Category Archives: Politics

Media Roundup: The Trip Part 1

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As many of you know, President Bush will be visiting India and Pakistan next week. Because of the plethora of stories that will be written in the next couple of weeks, and that have already been written, one of the better ways to alert you to these will be doing a periodic roundup of some of them. In this round:

  • Newly anointed Yale Trustee Fareed Zakaria says in his latest Newsweek column (2/27/06) that President Bush’s upcoming trip to India is equivalent to President Nixon’s visit to China. I don’t know about that, MSingh isn’t exactly Chairman Mao.
  • The AP summarizes a roundtable President Bush gave to Indian journos in DC. Among other things, we find out that Bush is a fan of cricket (I wonder if his Texas people know that) and will not be visiting the Taj. (AP 2/23/06)
  • Matthew Cooper writes in Time (2/23) that India, amidst all the troubles the administration is currently facing, is a bright spot and that “it’s probably safe to say that a President who hasn’t always loved to travel abroad is very much looking forward to his latest getaway.” He must have never heard of Delhi Belly. “When the President jets off to India (as well as Pakistan) next week, it will be his first visit to the region and the first by a Republican president in 35 years, since Richard Nixon traveled there.”
  • The Economist, one of my favorite newsmagazines, has a great article with a great lede that summarizes the past India-US relationship the best. “On the 13-hour flight next week from Washington to Delhi, George Bush could do a lot worse than to put aside his briefing books and curl up instead with E.M. Forster’s best-known novel. “A Passage to India” is a tale, above all, of misunderstanding: of wrong signals, exaggerated expectations, offence unwittingly caused and taken, and inevitable disappointment. It is a parable of the complications that arise when eager Anglo-Saxons go travelling on the Indian subcontinent.”
  • The WSJ 2/21/06 (subscription only) writes about the potential tension that could occur between MSingh and President Bush because Singh’s daughter Amrit is an ACLU attorney. Thanks WSJ for finally writing about this, although we’ve previously covered it. From the WSJ:
“Ms. Singh’s dogged pursuit of U.S. government information has subjected the Bush administration to withering criticism of its treatment of suspected terrorists. But among the ironies of the post-Sept. 11 world is the fact that this particular critic of the Bush administration is also the relative of one of its newest friends. Amrit, 36 years old, is the youngest daughter of Manmohan Singh, prime minister of India. Mr. Singh, 73 years old, will host President Bush at a summit in New Delhi early next month. While the soft-spoken Indian prime minister and his daughter share views on many issues, according to acquaintances, their public personas stand on opposite sides of the debate over the Bush administration’s foreign policy.

Related Posts Brimful of Amrit; Indian PM’s daughter says Bush personally authorized torture; Indian PM’s daughter works for the ACLU; President Singh

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But can you PROVE you aren’t into chemical weapons?

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Brimful points me to the newest issue of the Journal Nature which contains an account (subscription required) of how the U.S. consulate in India “humiliated” one of India’s most prominent scientists (who also serves as an adviser to the prime minister). This is a particularly relevant diplomatic flap given Bush’s impending visit to India:

Scientific cooperation between India and the United States has been dented ahead of US President George Bush’s official visit to New Delhi next month. Bush will find India’s scientific community in a bitter mood following the United States’ failure to give a visa to a leading Indian organic chemist on the suspicion that his work could be related to chemical warfare.

Bush was already preparing to deal with a nuclear establishment unwilling to separate its military and civilian atomic facilities the way Washington wants, a principle at the centre of last July’s historic deal for nuclear cooperation between the two countries (see Nature 436, 446-447; 2005). But the visa issue is creating a new wave of resentment.

Goverdhan Mehta, a former director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, had been invited as a visiting professor to the University of Florida at Gainesville, but says he was asked to prove that he was not working on chemical weapons before a visa was issued.

This morning’s Washington Post provides greater detail on the incident (thanks Rekha):

In the face of outrage in India, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi issued a highly unusual statement of regret, and yesterday the State Department said officials are reaching out to the scientist to resolve his case.

“It is very strange logic,” said Mehta, reached at his home in Bangalore early this morning India time. “Someone is insulted and hurt and you ask him to come back a second round…”

The scientist told Indian newspapers that his dealing with the U.S. consulate was “the most degrading experience of my life.” Mehta is president of the International Council for Science, a Paris-based organization comprising the national scientific academies of a number of countries. The council advocates that scientists should have free access to one another.

In his written account, the scientist said that after traveling 200 miles, waiting three hours with his wife for an interview and being accused of deception, he was outraged when his accounts of his research were questioned and he was told he needed to fill out a detailed questionnaire. [Link]

All of this is a result of the the shotgun approach that U.S. consulates have followed due to post-9/11 pressure from the State Department. It’s just easier to harass and deny someone rather than be wrong just once and get blamed for it. Such a policy makes us look even more Draconian in the eyes of the world. If foreign scientists are treated this way, then foreign students will be less inclined to study here. Then we will have real problems since Americans aren’t pursuing science and engineering in the numbers that they once did. It will also cripple important scientific exchange with other countries who are tired of dealing with the U.S.

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What happens in Vegas, stays in Chennai

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Now that the the Amish are phone phreaking…

An Amish teenager will pay a fine and restitution to a neighbor for illegally tapping into his telephone line… The Amish traditionally shun telephones and other modern conveniences in their homes. [Link]

… and godless Chinese churn out Hindu idols…

Nowadays, factories in agnostic, communist China are producing Ganesh, Krishna and other Hindu idols out of plastic and porcelain at such low cost and high quality that Indians are lapping them up. India’s newfound love for mass-produced, “Made in China” images of their gods is driving many in the poorest sections of the nation’s traditional idol-making industry out of business, repeating a pattern seen in its toy-making industry. [Link]

… it was only a matter of time before India started writing software for that den of sin, Vegas (via Digg):

… software development for casinos will now happen in India — a country in which gambling is illegal. [Link]

Bally Systems, [the] world’s largest casino technology [company], is making India its largest… software… development centre… [its] development facility in Chennai will have 250 engineers by mid 2007, against 70 at present. [Link]

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Did the NY Times unfairly reject an intern?

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The New York Times always takes a beating from conservatives that decry that the respected newspaper is too liberal. Over the tip line we hear of an incident that makes me cringe. Rutgers journalism professor Allan Wolper writes in Editor & Publisher about one of his students:

Kejal Vyas, one of my best journalism students at Rutgers-Newark, in Newark, N.J., was in Delhi completing some academic work when he received this Feb. 1 e-mail from Nancy Sharkey, senior editor/recruiting for The New York Times, responding to his inquiry about an internship:

“Hi Kejal, Based on what Allan Wolper has written about us, I cannot imagine that he would want one of his students to intern here. I guess if we need students from New Jersey, we will go elsewhere. Best, Nancy…”

Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, an organization that monitors censorship on college and high school campuses, was as stunned as I was when I told him Vyas’ story.

“The message here for journalism professors is that if you want your students to get an internship at The New York Times, you don’t criticize the Times in what you write,” Goodman told me. “It seems grossly inappropriate and unfair. I’ve never heard of anything like this happening before.” [Link]

Wolper writes that he followed up with Sharkey on belhalf of Vyas, in order to clarify as to why he was rejected:

Sharkey laughed and said she was being “snide” when she wrote to Vyas. Then, to my amazement, she virtually repeated what she had written to him: “I don’t see why you’d want your students to work at the Times, considering what you’ve written about us.”

It was something that I thought I would never hear from a New York Times news executive. Afterwards, I called Catherine Mathis, the Gray Lady’s vice president of corporate communications, briefed her on what Sharkey had said, and sent her a copy of the Sharkey-Vyas e-mails. [Link]

Here is an old example of something that Wolper once wrote that Sharkey and others at the Times may have disliked:

What would Americans think if they knew that their best newspaper, The New York Times, had allowed one of its national-security reporters to negotiate a book deal that needed the approval of the CIA?

What would they say if they knew the CIA was editing the book while the country is days or weeks away from a war with Iraq and is counting on the Times to monitor the intelligence agency?

They would be properly horrified. [Link]
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Why Bush is right

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Yes. Please take a minute to compose yourselves. You did read the title of this post correctly and this is the reliably left-leaning Abhi writing this post (and not someone who has infiltrated our North Dakota bunker and is holding me at gunpoint). On Tuesday, President Bush forcefully defended his administration’s decision to allow a sale which would turn over the control of operations at major American ports to a company based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and controlled by that government. Here is one news report following the decision:

U.S. lawmakers formally asked the Bush administration Thursday to reconsider its approval of a sale giving a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports.

The lawmakers, including four senators and three House members, sharply criticized the UAE as inconsistent in its support of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.

They also said the country was a key transfer point for shipments of nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya and was one of only three nations that had recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government…

The Associated Press reported Saturday that government-owned Dubai Ports World had won approval for the $6.8 billion deal from a secretive U.S. panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry. [Link]

Here is Bush’s strong response today, where he actually threatened to veto any bill that curbs this sale (note: he has NEVER vetoed anything):

He called on opponents to explain why they opposed a Middle Eastern firm taking over when they did not oppose a British company being in control.

“I am trying to conduct foreign policy now by saying to the people of the world, ‘We’ll treat you fairly’,” he said.

“It would send a terrible signal to friends and allies not to let this transaction go through,” he told reporters. [Link]

For the rest of this post I am going to go out on a limb and trust in two things. I will leave it up to individual readers to decide whether to go out on this limb with me or not:

  1. I will trust that the “secretive U.S. panel” mentioned above has adequately considered and addressed the security risks involved in this deal.
  2. I will trust that there isn’t some larger Machiavellian plot behind this whole thing that will make the President’s friends rich at the expense of others.

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Black and White

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Believe it or not, the word most frequently heard in cricketing circles today is a perfectly normal English word – not chucking, sledging, googly, fine-leg or doosra. Racism has always been lurking around the fringes of the game – when unapologetically segregationist South Africa was kept away from cricket, several (mostly) white players from Australia and England would sneak in to play a game or two, lured by the money; risking lifetime bans. Each quaintly labeled rebel tour would inspire a few articles condemning apartheid, and (predictably enough) British newspapers would write muted articles about why things weren’t really that bad, and why people shouldn’t get their undergarments into intricate knots over a mere game.

Neighboring Zimbabwe had an all-white cricket team as well, but that didn’t raise too many eyebrows because the team hardly won anything, but mostly because they played for a country ruled by a benign black dictator.

But today, things have changed. The benign dictator is not so benign anymore, and of late, he has been maintaining a punishing schedule – creating food shortages in his country by taking away farms from white farmers. But Robert loves playing games, and he is going to make time for cricket, punishing schedule or not. And how well he plays. First, he cleanses his team of all white players – using other people of course, why would a powerful man get his hands dirty? – and then obviously pleased with how clean the team looked, he is now on another cleaning spree – this time to get rid of all the good players, especially the pesky ones that want to get paid for their services.

Several interesting strategies have been employed in this round, including but not limited to robbing players of their money, death threats, divide and conquer. Meanwhile, the standard of cricket has dipped alarmingly in the country, and most games involving them bear a more than passing resemblance to games involving the Atlanta Hawks. But Mugabe doesn’t know that because he has no time for the NBA. Plus now his team is all black, and isn’t that good enough?

Meanwhile, events in Australia are ensuring that things stay balanced on the racism front. Crowds at cricket matches in Australia are always a bit more, um… boisterous than crowds elsewhere, possibly due to a lot of beer and not too many bathrooms on the grounds, but this year they’ve taken their bad behavior to new depths. People have learnt new words, and are not hesitant to try them out on visiting cricket teams.

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Drunken Durga

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Small comfort: A bar in Athens has been ordered to remove a Southern Comfort poster featuring a multi-armed Durga holding bottles of whiskey (via India-West):

Large posters inside and outside the Balon Oriental Disco Bar in Athens depict the Goddess carrying bottles of Southern Comfort Whiskey in her hands…

The Indian community in Athens has been trying for the last three months to have the posters removed but in vain. Letters have been sent to the American manufacturer of Southern Comfort Whiskey in Tennessee, America, to withdraw the poster. [Link]

Tacky? Yes. Boycott? Begone my NyQuil-flavored winter warmth. But there’s no need to go all Danish on their kundis. How very fundie-Muslim of them:

The offending poster was removed from the discotheque as a result of direct communication from the Greek Embassy in New Delhi to the authorities in Athens to have the poster removed immediately… The offending poster was removed from the discotheque as a result of direct communication from the Greek Embassy in New Delhi to the authorities in Athens to have the poster removed immediately as otherwise there would be a strong reaction from Hindus worldwide. [Link]

Das says that the community wants to round up all the existing posters and burn them… members of the Sikh faith in Athens joined forces with the Hindu communities in their protest. [Link]

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Shantu Shah for Oregon’s District 1

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Earlier this month an engineer from Portland, Oregon named Shantu Shah announced his candidacy for the U.S. Congress from Oregon’s 1st District. Although some quick web-searching hints that he may come from a Green Party background, Shah is running as a Democrat. The best part is that he started his own blog to coincide with his announcement. If he can keep it up and provide substantial day-to-day detail of the process, it may provide us with a window into what it takes for an Indian American to run for Congress. Even if he fails in his bid, his blog could be used as a good resource for future candidates (not so subtle hint to Mr. Shah). Here are some excerpts from his announcement speech that he copied to his first post:

A VISION FOR CHANGE – The TRIUMPH OF WILL
Shantu Shah, Candidate for U.S. Congress
as Representative for Oregon District One

Brothers and Sisters of America:

My inspiration comes from three personalities: Gandhi, Patel, and Gandhi, two women and a man, who have shaped the international politics with their vision for change and the triumph of their will, have been the focus of three biographies by three different authors. If you have guessed their names as Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Indira Gandhi your guess was incorrect. I am talking about: 1) The Untold Story of Kastur, wife of Mahatma Gandhi, authored by their grandson Arun Gandhi (and his wife Sunanda), who would be addressing at my invitation to an Interfaith Festival of Faith this September 17 in Convention Center, Portland, Oregon; 2) Triumph of Will, Sonia Gandhi, Italy-born wife of Rajiv Gandhi, Past Prime Minister of India, written by Yussuf Ansari and; 3) A Vision for Change A.D. Patel and the politics of Fiji by Brij V. Lal…

During the democratic elections in Canada and Palestine in Janauary 2006 the incumbents were thrown out of the office by the will of the voters. Hope with the help of average Americans we will be able to throw out the rascals who have been corrupted by the corporate culture, influenced by the cash contributions of millions of dollars, leaving behind the average citizen holding down the empty bag on the back burners.

Heath care, meager social security benefits, medical insurances, education for have-nots, and the small businesses e.g. AAHOA hotels and motels, are all at risk at the enrichment of the well to do and the haves. Haves have been helpful in the economy as much as the have-nots who labor for the economical success of the country. Our factories and offices would not be busy without the haves and have-nots. [Link]

Shah REALLY has his work cut out for him. He will be running against a powerful four-time incumbent, Asian American Democrat David Wu. Continue reading →

Where the mandirs are

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Harvard University’s Pluralism Project has many interesting resources concerning minority religions in the USA. Here, for example, is their map of mandirs across America:

To some extent, this map can be read as a proxy for the distribution of Hindus across the country, although only crudely. Because the map indicates the number of temples and not the size of their congregations, a state with a large number of small temples will show up as darker brown (I love their coloring scheme) than one with a smaller number of large temples. That is, there might be more Hindus in Illinois than New York, but they simply worship at a few very large temples.

Despite this limitation, there is still much to be learned from reading these maps. I was surprised to see, for example, that there were more mandirs in Georgia than in the state of Washington, or Michigan. Who knew there were so many mandirs in the south?

The site also includes maps of the 89 Jain temples, 236 Sikh gurdwaras, 2039 Buddhist temples, and the 1855 Islamic mosques that they have catalogued.

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World’s largest turban!

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Major Singh, a Nihang Sikh in India, is hoping to qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records with the world’s largest turban (via Mr. Sikhnet):

A Sikh cleric from Amritsar is all set to make it to the record books for wearing what he claims is the largest turban in the world… Major Singh… wears a huge tower-shaped turban using 400 meters of cloth, some 100 hairpins, and embellished with 51 religious symbols made in metal. [Link]

This style of round turban is known as a dumaala and is common to Nihang Sikhs. Most Nihangs wear a smaller turban than this, but there is a tradition of competing to see who can wear the largest. Major Singh’s 400 meter turban weighs around 35 kg, or roughly 77 lbs. Nobody else is in his weight class, the next largest turbans are 10 kg smaller.

If you’ve ever seen or met a Nihang Sikh, all dressed in blue, you’re not likely to forget:

Nihang Singhs belong to a martial tradition … Their way of life, style of dress, and weaponry has remained little changed since … three hundred years ago. Nihangs are a semi-nomadic people. They are organized into “armies” and live in camps known as “cantonments”. Men and women both train in horsemanship, swordsmanship, and in the Punjabi martial art known as gatka. During times of persecution in the past, the Nihangs defended Sikh shrines and the Sikh way of life and become known for their bravery against all odds. In times of peace they travel to festivals and fairs throughout India, staging displays of horsemanship and martial skills. [Link]

For those inquiring minds, my own turban is considerably more modest in size. It’s not the size of the turban on the man, it’s the size of the man in the turban, and that’s all I have to say on this topic . [Major Singh is, I’m sure, a lot of man in a very large turban.]

Related Sepia Mutiny Posts: Crisp or Not, As American as Gatka, Justice Department smacks MTA over turban ban, Da Star in dastar, This turban’s disturbin’

Related Articles: Nihangs, Learn How To Tie Different Sikh Turbans

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