Category Archives: Politics

Kitsch-mish

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For your kitschy pleasure:

‘Indian God.’ A music vid of Ganesh as petulant recording artist.

I’m a fuckin’ Indian god, baby that’s a fact
I’m a fuckin’ Indian god, girl I want you baaack
How can you leave an Indian god, baby that’s fucked up…

Fuckin’ Indian god, man, you can’t leave that.
It’s too good, mmm!

He said he’s an Indian god, baby, not a fuckin’ songwriter. Watch the video.

‘Handy Hindus’ finger puppets. They’re Hindu gods done up Elmo / Sesame Street style in cheap plastic.

‘Hindi Bendy’ toy. Here’s a quick way to make money: take a boring old toy, slap on a bindi and add some extra arms.

Here’s their entire section of Hindu products; Archie McPhee sells novelty products by mail-order:

“I study customer’s actual orders. I see 100 voodoo dolls going to a software firm in Palo Alto. What does this mean? A Manhattan buyer wants every nun and Catholic religious item we carry and wants them by air. What’s the rush? And here’s yet another order to Japan. What are they doing over there with all this glow-in-the-dark string they order?”

Lest you think they specifically tweak Hindus, you should see the rabbi punching puppet and the bobble-headed Jesus. They don’t sell Islamic novelties, can’t imagine why.

Reddy for the job of Secretary of State

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In what seems (to me at least) as counter intuitive, the U.S. South has recently been fertile ground for ambitious young Indian-American politicians, many of whom end up winning. The next one to keep an eye on may be Shyam Reddy of Georgia. Late last month he announced his candidacy to run for Secretary of State of Georgia. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports:

Reddy dubs himself as a “fiscally conservative, socially responsible candidate” whose platform includes fostering a business-friendly environment for the state, preventing investment fraud and promoting public health and safety by overseeing licensed professionals more effectively.

A native of Dublin, Ga., Reddy serves on the board of The Indus Entrepreneurs, which mentors local entrepreneurs, and the board of the Red Clay Democrats. Reddy is also an active member of The Technology Association of Georgia and The Georgia Bar and is part of the 2005 L.E.A.D. Atlanta Class of Leadership Atlanta.

I love the term “socially responsible candidate.” It’s purposefully vague enough to avoid taking a stand and using the dreaded “liberal” tag. This is a required trait in any good politician, especially a Dem running in the South. The Hindustan Times reveals more about Reddy:

His parents, he says, emigrated to the US in pursuit of a better life and raised him in Georgia, reminding him to be ever cognizant of the fact that he and others like them were fortunate to live in a country that allowed, fostered even, equality and opportunity for all.

As is the case with most Indian families that affirm ties to their roots, he says that he was ‘raised in a strict environment deeply grounded in strong principles and moral values.

Again, as is the case with most urban and economically mobile Indian families, he was encouraged to pursue and complete his education.

Becoming a public servant and serving fellow Georgians, however is something that he has wanted to do from the very outset.

With his expertise in business and legal arenas, he is expected to be fully aware of the Secretary of State’s office and the significant role it plays.

Reddy is a diehard Southern Democrat, fostering a business-friendly environment that will make Georgia the preferred destination for business.

If you live in that dirrtiest of the dirrty south states, and you have an interest in politics I suggest you get involved. Even if he loses, great strides will be made and grass roots connections will be formed. Continue reading →

Flaming purple Kali

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Sounds like a cocktail, no? Pixar artist Sanjay Patel illustrates Hindu mythology in a style reminiscent of Suck, Demian 5, Virgin and Bewitched (thanks, Turbanhead). It’s gorgeous work, although his Rama does look a bit much like Hrithik Roshan, and any kid-safe interpretation of Kali is bound to cross the line into kitsch.

Patel’s site says he came up with its name, Ghee Happy, via obscure analogy: reducing the rich strokes of Hindu iconography to their essence is like clarifying butter into ghee. He self-published a children’s book of Hindu gods and also sells 11″x17″ prints on his site. Check it out if you have any little ones in need of full-color indoctrination or just dig the visual style.

Update: Drawn has more (thanks, Harry). A commenter there says:

We were actually joking with Sanjay that he SHOULD do this with every religion, but I guess the problem with the monotheistic religions is that there would only be ONE page in the book…

Female runners targeted in Pakistan

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From the perspective of religious extremists, at least this is somewhat logical — if you’re trying to enslave women, you definitely don’t want them training to outrun you:

A week ago baton-wielding men threw petrol bombs and torched vehicles at a mini-marathon in Gujranwala, 135 miles south of Islamabad. The race – one of the first to allow female participation – ended with police firing tear gas and making more than 50 arrests. The threat of further violence forced the cancellation of other mini-marathons at the weekend in a direct challenge to President Pervez Musharraf’s policy of “enlightened moderation”. [The Guardian]

The Guardian: Mullahs target women runners

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Susan’s choice.

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ali family.JPG“Did you read the Post yesterday?”, SM-loyalist Deepa asked me over AIM. I replied negatively and she sent me the link to a love story…

The two were as opposite as could be. Saqib is tall, olive-skinned and athletic. Susan is tiny, fair-skinned and delicate. Saqib is Muslim, the son of immigrants born in India. Susan was raised in a conservative Christian family from a small town in Pennsylvania. He’s a door-knocking community activist who hopes to run for public office someday; she’s soft-spoken and cherishes her privacy. He’s a perpetual pessimist, always managing expectations and planning for the worst; she’s an eternal optimist who’s always smiling.

Though both of their families initially balked at a desire to be with someone so “opposite”, eventually, all the in-laws came around.

After a few years together, Saqib and Susan wanted to become parents. Surely they might have thought that after the considerable struggle they survived just to get married, this next phase of their lives would be less fraught with turmoil. One would have hoped.

“It’s a girl!” the technician announced, to a round of cheers. Susan squeezed Saqib’s hand. The couple had already settled on a girl’s name: Leila. Her middle name would be Daine, a tribute to Susan’s mother, Diane, who had died suddenly a year earlier, two weeks after learning she had a brain tumor.
Leila Daine Ali. It was a name that Saqib knew he’d never tire of saying — introducing her to the world, chastising her for trying to poke her pudgy toddler fingers into wall sockets, exclaiming over her good grades in school. It was a name he knew he would scrawl countless times on the “memo” line of his checkbook. “For clown at Leila’s party.” “For Leila’s tuition.” “For Leila’s wedding dress.”

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Fortune cookies

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The NYT reports that some Chinese intellectuals and officials have kind words for India:

“India is a far more diverse country… a place with the second largest Muslim population in the world, and lots of ethnic minorities, and yet it organizes regular elections without conflict. China is 90 percent Han, so if India can conduct elections, so can China.” [Pang Yongzhing, a professor of international relations at Nankai University in Tianjin]

India, a paragon of manufacturing efficiency?

“To produce goods worth $10,000, for example, we need seven times more resources than Japan, nearly six times more than the United States and, perhaps most embarrassing, nearly three times more than India.” [Pan Yue, China’s environment minister]

Respect for intellectual property? He’s probably never visited a pirate desi Blockbuster store.

“In India there is a lot more room to move around… their capital markets are good, their banking sector is better than in China, and there is entrepreneurialism everywhere in India, along with well-protected intellectual property rights. All of these are things that China lacks.” [Zhang Jun, director of the China Center for Economic Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai]

Some desis have a disturbing attachment to authoritarian government, or perhaps (not so disturbing at all) just plain effectiveness:

There is constant talk these days of turning Mumbai, the southern commercial metropolis formerly known as Bombay, into a new Shanghai, China’s most glitteringly modern city… Such contrasts have left some Indians to remark, sometimes despairingly, about a “democracy price” that slows development… “I’m often approached by friends returning impressed from China, saying how our airports in Bombay and Delhi can’t compare,” said G. P. Deshpande, a longtime China scholar at Jawaharal Nehru University in Delhi. “When I tell them that these things come in a package, that you don’t just get the new airports, and I describe the package, though, they say no thank you.”

Finally, perhaps India too will get its Mideast invasions:

“As far as exporting democracy, it is only a matter of time before India gets the self-confidence to begin doing this.” [Subramanian Swamy, president of India’s Janata Party and former minister of law, commerce and justice]

Continue reading →

Skin

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I become so disturbed when marriage ads in Indian papers specify skin color (not that I often look through marriage ads :). Several dating sites do it to. If I catch one of my parents make a comment about fair skin being desirable in a mate I chastise them vociferously. There are very few things that make my blood boil as much as this issue. All the more so because I know that despite my best intentions, society has shaped my thoughts in the same way. Asians in Media reports on the obvious bias on Asian fashion magazine covers.

fairskinnedcovers.jpg

It’s an open secret that the majority of Asian parents have a bias towards fairer skin. Is the same true for Asian fashion magazines in Britain?

Aside from the horror stories of girls applying dangerous chemicals to their skins, the image of a beautiful Asian girl as fair with coloured contact lenses and dark brown hair is constantly thrown at us. Surely Asian fashion publications are partly to blame for this?

AiM asked two writers who have been in the industry for years, and both say the problem lies with wider culture and society, coupled with a lack of professional Asian models.

Nilpa Bharadia is former acting editor of Asian Woman/Bride magazine and recently launched the Asian Bridal Look Book with her business partner Kiren. She says the decision to use European and Brazillian models for fashion shoots is never made lightly.

“The simple fact of the matter is that if we had a choice of an agency standard Asian model, i.e 5’10” plus, and a size 8 and with beautiful features, and a white model – we would cast the Asian girl everytime,” shes says.

“It’s not that the Asian girls that used to come through the door weren’t beautiful, many were, and we made numerous exceptions on height etc. where possible. But unfortunately they were the exception to the rule.”

I’m not buying this last argument. If you stand in any supermarket line you will note that fair skin dominates regardless of the ethnicity being targeted. Do all those ethnicities lack enough model material? The editors being interviewed pointed out one Brit magazine (i-D) they claim uses “extremely black-skinned” models WHEN they hire black. I flipped through several of their mag covers and didn’t see any black models at all. Later in the article the writer presses the editors and gets to the more “logical” reasons for this bias. Continue reading →

Man of La Gaza

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A couple of tech entrepreneurs are on a quixotic quest for peace in the Middle East: they’re holding screenings of the movie Gandhi in Palestine.

… more than two decades after the movie “Gandhi” filled theaters worldwide, the first version dubbed in Arabic was screened here, with the blessing of the Palestinian leadership… The film… has been issued previously with Arabic subtitles, but never before dubbed in the language. The organizers said they received permission from Sony Pictures to show it without charge in Palestinian communities.

Organizers of the “Gandhi Project” plan to show the film throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip… [and] to the large Palestinian refugee communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The project is bankrolled by Jeff Skoll, billionaire co-founder of eBay, and Iranian-American serial entrepreneur Kamran Elahian, founder of Cirrus Logic. They’ve brought in Ben Kingsley to host some of the screenings, but they’re running into some resistance:

Ben Kingsley, who won an Oscar for his starring role as Mohandas K. Gandhi, was in Ramallah as a guest of the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas… “It’s not possible,” interjected Sudki Safat, a friend of Ms. Afanah and an official in the Ministry of Education. “I know Gandhi and his principles. But I also know my enemy very well… Gandhi would fail if he faced the Israelis…”

Several said they were interested in other aspects of Indian resistance to British colonial rule, like economic self-reliance and the boycott of British products… “… I don’t think we have the means to boycott Israeli products.”…

Palestinians argue that they have pursued nonviolent resistance at various times over the years, to no avail… Israel, meanwhile, says the Palestinians as a whole have never made a strategic decision to abandon violence.

What’s the matter with Bangladesh?

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Boston University professor Nazli Kibria pens an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, in which she warns that Bangladesh’s unchecked ruling party is rife with terrorist tendencies. She needs only point to the January assassination of her father, Shah A.M.S. Kibria, a renowned member of the opposition party, and a former undersecretary-general of the United Nations:

He had traveled from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, to address a public meeting in the northeastern part of the country on Jan. 27. Hundreds of people had gathered to hear him speak. As he left the auditorium, without any police protection, a series of grenades exploded. My father was badly hurt, but despite the frantic requests of my mother and many of his colleagues in the hours after the attack, the government did not provide him with helicopter transport to medical facilities in Dhaka. His ambulance ran out of gas as it raced toward a hospital, and he bled to death. Four other opposition party members also died in the attack. [Los Angeles Times]

She laments the lack of concern from the U.S.:

Even as the U.S. has expanded its war on terrorism across more and more of the world, Bangladesh has escaped attention. In many ways this is not surprising. Bangladesh has never, since its bloody and triumphant birth in 1971, been seen by the U.S. to be a country of much strategic importance. In the calculations of those who make foreign policy, Bangladesh is greatly overshadowed in significance by its feuding nuclear-power neighbors, Pakistan and India. But in the long term, the price of inaction could be high. Is it prudent to ignore a political crisis in a country of 141 million people, home to the fourth-largest concentration of Muslims in the world? Are we better off dealing immediately with a problem that can most likely be solved through firm international diplomacy or waiting for a later time when we may be contending with a rogue state that lends aid and comfort to Islamist extremists? [Los Angeles Times]

A professor should know the answer to that. History clearly demonstrates that we don’t intervene until after a rogue state becomes an uncontrollable mess. Like with Alabama (circa 1963).

Los Angeles Times: Bangladesh’s lurking terror

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Helping India Become “a major world power”

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MD writes in with this article in the Weekly Standard about recent developments in US-India policy –

WITH THE NEWS from Iraq relegated to the back pages recently, last Friday’s State Department briefing–especially since it was not devoted to Condoleezza Rice’s latest fashion statements–attracted little attention. The subject: the evolving strategic partnership between the United States and India. The news? It is the “goal” of the Bush administration “to help India become a major world power in the 21st century.” …A U.S.-India strategic partnership, if fully developed, would be the single most important step toward an alliance capable of meeting the 21st century’s principal challenges: radical Islam and rising China. Unlike our almost erstwhile allies in western Europe, India shares an equal strategic concern with both these challenges. Perhaps even more important, India shares a commitment to democracy that transcends ethnic nationalism–Hindu nationalism, in this case, will not suffice to govern a state that includes 120 million Muslims–and an understanding of the necessity for armed strength. India’s position in South Asia puts it in an essential geostrategic location from both a continental and maritime perspective. In sum, the United States could hardly dream up a more ideal strategic partner.

The article dismisses the sale of F-16s to Pakistan as a symbolic gesture relative to the far larger balance of power issues (truth be told, I hold the minority opinion on the Sepia Mutiny editorial staff – I actually tend to agree with folks like Blank/Weapon Nerd about their lack of real import). Continue reading →