Rediff has an interesting pair of exclusive interviews with George Bush & John Kerry on their India policies –
Category Archives: Politics
H1-B Visa- It takes you everywhere you want to be
Want an H1-B visa? If you applied by Friday, October 1 of this year, you might have a shot. If you didn’t, well, best of luck next year.
Congress set a cap of 65,000 such visas per fiscal year. By the end the work day Friday, Citizenship and Immigration Services already had received enough applications to meet the limit.
Agency spokesman William Strassberger said applications filed by Friday will be considered. For any after that, “It’s too late,” he said.
In this age of Outsourcing, Congress is predictably wary about raising that figure even though “those that use the program say they can’t find enough Americans with the necessary math, science and engineering skills.”
The “65,000” figure is a bit misleading, since 6,800 visas are already reserved for workers from Chile and Singapore, thanks to free trade agreements the U.S. has with those nations.
A few Republicans in Congress are trying to introduce legislation that could be construed as favourable to South Asians:
Employers hope to get relief from a proposal being pushed by Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. They are proposing that foreign students graduating from master’s or doctoral programs at U.S. universities not be counted against the H1-B limit. Such students often are recruited by U.S. businesses and could end up working for global competitors when H1-B visas are unavailable.
It is unclear whether Congress will consider the proposal before adjourning.
Which term do you prefer?
That is the question that an article on Indolink.com poses:
…East Indian or Asian Indian, or Indian American or Indo-American or Desi. Or, to remove the slightest doubt, it may even require a mouthful as in “East Indian American” or “Asian Indian American” or “South Asian Indian American.”
Okay, I am already confused. I thought I knew my identity but now I am not sure. Labels matter to me. But…it gets even more confusing:
The ultimate dilemma is that in Britain and East Africa he is an Asian. In Russia, Southeast Asia, and Europe and Fiji he is still an Indian. In the Caribbean he is an East Indian. In Canada he may be an Indo-Canadian. But in America he can never be “Indian,” while at the same time his Asian identity is oftentimes suspect – thanks to the average American’s geographic illiteracy.
Whoa, can somebody please stop the room from spinning? Let’s go to the history books and see how it came to this. What were we “originally?” Continue reading
Our Karnatic Brothers/Sisters/Aunts/Uncles/Mothers/Fathers ;-)
Razib @ the ever excellent Gene Expressions links to a story on the genetic structure of the Kannada-speaker – Gene Expression: Genetics of Karnataka populations
For South Asians readers, Genetic structure of four socio-culturally diversified caste populations of southwest India and their affinity with related Indian and global groups:The microsatellite study divulges a common ancestry for the four diverse populations of Karnataka, with the overall genetic differentiation among them being largely confined to intra-population variation. The practice of consanguineous marriages might have attributed to the relatively lower gene flow displayed by Gowda and Muslim as compared to Iyengar and Lyngayat….Standard caveat, don’t read too much into one study!
Consanguineous was word of the day a little while back. 😉
Here’s the party, yaar
Reminder: Kal Penn, DJ Rekha and the muy caliente cast of Bombay Dreams are hosting a New York party tonight, with proceeds going to the John Kerry campaign. See Abhi’s post for details.
How will U.S. election outcome affect India?
The Asia Times recently weighed in on how the outcome of the U.S. Presidential Election might affect the politics in India. Who should India desire as the U.S. President?:
Indians in India generally see Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry as a thorn in India’s side. Many more in India’s money-spinning outsourcing industry see him as a business process outsourcing (BPO) party pooper. Even New Delhi – seat of the Indian government – sees greater advantage in a second term for George W Bush in terms of strategic partnership. But a huge number of Indians based in the US believe that Kerry may bode well for India. And remarkably, though Kerry’s strong anti-outsourcing stand has emerged as one of the biggest sources of discomfort for India, many Indian Americans support Kerry for that very reason.
This issue may get into the whole question of where loyalties lie. Many first generation Indian-Americans perceive outsourcing as an unequivocally good thing. Any money that goes back to help the economic situation of a society or even family members that they have recently left behind is a good thing. Second and third generations Indian-Americans however may perceive outsourcing as a bad thing. Many of them after all are the very tech workers whose jobs are being sent abroad. Now whether outsourcing is good or bad is not as relevant as the perception of whether it is good or bad.
“Outsourcing is a major issue that has to be dealt with,” says Selma D’Souza, president of the Indo-American Democratic Organization, a lobby for the Indian American community on social issues and hate crimes. “Most Americans, including Indians, don’t like outsourcing because many of them are concerned their children’s jobs are being outsourced, especially in the IT field. I don’t think this is an India-US issue, it’s an issue about employment in the US.”
There should be other issues to consider beyond just outsourcing argue some:
Some also hold that India’s concerns are narrow and partisan. “It seems to be foreign policy-focused and not people-focused,” says Tanzila Taz Ahmed, director of the South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY), another US-based lobby that’s trying to push South Asian American issues to the forefront of US politics. “Sure, Indians in India may want Bush because of his more liberal stand on outsourcing, but that view doesn’t take into consideration the persecution their fellow Indians have to suffer living with him.”
Yoga for Kerry
The Troy Michigan Democratic Club sponsored a forum last night called, “At Peace with Politics: Yoga for Kerry.” According to the Detroit Free Press:
“People who practice yoga are almost always Democrats,” said Priyanka Shanbag, a yoga teacher from Bloomfield Hills who will instruct at the event, which will be at Troy’s community center.
“There’s a lot of compassion there. It’s about doing the right thing.”
Ouch. The head of Troy’s Republican club is NOT going to like that at all. What’s Goray Mookerjee got to say?
“We need a real truthful commander in chief who has the guts and determination to do the job,” Mookerjee said.
“He doesn’t need any yoga training.”
And his party argues that yoga will persuade its practitioners to vote for George W. Bush.
I think we need to find a master Yogi to weigh in on this debate or things could get messy in Troy.
Be careful whom you canonize
Who made the following remarks?
“I believe that caste has saved Hinduism from disintegration. But like every other institution it has suffered from excrescences. I consider the four divisions alone to be fundamental, natural and essential.”It’s M.K. (he’s no Mahatma to me) Gandhi, that’s who. In the US, Gandhi is seen by Hindus as both a saint and a patriotic symbol, a 2-for-1 way to show Americans why Hindu Indian culture is morally superior. But this is a blind embrace of Gandhi, without much understanding of what he actually stood for. (“Many a colleague of Gandhi’s observed that he was greater than his writings would suggest. He himself said that they should be cremated with his body“) Continue reading“I am inclined to think that the law of heredity is an eternal law and any attempt to alter that law must lead us, as it has before led [others], to utter confusion…. If Hindus believe, as they must believe, in reincarnation [and] transmigration, they must know that Nature will, without any possibility of mistake, adjust the balance by degrading a Brahmin, if he misbehaves himself, by reincarnating him in a lower division, and translating one who lives the life of a Brahmin in his present incarnation to Brahminhood in his next. ”
“Caste is but an extension of the principle of the family. Both are governed by blood and heredity ”
“I believe that if Hindu society has been able to stand, it is because it is founded on the caste system…. A community which can create the caste system must be said to possess unique power of organization….”
“[The] hereditary principle is an eternal principle. To change it is to create disorder…. It will be a chaos if every day a Brahmin is to be changed into a Shudra and a Shudra is to be changed into a Brahmin. The caste system is a natural order of society…. I am opposed to all those who are out to destroy the caste system.”
Everybody outsources to India
Even the Catholic Church has gotten into the act:
With Roman Catholic clergy in short supply in the United States, Indian priests are picking up some of their work, saying Mass for special intentions, in a sacred if unusual version of outsourcing.American, as well as Canadian and European churches, are sending Mass intentions, or requests for services like those to remember deceased relatives and thanksgiving prayers, to clergy in India.
Last call at the Lone Star Bar
The U.S. presidential election is just a month away on Tuesday, Nov. 2. If you’re an American citizen, you can register to vote or update your address.
This is the most important election in over a decade. Registration deadlines have almost passed (15-30 days before the election), so register now if you haven’t done so already.