

The club recently defeated their cross-town rival, yep, Beverly Hills, but lost in the next round, failing to capture this year’s L.A. County Cup.

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