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Do that until 6:30. You get to keep 10 rupees and lick an empty Limca bottle |
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Swathi said what behind your back? Uh-uh, girlfriend, you got to stand up |
Monthly Archives: March 2006
Bill Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars
New Internet censorship in Pakistan aimed at the Danish cartoons of Muhammed has inflicted more collateral damage than a wayward JDAM. All Google-hosted blogs have now been banned (thanks, SloganMurugan):
Pakistan telecom authorities have blocked several websites inviting people to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad… Bloggers in Pakistan became first became aware of the ban on 28 February when they were unable to access a popular blog hosting site, Blogspot. One of the blocked sites is hosted on [Google] Blogspot, which led to the blocking of all web journals hosted on the site… They say they have still been able to edit and update their blogs, but not able to read them… [Link]… the govt. must have ordered local ISP’s to block certain websites. All the major ISP’s in Pakistan are blocking weblogs hosted at blogspot.com. [Link]
Blogger, the editing half, was spared the axe. There’s been no official announcement, although last week Pakistan’s highest court started ordering ISPs to block sites carrying the cartoons:
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the government to block internet sites displaying sacrilegious cartoons and called explanation from authorities concerned as to why these sites had not been blocked earlier… Two petitions were filed… seeking complete blockage of sites showing blasphemous depictions and… seeking registration of cases under blasphemy. [Link]
Any secular democracy’s least-favorite phrase: ‘injures religious sentiments.’ Disheartened Pakistani bloggers are blaming bureaucratic ineptness and going around the problem via proxies. With respect to freedom of speech, Pakistan is not China:
Pakistani bloggers agree the blocking of Blogspot cannot be intentional… [Link]Continue reading
Doing Your Homework Can Get You Arrested
Only Indian kids would go to such lengths to finish a class assignment.
The University of Maryland’s student paper, the Diamondback is reporting that three graduate students from India (two men and a woman) were detained and questioned for nearly four hours by Montgomery County police early Tuesday morning for using a device to track wireless communication signals for a class assignment (thanks masked tipster). Neighbors reported the three to the police for suspicious activity because they had been driving through Silver Spring, Md (a suburb of Washington DC) at about 15 miles per hour with elaborate equipment in their rental vehicle.
Yeah, it sounds shady. If a car was constantly roaming around my neighborhood from about 10 pm to 2 in the morning, I too would probably be a little suspicious, especially at that hour. Well, so were the police.
At about 2 a.m. early Tuesday morning while driving through a residential Silver Spring neighborhood, the students noticed a police car following them and flashing its lights. The students were stopped and answered questions about their identities, equipment and assignment, and were then escorted by police back to I-495 and sent home.
You would think it would have ended at that. It is kind of funny, a trio of Indian students geekily get pulled over, not for partying or do something illegal, but for doing their homework. The crappy thing is, it didn’t end there.
Police from Montgomery and Prince George’s counties rejoined the students at their Berwyn House Road apartments, where after more questioning, an officer copied down the equipment’s serial numbers and informed one of the male students his laptop appeared on a list of stolen electronics.Officers detained them there for nearly two hours, questioned them, photographed them, recorded detailed descriptions of their physical appearances and inspected their visas, passports, university identifications and international driving permits.
Now I am a bit confused. Why would the police need to follow them home? The students showed the police their ids, equipment, and explained to the police the class assignment. What was the point in following them home and recording all of their personal data? And the bit about taking the laptop I am not too clear on.
“Everyone was shocked, dumbfounded, speechless,” the female student said. “This has never happened before in our lives. I was very angry. I didn’t appreciate the harassment.” The students were released by officers about 5 a.m. Tuesday and later informed their professor and department.
And yet, it all could have probably went away had they called their professor earlier. The good Indian students that they are, they didn’t want to bother him.
They said they didn’t want to call us in the middle of the night and wake us up,” said Steve Tretter, director of the program. “I told them they were crazy and should have called us immediately.” Tretter said he and administrators were upset for the students.Continue reading
Because they hate freedom! And debt!
It seems that there’s a new way to become suspected of being a terrorist – try to pay off your credit cards. At a time when debt is all-American, the Department of Homeland Security gets called in if you try to balance your personal budget. 
The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522. And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges’ behavior was found questionable… They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. [Link]
DHS got notified for a measily $6,522 payment? I mean, I’m sure that Al Qaeda loves shopping at J.C. Penny, but still. And this happened to a white family with nothing else “suspicious” in their background. Heck, they were even from Texas (although they left after they retired). Can you imagine if they had an accent? Or a furrin’ name?
Here’s my favorite part:
After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn’t changed…the money doesn’t move until the threat alert is lifted. [Link]
That’s right – not only does DHS get involved, but they stop your payment from going through. You’re performing a legitimate commercial transaction, and they’re preventing it. Do they pay your interest during the period that they’re pondering how much of a threat you pose to the country? What happens if they don’t get around to making a decision right away? Hey, if you have nothing to hide, why are you complaining? [Via Ishbadiddle]
They’ll let anyone in these days…even ex-”Tangoes”
Not since that hottie Natalie Portman has a freshman at Yale an ivy-league freshman created this much buzz. Meet 27-year-old former Taliban spokesperson Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi:
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The Before and After pictures (via the NY Times) |
The University of Yale has a freshman who is thankful to have landed up in the prestigious institution rather than the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, a former Taliban spokesperson, who has the dubious distinction of having come in contact with terror mastermind Osama bin Laden has joined a non-degree course, which includes a class on terrorism… Turned away initially from a Taliban office in Kandahar, Hashemi had offered his skills as a computer operator because of his “high proficiency in English”, the New York Times quoted the freshman as saying.
But later, adding a couple of years to his age, he was accepted and became a part of the hardline Islamic regime that also brought him in contact with 9/11 mastermind Laden.
“I saw bin Laden after he was brought to Kandahar in 1997,” Rahmatullah told the Times.
Hashemi fled Afghanistan for Pakistan after the September 11 bombings. [Link]
Hashemi has had a brief flash of fame once before. He appeared in Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 9/11:
As the chief spokes-terrorist for the Taliban, Hashemi traveled extensively throughout Europe and the United States. While speaking at the Atlantic Council in 2001, Hashemi was confronted with a woman who detailed the horrors facing the women of Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban. He dismissed her as if she were an insolent child and announced to the woman: “I’m really sorry for your husband. He might have a very difficult time with you. Hashemi’s disgusting comments were immortalized in Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911…” [Link]
Over a week ago the New York Times did a fantastic 12-page in-depth story on Hashemi (a must read article). Continue reading
How NOT to prevent your sister’s marriage
You just have to wonder what the hell they must have been thinking:
Two Indian-American brothers, living in New York, made a hoax bomb call to the airport officials in a bid to prevent their sister from boarding a flight out of the city.Authorities said Amandeep Singh, 24, and Gurpreet Singh, 26, were arrested last month on charges of telephoning airport officials and saying that terrorists had planted a bomb in the plane.
The bomb threat call was made with an intension to prevent their sister from taking off to a different US city in an attempt to marry her boyfriend, who is also an Indian immigrant. The brothers wanted the sister to marry to a doctor. [Link]
If I felt any sympathy at all for these two I lost it when I read that last sentence. However, their plan actually worked! For like a day.
Though their sister was unable to leave the city at that time, she has now married her boyfriend, according to news reports.
So what kind of unsuitable boy did the sister end up marrying then? A lawyer, a finance-type guy, an astrobiologist?
Sources said that Singh’s parents “went berserk” when their 30-year-old daughter announced she was going to marry a gas station owner.
The enraged parents set up an arranged marriage for the woman with a doctor in India, the sources said. [Link]
Ouch. There isn’t a more perfect storm I can think of that could cause Indian parents to go “berserk.”
Federal agents monitoring movement of tickets at MacArthur spotted the cancellation, and headed to Queens to question the sister. She led them to her brothers – and to other family members involved in the threat, the sources said.The brothers face up to a year in prison if convicted of the current charges. The men, who have been in the U.S. for more than 15 years, could also face additional charges by the federal government. [Link]
Too young to be so mutinous
On my Yahoo start page this morning the picture below stared back at me:
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An Indian girl holds a placard during a protest against President Bush in the southern Indian city of Bangalore March 1, 2006. REUTERS/Jagadeesh Nv |
I had two thoughts. First, isn’t it just precious how an Indian kid would attach the honorific “uncle” to even a protest sign? I had to laugh out loud at that. Second, I felt conflicted. I don’t approve of children at protests. I feel that taking a child to certain types of protests is like giving a child a gun without teaching them proper gun safety. I believe it is more important to properly educate a child in all aspects of an issue and encourage them to investigate it on their own, rather than take them along to mindlessly protest something. I think it is VERY important to teach a child about the realities and injustices in the world and when to stand up for a principle, but I often see images in the media that hint at the fact that the children holding signs are mostly a form of propaganda. Out of curiosity I did a quick search for some other recent protest pictures featuring young children.
Rushdie Speaketh
Salman Rushdie joins a group of prominent intellectuals & public figures in an anti-“Islamist” manifesto published in the now famous Jyllands-Posten (reprinted here in full because I agree with it so much) –
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.
The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.
My spring break, in pictures
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Another proud member of the reality-based community |
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‘Just one little drink’ was the last thing he remembered before waking up naked on a Goan beach |
Who let brown folks aboard Air Force One?
As most readers know, President Bush made a not so surprise visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday before his eventual arrival in India. After India he intends to go on to Pakistan. That is THREE South Asian nations in one week. By my rough count however, there are only TWO South Asian journalists along for the ride on Air Force One. The first is our old friend Raghubir “the Foil” Goyal. Word on the street is that “the Foil” is as necessary to the White House Press Office as the “Football” is to the President:
He may not be one the most high-profile media persons accompanying US President George W Bush on his India visit, but Indian American journalist Raghubir Goyal is often the “perfect foil” for the White House spokesperson when he is caught in a tight spot.
“I will be on Air Force One. A few of the other regulars in the press will also be there. They rotate everyone every month,” Goyal told IANS just before boarding the flight for New Delhi.
Goyal has been a White House pressperson for many years and is often ridiculed for his softball questions that deal exclusively with India and for which he has been labelled the “Goyal foil” – or a way out for White House spokesman Scott McClellan when he is in a tight spot.I tell them, ‘But I get only one chance to ask a question and I want to get in my question about India instead of the other subjects the media is talking about’.”[Link]
“The Foil” now even has an entire website dedicated to his heroic exploits. The second desi reporter may not be as infamous, but she certainly has a large audience. It is Niharika Acharya of Voice of America:
Niharika is VOA Hindi TV’s lead anchor and correspondent. She co-hosts VOA Hindi’s weekly news and current affairs program “Duniya” (The World), aired live on India’s leading TV news channel Aaj Tak. Niharika also contributes to VOA Hindi Radio as fill-in host for the weekly call-in shows ‘Hello India’ and ‘Hello America’, and her television reports are aired on radio as well…As part of VOA Hindi TV’s collaboration with Aaj Tak, which claims an audience of 30 million households in India, Niharika has also covered major news events including U.S. presidential elections, the 9/11 anniversaries, annual UN General Assembly sessions and important meetings between the leaders of India and the U.S. including President Bush’s meeting with the current and former Prime Ministers of India. [Link]
I dunno. I just find it kind of underwhelming that there aren’t more South Asian American journalists who were deemed by their news organizations to be qualified enough to be along for this ride. It seems like they would be in unique position to report on this story due to their inherent understanding of the cultures involved. Is Goyal the best we got to embed? I dream of the day when a mutinous blogger is allowed onto AF1.
See related posts: One-Track Uncle, Goyal’s toils