What do I mean? Well anyone that has traveled abroad extensively or even within the U.S. knows that no matter where you go, you will encounter a flock of Japanese tourists with cameras slung around their necks. Rediff.com points to trends showing that soon Indians may be the ubiquitous tourists:

But why are countries going all out to attract Indians? “They spend money,” says Edward Chew, spokesperson of the Singapore Tourism Board. Last year, Indians were the highest spending travelling community in Singapore with an average daily spend of S$200-300.

They beat the Japanese who till the year before last were the highest spenders. Singapore recorded 309,383 arrivals from India last year of which 34 per cent were leisure travelers. However, because of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), 2003 was a bad year for tourist traffic. In 2002, 375,000 Indians visited Singapore, which was an increase of 10.5 per cent over 2001.

The fact that Indians splurge on shopping, of course, makes them the favourites of various countries. But shopping isn’t the only thing they spend heavily on.

Great. Not only are we stereotyped as convenience store clerks and cab drivers but now this new potential caricature as well.

About two months ago I participated in a half-hour telephone survey about my smoking history and habits. The survey was specifically targeted for Indian Americans living in California, and I believe it was run by one of the UC campuses. The questions ranged from whether I had ever chewed paan, to how accepting I would be of my eventual offspring dating someone of another race. I do not know for sure if this new study reported by OnlyPunjab.com is associated with that same survey or not, but the results are worth examining:

California’s Asian Americans smoke at a lower rate than the state’s population as a whole, but the better an Asian California woman’s English, the more likely she is to smoke.

“Because one of every three Asian Americans in the United States lives in California, these findings have significance well beyond the borders of our state,” said Moon S. Chen, Jr., professor of public health sciences at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center and principal investigator for AANCART, an $8.5 million project funded by the National Cancer Institute.

Why is it that the more assimilated (I correlate this only with English fluency) an Asian woman, the more likely she is to be a smoker? This is particularly curious when considering the following:

Researchers also found an intriguing relationship between English fluency and smoking rates. “Among Asian American males, high English fluency speakers had significantly lower smoking prevalence when compared to low English fluency speakers — 17 percent versus 25 percent. But the pattern was completely the opposite for Asian women,” Tang said. “Those with the highest English fluency were significantly more likely to smoke than Asian women with lower English fluency — 11 percent versus 4 percent.” English fluency has often been used as an indicator for acculturation in ethnic research.

The original press release can be found here.

Ever since last month, when the taking of two French hostages in Iraq “had (the) unintended consequence” of uniting France in favour of the headscarf ban, i’ve been following how this affected le brown, specifically French Sikhs. here‘s an update:

A French administrative court has ruled on an appeal brought by three Sikh boys who have been excluded from classes for wearing the under-turban.

However, it referred the matter back to the boys’ school, and said the issue should be resolved by further mediation between the school and its pupils.

The court recommended mediation in order to prevent setting a legal precedent that Muslim students could use.

France introduced its new law banning the wearing of all religious symbols from state schools from September.

France’s small Sikh community says the under-turban is a valid compromise.

…The French authorities admit that when the law was drafted, nobody consulted France’s small Sikh community.

This lack of planning has resulted in significant confusion, since some schools accept the “under-turban”, while others refuse to appear hypocritical, since the ban affects ALL religions, not just Muslims. Yarmulkes and large crosses are also not allowed, though fear about increasing Islamic Fundamentalism among French youth is what inspired the law in the first place.

Georgia’s Khabar Magazine, profies Irfan Kalvert, an Indian-American soldier who served in Iraq:

So what inspired Irfan to join the Army when most of his peers in the community were planning medical or IT careers, if not envisioning a successful entrepreneurship? “Even though I was making $4000 a month as a young man starting out, I wasn’t happy with just making money. After September 11, I realized that we must do something to better the world, and I wanted to help. I wanted to experience new things, go out there and make a difference. I was 25 at the time and thought about all the men and women who have stood up for what they believed in, and about those in the armed services who gave up their freedom and even their lives ? for our freedom, for our way of life. The choice was clear.”

And so began IrfanÂ’s life as a soldier two years back. His Iraq tour-of-duty started on February 18th of this year. After a couple months of orientation in Kuwait, he entered Iraq on March 15th. His unit was assigned the challenging task of taking over the Iraqi National Guard (ING) post at Samarra, about 70 miles north of Baghdad.

In particular, he talks about one mission when things went very badly and his infantry unit suffered serious casualties. What went wrong?

[Khabar]:How did this attack happen? What went wrong?
[Kalvert]:We had general after general coming to see us because it was such a big deal, since we had people die inside a secured compound. Our battalion commander had informed his superior officer that the compound was secure, and it turned out it was not. Basically what we did wrong was that we had the ING running the gate while we were doing security for everything else. We always had an armored Humvee parked in front of our door where we slept in the building. On the day of the attack, it was not parked there for some reason. There had to be a leak from inside the ING people that gave it away.

These are the same 120,000+ ING soldiers whose numbers are increasing and who are being trained to take the burden away from U.S. forces (according to Bush during the debates). What does Kalvert think of the war in Iraq?

[Khabar]: Do you concur with the reasons America went to war?
[Kalvert]:Yes. I believe that if we hadnÂ’t gone over there they would have eventually come over to fight us. We are not fighting just Iraqis ? there is an influx of people from other countries who have come just to fight against us.

India’s most famous tourist attraction turns 350 this year, and quite understandably, it’s tired:

Earlier this month, two Indian historians warned the Taj Mahal may already be tilting and could crumble or sink if the government did not pay immediate attention to its ecological setting.

“Dangerous tilts in its minarets, first noticed in 1942 and mentioned in various reports, have continued to increase over the years,” Ram Nath, a former head of history at Rajasthan University, told the Hindustan Times.

“They are caused by the dry river bed.”

Another historian, Agam Prasad Mathur, said the dry Yamuna river bed must once again be filled if the monument was to be saved.

“Yamuna used to be full of water to maintain the monument’s balance and absorb tectonic shocks. Now that the river bed is dry, the Taj is exposed to the elements,” he said.

Mughal emperor Shah Jahan constructed the Taj in memory of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during childbirth. According to the BBC article that was linked above, this threatened “symbol of love” attracted over three million tourists to Agra last year.

Koose Muniswamy Veerappan’s funeral took place on Wednesday, at a family burial plot in Moolakudu, Tamil Nadu.

The BBC’s Sunil Raman says the police decided not to bury Veerappan in his native village in neighbouring Karnataka state fearing trouble from the large crowds that had gathered there.

“We have been orphaned,” cried the bandit’s wife, Muthulakshmi, as she clung to her teenage daughters Prabha and Vidya Rani at the funeral.

The following sentence made me pause, and wonder if something similar would’ve occurred in this country. Though the gesture was touching, I think not:

The bandit’s elder brother was allowed out from a life term in jail for aiding Veerappan to attend the rites. He laid a garland as he was closely guarded by police.

I’m also insanely curious about why he was buried vs cremated. Would anyone more knowledgeable care to edify a girl who gets curious about the most pointless things? If so, please leave a comment. 🙂

Though some professed relief about the bandit’s demise, others experienced an opposite set of emotions; said Ravi, a man who went to view Veerappan’s body before its burial,

“God will punish those policemen. Veerappan was a good man and he helped the poor,” he told the BBC.

Quick MSNBC article on a topic we’ve covered before – MSNBC – India draws ‘medical tourists’ –

NEW DELHI – Three months ago, Howard Staab learned that he suffered from a life-threatening heart condition and would have to undergo surgery at a cost of up to $200,000 — an impossible sum for the 53-year-old carpenter from Durham, N.C., who has no health insurance. So he outsourced the job to India. …Total bill: about $10,000, including roundtrip airfare and a planned side trip to the Taj Mahal.

Apparently Indians don’t get sexual harassment training at IIT. The Washington Times reports on this growing public concern:

For example, we have many Indians who say, “Can I make a move?” when they mean they would like to take leave of someone. But if that is uttered in the US, to a lady, it could be taken for a sexual request,” says Dholakia.

That’s not funny. When I use that line women usually just walk away from me. I have always wondered why.

Savitha Nayak and Sunil Dholakia, who train employees of multinational corporations in soft skills such as dealing with conflict, negotiating and communicating, say they have added the basic dos and don’ts of interacting with the opposite sex to their curriculum.

Someone sign me up.

India NewEngland sheds light upon an issue that links a partticular immigration status to domestic abuse:

The study’s author, Boston University School of Public Health Professor Anita Raj, says current U.S. immigration policies preventing women on spousal visas from working and self-petitioning for change of status may constitute human-rights violations.

“H-4B visa holders are legal residents of the U.S. who are being denied the right to work and the right to self-petition for legal permanent residency in the U.S.,” Raj said. “These policies violate basic human rights and must be changed for the U.S. to demonstrate a commitment to eliminating policies that increase women’s risk for violence.”

The study, released this month, determines that abusive husbands use immigration-related abuse – threats of deportation, refusal to file for change of visa status and withholding of immigration paperwork – to exert extraordinary personal and economic control over their partners.

There seems to be so many immigration loopholes that can be exploited in unconcionable ways. Since this one affects the South Asian community, I thought I’d point it out.

“I don’t want to imply that if you’re on an H-4 visa, you’re going to be abused,” Raj said. “If you are in an abusive relationship and you are on an H-4 visa, you are at so much greater vulnernability for abuse.”

Leslye Orloff, director of the Immigrant Woman Program at the women’s right organization Legal Momentum, is leading a national effort to secure legal protections for immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.

Orloff said Raj’s research proves for the first time that it’s not just U.S. citizens or permanent residents who use control over a partner’s immigration status to lock their victims in abusive marriages.