Category Archives: Politics

The Lost Girls

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A new study published in the medical journal The Lancet (subscription required) exposes the staggering numbers involved in India’s greatest shame. The BBC reports:

More than 10m female births may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years, according to research in The Lancet medical journal.

Researchers in India and Canada said prenatal selection and selective abortion was causing the loss of 500,000 girls a year.

Their research was based on a national survey of 1.1m households in 1998.

The researchers said the “girl deficit” was more common among educated women but did not vary according to religion.

In most countries, women slightly outnumber men, but separate research for the year 2001 showed that for every 1,000 male babies born in India, there were just 933 girls. [Link]

The one result of the study which really makes me lose hope for the future is that a more educated woman is even MORE likely to pursue sex selection by abortion (although this could be due to pressure from their equally more educated spouse). Also, there is an even larger spike in people selecting the sex of their babies through abortion if there has already been a daughter born into a family.

In cases where the preceding child was a girl, the ratio of girls to boys in the next birth was 759 to 1,000.

This fell even further when the two preceding children were both girls. Then the ratio for the third child born was just 719 girls to 1,000 boys.

However, for a child following the birth of a male child, the gender ratio was roughly equal.

Basically this means that for a female fetus to see the light of day she has to hope that she has an older brother waiting on the other side for her.

Dr [Shirish] Sheth says: “Female infanticide of the past is refined and honed to a fine skill in this modern guise. It is ushered in earlier, more in urban areas and by the more educated … A careful demographic analysis of actual and expected sex ratios shows that about 100 million girls are missing from the world – they are dead…” [Link]
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Make the trip worth it

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The annual South Asian Student Alliance (SASA) conference begins next weekend. I think that SM bloggers and quite a few of our readers have made it pretty clear what little respect we have left for SASA, which seems to have lost its way (see previous posts 1,2). If you are a student who has not yet arrived at the conclusion that we have, and you have decided to attend next weekend, then I have a critical mission for you. I believe that there exists a way in which you can make the trip to New York worth it. The SASA conference will once again hold a Bone Marrow Drive. Make sure that you take the time to give just a few drops of your blood.

Thursday Jan 12th: 1:00pm – 10:00pm
Friday Jan 13th: 10:00am – 10:00pm

Ballroom Floor
At The New Yorker Hotel
481 8th Avenue at 34th Street
New York City

Take a look at these faces…they are just like you and me! Look at the fellow South Asians and ask why can’t we save them and help many more, who are likely to be in same situation in the future. It does not matter if you are from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh; it does not matter if you are Hindu, Moslem, Christian or Jain. What matters is, that we all share the same genetic pool, and we save each others life!

You can probably show up for the drive even if you aren’t there for the conference. Need more motivation? Help Save Ashish:

Ashish has undergone a great deal of suffering since first admitted at Texas Children’s hospital on September 26, 2005. He has been in and out of the hospital, first admitted at Texas Children’s hospital on September 26, 2005. requiring transfusions, fighting infections, undergoing bone marrow biopsy’s and surgeries. He has to check his blood levels every week and needs transfusions regularly. In spite of the pain he has gone through he has an incredible inner strength that is portrayed in his beaming smile and good nature. While we pray for a miracle his only medical hope for survival is a bone marrow transplant.

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God is a DJ

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I used to think the urge to convert mosques into temples was an obsession peculiar to Hindutva types. But Córdoba, Spain makes it ok to have rapacious religionists in your cultural closet.

As I posted last, the mountain fortress of La Alhambra looks Spanish on the outside, Mughal on the inside. But the Mezquita cathedral in Córdoba is the reverse, a Moorish mosque converted into a cathedral.

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The best weapon in the “War on Terror”…

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…is kindness. A poll last month in Pakistan (conducted by Terror Free Tomorrow) makes even more clear a notion that we have alluded to before on a couple of occasions [1,2]. If the U.S. wants a cost effective way of attacking terrorism at its root, then kill them with kindness. Just look at what happened when we decided to divert a few helicopters from Afghanistan to the quake ravaged regions of Pakistan. New America Media reports on the poll results:

So much for the popularly peddled view that anti-Americanism in the Muslim world is so pervasive and deep-rooted it might take generations to alter. A new poll from Pakistan, one of the most critical front lines in the war on terror, paints a very different picture — by revealing a sea change in public opinion in recent months.

Long a stronghold for Islamic extremists and the world’s second most populous Muslim nation, Pakistanis now hold a more favorable opinion of the US than at any time since 9/11, while support for al Qaeda in its home base has dropped to its lowest level since then. The direct cause for this dramatic shift in Muslim opinion is clear: American humanitarian assistance for Pakistani victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed at least 87,000. The US pledged $510 million for earthquake relief in Pakistan and American soldiers are playing a prominent role in rescuing victims from remote mountainous villages.

Key Findings of Terror Free Tomorrow Poll in Pakistan [partial list]:

• 73% of Pakistanis surveyed now believe suicide terrorist attacks are never justified, up from 46% just last May.
• Support for Osama Bin Laden has declined significantly (51% favorable in May 2005 to just 33% in November), while those who oppose him rose from 23% to 41%.
• US favorabilty among Pakistanis has doubled from 23% in May to more than 46% now, while the percentage of Pakistanis with very unfavorable views declined from 48% to 28%.
• For the first time since 9/11, more Pakistanis are now favorable to the United States than unfavorable.
• 78% of Pakistanis have a more favorable opinion of the United States because of the American response to the earthquake, with the strongest support among those under 35.

The full poll has additional key findings and what the pollsters feel are the critical implications of the results. We now have two dramatic data points in less than a year. When America went in after the tsunami our reputation skyrocketed with the Indonesian people, and now this news from Pakistan. Continue reading →

Purification

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The use of fire in achieving moral purity:

Hindus in India are cremated upon open grounds upon wooden pyres…The body is to be set alight only by the male child of the deceased, or the closest male relative. [Wikipedia]

Thousands of alleged militants, human rights activists, and ordinary Sikhs in Punjab were summarily executed by security forces… Their bodies were then cremated to destroy the evidence… His investigation led him to enquire into the purchase of firewood by security forces. He found that thousands of so-called unidentified or unclaimed bodies were being secretly cremated by the police with this firewood. [Human Rights Watch]

Today’s WaPo:

But the detainees were moved elsewhere to similar CIA prisons, referred to as “black sites” in classified documents… The agency is working to establish procedures in the event a prisoner dies in custody. One proposal circulating among mid-level officers calls for rushing in a CIA pathologist to perform an autopsy and then quickly burning the body, according to two sources. [Washington Post]

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Justice Syriana Style

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Amnesty International has issued an urgent action report to save a Mallu dude from getting an eye gouged out by the famed prison surgeons of Saudi Arabia –

Puthen Veetil Abdul Latheef Noushad has reportedly been sentenced to have an eye removed. The sentence is said to have been passed to a higher court and if upheld, could be inflicted at any time.

According to press reports, the sentence is punishment for partially blinding another man during a fight in April 2003. He was apparently working at a petrol station in the city of Dammam, in the eastern region when he had an argument with a customer over payment. A fight broke out which left the other man with partial loss of sight. Puthen Veetil Abdul Latheef Noushad said that he was acting in self defence. He is detained in al-Dammam prison, Dammam.

The government of Kerala & India have entered the fray –

The Keralaites Association, a government agency looking after the welfare of migrants working in the Gulf, has asked the Indian foreign ministry to intervene. [link]

The Indian government has asked Riyadh to pardon an Indian worker whose eye is set to be gouged out as punishment by a Saudi Arabian court, a minister told parliament on Thursday.

“India has sent a mercy petition to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and to the governor of Dammam, where worker Puthen Veetil Abdul Latheef Noushad is imprisoned,” junior foreign minister E Ahamed told parliament. [link]

Noushad’s last remaining hope is an official pardon from the Saudi Royal’s –

The only option for the Noushad family now is to appeal to the Saudi king for royal clemency, which is granted during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Saudi Arabia acceded to the Convention against Torture in 1997. However, Noushads case is the third known instance over the past year in which a Saudi court has issued a sentence of eye-gouging, Human Rights Watch said.

Sepia Mutiny’s been following the issue with many posts on the subject (indexed on Manish’s Syriana post). In recent years, the crap these workers endure has been slowly making its way into the spotlight and with luck, Noushad’s fate is hopefully more promising than it might have been not too long ago.

(FWIW – I suppose it will matter to some that I came across this story first via Little Green Footballs…. To them, I paraphrase Fareed Zakaria who was addressing another object of unblinking vilification by the Left — Somethings are true even if LGF reports it.)

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Float like a butterfly, sting like a blog

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Eleven Indian politicians were thrown out of Parliament yesterday over the Questiongate scandal, only the second time that any parliamentarian has been stripped of his or her post for being corrupt.

Whatcha gonna do
when they come for you?

Ten Lok Sabha members and one from the Rajya Sabha were expelled at the end of a long debate on the five-member probe committee’s report recommending expulsion. [Link]

It is the first time since 1951 that any MP has been expelled for corruption and the biggest single expulsion ever. [Link]

The prime minister also weighed in:

“At no cost should we allow Parliament’s image to be tarnished,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said while speaking in the upper house. [Link]

Cobra Post and Aaj Tak carry on Tehelka’s fine muckraking tradition. Predictably, the BJP, which took the brunt of the demotions, focused its fire on the messengers:

Lal Krishna Advani, the leader of the Opposition, summed up the BJP’s mood. “It was stupidity more than corruption that is the issue. The MPs fell for the lure of money…” During today’s debate, many of them targeted the media and called for legislation to rein in the electronic media. [Link]

To the corrupt politicans I say:

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is, “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go in against Sepia Mutiny of Britain when page rank is on the line.” [Link]

Related posts: The cultural implications of Questiongate (updated), The Mutiny claims its first victims

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India Abroad’s Person of the Year

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India Abroad recently held a gala banquet where it announced the magazine’s pick for “Person of the Year.” The event featured live taped messages from President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Rediff.com, which owns India Abroad, reports:

Special messages from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George Bush were the highlight of the India Abroad annual awards conferred at a gala banquet at the Hotel New York Palace, which was attended by nearly 300 guests, on Friday.

Relations between the United States and India, on the ascendant for a few years but which soared since the July 28 Summit between President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington, DC, was picked for the India Abroad Event of the Year 2005 award.

In a specially videographed message for the occasion, Prime Minister Singh lauded the Indian American community for the enhancement in relations between the two nations, spoke warmly of his July summit with President Bush, and singled out India Abroad — the oldest, and largest selling weekly Indian newspaper in the United States – for its contribution to furthering Indo-US ties.

Oh wait. You guys want to know who the Person of the Year was, right? It was the Purple-fingered one himself. Good ole’ Bobby Jindal. Bobby has been very busy of late and keeps getting busier by the day. It was just announced that he will accompany Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert on a trip to India. Dennis needed a local who could translate and was familiar with the ways of the Indians. I’m only kidding.

US House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert and Indian American Congressman Bobby Jindal will visit India in January ahead of President George W Bush’s scheduled trip.

A visit by Hastert signifies the importance Congress attaches to the July 18 agreement between Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, charting a strategic cooperation between the two democracies, including in the critical field of civilian nuclear technology…

Hastert, who is the third highest ranking official in the American government hierarchy, will be visiting India with Representative Jindal (Republican-Louisiana), who became the first Indian American to win a Congressional seat in 46 years after his victory in November 2004.

“And that itself is an indication of the rising importance of India, that the speaker of the House will be visiting India,” Representative Joe Wilson, Republican from South Carolina said. [Link]

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Orwellian logic

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The biggest legal news of the week was a decision yesterday by Judge Michael Luttig of the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. The Fourth is considered the most conservative of the Court of Appeals, and Luttig the most conservative of judges. He makes Roberts and Alito look liberal, which is why the President thought it would be too hard to get him confirmed to the Supreme Court. It must have thus shocked the Bush administration that he sharply rebuked their handling of the Padilla case. If you’ll recall, over three years ago the government accused American CITIZEN Jose Padilla of being a potential “dirty bomber.” He was stripped of his rights as a citizen under the U.S. Constitution and was thrown into jail as an enemy combatant based upon the secret evidence of the Administration. The assertion was that he had no rights. His lawyer, Andrew Patel, appealed his status and it was headed for the Supreme Court after a brief layover in the Fourth. At this point (over three years into the ordeal) the government changed its mind. To paraphrase the Justice Department’s logic, “let’s just change his status and charge him with other crimes so that the existing case cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court.” Not so fast, said Luttig. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

The administration’s actions create “an appearance that the government may be attempting to avoid consideration of our decision [in the Padilla case] by the Supreme Court,” writes Judge J. Michael Luttig in a 13-page order released on Wednesday.

“We believe that the issue [in Padilla’s case] is of sufficient national importance as to warrant consideration by the Supreme Court,” Judge Luttig writes.

The judge went on to criticize the government for underestimating the damage its actions were causing to public perceptions of the war on terror and the government’s credibility before the courts.

“While there could be an objective that could command such a price as all this, it is difficult to imagine what that objective might be,” Luttig writes.

The rebuke carries extra sting, analysts say, because of who delivered it. Luttig is one of the nation’s most conservative appeals court judges and was on the short list of White House favorites for each of the two recent vacancies on the Supreme Court.

It has been a real bad week for Civil Libertarians, hasn’t it? It seems that every time I turn on the television there is news of one of my Constitutional rights is being eroded. Earlier this week Newsweek asked, “why have [Americans] reacted so insipidly to yet another post-9/11 erosion of U.S. civil liberties?” This question was posed in reference to the revelation of illegal wiretaps. I point this out because these two issues are inextricably linked. A U.S. citizen who is spied upon without a warrant can then be labeled an enemy combatant and locked up without any rights, all on the word of the Bush Administration. Why then are they jonesing so bad for a Patriot Act renewal? This method is way more powerful. Continue reading →

Wild Mustangs

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Author Pankaj Mishra read a hilarious snippet of his memoir Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India at the SAJA litfest earlier this year.

Tenzing Tsundue,
Tibetan dissident

I still haven’t tracked down the book, but he just published a piece in the NYT on Tibetan dissidents in India. To me, the most fascinating bit is that the CIA armed Tibetan rebels against China for over a decade:

In the early 70’s, Norbu was among the young Tibetans who dropped out of school, picked up a rifle and joined the Tibetan guerrillas operating out of Mustang, a piece of Nepalese territory that juts into Tibet. The C.I.A. began financing these guerrillas in 1956 and arranged for more than a hundred of them to be trained in the Colorado Rockies in what was one of the most secret anti-Communist operations of the cold war.

In 1958, the C.I.A. first airdropped arms, ammunition, radios and medical supplies into Tibet. Three years later, Tibetan guerrillas based in Mustang ambushed a Chinese military convoy inside Tibet and captured documents that revealed the low capacity and morale of the Chinese military. This turned out to be one of the C.I.A.’s most valuable intelligence hauls during the cold war.

American support for the Tibetans, however, was halfhearted at best, designed to undermine Communist China, not to achieve Tibetan independence. It began to peter out by the late 60’s and finally dried up altogether in the early 70’s, after Kissinger and Nixon befriended Mao. Then in 1994, much to the dismay of many Tibetans, Bill Clinton uncoupled trade agreements with China from the problematic issue of human rights.

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