Foreign minister, meet petard

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The Indian PM stripped foreign minister Natwar Singh of rank today after Singh was fingered by a report on the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.

Why you gotta be all up in my grill?

It’s not clear yet whether the move will be merely cosmetic or permanent:

India’s foreign minister was stripped of his post Monday over allegations that he benefited illegally from the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, becoming the first political casualty of an independent report that revealed massive corruption in the effort to help Iraqis suffering under sanctions. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh… demoted him to minister without portfolio…

The independent inquiry, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, has accused more than 2,200 companies and prominent politicians worldwide of colluding with Saddam Hussein’s regime to bilk the oil-for-food program of $1.8 billion in kickbacks and illicit surcharges. It named Singh and the ruling Congress party as a ”non-contractual beneficiary…”

NDTV, a local television news channel, reported that Singh will get his portfolio back if Pathak’s investigation clears him. [Link]

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Boys and their toys

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The Indian Air Force reveals its hand by agreeing to fly its new, $45M Sukhoi 30 MKI fighters in mock air combat against the U.S. Air Force tomorrow:

Actual fighter manoeuvres during the war game beginning Monday will commence on Tuesday and last till November 17…

The IAF has normally been wary of fielding the Sukhoi 30 Mki for drills with foreign air forces… The decision to field the Sukhoi 30 Mki was taken because Cope India 2005 is the largest and most sophisticated of air exercises that the IAF will be participating in with the Americans.

The deployment by the USAF of an E-3 Sentry AWACS (airborne early-warning aircraft) and the possibility that the IAF will participate in the Red Flag exercises — the largest multinational fighter aircraft exercises — in the US next year were motivating factors that have led to the decision to use the Sukhoi 30 Mki. [Link]

These are late-generation fighters with thrust vectoring pitted against aging F-16s. During the last such air exercises, the American F-15Cs lost (thanks, GujuDude); there was speculation that the U.S. military was deliberately punching above its weight class to plump for a raise.

You can always count on Bengal to protest

The exercise, to be based out of Kalaikunda in Bengal, which the Left is protesting against, takes off tomorrow. [Link]

Here’s a photo of the fighter at the Bombay airport. Related posts: one, two, three, four.

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Krishna for Christmas

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ABC Home is a Jagannath of a furnishings store which fills an entire New York City block. Here’s their sidewalk display for the holidays. They hawk Lakshmi with leather gloves, Buddha with bath beads. Reindeers game at Krishna’s feet, Ganesh sits blue by Christmas trees. Three white women, expensively dressed with close-cropped hair, chatted by the display: ‘And then the Buddhists get annoyed…’

30% Off — She Love You Long Time — Take Lakshmi Home Today

It’s syncretic, it’s pretty, it’s callow. I don’t see Jesus and Mary lounging among the loofahs, I don’t see Moses parting the Listerine. But you can buy ‘spicebodhi,’ capsaicin enlightenment in a bar. Symbols my parents revere become interior design props. Mild, tolerant, ‘cardamom-scented‘ Hinduism and Buddhism are gussied up and vended. We gave you Manhattan, you give us beads.

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Brown on the Board of Education

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Mukul Datta is running for the School Board in Charlotte, NCA bit of cyberhypercavicunicucunctatalinkus* (I’m sure you can figure out what kind) revealed to me that there is another local candidate of South Asian descent running for office this Tuesday.  In Charlotte, North Carolina, Mukul Datta is far from a sure bet for  District 2 seat of the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education–two other people are running for the seat: the incumbent Vilma D. Leake and Sheila Jackson,  receiver of the Charlotte Observer endorsement. Because this is a tiny race in the grand scheme of things, it’s difficult to find anything substantial about Datta that he didn’t write himself. This article on the race includes a candidate who has since thrown her weight behind Jackson–among the other three, Datta seems to be most focused on reassessing spending priorities and tackling the issues that persist after Charlotte’s federally mandated desegregation order was dissolved 4 years ago.

Retiree Mukul Datta spent more than two decades as a teacher in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. He gives the district a failing grade.”To me, more and more, it is separate and unequal – divided by class and race,” he said.”Many of the board members are saying they do this for the children, but the first question that comes to my mind is ‘If you love the children, why are you talking their money from the classroom and spending it on retreats?'” he said. He says CMS wastes money that could be used to boost teacher pay, citing board member travel and high-priced retreats as areas that can be cut back.(Link.)

Up in Connecticut, Satish Chandra is seeking reelection to the Amity Board of Education, and here in California Ranjit “Ricky” Gill had been appointed as the student representative to the State Board of Education by Schwarzenegger. Scanning the Indian American Center for Political Awareness newslist, I see that in Santa Clara Ric Singh, Kuldip S. Mahal, Stuart Johnson, and Subash Bhatt have lost previous bids for school boards seats. Continue reading →

‘I was a Gujarati bride for Halloween’

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The NYT weddings section tells us of a Manhattan bride whose wedding two days before Halloween had a costume ball theme. The bride’s costume: an American wedding dress and the forehead decorations you see on Gujarati brides. And sometimes elephants. How cool is that — Halloween with a twist of commitment, a.k.a. singleton Kryptonite

The couple were married on Oct. 29 before 126 friends and family in what they called an “antiwedding”- a costume gala. Guests arrived at Studio 450, a loft in New York, wearing top hats, Egyptian headdresses and masks glittering with feathers and rhinestones. The bride’s father dressed as Zorro. The bride and bridegroom came as – surprise! – a bride and bridegroom. Candles and rose petals were scattered throughout the space… [Link]

The groom is apparently an honorary desi:

… [The groom works at] a computer software firm in New York… A few months into their relationship Mr. O’Donnell got Ms. Schaffer a PlayStation and they spent entire days playing “Final Fantasy X” and “The Sims…” [Link]

Umm, yeah, sounds familiar. Wallace and Gromit also made their presence felt:

… the wedding “cake” was served: a five-tiered wonder made up of five different types of cheese. [Link]

Cheese, Gromit!

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It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye

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Well, it seems that my month-long tryst with Mutiny is about to end.  When I first headed up to the North Dakota HQ, I was just a small-town gal with a laptop and a dream of bringing general-interest news stories to the South Asian community.  I leave here with an enhanced appreciation for the bloggers and readers of Sepia Mutiny, and also with scenes of unspeakable North Dakotan depravity seared into my brain. 

Before I turn in my linens and SM-monogrammed guest towels, I just want to thank all you readers for not tearing me to shreds, and for your kind and thought-provoking comments.  And of course, thanks to the Mutineers for being such helpful, hard-working, and gracious hosts.  Finally, thanks to Shakti Kapoor for helping make all of this happen for me. 

See you in the comments section!

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Is brain drain bad for India? How about the rest of the world?

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As children of the brain drain (literally as well as figuratively) we are conditioned to think of India’s million-strong brain drain represents just 4.3% of its vast graduate populationthe free market in labor as a good thing for all parties involved. Certainly, free movement of talented professionals has been good for migrating professionals and for the people of the first world — 25% of the doctors in North America, Britain and Australia are immigrants who attended medical school abroad. [Link]

A trickier question concerns the implications of the brain drain for the people in the sending country, the country that the doctors are being drained from. The effects of the brain drain there can be ambiguous – while it leeches away many talented professionals, it also creates incentives for others (who might not have seen education as lucrative before) to get educated, and can therefore create a more educated population than would have existed without brain drain. Some people argue that this is why India has benefitted from/despite brain drain while other countries have been damaged by it. According to the Economist:

Indian students had little reason to learn computer coding before there was a software industry to employ them. But such an industry could not take root without computer engineers to man it. The dream of a job in Silicon Valley, however, was enough to lure many of India’s bright young things into coding, and that was enough to hatch an indigenous software industry where none existed before.

India’s valley-dwellers represent just one contingent in a much larger diaspora. According to the most exhaustive study of the brain drain, released last month by the World Bank, there were 1.04m Indian-born people, educated past secondary school, living in the 30 relatively rich countries of the OECD in 2000. (An unknown number of them acquired their education outside their country of birth, the report notes.) This largely successful diaspora is more than just something to envy and emulate. Its members can be a source of know-how and money, and provide valuable entrées into foreign markets and supply chains.

But Messrs Kapur and McHale think India’s relatively happy experience with its educated emigrés is more likely to be the exception than the rule. Its million-strong brain drain represents just 4.3% of its vast graduate population, according to the Bank. By contrast, almost 47% of Ghana’s highly educated native sons live in the OECD; for Guyana, the figure is 89%. This is not a stimulative leeching of talent; it is a haemorrhage. [Link]

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If you steal from us we will cut off your hands

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You know what makes us Sepia Mutiny Bloggers angry? We spend 24 hours a day blogging from our world headquarters in North Dakota for no pay. That’s okay. Some people don’t like our opinions. That is okay too. What really irks us though is when REAL journalists “borrow” story ideas from us without in some way acknowledging our existence. As bloggers, linking back to the original source is a requisite. On the flip-side, we will often blog about some topic on our site, only to see it a day later in some “legitimate” newspaper without any credit to us. This next example however, is just flat-out fake journalism based on content from our site.

Here is a comment that our own Manish Vij made on my entry about a racist city councilman in Orange City, FL:

Manish Vij on November 2, 2005 11:48 PM · Direct link
Wow, what an ass. Why not send Sherrill a polite, firm note: donsherrill@earthlink.net

Keep it clean, folks.

Later on Manish sent out an email over the South Asian Journalists Association listserv:

An Orlando city councilman made some incredibly insulting remarks about his Indian-American election opponent. Apparently his knowledge of geography is shaky… You can email him at: donsherrill@earthlink.net. Be firm but polite– keep it clean.

[Later] Sorry, folks, I meant Orange City, Florida.

Now, here is a quote taken from an article titled “Anti-Indian slurs mar US city council elections” about the same councilman, which appears in India’s Daily News and Analysis (DNA):

“I think it is important that Sherrill understands that he has offended Indians. We are inviting everyone to email him at donsherrill@earthlink.net. Be firm but polite — keep it clean,” said Orange city resident Manoj Vij. [Link]

Uttara Choudhury
Saturday, November 05, 2005 09:01 IST

See anything strange folks? I will bet my left nut that there is no Manoj Vij in Orange City, FL. I will bet my right one that this reporter created a fake source with a fake quote and forwarded it to his/her editors by using Manish’s comment.

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Youthwallah’s “Desi Factor”

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I have failed SM readers in Los Angeles. I should have blogged this a couple of days ago to give you some more notice, but it’s better late than never. The Artwallah organization has two more performances of it’s Youthwallah program “Desi Factor,” Saturday at 8:30p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2:30p.m. YouthWallah is an arts mentorship program supporting emerging South Asian artists in the pursuit and creation of powerful artistic work. It’s an incubator for young talent that could potentially breakout into the mainstream. The performance last night in an intimate little theater in Santa Monica was a perfect blend of music, dance, comedy, literature, and film. Here are some of the highlights from my attendance last night:

  • Ashwini Srikantiah sang a jazz song at the piano while particular scenes from the Bollywood classic Sil Sila played on a screen in the background. It was a giggle inducing crowd pleaser.
  • Young filmmaker Sabina Shamdasani previewed a film she is working on with a potentially hilarious concept: imagine the Bad News Bears meets the Bhangra Blowout competition. The laughter went on even after the trailer ended.
  • There were two sisters with the name Vivekaanandamorthy. One sang and the other read a piece about traveling through rebel-controlled Sri Lanka. When else are you going to get to see a performance where the MC has to introduce two Vivekaanandamorthys?
  • Shalini Rehil of Blu Soul sang while Aditya Rao from Lovely played the guitar for her.

The cost of the performance is only $16 (or $14 if you are a student) and the parking is plentiful around this Westside location. Here are the directions to the Highways Performance Space. The program lasted for about two hours. Info at: 310-315-1459. Be sure to call ahead for reservations as Artwallah events are usually well attended.

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America’s Top Young Scientist

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Earlier this week The Discovery Channel handed out awards for its 2005 Discovery Young Scientist Challenge. Who took ‘America’s Top Young Scientist of the Year’ award? Meet Neela Thangada of San Antonio, TX. From Rediff.com:

Neela, of San Antonio, Texas, was adjudged ‘America’s Top Young Scientist of the Year’ — which carries a $20,000 scholarship – for her science project on plant cloning.

…student of Keystone Junior High School, won the top prize for her science fair project titled ‘Effects of Various Nutrient Concentrations on the Cloning of the Eye of Solanum Tuberosum at Multiple Stages.’ Her skills of leadership, teamwork, scientific problem solving, critical thinking, and oral and written communication skills earned her the title of ‘America’s Top Young Scientist of the Year’, organisers say.

“I am very excited and happy to win this prize,” Neela told rediff India Abroad. “I did not expect to win, so it was a shock to me.” She said the contest is a great programme, which helps students get interested in science and take that interest to the next level. She plans to continue research at her high school, with the ultimate goal of becoming a professor of medicine.

Neela’s research was inspired by a biology textbook’s idea of a potato cloning experiment. She wanted to determine how different nutrient concentrations affected the multiple stages of growth in a potato. In her experiment, she removed 60 shoot tips from growing potatoes.

After sterilizing the tips, she excised the bottom two segments, and placed each in a test tube of half-strength or full-strength nutrient solution before incubating them.

Cloning? I don’t think they look favorably upon cloning in conservative Texas. It’s great to see that Indian parents are now allowing their kids aspire to be a professor of medicine and not just common doctors . Nine of the forty finalists were in fact of South Asian origin. Second place went to Nilesh Tripuraneni of Fresno, CA:

Nilesh had heard about hydrogen-powered cars but understood that producing hydrogen requires fossil fuels. He sought to find a more environmentally friendly approach through solar hydrogen production.

Nilesh built a solar-powered device that ran an electric current through a beaker full of saltwater. The result: electrolysis, by which water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. By clever manipulation of various gas laws, Nilesh measured the temperature, pressure, and volume of the hydrogen gas produced. He found that seawater produced almost as much hydrogen as solutions containing sulfuric acid or sodium hydroxide. [Link]

That there is an engineer in the making folks.

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