Monthly Archives: October 2008

Colin Powell has our back

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Today on “Meet the Press” General Powell said what I wish McCain would say and what I wish Obama had said more strongly:

Well, the correct answer is, he [Obama] is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America. [NewYorker]

Powell also implicitly criticized the Palin wing of the party for being unfriendly to minorities:

Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He’s crossing lines–ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He’s thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values. [MSN]

Powell’s point is worth explication. If America is going to be open to Americans who did not come over on the Mayflower, it has to also embrace the big cities in and around which most immigrants have historically lived.

Claims that small-town America is the only authentic America are implicitly claims that white America is the only real America. Immigrants were discouraged from moving to many small towns, and sometimes ethnically cleansed from them when they did. And while there are African-American small towns in the South and Latino small downs in the Southwest, that’s not the image that comes to mind for most voters when small town America is invoked. They see Mayberry in their minds eye, not Yuba city.

As the non-white son of immigrants, Powell “gets it.” I wish more members of his party did.

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In Which I Congratulate Adiga, and Try to Avoid a Blogspat

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A few weeks ago, I wrote this post, giving my reaction to Aravind Adiga’s novel, The White Tiger. Since then, as many readers probably know, Aravind Adiga won the prestigious Booker Prize for the novel, making him one of only a handful of first novelists to have done so, and also (at 33 years old) one of the youngest writers ever to do so.

While I stand by my assessment of Adiga’s novel, I’m not going to bitch and moan about the Booker’s selection process or the composition of the committee. Rather, my first response is to congratulate Adiga for the honor, and wish him luck on his next book. (Cheers!)

I was ready to leave it at that, but Manish at Ultrabrown challenged negative reviews of the novel like mine with a post yesterday. For Manish, the complaints against the novel boil down to a question of different ways of failing to achieve authenticity:

I’m going to tease apart two separate kinds of complaints about authenticity. One kind is whether the author successfully executes what he’s attempting, whether you’re pulled jarringly out of the narrative. The other is whether the very endeavor of a highly-educated proxy tackling the voice of the underclass is plausible. (link)

I’m quite sure my complaint falls under #1 — Adiga fails to do what he is apparently trying to do — though I’d phrase it a slightly differently: in my view, Adiga never seriously attempts to convince us that his protagonist is a realistic figure, and therefore he never really tries to be “authentic” at all.

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What Development Looks Like

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Since we’ve been talking Indian banking lately, a friend forwarded me this old-ish blogpost at MIT’s Technology Review magazine outlining one way that tech is helping roll out rural banking in India –

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An ATM for the next Billion?

Kasaghatta, India: It’s a 90-minute walk from this southern Indian village–one of 730,000 in India–to Doddabenavengala, the nearest town with a bank branch. Until a few months ago, Karehanumaiah, a 55-year-old agricultural laborer, had no bank account, which also meant he had no access to formal credit. (He would have to pay 10 percent monthly interest to informal lenders to, say, borrow $45 to buy a goat.) But that all changed in recent months.

Karehanumaiah uses a desktop terminal to deposit 150 rupees (about $3.50) into his new account at Corporation Bank, with help from Muniyamma Ramanjanappa, a village resident who conducts these transactions in her concrete house as a bank representative. First, a smart card and a thumbprint scan prove his identity. Next, Ramanjanappa updates the bank balance information on his smart card by connecting the terminal to the bank database with a cell phone. Finally, Karehanumaiah hands Ramanjanappa the cash and gets a receipt for his deposit (which brings his balance up to 160 rupees)….now that Karehanumaiah has a bank account, he can borrow money from the bank at rates of between 8.5 and 13 percent annually–far less than in the informal system–and gain a toehold into the formal economy.

Ninety percent of India’s rural residents lack bank accounts, and a variety of technologies are being applied to the problem. Other efforts include using cell phones to make payments and execute bank transactions in a nation that is enrolling a staggering eight million new cell-phone accounts monthly, many of them in rural areas.

For me, the article really highlights what real, “bottoms up” econ & tech development is supposed to look like… Continue reading →

Before the body is even cold

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Do you still have ANY doubt as to how this Presidential race is going to end in a few weeks? I can point you to at least one person who is betting on an Obama victory [via Politico]:

The key word that should grab your attention in the flyer above is “Iowa,” the location of Jindal’s fundraiser. Piyush “Bobby” Jindal has just begun campaigning for the Republican nomination in 2012. The other thing to note are the endorsements in the bottom left. I had planned on writing this post all week (even before seeing this flyer) based on some circumstantial evidence I had turned up. This just ended any doubt.

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The Deciding Desi Vote

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The Candidates.jpgIt seems that every time I tell some political wonk on the campaign front that I’m mobilizing Asian and Pacific Islander voters, their eyes glaze over condescendingly. To them, the AAPI community (including South Asian Americans) are a complicated and apathetic community to mobilize. This election cycle, this community has been referred to as the ‘Sleeping Giant’ and a national report released this week shows that the AAPI community could be the missed swing vote this for November 4th.

The researchers’ 2008 National Asian American Survey (NAAS) shows that 41 percent of Asian Americans are likely to favor Obama, while 24 percent support John McCain. In battleground states, where either candidate could win on Election Day, Obama leads with 43 percent of Asian Americans supporting him and 22 percent favoring McCain.

Researchers point out that a key finding of the study is the high proportion of undecided Asian American likely voters: 34 percent. Among the general population, national polls conducted since the major party conventions show that undecided voters are approximately 8 percent of the electorate.[NAAS]

Yes, the report states the Asian Americans are overwhelming leaning Obama – but even bigger news is that 1/3 of the likely to vote population are still deciding how to vote. Thus, if campaigns want to get the most bang for their buck for the next three weeks, Asian American likely voters seems like a good place to start.

How do the ‘Asian Indians’ fair in this report?

Among Asian American citizens, 65 percent can be described as likely voters. Japanese American citizens are the most likely to vote (82%), followed by Asian Indian (73%), Koreans (72%), Filipinos (67%), Vietnamese (65 %) and Chinese (60%). [pg 1]

The report predicts that 43 percent of Asian American adults will vote in the 2008 elections. Amongst Asian Indians, 45 percent will vote, but the proportions are higher if one looks at turnout among the citizen population (73%) and the registered voter population (78%). [pg 6]

Asian Indians identify largely as Democrats (39%) and only 7 percent identify as Republican. 19 percent identify as independents, and 35 percent identify as non-partisan voters. [pg 11]

This election, 53 percent of Asian Indians are voting for Obama, 13 percent are voting for McCain and 33 percent of Asian Indians are still undecided. [pg 13]

Should be no surprise that desis talk politics – 70 percent discussed politics with their friends and family. And 14 percent of Asian Indians have visited the internet to discuss a candidate or issue. (Oh yeah, reading Sepia Mutiny is a form of political participation…!) [pg 23]

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Krugman on India

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You’ve read by now that prominent economist, NYT columnist, and fierce Bush administration critic Paul Krugman was recently awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics (possibly to the detriment of Jagdish Bhagwati & Avinash Dixit)

Mr. Krugman received the award for his work on international trade and economic geography. In particular, the prize committee lauded his work for “having shown the effects of economies of scale on trade patterns and on the location of economic activity.”

He has developed models that explain observed patterns of trade between countries, as well as what goods are produced where and why. Traditional trade theory assumes that countries are different and will exchange different kinds of goods; Mr. Krugman

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p>Although most of Krugman’s groundbreaking work was in trade theory, and despite the Rise of India being one of the biggest trade stories of the last decade, I wasn’t able to dig up too many comments from him about the Desh. The exceptions, however, are pretty interesting…

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Not that there’s anything wrong with that

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In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week or so, you will have heard about the ways in which it is being implied that Obama is either an Arab, or a terrorist, or both (because, what’s the difference really?).

To the right is a billboard from the swing state of Missouri. It appears to be a spontaneous emission of racism by somebody local, rather than a calculated political gesture associated with a campaign, but in many ways that makes it scarier to me.

The tenor of the race has changed, and gotten nastier. Back in February, McCain clearly dissassociated himself from a speaker at a rally who kept referring to Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama” and the campaign followed suit. However, in the last month Obama’s middle name has cropped up more and more often at rallies, including one where ” a Florida sheriff ranted about “Barack Hussein Obama” at a Palin rally while in full uniform.” [NYT]

This even arose recently at a McCain rally where McCain’s response was quite revealing:

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him, and he’s not — he’s an Arab. He is not…No?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: No, ma’am. No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And that’s what this campaign is all about. He’s not. Thank you. [HuffPo]

Ideally, I would have liked McCain to have said three things in his answer:

  1. Obama is a decent man with whom I have major policy disagreements
  2. He is an American who is not of Arabic origin or a muslim
  3. Not that there would be anything wrong with him being either Arab or Muslim

Neither campaign has managed to make that last point, and it’s a very important one.

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We’re Here. We’re Queer. We’re on Pioneer.

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Queer Blog1.jpg This past Saturday afternoon, proud desis rallied up and down Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia, also known as Southern California’s Little India. Oct 11th marked National Coming Out Day and this was the second annual rally jointly hosted by Satrang and South Asian Network. But unlike last year’s rally, this year it was charged with election energy and urgency. On November 4th people will be voting on Proposition 8, a ballot measure that would take away the right to get married for single sex couples.

Shoppers and shop owners looked on queerly, as the procession flamboyantly marched up and down the crowded sidewalk. Most walked by ignoring, some stopped and asked questions, and there were a couple of ‘toba, toba’ aunties spotted walking by. Around fifty people were in the rally and everyone was chanting “Hum suth ek hay [We are all one],” “No on Prop 8,” and my personal favorite, “We are here. We’re queer. We’re out on Pioneer.”

“We are here to raise awareness and visibility about the South Asian queer community here in Little India,” said Sanjay Chhugani, former president of SATRANG. “We’ve been received very positively. This is the second time we are out here. We were out here last year on National Coming Out Day…I don’t think there was anything negative about it.”

Queer Blog 4.jpg On a bustling street corner, the rally stopped marching to address the curious bystanders.

“Folks we are here today to come together to reach out for your support because right now our rights are being violated,” said Hamid Khan, Executive Director of South Asian Network. “We are being stripped of our humanity. We are being stripped of our dignity. Why? Because we are queer. Why? Because we want to celebrate our life the way we want to…

“Proposition 8 will ban marriage from people who love each other. Proposition 8 would ban marriage from people who want to spend their lives together….we are asking for you to tell your neighbors, to tell your colleagues, to tell your friends to not be hateful. Do not deny people the lives the way they want to spend their lives.”

Though Proposition 8 is clearly not just about the South Asian community, this rally served to give a voice to South Asians in the community who are going to be deeply affected should the proposition get passed.

[More words and pictures after the jump] Continue reading →

Krugman wins Nobel, 2 desis lose it (updated)

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Today, Paul Krugman won the “Nobel prize” in Economics. At the same moment, Jagdish Bhagwati and Avinash Dixit probably lost their best chance of getting one.

Bhagwati

You see, Bhagwati and Dixit are the scholars whose work immediately preceded Krugman’s, the ones who made Krugman’s (admittedly important) contributions possible. (The NYT has a nice summary of his scholarly accomplishments)

Bhagwati was Krugman’s teacher mentor at MIT, a scholar whose name was regularly mentioned as a likely winner of the Nobel prize in his own right. Bhagwati’s mentor was Robert Solow, who also received the Nobel in Economics in 1987. In other words, the Nobel skipped a generation in the scholarly lineage, something that must really sting.

Krugman’s main scholarly contributions have been in the area of trade theory, making him the first scholar to receive a Nobel for scholarship on International Trade in 30 years. Trade is also what Bhagwati’s scholarship is best known for, a contribution that the Swedes chose not to recognize.

Here’s a painfully embarrassing story of how Krugman’s scholarship on International Trade came to overshadow Bhagwati’s, even at an occasion celebrating Bhagwati’s contributions:

Some years ago I was at a Festschrift conference for Jagdish Bhagwati at Columbia–Paul’s teacher at MIT and himself a frequently mentioned name in connection with the Nobel prize. One of the speakers was Paul Samuelson. Now the usual drill on such occasions is to toast the man of the moment with a combination of wit and eloquence. I don’t recall if Samuelson even mentioned Bhagwati. What I recall is that Samuelson spent his whole time on a detailed exegesis of Paul’s work on trade. I should have known then that if the Nobel committee were to give another prize in international trade, it would go to Krugman. [Link]

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Communal Violence in Orissa: Trying to Get a Balanced Picture

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I’ve never been to Orissa and in general I don’t know much about eastern India outside of Bengal, so sorting out what has been happening in Orissa over the past few weeks is difficult. As I attempt to address this issue, I’m not interested in pointing fingers or arguing with religious zealots; rather, I’m interested in getting a balanced perspective on what is actually happening. (Take a deep breath. Now begin.)

Let’s start out with the New York Times, and focus on some of the basic facts. First, there has been a wave of anti-Christian violence following the vicious murder of a prominent VHP leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, and four associates. Swami Laxmanananda had been an advocate for local Hindus, and had worked against Christian missionaries and conversion in the area. Here is some of what’s followed:

Here in Kandhamal, the district that has seen the greatest violence, more than 30 people have been killed, 3,000 homes burned and over 130 churches destroyed, including the tin-roofed Baptist prayer hall where the Digals worshiped. Today it is a heap of rubble on an empty field, where cows blithely graze. (link)

There has also been violence between Christians and Hindus in five other Indian states — suggesting that what started in Orissa has the potential to turn into a communal bloodbath at the national level.

A local Bajrang Dal leader is quoted in the New York Times as saying that the violence is just a “spontaneous reaction” to the killing of a locally beloved leader, but whether or not that is so it is unclear whether Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati’s murder was motivated by Christian anti-Hindu feeling or a more generalized hostility towards organized religion associated with Maoism and Naxalism, or some mixture of the two (see this). Adding to the confusion, the Times and other news agencies have reported that local Maoists have claimed responsibility (see the Times of India), but last week three Christian tribals were arrested for the killing. According to the Indian Express, the three were in fact Maoists (as I understand it, the majority of Maoists in the area come from Christian backgrounds.).

Not that all that should matter now — the focus should obviously be on stopping any further violence from occurring, and in rectifying the wrongs that have been committed against people on both sides. The murderers of Swami Laxmanananda should go to jail, as should all those who have participated in recriminatory violence against Christians subsequently.

Another vitally important factor is the local element. This is not just a matter of Hindus vs. Christians. According to the Times, there is a pronounced local and tribal element to the polarization of the communities: Continue reading →