On Bombay’s Bandra seashore:
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Autorickshaw driver slumbers by the Bandstand wall, which is covered in GaudÃ-like cracked ceramic |
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No Romancing, Sitting in Obscene Postures or Kite Flying — well, there go my Bombay plans |
Author Archives: manish
The Thind decision
A new desi college football player is now at large. 6’4″, ~290 lb. Gurminder Thind starts as left tackle on the University of South Carolina roster (thanks, OldWarHouse). 
But based on the snarl, Thind really should moonlight as a professional wrestler.
I’m very happy to report that based on the recently concluded Spring practice sessions in Columbia, SC, Gurminder Thind (6’4 290lbs) born in Mississauga, Ontario to practicing Sikh immigrants from India has locked down the starting LT for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. A desi will be protecting the blindside of Steve Spurrier’s signal callers in ’06. [Link]
Gurminder Thind is not like most major college football players in the United States. For one thing, he’s from Canada, where football is not held in the same high regard as it is in the American South. Second, he did not start playing football until he was 16 years old. A former USC assistant coach noticed him there and the rest is history. [Link]
Given the size of these Canadian imports, its hard to imagine anyone taking the joke too far. Pavlovic, who is 6-foot-4 and 241 pounds, is the runt compared to Thind (6-4, 286) and Sorensen (6-7, 309).
As Pavlovic explained when asked why his countrymen did not take up the Canadian religion/pastime of ice hockey: “With how big they are, its pretty hard for them to skate.”
But the three seem to be taking to football fine. With spring practice ending with today’s Garnet and Black game, Pavlovic and Thind have strong grips on starting positions, and Sorensen is working with the second team. [Link]
Pimp my rath
A BJP leader is about to go on yet another campaign swing disguised as a yatra (Hindu pilgrimage). The tour features a rather pimped-out motorhome which the political party calls a rath (chariot). The party doesn’t even attempt to hide its appropriation of religion, but at least there’s a Batmobile factor:
The high tech rath has all sorts of conveniences for the leader of [the] opposition in Parliament, including a restroom, a toilet, wardrobe, satellite TV with LCD screen, wash basin, hydraulic lift for two persons [for campaigning from the roof], sofa set, bed, 10 floodlights, six speakers and a public address system…
… the vehicle [is] not bullet proof… [Link]
It has a hydraulic lift — imagine a politician rising up from the floor like some enraged gopher, theatrical deus ex machina or Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard. Dramatic.
The rath can’t possibly look any odder than the Popemobile:
The popemobile is an informal name for the specially designed vehicle used by the pope during public appearances… Several models have been used…
… yet another is a modified Mercedes-Benz with a small windowed “room” in the back where the Pope stands. Since the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981, the popemobile was fitted with bulletproof glass on four sides…
… it had bulletproof windows, bombproof parts and it was inspected by the Swiss guards… Past popemobiles were adapted Mercedes-Benz G-Class off-road vehicles, and current models are actually based on the ML-series of off-road vehicles sold in the United States. [Link]
Coolie.uk
This week, the UK implemented two anti-globalization regulations so anti-Indian in effect that they could’ve been written by the BNP.
First, they’re making Indian companies pay off British workers who lose their jobs to overseas outsourcing — but not to those who lose jobs to Ireland or to automation. Who’s really going to end up paying for this incredible, extrajudicial bit of socialism: British consumers.
New rules on BritainÂ’s existing Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulation or TUPE, will now slap overseas contractors with legal and financial responsibility for the British workers who lost their livelihood when jobs were transferred overseas…
Indian contractors accepting outsourcing contracts from British companies would now be forced to negotiate a proper indemnity against legal challenges for redundancy payments.
… the Indian firm would have to build into its cost structure the risk of being sued in a British court by redundant employees or unions.
The new rules on BritainÂ’s Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulation (TUPE) would result in Indian outsourcing contracts becoming more expensive, thus hacking at IndiaÂ’s definite cost-advantage. [Link]
Hey, I just read a good blog post from London which competes with us for reader attention. Who do I sue for my check?
Second, they’ve banned the National Health Service from training Indian doctors without work permits, unless the NHS proves it couldn’t find a Brit. And the ban is immediate with no phase-in, hosing doctors already in training:
… doctors from outside the EU, including from India, were able to take up NHS jobs under what was called ‘[work] permit free training’ schemes. Their jobs were considered part of training that did not require work permits.
Thousands of Indian doctors were employed under the permit free training scheme and were usually hired for short-term periods of one or two years.
… employers now need to obtain work permits before employing these doctors after making a case to prove that no British or EU doctor can perform the same job. This rule effectively rules out any chance of employment for non-EU doctors. [Link]
In the new coolie economy, you can hire ’em, use ’em and dump ’em the same day. Continue reading
Sudafed-ing is not a crime
The ACLU just filed sworn informant testimony in the Georgia meth merchant case showing law enforcement targeted Gujarati shopkeepers because they spoke poor English, entrapped them, then selectively prosecuted based on race (thanks, technophobicgeek):
Documents filed by the A.C.L.U. yesterday include a sworn statement from an informant in the sting, saying that federal investigators sent informants only to Indian-owned stores, “because the Indians’ English wasn’t good.” The informant said investigators ignored the informant’s questions about why so many South-Asian-owned stores were visited in the sting.
Other filings said prosecutors had several tips that more than a dozen white-owned stores were selling the same ingredients, but failed to follow up on them. According to a sworn statement from a witness, law enforcement officials tipped off a white store owner about the investigation and recommended ways to avoid scrutiny…
Of 629 convenience stores in the six-county area in the sting, 80 percent are owned or operated by whites, according to the A.C.L.U.’s court filing, but fewer than 1 percent of the stores in the sting are white-owned or operated. The filing said the clerk at the only white-operated store was known widely as a methamphetamine addict whose husband was in prison for making the drug. [Link]
I think we have a new rallying cry:
“Selling Sudafed while South Asian is not a crime,” said Christina Alvarez, an attorney with the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project. “The U.S. Constitution requires police to investigate people based on evidence, not ethnicity…”
By the time Operation Meth Merchant was completed, almost 20 percent of the South-Asian-owned stores in the area were indicted, while only 0.2 percent of stores owned by whites or other ethnic groups were similarly accused. All in all, South-Asian-owned stores were nearly 100 times more likely to be targeted…
“They only sent me to Indian storesÂ…they wanted me to say things like ‘I need it to go cookÂ’ or ‘Hurry up, IÂ’ve got to get home and finish a cookÂ’,” said an undercover informant in a sworn statement attached to the ACLUÂ’s legal papers. “The officers told me that the IndiansÂ’ English wasnÂ’t good, and they wouldnÂ’t say a lot so it was important for me to make these kinds of statements…”
“Northwest Georgia is made no safer by police targeting a particular racial group while giving a free pass to those they have good reason to believe are actually making and selling meth,” said Deepali Gokhale, organizer of the Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant… [Link]
The facts aren’t all on the table yet, but from a distance it smells like Tulia all over again, and both times in the South. I can’t muster much sympathy for people who knowingly supplied tweak traffickers, selective prosecution or no. But if it turns out the cops entrapped shop clerks with poor English proficiency by using inscrutable drug jargon, it would be ethically disgusting.
What also bothers me is that all the first-gen Gujarati shopkeepers I’ve met seem socially conservative and anti-drugs at a visceral level. If I were to play ‘Name the Criminal Mastermind,’ anything drug-related would be pretty far down the list. Continue reading
Defending your gimmick
The NYT is reporting that Jewish synagogues are enticing new members with yoga. They’re mimicking the recruiting techniques of evangelical megachurches, even though some evangelicals have later disavowed yoga as heathen and tried to Christianize it.
A group of New York-area congregations… refashion their synagogues into religious multiplexes on the Sabbath, featuring programs like “Shabbat yoga” and comedy alongside traditional worship… a… synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan… has organized Sabbath programs around tai chi and nature walks. Others have tried yoga classes and stand-up comedy as a means of Sabbath observance. [Link]
Comedy in a synagogue? What, they’re showing Seinfeld? I say, get your own damn gimmick. You don’t see Hindus serving matzoh ball soup (mmm, matzoh ball soup). You don’t see Muslims serving wine with a wink-wink, ‘It’s sangre, not sangrÃa.’ Red dearth and pour in vain.
And what’s this about Shabbat yoga? Aren’t you supposed to avoid work on Shabbat? I guess that rules out Bikram yoga. Besides, you’re nicking the wrong gimmick. Want to rip a desi religion? A friendly suggestion: serve Sikh-style langar (mmm, langar). Treble attendance, guaranteed 😉
Although Abhi apparently needs a hug, my favorite recruiting technique is the one practiced by a very, very dangerous cult I walk past every morning on the Bandra promenade by the Arabian Sea. It’s called the Laughter Club of Joggers’ Park, and it’s 50 uncles and aunties laughing in unison, ‘Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha,’ like deranged, elderly cheerleaders. Every morning I watch apple-cheeked grannies and patka-clad uncles bending side to side expelling belly laughs. One morning a beggar missing a couple of his toes sat on the ground chortling along with them. Continue reading
The politics of sacrifice
Merchants in Maharashtra have begun a hunger strike to eliminate local taxes. Unlike poor farmers consuming pesticide or distraught students immolating themselves, this involves what seems to be relatively well-off businesspeople lobbying for lower taxes. Whatever happened to the traditional method, buying a politician?
[A Maharashtra trade association] has called for a hunger strike on April three protesting against the levy of octroi… [Link]
Similarly, Sonia Gandhi’s renunciation theater should have her winning re-election shortly:
Sonia Gandhi, the leader of India’s governing coalition, stepped down Thursday as a member of Parliament… a New Delhi-based political analyst… compared Thursday’s announcement to Gandhi’s decision in 2004 to refuse the prime minister’s job, which sent her popularity soaring as many people saw it as a rare act of renunciation in Indian politics. [Link]
Sonia Gandhi and her supporters have shown themselves to be by far the wiliest folks in Indian politics. I don’t believe this “sacrifice” nonsense, but I have to doff my hat at the tactical brilliance of this decision… [Gandhi] is brilliant at impression management and knows the value of a “moral high ground” in as emotional an electorate as [India’s]. [Link]
India nuclear energy deal lacks Dem allies
Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran was just on Capitol Hill lobbying for the India-U.S. nuclear energy deal. Surprisingly, 10 of the 18 India Caucus members are against the deal, and even the Clinton who still holds elected office isn’t on board. It’s surprising given stats we’ve blogged before showing that up to 90% of desi American registered voters went Dem in the 2004 election.
Clinton, said sources, derives a large amount of campaign funding from Indian Americans, but her silence, verging on opposition is, as one Indian American said, “deafening”… The irony is that 10 of the 18 Congressmen who have co-sponsored or supported the Bill are members of the India caucus, billed as the largest caucus in the US Congress on any one country…
A Washington source said, the Democrat opposition to the India deal was being “noticed” in the community. [Link]
The rich uncle contingent is dismayed:
The reason for this cold-shouldering could be many, including domestic political considerations arising out of the November 2006 Congressional and Senate elections. The Democratic Party would be loathe to propping up a significant foreign policy triumph by the Bush administration were it to endorse the nuclear deal. The Republican party, on the other hand, has become significantly disenchanted with President George W. Bush personally. In this climate of political hostility the deal could run the risk of being scuttled…
Rice cooked in Londonstan
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has met [mostly desi] Muslim leaders in north-west England in a trip during which protesters expressed anger that an architect of the Iraq war was on their home turf… Dr Rice had been due to visit a mosque in Blackburn until its governors withdrew their invitation out of fear the occasion would be hijacked by demonstrators…
Cartoons lampooned the visit with The Independent carrying one showing a sign at a Blackburn Indian restaurant: “We regret we do not serve Rice.” [Link]
Mike check
Our domain squatter troubles seem to have evaporated. It’s as if millions of mutineers cried out in outrage and were suddenly silenced. Welcome back.