Category Archives: Issues

The profiling myth, part 2

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NYC police chief Ray Kelly agrees that racial profiling is trivially defeated by terrorists and too dangerous to rely on:‘I think profiling is just nuts’

— NYC police chief
Ray Kelly

“If you look at the London bombings, you have three British citizens of Pakistani descent. You have Germaine Lindsay, who is Jamaican. You have the next crew, on July 21st, who are East African. You have a Chechen woman in Moscow in early 2004 who blows herself up in the subway station. So whom do you profile? Look at New York City. Forty percent of New Yorkers are born outside the country… Who am I supposed to profile?… Could a terrorist dress up as a Hasidic Jew and walk into the subway, and not be profiled? Yes. I think profiling is just nuts.” [Link]

The author of this New Yorker piece, Malcolm Gladwell, explains that a racial profile fails against an adaptive foe:

… what the jihadis seemed to have done in London [was that] they switched to East Africans because the scrutiny of young Arab and Pakistani men grew too intense. It doesn’t work to generalize about a relationship between a category and a trait when that relationship isn’t stable–or when the act of generalizing may itself change the basis of the generalization. [Link]

Kelly had previously eliminated ineffective profiling in the U.S. Customs Service:

… he overhauled the criteria that border-control officers use to identify and search suspected smugglers. There had been a list of forty-three suspicious traits. He replaced it with a list of six broad criteria. Is there something suspicious about their physical appearance? Are they nervous? Is there specific intelligence targeting this person? Does the drug-sniffing dog raise an alarm? Is there something amiss in their paperwork or explanations? Has contraband been found that implicates this person?

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Hey…did you check out the new neighbors?

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Our own F.A.Q. defines “South Asia” in the following way:

What is South Asia?

It’s the countries in the area of the Indian subcontinent which share common ethnic and cultural roots (food, family, Bollywood). SAJA opines that South Asia includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. The U.S. State Department also includes Afghanistan.

Well it seems we may now have to tweak our F.A.Q. just a bit. The U.S. State Department reports:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says South Asia and Central Asia are high on her list of global priorities, and the State Department is adjusting its bureaus so that the same teams of experts and diplomats are focused on both regions.

“One of the things that we did in the State Department was to move the Central Asian republics out of the European bureau, which really was an artifact of their having been states of the Soviet Union, and to move them into the bureau that is South Asia, which has Afghanistan, India and Pakistan,” Rice said January 5.

“It represents what we’re trying to do, which is to think of this region as one that will need to be integrated, and that will be a very important goal for us,” Rice told reporters in Washington. (See related story.)

The five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are predominantly Muslim nations with a combined population of nearly 60 million.

The New Eurasia Blog opines:

This is an interesting move for the State Department, and potentially a problematic one. While Central Asia’s being grouped with the rest of the former Soviet Union might be an “artifact” of history, it is an important one. Over a hundred years of dominance and control has left its mark on the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, and officials experienced with South Asian states like Afghanistan and India may lack an important context of understanding for the region.

I know that it isn’t going to go over well with some people that Russian speaking Muslims are moving in to their “neighborhood.”

See Related Post: A New Spook at the Agency

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Parents can buy cell phone records

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Speaking of cell phones and sweet, sweet looowe, it used to be that desi parents could track your nefarious romantic activities via phone bills, but only until you went off to college. Now they can track who you’re dating right now simply by buying your cell phone bill– and it’s all totally legal:

You wanna tight thappad, beta? I know who you been callin’

The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone — for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls… In some cases, telephone company insiders secretly sell customers’ phone-call lists to online brokers, despite strict telephone company rules against such deals, according to Schumer. And some online brokers have used deception to get the lists from the phone companies, he said. “Though this problem is all too common, federal law is too narrow to include this type of crime…” [Link]

Ennis says it even happened to former presidential candidate Wes Clark:

… this morning AMERICAblog bought former presidential candidate, and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO… General Wesley Clark’s cell phone records for one hundred calls made over three days in November 2005, no questions asked… All we needed was General Clark’s cell phone number and our credit card… [AMERICABlog, a liberal blog]

As this becomes widely known, it’s not just police informers, cheating spouses and leaking politicians who need to worry. With desi culture’s open-door, no-privacy social contract, it’s also desi teens living out their Heer-Ranjha stories. Maybe keyloggers, spy viruses and purchased cell phone bills will begin showing up as the new villains in the movies.

Related post: Cell Phones of SHAME and LONGING

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‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’

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A NYT columnist tells a story of vengeance (paid link) that’s become all too familiar (thanks, Turbanhead). It’s got overtones of Mirch Masala, Krantiveer and Bandit Queen:

… in the central Indian city of Nagpur… [f]or more than 15 years, the mud alleys of the slum were ruled by a local thug named Akku Yadav. A higher-caste man, he killed, raped and robbed in this community of Dalits… One woman, according to people here, went to the police station to report that she had been gang-raped by Akku Yadav and his goons, and the police raped her.

Neighbors tell how Akku Yadav forced a man to dance naked in front of his teenage daughter. They say that he chopped one woman into pieces in front of her daughter, and that another woman burned herself to death after he and his men gang-raped her…

Usha turned on the gas, grabbed a match and threatened to blow up everyoneWe have the bad guy, now we need the heroine. Usha Narayane, one of the few to leave the slum and get an education, was back home visiting relatives when the gang attacked. What Narayane managed to pull was like walking into a biker war with a hand grenade:

Akku Yadav returned with 40 men and surrounded the Narayane shack. He waved a bottle of acid and threatened to disfigure Usha’s face, and to rape and kill her… Usha turned on the gas, grabbed a match and threatened to blow up everyone if the gang broke into the house…
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Always record phonecalls to your mom

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In my previous post about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) wiretapping of U.S. citizens, I quipped:

I’ve also been using a calling card (from what may be a shady NSA front company) to call my parents who are vacationing in India. I should think twice about what I say…

NPR commentator Sandip Roy must have had the same thought. In a humorous piece this morning he plays a recorded conversation between him and his mom who is in Calcutta. At various times he pauses the tape long enough to advise the NSA, what he is NOT talking about.

This just reiterated to me that every single person should have a library of recorded phone conversations with their parents. Even the most mundane conversation can make you smile.

Listen.

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The Boomerang effect

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Earlier this week a SM tipster (thanks Ami) sent us word of this article in Time Magazine that does a pretty good job of examining the second generation Asian American experience:

The American story is, of course, made up of successive influxes of immigrants who arrive in the U.S., struggle to find a place in its society and eventually assimilate. But the group of post-1965 Asians was different from the Jews, Irish and Italians who had landed earlier. The Asian immigrants’ distinctive physiognomy may have made it more difficult for them to blend in, but at the same time, their high education and skill levels allowed them quicker entrée into the middle class. Instead of clustering tightly in urban ethnic enclaves, they spread out into suburbia, where they were often isolated. And it was there that their kids, now 20 to 40 years old, grew up, straddling two worlds–the traditional domain their recently arrived parents sought to maintain at home and the fast-changing Western culture of the society outside the front door. The six people at the New York City dinner are members of that second generation and–full disclosure–so are we, the authors of this article.

In the paragraph above you see a very concise reason for why the experience of South Asian immigrants living in the U.S. is different from those living in European countries, and totally different from those living elsewhere abroad. The fact that immigrants here spread to isolated suburbs helped them assimilate more quickly, while at the same time encouraging them to embrace inclusiveness by identifying with other immigrant populations.

If you were to draw a diagram of acculturation, with the mores of immigrant parents on one side and society’s on the other, the classic model might show a steady drift over time, depicting a slow-burn Americanization, taking as long as two or three generations. The more recent Asian-American curve, however, looks almost like the path of a boomerang: early isolation, rapid immersion and assimilation and then a re-appreciation of ethnic roots.

I enjoyed this article because I felt that they were describing my own experience quite accurately.

As a child growing up in Pennington, N.J., Fareha Ahmed watched Bollywood videos and enthusiastically attended the annual Pakistan Independence Day Parade in New York City. By middle school, though, her parents’ Pakistani culture had become uncool. “I wanted to fit in so bad,” Ahmed says. For her, that meant trying to be white. She dyed her hair blond, got hazel contact lenses and complained, “I’m going to smell,” when her mom served fragrant dishes like lamb biryani for dinner. But at Villanova University in Philadelphia, Ahmed found friends from all different backgrounds who welcomed diversity and helped her, she says, become “a good balance of East meets West.” Now 23, she and her non-Asian roommates threw a party to mark the Islamic holiday ‘Id al-Fitr in November, then threw another for Christmas–which her family never celebrated. “I chose to embrace both holidays instead of segregating myself to one,” she says.

Asian Americans say part of the reason it is so hard to reach an equilibrium is that they are seen as what sociologists call “forever foreigners.” Their looks lead to a lifetime of questions like “No, where are you really from?”

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You can get with THIS or you can get with THAT

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But THIS is where it’s at. The SASA conference is being held this weekend in New York. BUT…if you want to go to a conference that you will truly learn from and be inspired by, why non register for the South Asian Awareness Network (SAAN) conference at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor? It will be held on the February 3rd through 6th weekend. If you are a college student in the state of Michigan then you have no excuse. If you are a student in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or several other close states, then I just have one word for you: ROADTRIP!

SAAN’s primary function is to establish an annual South Asian conference for South Asian and non-South Asian students alike. SAAN 2006: Impact Through Interaction will be the fourth annual holding of this conference, and we hope to continue setting a precedent that all future SAAN conferences will follow.

SAAN’s broad goals include: educating participants and raising awareness about issues affecting South Asians that are often overlooked or not discussed, inspiring young South Asians to become leaders through activism, building pride, unity, and friendship among students in order to promote South Asian awareness, addressing the educational needs and rights of South Asian Americans, maintaining a network of South Asians in Michigan, the Midwest, and across the nation, sponsoring and co-sponsoring programs and events with other South Asian organizations and promoting peace, unity, and tolerance at a young age to South Asians. [Link]

So why am I endorsing THIS conference? Two reasons. First, the South Asian students at the University of Michigan have an unrivaled history of activism. Don’t just take my word for it, ask around. Where do you think the National Gandhi Day of service was started? In addition, back in 1997-1998, students at the University of Michigan began holding conferences (I helped to organize the first one) partly because they were disgusted by the emphasis on partying that conferences like SASA had embraced. These conferences were to focus on REAL activism, and interaction with equally passionate students through plenty of small group interaction. What is the second reason I am endorsing this conference? Well, because they invited me to speak . I am more than a little nervous though. They put me on a panel where the other speaker’s first name is “Preacher.” Who the hell is going to pay ANY attention to what I have to say when the other guy is named “Preacher?!?” Manish suggested I change my name to Abhi X so that I can compete. Here is a partial listing of the speakers (which include a few people we have blogged about) and a listing of the workshops. The panel I am on is titled: Get up, Get Out, and Get Movin’. And yes. If there is Wi-Fi access, I will be live blogging the conference for SM readers. I’d love to sit five feet in front of some of the speakers and type away every time they open their mouths. What?

You can register here for just ~$50.

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Blood marriage

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The idea of paying blood money to settle murders in rural Pakistan reaches its logical conclusion, since women are still considered nothing more than chattel:

A village council in Pakistan has decreed that five young women should be abducted, raped or killed for refusing to honour childhood “marriages”… The marriages were part of a compensation agreement ordered by the village council and reached at gunpoint after the father of one of the girls shot dead a family rival. The rival families have now called in their “debt”, demanding the marriages to the village men are fulfilled. [Link]

Shall the sins of the father be visited upon the sons daughters?

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the “barbaric custom of vani”, – the tradition of handing over women to resolve disputes – and called on President Pervez Musharraf to enforce a ban. Last year a three-year-old girl near Multan was betrothed to a 60-year-old man in a similar settlement. [Link]

Her father had killed someone, and she had to marry a member of the victim’s familyHer father had killed someone and she had to marry a member of the victim’s family as compensation under a centuries-old custom of Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun tribes. Known as swara, the custom calls for a girl to be given away in marriage to an aggrieved family as part of settlement for murder perpetrated by one of her relatives… the custom is still prevalent in the semi-autonomous tribal regions where Pakistani law seldom applies and where jirgas, or councils of tribal elders, settle disputes the old way… “Sons are never given away in settlement because we women folk are easy target…” [Link]

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The art of the book review

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Superstar desi lawyer Neal Katyal, who will later this year be representing Osama Bin Laden’s former driver in a Supreme Court case, had a book review in yesterday’s Washington Post. The book he was reviewing was a new one by John Yoo titled, The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs After 9/11. Katyal cleverly uses his book review to slam Yoo and his conservative policies, while also adding to the very relevant debate about what limits should be imposed on the powers of the Executive.

In particular, the book argues that the Constitution gives the president a much larger role in foreign affairs and military operations than the other two branches of the federal government, that the president does not need a congressional declaration of war before placing troops on the ground and that treaties ratified by the Senate have no legal impact unless Congress explicitly passes laws saying that they do.

In advancing these claims, the book is burdened by its strange attempt to mix constitutional claims grounded in the Founders’ intent in 1787 with the practicalities of living in an age of terrorism. Either one can take the position of such conservative icons as Robert Bork and Justice Antonin Scalia — that the original intentions of the Constitution’s authors bind us today and changes can only come through amendment — or hold the view of more liberal figures such as Justice Stephen Breyer that practical, functional considerations create a living Constitution that adapts as times change. Both are perfectly plausible. What isn’t credible is a theory that cherry-picks from the two to advance a particular thesis. And that’s exactly what Yoo does at times.

…In the end, the most glaring failure of the book is its one-sided attack on the courts and Congress, with no real attention paid to the failures of the executive branch. The underlying message is that the executive doesn’t need checks on its activities, but that the other branches consistently do. Yet presidents of both parties have made tremendous mistakes, and recent events have shown that claims of unchecked power can lead to massive abuse. Yoo even unwittingly refers to at least one recent miscalculation, in words that already date the book, by stating that Iraq was “potentially armed with weapons of mass destruction.”

It seems very likely that this book review also gives us a small preview of what some of Katyal’s arguments in front of the Supreme Court may be in Hamdan v Rumsfeld. I am just counting the weeks until Nina Totenberg wakes me with details of Katyal’s fight in front of the Roberts court.

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