Monthly Archives: December 2005

Attacking the Myth of the Model Minority Myth

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(via Econlog) Those of the any Asian persuasion in the last 10-15 years have probably heard at least one campus activist screaming about the Model Minority Myth. Now, simple yokel that I am, I would have have thought it a good thing to be a model for just about anything (although I suppose I’m still waiting for swashbuckling, studmeister South Indian action hero…).

But, there’s a certain corpus of thought in Leftist politics that strongly believes otherwise. They assert that the Model Minority Myth is perpetrated by The Man for a variety of motives such as the ones summarized at ModelMinority.com –

…Americans reluctant to address the realities of continuing racism and white privilege have consistently portrayed Asian Americans as a “model minority” who have uniformly succeeded by merit.

While superficially complimentary to Asian Americans, the real purpose and effect of this portrayal is to celebrate the status quo in race relations. First, by over-emphasizing Asian American success, it de-emphasizes the problems Asian Americans continue to face from racial discrimination in all areas of public and private life. Second, by misrepresenting Asian American success as proof that America provides equal opportunities for those who conform and work hard, it excuses American society from careful scrutiny on issues of race in general, and on the persistence of racism against Asian Americans in particular.

A recent, interesting study conducted by Northwestern U decided to put some of these claims to the test.

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Midnight’s oil

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Could India become a petro-rupee state? The Indian oil minister said last week that the country has almost as much oil as Saudi Arabia, just when conventional wisdom says it’s running out. Energy independence would be excellent; relying on oil without building a real economy, disastrous.

Petrominister

[Mani] Shankar Aiyar, minister of petroleum for India… believes that India could become a petrodollar state in the 21st century… The optimism is grounded in massive oil deposits, close to 30 billion tons, in Central India. That’s twice the size of the deposits in Iraq (13 billion tons, according to the Institute of Petroleum) and just shy of Saudi deposits. With this, India, which imports 70 percent of its oil, could become an exporter… [Link]

India may exhaust its existing oil fields soon, and as its economy grows, so does its thirst:

India has oil reserves to last only till 2016, if no new discovery is made, the Petroleum Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, said today. [Link]

ONGC’s oil output has stalled at about 520,000 barrels a day in the past couple of years and is expected to decline as older fields near the end of their productive lifespan. Mr Aiyar voiced concerns about a fall in domestic output at a time when India’s rapidly expanding economy is fuelling huge demand for energy. [Link]

Central India has oil deposits twice the size of those in Iraq and just shy of Saudi deposits. But they’re not easy to extract

India ranks sixth in the world in terms of energy demand… While India has significant reserves of coal, it is relatively poor in oil and gas resources… The majority of India’s oil reserves are located in fields offshore Bombay and onshore in Assam. Due to stagnating domestic crude production, India imports approximately 70% of its oil, much of it from the Middle East… The World Energy Outlook… projects that India’s dependence on oil imports will grow to 91.6% by the year 2020. [Link]

Nearly half [India’s] electricity, according to various estimates, gets stolen by individuals placing illegal feed wires onto power lines… [Link]

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Help a Wannabe-Desi Out

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white india.jpg Verity, at the conservative blog Albion’s Seedlings, says she wants to settle in India and buy property there. However, she’s been told that she can do neither.

My understanding is that with the approval of the Reserve Bank, she can buy property for residential purposes, and Wikipedia claims, “Citizenship of India by naturalisation can be acquired by a foreigner who is ordinarily resident in India for twelve years (continuously for the twelve months preceding the date of application and for eleven years in the aggregate in the fourteen years preceding the twelve months).”

Anyone know more about this than just what a Google search turns up? Continue reading →

Speak American in America! (updated)

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How many of you feel inhibited in using a language other than English when you are out in public? I know that I think twice about speaking in Punjabi on my cell when there are others around. Here are two examples of recent language xenophobia incidents. The first involves Zach Rubio, a 16 year old student in Kansas City who was suspended for speaking Spanish in the halls:

Zach Rubio’s high school had no such signs

“It was, like, totally not in the classroom,” the high school junior said, recalling the infraction. “We were in the, like, hall or whatever, on restroom break. This kid I know, he’s like, ‘Me prestas un dolar?’ [‘Will you lend me a dollar?’] Well, he asked in Spanish; it just seemed natural to answer that way. So I’m like, ‘No problema.’ “

A teacher who overheard the two boys sent Zach to the office, where Principal Jennifer Watts ordered him to call his father and leave the school… in a written “discipline referral” explaining her decision to suspend Zach for 1 1/2 days, she noted: “This is not the first time we have [asked] Zach and others to not speak Spanish at school.” [Link]

Note that this high school has no policy against speaking Spanish outside of class, and even if it did, it would be difficult to understand how such a policy could be legal.

The second incident involves an editorial assistant at the Chicago Tribune named (verdad) Ahmad. A. Ahmad:

The Amtrak train was four hours outside New York City when we heard the conductor’s voice on the loudspeaker…We were all stuck, somewhere in the middle of New York state, and we would have to wait for a bus to take us to the nearest big city… I decided to call my mother in Chicago to tell her what happened. We spoke in our native tongue, Arabic.

… I heard sirens approaching, and the bus suddenly came to a stop on the side of the highway. Police cars came–so many I couldn’t even begin to count them… The man told police he understood Arabic and had overheard my conversation. He thought I was talking to some terrorist cell when I was chatting with my mother… The authorities questioned me for nearly three hours at an Albany police station. They asked me where I was from, whether I was a United States citizen, who I knew in New York City, who I worked for, and why I was traveling alone. [Link]

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55Friday: The “Everything Counts” edition

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The grabbing hands, grab all they can, everything counts in large amounts. Tonight, a certain group plays Washington, DC. I won’t be there, but I have fond memories of seeing them live; they were my first concert as well as my last. I used to carefully write “Music is the only thing that matters.” on all my mix CDs, I’m famous for kicking someone out of my bed (get your minds out of the gutter– I wasn’t in it) because they disrespected the easiest bossanova song to appreciate of all time. Like the scent of Madelines, music conjures past lives powerfully.

Today, if you are in search of a theme, find one in aural pleasure: concerts, music, memories of the first song you ever danced to with a boy (“Bizzare Love Triangle”: in 1989). As always, write freely and ignore such suggestions if you desire; the most important thing is that you leave your sweetest perfection (or a link to it) in the comments below. Continue reading →

Mutinous Radio

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I figured that it is was well past time that I showed some love to the South Asian community down in Houston. Every Thursday from 3:30-5:30p.m., Houston’s KPFT 90.1 FM is taken over by GenerAsian Radio featuring DJs Yogi and Alex. You can either catch it live or listen to past shows that they have uploaded to the web:

GenerAsian Radio is a unique radio program featuring an eclectic mix of Asian Underground, Hindi, Bhangra, Arabic, house, and hip-hop. Started back in 2002, the show has been widely popular among the South Asian youths and also among Middle Eastern, Hispanic, European, American music lovers. The show features interviews with musicians and artists from all over the world, live mixes in the studio, and cultural community events. GenerAsian Radio airs live on the web as Real Audio or MP3 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM CST on Thursdays.

What I like to do sometimes is to listen to the GenerAsian radio clips while either writing a post for SM or reading a post written by one of my co-bloggers. Sepia Mutiny needs theme music to be properly enjoyed. I have long subscribed to the idea that life would be more worth living if we all had our own personal soundtracks. Unfortunately society has not yet reached my prescient conclusion, so in the meantime I rely on websites like GenerAsian radio’s to mix something up.

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He blinded me with science!

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President Musharraf yesterday proposed a two pronged approach to producing a “Muslim renaissance.”

Step 1, Ban all hate and terror organizations:

Senseless acts of terrorism committed by a handful of misguided individuals while claiming to act in the name of Islam have maligned our noble faith of peace, tolerance and compassion … We must condemn and reject all forces of terrorism and extremism, banning organisations which preach hate and violence. We must promote the Islamic values of tolerance and moderation,”… [Link]

Step 2, Fund lots of science:

The president said most Islamic societies remained far removed from the expanding frontiers of knowledge, education, science and technology. Any dreams of progress on these fronts would remain unfulfilled if not fully backed by collective will and adequate financial resources, he said. [Link]

These are two admirable goals, but honestly, I fail to see the connection between them (perhaps I misread the original article). Is his plan to generate a society too geeky to hate or kill? Anybody who ever read soc.culture.indian (or encountered Biswanath Halder) knows that geeks are just as capable of hate as anybody else … Continue reading →

Fear of flying

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A desi Lt. Colonel was detained for 4 hours because air marshals didn’t “like the way he looked” When I was a little boy, I believed in an America where all men were equal before the law, and due process was paramount. However, when I grew up, I put away childish things and saw that this was not true. Therefore, I put on my best Stepin Fetchit imitation when flying, grinning broadly, shucking and jiving. I call somebody at each leg of my journey, so that there is a paper trail just in case somebody decides that I look “wrong” and I get stopped for flying while brown. [Why not drive? You should see how highway patrolmen react to the sight of a turban and beard passing through middle America. Flying is also far safer.]

Is this paranoia or simple prudence? If you think I’m overly cautious, consider the case of Bob Rajcoomar, a U.S. citizen and Lt. Colonel in the United States Army Reserve who was detained on a flight in August 2002 because federal air marshals did not “like the way he looked.” [Hat Tip: RC]

Dr. Rajcoomar’s disturbing ordeal began shortly after take off during a flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia on August 31, 2002, when U.S. Air Marshals were called to subdue an apparently disoriented man seated in the coach section. The air marshals rushed at the unstable individual, handcuffed him, and then dragged him to the first-class section, where they placed him in the seat next to Dr. Rajcoomar, a U.S. citizen and Lt. Colonel in the United States Army Reserve and is of Indian descent. Dr. Rajcoomar asked to have his seat changed and the flight attendant obliged. [Link]

Dr. Rajcoomar’s seat change made the air marshals suspicious:

… after the flight landed … air marshals handcuffed Dr. Rajcoomar without explanation and took him into the custody of Philadelphia police. His wife Dorothy, who was also on the flight, was given no information on what had happened to her husband. Because the authorities confiscated Dr. Rajcoomar’s cellular phone, she had no way to contact him.

After four tense hours in detention, Dr. Rajcoomar was released. TSA personnel told him that he had been detained because air marshals on board the flight did not “like the way he looked.” [Link]

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Don’t Call it a Comeback

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toral.jpg

Mutineer anti-favorite Toral Mehta is on the Apprentice again tonight. Joy. 😉 Actually, I should’ve seen this coming; Rebecca had the most ridiculous soft shpot for her friend Toral, a.k.a. the woman who established herself as a righteous defender of the Hindu faith with her refusal to don a costume.

Were any of you watching while I was? I thought Carolyn’s eyes were going to turn Rebecca to stone when she made such a controversial pick for her team of three assistants, but that’s just me. Mais oui, the only female contender left resumed her familiar stoic, I-might-be-wrong-about-this- but-I’m-going-to-nod-emphatically schtick. Oh yeah, since the finale is a two-parter, you get some Toral NEXT week, too. Chrismukkah comes early this year, truly.

Related: Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro Continue reading →