Yesterday, our eyes were on the UK as British police prevented two dozen suspects from using airplanes for perfidy; today, I woke up to more disturbing news, via Reuters:
The U.S. embassy in India warned American citizens on Friday of likely terrorist attacks, possibly by al Qaeda, in or around New Delhi and Mumbai in the run-up to the country’s Independence Day celebrations next week.
Just in time for August 15th!
“We have urged U.S. citizens to keep a low profile, be alert and attentive to their surroundings,” an embassy spokesman said.
“The embassy has learned that foreign terrorists, possibly including members of al Qaeda, allegedly intend to carry out a series of attacks,” he said, adding the attacks might occur in or around New Delhi and Mumbai.
As if Mumbai hasn’t been through enough, after last month’s terrorist attack which murdered 200 people and hurt 700 more.
The information was gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies and the embassy was working closely with the Indian government, he added.
“Likely targets include major airports, key central Indian government offices, and major gathering places such as hotels and markets,” he added.
Likely targets include all of us, in some way. This is an extra depressing week…
We are all Jews now.
Charming!
courage my dear…
and there i was thinking… if the hyenas catch up with me at the airport… that i’d send out an email seeking rescue via the blackberry before it gets confiscated … and one of you will swoop in clad wearing a gold mask and basanti leotards (i was hoping, it would be you or neha – i cant imagine ennis’ size 13 feet getting through the tights … :-o)
and for the rest of you.. if you needs some hair on your chest… i can send you my shoulder clippings… there’s loads here. heaps. bushels. that shag carppet in my home-office is all my sheddings.
We are all Jews now.
So we all get to colonize some 3rd world people?
So we all get to colonize some 3rd world people?
he didn’t say “we are all israelis nows,” did he?
the hindutvas aren’t the only knee-jerks around here.
We are all Jews now.
I hope that doesn’t extend to cuisine. I can’t eat Chinese take out everyday.
When I wrote this, I had misgivings about being misunderstood but I told myself to be optimistic. What I meant was that terrorism affects all of us, in ways which are obvious (knowing someone who just missed a train in mumbai, who was in the WTC as it was hit) and not so obvious (feeling increasing dread and fear with each successive incident). I’m sorry that I was inarticulate and that my less-than-stellar choice of phrasing has resulted in any kind of negativity towards anyone, Jewish or Muslim.
Sigh. Moreso, now that I slightly regret posting this story.
he didn’t say “we are all israelis nows,” did he?
‘They’ dont also hate all Jews either. ‘They’ are targetting Israel, not random Jews on the street.
Actually, AMfD, quite often “they” hate all Jews, in and out of Israel. Many of “them” graduated from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism a long time ago.
Huh. Where did THAT come from?
Deleting my post doesn’t change a thing, Anna
Look at Gujarat. The perpetrator [Narendra Hitler Modi] of the progrom against the wretched Muslims of that state is still in power. Outside of the fascist state of Gujarat, Muslims in the rest of “secular” India are relegated to life of ghettos and of fear and distrust. Not to mention, the ever present abuse at the hands of the Indian secular security forces.
Under those circumstances, what is wrong with suggesting that a seperate state should be carved out for them.
Secularism is all hunky dory, when you are living in the lap of luxury here in the US. Anyways, I am only suggesting what a Muslim state minister in Uttarpradesh demanded the other day. Remember?
I visited this blog today following the incoming link from Amardeep’s recent post. Fascinating stuff here.
Whereas I empathise with the overall depression caused by the recent events, I’d like to draw your attention to a poem by a Pakistani woman writer translated by Khushwant Singh here
Further, there are many across the globe who would confirm that the ongoing resistance in the middle east is not a muslims-vs-jews battle. It is about the forced displacement of people from their own homeland left to live in refugee ghettos facing continued injustice….and if I may add brutal humiliation and elimination of secular leadership from the region!
Hope I am not being polemical here. Peace to all!
Actually, AMfD, quite often “they” hate all Jews, in and out of Israel. Many of “them” graduated from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism a long time ago.
Cant argue with that. However ‘they’ have not yet targetted Jews outside of Israel yet. From the top of my head I can think of the attack in Argentina (though ‘they’ did not do that) and then this crazy Pakistani dude in Seattle. I guess you might include attacks on some Jews in France, Belgium and Austria though I wonder if ‘they’ did those. Look I know that there is a lot of anti-semitism in the Arab community both here and in the Middle East. The Anti-Semitism is now spreading over to other non-arab muslim communities as well (Seattle Pakistani dude) but I dont believe that it has reached a level where people want to commit mass scale violence on all Jews living outside Israel.
‘They’ dont also hate all Jews either. ‘They’ are targetting Israel, not random Jews on the street.
a friend of mine is jewish and knows arabic (as well a bunch of other languages, he’s a lang. nerd). he heard a man talking in a coffee shop chatting on the phone in arabic, and asked him what dialect it was. they chatted a bit in arabic, and the arab dude gave my friend a look, and asked “are you a jew?” (my friend looked kind of jewish) my friend freaked out and something told him to lie, so he was like, “no, i’m bulgarian.” the arab guy nodded and went about his business. my friend saw his picture a few years later on TV, he was one of the 9-11 bombers.
anyway, my friend has never been to israel. but he is a jew.
i don’t necessarily think that manju’s comment was the most apropos or conducive to future conversation, but your knee jerk response was simply amplifying the thread devolving into jew-talk. anyway, my last comment too, as i’m a sinner obviously now as well. i pray to the non-existent god that thread doesn’t explode into a sh*t-fest. peace.
Amfd and other anti imprialists –
How do you guys continue to live in the US and Canada? Given that both these nations were formed by eliminating millions of souls who were resident here for thousands of years.
Why not send these evil colonizers a message, by depriving the man of your talents and relocating to the land of your parents. Otherwise, stop criticizing Israel.
Daniel Pearl was killed in Pakistan for being a jew.
i don’t necessarily think that manju’s comment was the most apropos or conducive to future conversation, but your knee jerk response was simply amplifying the thread devolving into jew-talk.
I agree that my comment was needlessly inflammatory. I guess Manju laid the bait and I got caught!
Dude, that is chilling.
Willsomeone here explain to me the difference between the ghettos in the middle east and the ghettos, where the natives of this land live here in the US and Canada? Where the suffering has been going on for much longer……..
Anna did not delete your comment; each of us moderates the threads.
Meanwhile, below the fold, the odds of being a target remain higher in some places than in others, although those explosions may just be the flying shards of a better tomorrow.
Sigh.
How do you guys continue to live in the US and Canada? Given that both these nations were formed by eliminating millions of souls who were resident here for thousands of years.
Why not send these evil colonizers a message, by depriving the man of your talents and relocating to the land of your parents. Otherwise, stop criticizing Israel.
I am not anti-US. I do understand that over time nations have occupied other nations and there have been large displacements of indigenous population. China is sitting over Tibet and Russians are brutally putting down the Chechnyans. I will now not support a militant insurgency against the US government by the Indian population in the US. The problem with Israel is that its expansion never stops. The settlements never stop. The land grab never stops either. If the Israelis would give all Palestinians Israeli passports and rights, people will eventually move on. Israel is a little unique this way. They want to occupy the West Bank (and previously Gaza) with no intent to incorporate the Palestinians into the fabric of the Israeli society. This for me puts Israel more into the category of apartheid South Africa than an imperialist nation.
Daniel Pearl was killed in Pakistan for being a jew.
So was the defenseless Jewish woman in Seattle by Naved Haq. Btw just imagine if a Muslim had been shot dead outside a Mosque in Dearborn by a drive by Redneck! That would have been all over the news including the subject of at least two posts on SM.
Amfd,
Israel is only 58 years old. I am sure you well versed in early American history and the “rights” afforded to the natives in those days.
I am sure you well versed in early American history and the “rights” afforded to the natives in those days.
Yes and thats exactly my point. In ‘those’ days I would not have supported the United States. If Israel stops the occupation or completely incorporates the Palestinians as full members into the Israeli society, than 125 years from today, I will not bitch about Israel. Hell, I would stop bitching about Israel in a week if they were able to do that.
Amfd,
I missed this – “I will now not support a militant insurgency against the US government by the Indian population in the US. “
would you be supportive of a Palestinian militant insurgency against Israel?
To veer back to the topic – do any of our India-based readers have some input into tightened security at Indian airports and rail stations?
we stew lotuses in a barrel of brine and pick lint out of our navels while munching on the pickled petals.
oh yaar. there’s enough ghum in the world without you trying for another guilt trip. most of us are just tryng to have a good time until we get the call… maybe sooner now. all the more reason to step out and dance on the streets, scratch a dog’s head, tickle a baby’s belly.
factions in the west and political islamism will be battling it out for all eternity -whether in a middle eastern backwater or in a shiny metroplis. given the evangelical impetus in us foreign policy at the moment, I am tempted to say good on them, they deserve each other. india is foolish to get into this ruckus. theyve to figure out a way to keep the outsourcing dollars and technology transfers flowing while maintaining relationships with some middle eastern states, particluarly iran, which is still a check against pakistan. take the damn money and stay out of it India, no one cares about you but you. but knowing the quality of indian diplomacy, this is unlikely.
Eh, I think y’all are getting carried away moping into a mush of an ethnographic basis*. It’s a good tool of analysis, but it’s not the only way of looking at things, and I think the depression and hopelessness it engenders is not always worth the insight it yields.
When all is said and done people want power, and bad people will trade on whatever emotional manipulation and political currency they can scrounge to increase it–sometimes fatally miscalculating what action will cause what consequence, and sometimes pumping up their power perfectly. Sadly, right now all the factors seem to be indicating a perfect feedback cycle for warring parties to keep their war on.
I am no fan of bombing Lebanon or oppressing the Palestinians, but not even all Israelis have the kind of colonial mentality you’re decrying. The families of many of my Israeli friends were genuinely chased there from the Middle East and Eastern Europe, having lost everything, and lacking anywhere else to go–and interestingly enough, it’s often these Israelis who are the most pacifist. There are spectrums and options in all things, and one of the reasons why stereotyping, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Arabism, and anti-whateverIsm are so dreadful is that these Isms turn us on auto pilot, and ruin our ability to accept humanity’s shade and nuance. That also poisons our ability to believe in free will, in persuasion, in diplomacy, in change–in peace and prosperity. Sure, if you’re a Bayesian Savant like Razib apparently is, you can hold trends and averages and probabilities in your head and make reasonable guesses and conjectures while still keeping the possibilities of divergence firmly in your mind. The rest of us, however, are usually better off humbling remembering that our brains can’t do statistics worth crap, and instead striving to keep our minds relatively free from generalization.
We’re all human beings. The political structures and philosophies our births and choices have aligned us with may may make it easier or harder for us to do good and bad things, but ultimately any evil action you object to was committed by a finite, numbered set of human beings and not by the label that best describes them.
*I mean basis in the sense of a linear algebra basis. Geek with me or move along.
would you be supportive of a Palestinian militant insurgency against Israel?
I am not in support of the thuggery of Hamas and their rather barbaric tactics of attacking Pizza parlors and restaurants. So at this point, no, I do not support the Palestinian resistance especially as its being spearheaded by Hamas/Islamic Jihad.
Kritic: If you are a proponent of the Two Nation theory, then aggrieved Muslims already have a country they can move to (i.e. Pakistan) without displacing more Hindus. I don’t subscribe to that theory that is so popular amongst the Pakistani mainstream & the Hindu fringe (i.e. RSS), so let’s focus on realizing India’s secular goals instead of working to tear the country apart.
SM intern/bloggers: Manju’s comments are deleted, Kritic’s comments in favor creating another Muslim state in India (by displacing Hindus) are not…why ? While the Hindutvaadi agenda is deplorable, how is it that the SM community is able to rationalize “Muslim rage” in terms of loss/displacement when “Hindu rage” is seen as sociopathy pure & simple without consideration of legitimate grievances like the trauma of Partition, the targeted killings of Hindus in East Pakistan etc. ? Some even handedness please….
if you’re a Bayesian Savant like Razib apparently is
squint are you joking? or serious?….
also, you mean principle components of variation, right? 🙂
Kritic –
1) The subcontinent was alreaday divided and has produced mixed results as a “solution” to the “issue” of communalism.
2) Whether we live in Canada or (India) injustice merely emerges in different modalities. Here were talk of displacement or colonialism, there we talk of caste and agrestic slavery. No nation/state is innocent of it.
Getting back to the topic at hand. I wonder why these groups have waited for five years (barring the attack on the Indian parliament) to go after the Indian State. I expected it to be much sooner. Any ideas on the timing of this?
Jilted Manhood has a good point. For the Canadians here, consider the ongoing Caledonia dispute, where the Six-Nations aboriginal community denies the validity of Canadian court-order and insists in nation-to-nation negotiations to resolve the ownership of the land. Canada (I won’t speak for the US) has legitimacy issues — we really are all Israelis now.
Oh, about Seattle — the guy was on lithium, and was earlier arrested for flashing his penis in a mall. If murder was only committed by mentally-ill gentilia-flashers, the world would be a safer place. (And the attack of a Sikh man by a nut in California did result in a handwringing SM post — this blog exists in Saheli’s ethnographic basis)
SM intern/bloggers: Manju’s comments are deleted, Kritic’s comments in favor creating another Muslim state in India (by displacing Hindus) are not…why ? While the Hindutvaadi agenda is deplorable, how is it that the SM community is able to rationalize “Muslim rage” in terms of loss/displacement when “Hindu rage” is seen as sociopathy pure & simple without consideration of legitimate grievances like the trauma of Partition, the targeted killings of Hindus in East Pakistan etc. ? Some even handedness please….
My point exactly! Here’s a gem from a much admired commenter ( Mr kobayashi ): more important than the real results of patient police work (to catch the culprits) and (more importantly, and much less likely to happen) addressing the political concerns that lead to terrorism in the first place
This on a thread about the Mumbai blasts. The man is trying to figure out the politicalgrievances of the killers who blew up hundreds of men and women returning home after a hard day at work. Just imagine if some commenter had suggested figuring the grievances of Hindu savages involved in Gujarat riots. Forget about being friends of SM, they’d summarily have been banned.
I have nothing personally against SM or the bloggers. They are smart people and do a good job. But leftist slant is too obvious.
But leftist slant is too obvious
only cuz V-man is too busy with this job 🙂
Good god, is every post going to decay in to meta- carping?
Good god, is every post going to decay in to meta- carping?
a thought. perhaps SM admin could declare a closed-comments week. just a thought 🙂
I know it’s kind of a common occurrence, and Indians have been dealing with LeT for years now, but as I pointed out on the UK Plot thread from yesterday, Indian police picked up two LeT members carrying RDX and detonators. Here’s the link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1882646.cms
But leftist slant is too obvious.
Where the hell is Vinod? He can surely provide some fairness and balance 😉
If you want a real leftist slant, go here.
Where the hell is Vinod?
mallu-boy is hittin’ the greenback baby, hittin’ the greenback 🙂
a thought. perhaps SM admin could declare a closed-comments week. just a thought 🙂
Only if you are willing to allow us to pontificate here 😉
Only if you are willing to allow us to pontificate here 😉
only if you focus on neutral theory vs. nearly neutral theory. probability of fixation baby, oh yeah….
If only I were as bright as Amardeep, and could comprehend Amitav Kumar’s post-post-modern conversion to Islam where he crossed his fingers and still gets to eat ham sandwiches, I would feel ready for Counterpunch
For the record, nobody deleted my comments. Kritic had a comment deleted (those are his words in post #2, above mine) I think b/c it was interpreted to be hate speech…ie, just seperate muslums by putting themin their own litte ghetto–to which badmash (in post #2) cleverly observed it puts another twist in my “we are all jews now” line.
But I think Kritic was just being facetious, pointing out the irony that radical muslims want to segregate themselves, and if a non-muslim advocated this he’d be called a bigot. ergo, the deletion, to bring it full circle.
i’m going to keep this meta short: yes, bias exists. i don’t agree with that bias myself. but, everyone, please keep in mind that admins are human with finite time, energy and resources, and this is never a forum that is sold as “unbiased.” if you have opinions which go “against the grain” the best way to make sure you are heard isn’t to complain, but to humanize yourself and be respectful, become a human instead of an opinion to those who disagree with you. that’s my experience as a blogger & a blog commenter.
Manju # 46 –
Not only are you mighty pretty, you are also mighty perceptive….
Manju/Kritic:
My apologies for the confusion. I’ve been laid up with a fever the past two days, which is why I find myself with time to post and an impaired ability to read subtext. Related question, how do you guys find time for this at work ?
SM intern: My criticism was misplaced in this thread, but still stands
Razib: You are right, will need to give louiecypher human form before expecting anything of the regulars/bloggers
My back is kinda messed up, again. So, I am compelled to stay bed ridden for a few days. And since I have nothing but time on my hands, I share my [solicited ot not] opinions with the rest of youuse. But fret not, this too shall pass…….