Monthly Archives: July 2005

“Pods and Blogs” on BBC radio tonight (updated)

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[The segment which aired between 2:24-2:30a.m. GMT can be listened to here.]

The BBC Radio Network-Five Live, has a segment called “Pods and Blogs” which discusses topics currently hot on the blogosphere and then Podcasts them. They have invited Sepia Mutiny on tonight to discuss various issues surrounding the London Bombings that we have written posts about. I will be representing SM. They will also inquire about comments readers have left on our site. This will be an interactive live segment. Questions and comments during the show can be sent to:

IM: podallnight (on all major IM networks)
EMAIL: podallnight at hotmail.co.uk
The segment will be on air between roughly 6:15-6:30p.m. PST Monday night. You can listen live over your computer by visiting here, or download it at a later time onto your computer or pod. If anyone IMs in a difficult question or uses the opportunity to ask if I am the one who leaked Valerie Plame’s name, I will ban you tomorrow 🙂 Continue reading →

I do not consent…well maybe

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Slate’s wonderful “Explainer” series had an informative article detailing your rights while riding the trains (or buses) in New York and D.C. “Are Subway Searches Legal?” This is a particularly relevant topic given the current state of paranoia:

Depends on how it’s done. The Fourth Amendment protects people from “unreasonable searches or seizures.” As a general rule, the government can’t search your baggage without a reason to believe you’re a criminal. But according to legal precedent, a random search is acceptable if it fulfills special needs like public safety. If New York’s subway screenings are challenged in court, the city’s lawyers could argue that the program’s primary purpose is to protect the city from terrorism.

Unless a judge agrees that they fulfill a special need, the screenings will be on shaky legal ground. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that a roadblock used to screen drivers for drug crimes was unconstitutional, since its primary purpose was to apprehend drug traffickers. On the other hand, roadblocks that screen for drunk drivers have been deemed OK, since they promote highway safety. (The court did say in the 2000 ruling that “a roadblock set up to thwart an imminent terrorist attack” would almost certainly be constitutional.)

The key legal point here seems to be that such an extreme curb on privacy rights has to come with both a sunset clause and a geographical constraint:

Let’s assume the courts believe the subways searches are an effective deterrent for terrorism and that the recent subway bombings in London make them reasonable. Then a judge would have to consider whether the scope and duration of the searches is appropriate. The first random subway screenings occurred last summer in Boston during the Democratic Convention. A district court ruled that searches on trains that ran beneath the convention center were acceptable since they took place in a restricted area for a limited amount of time. The New York City searches, though, are taking place all over the system and seem to be of open-ended duration.

The judge must also consider how individuals are selected for screening. If police officers have too much discretion, they might single out certain kinds of people for “random” searches. To prevent profiling, cops are sometimes given a strict formula—in Boston, for example, every 11th passenger was pulled aside at some commuter rail stations. The NYPD says “numerical criteria” are being used, but spokesmen also say that large or suspicious-looking bags can be red flags.

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The cult of the “strong man”

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I’ve been musing about the cult of the “strong man” and how we think of masculinity. Two examples, a personal anecdote, and some thoughts on the subject of what it is to be a man.

In Gujarat, history textbooks that praise Hitler were re-issued this year:

A Jesuit priest and social activist, Cedric Prakash, says the books contain more than 300 factual errors and make little mention of the holocaust. In the chapter entitled “Internal achievements of Nazism,” one textbook quoted by AFP states: “Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time, establishing a strong administrative set-up.”

The Gujarat government has dismissed the charges as baseless. [BBC]

Similarly, in Kanpur, a Hindu manager at ICICI-Prudential decided to use OBL to motivate his employees to sell more insurance:

A branch manager and staff of ICICI-Prudential in the city of Kanpur allegedly dreamed up the scheme to sell 275 policies in three days. Staff were told of Osama Bin Laden’s “focused determination” and would be rewarded glass tumblers for “kills”. A police official in Kanpur, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said the staff organised a sales promotion meeting last week, putting up banners and posters on the wall. A flag of Pakistan was also allegedly used in the show. The promotion was called “Mission Jihad”.

But as the initiative attracted media publicity, staff panicked and tried to burn the publicity material. Police searching the company’s premises say they found a half burned banner and a few posters containing slogans such as “Mission Jihad: kill one enemy and take home a beautiful crystal glass. Kill more, take more.”  [BBC]

As Americans, we are often puzzled by the way in which America’s enemies often show up as folk heroes abroad, even in countries that love the US. Osama T-shirts sold well in Thailand, a hedonistic paradise that idolizes America. Despite our head scratching, it’s not all that hard to understand. Everybody wants to be a badass; everyone wants to emulate the alpha-male.

In 1999, I was travelling in a very pro-American Third World country and would get incensed when locals would call out to me “Hey, Gaddafi! Hey Bin Laden!” The sister of a close friend had died in Lockerbie, and OBL had already attacked the WTC once and killed many in Tanzania and Kenya. I was not amused.

To paraphrase Cool Hand Luke, what we had here was a failure to communicate. The guys on the street thought they were complimenting me. To them, Gaddafi and Bin Laden were strong men, and that was good in and of itself. Might makes right, after all. Continue reading →

The Gray Lady, with a sprinkling of ‘Stardust’

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So the NYT runs one of those stories explaining Bollywood to Upper West Siders (thanks, Yamini). Normally they’re highfalutin’ expositions on cult film theory. But this one’s just hilarious:

Sonia starts to undress him, whispering, “Show me you are an animal.” When he refuses and walks away, she screams: “I’m not asking you to leave your wife. I just want a physical relationship. If I don’t have an objection, why should you?” The actress Priyanka Chopra had a difficult time playing this scene… Ms. Chopra broke down and cried. The directors… had to spend a few hours convincing her that she was only playing a character. [Link]

First they print a piece by a Bombay film reviewer more suited for a filmi gossip rag. Then the story tries to pass off the idea that a global beauty queen has a nervous breakdown at the merest hint of fictional sex. Oh, her delicate ears! This is the same Miss World who apparently last posed as a member of the Divinyls.

I’m all for educating film hipsters, and far be it from me to to sound like a fanboy razzing the shamans of popularization (‘Everyone knows the Human Torch didn’t get his powers that way. Duh, it’s in issue 16!’). But come on, nobody’s gonna buy this wampum.

Then we get this tidbit:

Ms. Sherawat made her leading-lady debut in 2003 with “Khwahish” (“Desire”), which grabbed headlines for its 17 kisses… (For Ms. Sherawat, it also has a downside: She says her father refuses to speak her.) [Link]

Maybe it’s not about the canoodling, maybe her dad just hates bad acting

At least I have a new bedroom line, delivered in a thick desi accent: ‘Show me you are an animal, boss.’ It’ll go great with my disco ball, mirrored ceiling and leopard-print sofa.

Continue reading →

Fareed-peat

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After the London bombings, Jon Stewart summoned Fareed Zakaria back to The Daily Show to explain ‘his people.’

In this clip, Zakaria edges away from the neocon thesis that democracy alone can end terrorism, since the British bombers were born in a democracy. He claims the fundies have very low support throughout the Muslim world, pointing out the fundamentalist parties got under 5% in Indonesian and Malaysian elections (but he ignores the provincial elections in Pakistan).

Zakaria says the disaffected youth in Europe don’t feel socially integrated and are latching on to the ideology of the moment; today’s Islamic fundies would have been Marxists or Maoists 30 years ago. But he thinks the core of fundie support is gone in the Muslim world, and the virus will take some time to die out in Europe. In contrast, in the U.S. he says Muslims have done well economically and are much better assimilated.

Zakaria is right that the fundies have little public support, but only if you exclude some mighty key regions, such as Pakistan. And lack of support for fundamentalist political parties is not the same as lack of support for bin Laden or terrorist tactics.

Watch the clip.

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3

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Neil Prakash in ‘Wired’ (updated)

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O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! …
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war; …
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

— Billy Shakes, Julius Caesar

Wired’s August issue prominently features Lt. Neil Prakash of the U.S. Army in a story about milbloggers called ‘Blogs of War.’ The Silver Star-decorated tank platoon commander has a striking full-page photo in camouflage, glowering as hard as a 28-year-old can glower.

The story says Prakash was born just outside Bangalore, the son of two upstate New York dentists. He’s quite pyro about firing the tank’s main gun and other testosterone sports. Prakash says his favorite sound is an F-16 strafing run: it sounds like a cat in a blender or as if God were ripping up a phone book in the sky (all quotes paraphrased). He also says something like, ‘I’d rather be commanding a tank than sitting in a call center telling someone in Bumfuck, U.S.A. how to reformat their hard drive’ 🙂

His platoon has been rotated out of Iraq and is currently recuperating in Germany. Prakash used the downtime to get married in Denmark.

Check it out on the newsstands. Here’s Prakash’s blog.

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Update: The story has been posted.

By the crude light of a small bulb and the backlit screen of his Dell laptop, Neil Prakash, a first lieutenant, posted some of the best descriptions of the fighting in Fallujah and Baquba last fall:

Terrorists in headwraps stood anywhere from 30 to 400 meters in front of my tank. They stopped, squared their shoulders at us just like in an old-fashioned duel, and fired RPGs at our tanks. So far there hadn’t been a single civilian in Task Force 2-2 sector. We had been free to light up the insurgents as we saw them. And because of that freedom, we were able to use the main gun with less restriction.

Prakash was awarded the Silver Star this year for saving his entire tank task force during an assault on insurgents in Iraq’s harrowing Sunni Triangle. He goes by the handle Red 6 and is author of Armor Geddon. For him, the poetry of warfare is in the sounds of exploding weapons and the chaos of battle.

“It’s mind-blowing what this stuff can do,” Prakash tells me by phone from Germany, where his unit moved after rotating out of Iraq earlier this year. One of his favorite sounds is that of an F16 fighter on a strafing run. “It’s like a cat in a blender ripping the sky open – if the sky was made out of a phone book.” He is from India, the land of Gandhi, but he loves to talk about blowing things up. “It’s just sick how badass a tank looks when it’s killing.”

Prakash is the son of two upstate New York dentists and has a degree in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins. He’s a naturalized American citizen, born near Bangalore, and he describes growing up in the US and his decision to join the military as something like Bend It Like Beckham meets The Terminator. He says he admired the Army’s discipline and loved the idea of driving a tank. He knew that if he didn’t join the Army, he might end up in medical school or some windowless office in a high tech company. With a bit of bluster, Prakash claims that for him, the latter would be more of a nightmare scenario than ending up in the line of fire of insurgents. “It was a choice between commanding the best bunch of guys in the world and being in a cubicle at Dell Computer in Bangalore right now helping people from Bum-fuck USA format their hard drives.”

It’s taken some adjustment, but Prakash says his parents basically support his Army career, although his father can’t conceal his anxiety about having a son in Iraq. Prakash says he blogs to assure the folks back home that he’s safe, to let his friends all over the world know what’s going on, and to juice up the morale in his unit. “The guys get really excited when I mention them.”

By the time Prakash left Iraq early this year, the readers of Armor Geddon extended far beyond family and friends. He still posts from his base in Germany and is slowly trying to complete a blog memoir of his and his fellow soldiers’ experiences in the battle for Fallujah…

Blackfive himself has degrees in archaeology and computer science and avidly follows the postings of fellow bloggers. He describes Neil Prakash as “borderline Einstein…”

Prakash remains in Germany, awaiting orders to jump back into his beloved tank, which he calls Ol’ Blinky. He says he has no plans to resume his study of neuroscience, although it wasn’t completely useless in Iraq. “Neuroscience actually came in handy when I had to explain to my guys exactly why doing ecstasy in a tank when it’s 140 degrees out on a road that’s blowing up every day is a really bad idea.”

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NBC goes Deep

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SM tipster Chaina alerts us to the fact that we may have an heir apparent to Raj Bhakta. NBC will soon debut its new reality show, cleverly titled The Law Firm:

Real lawyers. Real cases. Real consequences. Executive producer David E. Kelley (The Practice, Ally McBeal) brings a real legal drama to television. Trial attorney and legal analyst Roy Black will manage 12 actual lawyers competing against each other while trying real court cases with judges and juries, resulting in outcomes that will be final, legal and binding. Each week, one legal eagle is eliminated and the top attorney will receive a prize of $250,000. With plenty of drama inside and outside of the courtroom, the result is riveting entertainment.

The compelling cases range from First Amendment issues to neighbor disputes to wrongful death. Distinguished judges will decide some of the cases, while a jury determines the others. In the end, the top attorney will win a prize of $250,000.

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Meet Deep Goswami. This UT graduate will look to fix his horns on the competition.

Why do you think you are a better lawyer than the other associates?
I would consider myself a better lawyer than the other associates because I have more passion, drive, and sincerity in the courtroom, which allows me to better connect with juries. IÂ’m willing to do whatever it takes, within the ethical boundaries, to win the case, and I genuinely care about my clients and their cases. More importantly, IÂ’m much more entertaining in the courtroom than the other associates – I donÂ’t put people to sleep when I argue a case, which some of the others are guilty of doing.

What’s your verdict on reality TV?
Reality shows are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of turning average Joes (no pun intended) into quasi-celebrities who will do anything to ride out their 15 minutes of fame. I hope to be able to count myself among such an esteemed group of individuals.

What, in your opinion, is the biggest misconception people have about lawyers and why is it a misconception?
The biggest misconception about lawyers is that they are lazy and donÂ’t care about their clients. Unfortunately, for the most part, itÂ’s true, which is why IÂ’ve dedicated myself to challenging these stereotypes when IÂ’m in the courtroom, which you can see for yourself when you see me in action on the show.

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Posted in TV

Rashomon on the tube (updated again)

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Plainclothes British special forces chased and killed a supposedly South Asian-looking man on the London tube yesterday whom they suspected of being a suicide bomber (thanks, Ravi):

… he saw a man in a black bomber jacket and jeans running towards him being chased by the officers… The suspect, described as being of Asian appearance and wearing a thick, bulky jacket, vaulted over a ticket barrier when challenged by police and ran down the escalator and along the platform of the Northern Line…

As waiting passengers and those already on a train that had pulled into the station dived to the floor, the suspect jumped on the train. Two witnesses said that as he entered the train he tripped, ending up half in and half out of the carriage, on all fours… the officers caught up with the man and pushed him hard to the floor. Witnesses said that they then fired up to five bullets into him at close range, killing him instantly. [Link]

“As the man got on the train I looked at his face. He looked from left to right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, like a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified. He sort of tripped but they were hotly pursuing him and couldn’t have been more than two or three feet behind him at this time. They unloaded five shots into him. I saw it. He’s dead, five shots, he’s dead…” [Link]

Police are describing him as an “intimate accomplice of the cell”. His name and address were thought to have been found among the possessions left by the would-be bombers on Thursday… [Link]

Now they say it was all a mistake (thanks, Abhi):

It is understood that he was found not to have been carrying a bomb… After the suspect had been shot police sent a robot to examine the man, because of fears that any device could still prove a danger. But it is understood that no device was found… [Link]

The man shot dead by police at Stockwell Underground station yesterday morning had nothing to do with Thursday’s abortive London bomb attacks, Scotland Yard said tonight… The Met said in a statement this afternoon: “We believe we now know the identity of the man shot at Stockwell Underground station by police… We are now satisfied that he was not connected with the incidents of Thursday…” [Link]

This is a Rashomon-like story. The cops’ version: they followed him from an apartment complex which they’d staked out in connection with the recent London bombings. He was wearing a suspiciously thick jacket on a temperate day and heading for the subway, so they decided to arrest him. He did not comply with their warnings and instead ran into the tube station, vaulted the gates and made it onto a train. Under those circumstances, it was their duty to stop a potential suicide bomber, so they tackled him to the floor of the train and shot him dead.

From the victim’s point of view, he left the apartment to go to work, got on a bus and got off at his tube station when he noticed he was being followed by men in street clothes. They started yelling at him and pulled guns, which British cops normally don’t carry. Believing his life was in danger, he bolted into the nearest escape vehicle, the tube, and he almost survived. The cops are saying he had no link to the bombings.

Continue reading →

Dogs Playing Poker, It AinÂ’t

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The Christian Science Monitor reports that collecting contemporary Indian art is the new rage in the art world. Some pieces are fetching anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000.

“The market for Indian contemporary art is turning bullish and aggressive,” says Anuradha Mazumdar of Sotheby’s. “India is now recognized as a major growth market, forcing international auction houses to pay more attention to it.”

I guess the big bucks that NRIs and Indian dot-commers are raking in have to be spent on something. But it isnÂ’t all FUBU (For Us By Us). Demand for these pieces is coming in from various parts of the world including France, Germany, Japan and the Middle East.

IÂ’m getting in on the ground level on a promising young surrealist. HeÂ’s going to be big some day. Continue reading →

Posted in Art

The Long Shadow of Hassan-i-Sabbah

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Longtime SM readers know that I enjoy making occasional forays into the past, so as to connect to the present. History is the most spiritual of subjects, more so than even religion in my eyes. Those who believe in reincarnation and karma will find as much wisdom in the recurring motifs of a history book as in any sacred text.

Yesterday we awoke to what may have been yet another attempted suicide bombing. The first words I heard this morning on NPR as my eyes opened were that police had shot “a South Asian man” in the Tube. About two months ago University of Chicago Professor Ropert Pape (who heads the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism) released his book Dying to Win on the history of suicide bombings. Here is an excerpt from his New York Times op-ed re-published on Truthout.org:

Over the past two years, I have compiled a database of every suicide bombing and attack around the globe from 1980 through 2003 – 315 in all. This includes every episode in which at least one terrorist killed himself or herself while trying to kill others, but excludes attacks authorized by a national government (like those by North Korean agents against South Korea). The data show that there is far less of a connection between suicide terrorism and religious fundamentalism than most people think.

The leading instigator of suicide attacks is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist-Leninist group whose members are from Hindu families but who are adamantly opposed to religion. This group committed 76 of the 315 incidents, more than Hamas (54) or Islamic Jihad (27). Even among Muslims, secular groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Al Aksa Martyr Brigades account for more than a third of suicide attacks.

What nearly all suicide terrorist attacks actually have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in seeking aid from abroad, but is rarely the root cause

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