Category Archives: News

Investment undeterred by fear

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It is comforting to note that in these times of terror, hard-headed businessmen still make their investment decisions undeterred by threat. My newest hero is that Titan of Industry, the Captain of Capitalism, Laxmi Mittal. It seems that the world’s richest Indian is increasing his investment in India-na:

Mittal Steel Co. plans to begin a $10 million expansion of research and development laboratories in East Chicago. The first phase, to start this week, would add 22,000 square feet to a laboratory. It is expected to be completed within a year. The company is based in the Netherlands, but its U.S. operations are run from Chicago. [Link]

This announcement came the day after it was revealed that India-na is the state in the union most densely populated with potential terrorist targets:

Indiana, with 8,591 potential terrorist targets, had 50 percent more listed sites than New York (5,687) and more than twice as many as California (3,212), ranking the state the most target-rich place in the nation. [Link]

That’s 11% of all targets on the National Asset Database. This is a state so hated by terrorists that even a rural popcorn factory with five employees is considered a target! Clearly Mittal is a man of steel, a hombre without fear, somebody who does not blanch even in the face of terrorists as confused as Christopher Columbus. Who needs Hanu-man, Indian Super-man, a brown Justice League, or any other Indian superheroes when we have a Mittal-man of our own ?

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A Gujarati Connection?

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On Monday of this week I wrote this post (Lingering Tension in Gujarat) examining a Christian Science Monitor article on the growing powder keg of tensions in the Indian state of Gujarat (where my family emigrated from). The very next day the Mumbai Train Attacks occurred. Could these two seemingly unrelated topics be somehow related? I am the LAST person to jump to conclusions involving terrorism but I do want to point out some facts that the media is now reporting. In the passages below I have highlighted facts so as to separate from rumor:

Gujarat appears to loom large over the Mumbai blasts. That’s apparently why terrorists targeted only the Western Railway tracks and that too only first-class coaches.

Sources said the aim apparently was to hit moneyed Gujaratis, many of whom stay in suburbs of Vile Parle, Kandivli, Malad and Borivli along the Western Railway and travel first class.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba, intelligence reports suggest, has recruited local youths saying that they should take revenge for the atrocities heaped on the minority community in Gujarat where the Narendra Modi government is heavily funded by the rich Gujarati businessmen of Mumbai.

It is not for nothing that Modi is coming here early next week to meet community leaders. [Link]

What else do we know?

The aftershocks of Tuesday’s serial blasts in Mumbai shook Gujarat deeply. A large number of people killed and injured were Gujaratis.

At least seven people, mostly diamond traders, were killed in the blasts, while another eight diamond traders were reported to be missing till Wednesday evening. [Link]

Here is more:

The Railways on Wednesday cancelled the Shatabdi Express from Ahmedabad and Mumbai and three trains originating from Mumbai.

The 2010 Shatabdi from Ahmedabad to Mumbai and its counterpart from Mumbai Train 2009, the 9023 Ferozepur Express, the 9215 Saurashtra Express from Mumbai to Ahmedabad and the 239B Ahmedabad passenger train have also been cancelled for the day. [Link]

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SAJA Convention

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The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) holds its 12th annual convention, this Thursday through Sunday, in New York City. For more information on SAJA and the convention click here. SAJA has become quite a formidable organization. The convention will gather 1,000 media desis and desiphiles, which should be an interesting scene on a number of levels, and the outside speakers are quite a high-power group, from the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs to the head of the Associated Press.

I will be attending the convention and covering it on behalf of the Mutiny. I don’t know what this will mean in practice, nor what tack or tone I’ll take — I like to improvise — but I’ll be there and filing reports for you.

Quite a few SAJA-ers and associates read Sepia Mutiny, so here’s an open invitation for anyone attending the conference to get in touch. E-mail me and include your cellphone so I can send you a text during the event.

Any questions or suggestions from readers, please leave them in the comments or feel free to drop me a line.

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Deafening silence in the blogosphere

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While trying to deal with the tragedy in Mumbai, I have been wondering what the coverage of the story tells us about ourselves.

I was not surprised by MSM coverage in America: poor in local papers, better in papers with a large desi population or those with an international audience. I was pleased to hear that CNN and CNBC had decent cable news coverage, perhaps because they’re well established in India.

What has baffled me, however, is the relative silence from the world of blogs. The blogosphere is supposed to be the cutting edge, far more advanced than the MSM, yet they’re spending less time on the story.

To be more precise, Technorati’s rankings of popular news stories shows us that average bloggers are paying some attention to the bombings; the fourth, sixth and twentieth most reblogged news stories are the BBC, CNN, and Fox News versions of this story. It’s currently less important than the death of Pink Floyd guitarist Syd Barrett, or coverage of Zidane’s press coverage, but more important than Bob Novak and the big dig.

Where we see a distressing lack of coverage most clearly is amongst political blogs in the top 100 list [Thanks Manish]:

Amongst other major politics blogs, Atrios did a one line link while travelling and WashingtonMonthly covered black hair but not blacker events.

What gives? I emailed the following question to three significant political bloggers:

No opinion on the Mumbai bombings?

I’m surprised. Many more have died than did in London a year ago, and the death toll is currently just a little under the death toll from Madrid. Yet the blogosphere is largely quiet. Why?

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On the ground

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Bombay may or may not be the Maximum City, but maximum respect goes out to local writers Dilip D’Souza and Mutineer Emeritus Manish Vij for their pieces in Salon today. Dilip offers a reporter’s chronicle of the day; Manish, a very elegant urban essay centered on the railway.

Props to Salon for having reached out to these brothers. It’s well worth the small annoyance of watching a Stoli Blueberi (sic) ad — talk about irrelevant! — in order to read the online mag’s content today. Continue reading →

BOMBAY’S RUSH HOUR ROCKED BY BLASTS (11 Updates)

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Ultrabrown.jpg Breaking News in Bombay via AP:

Seven explosions rocked Bombay’s commuter rail network during Tuesday evening’s rush hour. The blasts ripped apart train compartments and reportedly killed dozens, police and Indian media said.

Though the chaos makes it difficult to ascertain exact numbers, how many have been injured, Indiant tv reports said that “the death toll could be in the dozens.” 40 80 100 105 137 163 172 200 people have died and 300 464 700 are injured. I’m sure that before I can even update this post, one of you will comment with the latest numbers; I sincerely hope that they are not high. I know, I’m excessively idealistic, but whenever I hear “Breaking News”, “Bombs” or “Trains” or similar, I screw my eyes shut and pray for miracles.

Television images showed injured victims sprawled on train tracks, frantically dialing their cell phones. Some of the injured were being carried away from the crash site. The force of the blasts ripped doors and windows off carriages, and luggage and debris were strewn about.
Pranay Prabhakar, the spokesman for the Western Railway, confirmed that seven blasts had taken place. He said all trains had been suspended, and he appealed to the public to stay away from the city’s train stations.
Bombay, India’s financial center, and New Delhi, the capital, were reportedly on high alert. Bombay’s commuter rail network is among the most crowded in the world.

Developing… 🙁 Continue reading →

Salty Tigers Are No Match For A Woman

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le tigre.jpg

Somewhere near the Sundarbans, a teenager cancelled a Royal Bengal tiger‘s dinner plans. Using nothing more than a row boat oar, she kept the ferocious cat at bay for ten minutes. Unbelievable. Or maybe it isn’t. I’ve heard of mothers lifting cars off of their trapped children in order to save them. Maybe when the person in danger is a loved one…anything is possible. Via the BBC:

A woman in Bangladesh…fended off a Royal Bengal tiger which was attacking her husband, police say…

Eighteen-year-old Nazma Akhter and her husband Anwarul Islam, 25, were fishing for shrimp on Sunday in a canal on the fringes of the Sundarbans…

After biting Akkhter’s husband, the tiger tried to abscond with him, as Bengals are wont to do with their quarry; that’s when the fierce animal had to reckon with a fiercer woman.

Police chief ASM Zahid said…”This woman is extraordinarily courageous, because she alone fought the tiger and saved her husband,” he told the BBC.

“I salute her for her courage.”

Approximately 20 people are killed by tigers each year in Bangladesh; last week alone in the Sunderbans, two women died because of attacks from the lethal carnivores.

Local newspapers reported that such was the beating it received from the paddle that it was forced to beat a retreat into the forest.

Such a beating!

I had guessed that pressures from humans impinging on the Royal ‘hood were the cause for all of these deaths by Tiger, but apparently, there’s another reason: Continue reading →

Lingering tension in Gujarat

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Despite the fact that the last remnants of my family (on both sides) emigrated from India twenty years ago, the happenings in Ahmedabad, Gujarat are always of concern to me. All of my relatives (on both sides) have returned to purchase homes in Ahmedabad. It is part of an economic boom over there from what I understand. In Ahmedabad, my family will spend a significant amount of their retirement years. I will also probably make several trips there. The Christian Science Monitor featured an article on Friday that caused me worry:

… religious segregation is expanding not only to places of worship, but also neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. At the entrance of some villages, gaily painted message boards have sprung up since the riots that read: “Welcome to this Hindu village in the Hindu nation of Gujarat.”

Expressing concern over this increasing polarization, a recent report by a high level committee from the Indian Prime Minister’s office, to be tabled in the Indian Parliament in October, states that Gujarat still hasn’t recuperated from the riots in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. The committee noted that several Gujarati cities and towns are sharply divided into Hindu and Muslim ghettoes. Muslims, a minority in the state, face social and economic boycott from society at large. The committee also observed that dropout rates of Muslim girls have risen. And there’s a dismal representation of Muslims in public-sector jobs.

“There’s a state of fear and insecurity among Muslims,” says a member of the committee. “The state government has done little to end the state of alienation…” [Link]

I think that it is naturally important to look at the source of any claims pertaining to ethnic relations in Gujarat. In the paragraph above a study was conducted at the behest of the Prime Minister. In this excerpt below you will note that the examination was done by one of India’s mainstream newspapers:

The Indian Express, a national daily, reported last month that Muslims are being sidelined from the Indian government’s ambitious antipoverty project that promises the country’s rural poor 100 days of employment every year.

“Where the communal divide was hardened, where violence led to murder and widespread arson … Muslims are nowhere on the employment rolls,” the newspaper reported after touring six districts within Gujarat where the scheme is being implemented. Not just are there information blackouts, even those Muslims who enquire about jobs are turned away, the report said.

In response, Bharat Barot, Gujarat’s minister of state for rural development, said that in villages “the majority community called the shots.” The state was probing whether the alienation of Muslims was deliberate, and, if so, “it’ll be fixed immediately…” [Link]

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Next stop, Johannesburg

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0000figozidane_84216a.jpgA couple of hours from now, 22 handsome men of various shapes and hues will peel off their sweat-drenched jerseys and exchange them, amid hugs and kisses and mussing of hair, before a crowd of tens of thousands and a television audience of billions. And just like that, the World Cup will be over.

As the sporting winner emerges from the final pairing of France and Italy, so shall the competitionÂ’s winning narrative, the storyline of storylines that best succeeds in taking events on the field and giving them interpretive power to tell us something about the world we live in.

It is interesting that we are having discussions right now at the Mutiny about nationalism, jingoism, patriotism, anti-nationalism, and matters of that sort, at the same time that the worldÂ’s quadriennial celebration of national identities wraps up. The World Cup is a curious beast, it is a time when national loyalties are expressed, loudly and even virulently, yet in a choreographed manner and by universally recognized rules of engagement and fair play, for a limited duration and all at the same time.

ItÂ’s as much a celebration of the porousness of national barriers as it is of their continued relevance. ItÂ’s an event that inherently applauds globalization – the demographic flows, the internationalization of the business of sports, the diffusion of popular culture, the technological advances that permit billions of people to watch the same high-quality image feeds, the ease of travel that permits delegations of supporters to travel from the far corners of the planet. And itÂ’s also an opportunity to wrap oneself in oneÂ’s flag – or that of another country to which one feels loyalty, or kinship, or just a whimsical fancy. Continue reading →

Jingoism in the blogosphere

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For a while now I have been meaning to write about a topic that has been of great concern to me (I am pretty sure most of my co-bloggers are as disturbed by it as I am). I have noticed that the blogosphere, with its ability to confer an anonymous voice to anyone, is often the venue for ignorant and naked jingoism. A blog like ours, which mostly covers items about, and of interest to North Americans of South Asian origin, offers a particularly unique window into what I am referring to. All of the bloggers who write for SM live in North America. Some were born here and some were not. The resulting mix of loyalties, the perception of mixed loyalties, our readers expectation of mixed loyalties, or our readers anger at a lack of loyalty toward the lands of our “origin,” results in a perfect storm. SM and a few other sites like it are being viewed by some as a sort of virtual ideological battlefield where the hearts and minds of several thousand readers hang in the balance.

Jingo: (n) One who vociferously supports one’s country, especially one who supports a belligerent foreign policy; a chauvinistic patriot. [link]

In its traditional use the word “jingo” (a pejorative term) means something far different than the word “patriot.” A patriot loves their country or geographic region and is ready to defend it…but is not above questioning it or beyond introspection. A true patriot is willing to defend against all enemies both external and internal. A jingo is the worst kind of nationalist (even worse when mixed with religion). They lash out at the tiniest hint of criticism directed at “their own.” A few days ago a reader commented on what he saw transpiring on our News Tab:

Off topic, but also in a strange way, slightly related to this topic, is the way in which the news tab here on Sepia Mutiny is used as a repository for anti Muslim chauvinism. This goes beyond the legitimate posting of stories on Muslim extremism and runs to the extent of posting articles from the RSS newspaper, posting about Little Green Football style documentary screeds about ‘The Truth About Islam’. I have noticed how these posts amazingly get large numbers of ‘Interested’ clicks in a short amount of time. Amazing!

Amusingly, someone has now posted a ‘Trouble with Hinduism’ article in response to this bigotry as a means of showing how it works both ways. Good. Chauvinists are using the news tab for their bigoted agenda. You should at least be aware of it. It is so tedious to see these monomaniacs waging their campaign and abusing what is an open and useful facility on SM. [link]

Yes, we are well aware of this phenomenon and will work to stamp it out as best we can. You can accuse us of censorship if you’d like but this isn’t about censorship but about remaining true to belief that communication is more important than simply being heard. A few weeks ago Anna sent her co-bloggers the following email:

Subject: I find the popularity of this news item a bit disturbing

The article linked reads like a SpoorLam rant…except it’s not funny.

That was one of the most popular articles in terms of number of votes we had that day…and it was little more than anti-Muslim propoganda. Continue reading →