Israeli rabbis are soon to meet to determine whether the Jews of Mizoram / Bene Menashi are “really jewish” and therefore entitled to excercise claims under the law of return. No word on whether the genetic test for the Cohen gene has been performed, like with the Bene Israel of India or the Lemba of Southern Africa.

p.s. Mizoram is a state at the eastern edge of India, just to the south of Assam, sandwiched between Bangladesh and Burma. These are desis who claim to have been a “lost tribe” but whose claims are fairly recent. Continue reading →

from the Toronto Star, an article that discusses canada’s medical status quo– apparently they don’t have enough doctors.

this made me choke on my chardonnay. not enough doctors? there are one billion indians walking the earth! :p how is ANYONE lacking doctors?

is dr. sunil patel (who is quoted below) the only brown person in canada? 😉 no, that can’t be. CANADA has TEN brown legislators! so where are all the doctors? and more pressing than that, what on earth do canadian uncles and aunties brag about at parties if their kids aren’t in med school? anyone? buehler??

Canada needs to invest $1 billion over the next five years to reverse its serious shortage of doctors and ensure there will be enough health-care providers in future to reduce long waiting lists plaguing hospitals, the Canadian Medical Association says.

The association wants Ottawa to create a national health human resources reinvestment fund, which would plan for future personnel needs and “help end the health human resources boom-and-bust planning cycle,” outgoing president Dr. Sunil Patel told a news conference at the annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.

From CNN’s World report –

AGARTALA, India (Reuters) — Authorities in northeast India have urged Bangladesh not to kill about 100 wild elephants that have strayed across the border and gone on a rampage, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more.

“We are very sympathetic about the elephants’ plight and we will not take any steps to kill them,” Munshi Anwarul Islam, Chief Forest Conservator of Bangladesh, told Reuters.

“But these elephants are destroying our houses and trees and are a threat to the local people. They are not finding a corridor to go back to India.”

Funny how the wild elephants get far more consideration from CNN/Reuters than the 13 “villagers” they killed….

The FBI is looking for this man, Adnan el-Shukrijumah in connection with a future terrorist attack. The Bush Administration is pretty worried about him. According to TIME Magazine he attended a recent terrorist summit in Pakistan’s badlands.

It was a gathering of terrorism’s elite, and they slipped silently into Pakistan from all over the world in order to attend. From England came Abu Issa al-Hindi, an Indian convert to radical Islam who specializes in surveillance. From an unknown hideout came Adnan el-Shukrijumah, an accomplished Arab Guyanese bombmaker and commercial pilot. And from Queens in New York City came Mohammed Junaid Babar, a Pakistani American who arrived with cash, sleeping bags, ponchos, waterproof socks and other supplies for the mountain-bound jihadis.

Continue reading →

Maoist rebels, inspired by the shining path, in a bid to overthrow the Nepalese monarchy, have launched an indefinite blockade of Kathmandu. An indigenous Maoist movement in this day and age? The basis of their support appears to be resentment by lower caste Nepalis “against the authority wielded by the higher castes.” Nor is the King very popular. (He came to power when the crown prince supposedly ran amok, high on drugs, and shot the previous King and Queen, leaving the King’s brother as the new King). I don’t have anything snarky or witty to say about this — both sides routinely violate human rights and neither is democratic. It’s a real Charlie Foxtrot.

a Gandhi for our generation? this article has more:

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, Arun Gandhi, is to kick off an unarmed Palestinian movement against Israeli occupation which is being launched by a group of social and political activists in Ramallah.

Gandhi, head of the MK Gandhi Institute for non-violence in the US, will be the star attraction at three mass rallies planned in Ramallah, Abu Dis and Bethlehem on August 26.

The campaign is being organised by a group of Palestinian social and political activists in Ramallah, who have joined hands with anti-fence activists, NGOs, and Fatah activists headed by minister without portfolio and Fatah member Kadura Fares in the wake of the International Court of Justice’s ruling condemning the construction of the West Bank barrier by Israel.

Budge Travel has run an interesting travelogue piece (reprinted on MSNBC.com) on Five trips that can change your life. Installment 1: India.

“I had not come to India on any kind of Mission Enlightenment, but the funny thing about change is how it creeps up on you when you are busy acting like a brat. As soon as we left Delhi, the little kindnesses started: When I fell sick in the Lawrence of Arabia worthy desert town of Jaisalmer, a restaurant owner named Rama became my temporary mother, easing my stomach pain with desert cures and my loneliness with long, intimate talks.”

click here to read the full story

This article discusses the (surprising to some) LACK of empirical relationship b/t formal education and income at a national level –

Over the past decade it has became an article of faith that education and skills make a vital contribution to economic performance (1). Deficiencies in national labour productivity and economic growth are increasingly attributed not to inadequacies in productive investment, but to educational shortfalls and weak labour skills (2).

…’African countries with rapid growth in human capital [the fashionable term for people’s work abilities, especially levels of education] over the 1960 to 1987 period – countries like Angola, Mozambique, Ghana, Zambia, Madagascar, Sudan, and Senegal – were nevertheless growth disasters. Countries like Japan, with modest growth in human capital, were growth miracles. Other East Asian miracles like Singapore, Korea, China, and Indonesia did have rapid growth in human capital, but equal to or less than that of the African growth disasters. To take one comparison, Zambia had slightly faster expansion in human capital than Korea, but Zambia’s growth rate was seven percentage points lower.”

The Mallu economic malaise is a perfect example – statistically, at least, it’s the most educated state in India but, alas, also one of the poorest. Books, degrees, and examinations mean little for economic growth without a comprehensive social fabric that praises constructive, gritty real world results over idealized, intellectual banter….