The response to the mortgage security mess is now winding its way through the government sausage factory and the next level of operational leadership is being revealed. This morning, Hank Paulson announced that Neel Kashkari will oversee the $700B program –
The Treasury Department plans to tap Neel Kashkari, an assistant secretary of international affairs and a former Goldman Sachs banker, to oversee the government’s $700 billion financial rescue program, sources familiar with the situation said yesterday.
Kashkari has been a close adviser to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. on the credit crisis and helped draft the legislation for the massive rescue plan. He is expected to run the program on an interim basis until the Treasury finds a permanent head, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment. Kashkari’s replacement would stay on after the next administration takes office in January.
At the tender age of 35, Neel is being handed quite a shopping budget. Then again, often the only thing bigger than a government amplified problem is the government created solution.
There was a great story about a Pakistani fusion group, the Mekaal Hasan Band, on NPR this morning, the text of which is here. For starters, you might want to check out one of their songs on YouTube, “Huns Dhun”:
On their website, Mekaal Hasan Band says the following about the song and video above:
The video is a real life account of the mass evacuation of the Afghan Refugees who, according to the Afghan Repatriation Deadline, were supposed to leave the border areas of Pakistan for Afghanistan by 2005. Seen through the eyes of three young Afghani friends, the video traces their journey from the area of Bajaur, NWFP, Pakistan to the bordering hills of Afghanistan.
I knew about the Afghan refugees in Pakistan, but I didn’t know about their forced repatriation, and I haven’t heard much about how they’ve been doing in Afghanistan since this happened in 2005. (Does anyone have more information about this?)
In the NPR story, the part that I found most interesting is the story of how Mekaal Hasan first went from Lahore to Boston, to study at the Berklee College of Music, and then returned to Lahore, where he started the long, slow process of finding a way to be a rock musician in a non-rock oriented culture:
There wasn’t much opportunity to advance his craft in Lahore. So Hasan, like many of his peers, decided to leave Pakistan. He applied to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and got in.
“That jump was just insane,” Hasan says. “It’s like going to another planet and watching people play unbelievable stuff. I had never seen anyone play that way before. I would just listen to music all the time. That’s all I did. I never felt more at home than when I was in Boston, ’cause I was surrounded by so much great music and so many great musicians. I think all creative people need an environment to flourish in.”
But Hasan was on a student visa, and his parents bribed him to come home early by offering to build him a studio. In 1995, he returned to Lahore.
“For a while, a good two to three years, I was massively depressed and really angry, as well,” Hasan says. “I was like, ‘Why am I here? What am I doing here?’ Then you had to reconcile yourself to the fact that, ‘Well, hey, man, you’ve always lived here.’ I resolved to make the best of it, and in some ways, this turned out to be a good exercise in just practicing the concepts that I’d learned in music school.” (link)
Ok, so not everyone has parents that can build them their own music studio! But however it happened, what’s important is that he managed to make the transition back — and now Mekaal Hasan and his band are making some really impressive music, using classical and jazz fusion.
Incidentally, another video I liked is Rabba. Mekaal Hasan Band’s album, “Sampooran,” is available on ITunes; they’re about to go on a tour of India (no word on a tour of the U.S. yet…). Continue reading →
We are 30 days before Election Day, and with each day, there seems to be one more new piece of propaganda to buy. We had our own set of Sepia Mutiny political t-shirts on the site last month. Now DesiWear is in the desi political t-shirt business. From the DesiWear blog:
In a few weeks, probably one of the most important and historic elections will be held in the United States. …we have two candidates that are worthy of the presidency; John McCain is a living hero, and a very admirable politician. Barrack [sic] Obama, in his own right, is a visionary who understands that the United States needs to step out of the shadow of dark and start rebuilding its rep with positive and logical change…We at Desi Wear don’t usually get involved in politics, however, after living in North America over the past eight years, it’s absolutely clear that in order for the United States to get back on track on the world stage and lead our world with the TRUE American dream we must come together and join Barrack [sic] Obama and his message for change for a more prosperous and progressive United States. Now is the time! Let’s unite together and vote Barrack [sic] Obama for the next President of the United States. Show you care, rock our new “Desis for Obama” original T. [DesiWear]
Cute. you get a t-shirt and motivation all for one low price of $25. So close to Election Day though, I’m a little skeptical that orders made will arrive in the mail before Nov. 4th. These shirts are unaffiliated with the official South Asians for Obama campaign (SAFO does not have shirts but does have SAFO buttons for sale).
What I love about these shirts is that they are created by a desi owned business unaffiliated with the Obama campaign. But this business wanted to do something. So they did what they do best, designed t-shirts. In fact, there are many people in the Asian American community who have designedethnically targeted logos/t-shirts for Obama, completely unconnected to the official campaign. It’s all rather…grassroots, you know?
Are you a desi not for Obama and looking for a shirt? Well, I couldn’t find a desis for McCain t-shirt. I couldn’t find non-partisan “Desi Vote” gear either, though this desi shirt at BlackLava comes pretty close. Check out the thousands of political designs up at Cafe Press – I’m sure one of them will suit you, and your political leanings too. Or, be grassroots and design and print one of your own! Continue reading →
Just a quick post, to highlight something that I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about in the weeks to come. We’re starting to see racially-tinged rhetoric against an Indian-American candidate for U.S. Congress:
It seems to me that the officials at this press event know exactly what they’re saying, though they nevertheless deny the racist and xenophobic thrust of their comments: “From a demographic standpoint, Erik Paulson fits the district very well.”
I do not know whether the Republican Party in Minnesota is going to start running ads along these lines or not. If not, perhaps this isn’t really all that important. But the rhetoric here just feels too deliberate to be merely a one-off event or an accident. That said, if they’re sinking to this level, Madia must be doing something right.
Incidentally, here is a debate between Madia and Paulson that took place on Minnesota Public Radio in mid-August. And here are a few recent SM posts related to Madia: here, here, and here. Continue reading →
Well, it took three years and it nearly toppled Manmohan Singh’s UPA government, but the India-U.S. nuclear deal was finally ratified in the U.S. Senate last night (along with some other trivial legislation…). On NPR yesterday, I heard snippets of speeches supporting the deal from Republican Senator Richard Lugar and Democratic Senator Chris Dodd (who is almost as ubiquitous as the top 40 M.I.A. these days). I also heard a Democratic Senator, Byron Dorgan, from North Dakota, who opposed it. India’s fourteen civilian nuclear reactors will be under international inspection, but eight military reactors will operate without inspection.
Interestingly, India has also just signed a nuclear deal with France, after getting a general waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group. So clearly the work that went into the main India-U.S. deal is already paying off for India in some surprising ways. There is further talk of a deal with Russia in weeks to come.
Though I’ve supported the deal from the beginning, one of the arguments against it from the American side seems worth considering: if you grant India an exemption for civilian nuclear energy, even though it didn’t play by the rules and sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and even though it engaged in testing ten years ago, you weaken the argument against allowing countries like Iran to develop civilian nuclear energy.
Does that hold water? I tend to think not, since the point is moot if India already has nuclear technology and is committed to not sharing it with nations that want it. But the Times quotes one Michael Krepon who thinks it will be a problem:
Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a research organization in Washington, called the promise of big dollars and American jobs “pure fantasy†and predicted that the United States would regret further opening the nuclear door.
“There will be a reckoning for this agreement,†he said. “You can argue till you’re blue in the face that India is a special case. But what happens in one country affects what happens in others.†(link)
There is a full-length critique of the deal by Michael Krepon here, published in 2006.
Continue reading →
Remember last week when Anna linked to the video of the new Pakistani President Zardari kind of…sort of…innocently flirting with VP Candidate Sarah Palin? He said (to paraphrase) “he would be tempted to hug” Palin. Well the Christian Science Monitor reports on the fallout back home:
A radical Muslim prayer leader said the president shamed the nation for “indecent gestures, filthy remarks, and repeated praise of a non-Muslim lady wearing a short skirt…”
Though the fatwa, issued days after the Sept. 24 exchange, carries little weight among most Pakistanis, it’s indicative of the anger felt by Pakistan’s increasingly assertive conservatives who consider physical contact and flattery between a man and woman who aren’t married to each other distasteful. Though fatwas, or religious edicts, can range from advice on daily life to death sentences, this one does not call for any action or violence.
Last year, the mosque that issued the fatwa, Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, condemned the former tourism minister, Nilofar Bahktiar, after she was photographed being hugged by a male parachuting coach in France. [Link]
Just like I’ve been telling my friends: you can’t call this a real Presidential Race unless a fatwa gets issued somewhere along the way. Now I know that if I praise a non-Muslim lady in a short skirt I can do so only once and not “repeatedly.” Its not just the fatwa he has to worry about either. Feminists in Pakistan are upset as well:
For the feminists it’s less about cozying up to a non-Muslim woman and more about the sexist remarks by Zardari.
“As a Pakistani and as a woman, it was shameful and unacceptable. He was looking upon her merely as a woman and not as a politician in her own right,” says Tahira Abdullah, a member of the Women’s Action Forum. [Link]
I consider myself a feminist too, but with all due respect to Ms. Tahira Abudallah, I think she should watch this video before referring to Palin as a “politician in her own right.” Besides, hasn’t Zardari grieved as a widower for long enough?
The incident bears some resemblance to yet another charm offensive by a senior Pakistani politician. Marcus Mabry’s biography of Condoleezza Rice includes a passage in which he relates a meeting between former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Ms. Rice, in which Mr. Aziz was said to have stared deeply into the secretary of State’s eyes and to have told her he could “conquer any woman in two minutes…” [Link]
Damn, when I use that same line I just get slapped.
This morning, Hank Paulson announced that Neel Kashkari will oversee the $700B program – 