And they say asians are inscrutible. Consider what’s happening to Farhat Khan: she’s an “advice worker” in Manchester, and has been invited to meet the Queen because of her contributions to “national life”. This comes just one day after she was told that her asylum application was turned down, and that she was about to be deported back to Pakistan, which she left because she and her children were at risk for domestic violence. Wha? Well, I suppose this is a chance to bring the issue to the very top (say, Rani, could you mention this to Tony Blair? Thanks. And oh, please pass the crumpets. And one more of those delicious little tea sandwiches)
Author Archives: Ennis Singh Mutinywale
Beeb: Bangalore Bigots Ban Bollywood Blockbusters
In glossy, hi-tech Bangalore, India’s virtual bridge to the west, decidedly parochial sentiments are aflame. Kannada groups, concerned about the influx of Tamilians, are taking a hard line stand against films made in outsider languages. This includes movies in English or Hindi, India’s two official languages. As a result, Veer-Zara, Bollywood’s current megahit, cannot be shown.
Policemen are frisking ticket holders at the gates as a security measure in the wake of threats to disrupt the first screenings of the film in the city. The film has been screened in defiance of an unofficial moratorium … on new films not made in Kannada, the language of Karnataka state. Police are taking no chances as the threat is real. [BBC]
Making Water: Paging Morarji Desai
Water is becoming increasingly scarce, all over the world. In India, perhaps fewer than a third of all Indians have access to “decent sanitation and high quality drinking water.” (See V’s earlier post on the subject) Nor is this just an Indian problem. Some of Australia’s biggest cities, for example, may run dry in just a few years, perhaps as early as 2006.
What is to be done? Well, there is the ancient vedic practice of Shivambu or Amaroli, but despite Morarji Desai’s best efforts, drinking one’s own urine has not(ahem) gone down well amongst the general population.
But don’t despair. In Singapore, they have harnessed the braininess of Brown scientists in the US to produce NEWater!
NEWater is the product of Singapore’s new water-treatment system, and it is wastewater that has been purified through advanced synthetic membranes called ZeeWeed. That’s right: The crystal-clear NEWater that gushes through the country’s faucets isn’t gurgling from a mountain spring. Most recently, it was flushed from a toilet. [Salon.com]
This process is the brainchild of Ashok Gadgil:
In December 1992, an outbreak of a new and dangerous strain of cholera began in southeastern India. Within months it had spread into neighboring countries, killing up to 10,000 people. The tragedy inspired Ashok Gadgil, an Indian-born scientist working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, to look for a new way to purify drinking water. Using science no more complex than the ultraviolet light emitted by an unshielded fluorescent lamp, he built a simple, effective, and inexpensive water disinfection system. Dozens of these systems are now installed around the world. “At the bare bones, using the simplest engineering, we could disinfect water for half a cent per ton. That’s shockingly cheap. You could disinfect water for one person, a full year’s drinking supply, for a couple of cents.”
Bhutan: Bidi Ban, Badmash!
The remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has decided to ban all tobacco products from Wednesday, a government notification says. Shops, hotels, restaurants and bars selling tobacco products have been ordered to dispose of existing stocks before 17 December. Those who violate the ban will be fined $210 and owners of shops and hotels will lose their business licenses.
Are you a tourist who desperately wants to go to Bhutan, but who can’t go a few days without a smoke? Don’t worry, you’re OK as long as you don’t sell your stash to the locals:
The tobacco ban will not apply to foreign tourists, diplomats or those working for NGOs. [However] Foreigners selling tobacco to locals will be severely punished. “If any foreigner is caught selling tobacco products to Bhutanese nationals, he will be charged with smuggling. Tobacco will be treated as contraband,” Karma Tshering of Bhutanese Customs told the BBC.
Now what puzzles me is why people at high altitudes are smoking at all? I mean, isn’t the air thin enough? Apparently, Sherpas in Nepal do so all the time, as they lead expedititions up the mountain. And I remember reading about cases where mountaineers would suck in oxygen from a tank, then inhale their cigarette (dangerous!), and then get more oxygen, etc. (like this: “Meanwhile, Finch had been staving off the effects of altitude with regular gasps of oxygen — between puffs on a cigarette!”). However, the best quote I found on the subject was:
“This is the fucking life, no ?” — Jean Afanassieff, first frenchman on Everest (on the summit of which he smoked a cigarette waiting for the others).
Equal treatment by the law’s a bitch, aint it?
The transport minister of India’s northern state of Bihar has been fined for travelling on an express train without a ticket. Awadh Bihari Choudhry and his security guard were both fined 250 rupees ($5.50) after being caught on Monday. Mr Choudhry is a member of the political party led by the federal railways minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav. Director of public relations for the federal railways, MY Siddiqui, told the BBC: “Ticketless travelling and paying less are two areas our minister is very keen to focus on. And the results are already showing.” “The increase in fines from 50 rupees to 250 rupees this July is proving to be a deterrent,” he said. India’s railway network is among the world’s largest, carrying more than 13m passengers a day. [source: BBC]
For some reason, I found this hillarious. Hoist on his own master’s petard, eh? If I was drinking lassi, it would have come out of my nose! [Insert gratuitous train pun here]
Gay American Yogi on life in Mysore
From his list of 18 things he loves about India:
I love the way it is so easy to make friends. I love seeing people everywhere who I think are exotic, and who at the same time think that I am exotic. I also love what Joseph Campbell simplistically called “India’s homosexual atmosphere.” I say “simplistic,” because it seems that few people in India think or act in terms of homosexual vs. heterosexual, or even think about homosexuality at all. See previous post on this subject. When I was a gay teenager, I tried to wriggle away in horror when even a beautiful beloved put his arm around me in public. In India, guys are arm-in-arm even when both are riding bicycles on a busy street. At my house, I have seen local “straight” guys sit in each other’s lap, and not only hold but caress each other’s hand. I love the fact that it is relatively easy to have affairs with handsome Indian guys. The rare, more media-conscious ones call it “the homosex.” The less aware simply call it “maasti,” which means mischief or play. I wonder how much more decent America would be if males were allowed to show affection for each other. I wonder how much more decent India would be if the sexes were not so segregated. I wonder if I am a fool for wondering these things.
GOP = BJP?
Theocracy, it’s not just for South Asians any more. According to arch-conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, the Texas GOP has developed a jonesing for home grown Sharia law:
The Republican National Committee is employing the services of a Texas-based activist who believes the United States is a ‘Christian nation’ and the separation of church and state is ‘a myth.’ David Barton, the founder of an organization called Wallbuilders, was hired by the RNC as a political consultant and has been traveling the country for a year–speaking at about 300 RNC-sponsored lunches for local evangelical pastors. During the lunches, he presents a slide show of American monuments, discusses his view of AmericaÂ’s Christian heritage — and tells pastors that they are allowed to endorse political candidates from the pulpit.It gets worse. Barton is on the board of advisers for a Christian Reconstructionist group – people who believe that America should scrap its constitution and go back to Biblical law. When I have described the trend within the GOP as theocratic, I am sometimes criticized for hyperbole. But this is the reality. Barton is the vice-chair of the Texas GOP. Figures.
And you thought the only connections between Texas and the Taliban were their mutual love of big “hats” and pickup trucks. Here is a detailed exposition of the history of American Biblical Law, some (hostile) quotes from a book that argues from biblical law, and the accompanying software (looks like it is just text).
Quantity and Quality
The UK is trying to encourage more Sikhs to join the British army. Why?
… at the time of First World War, Sikhs formed 20 per cent of the British army. That meant 100,000 Sikhs. “In the 100 years to 1945, there were some 14 Victoria Crosses awarded to Sikhs. On a per capita basis, given the size of Sikh regiments, that must be a record for the entire British armed forces,”
Background: Right now there are only around 100 Sikhs in the British armed forces, which is more than the US or Canadian militaries, but still not much in light of past levels of recruitment.
Only 1,354 Victoria Crosses have been awarded since the first in 1856. The Congressional Medal of Honor is the US counterpart to the VC; it’s the highest award given out by the British.
p.s. No, I don’t buy into notions of “martial races.”
Outsource This!
Jason Alexander must be really really desperate. He acted in a completely unfunny (by any standard) sketch called “Outsource This!” It’s a video clip on the whiny Outsource Outrage website.
It plays to all sorts of nasty, parochial predjudices by saying the names of foreign countries like they’re nasty, just because they’re not in America (at one point a kid asks him where Uzbekistan is, and he points to a map, and says it’s not in “here” gesturing to North America). Another time he gestures to Iran and North Korea, waving his hands over the intervening countries, saying “Axis of Evil,” like all of Asia is inside the Axis.
The only good thing about the clip is that they don’t single out India. Watch it, be prepared to be both bored and repulsed.
The Flying Sikh: Direct Flights from Amritsar to Birmingham
I used to go from Birmingham to Amritsar by foot, but it was a very slow walk!
Birmingham International Airport (BIA) has celebrated the launch of a new non-stop long haul charter service with specialist tour operator, Midland Airways. Travellers are now able to fly direct to Amritsar, the City of the Golden Temple, from Birmingham each Friday. This service will increase to two flights per week before the end of the month and will see a third weekly departure in early December.[FYI: The original Flying Sikh was Milkha Singh, “the only Indian to have broken an Olympic record” (unfortunately, he broke the record in the 400m preliminaries, and then came in 4th in a photo finish in the 1960 Rome Olympics.)]The flights are operated by a new airline to Birmingham, Slovak Airlines, using a 215 seater 767-200 aircraft. Although the service is operated as a charter flight, passengers have a choice of two classes – economy (203 seats) and first class (12 seats). Prices start from GBP299 return.
Currently, the weekly service departs from Birmingham each Friday at 21:00, arriving the next morning into Amritsar Airport at 09:30. The return flight leaves Amritsar on Sunday at 13:30 and arrives into Birmingham at 20:00 the same evening. These flight times will change as new frequencies are added.