Category Archives: News

In defense of a dictator

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I love the ACLU. I believe that a person shouldn’t be allowed to run for President of the United States unless they are a card-carrying member (as opposed to our current system where you have to be a member of the NRA). Likewise, I think that Human Rights Watch rocks and that any government that questions their findings or calls them inaccurate are doing so mostly because they are annoyed at being caught doing something pretty heinous. However, unlike some of my co-bloggers, I also think I support Musharraf’s intention to stay in power and am willing to forgive his autocratic moves for the time being. Why? Because countries like Iraq (and a few others I can think of) have taught the world a very important lesson in recent years. Insisting that they quickly transition to a democracy because its what we (sitting in our stable homes) are fortunate enough to enjoy, doesn’t always result in the best outcome for them or us. History has repeatedly shown that a weak central government is sometimes much worse for everyone than a dictator who, despite curtailing personal freedoms, provides stability for the vast majority. The key is that a path to an eventual transition or succession be clearly defined. The fact that Musharraf has not developed and cultivated a method for succession while he has been busy helping the U.S. fight its war in Afghanistan and Iraq is what has gotten him into trouble.

What was it that went wrong in Iraq? We foolishly believed (and by we I really mean those Neocons) that a community of exiled intellectuals could pick up where a brutal strongman (Hussein) left off. We learned the hard way that exiled intellectuals (like Bhutto and Sharif in the case of Pakistan) are out of touch with the needs of the masses and will end up fighting amongst themselves while emptying the state coffers. Hussein, just like Hitler and Kim Jong Il, was a very bad man responsible for the death of thousands of his own people. That isn’t why we invaded Iraq or decided that they needed to be democratized though. We invaded Iraq in the expectation that we’d bring about greater long-term stability for us (and for them as a secondary benefit). Nobody would suggest that Musharraf is anywhere near as bad as Hussein and the stability he has been providing is not bad, all things considered. And let’s not forget the reason he seized power in the first place and has been popular in Pakistan for most of his tenure:

Nawaz Sharif was also involved in corruption at the highest level during his tenure which brought further mistrust of the people towards his government. The Nawaz government launched a scheme called “Karz utaro, Mulk savaro” whose intent was to pay off debt of the nation through the Pakistani people’s pockets. Pakistanis took part aggressively and emotionally to help Pakistan pay off the debt. Many Pakistanis living abroad took part in this scheme extensively and sent millions (maybe billions) to help pay off the debt. Even the poor living in the country helped, to the extent that women sold their jewellery to help the cause, but to no avail. As of this date, it is not known what happened to the funds and the national debt never decreased. It is widely believed that the scheme was to benefit Nawaz Sharif & family, and not to pay off the country’s debt. [Link]

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

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Although Musharraf says he declared martial law to protect the country and not his political future, there is a curious preoccupation with dignity and name calling in his words and actions. Although this is a very serious situation, I can’t help but see him as a child who threatens to stop everybody from playing unless they stop making fun of him.

Verboten?

For example, the following complaint was part of the official Proclamation of Emergency, offered forward as a justification for suspending the judiciary:

Whereas the humiliating treatment meted out to government officials by some members of the judiciary on a routine basis during court proceedings has demoralised the civil bureaucracy and senior government functionaries… [Link]

Similarly, a new law was passed to stop the media from mocking the President or his friends in government:

Are we making fun yet?

The orders prohibit coverage that “brings into ridicule or disrepute” General Musharraf and other officials, he said. [Link]

When defending his actions to the nation in a televised broadcast, the little General compared himself to the tall President in a stovepipe hat:

He … quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying that America’s 16th president had broken laws, violated the Constitution and trampled on individual liberties to keep the country together during the Civil War. [Link]

So why does he sound so much like Rodney Dangerfield?

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State of Emergency

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President Musharraf has declared a state of emergency, blaming the judiciary and militants for creating a crisis in the country. He insists his actions were necessary in order to save Pakistan democracy from destruction. Of course, I’m sure his actions had nothing to do with the growing feeling that the judiciary were about to invalidate his recent election, nothing at all. (See Anil @ dorfblog for more legal analysis)

A new supreme court has been put into place and the old supreme court taken away because they refused to ratify the state of emergency as constitutional:

The justices were ordered to sign a “provisional constitutional order” enabling the emergency decree … At least 6 of the court’s 11 justices gathered in the court and rejected the order… [Link]

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and seven other Supreme Court judges were taken into custody after they termed the provisional constitution illegal. Troops took them away to an undisclosed location. [Link]

Troops are on the streets and the broadcast media (radio and TV) have also been shut down. The purpose of this action seems to be to stop news inside the country more than to stop news from going out. International media seem to have a fairly good picture of what is going on, and of course the Pakistani blogs are still up.

If you want to follow along at home, your best bet are the metroblogging blogs: Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. And I hope to have an update from our blogger on the street, Venial Sin, in a while. Until then, the best we’ve got are clips of the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan, talking to journalists on the phone, while under arrest, from the toilet [Hat tip, Anil].

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Greetings from SAWCC: (Mistaken) Identity, Panels and Drama…oh, my!

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First, a wee bit o’ liveblogging:

Amardeep’s panel: “Politics of writing- act of writing as political” 1846593913_1816b12854_m.jpg

Who is your audience?

Amardeep: I’ve written for mags/lit crit…very fixed idea of those readers, they’re like me…left, progressive, academic…on SM, I have no idea who is reading, there are so many types, many armchair warriors. Hindu natl’ists tend to respond to me. Even if these are people you don’t like/detest for their views…you have to be willing to work w/them to define what history is, @ this particular juncture. I find it invigorating, even though it’s rancorous/unpleasant. In a sense, I find it more interesting to talk to more conservative people to work out consensus vision, if consensus is possible.

As a Sikh, do you separate your identity…or is it subjective?

People don’t really seem to care about what I think of mainstream authors, in that sense my identity comes through. They want to hear about E M Forster, instead of my thoughts on Graham Greene…enven though thoughts on Greene more relevant/interesting.

On SM, people see my pic and are expecting a certain perspective to inform what I do.

Mira Kamdar (author of Planet India): On internet, there are multiple audiences and things are instantaneous. Rxns rarely come back to me, they come to the blog sites, in comments. Had to create a sep email add for editorial on India lobby, on recommendation of papers editors…ended up needing it. Internet has complicated audience.

As for authorial identification- it’s always strange, my name is very Indian and my physical appearance isn’t. Am I really a desi person, am I not? As a child, I asked “Mommy which way am I half-n-half, up and down or sideways?” I just write whatever I want to, sometimes I put out my ethnic identity. I felt the need to speak out about Gujurat riots…still get death threats and hate mail for my pains.

I’m one of the only women writing about nuke deal…can you think of many others? Continue reading →

Has Doc 420 been smoking her own stuff?

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CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta is just too damn perfect. He is a doctor (including combat neurosurgery), a journalist, a University of Michigan grad, has a perfect smile, and speaks out against drug use. I really believe that the Universe has a way of balancing out the existence of such people with Doppelgängers, “anti” people, who use their skills to aid the dark side. The story about Sona “Doc 420” Patel, posted on our News Tab, makes me wonder if we have finally found the anti-Sanjay Gupta of the Indian American community.

Chances are you’ve never met a doctor like Sona Patel. She’s the cover girl for medical marijuana. We first interviewed her at a medical marijuana convention in Los Angeles.

“I’ve always believed in the medicinal effects of marijuana,” says Patel, a medical marijuana doctor.

Six months ago, she started calling herself Doc 420 — 420 is the street slang for smoking marijuana.

“That’s just kind of a bit of a fluke, just kind of happened that that phone number was available and the Web site was available. So, I became Doc 420,” says Patel.

Yes, she has a toll-free number, a Doc 420 Web site and a MySpace page with a picture.

Dan Noyes: “What did you hope to accomplish with this image?”

Sona Patel: “Well, you know what, it was just something that a marketing team had come up with for me…” [Link]

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Pandit in the Citi

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One of the great and tragically misunderstood virtues of capitalism is Creative Destruction. Joseph Schumpeter and others famously pointed out that, perhaps perversely, one of the real measures of dynamism in an economy is the rate of failure. Firm failure (and, the symbiotically related measure “ease of entry”) is important for rejiggering the status quo and setting the stage for testing new ideas, structures, and, most importantly, people.

The Next Head of Citibank? Vikram Pandit

The subprime mortgage “crisis” is clearly shaking up a segment of the economy and, in its wake, one of the largest and most venerable blue chip financial institutions in the country, Citigroup –

A longtime banking analyst said late last night that Citigroup may be forced to cut its dividend or sell assets to stave off what she said was a $30 billion capital shortfall, moves that could pull down its shareholder returns for several years.

…”We believe the stock will be under significant pressure and could trade in the low $30s,” she wrote. That would be as much as a 28 percent decline from yesterday’s $41.90 closing price for Citigroup shares.

If correct, the findings could be yet another blow to Citigroup’s chairman and chief executive, Charles O. Prince III, who has endured a barrage of criticism in the last few years for his failure to control costs and improve results.

If Prince is forced out, as Wall Street odds makers strongly believe, one of the top internal candidates for replacing Prince will be superstar Investment Banker and minor legend on the Street – Vikram Pandit.

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Two Conferences this Weekend (tooting apna horn)

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Normally a post like this would go on the Events Tab, but some SM bloggers are involved in one event, so perhaps it’s not too out of place to put it here. Both events have their main speakers this Saturday (11/3), though SAWCC actually has a reading/performance on Friday night and creative workshops and panels on Saturday.

First, for people in and near Washington DC, you may wish to attend the SALTAF festival, which features Madhur Jaffrey, Amitava Kumar, Thrity Umrigar, Rishi Reddi, and Canadian filmmaker Vic Sarin (whose film, Partition, is screening at the festival). Kicking off the festival as a whole is the much-hyped Hindi film, Loins of Punjab Presents, which I’ve been waiting to see for months, damnit.

In New York, it’s the SAWCC conference, which this year has the charming title, “Electric Ladyland.” SAWCC participants are younger and more “Up-and-coming,” and the conference itself (which I attended last year) is very much a hands-on, get-involved type of event — you don’t just sit back and sample the wine-and-samosas. I am on a panel called “Pop/Politics,” with Mira Kamdar, Sita Bhaskar, and Sunita Mukhi. I am not 100% sure what I’m talking about yet — probably something involving Bobby Jindal and the Tehelka/Gujarat spycam affair. And SM blogger Anna is on a panel called “Eat, Pray, Love: Writing/Crafting/Cooking the Personal Narrative,” with food writer Chitrita Banerji, and Janki Khatau.

I probably won’t be in New York long enough to participate in an official meetup, but it would be great to see/meet some SM readers at the SAWCC event itself. The panels, incidentally, are FREE.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in the creative writing workshops on Saturday morning, you should email sawcclitfest@gmail.com (they may already be filled up; the workshops are limited to 12 people each). Continue reading →

Diversity in the Indian Constitution (Guha Chapter 6)

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[Part of an ongoing series on Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi. Last week’s entry can be found here. Next week we will skip a chapter, and go directly to Chapter 8, “Home and the World,” which explains how India evolved its “non-aligned” status.]

I’ve actually written a longish post on the idea of “secularism” in the Indian constitution in the past, but of course there’s more to say. The entire proceedings (more than 1000 pages of text!) of the Constituent Assembly have been posted online by the Indian Parliament here. Guha’s account comes out of reading through those proceedings, and is also deeply influenced by Granville Austin’s classic book, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, which is still as I understand it the definitive book on the subject.

As many readers may be aware, the Indian Constitution was worked out over the course of three years (1946-1949), by a Constituent Assembly that contained 300 members, including representation by religious minorities, members of marginal groups (i.e., Adivasis), as well as a small but vocal group of women.

Three of the profound disagreements that the members of the Assembly had to resolve included: 1) the proper role of Gandhian philosophy in defining the new nation, 2) the question of “reservations” for Dalits and Tribals (Scheduled Castes and Tribes), and 3) the status of Indian languages, and the idea of an “official” language. Continue reading →

"He Speaks So Well"

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If you are a regular viewer of the Sunday morning news shows then you will have taken note that Bobby Jindal has now graduated into that honored circle. You are not a real politician in this country until you’ve gone a round or two with the Sunday morning punditocracy. Tim Russert’s Meet The Press is the big leagues with This Week with George Snufalufagus coming in second. Slightly more inviting and easy for a first-timer like Republican Bobby Jindal is Fox News Sunday. Here is Jindal’s full interview from this past Sunday’s episode:

He makes a pretty convincing pitch for why he would be a boring (no corruption or titties) governor which is what he says the people of Louisiana have long been waiting for after decades of corruption and mismanagement. He also talks a little about the “Bubbas for Bobby” that helped him win. This was his first big interview since he won so check it out.

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The Tronie Foundation

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Since we’ve already had one depressing story about child slave labor in India today I thought, why not end the day with an…errrrrr, uplifting story about child slave labor? Thank goodness for the Seattle Times for reporting on this gem to take some of the earlier slime off:

As a 7-year-old girl in southern India in 1978, she was taken from her parents and sold into slavery.

At the same time, a 9-year-old boy in Southeast Asia was surviving alone in a cave, after the fishing boat on which he was fleeing Vietnam became shipwrecked.

Rani and Trong Hong would eventually be rescued from their separate childhood nightmares and brought to safety in Washington state. They would meet as adults on a blind date, fall in love and marry…

Now, motivated by the pain of their early years to help others, they are renovating a home exclusively for victims of human trafficking — people recruited, transported and harbored for sexual exploitation or slave labor. [Link]

Talk about a power couple! Click on their names in the passage above to read about their unfortunate childhoods. The non-profit they’ve established, partly on the profits from their lucrative home-building business in Olympia Washington, is called The Tronie Foundation (and it could use your donations):

Rani works with victims who have been abused by all forms of Human Trafficking. Whether the victim was part of a mail-order bride schemes, sold into servitude, sexual slavery or victimized as part of an international adoption ring, Rani because of her own personal experience has a heart for these women and children. She shares openly her own personal story, in hopes that they too can be restored and live a productive life, free from the pain of their past.

“No woman and child should be so severely abused that they end up looking like they are mentally and physically ill. As a survivor of human trafficking, I personally have chosen to speak publicly to give hope and encourage those of you that may be afraid to come forward. [Link]

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