Category Archives: Politics

The Empire Kind of Strikes Back

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Even as some people are finding more and more tasks to outsource to the subcontinent, a few wily Brits are bucking the trend:

Beyond the four-mile-long driveway, and the shaded path named “Lady’s Walk” and the soft fields of purple rhododendron and grazing Holstein cows, Jonathan Jones walked among waist-high rows of rich green plants. With loving precision, he plucked off two perfect green leaves and a bud and held them proudly in his hand.

“English tea should be grown on English soil,” he said, running his fingers over what he called a victory for horticulture and also for British culture: the first commercial crop of tea ever grown in this tea-mad nation.  [link]

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Courtesy calls

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Who got the courtesy calls when Dubya nominated Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court:

White House officials began calling close conservative allies around 7 a.m., just as they did in the hour before Mr. Bush announced his two previous [Supreme Court] nominations. Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, reached Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, on his mobile phone in an airport… an aide to Mr. Rove, called the Rev. Jerry Falwell around the same time. [Link]

What the Southern Baptist Convention says about Hinduism — it’s a fevered, Victorian-era fantasy straight out of Temple of Doom. I hear they eat monkey brains… only the Shadow knows! *cackle*

The SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] released 30,000 copies of [a conversion guide for missionaries] just before the most important Hindu festival of 1999: the three-day celebration of Divali…

‘Hindus seek power and blessing through the worship of gods and goddesses and the demonic powers that lay behind them… Hindus lack a concept of sin or personal responsibility… the darkness in their Hindu hearts that no lamp can dispel… demonic powers lie behind Hindu gods…’ Hindus live under ‘the power of Satan…’

‘Mumbai… is a city of spiritual darkness. Eight out of every 10 people are Hindu, slaves bound by fear and tradition to false gods… Satan has retained his hold on Calcutta through Kali and other gods and goddesses of Hinduism. It’s time for Christ’s salvation to come to Calcutta.

‘… more than 900 million people lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism… Walking through the streets of India during Divali is a sobering reminder of the power of darkness that lies over this land…’ [Link]

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Banerjee wants bag search ban

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A desi immigrant rights activist is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging pseudorandom bag searches on the NYC subway. The trial began yesterday:

Partha Banerjee… fears he will be wrongly targeted, regardless of an NYPD policy prohibiting racial profiling. “I came from India 20 years ago, yet immigrants like me are seen as an enemy,” he said. [Link]

Christopher Dunn, the civil liberties union’s top lawyer in the case, said, “The only people being searched under this program are innocent New Yorkers.” The searches have not uncovered any terrorist plot, or even contraband… A third plaintiff, Partha Banerjee, said he had felt humiliated when his bag was searched at a political rally several years ago. [Link]

Mr. Banerjee was searched under the subway search policy on October 7, 2005… Mr. Banerjee objects to the subway search policy because under it, the decision to search someone is not founded on criminal suspicion. In addition, he fears that police officers could unlawfully interrogate and detain him because of written [political] materials in his bag that they might find objectionable and is concerned that he may be targeted to be searched because of his dark eyes and skin and his beard. [Link]

The government’s argument:

Gail Donoghue, the city’s lead lawyer in the case, said the searches were part of a rational strategy calculated to “keep terrorist planning and operations off balance.” By adding an element of unpredictability, she said, the policy “effectively hardens New York City targets and drives terrorist planning elsewhere.” [Link]

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It’s official. Candidate Bhakta.

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It’s official. I mentioned in September that Raj Bhakta from the Apprentice’s first season was contemplating a run for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 13th district. Newsweek reported this weekend that it’s a go:

As a contestant on “The Apprentice,” Raj Bhakta was famous for his grand gestures: the bow ties, the walking stick, the time he hit on Donald Trump’s receptionist. So it’s not surprising that for his next act Bhakta is aiming for something big: Congress. Bhakta, 29, has never been elected to anything but project manager. But the real-estate developer thinks he’ll defeat incumbent Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Allyson Schwartz in ’06. “People would be remiss to think, ‘Who is this guy from a television show?’ We’re not talking like I made it on ‘The Real World’.”

Beyond the prospect of Omarosa stumping for him, Bhakta is an unusual candidate. He’s a pro-choice Republican with reservations about President Bush’s policies toward Iraq and the economy. “One of the reasons I’m getting involved in politics is an overall platform of reform, reform, reform,” Bhakta says. “Our government needs to begin focusing on education, health care and the environment.”

Pro-choice Republican? Maybe we can get him to give a quote on his opinion of the Alito nomination? It is going to be especially difficult to run against an incumbent Democrat if you sound like you have reservations about Bush’s policies. Why not just leave the Democrat in office?

See previous posts.

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“It’s My Duty To Help Them Out”

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Desai Praying Going over a package on poverty in the New Jersey Herald News, completed a couple weeks ago by my friend and former classmate Tom Meagher, I just realized that Tom had done more than write policy analysis and work and live as a temporary laborer for a month–he had also profiled several more regular members of the working-class poor, including two immigrants. One is a Peruvian father and husband named Julio, who has left his family behind in Lima. The other is a 20-year old son named Priyank Desai, arrived from India at the age of 16 and determined to help out his family:

Every week, Priyank Desai carries his paycheck home to the Passaic apartment he shares with his family, sets it before a makeshift shrine and prays to his Hindu deity.

“No matter how much money I make by working hard, it will all belong to you.”

Only after praying will he cash the check, which usually amounts to no more than $80 for two days of temporary work. He gives half to his parents to help pay for phone cards to call their extended family left behind in India, and for rides to work. The rest he spends on movies or lunch. He also pays for transportation to classes at Passaic County Community College that he hopes will lead him to a career as a Spanish teacher.(Link)

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Laying the ghosts of war to rest (updated)

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Indian soldiers in WWI were remembered at a reopened German graveyard today:

Until recently there was nothing to identify the quiet, leafy spot where Jafarullah Mohammad and Mata Din Singh were buried. The two servicemen were among thousands of Indian volunteers who fought for Britain in the first world war, and were captured at sea or on the western front.

For more than 80 years the German graveyard where Mohammad, Singh and 204 other Indian volunteers are buried was forgotten. But today the war cemetery in Wünsdorf, in a forest 40km south of Berlin, is to be officially reopened… Diplomats from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will attend today’s rededication ceremony…

The restoration is a recognition of the role played by troops from undivided India, who fought in the bloody battles of Ypres, Neuve Chapelle and Loos. Many died. Others ended up interned in German prisoner of war camps. “Very few people are aware of the role Indian troops played in both world wars,” Peter Francis of the Commonwealth Graves Commission said. “In some Indian units the casualty rate was 80%. In three days’ fighting in Neuve Chapelle in 1915, for instance, some 4,200 Indian soldiers perished…” [Link]

Fewer still care to remember those who fought in the second great war on the other side, to evict the British. The ally in that cause was… inconvenient:

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Merry Diwali, quoth the taxman

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The Indian government faces a chronic problem with tax compliance. Nobody pays income tax. Tax rates are relatively high, and the tax system is byzantine. The entire economy is structured in such a way as to help people keep their income off the books. As a result, the government has trouble collecting revenue:

It is estimated that only about 3% of India’s one billion-strong population pay income tax.

“There are only 75,000 to 85,000 people with an income of one million rupees ($22,140) who pay taxes,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram told journalists. [Link]

The text message reads: “Pay your taxes, file your returns and hold your head high. Happy Diwali!” To root out tax evaders, the revenue service is watching people’s behavior during the one time of year when they can’t help but spend money — Diwali. As much as most Diwali-celebrating Indians hate paying taxes, the social consequences of being seen as cheap during a period of conspicuous consumption and status competition are far worse.

Diwali is a time when most Indians loosen their purse strings, buying gifts and making major purchases such as buying a car, and the finance minister said big spenders would be watched.

People with credit card transactions of more than 200,000 rupees a year ($4,435) will be checked by the tax department to see if they have filed their taxes or not.

Similar checks will be run on people who make cash withdrawals of one million rupees ($22,179) or more, or who have bought mutual funds worth more than 200,000 rupees. [Link]

My favorite aspect of this campaign goes after shoppers where it hurts – their mobile phone usage. What kind of Indian shopper can resist gabbing away on their mobile to their friends? The longer they shop, the larger the phone bill will be, thus altering the authorities to the presence of a wealthy person who, in all likelihood, has not paid their tax bill.

Mobile phone users who run up a bill in excess of 1,000 rupees ($22) a month can expect to receive a text message from the finance ministry to pay up.

“Pay your taxes, file your returns and hold your head high. Happy Diwali,” reads the message. [Link]
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“Father of the B-2” arrested

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Breaking news today (thanks for the tip Vikram) is that U.S. citizen Noshir S. Gowadia, the self-proclaimed “father” of the B-2 stealth bomber’s propulsion system, has been arrested for espionage. The Honolulu Advertiser reports on the resident of Hawaii:

Noshir S. Gowadia traveled the world, billed himself as the “father” of the B-2 stealth bomber’s propulsion system, and disclosed classified military secrets about the high-tech aircraft to foreign governments, the federal government says.

The FBI’s criminal case against Gowadia, contained in a seven-page complaint made public yesterday, alleges that the entrepreneur and engineer provided eight countries with stealth secrets, in two instances going abroad to train foreign nationals using classified information.

Gowadia, a former design engineer for Northrop Grumman and later a subcontractor at Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico, told investigators that he “disclosed classified information and material both verbally and in papers, computer presentations, letters and other methods to individuals in foreign countries with the knowledge that information was classified,” the criminal complaint states.

“I used examples based on my B-2 … experience and knowledge,” the Maui resident told investigators. “At that time I knew it was wrong and I did it for the money.”

As of yet the Feds have not released which countries were involved in the transfer of the classified data. If convicted he could face up to 10 years in prison as well as fines. Continue reading →

Happy Birrrthday Dear Patriot Act…

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Patriotactsigning.jpg

Oh joy, oh giddy delight. I love anniversaries, don’t you? Wikipedia’s always interesting and informative main page reminds us that it’s already been four years since we helped America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism:

Passed by the U.S. Congress after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, the (Patriot) Act enhances the authority of U.S. law enforcement for the stated purpose of fighting terrorist acts in the United States and around the world. This enhanced legal authority is also used to detect and prosecute other alleged potential crimes. Among other laws, the USA PATRIOT Act amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Among the laws the PATRIOT Act amended are immigration laws, banking and money laundering laws, and foreign intelligence laws…
Critics claim that some portions of the Act are unnecessary and allow U.S. law enforcement to infringe upon free-speech, freedom of the press, human rights, and right to privacy. Much controversy has arisen over section 215, which allows judges to grant government investigators ex parte orders to look into personal phone and internet records on the basis of being “relevant for an on going investigation concerning international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities”, rather than probable cause as outlined in the fourth amendment.

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Exotica shop

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Beads of Paradise is a small furnishings shop by Union Square in Manhattan. Earlier this year, it sold random old photos of a Rajasthani family for six hundred bucks as nothing more than visual texture for interior design. This struck me as comical. Now they’re selling Hindica for the same purpose:

The most egregious in this vein is actually ABC Home, a giant imports store down the street (Moroccan lanterns go for thousands) with expensive Krishna and Nataraja icons in its sidewalk displays.

Religion and art are closely linked, of course; churches in Italy feel to me like shared art galleries. But you generally won’t find secular furnishings stores in the U.S. selling pricy Christian icons because of the disrespect that implies. On the flip side, you can get Ganesh idols at many stores in Jackson Heights, but most of those selling anything larger than a keychain are religious artifacts shops. New Jersey has elevated the metallic dashboard Ganesh to an art form.

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