How do you spell first place? B-R-O-W-N

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South Asian youngsters continue to nerd their way to fame and fortune:

Gayathri_the_good_speller

A 13-year-old girl has beaten 100,000 hopefuls to become the best young speller in the UK.
Gayathri Kumar, from Lancashire, correctly spelt words including troglodyte and disequilibrium to win the BBC’s Hard Spell competition.

Whom did Gayathri defeat? Wait for it…

The final, shown on BBC One on Sunday night, saw Gayathri go head-to-head with the other finalist, Nisha Thomas.

We have to do something about this brown-on-brown violence. I kid. So how did Gayathri best Nisha?

Gayathri, from Ormskirk, took the title when she correctly spelt Chihuahua and Nisha stumbled over dachshund.

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"Yo Mama"

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What rhymes with Osama? It’s good to see these racist punks get served…or were they? From the Newsobserver.com:

Three men found guilty in District Court of ethnic intimidation for assaulting an Indian Sikh reached a plea agreement on less serious charges when they appealed their conviction.

In a plea agreement in Orange County Superior Court, the men pleaded guilty Monday to assault inflicting serious injury and simple assault, but not to ethnic intimidation.

One man will go to prison for 150 days for the assaults and for several probation violations. The other two will each spend 14 days in jail.

The case stemmed from an incident in March on West Franklin Street when defendant Kenneth Antwaine Perry, 20, walked past UNC student G. Bindra and called him “Osama.”

At the time, Bindra, a Sikh who has brown skin and a beard, was wearing his hair wrapped in a scarf. He responded by saying, “Your mama.”

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Singh caps stellar year with tour’s top honor

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Vijay Singh won his first PGA Tour Player of the Year award on Monday, icing a season that saw the 41-year-old golfer capture nine titles and a record-breaking $10.9 million in prize money.

The Fijian national ends Tiger Woods’ five-year reign over the title, and is the first non-American to win the award in nearly a decade. Singh came ever-so-close to winning it last year, and felt he was more deserving of the honor, which is voted on by fellow tour players.

He rededicated himself to surpassing Woods atop the world rankings, and accomplished the goal in roughly half the expected time. The new focus supplemented a near-legendary work ethic and training regimen that once included hitting 1,000 balls a day.

So will winning the award invite complacency? Not a chance.

Singh told the Associated Press that he already has started a new workout program, “to take it a little higher.”

AP/Yahoo!: Singh wins PGA Tour Player of the Year award
Sepia Mutiny: Asians remain dominant in golf

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Admit it, you totally care about his luw life

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Raj_is_mine_bitch

I think we need a new category called “Raj-watch”. 😉

Mutineer Vinod selected a few words from my favourite tabloid, the New York Post, for an SM blurb about the busy Mr. Bhakta a month ago. I’ll save you the trouble of clicking about by re-pasting the aforementioned Page Six dirt here:

RECENTLY fired “Apprentice” Raj Bhakta might be better suited for a role on “The Player.” The would-be lothario distinguished himself last week by hitting on Donald Trump’s assistant, Robin Himmel, while he was waiting for the elevator to take him from the building after his dismissal.
However, Himmel may be the only one Bhakta struck out with, as three of his fellow castmates have fallen prey to his charms, a source shared, including Stacy Rotner and Jennifer Crisafulli, who have “at least made out” with Bhakta.

Aha! (and with that, may “Take on Me” waft through your head ALL DAY 😉 The very next day, Page Six cleared up any ambiguity about striking:

November 11, 2004 — FIRED “Apprentice” Romeo Raj Bhakta got his wish yesterday — a “date” with Donald Trump’s pretty receptionist, Robin Himmler, who’s featured on the NBC reality show. Raj, known for his bow-ties, asked Robin out at the end of last week’s episode and — even though she has a very serious boyfriend — she agreed to at least meet Raj for a cup of Joe.
The pair chatted yesterday over coffee at (where else?) Trump Tower.

At Sepia Mutiny, we, like President Bush, are “workin’ hard”…”workin’ saturdays” to keep our readers updated on the most pressing brown matters. You don’t have to admit it to your friends, but we know why you’re addicted, and it’s obviously our thisclose coverage of dismissed/fired/rejected south asian reality show refugees. no worries. we’re so on it. 😉

Gen. Musharraf goes to Washington

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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf paid a visit to Washington, D.C. over the weekend, where he met with U.S. President George W. Bush, and more notably, gave a series of tantalizing interviews to the capital’s press corps.

During a closed door meeting, Bush and Musharraf discussed the war on terror, trade between their two countries, and the Palestine-Israel conflict. In a joint press conference where Bush did most of the talking, he praised his Pakistani counterpart, saying, “our relationships are good, they’re strong, and they will remain that way.”

In turn, Musharraf congratulated Bush on his victory in last month’s elections. “All that I would like to say, that I’ve come here basically to congratulate the President very sincerely, with all my sincerity, for having won the elections,” he said.

The lovefest between the two men ended shortly after the brief photo opportunity. Free of the White House muzzle, Musharraf sounded off on a number of topics in subsequent interviews with various media outlets:

Search for Osama Bin Laden: “He is alive, but more than that, where he is, no…we don’t know where he is.” — Washington Post/Yahoo!
India and Kashmir: “I’m very optimistic of the future.” — AFP/Yahoo!
U.S. request for access to nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan: “It shows a lack of trust.” — Washington Post/Yahoo!
World’s safety after Iraq invasion: “I think it’s less safe, certainly…we have landed ourselves in more problems.” — Wolf Blitzer/CNN
Purchase of U.S. F-16 fighter jets: “We discussed the F-16 issue…that is all I would like to say.” — AFP/Yahoo!
Timetable for democratic elections in Pakistan: (Crickets chirping)

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Britain goes after Honorless killers

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Sky News and the Washington Times report on Britain’s decision to press for prosecution in 117 so-called “honor killing” cases.

More than 100 deaths and disappearances of Asian women are being reinvestigated to ensure they were not victims of ‘honour’ crimes.

They can involve suicides, false imprisonment, forced marriages – and even murder, as happened to Heshu Yones, 16.

Heshu was stabbed to death two years ago in Acton, London, by her Kurdish father – who believed she had dishonoured the family by having a boyfriend.

There are 117 other suspected ‘honour killings’ currently under investigation in the UK alone.

Suicides among such women in Britain are three times the national average.

When this sort of stuff happens in Afghanistan we think we can only do so much about it, but when it happens in a “lawful” developed country we should take decisive action which is what Britain seems to be doing. In other countries, like France for example, when the government tries to step into cases like these it further radicalizes the youth (Muslim youth in the case of France) who feel their customs are under attack. Some clerics fuel this paranoia with lectures on how good Muslims should follow Sharia law. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli has been doing an excellent series of stories on this phenomena of the growing radicalization of the Muslim youth in Europe.

Tunku vs. Arundhati

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(from the tipline – thanks JT!) This sort of stuff is usually a tad too political for SM BUT, since it’s a desi-writer taking on another desi-writer, I figured it was well within Sepia Mutiny’s posting guidelines 😉

The fact that it’s by a WSJ staff writer I follow from time to time – Tunku Varadarajan – & that he provides a BEAUTIFUL skewering of Arundhati Roy was merely the icing on the cake –

When a friend learned that I was pondering a piece critical of Ms. Roy … he e-mailed me reprovingly to ask whether that would not be a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. But second thoughts can strike at the speed of light. No sooner had he hit the “send” button than he hit it again: “There are certain fish, however, in certain barrels, that cannot be ignored.” …A certain segment of the American intelligentsia connects gleefully with exotic leftists like Ms. Roy. In fact, the Ms. Roys of our age, and their fans and subsidy-givers in the West, enjoy a touching symbiosis. Arundhati Roy, I’d venture to say, is George Soros’s political poster girl. Ms. Roy and her type pay the ultimate compliment to America by holding that all world events occur at America’s behest and that the six billion non-Americans on the planet are but helpless pawns, incapable of doing anything–especially anything bad–without Uncle Sam’s imprimatur.

Those are just a few of the plentiful nuggets in a very well written & succinct piece.

Life after being “Fired!”

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A fairly famous “loser” has just started a brand new organization called the Coalition for the Advancement of the Republic (CAR). What is the purpose of this organization?

The Coalition for the Advancement of the Republic (C.A.R.) has been created to espouse common sense conservatism matched with the conviction that progressive change must be embraced. Although our government requires progressive reform, on the balance, government should be kept as small and transparent as possible.

C.A.R is non-partisan. On such issues as conservation, immigration, environmental protection and enlightened land use policies, we are aligned with “liberals.” On others issues such as trade and regulation, we are aligned with traditionally conservative policy. On many issues, such as tort, tax, health care and entitlement program reform – we find common ground with mainstream good government advocates.

Underpinning all our positions is a consistent demand for accountable and limited (which is not to say inactive) government, and a faith in the efficacy of economic and individual freedom. The notion of individual responsibility is among the greatest assets of American society and must be passionately promoted.

A quick click on the “about us” link will reveal the fact that CAR was founded by none other than the bow tie wearing Republican Raj Bhakta, of Apprentice fame.

The website includes a series of essays that I will only assume have been written by Raj. Since foreign policy is my chief area of interest I clicked on the link and discovered an essay titled, “A Short Case for Closer Relations with India.“

One of the keys to a successful long-term Asia policy is a strong India. India is the only nation in the region that can balance the ever-developing Chinese colossus. India is a natural ally. In the future, when China could potentially threaten our vital interests, it would be very pleasing to know that an American-equipped and allied Indian Army of five million men is garrisoned on China’s border.

India has the manpower to put millions of boots on the ground in trouble spots. Indian troops, like their programmers, are cheap and effective. Imagine what a fine ally India would make in Iraq. The United States, for a few billion dollars, as opposed the hundreds of billions our own troops and contractors cost, could place several hundred thousand Indian troops in, say, Fallujah. We could then get busy with rebuilding the country’s infrastructure and showing the Arab world the great things that America can do for them.

India, at the same time, is sufficiently weak internally so as not to pose a threat to the United States for a very long time – at least seventy or eighty years.

Ummm. The above paragraph is just a rough draft I hope. There are a number of policy problems in just these three paragraphs that Mr. Trump would not be happy about (if Trump knew anything about foreign policy). Check out the other essays for yourself before deciding whether we should hire Raj for this job.

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“Pack your shit … and get your ass to Fallujah”

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Mutineers may remember Lt. Neil Prakash whom we profile a few weeks back here. Well, LT Neil – aka “Red Six” has been cajoled by a few of us into starting a blog and sharing his experiences.

One excerpt – ARMOR GEDDON: 5 November (D-3): Return from R&R

“Pack your shit, check under your pillow, and get your ass to Fallujah.” Under my pillow, [my platoon sergeant] left me all the maps, friendly graphics, and enemy graphics, and some intelligence reports. …”Pray for rain,” the captain said. The whole city was littered with more IEDs than probably anywhere else in Iraq. I wasn’t surprised. The insurgents had gone 6 months unmolested within the city limits. “The insurgents use cheap det. cord and when it gets wet, the IEDs usually don’t set off.”