Author Archives: Abhi

About Abhi

Abhi lives in Los Angeles and works to put things into space.

VoA will no longer speak Hindi…but learns more Bangla

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From the newswire (thanks “Blue Mountain”) we see that the Broadcasting Board of Governors has decided to scale back some of its global Voice of America programming, seemingly to re-direct dollars to countries most in need of America’s voice.

This may come as a shock to millions of Hindi radio fans worldwide, Even as the Indo-US relationship scales a new peak, the popular Hindi service of the Voice of America seems all set to be closed down in six months, after being on air for more than four decades. In its annual budget, the Broadcasting Board of Governors has said it will close down VoA’s Hindi radio broadcasts along with four others–Turkish, Thai, Greek and Croatian. Although it is still under Congressional review, it is unlikely that the lawmakers would go against the board’s decision.

At the same time, VoA’s Urdu service is being increased to 18 hours a day, including a special six-hour broadcast for the tribal areas of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The duration of the Hindi service is one hour and 30 minutes. [Link]

This strikes me as short-sighted. What’s happening here is that the powers that be are shifting their dollars away from many of the countries in which VoA is popular and arguably effective, and is instead going to try and focus on immediate hotspots using more exciting forms of media (as exemplified by Radio Sawa and Al-Hurra TV). The Baltimore Sun has a nice op-ed outlining possible motivations behind these directed cuts and why they may be a bad idea:

The enemy media fire hard and fast, said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in a recent speech, and we must return the fire just as fast. As an example, he cites the extensive coverage of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Why not respond, he asks, by reporting on the mass graves of Saddam Hussein’s victims – torture answering torture, as it were. And non-journalists may have to paid to do the job. It is a kind of shock and awe of the media, a crucial part of the war on terror…

The Voice of America, to be sure, does not do this, and therein lies the problem. Dismissed as old-fashioned, stodgy and slow-moving, it is slated for drastic cuts by the supervising Broadcast Board of Governors…

Since, comparatively speaking, it costs so little, what’s the problem? Many say it is political. Every administration in Washington tries to nudge VOA this way or that way politically, but the pressure exerted by the current administration is said to be unprecedented…

This interference is not unique to VOA. It reflects what has happened at the Pentagon and the CIA, where dissenters have been demoted, reassigned, fired or otherwise silenced. [Link]

Continue reading →

Sooden rescu…err…I mean released

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By now most people are aware that 33-year-old Canadian peace activist Harmeet Singh Sooden (who celebrates his birthday today), along with another Canadian and one Brit, got their first taste of freedom in months on Thursday:

NOW he looks like a “Gandhian peace activist.”

The three hostages were freed Thursday from a house west of Baghdad by a joint U.S.-British military operation. The kidnappers were not there.

“Right before the intervention, they (the hostages) were bound and then their captors left their building,” said Peggy Gish, a member of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemakers Teams.

The U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, said the 8 a.m. rescue from a “kidnapping cell” was based on information divulged by a man during interrogation only three hours earlier. The man was captured by U.S. forces on Wednesday night. [Link]

The operation to rescue the three hostages was led by British SAS and MI6 as detailed in an article at Canada.com:

CanWest News Service has learned the raid was prompted after the Special Air Service and MI6 — Britain’s commando unit and its spy agency — opened negotiations with a kidnapping network after studying hostage tapes released to Arab television stations. Eavesdropping teams also tried to intercept cellphone conversations between the kidnappers and Arab television journalists.

The Canadian contingent is believed to have included the elite Joint Task Force 2, who were, according to Stephen Harper, “fully engaged and fully aware of what was going on…” [Link]

Now for the controversy. If you listened to the news yesterday you probably noticed that the language used to describe this event varied greatly. Some news organizations and groups said the hostages were “released.” Others, including military officials, said that they were “freed” or “rescued.” If you’ll reacall, these three are members of Christian Peacemaker Teams who oppose the occupation of Iraq and the presence of military there. It would put them in a tough spot if they had to publicly thank the military for Thursday’s events. Using different set of words and phrases can allow these different groups (e.g. military, CPT, and journalists) to all put their own spin on the actual events. I’d like to know more about the facts.

In Toronto, CPT co-director David Pritchard described the news as “release” rather than a “rescue” throughout the day. He said the news sent CPT workers on “a roller coaster of emotions…” [Link]

Continue reading →

Pour some out for Addwaitya this weekend

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From the SM newswire (thanks Aninda) we learn sad news of the passing of “the one and only,” possibly the last living witness to the original Sepoy Mutiny of 1857:

Rest in peace now homey, there’s a heaven for a G

A giant tortoise, thought to be more than 250 years old, has died of liver failure in Calcutta, India.

Named Addwaitya, which means the One and Only in Bengali, he had a long and storied history that goes back to the early days of the British colonial empire.

Historical records show he was caught by British sailors in the Seychelles Islands and carried to India where he was presented to Robert Clive, a rising star in the British East-India company. West Bengal Forest Minister Jogesh Barman said he spent many years on Clive’s estate before he retired to the local zoo in Calcutta about 130 years ago. [Link]

Interestingly the Times of India titles its article about Addwaitya’s passing, “Tortoise that saw Sepoy Mutiny dies.” Now because I blog for Sepia Mutiny I am going to eat that headline right up and not challenge it by pointing out that turtles usually don’t get caught up in insurrection or survey the ranks of the enemy.

The minister said details about Addwaitya’s early life showed that British sailors had brought him from the Seychelles islands and presented him to Clive, who was rising fast in the East India Company’s military hierarchy.

On Thursday, the tortoise’s enclosure wore a deserted look.

“This is a sad day for us. We will miss him very much,” a zoo keeper said. [Link]

Addwaitya was an Aldabra tortoise:

They are generally shy, though when agitated they often release a foul-smelling, musky liquid that can be targeted at enemies from up to 3 feet away. [Link]

We’ve actually been looking for a pet to guard our bunker.

Continue reading →

The Lobby

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One of the power dynamics that the U.S.-India nuclear-power deal will illuminate, is that between the Indian American community and Congress. How much power do “we” really have? Maybe a better question is who exactly are “we?” I have detailed in past posts my frustration over the fact that arguably the most powerful Indian American lobbying group, USINPAC, always steps up to represent the interests which matter most to the first generation, but largely fails to advocate my more mainstream issues and interests as a second generation Indian American. USINPAC is lobbying almost as hard as the government of India in support of this deal.

India is not solely depending on diplomacy to win the U.S. Congress’ backing for its civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Washington but also taking the help of lobbyists, a media report said…

A U.S.-based media organization reported that in the last fall, long before the visit of President George W Bush to India, the Indian Embassy in Washington had signed up two lobbying firms to “sell the deal”.

The Embassy has signed a $700,000 contract with Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, an outfit led by Robert Blackwill, U.S ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003, it said.

Besides, the Embassy is also paying $600,000 to Venable, a firm that “boasts” of former Democratic Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana as its point man. [Link]

And in case there was ever any doubt, lobbying is what makes things happen in Congress:

Six Republican senators endorsed the U.S.-India nuclear-power deal, as more than 20 foreign-policy specialists, including three former ambassadors to South Asia, urged Congress to approve the agreement.

Sens. George Allen of Virginia, Sam Brownback of Kansas, John Cornyn of Texas, Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Ted Stevens of Alaska bring a wide range of influence to the effort to win congressional approval of the agreement signed by President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, according to the U.S. India Political Action Committee (USINPAC). [Link]

“This is an historic step for both countries and USINPAC stands with President Bush and Prime Minister Singh in moving this process forward. In fact, for the past eight months, USINPAC has aggressively worked to get key Members of Congress on board and we will not rest until this agreement is signed into law,” said Sanjay Puri, the Chairman of USINPAC. [Link]

On a related note, Indolink.com recently had a good article summarizing a 2004 paper titled: Subcontinental Divide Asian Indians and Asian American Politics by Wendy K. Tam Cho and Suneet P. Lad (subscription required for full paper). Cho and Lad examined both the facts and the myths of Indian American political power as judged by campaign contributions among other factors. Continue reading →

Pranav and the Bee

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pranav.jpgSomething smells down in Georgia and young Pranav Mahadevan is being forced to take a deep breath of the stink in. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on an exclusive investigation which takes a look at the seedy underbelly of spelling bee competitions in this once great country:

Pranav Mahadevan, a serious speller since second grade, had one final shot at the state spelling bee, where a win would finally give him his ticket to the national stage in Washington.

In anticipation of the Georgia Independent Schools Association spelling bee in Macon last month, the Dunwoody eighth-grader pored over word lists and studied word roots in Greek, Latin and French. But he was eliminated when the judges said he spelled the wrong word. He spelled “ivy”; the judges were looking for “ivied.”

Pranav, a student at Our Lady of the Assumption School in north Atlanta, said he misunderstood the pronouncer. He spelled the word he thought he heard, a word he repeated for the judges before he started spelling. His mother, Kalpana Mahadevan, appealed her son’s dismissal immediately, as is her right under the bee rules. But she said the judges refused to replay the tape to see whether the pronouncer had clearly articulated the word. Instead, they ruled that Pranav was out and proceeded with the contest.

This is personal. First they screw us by misrepresenting Hindus in California textbooks and now they go after our kind in Georgia. Is it Pranav’s fault that Georgians can’t properly articulate the “-ed” at the end of their words? My personal advice would be to set up a commission to look into this. Scientists could come and quantify the acoustics of the competition room and speech therapists could assess the so-called “pronouncer.” Both could later testify as expert witnesses in front of the congressional committee which overseas these matters.

All hope is not lost however. After Hurricane Katrina, the city of Houston demonstrated its limitless generosity by taking in the vast majority of Katrina victims. On a recent trip to Houston, Pranav’s mom learned that the city was also known for taking in those abused by the Spelling Bee System and the incompetent federal and state officials who are responsible for its breakdown:

In Georgia, few students pursue spelling as diligently as Pranav, who has broadcasts of past National Spelling Bees on tape and can rattle off the winning words for the past several years.

His mother networked among parents in Texas, where the Indian-American community is very active in spelling bees. They advised her to move to Texas, saying that Georgia didn’t have a reputation of taking spelling competition seriously.

Georg…ia hates brown people. Continue reading →

"The blacker the soul…"

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For the past week the darling of the media has been Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia:

President Bush welcomed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to the White House on Tuesday, calling Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state “a pioneer.”

In January, first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended the inauguration of the 67-year-old Harvard-educated former finance minister. She inherits a war-ruined nation of 3 million with an 80 percent unemployment rate, no running water and no electricity. Despite its diamond and timber wealth, Liberia is among the world’s poorest; ranked 206th in per capita income out of 208 countries on a 2004 World Bank list.

Neither leader publicly commented on U.S. aid to Liberia or Sirleaf’s request for Nigeria to hand over exiled former President Charles Taylor, who is wanted on war crimes charges. Taylor has been indicted by a U.N. tribunal on charges of committing crimes against humanity by aiding and directing a Sierra Leone rebel movement and trading guns and gems with insurgents infamous for chopping off the lips, ears and limbs of civilian victims. [Link]

The shadow of Charles Taylor will dominate Liberian politics for the forseeable future. Taylor is one of the main reasons why I have vowed never to purchase a worthless “rock” for anyone.

After the official end of the civil war in 1996, Taylor became Liberia’s president on August 2, 1997, following a landslide victory in July, in which he took 75% of the vote. The election was judged free and fair by observers, although Taylor’s victory has been partially attributed to the belief that he would resume the war if he lost, and therefore many people may have voted for him simply to preserve peace. For example, his campaign song included the words “he killed my ma, he killed my pa, I’ll vote for him…”

In June 2003, a United Nations justice tribunal issued a warrant for Taylor’s arrest, charging him with war crimes. The UN asserts that Taylor created and backed the RUF rebels in Sierra Leone, which is accused of a range of atrocities, including the use of child soldiers. The prosecutor also said Taylor’s administration had harbored members of Al-Qaeda sought in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania… [Link]

So that brings us to the negotiations which seek to extradite the scum bag from Nigeria. Many people are afraid that bringing him to justice will cause bloodshed by polarizing the fragile country once again. Some of the negotiations on Taylor’s behalf are being conducted by an American. He is an Indian American evangelical preacher to be precise: Kilari Anand Paul. Continue reading →

Same old story

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It is amazing to me that five years after 9/11 the airlines STILL don’t have their acts together in preventing racial discrimination by their aircraft crews. The latest comes from the Bay Area:

A Muslim father and son from Hayward filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation this week, accusing airline attendants of booting them off a flight because of their appearance.

Fazal Khan, 59, and his son, Mohammed Khan, 28, boarded a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Oakland on Jan. 31 wearing traditional South Asian tunics, white skullcaps and loose trousers. Both men also have long beards…

[Shirin Sinnar of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco] said the Khans do not know of anything, other than their attire, that could have agitated the female flight attendant, who apparently expressed concern to the terminal crew about their presence.

“When they got on the plane, she helped them with their bags. That was their only interaction,” Sinnar said.

Sinnar said the two men boarded the flight with no problems. They had been sitting on the plane for about an hour before they were ejected.

Mohammed Khan was sleeping and sometimes reading the Quran, she said, while the father was relaxing awake. They were heading back to Oakland International Airport from a trip visiting family members.

The plane eventually moved down the runway but returned to the terminal as airplane staff announced mechanical difficulties, Sinnar said.

An airline customer service representative walked onto the plane and asked the Khans to bring their carry-on handbags with them and return to the airport terminal, Sinnar said. [Link]

Next comes the most incomprehensible part. You would think that two people that aroused enough suspicion to be kicked off a flight would at least have their bags removed from cargo. Not so in this case. The Khans were placed on the next flight to San Francisco but their bags (minus carry-on) continued on to Oakland aboard the original aircraft:

After escorting them out, the representative was “sympathetic” but said they could not return because the flight attendant was not comfortable with them on board, Sinnar said…

“The strange thing is no one took the bags off the first flight,” Sinnar said. “If there was any thought they were a security risk, certainly their bags should have been removed…” [Link]

Straight-up racial discrimination. The father and son say they were humiliated and will be suing Utah-based SkyWest who were responsible for staff on the aircraft.

See related post: Fear of flying Continue reading →

Is it too early to talk about ’07?

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In my never ending quest to become known in irrelevant circles as the brown Tim Russert, I bring you news of the 2007 Louisiana governor’s race. It is never too early to start thinking about such things:

With the displacement of hundreds of thousands of New Orleans voters due to Katrina, primarily African-American Democrats, Republican candidates stand a better chance of statewide victory. Undoubtedly, a percentage of these voters will settle in other states or not bother to vote from distant locations in upcoming elections. Both U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu and Governor Blanco won their races with only 52% of the vote, their margin provided by strong African-American support in New Orleans. With Katrina creating a much smaller Crescent City, it will likely lead to a totally different dynamic in the next election, making victory for Democrats more difficult. [Link]

The scuttlebutt has it that Governor Blanco is D.O.A. The Democrats are desperately trying to find someone to run in her place. Former U.S. Senator John Breaux (D), very popular in his day and buddy-buddy with the Republicans, is the perfect choice. Unfortunately he is a rich Washington lobbyist now and it would appear that he has no incentive to give up the good life and inherit a whole state full of major problems for an insignificant salary. So why are Democrats so worried? Yep, you guessed it. You knew where this was headed:

Waiting in the wings to oppose her is Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal. Although Katrina has produced state demographics more favorable to the Republican Party, the low approval ratings for the Republican Congress and the Bush White House will not exactly help Jindal win the election. Most likely, it will be another hard fought and typical Louisiana campaign. At this point, it looks like Jindal will prevail, but billions of dollars in extra money; pay raises for her core constituency and 18 months of being able to show at least some progress are advantages for the incumbent right now. At this point, Blanco is signaling to everyone in the state that she will compete for re-election and compete aggressively. [Link]

He has performed admirably since Katrina and Rita, working hard for his state, traveling across Louisiana, and visiting with victims of the hurricanes. Jindal has been pushing a conservative agenda in Congress, but one that is decidedly pro-Louisiana. He has worked tirelessly for more recovery funding for the state and is sponsoring legislation to give Louisiana a larger share of offshore oil and gas revenues. He has not hesitated to criticize the Bush administration when warranted, most recently in the controversy over a United Arab Emirates owned company controlling port operations in cities like New Orleans. [Link]

Ironically some in the Republican party want Jindal to go after the Senate seat in Louisiana instead (the one currently occupied by Mary Landrieu). If Jindal has any (*gasp*) Presidential aspirations then I’d stick to running for governor.

Right now, 19 months from Election Day, it looks like Bobby Jindal is in the catbird seat. This amount of time is a lifetime in politics, so anything can happen, but Democrats like Odom realize their unfortunate predicament. In the last few years, Jindal has done a good job of building relationships across the state. He will use this expanded network to launch his campaign for governor. It is a job that he has wanted for many years and one that at this point has his name on it. [Link]
Continue reading →

Law & Order: Forced Marriage Unit

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No, I’m just kidding. There is not a new Law & Order show in the works. Unbeknownst to me, the U.K. actually has an entire unit of people, the Forced Marriage Unit, which reviews cases of human rights violations as pertaining to forced marriages:

The Forced Marriage Unit sees around 250 cases a year. “There used to be confusion between forced and arranged marriages,” explains a member of unit staff. “They were seen as being part of a certain culture. But that’s changing now. Forced marriage is not a religious or cultural issue – it is a global human rights abuse”. Forced marriage means just that – where a victim (one was 13 years old) is told they have to get married and they don’t want to.

Cases can be difficult, as the young person doesn’t usually want to see their parents get into trouble. “As well as providing guidance, if we know in advance that someone is about to be forced into marriage, we can work with partners organisations to find an appropriate way to support the victim. If the victim goes overseas, our consular staff will work with the local police to do what they properly can to help the victim. In extreme cases this can mean helping to bring them back to the UK if this is what the victim wants.”

The BBC is reporting that the FMU is unveiling a new campaign, complete with awareness posters like the one seen to the right:

The campaign by the government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is backed by actor and writer Meera Syal and former EastEnders star Ameet Chana.

More than 250 cases are reported to the FMU each year, most of which involve links to south Asian countries.

A decision by the government is also expected soon on whether to outlaw forced marriages.

The new drive will include poster and television campaigns and radio and press adverts…

It will highlight the difference between an arranged marriage and a forced marriage, which is one conducted without the full consent of both parties and under duress. [Link]

We’d be forever grateful to our U.K. readers if they give us the heads up on any television or radio ads they’ve seen that get posted to the internet. I wasn’t able to find other versions of the posters but I am sure they will pop up soon. Not to make light of this very serious and worthwhile effort but the funny thing is that the poster to the right is vague enough that it may send casual passerbys (who are also committment-phobes) into an anxiety attack about an impending non-forced marriage. I’m just saying.

Continue reading →

TGN1412

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TGN1412 is the current designation given to a trial drug that is being tested in the UK as a treatment for leukemia. The first human trial resulted in some horrific results earlier today. First the background though:

Another human trial gone horribly wrong

Two men were in critical condition Wednesday in a London hospital and four others were seriously ill after taking a new drug in a trial supervised by a Waltham, Mass.-based company.

British regulators ordered the immediate suspension of tests of the drug, developed to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and leukemia.

“Two patients remain critical and four patients are serious but showing some signs of improvement,” Ganesh Suntharalingam, clinical director of intensive care at Northwick Park Hospital, said in a statement. “The drug, which is untested and therefore unused by doctors, has caused an inflammatory response which affects some organs of the body…” [Link]

Here is how things took a turn into science fiction territory and became plain scary for the volunteers:

The girlfriend of a man fighting for life after taking part in a pharmaceuticals trial has said the drugs he was given have left him looking “like the Elephant Man”.

“His chest is puffed out. He is already a big kind of guy but his face is out here, like Elephant Man, it’s completely puffed.

She added: “They haven’t got a cure. This is not leukaemia. This is a drug they have never tested on humans before so they don’t know what they are dealing with. It’s completely messed up their vital organs…” [Link]

A couple of the hospitalized volunteers appear to have been of South Asian origin. Continue reading →