Author Archives: Vivek

Aseem Shukla’s Piece on the Gaza Flotilla

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In his piece in The Washington Post’s “On Faith” column last Wednesday, Aseem Shukla, co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), begins with the following:

Watching events unfold in the Middle East, I lose the hyphen in Hindu-American here and comment only as an American. I do not represent the Hindu American Foundation here, but represent the views of one stunned by the existential challenges in the Middle East (On Faith).

He then questions the motives of the flotilla organizers, characterizing it as a political stunt rather than a genuine humanitarian effort (why are the two mutually exclusive?).

The flotillas insist on direct access to land controlled by the same Hamas thugs that are committed to destroying Israel and have purposefully launched thousands of rockets at Israel. These seaborne do-gooders could easily unload their supplies in Israel and have them transported to Gaza if their concerns were only humanitarian. But theirs were political, and they chose to protest, provoke and, yes, in a few cases, covet the perverse martyrdom of the extremist.

The problem with Mr. Shukla’s article, and the reason I find it disingenuous, is that though he claims to lose his hyphen, his argument fits neatly within the political framework of HAF.

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So THAT’S the Domain of the Sri Lankan Police

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Last September, the Asia Society held a talk by Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, who was then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. It was around the time of the United States General Assembly session – you know, the one during which all talk was about Gaddafi setting up a tent on Donald Trump’s property.

Although he had attended and addressed the General Assembly at its three previous sessions, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse ducked this one – the first after the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 – and sent his Prime Minister instead.

Anyway, back to the Asia Society. Sitting front and center in the audience were members of the Sri Lankan delegation, including Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapakse, and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

During the question and answer session, the moderator pushed Wickremanayake on the issue of foreign aid organizations’ restricted access to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (specifically the Red Cross). After evading the questions as much as he could, the Prime Minister eventually referred aid organizations to “the Ministry of Defence, which is in charge of maintaining law and order” (40:50 in the video linked above), glancing frequently at and gesturing toward Gotabaya Rajapakse.

Friends, when I heard him say that, my ears nearly jumped off my head. In every democratic state with which I’m familiar, law and order is the domain of law enforcement and civil judiciary, not the military. If the Ministry of Defence is in charge of maintaining law and order in Sri Lanka, I thought, what exactly is the role of the police? Well fear not, for that question has been answered!

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Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby / Let’s Talk About You and Me

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Let’s talk about the old men in the corner who will stone us – if
We talk about sex

I know this news is more than a month old, but the charges against actor Kushboo dragged on for so long that I think it’s perfectly acceptable to drag on their well-deserved death. You might have heard that late last month, the Indian Supreme Court quashed all defamation charges against her. It was alleged that in a 2005 interview with the Tamil edition of India Today, Kushboo denigrated the good name of Tamil women by insinuating that they all have sex before getting married. For this, she was lampooned in the Tamil press, and there were street protests in Tamil Nadu – one particularly memorable for a donkey bearing her name.

First, a wee bit o’ background. Kushboo is a star of Tamil film and more recently television. Those in the know will relish taking apart the previous sentence in the comments section as the understatement of the year. They are welcome to. I will simply say that both of my grandmothers watched her serial “Kalki” and watch her weekly quiz show “Jackpot” – brought to you by Arokya Milk – with a devotion not seen since… dare I say Doordarshan’s Ramayana?

kushboo.jpg
Photo by Scott Carney

The big stink started with India Today’s 2005 annual issue on SEX – the most blatant attempt to boost ratings since… dare I say Doordarshan’s Ramayana? (Kidding, kiddiiiiing). The issue features a sex survey, and each year is different. The theme of the 2005 survey was “Sex and the Single Woman.” The Tamil edition of India Today interviewed Kushboo for the issue and the dignity of Tamil women hasn’t been the same since. I can’t find anything on India Today’s site (so I don’t know if what I’m giving you is the real deal), but here’s a version of the interview which the author transcribed. I humbly offer the following translation. Please feel free to correct.

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Arizona’s New Immigration Law Affects All of Us

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Immigrant Rights Rally, Union Square Park, New York City, May 1, 2010

“For any lawful stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town, or other political subdivision of this state in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town in this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation. Any person who is arrested shall have the person’s immigration status determined before the person is released” (Revisions to Arizona’s laws from SB1070 and HB2162).

Ten years ago, a Tucson police officer “lawfully stopped” me when I wasn’t doing anything.

It was the summer after I graduated from high school; college was set, classes were over, and life was goooooooood. I had started to rediscover the parts of living in Tucson, Arizona that I’d loved as a child but that just weren’t cool enough for me in my early teens: starry nights, sunsets, hikes, and the tranquility of the desert.

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