Category Archives: News

Don’t you wanna be a blogger too?

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Friends, mutineers, countrymen, lend me your ears. There is something that has been bothering all of us here at our North Dakota headquarters for quite some time now. We talk about it often in hushed tones. It is the extreme dearth of fresh new desi bloggers out there. We are ever vigilant and constantly searching for freakishly interesting and smart bloggers to be pulled into the Mutiny and to blog tirelessly for you. We can’t keep doing this forever on our own, especially since many of us are going through transitions in our busy lives. To be perfectly honest, I think that when the time comes we will suddenly and viciously pull the plug on SM. It will be just after the moment we feel that we’ve got no blog left to give and nobody else is capable of picking up the keyboard to mutiny forward. If you like spending time on this website then don’t say we didn’t warn you. I sometimes wonder, if we never existed would more of you be blogging now? Must we burn Rome to save Rome?

So what am I asking? Some of you need to start blogging and do so with a purpose. Almost all of the guests we’ve had were bloggers even before SM was created. Where’s the new blood? We aren’t looking for suggestions like, “Hey what about so-and-so? Why don’t you ask them to guest.” Please don’t use the comments following this post for that. We wouldn’t be worth the ink on our blog unless we were also good scouts. We scout bloggers, sometimes for months, before inviting them to guest for you. Most often we find them by the content of their blogs, especially if they consistently leave interesting comments on SM or expounding on something they read here first. We are scouting several of you right now as a matter of fact.

As you may have noticed SM is very secretive (as all good mutinies must be to survive infancy), but for the first time ever I am revealing the basic requirements we look for in new bloggers (besides being desi). No surprise here:

1) Must be North American or have lived in North America for a significant amount of time.

2) Has a fabulous voice (voice = great writing + interesting perspective) and can cover a wide variety of topics (not just a small range of topics that they know really well). With a little research and a little snark they should be at ease writing about the policies of the International Monetary Fund or Diwali Barbie in under 90 minutes.

3) Have experience with blogging or internet publishing. We are too busy to teach people how to publish something on the web and how to use basic html tags. If you’ve run your own blog for a while then all this should be easy. Thus, if you aren’t already a blogger then you probably won’t be a good fit until you become one, even if you just won the Booker (just kidding Kiran…call me).

4) Be a fearless and passionate writer, not someone who worries how they “sound.”

Continue reading →

For Shame.

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May her memory be eternal, may her murderer rot in hell. From the news tab (Thanks, Maurice):

THE plight of India’s untouchables was highlighted again yesterday after a 15-year-old Dalit rape victim was burned alive for refusing to drop charges against her alleged upper-caste attacker.
Asha Katiya reportedly told police before she died of her burns at a hospital in Pipariya, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, that the man had threatened to kill her if she did not change her statement in court.

Raped in July, Asha was a month away from going to court. She was brave enough to seek justice, he was vile enough to react like this:

“I will burn you, set your house afire and cut your father into pieces,” Asha’s mother, Shashibai, quoted the 22-year-old man as warning them when she and her daughter were working in the fields near their home the day before the blaze.

Such determination to punish his accuser:

Newspapers reported that late on the day of the blaze, the man rode past Asha’s home on a horse and that night “doused the victim with kerosene from an opening in the roof of a room where she was sleeping and threw a burning matchstick”.

Asha’s family couldn’t save her; there was no easy way to speed her to a hospital.

“The family members alleged that though there are many vehicles in the upper-caste dominated village, no one came to their rescue and they had to call one from Sandia, 8km away,” one local newspaper reported.

The article used all the right language, i.e. “alleged” or “claimed”, but I can’t help but think that if you do something so evil to silence your victim, there’s no need for doubt.

Police said the man named by Asha as her attacker had been arrested.

I hope he doesn’t get away with this. Continue reading →

Aishah, You’re Fired.

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The debate over multi-culturalism is back in the news ‘cross the pond, in the land of the pickled: Niqab.jpg

An Indian origin Muslim teaching assistant in west Yorkshire, suspended earlier for refusing to remove her veil during school hours, has now been dismissed from the job.[link]
Aishah Azmi, 24, lost a discrimination and harassment case at an employment tribunal last month, and saw support collapse among parents at Headfield Church of England junior school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, over what was seen as an uncompromising stand.[link]

That “lost the support of parents”-angle is extra interesting, considering

The school where Azmi was teaching had 530 students, aged seven to 11, and 92 percent were Muslim, mainly from India and Pakistan.[link]

A bit of backstory:

Mrs Azmi, who was awarded £1,000 by the tribunal in Leeds because of mishandled disciplinary processes, was dismissed yesterday after a hearing at the school. She started work a year ago but was suspended in the spring when she refused a male teacher’s request that she remove the veil when helping children in her role as a bilingual support assistant.[link]

This latest controversy comes on the heels of a column written by Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, which provoked international debate about veiling and identity:

Straw wrote in a newspaper column last month that he asks women who visit his district office wearing veils that cover almost their entire face to remove the garment when they meet with him…
He said the piece he published in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph newspaper had been thoughtful and respectful, and that he had never challenged women’s right to wear a veil.
He emphasized that he only requested — and never demanded — that women remove the veils in his office and said he did not support banning the coverings.
He said those living in Britain should have a stronger sense of shared identity based on the country’s democratic values.[link]

Continue reading →

Kazakhstan: Not Nice?

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borat.jpg Jagshemash. I’ve seen Borat twice and I’m enchanted; I’m also aware that many of you aren’t. Some of you worry that Kazakhstan is being exploited and humiliated in a huge way, since the movie is so popular. I understand, especially since the movie is depicting a country that is more fictional than real– the “village” scenes were filmed in Romania and neither Russian nor Kazakh are ever spoken (Borat speaks Hebrew mingled with a few other things to Azamat, who replies back in Armenian).

Anyway, since “Borat” isn’t about the real Kazakhstan, I thought I’d find out more about the quondam Soviet republic:

Kazakhstan is the largest and one of the wealthiest of the countries in the Central Asian region. Although it was considered a liberal society, there have been allegations of harassment of religious minorities like protestant Christians, non-state-controlled Muslims and Hindu sects.
Kazakhstan is not a signatory to the UN’s International covenant on Civil and Political Rights or to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[link]

Well that just proves that Borat has nothing to do with the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan– he picks on Jews and Gypsies but says nothing regarding Hindus. Meanwhile, in the land he was supposedly acquiring cultural learnings for…

The Hindu Forum of Britain alleged that 60 riot police and bulldozers assembled inside a Hindu temple in Kazakhstan and allegedly demolished five Hindu houses…[link]

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Today, I am Thankful for YOU (Updated…AGAIN)

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59826608_14facb2cd2_m.jpg I have often said that Sepia Mutiny is the best thing I’ve done with my life during the past two years. Thanks to this blog, I have been given ridiculously cool opportunities (BlogHer, NPR, starring roles in academic papers) as well as a platform to say anything. That latter truth still knocks me over and leaves me breathless. I get to speak to thousands? Who am I? NO ONE. And yet, you trust me, you like me, you respect me enough to listen to me, even when you know you probably won’t agree with me. That’s love, yo. Every single day, when I wake up and hit my SM bookmark, I’m filled with a little bit of awe that this is real, that this community exists, and that you’ve allowed me to be part of it.

I am so thankful for all of you, commenters, lurkers, haters alike. 🙂

I know I tend to express it whenever there’s a meetup, because that’s the logical moment to do so, but I feel this way all the time. What a dynamic, accomplished, enlightened, fascinating group you all are! What a community you have helped create! I hear it time and again, “I never had desi friends, I didn’t do SASA in college…but I love SM.” I always reply, “it’s like we collected you and your counterpart, from every school in America, katamari-like and brought all of us ‘different’ desis together…which is why we seem to get along.”

Whatever we have done, it is magic. Our meetups are proof of this. Ever expanding, multi-hour-spanning, shimmering parties where disappointment and boredom are impossible, where we fall a little more in love with each other and thus weave this mutinous web tighter, which we leave with aching faces because we have smiled and laughed so much. As I look back on 2006, a truly difficult year for me and my family, I am struck by how the majority of good memories I take with me involve this blog and all of you who live within it. You who refresh SM constantly, you who show up, you, who care.

Have I told you how much I dig all of you? 🙂 If it’s not clear yet, read on…this is a list in progress, I’ve typed it during breaks from my cousins’ traditional drunken Thanksgiving feast and it is by no means complete.

This is what I am currently, mutinously thankful for:

• absolutgcs- for being a regular and for your encouragement, at a moment when I truly needed it.

• Al Mujahid- for being comfortingly familiar, for sticking to your guns, for employing sarcasm to great effect, for being pro-debauchery!

• Amitabh- for being so devoted to language (I sweat that, I’m the same way), for leaving memorable comments (one is still stuck in my head, it may inspire an entire post), for being here, for forgiving my senseless omission of you during the first two rounds.

• Arzan- for hosting one of the most cozy meetups, ever. for cooking all of us yummy Parsi food, for being one of my favorite regulars (back when you were still here), for being so veg-friendly. 🙂

• Asha’s Dad- for sick taste in music and even sicker skillz with the comments. Your 55s give me chills and your mere presence makes this space better. Continue reading →

Friedman on India

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It should be no surprise to most here that I’m a strident fan of Milton Friedman and that his passing was quite a bit more than a garden variety celeb obit for me. While I’m a geek of rather high proportions, there are quite a few of us for whom the loss left an almost personal hollowness.

“The current danger is that India will stretch into centuries what took other countries only decades” – Milton Friedman, 1963Because he called San Francisco home, I actually had the honor of seeing Uncle Milt speak in person about 2 years ago at a benefit gala for a thinktank I’m a contributor to.

And earlier this spring, I had another opportunity to see Milton & Rose Friedman in person at the unveiling of a PBS documentary on his life and times. At the time, I implored several friends to join me with the argument that “at 94, homey ain’t gonna be around too much longer – see him while you can.” Unfortunately, a bout of flu kept Friedman from joining us that evening (Rose did, however make it) and alas, my words were sadly prophetic.

Interestingly, at that event, Gary Becker was on tap for Milton & Rose’s intro. In nearly any other context, Becker’s own Nobel Prize would have garnered him a headline act. But given Friedman’s ginormous stature, Becker’s intro speech was instead somewhat rudely met with idle chatter from the back of the banquet hall. You’d think scoring a Nobel prize would earn a little more respect – apparently not so when you’re between an audience and the Friedman’s.

‘Tis the curse of the passage of a generation that we take for granted previous, hard fought accomplishments – both material and intellectual. In its extreme, we just assume that he world we see around us had to be rather than recgonize the role of volition, creativity, and intellectual accomplishment which enabled it to be.

In Friedman, India, and recent economic history, we see all this wrapped up in a neat tidy little package. So much that seems obvious now was contrarian then. And so many of the arguments we use to excuse and ignore the outcome of disastrous policy was plainly predicted and evident decades ago.

Continue reading →

Global Climax Change: The Science Is Still Out

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You have just over one month to eat your nuts and fruits, reserve your favorite setting and line up the partner(s) of your choice. On Friday, December 22nd, you can help change the world by taking part in the Global Orgasm for Peace.

WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone you know.

WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction.

WHEN? Winter Solstice Day – Friday, December 22nd, at the time of your choosing, in the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose.

WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, so the time to change EarthÂ’s energy is NOW!

Our minds influence Matter and Energy fields, so by concentrating any thoughts during and after The Big O on peace and partnership, the combination of high orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention will reduce global levels of violence, hatred and fear.

Since the list of countries that possess WMDs includes the United States, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, the Global O gives most of our readers an opportunity to do some good. Make sure to tell all the aunties and uncles back in Desh that they too can change the world that day. I am sure they will all want to participate.

It will come as no surprise that the Global Orgasm project originates in San Francisco, the veritable yoni of spiritually-oriented activism. Amusingly sprinkled with double entendres, this article in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle has the details:

While the Global O may sound much like other collective actions attempted over the years, the O’s organizers promise something more on their Web site: “The combination of high-energy orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass meditations and prayers.” …

The effect is to be measured by the Global Consciousness Project at Princeton University (I’m not making this up), which tracks the impact of major events on the output of random number generators. That scientific dimension distinguishes Global O from earlier ventures:

Not surprisingly, the Global O isn’t the first effort to synchronize pleasure in the name of peace. Or even just in the name of synchronized pleasure. For several years, a weekly climax has been coordinated online (Webcams optional), and sexuality experts say there have been several other attempts to link pleasure and peace.

I’m also reminded of the song by Pulp, “Sheffield Sex City,” which speculates on what might happen if everyone in a depressed Northern England city came at once. But the Global O takes the concept to a more ambitious stage and I am sure you will all want to take part. No word yet on a Meetup.

Continue reading →

Guest Blogger: Sin

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Once upon a time (i.e. in 2003), a neophyte blogger considered the layout of her site and wondered if she should change her sidebar. Never mind the hilarious fact that just two months before that moment, she was unaware of what a “sidebar” was– now she was scrutinizing hers, specifically the “Recently Updated Blogs” content which TypePad offered as an option.

Solidarity with other TypePadders was good, but she had not had much luck when it came to whichever link she whimsically chose to explore. She had never bookmarked one of these random blogs and she probably never would. Like this one for example, newly at the top of the list…”Venial Sin”. Fantastic name, the erstwhile Catholic school girl thought…it’s probably going to be an even more impressive disappointment, because of it.

Perhaps her cynicism unjinxed the ritual; this time, she didn’t just bookmark, she froze, then devoured. Then, she fell in blog-love. “Venial Sin” wasn’t just a reference to a minor transgression against God– it was a nom de plume for the best blogger she had ever read. She was absolutely enchanted.

Despite its life-altering role in her infatuation, “Recently Updated Blogs” was heartlessly deleted. In its place, she created a newly expanded blogroll, which finally included a fellow TypePadder, along with the following description of his site: scathing, coruscating, ennui-slaying perfection. Three years later, those words are truer than ever and best of all, now you can think them, too.

The latest Guest Blogger to visit our bunker might just be the greatest, mutineers. Give a suitable welcome to Sin. Continue reading →

Two quick notes about Michigan

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Today’s Michigan Daily has an interesting story that sheds light on the evolving politics within the larger Asian American community. There is a secret society at The University of Michigan known as “Michigamua.” It is pretty much modeled after “Skull and Bones” at Yale, right down to their use of Native American artifacts. It existed at time I attended Michigan and my Indian friends mostly disapproved of its existence, although a couple of acquaintances of ours were in it. Many see it as an elitist organization modeled after other such organizations that help to maintain a white male patriarchy. Others see it as a way for minority communities to become part of the “establishment” by wielding the supposed power and influence that comes with membership (President Gerald Ford was a member). Recently, both the president of the Indian American Students Association and the co-chair of SAAN (where I was invited to speak earlier this year) were outed as members of this secret society. This prompted the following demand from the United Asian American Organizations, an influential umbrella group on campus:

United Asian American Organizations, a congress of 37 Asian/Pacific Islander student groups, passed a resolution last month insisting that the senior society meet five demands by the beginning of winter semester.

If it does not, UAAO promised to oust two member groups – the South Asian Awareness Network and the Indian American Student Association…

“Michigamua fails to prove to the campus community that they are no longer a racist establishment. The only way they could prove this is through transparency, a method they do not employ at this time,” UAAO executive board members wrote in a statement. “Because of this lack of transparency, United Asian American Organizations has taken steps to ensure the safety of the student of color community to which we belong…” [Link]

Let me translate and paraphrase in my own words: “You stand either with the racist establishment or you stand with other Asians of color.” It doesn’t appear likely that the browns want to quit though:

Members of IASA declined to comment for this article, but it appears their group does not intend to force Pai, the group’s president, to quit the society. It also seems unlikely that they will force him to resign.

SAAN has no intentions of barring its leaders from the society, said Shah, SAAN co-chair and society member.

“At this time, SAAN’s central planning team has decided to give the opportunity to the organization formerly known as Michigamua to implement the changes it promised last year,” he said. [Link]

Also, a second quick note about Michigan:

Continue reading →

Banal and Sad

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Today’s New York Times report from Myanmar (or Burma, if you prefer) is in large measure the same old sad story of a country wracked by poverty and disease while its dictatorial elite has fun and makes money. The angle this time, at least in the lede, is the contrast between the ongoing rush for Myanmar’s natural gas reserves and the domestic penury of petrol and electricity. The article then opens onto a number of other topics; no scoops here, but a useful reminder of a situation that many have found easy to forget. It’s also a timely reminder, considering the imminent passage of the US-India nuclear deal, of the way great-power strategic considerations still trump more ethical goals; for all their differences in other areas, India and China are both big supporters of the Myanmar regime.

Burma372.jpgAlso timely, considering our recent discussion of “citizen journalism” by means of camera-phone, is the article’s mention of video footage of the wedding of the Myanmar leader’s daughter that was smuggled out and posted by The Irrawaddy, a publication and website run largely by Burmese and based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Senior General Than Shwe has been the head guy in Myanmar for the past 14 years and apparently has given himself the airs of traditional Buddhist royalty, as several examples in the Times story attest. The wedding of his daughter Thandar Shwe to a mid-ranking government official involved a ceremony costing a reported $300,000 and, perhaps more egregiously, $50 million in houses and cars as gifts. Recently posted online, the video gives Burmese a specific target of outrage in the spirit of the great Bob Marley line, “Dem belly full but we hungry,” although how much it wil be seen within Myanmar is unclear.

I took a look at Irrawaddy.org and was extremely impressed by the coverage, analysis and professional values of the website; it can’t be all that easy reporting on a largely closed society and excavating the ties of its leadership with neighboring powers. Perhaps someone more versed on the subject can give more advanced commentary.

Meanwhile, watch the wedding video and what is striking is not so much the six fat ropes of diamonds that the bride wears, nor the train of her dress or the devoted attention of the dinner guests, but rather the sense of emptiness that the whole thing conveys. It seems to be held in an oversize function hall where the trappings of luxury have been grafted onto ultimately ordinary surroundings. The guests, the dinner tables, all look small and lonely and despite the lifting of bottles of Champagne it doesn’t seem like anyone (including the betrothed) is having much fun. The cheesy music only compounds the sense of tawdriness, even sadness, that suffuses the scene. Of course you don’t need to look as far as a paranoid dictatorship to find sensory evidence of the absolute, mind-numbing banality of power, but settings like this one display the phenomenon in its full, melancholy glory. The staging expresses the dialectic that binds the construction of power and spiritual decay, and supplies an updated, self-contained meaning to the term puppet regime. Continue reading →