Jains from the small Gujarati town of Palanpur now dominate the worldwide diamond wholesaling business, taking in 65% of the revenues of the diamond capital in Belgium:

In what was once a predominantly Jewish neighborhood near Antwerp’s central station, young Indians in Armani suits haggle with Hasidic diamond buyers in long black coats, side curls and skullcaps. Hoveniersstraat, a street once celebrated for its kosher restaurants, now offers the best curry in town.

Eighty percent of diamonds worldwide now pass through Indian hands:

Indians like Mr. Shah gained a commercial edge over the Jews by sending their rough diamonds for finishing work to family-owned factories in Bombay and the northern Indian state of Gujarat, where labor costs are as much as 80% lower than in Antwerp… The Indians also proved canny at polishing and cutting the lower-quality rough diamonds that Jewish traders typically overlooked… “We turned cotton into silk…”

India now employs nearly a million diamond polishers. Meanwhile, Jewish diamantaires had some culturally-specific business issues:

Indians… aren’t required by their religion to close their businesses from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday… Many [Jews] were Holocaust survivors afraid to part with their assets or send very expensive valuables far away… (WSJ)

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Sepia Mutiny earlier reported on the trial of the accused in the AI 182 bombing. Well, this trial north of the border is just getting whackier & whackier – TheStar.com – Defence in Air India trial calls last witness.

VANCOUVER — The defence in the Air India case called its final witness today, ending another segment of the lengthy trial that included insults and angry outbursts, expletives, an admitted drug dealer and witnesses with shaky credibility.

An interesting cast of characters includes a drug dealer with that oh-so-Punjabi nickname – Mindy

Raminder Singh (Mindy) Bhandher, 26, was testifying on behalf of accused Air India bomber Ripudaman Singh Malik, who Bhandher said he regarded as a generous father figure. But during his testimony, Bhandher also acknowledged a lengthy history of drug dealing, smuggling and fraud.

A peace leader who knows how to deliver a verbal smackdown –

When he did testify — describing himself as a peaceful, devout Sikh leader — he shouted expletives at a Crown prosecutor who alleged he knew about the bombing plot and selectively warned friends to fly another day. “Bullshit!” Daljit Singh Sandhu yelled from the witness stand.

And even a F911 angle –

The defence’s case even had a connection — however tenuous — to documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and the popular movie Fahrenheit 911. Retired FBI agent Jack Cloonan, a commentator on U.S. news shows who makes an appearance in Moore’s latest film, was called as a witness for Bagri. Cloonan criticized another FBI agent who testified for the Crown. … The Crown accused him of weighing in on a case he knew nothing about.

This must be their OJ case but with desi’s & jumbo jets instead of ex-footballers & White Bronco’s…

The headline screams – India has 93 per cent of Asia’s ‘extremely’ poor.

But then you read the details –

Of the 690 million extremely poor people in developing countries of Asia, 93 per cent are in India, according to a new report of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

93% of 690 = 641. But the actual number –

Of these, 93 percent (357 million) are in India, the People’s Republic of China (203 million), and other South Asian countries (77 million), says the report released Thursday.

357M is more like 50%. Am I missing something obvious? But there is hope –

The ADB foresees the number of people in extreme poverty in developing Asia declining from 690 million in 2002 to 150 million in 2015.

I couldn’t beleive it either so I made the ultimate sacrifice and started surfing Hooters’ website. Sure enough:

Today, Hooters of America, Inc. (H.O.A. Inc.) announced plans for H.O.I. Pvt. Ltd. to open up in major cities in India next year.

“Hooters is a strong and exciting brand name that has a very unique place in its industry offering a perfect atmosphere to have fun, relax with friends and enjoy great food. I am looking forward to the “recreation” of this dining atmosphere in India,” said Sunil Bedi, Managing Director of H.O.I. Pvt. Ltd.

Ummm. I think I am going to start taking bets right now on how long before somebody throws a brick through their windows. Any takers?

MRE stands for “Meals Ready to Eat.” This is what soldiers in battle zones survive on for weeks, even months at a time. They have a reputation for tasting like cardboard, and completely blah. Many times all you have to do is just add hot water. Although most people don’t realize it, MRE technology has come a long way since WWII. Not so long ago my office was above the lab where astronaut MREs are made, and let me tell you, I tried some great stuff. Now it seems that British soldiers will be getting chicken tikka masala as part of their battlefield rations:

An Army marches on its stomach and the British troops will soon have Indian curry, chicken balti and pulau rice on its ration instead of tinned cheese, stodgy casseroles and stale biscuits.

In the biggest change to the armed forces’ rations for 40 years, a new generation of meals are currently being tried out that are not only supposed to taste better, but embrace healthy eating as well, a spokesman of the Ministry of Defence has said.

Designed to last for up to three years in any climate, the new boil-in-the bag meals have been brought in by the ministry to try to calm discontent in the ranks over outdated menus, as well as complaints about the quality of British ration packs compared to the ones given in the US.

I’m not surprised. Indian food IS the most popular food in England. But won’t the soldiers need fennel seeds afterwards also?

In a cheeky act of reverse colonialism, Amrut distillery plans to sell its whisky in Scotland.

The whisky is made from barley grown in the Himalayan foothills and is malted in Delhi and Jaipur…. distilled in Bangalore, then matured for three years in American oak casks.

I loved this little blurb about the way the US vs. Canadian press covered the Games –

My dad once told me a story of which I don’t remember all the details now. It was probably from the ’84 games. An American was favored to win a race and didn’t, he came in second. A huge disappointment. The press ran up, immediately asking how he felt and how disappointed he was. In the same race was a Canadian athlete who finished last. The Canadian press rushed up to him as asked ‘You just achieved a personnel best at the Olympic games? How great does that feel?”

Bravo. Someone oughta teach this reporter a bit about sportsmanship – Indian sailors finish last again – Sify.com.

The Indian sailing duo of Malav Shroff and Sumeet Patel came up with yet another disastrous show to finish at the bottom of the table in the Mixed Open Double-handed Dinghy-49er Races in the 28th Olympic games on Monday.

The US-based Indians, Malav being the skipper and Sumeet the crew, proved no match at all at the highest level of competition at the Agios Kosmas Olympic Sailing Centre and they have been struggling to keep their head above water since race one.

With four more races to go in the 16-race event, the Indians, who came here with a wild card entry, simply stand nowhere and they would have to come up with spirited performance to leave Athens with their pride intact.

Sheesh.

Immigrant patterns are such that newly arriving immigrants often flock to locals in which many of their former country-men have settled. As a result, various ethnic ghettoes are created–Chinatowns, Little Italies, and of course Little Indias. One of the more well known Little Indias is in Edison, NJ, the home of Oak Tree Road, Sukhadia Sweets, and the Subzi Mandi grocery store that my mother drives three hours to frequent. Anyway, somewhat along these lines, The New Jersery Star Ledger has run an interesting peice on the desi community in Edison.

The Asian population in Edison climbed 1,175 percent over two decades: from 2,245 residents in 1980 to 28,634 in 2000. In Woodbridge, the number of Asian residents increased by 1,025 percent over the same time frame, from 1,251 to 14,078 residents, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Magan Patel, a 64-year-old Edison resident who immigrated to New York 33 years ago, trekked home after the parade yesterday with an Indian flag swinging beside an American flag. Patel said he carried both flags to signify the synthesis of his Indian values with the job and educational opportunities he has discovered in America. “I am a U.S. citizen since 1978,” Patel said. “My family’s here. We live good here. I consider (myself) American.”