Film
Film - Four Decades of Cary Grant Movies in BAMcinématek Series –
NYTimes.com, July 31, 2009
Once Upon a Time, a Real Leading Man
By MIKE HALE
Published: July 30, 2009. New York Times
Old movies — I’m talking about those made before the 1970s — come to us in packages these days. The producers of DVDs and the programmers of repertory theaters look for themes and contexts that will help to make sense of these films for the several generations of culture consumers who are likely to find them utterly strange. Or if not to make sense of them, put them in a framework where their assumptions and devices can be sold to younger moviegoers as hip or camp rather than laughably archaic. Hence the weeks or boxes of film noirs or screwball comedies, or of the careers of directors with distinctive, easily cataloged styles.
To put on a Cary Grant series — as the BAMcinématek is doing from Monday through Aug. 20 with 17 films, and a second batch to follow in 2010 — presents some special challenges. Grant made more than 50 movies as a leading man, but the only thing that ties them together is that they starred Cary Grant, playing some version of his man-of-the-world persona, or of himself, which seemed to amount to the same thing.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/movies/31grant.html?th&emc=th
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Why Men Don't Write Advice Columns
Received from one of our Very Far-Flung Correspondents:
Why Men Don’t Write Advice Columns –
Dear Walter,
I hope you can help me here. The other day, I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn't driven more than a mile down the road when the engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband's help. When I got home I couldn't believe my eyes. He was in our bedroom with the neighbor's daughter. I am 32, my husband is 34, and the neighbor's daughter is 22. We have been married for ten years.
When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that they had been having an affair for the past six months. I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. He won't go to counseling and I'm afraid I can't get through to him anymore.
Can you please help?
Sincerely, Sheila
******************************
Dear Sheila:
A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the vacuum pipes and hoses on the intake manifold and also check all grounding wires. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the injectors.
I hope this helps,
Walter
* * * * *
Quote Without Context:
Harish: I am going to drive while texting and see what happens...'
Missej: You can't drive well even without texting...
(Drum roll optional)
* * * * *
Why Men Don’t Write Advice Columns –
Dear Walter,
I hope you can help me here. The other day, I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn't driven more than a mile down the road when the engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband's help. When I got home I couldn't believe my eyes. He was in our bedroom with the neighbor's daughter. I am 32, my husband is 34, and the neighbor's daughter is 22. We have been married for ten years.
When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that they had been having an affair for the past six months. I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. He won't go to counseling and I'm afraid I can't get through to him anymore.
Can you please help?
Sincerely, Sheila
******************************
Dear Sheila:
A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the vacuum pipes and hoses on the intake manifold and also check all grounding wires. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the injectors.
I hope this helps,
Walter
* * * * *
Quote Without Context:
Harish: I am going to drive while texting and see what happens...'
Missej: You can't drive well even without texting...
(Drum roll optional)
* * * * *
Monday, July 27, 2009
Humor: Universal Health Care Plan
Our very Far-flung correspondent says...
Universal Health Care Plan:
Apparently the American Medical Association has weighed in on the new Universal Health Care Plan....
The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.
The Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.
Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted.
Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the Pediatricians said, 'Oh, Grow up!'
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.
Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.
The Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the ass holes in Washington.
Universal Health Care Plan:
Apparently the American Medical Association has weighed in on the new Universal Health Care Plan....
The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.
The Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.
Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted.
Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the Pediatricians said, 'Oh, Grow up!'
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.
Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.
The Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the ass holes in Washington.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Theatre and Theatre Reviews: Boris Godunov,
Theater Review: - 'Boris Godunov' - Declan Donnellan’s Pushkin - Of Czars, Blood and Ambition - NYTimes.com, July 24, 2009By BEN BRANTLEY
Published: July 24, 2009
Shall we begin with fire or water? Declan Donnellan harnesses the elements to spectacular effect in the Chekhov International Theater Festival’s production of Alexander Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov,” a transcendent tale of all too earthly power. But don’t be misled into thinking that this remarkable work of theater shares anything with the wall-to-wall pyrotechnics of a stadium rock concert.
Mr. Donnellan uses flame and flood with the selective hand of an artist who understands that a single well-chosen detail sears itself into the imagination, while nonstop sound-and-light shows are merely numbing. So our introduction to fire in this latest offering from the Lincoln Center Festival 2009, which runs only through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory, is of a man on a long black stage, squinting through the flames of tall liturgical candles to examine the pure face of a barefoot boy in a nightshirt, the ghost of a child he had killed.
Read more: http://theater2.nytimes.com:80/2009/07/24/theater/reviews/24boris.html?th&emc=th
* * * * *
Published: July 24, 2009
Shall we begin with fire or water? Declan Donnellan harnesses the elements to spectacular effect in the Chekhov International Theater Festival’s production of Alexander Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov,” a transcendent tale of all too earthly power. But don’t be misled into thinking that this remarkable work of theater shares anything with the wall-to-wall pyrotechnics of a stadium rock concert.
Mr. Donnellan uses flame and flood with the selective hand of an artist who understands that a single well-chosen detail sears itself into the imagination, while nonstop sound-and-light shows are merely numbing. So our introduction to fire in this latest offering from the Lincoln Center Festival 2009, which runs only through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory, is of a man on a long black stage, squinting through the flames of tall liturgical candles to examine the pure face of a barefoot boy in a nightshirt, the ghost of a child he had killed.
Read more: http://theater2.nytimes.com:80/2009/07/24/theater/reviews/24boris.html?th&emc=th
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Books and Book Reviews: "JFK and the Unspeakable" by James Douglass
Book Review:
Huffington Post July 24, 2009
"JFK and the Unspeakable" by James Douglass
by Oliver Stone, the Award-winning filmmaker
Posted: July 23, 2009 05:05 PM
The murder of President Kennedy was a seminal event for me and for millions of Americans. It changed the course of history. It was a crushing blow to our country and to millions of people around the world. It put an abrupt end to a period of a misunderstood idealism, akin to the spirit of 1989 when the Soviet bloc to began to thaw and 2008, when our new American President was fairly elected.
Today, more than 45 years later, profound doubts persist about how President Kennedy was killed and why. My film JFK was a metaphor for all those doubts, suspicions and unanswered questions. Now an extraordinary new book offers the best account I have read of this tragedy and its significance. That book is James Douglass's JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. It is a book that deserves the attention of all Americans; it is one of those rare books that, by helping us understand our history, has the power to change it.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oliver-stone/jfk-and-the-unspeakable_b_243924.html
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Memoirs of Anthony Blunt, British Spy, Made Public - NYTimes.com, July 24, 2009
By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: July 23, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, England — After keeping it sealed in a steel container for 25 years, the British Library made public on Thursday a 30,000-word memoir in which Anthony Blunt, one of Britain’s most renowned 20th-century art historians, described spying for the Soviet Union, beginning in the mid-1930s, as “the biggest mistake of my life.”
The memoir offers few new insights into the details of Blunt’s spying, about which he said little in public before he died in 1983. Its main interest, according to historians, lies in Blunt’s account of his recruitment by another Soviet spy, Guy Burgess, when both were at Cambridge University in the 1930s, and in his exposition of his motives and feelings, including his disillusionment with Marxism and the Soviet Union after World War II.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/europe/24blunt.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
Huffington Post July 24, 2009
"JFK and the Unspeakable" by James Douglass
by Oliver Stone, the Award-winning filmmaker
Posted: July 23, 2009 05:05 PM
The murder of President Kennedy was a seminal event for me and for millions of Americans. It changed the course of history. It was a crushing blow to our country and to millions of people around the world. It put an abrupt end to a period of a misunderstood idealism, akin to the spirit of 1989 when the Soviet bloc to began to thaw and 2008, when our new American President was fairly elected.
Today, more than 45 years later, profound doubts persist about how President Kennedy was killed and why. My film JFK was a metaphor for all those doubts, suspicions and unanswered questions. Now an extraordinary new book offers the best account I have read of this tragedy and its significance. That book is James Douglass's JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. It is a book that deserves the attention of all Americans; it is one of those rare books that, by helping us understand our history, has the power to change it.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oliver-stone/jfk-and-the-unspeakable_b_243924.html
* * * * *
Memoirs of Anthony Blunt, British Spy, Made Public - NYTimes.com, July 24, 2009
By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: July 23, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, England — After keeping it sealed in a steel container for 25 years, the British Library made public on Thursday a 30,000-word memoir in which Anthony Blunt, one of Britain’s most renowned 20th-century art historians, described spying for the Soviet Union, beginning in the mid-1930s, as “the biggest mistake of my life.”
The memoir offers few new insights into the details of Blunt’s spying, about which he said little in public before he died in 1983. Its main interest, according to historians, lies in Blunt’s account of his recruitment by another Soviet spy, Guy Burgess, when both were at Cambridge University in the 1930s, and in his exposition of his motives and feelings, including his disillusionment with Marxism and the Soviet Union after World War II.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/europe/24blunt.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
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Movies and Movie Reviews: Ingloriuos Basterds, The Ugly Truth,
BBC NEWS July 24, 2009
| Entertainment | Tarantino wows UK premiere crowds.
Quentin Tarantino: "I want my films to be highly anticipated"
Director Quentin Tarantino has hit the red carpet in London for the UK premiere of his World War II epic Inglourious Basterds.
He was joined by actors from the film, Diane Kruger and Christoph Waltz, while singer Rihanna and actor Mickey Rourke were among the VIP guests.
The film's star, Brad Pitt - who attended the world premiere at Cannes - did not make an appearance
.
Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8164997.stm
* * * * *
Movie Review: Salon.com July 24, 2009
"The Ugly Truth"
What do men really want from women? Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler discover the answer is, indeed, hideous
By Stephanie Zacharek
July 24, 2009 | In "The Ugly Truth," Katherine Heigl plays a single and somewhat prissy TV producer who's dismayed when a boorish, self-styled expert on the male psyche, played by Gerard Butler, becomes the star attraction of the morning talk show she puts together. Butler's Mike dispenses crude words of wisdom on what men want from women, urging them to get on the Stairmaster if they really want to meet a guy. All men care about is "tits and ass," he says; a great personality is pretty low on the priority list. Heigl's superorganized Abby, on the other hand, keeps a checklist of attributes that her Mr. Right will undoubtedly possess -- he's sensitive, considerate and prefers cats to dogs -- and before she goes out with a guy, her assistant, Joy (Bree Turner), helps her out by running an intrusive background check on the poor sap.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2009/07/24/ugly_truth/index.html?source=newslett
* * * * *
| Entertainment | Tarantino wows UK premiere crowds.
Quentin Tarantino: "I want my films to be highly anticipated"
Director Quentin Tarantino has hit the red carpet in London for the UK premiere of his World War II epic Inglourious Basterds.
He was joined by actors from the film, Diane Kruger and Christoph Waltz, while singer Rihanna and actor Mickey Rourke were among the VIP guests.
The film's star, Brad Pitt - who attended the world premiere at Cannes - did not make an appearance
.
Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8164997.stm
* * * * *
Movie Review: Salon.com July 24, 2009
"The Ugly Truth"
What do men really want from women? Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler discover the answer is, indeed, hideous
By Stephanie Zacharek
July 24, 2009 | In "The Ugly Truth," Katherine Heigl plays a single and somewhat prissy TV producer who's dismayed when a boorish, self-styled expert on the male psyche, played by Gerard Butler, becomes the star attraction of the morning talk show she puts together. Butler's Mike dispenses crude words of wisdom on what men want from women, urging them to get on the Stairmaster if they really want to meet a guy. All men care about is "tits and ass," he says; a great personality is pretty low on the priority list. Heigl's superorganized Abby, on the other hand, keeps a checklist of attributes that her Mr. Right will undoubtedly possess -- he's sensitive, considerate and prefers cats to dogs -- and before she goes out with a guy, her assistant, Joy (Bree Turner), helps her out by running an intrusive background check on the poor sap.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2009/07/24/ugly_truth/index.html?source=newslett
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Thursday, July 23, 2009
Asian Americans: How a Resume Can Catch the Eye of Diversity-Minded Employers, July 24, 2009
Wednesday July 22, 2009. Asianlife.com
Keep Raising The Bar
Alexandra Levit
As a society, we're obsessed with achievement. But what happens once you're considered objectively successful, with a great salary and a job that energizes you? It's easy to rest on your accomplishments and your way of getting work done, perhaps even feeling there's not much left to learn.
But in this economy, you can't afford to sit back -- even though it might be tempting.
"Successful people fall into the trap of thinking they don't need to change anything because their behavior is working for them," says Marshall Goldsmith, author of "What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful." "Every time they get promoted...they get positive reinforcement even when certain skills are lacking."
Read more: http://www.asianlife.com:80/magazine/view/articles/id/645838789
* * * * *
Wednesday July 22, 2009, Asianlife.com
How a Resume Can Catch the Eye of Diversity-Minded Employers
By Perri Capell, Career Journal
Question: I constantly read that companies are seeking diversity in their senior ranks, but I've been told I shouldn't state my race on a resume. So how can you let an organization know that you can contribute to its diversity needs? Is there a way to do this without appearing to ask for special treatment?
-- John M. Williams, Atlanta
John: You're right about this being an issue that requires sensitivity. Federal equal employment opportunity laws prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender and other preferences.
Assume you immediately tell recruiters on the phone that you're a member of a minority or put it at the top of your resume. Some employers might take this as a sign that you'd make it an issue if you weren't hired.
Read more: http://www.asianlife.com:80/magazine/view/articles/id/645838790
Keep Raising The Bar
Alexandra Levit
As a society, we're obsessed with achievement. But what happens once you're considered objectively successful, with a great salary and a job that energizes you? It's easy to rest on your accomplishments and your way of getting work done, perhaps even feeling there's not much left to learn.
But in this economy, you can't afford to sit back -- even though it might be tempting.
"Successful people fall into the trap of thinking they don't need to change anything because their behavior is working for them," says Marshall Goldsmith, author of "What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful." "Every time they get promoted...they get positive reinforcement even when certain skills are lacking."
Read more: http://www.asianlife.com:80/magazine/view/articles/id/645838789
* * * * *
Wednesday July 22, 2009, Asianlife.com
How a Resume Can Catch the Eye of Diversity-Minded Employers
By Perri Capell, Career Journal
Question: I constantly read that companies are seeking diversity in their senior ranks, but I've been told I shouldn't state my race on a resume. So how can you let an organization know that you can contribute to its diversity needs? Is there a way to do this without appearing to ask for special treatment?
-- John M. Williams, Atlanta
John: You're right about this being an issue that requires sensitivity. Federal equal employment opportunity laws prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender and other preferences.
Assume you immediately tell recruiters on the phone that you're a member of a minority or put it at the top of your resume. Some employers might take this as a sign that you'd make it an issue if you weren't hired.
Read more: http://www.asianlife.com:80/magazine/view/articles/id/645838790
Humor: The Mafia story, July 23, 2009
Just received the following anecdote from one of our Very Far-flung correspondent -
Why Italian Godfathers pass their handguns down through the family?
Here's how the story goes -
An old Italian Mafia Don is dying. He calls his grandson to his bedside.
"Elio, I wanna you lissina me. I wanna you to take-a my chrome plated .38 revolver so you will always remember me."
"But grandpa, I really don't like guns. How about you leave me your Rolex watch instead?"
"You lissina me, boy. Somma day you gonna be runna DA business, you gonna have a
beautiful wife, lotsa money, a big-a home and maybe a couple of bambinos"
"Somma day you gonna come-a home and maybe finda you wife inna bed with another man.
"Whatta you gonna do then? Pointa to you watch and say, 'Time's Up'?"
Why Italian Godfathers pass their handguns down through the family?
Here's how the story goes -
An old Italian Mafia Don is dying. He calls his grandson to his bedside.
"Elio, I wanna you lissina me. I wanna you to take-a my chrome plated .38 revolver so you will always remember me."
"But grandpa, I really don't like guns. How about you leave me your Rolex watch instead?"
"You lissina me, boy. Somma day you gonna be runna DA business, you gonna have a
beautiful wife, lotsa money, a big-a home and maybe a couple of bambinos"
"Somma day you gonna come-a home and maybe finda you wife inna bed with another man.
"Whatta you gonna do then? Pointa to you watch and say, 'Time's Up'?"
Books and Book Reviews: July 23, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
"Outplaying your partner: Poorly Made in China" by Paul Midler
(Reviewed by Muhammad Cohen)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG18Ad02.html ASIA TIMES ONLINE, JULY 17, 2009
* * * * *
"Outplaying your partner: Poorly Made in China" by Paul Midler
(Reviewed by Muhammad Cohen)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG18Ad02.html ASIA TIMES ONLINE, JULY 17, 2009
* * * * *
Theatre News and Reviews: July 23, 2009
THEATER REVIEW | 'PEASANT OPERA', NYTimes.com, July 23, 2009
Some Village Folkways: Incest, Murder, Adultery
In a Play From Budapest, Incest, Murder and Other Folkways -
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
Bela Pinter’s ribald sendup of opera blends Hungarian folk songs with the conventions of baroque music, to strange but surprisingly satisfying effect.
The naked cowboy with the sequined phallus would be a startling apparition just about anywhere, with the possible exception of a gay strip club, but he seems a particularly incongruous vision in the humble Hungarian village of “Peasant Opera,” the quirky musical melodrama that opened Tuesday night at the Clark Studio Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Written and directed by Bela Pinter, a leading figure from the theater world of his native Budapest, with music by Benedek Darvas, the show is a ribald sendup of opera that blends the earthy sounds of Hungarian folk songs with the ordered conventions of baroque music, to strange but surprisingly satisfying effect.
Read more http://theater2.nytimes.com:80/2009/07/23/theater/reviews/23peasant.html?th&emc=th
* * * * *
* * * * *
Salon.com
Thursday, July 23, 2009 06:23 EDT
Kevin Spacey needs a "Shrink"
One way of looking at Kevin Spacey's film-acting career is that most of it happened in another century and he has moved on. A two-time Oscar winner in the '90s -- for best supporting actor in "The Usual Suspects" and best actor in "American Beauty" -- Spacey has literally and figuratively left Hollywood behind, devoting most of his energies to directing the Old Vic Theatre in London, where he has lived since 2003.
As Spacey has told various interviewers, he didn't see how his movie career could possibly top what he had already accomplished, and he was tired of living in hotel rooms and making three or four films a year. From his days at Chatsworth High School in Los Angeles (where he played Captain von Trapp opposite Mare Winningham's Maria in "The Sound of Music"), theater was his first love. In the same year when he won his Academy Award for "American Beauty," he also won a Laurence Olivier Award for his role in the London-Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's play "The Iceman Cometh." (Truthfully, it might be the most memorable stage performance I've ever seen.) In retrospect, it looks as if two roads lay before him at that moment and he chose the one less traveled. So it is that the man once viewed as the greatest American film actor of his generation was recently ranked at No. 10 on the Daily Telegraph's list of "the 100 most powerful people in British culture."
Read more http://www.salon.com:80/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/07/23/spacey/index.html?source=newsletter
* * * * *
Some Village Folkways: Incest, Murder, Adultery
In a Play From Budapest, Incest, Murder and Other Folkways -
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
Bela Pinter’s ribald sendup of opera blends Hungarian folk songs with the conventions of baroque music, to strange but surprisingly satisfying effect.
The naked cowboy with the sequined phallus would be a startling apparition just about anywhere, with the possible exception of a gay strip club, but he seems a particularly incongruous vision in the humble Hungarian village of “Peasant Opera,” the quirky musical melodrama that opened Tuesday night at the Clark Studio Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Written and directed by Bela Pinter, a leading figure from the theater world of his native Budapest, with music by Benedek Darvas, the show is a ribald sendup of opera that blends the earthy sounds of Hungarian folk songs with the ordered conventions of baroque music, to strange but surprisingly satisfying effect.
Read more http://theater2.nytimes.com:80/2009/07/23/theater/reviews/23peasant.html?th&emc=th
* * * * *
* * * * *
Salon.com
Thursday, July 23, 2009 06:23 EDT
Kevin Spacey needs a "Shrink"
One way of looking at Kevin Spacey's film-acting career is that most of it happened in another century and he has moved on. A two-time Oscar winner in the '90s -- for best supporting actor in "The Usual Suspects" and best actor in "American Beauty" -- Spacey has literally and figuratively left Hollywood behind, devoting most of his energies to directing the Old Vic Theatre in London, where he has lived since 2003.
As Spacey has told various interviewers, he didn't see how his movie career could possibly top what he had already accomplished, and he was tired of living in hotel rooms and making three or four films a year. From his days at Chatsworth High School in Los Angeles (where he played Captain von Trapp opposite Mare Winningham's Maria in "The Sound of Music"), theater was his first love. In the same year when he won his Academy Award for "American Beauty," he also won a Laurence Olivier Award for his role in the London-Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's play "The Iceman Cometh." (Truthfully, it might be the most memorable stage performance I've ever seen.) In retrospect, it looks as if two roads lay before him at that moment and he chose the one less traveled. So it is that the man once viewed as the greatest American film actor of his generation was recently ranked at No. 10 on the Daily Telegraph's list of "the 100 most powerful people in British culture."
Read more http://www.salon.com:80/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/07/23/spacey/index.html?source=newsletter
* * * * *
Movies and Movie News, July 23, 2009
Movie News:
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 06:22 EDT
Beyond the Multiplex - Salon.com
The undead chick in the basement
After building its aura of notoriety on the film-festival circuit, the indie horror flick "Deadgirl" reaches audiences this weekend through a highly unusual release pattern, playing Friday and Saturday midnight shows in a handful of big-city theaters. All the ingredients for a wannabe cult hit are in place: rumors of outraged walkouts; a lascivious advertising campaign featuring a woman's parted, reddish-gray lips viewed sideways (so they resemble a different part of the female anatomy); widespread Internet discussion, most of it on a sight-unseen basis. Salon's Tracy Clark-Flory wrote a Broadsheet post on "Deadgirl" earlier this month that inspired a heated exchange, and Annalee Newitz of io9 wrote a quasi-learned piece last fall about the tr
Read more http://www.salon.com:80/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/07/22/deadgirl/index.html?source=newsletter
* * * * *
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 06:22 EDT
Beyond the Multiplex - Salon.com
The undead chick in the basement
After building its aura of notoriety on the film-festival circuit, the indie horror flick "Deadgirl" reaches audiences this weekend through a highly unusual release pattern, playing Friday and Saturday midnight shows in a handful of big-city theaters. All the ingredients for a wannabe cult hit are in place: rumors of outraged walkouts; a lascivious advertising campaign featuring a woman's parted, reddish-gray lips viewed sideways (so they resemble a different part of the female anatomy); widespread Internet discussion, most of it on a sight-unseen basis. Salon's Tracy Clark-Flory wrote a Broadsheet post on "Deadgirl" earlier this month that inspired a heated exchange, and Annalee Newitz of io9 wrote a quasi-learned piece last fall about the tr
Read more http://www.salon.com:80/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/07/22/deadgirl/index.html?source=newsletter
* * * * *
Arts and Arts News, July 23, 2009
Art Review
The van Gogh of the Gross-Out
By HOLLAND COTTER
Published: July 22, 2009, New York Times
If you were a preteenager in the 1950s and had precocious friends or a with-it dad, it’s a good bet you knew the cartoons of Basil Wolverton, the Michelangelo of Mad magazine, even if you didn’t know his name.
Like rock ’n’ roll and beatniks, Mad was a freakish spawn of the A-bomb era. It was like an emanation from some dark, Dada side of Disney; a stink bomb planted in the suburban Eden; and a preview of the underground-comics era to come. Wolverton, who is the subject of a career survey at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in Chelsea this summer, was Mad’s early signature artist, the one who embodied its sick-and-proud humor.
Read more http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/arts/design/23basil.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
For New Leader of Arts Endowment, Lessons From a Shaky Past - NYTimes.com, July 23, 2009
Although it may be hard to remember now, there was a time when the National Endowment for the Arts seemed to be on solid footing, both financially and politically, and could spend its days quietly financing artists and arts groups at its discretion.
The N.E.A. was criticized for financing works by artists like Karen Finley, who performed chocolate-smeared pieces.
Then came the controversies — Robert Mapplethorpe’s homoerotic photographs, Karen Finley’s chocolate-smeared performance pieces, Andres Serrano’s urine-immersed crucifix and others — and from the late 1980s onward, the endowment seemed to be constantly under siege.
Read more http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/arts/23funding.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
The van Gogh of the Gross-Out
By HOLLAND COTTER
Published: July 22, 2009, New York Times
If you were a preteenager in the 1950s and had precocious friends or a with-it dad, it’s a good bet you knew the cartoons of Basil Wolverton, the Michelangelo of Mad magazine, even if you didn’t know his name.
Like rock ’n’ roll and beatniks, Mad was a freakish spawn of the A-bomb era. It was like an emanation from some dark, Dada side of Disney; a stink bomb planted in the suburban Eden; and a preview of the underground-comics era to come. Wolverton, who is the subject of a career survey at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in Chelsea this summer, was Mad’s early signature artist, the one who embodied its sick-and-proud humor.
Read more http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/arts/design/23basil.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
For New Leader of Arts Endowment, Lessons From a Shaky Past - NYTimes.com, July 23, 2009
Although it may be hard to remember now, there was a time when the National Endowment for the Arts seemed to be on solid footing, both financially and politically, and could spend its days quietly financing artists and arts groups at its discretion.
The N.E.A. was criticized for financing works by artists like Karen Finley, who performed chocolate-smeared pieces.
Then came the controversies — Robert Mapplethorpe’s homoerotic photographs, Karen Finley’s chocolate-smeared performance pieces, Andres Serrano’s urine-immersed crucifix and others — and from the late 1980s onward, the endowment seemed to be constantly under siege.
Read more http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/arts/23funding.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Book News, Book Reviews, ' The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers' , 'IN FED WE TRUST - Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic
Books of The Times -
‘In Fed We Trust’ by David Wessel and ‘A Colossal Failure of Common Sense’ by Lawrence G. McDonald,
New York Times, July 21, 2009
A COLOSSAL FAILURE OF COMMON SENSE
The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers, By Lawrence G. McDonald with Patrick Robinson, 351 pages. Crown Business. $27.
IN FED WE TRUST
Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic
By David Wessel
323 pages. Crown Business. $26.99.
For all of us then, David Wessel’s new book “In Fed We Trust” is essential, lucid — and, it turns out, riveting — reading.
Read more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/books/21kakutani.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
New York Times, July 21, 2009
Four months after acquiring an e-book retailer, Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest chain of bookstores, is starting its own mega e-bookstore on its Web site, BN.com.
Read more at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/internet/21book.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
‘In Fed We Trust’ by David Wessel and ‘A Colossal Failure of Common Sense’ by Lawrence G. McDonald,
New York Times, July 21, 2009
A COLOSSAL FAILURE OF COMMON SENSE
The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers, By Lawrence G. McDonald with Patrick Robinson, 351 pages. Crown Business. $27.
IN FED WE TRUST
Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic
By David Wessel
323 pages. Crown Business. $26.99.
For all of us then, David Wessel’s new book “In Fed We Trust” is essential, lucid — and, it turns out, riveting — reading.
Read more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/books/21kakutani.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
New York Times, July 21, 2009
Four months after acquiring an e-book retailer, Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest chain of bookstores, is starting its own mega e-bookstore on its Web site, BN.com.
Read more at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/internet/21book.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
* * * * *
Monday, July 20, 2009
Ambassador Tezi (Terestia) C. Schaffer's Book on India and the United States in the 21st Century: Reinventing Parnership
I have just received a note from Ram Narayanan of the US-India Friendship that I thought I should share with you all - Harish
"INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE 21ST CENTURY:Reinventing Partnership."
by Teresita C. Schaffer
Dear Harish:
Ambassador Teresita C. Schaffer is director of South Asia Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Earlier she was ambassador to Sri Lanka and also served in the State Department as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia.
She has just published a book titled, "INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE 21ST CENTURY:Reinventing Partnership." (To get a copy of the book, price $22.95, click:http://www.csisbookstore.org/).
I have not had a chance to read the book. However, from a summary of its contents, I observe that the new book "examines the astonishing new strategic partnership between the United States and India. Unlike other books on the subject, it brings together the two countries’ success in forging bilateral relations and their relatively skimpy record of seeking common ground on global issues despite the vibrant new network of bilateral ties."
Following is a synopsis of the book provided by the author. (I have highlighted the passages which bring out her deep understanding of the issues that will shape the US-India relationship in the 21st century):
*****
The revolution in U.S.-India relations started in the 1990s, and rested on three foundations. The first was the acceleration of India’s economic growth. Starting in 1980, but especially after 1990, India morphed from a rather slow-moving and inward-looking economy based largely on agriculture to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Next, at least in chronological order, came the end of the Cold War, which reoriented both U.S. and Indian foreign policy away from the traditional focus on a world divided into two major blocs, with a nonaligned group in between. India came to look on economic performance as a critical element in its national power and foreign policy. Russia was no longer India’s key international relationship: that role was now played by the United States.
Finally, the growth and prosperity of the Indian-American community created new bonds between the two countries, outside the ambit of government and closer to the day to day experience of Indians and Americans.
Against this background, India and the United States began in the 1990s to build the bilateral infrastructure for a serious relationship. The United States became India’s largest trading partner. The information technology industries in both countries were joined at the hip. India sent over 80,000 students to American universities.
These are all private relationships, but the government side expanded as well. For the first time, India and the United States developed a serious security relationship, with regular military contacts, a sophisticated strategic dialogue, and the beginnings of military trade. And during the latter part of the current decade, India and the United States started to overcome the big taboos that had inhibited their ties. The Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP - an agreement on export controls and liberalization of export licensing) led the way; the civil India-U.S. nuclear agreement was a dramatic change in U.S. policy.
This expansion of bilateral relationships is the big success story, built by both major parties in both countries. At the same time, India’s economic growth and thirst for energy created important common interests going beyond the bilateral. The two governments have not yet taken advantage of these to develop a common vision of the world, or at least parts of a common vision.
This is what both countries need to do now if they are to make the “strategic partnership” that both talk about into a reality. For U.S. strategic thinkers, Asia is increasingly the centerpiece of U.S. policy. The United States does not wish to see Asia dominated by a single country; it much prefers the prospect of a balance of peaceful engagement that includes all the major powers in Asia – China, Japan, and India, with the United States continuing to act as an “offshore Asian power.” This largely dovetails with India’s hopes for the region. But they have done relatively little to probe each other’s strategic thinking along these lines, or to develop parallel policies.
Indian Ocean security is another area where India and the United States have interests in common. The strong relationship between the two navies reflects this, but once again, there is much more that could be done to build up this understanding of common interests.
In the Middle East, India and the United States have focused on different priorities, especially when it comes to Iran. But even there, both countries have important reasons to seek stability and continued economic expansion in the Persian Gulf region.
Pakistan is of course a long-standing bone of contention between India and the United States. But even on Pakistan and Afghanistan, there are important points of convergence between Indian and American interests. India has no interest in seeing a resurgence of Islamic extremism or a meltdown in government authority in either place – and neither does the United States.
India and the United States regularly spar in multilateral settings, but here too, there are areas of important cooperation, especially peacekeeping. Big global issues will be on the international agenda in the coming decade, including climate change, nuclear proliferation, and international financial reform. These cannot be addressed without both the United States and India.
This makes a strong case for taking the U.S.-India partnership global – for undertaking the painstaking work required to figure out which of these global issues are ripe now for collaboration, which require some form of mutual compromise, and where these two giant countries will need to “agree to disagree.”
Complicating this task are two disconnects in their policy. First, despite the changes in its foreign policy, India remains attached to the notion of “strategic autonomy,” meaning that no country should appear to have undue influence on India’s foreign policy. This makes India a bit reluctant to work too closely with the United States in an international setting. Second, India’s priority has been on bilateral issues, whereas for the United States, the big prize has been a global relationship.
This means that we need to develop a new model for partnership. We have different histories of partnership. For the United States, most partners have started out with a common security vision, and the bilateral relationship has been built on this basis. Moreover, most partners of the United States are much smaller than the U.S. With India, things work the other way round: the bilateral has come first, and India is not prepared to enter into an unequal relationship.
A new model of partnership based on equality and on a willingness to recognize both similarities and differences will need to be built over time. This book recommends that India and the United States continue building up their bilateral ties, but start now to take the relationship global.
To do this, it advises a policy of inclusion and candor, with the United States helping to move India into global and regional councils of leadership. At the outset, organizations like the G-20, which work discreetly behind closed doors, will be the easiest to manage. But taking India’s ideas and leadership credentials seriously is the way to ensure that India takes equally seriously the views of the U.S. on how the globe should organize for the big problems it confronts.
A final thought on democracy. It is the most important unifying theme in the values Indians and Americans hold dear. It is also, quite often, a complicating factor in their relations. The things that leaders say in order to please their constituents are very different in Delhi and in Washington. However, when the bond of democracy coincides with the more practical connection of similar interests, you have the chance for a “foreign policy sweet spot.” That is the potential both countries now need to take advantage of.
*****
Thomas R. Pickering, former U.S. Ambassador to India says:
"This book is essential to understanding the present state of U.S.-India relations and the prospects for the future. It is well organized, comprehensive, balanced, thoughtful, and full of the kind of insight that not only makes for good reading but even better understanding."
David Good, chief representative for North America, Tata Sons Ltd. says:
"Ambassador Schaffer’s book puts into clear focus why all the effort that has gone into improving U.S.-India relations is worth it, and more importantly, how that new relationship can be put to use by President Obama in tackling global issues that threaten all of us. It’s an extremely important book that should be read by anyone dealing with international policymaking."
This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has completed what looks like a successful five-day visit to India. Some key decisions have been taken in New Delhi to further strengthen the US-India relationship, which she said will be her personal priority.
Ambassador Schaffer’s book has come out at the right time to serve as a guide for the policymakers in Washington and New Delhi.
Cheers,
Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship
http://usindiafriendship.net/
"INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE 21ST CENTURY:Reinventing Partnership."
by Teresita C. Schaffer
Dear Harish:
Ambassador Teresita C. Schaffer is director of South Asia Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Earlier she was ambassador to Sri Lanka and also served in the State Department as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia.
She has just published a book titled, "INDIA AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE 21ST CENTURY:Reinventing Partnership." (To get a copy of the book, price $22.95, click:http://www.csisbookstore.org/).
I have not had a chance to read the book. However, from a summary of its contents, I observe that the new book "examines the astonishing new strategic partnership between the United States and India. Unlike other books on the subject, it brings together the two countries’ success in forging bilateral relations and their relatively skimpy record of seeking common ground on global issues despite the vibrant new network of bilateral ties."
Following is a synopsis of the book provided by the author. (I have highlighted the passages which bring out her deep understanding of the issues that will shape the US-India relationship in the 21st century):
*****
The revolution in U.S.-India relations started in the 1990s, and rested on three foundations. The first was the acceleration of India’s economic growth. Starting in 1980, but especially after 1990, India morphed from a rather slow-moving and inward-looking economy based largely on agriculture to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Next, at least in chronological order, came the end of the Cold War, which reoriented both U.S. and Indian foreign policy away from the traditional focus on a world divided into two major blocs, with a nonaligned group in between. India came to look on economic performance as a critical element in its national power and foreign policy. Russia was no longer India’s key international relationship: that role was now played by the United States.
Finally, the growth and prosperity of the Indian-American community created new bonds between the two countries, outside the ambit of government and closer to the day to day experience of Indians and Americans.
Against this background, India and the United States began in the 1990s to build the bilateral infrastructure for a serious relationship. The United States became India’s largest trading partner. The information technology industries in both countries were joined at the hip. India sent over 80,000 students to American universities.
These are all private relationships, but the government side expanded as well. For the first time, India and the United States developed a serious security relationship, with regular military contacts, a sophisticated strategic dialogue, and the beginnings of military trade. And during the latter part of the current decade, India and the United States started to overcome the big taboos that had inhibited their ties. The Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP - an agreement on export controls and liberalization of export licensing) led the way; the civil India-U.S. nuclear agreement was a dramatic change in U.S. policy.
This expansion of bilateral relationships is the big success story, built by both major parties in both countries. At the same time, India’s economic growth and thirst for energy created important common interests going beyond the bilateral. The two governments have not yet taken advantage of these to develop a common vision of the world, or at least parts of a common vision.
This is what both countries need to do now if they are to make the “strategic partnership” that both talk about into a reality. For U.S. strategic thinkers, Asia is increasingly the centerpiece of U.S. policy. The United States does not wish to see Asia dominated by a single country; it much prefers the prospect of a balance of peaceful engagement that includes all the major powers in Asia – China, Japan, and India, with the United States continuing to act as an “offshore Asian power.” This largely dovetails with India’s hopes for the region. But they have done relatively little to probe each other’s strategic thinking along these lines, or to develop parallel policies.
Indian Ocean security is another area where India and the United States have interests in common. The strong relationship between the two navies reflects this, but once again, there is much more that could be done to build up this understanding of common interests.
In the Middle East, India and the United States have focused on different priorities, especially when it comes to Iran. But even there, both countries have important reasons to seek stability and continued economic expansion in the Persian Gulf region.
Pakistan is of course a long-standing bone of contention between India and the United States. But even on Pakistan and Afghanistan, there are important points of convergence between Indian and American interests. India has no interest in seeing a resurgence of Islamic extremism or a meltdown in government authority in either place – and neither does the United States.
India and the United States regularly spar in multilateral settings, but here too, there are areas of important cooperation, especially peacekeeping. Big global issues will be on the international agenda in the coming decade, including climate change, nuclear proliferation, and international financial reform. These cannot be addressed without both the United States and India.
This makes a strong case for taking the U.S.-India partnership global – for undertaking the painstaking work required to figure out which of these global issues are ripe now for collaboration, which require some form of mutual compromise, and where these two giant countries will need to “agree to disagree.”
Complicating this task are two disconnects in their policy. First, despite the changes in its foreign policy, India remains attached to the notion of “strategic autonomy,” meaning that no country should appear to have undue influence on India’s foreign policy. This makes India a bit reluctant to work too closely with the United States in an international setting. Second, India’s priority has been on bilateral issues, whereas for the United States, the big prize has been a global relationship.
This means that we need to develop a new model for partnership. We have different histories of partnership. For the United States, most partners have started out with a common security vision, and the bilateral relationship has been built on this basis. Moreover, most partners of the United States are much smaller than the U.S. With India, things work the other way round: the bilateral has come first, and India is not prepared to enter into an unequal relationship.
A new model of partnership based on equality and on a willingness to recognize both similarities and differences will need to be built over time. This book recommends that India and the United States continue building up their bilateral ties, but start now to take the relationship global.
To do this, it advises a policy of inclusion and candor, with the United States helping to move India into global and regional councils of leadership. At the outset, organizations like the G-20, which work discreetly behind closed doors, will be the easiest to manage. But taking India’s ideas and leadership credentials seriously is the way to ensure that India takes equally seriously the views of the U.S. on how the globe should organize for the big problems it confronts.
A final thought on democracy. It is the most important unifying theme in the values Indians and Americans hold dear. It is also, quite often, a complicating factor in their relations. The things that leaders say in order to please their constituents are very different in Delhi and in Washington. However, when the bond of democracy coincides with the more practical connection of similar interests, you have the chance for a “foreign policy sweet spot.” That is the potential both countries now need to take advantage of.
*****
Thomas R. Pickering, former U.S. Ambassador to India says:
"This book is essential to understanding the present state of U.S.-India relations and the prospects for the future. It is well organized, comprehensive, balanced, thoughtful, and full of the kind of insight that not only makes for good reading but even better understanding."
David Good, chief representative for North America, Tata Sons Ltd. says:
"Ambassador Schaffer’s book puts into clear focus why all the effort that has gone into improving U.S.-India relations is worth it, and more importantly, how that new relationship can be put to use by President Obama in tackling global issues that threaten all of us. It’s an extremely important book that should be read by anyone dealing with international policymaking."
This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has completed what looks like a successful five-day visit to India. Some key decisions have been taken in New Delhi to further strengthen the US-India relationship, which she said will be her personal priority.
Ambassador Schaffer’s book has come out at the right time to serve as a guide for the policymakers in Washington and New Delhi.
Cheers,
Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship
http://usindiafriendship.net/
Asian Ameircan Pacific Islander, Election Survey
The 2008 National Asian American Survey - A Post-Election Report in New York City
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 a community briefing from the 2008 National Asian American Survey!
NEW YORK CITY-Data on Asian American political behavior and policy preferences will be released in New York City on July 22, 2009. The National Asian American Survey, conducted in the fall of 2008, will be presenting new findings that highlight the importance of Asian Americans to the political process and to policy debates. They will discuss voter mobilization and turnout, political participation beyond voting, and also present findings on:
Civic engagement;
interracial attitudes and coalition polictics;
discrimination and hate crimes; and
policy items like health care and immigration
DATE: Wednesday, July 22 , 2009
TIME: 5:00 - 7:00 pm
LOCATION: Seyfarth Shaw LLP
620 Eighth Avenue, 32nd Floor, New York, NY 10018-1405
Appetizers and beverages will be provided.
RSVP TO: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHRXR2NaWmNJV1pGejU1LU95eTNvcmc6MA
SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS:
Asian American Federation of NY
APIAVote
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Chhaya CDC
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
OCA New York Chapter
YKASEC - Empowering the Korean American Community
(list in formation)
The initial release in the fall of 2008 showed a majority of the Asian American eligible voters still undecided about their presidential pick. NAAS researchers documented the population's presidential preferences and the differences of opinion among its specific groups. The data also revealed the pivotal role Asian Americans could play in U.S. presidential races, given their significant presence in battleground states and swing states, and indications that, with a notable percentage of that population undecided, their vote was up for grabs.
###
Executive Summary: 2008 National Asian American Survey
The 2008 NAAS is a groundbreaking study of the contours and contexts of Asian American civic and political engagement. Funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Russell Sage Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Eagleton Institute of Politics, the centerpiece of this study is a national, multiethnic, multi-lingual, multi-site survey of 5,159 Asians in United States. This undertaking brings together a team of four investigators - Jane Junn (Rutgers University), S. Karthick Ramakrishnan (University of California, Riverside), Janelle Wong (University of Southern California), and Taeku Lee (University of California, Berkeley) - who are leading political scientists researching the politics of immigration, race and ethnicity, Asian American politics, and political behavior in the United States more generally.
The survey will showcase the most comprehensive data yet available on the civic and political participation of Asians Americans. It will shed important new light on questions such as: When and why do Asian Americans become politically active? Which issues and contexts define Asian Americans into a coherent and potentially mobilizable political group? How are Asian Americans likely to vote in the coming November elections?
The survey combines innovations in sample design and survey methodology that include:
Comparing multiple measures of political engagement: from citizenship, registration, voting and campaign donations to non-electoral measures of engagement, such as protesting, religiosity, and organizational membership.
Integrating individual-level survey responses with contextual-level (zip code, county, state) data on demographic, economic, organizational, and political factors of interest.
Sampling a large enough number of Asian Americans to analyze:
six ethnic groups of interest - Asian Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, and Vietnamese.
eight languages - Cantonese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and English.
Asians in traditional immigrant "gateways" as well as those in "new destinations" like Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Interviews were conducted during August, September, and early October 2008.
###
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 a community briefing from the 2008 National Asian American Survey!
NEW YORK CITY-Data on Asian American political behavior and policy preferences will be released in New York City on July 22, 2009. The National Asian American Survey, conducted in the fall of 2008, will be presenting new findings that highlight the importance of Asian Americans to the political process and to policy debates. They will discuss voter mobilization and turnout, political participation beyond voting, and also present findings on:
Civic engagement;
interracial attitudes and coalition polictics;
discrimination and hate crimes; and
policy items like health care and immigration
DATE: Wednesday, July 22 , 2009
TIME: 5:00 - 7:00 pm
LOCATION: Seyfarth Shaw LLP
620 Eighth Avenue, 32nd Floor, New York, NY 10018-1405
Appetizers and beverages will be provided.
RSVP TO: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHRXR2NaWmNJV1pGejU1LU95eTNvcmc6MA
SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS:
Asian American Federation of NY
APIAVote
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Chhaya CDC
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
OCA New York Chapter
YKASEC - Empowering the Korean American Community
(list in formation)
The initial release in the fall of 2008 showed a majority of the Asian American eligible voters still undecided about their presidential pick. NAAS researchers documented the population's presidential preferences and the differences of opinion among its specific groups. The data also revealed the pivotal role Asian Americans could play in U.S. presidential races, given their significant presence in battleground states and swing states, and indications that, with a notable percentage of that population undecided, their vote was up for grabs.
###
Executive Summary: 2008 National Asian American Survey
The 2008 NAAS is a groundbreaking study of the contours and contexts of Asian American civic and political engagement. Funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Russell Sage Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Eagleton Institute of Politics, the centerpiece of this study is a national, multiethnic, multi-lingual, multi-site survey of 5,159 Asians in United States. This undertaking brings together a team of four investigators - Jane Junn (Rutgers University), S. Karthick Ramakrishnan (University of California, Riverside), Janelle Wong (University of Southern California), and Taeku Lee (University of California, Berkeley) - who are leading political scientists researching the politics of immigration, race and ethnicity, Asian American politics, and political behavior in the United States more generally.
The survey will showcase the most comprehensive data yet available on the civic and political participation of Asians Americans. It will shed important new light on questions such as: When and why do Asian Americans become politically active? Which issues and contexts define Asian Americans into a coherent and potentially mobilizable political group? How are Asian Americans likely to vote in the coming November elections?
The survey combines innovations in sample design and survey methodology that include:
Comparing multiple measures of political engagement: from citizenship, registration, voting and campaign donations to non-electoral measures of engagement, such as protesting, religiosity, and organizational membership.
Integrating individual-level survey responses with contextual-level (zip code, county, state) data on demographic, economic, organizational, and political factors of interest.
Sampling a large enough number of Asian Americans to analyze:
six ethnic groups of interest - Asian Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, and Vietnamese.
eight languages - Cantonese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and English.
Asians in traditional immigrant "gateways" as well as those in "new destinations" like Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Interviews were conducted during August, September, and early October 2008.
###
Cats
Cats that look like Hitler – photos
http://www.gotwhiskers.com/2009/07/19/more-cats-that-look-like-hitler/
http://www.gotwhiskers.com/2009/07/19/more-cats-that-look-like-hitler/
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Swine Flu...
Our Very Far-flung correspondent says...
If you receive an email
From the
Department of Health
Telling you not to eat
Canned pork
Because of
Swine flu...
Ignore it...
It's just Spam.
If you receive an email
From the
Department of Health
Telling you not to eat
Canned pork
Because of
Swine flu...
Ignore it...
It's just Spam.
Homosexuality in Ancient India, HIV/AIDS in India - Part II
HIV/AIDS in India - A brief survey
By Harish Trivedi,
Copyright 2009
What about AIDS and HIV infections in India?
Is HIV a fast spreading epidemic in India?
Would decriminalization of gay and lesbian activities give rise to AID and HIV infections?
We’ll have to wait and see if there is a correlation between decriminalization of homosexuality and subsequent rise in HIV/AIDS infections in India.
Here’s a brief history of HIV/AIDS infections in India culled from various reports:
1986: First case of HIV detected in Chennai (Madras), India.
1990: HIV levels among High Risk Groups like Sex workers and STD clinic attendants in Maharashtra and amongst Injecting Drug Users in Manipur reaches over 5 percent.
1994: HIV no longer restricted to high risk groups in Maharashtra, but spreading into the general population. HIV also spreading to the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu where high-risk groups have over 5 percent HIV prevalence.
1998: Rapid HIV spread in the four large southern states, not only in high-risk groups but also in the general population where it has reached over 1percent.
2001: Infection crosses one per cent in six states. These states account for 75 per cent of the country's estimated HIV cases.
In 2003 the estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS was 5.1 million.
Here are some excerpts from the Avert Report (AVERT is an international AIDS charity)
At the beginning of 1986, despite over 20,000 reported AIDS cases worldwide, India had no reported cases of HIV or AIDS. There was recognition, though, that this would not be the case for long, and concerns were raised about how India would cope once HIV and AIDS cases started to emerge.
Later in the year, India’s first cases of HIV were diagnosed among sex workers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was noted that contact with foreign visitors had played a role in initial infections among sex workers, and as HIV screening centers were set up across the country there were calls for visitors to be screened for HIV. Gradually, these calls subsided as more attention was paid to ensuring that HIV screening was carried out in blood banks.
Current Estimates:
In 2006 UNAIDS estimated that there were 5.6 million people living with HIV in India, which indicated that there were more people with HIV in India than in any other country in the world. In 2007, following the first survey of HIV among the general population, UNAIDS and NACO agreed on a new estimate – between 2 million and 3.1 million people living with HIV.
In 2008 the figure was confirmed to be 2.5 million, which equates to a prevalence of 0.3%. While this may seem a low rate, because India's population is so large, it is third in the world in terms of greatest number of people living with HIV. With a population of around a billion, a mere 0.1% increase in HIV prevalence would increase the estimated number of people living with HIV by over half a million.
The national HIV prevalence rose dramatically in the early years of the epidemic, but a study released at the beginning of 2006 suggests that the HIV infection rate has recently fallen in southern India, the region that has been hit hardest by AIDS. In addition, NACO released figures in 2008 suggesting that the number of people living with HIV has declined.
Some AIDS activists are doubtful that the situation is improving: “It is the reverse. All the NGOs I know have recorded increases in the number of people accepting help because of HIV. I am really worried that we are just burying our head in the sand over this.” Anjali Gopalan, the Naz Foundation, Delhi, India.
Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, says, “The statement that India has the AIDS problem under control is not true. There is a decline in prevalence in some of the Southern states… In the rest of the country, there are no arguments to demonstrate that AIDS is under control”
By Harish Trivedi,
Copyright 2009
What about AIDS and HIV infections in India?
Is HIV a fast spreading epidemic in India?
Would decriminalization of gay and lesbian activities give rise to AID and HIV infections?
We’ll have to wait and see if there is a correlation between decriminalization of homosexuality and subsequent rise in HIV/AIDS infections in India.
Here’s a brief history of HIV/AIDS infections in India culled from various reports:
1986: First case of HIV detected in Chennai (Madras), India.
1990: HIV levels among High Risk Groups like Sex workers and STD clinic attendants in Maharashtra and amongst Injecting Drug Users in Manipur reaches over 5 percent.
1994: HIV no longer restricted to high risk groups in Maharashtra, but spreading into the general population. HIV also spreading to the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu where high-risk groups have over 5 percent HIV prevalence.
1998: Rapid HIV spread in the four large southern states, not only in high-risk groups but also in the general population where it has reached over 1percent.
2001: Infection crosses one per cent in six states. These states account for 75 per cent of the country's estimated HIV cases.
In 2003 the estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS was 5.1 million.
Here are some excerpts from the Avert Report (AVERT is an international AIDS charity)
At the beginning of 1986, despite over 20,000 reported AIDS cases worldwide, India had no reported cases of HIV or AIDS. There was recognition, though, that this would not be the case for long, and concerns were raised about how India would cope once HIV and AIDS cases started to emerge.
Later in the year, India’s first cases of HIV were diagnosed among sex workers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was noted that contact with foreign visitors had played a role in initial infections among sex workers, and as HIV screening centers were set up across the country there were calls for visitors to be screened for HIV. Gradually, these calls subsided as more attention was paid to ensuring that HIV screening was carried out in blood banks.
Current Estimates:
In 2006 UNAIDS estimated that there were 5.6 million people living with HIV in India, which indicated that there were more people with HIV in India than in any other country in the world. In 2007, following the first survey of HIV among the general population, UNAIDS and NACO agreed on a new estimate – between 2 million and 3.1 million people living with HIV.
In 2008 the figure was confirmed to be 2.5 million, which equates to a prevalence of 0.3%. While this may seem a low rate, because India's population is so large, it is third in the world in terms of greatest number of people living with HIV. With a population of around a billion, a mere 0.1% increase in HIV prevalence would increase the estimated number of people living with HIV by over half a million.
The national HIV prevalence rose dramatically in the early years of the epidemic, but a study released at the beginning of 2006 suggests that the HIV infection rate has recently fallen in southern India, the region that has been hit hardest by AIDS. In addition, NACO released figures in 2008 suggesting that the number of people living with HIV has declined.
Some AIDS activists are doubtful that the situation is improving: “It is the reverse. All the NGOs I know have recorded increases in the number of people accepting help because of HIV. I am really worried that we are just burying our head in the sand over this.” Anjali Gopalan, the Naz Foundation, Delhi, India.
Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, says, “The statement that India has the AIDS problem under control is not true. There is a decline in prevalence in some of the Southern states… In the rest of the country, there are no arguments to demonstrate that AIDS is under control”
Books and Book Review links
About Books - Bodice-rippers with braces - Broadsheet - Salon.com, July 18, 2009
http://www.salon.com:80/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/07/17/harleteen/index.html?source=newsletter
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Yann Martel, ‘Life of Pi’ Author, Said to Get $3 Million for Holocaust Allegory - NYTimes.com, July 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com:80/2009/07/18/books/18martel.html?th&emc=th
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Book Review: “Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne” by James Gavin.
"Inside her, there were two Lena Hornes: the one who fiercely asserted herself, and the one who belittled and berated herself. ...There is good reason for James Gavin’s “Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne” to take up — when you count the notes, bibliography, discography, filmography and index — nearly 600 pages. This Lena (or these Lenas), born in 1917 and still hanging in, has had a life so rich in ups and downs as to make page after page eventful and suspenseful..." - says James Gavin in this biography of Lena Horne in New York Times book review by John Simon.
Read more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Simon-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bua2
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Book Review - 'Dangerous Games - The Uses and Abuses of History,' by Margaret MacMillan - Review - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Kennedy-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bua2
*****
Book Review - 'Myths, Illusions, and Peace - Finding a New Direction for America in The Middle East,' by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky - Review - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com:80/2009/07/19/books/review/LeBor-t.html?8bu&emc=bua2
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Essay - In Praise of Literary Escorts By JOE QUEENAN, NYTimes, Sunday Book Review section. (July 17, 2009)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Queenan-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bub2
http://www.salon.com:80/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/07/17/harleteen/index.html?source=newsletter
* * * * *
Yann Martel, ‘Life of Pi’ Author, Said to Get $3 Million for Holocaust Allegory - NYTimes.com, July 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com:80/2009/07/18/books/18martel.html?th&emc=th
* * * * *
Book Review: “Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne” by James Gavin.
"Inside her, there were two Lena Hornes: the one who fiercely asserted herself, and the one who belittled and berated herself. ...There is good reason for James Gavin’s “Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne” to take up — when you count the notes, bibliography, discography, filmography and index — nearly 600 pages. This Lena (or these Lenas), born in 1917 and still hanging in, has had a life so rich in ups and downs as to make page after page eventful and suspenseful..." - says James Gavin in this biography of Lena Horne in New York Times book review by John Simon.
Read more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Simon-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bua2
******
Book Review - 'Dangerous Games - The Uses and Abuses of History,' by Margaret MacMillan - Review - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Kennedy-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bua2
*****
Book Review - 'Myths, Illusions, and Peace - Finding a New Direction for America in The Middle East,' by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky - Review - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com:80/2009/07/19/books/review/LeBor-t.html?8bu&emc=bua2
* * * * *
Essay - In Praise of Literary Escorts By JOE QUEENAN, NYTimes, Sunday Book Review section. (July 17, 2009)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Queenan-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bub2
Friday, July 17, 2009
Homosexuality in Ancient India, AIDS and HIV – A Historic Perspective – Part I by Harish Trivedi
Copyright: Harish Trivedi © 2009
Warning: Some readers may consider the contents of this aricle inappropriate.
Homosexuality has been practiced practically all across the world – including India since time immemorial. In some cultures it has been considered as an accepted form of behavior.
India, and indeed, most cultures of the East, had a very liberal attitude towards such matters. Love for a man for a boy was prevalent in ancient Greece. During the time of the Roman Empire and some Arab cultures have made no distinction between sex with a woman and sexual relations with a man or a boy.
The Victorian times effectively put an end to all open conversations about sexuality, despite the fact that those were the most debauch times in Europe.
Post independent India had behaved like an ostrich, with its head buried in the sand of prudish propriety when it came to the subject of homosexual practices.
India has followed, first the strictures imposed by the Laws of Manu and then the laws enacted by the British Raj during the colonial times. It has been illegal in India since 1861, when British rulers codified a law prohibiting “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal.” Its detractors have long viewed the law, known as Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, as an archaic holdover from colonialism.
But all that changed when homosexuality as a topic of human rights and acceptable human behavior was brought out in open when nine years ago gay activist groups in India filed a case in Delhi. And after nine years the historic decision came on July 2nd of this year when the Delhi court ruled that effectively decriminalized homosexual practices in India.
“The inclusiveness that Indian society traditionally displayed, literally in every aspect of life, is manifest in recognizing a role in society for everyone,” judges of the Delhi High Court wrote in a 105-page decision, India’s first to directly address rights for gay men and lesbians. “Those perceived by the majority as ‘deviants’ or ‘different’ are not on that score excluded or ostracized,” the decision said.
The decision was not received well by all the segments of the India’s poly-ethnic and multi-religious society.
Following the Delhi court’s decision a group of Sikh and Hindu activists staged a demonstration in the national capital to protest the Delhi High Court’s recent verdict on Article 377.
The Shahi Imam of Punjab, Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Sani Ludhianvi, at a press conference said that homosexual relations were not approved by any religion. He also said that the Europe and US were intentionally trying to spread homosexuality in India. Mercifully he did not use the word the Great Satan or issue a fatwa against the ruling judges of the court.
In view of this development it is worthwhile to put the whole subject of sexual practices, including homosexual practices in India in a historic context.
The reference to sexual practices in ancient India could be roughly divided in to a) the Vedic period, b) the post Vedic period and the time of compilation of Manu Smriti or the Laws of Manu, c) the Kama Sutra period, d) the era of erotic sculptures across India and the official ban imposed by the colonial government or the British Raj when it enacted the Indian Penal Code in 1861.
a) The Vedic period:
In these temple sculptures the women in ancient India appear to be uninhibited and very much aware of their femininity or so the statuettes leads us to believe. The Vedic philosophy that is the basis of the present Indian culture was very well spelled out in the four Vedas and subsequent treatises. But nowhere in this voluminous works the subject of same sex marriage or homosexual relations has been explicitly discussed, defined or denounced.
The Indian mythology on the other hand has depicted Gods changing their sex or gender at will, often for sexual purposes. Lord Krishna has done it, and the sagely Brahma is known to have taken the female form. Such fusion of gender in Hindu scriptures is based on unique philosophy of cosmic creation. Wendy Doniger of University of Chicago writing about Bisexuality in the Mythology of Ancient India says, “Hindu texts call into question our own gender conceptions; they tell us that desire for bisexual pleasure and the wish to belong to both sexes at the same time are very real…. Many myths bear witness to the existential perception of human beings as bisexual and to active bisexual transformations. Some may show the desire to be androgynous and, contrary to the dominant homophobic paradigm, present veiled images of a bisexuality fulfilled in happiness and satisfaction” Episodes depicted in Indian mythology particularly those related to Shiva and Parvati …illustrate this carefree, joyous way of crossing the gender barrier. -Diogenes, Vol. 52, No. 4, 50-60 (2005)
Such depictions in the Indian mythology suggest that sex; change of sex or varied sexual practices was not a taboo in ancient India.
b) Manu Smriti or the Laws of Manu:
A range of historical opinion generally dates composition of the text any time between 200 BCE and 200 CE. After the breakdown of the Maurya and Shunga empires, there was a period of uncertainty that led to renewed interest in traditional social norms. According to some scholars the strict prohibition and severity of the treatises such as Manu Smriti and subsequent commentary on the same was a result of insecurity of the orthodox Vedic preachers and parishioners in a period that was in historic transition.
The Manu Smriti – The Code or Law of Manu - was written as the words of the original creator, the Supreme Creator “Brahmā”. By attributing the words to supernatural forces, the text takes on an authoritative tone as a statement on Dharma (meaning Duty or Responsibility), in opposition to previous texts in the field, which were more scholarly. The eighteen Titles of Law or Grounds for Litigation make up more than one fifth of the work and it deals primarily with matters of the king, state, and judicial procedure.
The Manu Smriti, lists the oldest codes of conduct that were to be followed by a Hindu does refer to homosexual practices, but only as in its regulation. There were punishments, ranging from what could be described as very mild, to slightly harsher punishments, but interesting nonetheless. For instance if a mature woman was found having a lesbian relationship with a young girl, the punishment for older woman was immediately shaving of her head or two of her fingers were to be cut off, and she was made to ride on a donkey.
There are no kind words for a male homosexual either, but the severity is much less.
"Causing an injury to a priest, smelling wine or things that are not to be smelled, crookedness, and sexual union with a man are traditionally said to cause loss of caste" And: "If a man has shed his semen in non-human females (meaning animals or beasts), in a man, in a menstruating woman, in something other than a vagina, or in water, he should carry out the 'Painful Heating' vow." This meant he would have to drink a mixture of "cow's urine, cow dung, milk, yogurt, melted butter, water infused with sacrificial grass, and a fast of one night". Compared to what the woman would have to go through, this is definitely less severe. Perhaps this skewed treatment was due to the fact that most religious orders, had homosexuals in their members, whether acknowledged or unacknowledged. The punishment for a homosexual priest would, therefore, is much milder than say, an erring woman. Besides, Manu Smriti is the same scripture that has stated that the status of woman in the society is the same (or even lower than) that of a man’s land, his cattle and other possessions. It would be safe to say that a man or a group of men composed Manu Smriti.
Manu Smrti - Laws of Manu – pertaining to Homosexuality:
Chapter VIII
Verse 369: A damsel who pollutes (another) damsel must be fined two hundred (panas the prevalent currency), pay the double of her (nuptial) fee, and receive ten lashes.
Verse 370: A woman who pollutes a damsel shall instantly have (her head) shaved
or two fingers cut off, and shall be made to ride (through the town) on a donkey.
Chapter XI
Rules or Laws pertaining to a male offender:
Verse 67: Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, intercourse with women who drink spirituous liquor, slaying women were considered only minor offences that caused loss of caste.
Verse 175: A twice-born man – meaning a Brahmin who commits an unnatural offence with a male, or has intercourse with a female in a cart drawn by oxen, in water, or in the day-time, shall bathe, dressed in his clothes.
In matters sexual, there were no stiff penalties for offending men during the time of Manu Smriti.
c) The era of Kama Sutra:
It is generally believed that India is the country that gave humanity the first, most scientific and most explicit treatise of love in the form of Kama Sutra. The authorship is attributed to one Mallanga Vatsyayana.
Mallanaga was a holy man, a seer, and a sage and lived primarily a religious life. Other than this scant information, not much is known about this sage Mallanaga Vatsyayana.
At one time the scholars believed that Kama Sutra was composed sometime between the 6th century B.C. and the 6th century A.D. (the Gupta Period in Indian civilization) - a very wide berth of time - but recent evidence indicates that Vatsyayana wrote the Kama Sutra around 150 B.C.
Based on references to 1st Century historical figures in the Kama Sutra, and on references to the Kama Sutra in early 5th Century works, some historians and anthropologists maintain that the Sutra was composed sometime between the 1st and 4th Centuries A.D.
Historian John Keay says that the Kama Sutra was collected into its present form in the second century CE
But for the purposes of present discussion we have a fairly good idea of the time frame during which this mammoth work was compiled.
Traditionally, the first transmission of Kama Shastra or "A Treatise on Kama" is attributed to Nandi - the sacred bull, God Shiva's doorkeeper, who overheard the sacred utterances of Shiva while Shiva was making love to his wife - goddess Parvati The bull Nandi later recorded Shiva’s sacred and profound utterances for the benefit of mankind.
The Mallanaga Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra has 1250 verses, distributed in 36 chapters, which are further organized into 7 parts. Kama means "love, pleasure, and the life of the senses" and a Sutra is a group of aphorisms - short, pithy sayings. The Kama Sutra is recognized as the true surviving text of the original Kama Shastra.
The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian text which is considered the primary Sanskrit work on human sexuality. Although Sir Richard Burton edited and published this very first English translation, he was not the main translator.
Burton had studied Sanskrit language, but he had not mastered it. He had assigned the translation of the primary text of Kama Sutra to two Sanskrit scholars from Bombay - Mr. Bhagwanlal Indraji who was an archeologist, numismatist and a linguist and Mr. Shivram Parshuram Bhide a student of Sanskrit language and a scholar. Burton also took assistance of his associate and a Civil Servant Forster Fitzgerald Arhuthnot.
Bhagwanlal and Shivram consulted four available manuscripts of Kama Sutra, compared the texts and used the text that seemed most authentic from all the available copies. Burton compared all the three translations, re-wrote the text to maintain consistency of language, provided footnotes and a preface to the final work. The first edition was published in 1883.
It should be noted here that Bhagwanlal Indraji worked for Dr. Bhau Daji Lad of Bombay. He helped Dr. Bhau Daji with translations of edicts discovered in Sopara (situated a little north of Bombay) and he also translated inscriptions on many of the coins that he had discovered during his excavations in various parts of India. Based on this Dr. Bhau Daji wrote various articles for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and Numismatics magazines. Dr. Bhau Daji also collected some rare Sanskrit manuscripts of various treatises and sent it to the noted Orientalist Max Muller – who incidentally never visited India. (Source: The Biography of Dr. Bhau Daji titled Dr. Bhau Daji: Vyakti Kaal Va Kartrutva by A. K. Prioker in Marathi language).
Kama Sutra, Chapter IX: Homosexuality
The Kama Sutra specifies that two [male] citizens might have reciprocal (sexual) relations with one another (2.9.36).
Given the emphasis placed on distinctions of gender, caste, or age in all relationships between a man and a woman in the context of Vedic preaching, the above passage creates a mystery because it does not say anything about caste or age of the men in homoerotic relationship. Perhaps there was some complex set of norms that were to be applied in certain circumstances.
Sex Between Women
The Kama Sutra (2.8) also describes "virile sexual behavior in women." Whether this chapter refers to female homoeroticism (as opposed to women sitting on top of men), is controversial. In a later passage (5.6.2), however, the text clearly describes gender-differentiated sex between royal women and their female-to-male cross-dressed servants. The commentary (2.9.36) also mentions female-female oral sex, conducted in the privacy of harems or quarters restricted to women in other households.
Kama Sutra says that The Auparishtaka (fellatio) was also practiced by unchaste and wanton women, female attendants and maids - those who were single and not married to anybody, but who lived by working as maids.
The Acharyas (i.e. ancient and venerable authors) are of opinion that this Auparishtaka is the work of a dog and not of a man, because it is a low practice, and opposed to the orders of the Holy Writ, and because the man himself suffers by bringing his lingam into contact with the mouths of eunuchs and women. But Vatsyayana says that the orders of the Holy Writ do not affect those who resort to courtesans, and the law prohibits the practice of the Auparishtaka with married women only. As regards the injury to the male, that can be easily remedied.
Tritiya-Prakriti or People of the “Third Sex”
There are two kinds of eunuchs, those that are disguised as males, and those that are disguised as females. Eunuchs disguised as females imitate their dress, speech, gestures, tenderness, timidity, simplicity, softness and bashfulness. The acts that are done on the jaghana or middle parts of women are done in the mouths of these eunuchs, and this is called Auparishtaka. These eunuchs derive their imaginable pleasure, and their livelihood from this kind of congress, and they lead the life of courtesans. So much concerning eunuchs disguised as females.
Eunuchs disguised as males keep their desires secret, and when they wish to do anything they lead the life of shampooers. Under the pretence of shampooing, a eunuch of this kind embraces and draws towards himself the thighs of the man whom he is shampooing, and after this he touches the joints of his thighs and his jaghana, or central portions of his body. Then, if he finds the lingam of the man erect, he presses it with his hands and chaffs him for getting into that state. If after this, and after knowing his intention, the man does not tell the eunuch to proceed, then the latter does it of his own accord and begins the congress. If however he is ordered by the man to do it, then he disputes with him, and only consents at last with difficulty.|
The following eight things are then done by the eunuch one after the other:
The nominal congress, Biting the sides, Pressing outside, Pressing inside, Kissing, Rubbing, Sucking a mango fruit, Swallowing up…
'The male servants of some men carry on the mouth congress with their masters. Some citizens, who know each other well, also practice it. Some women of the harem, when they are amorous, do the acts of the mouth on the yonis of one another, and some men do the same thing with women. The way of doing this (i.e. of kissing the yoni) is similar to kissing on the mouth.
d) The era of erotic and homoerotic sculptures in the temple carvings of Khajurao, Puri and Thanjuvar:
The temple carvings of Khajuraho in central India and Jagganath Puri temples in the state of Orissa in eastern India or the temple architecture of Thanjuvar in the South India is full of very explicit depiction of a variety of sexual activities and homosexual acts that could be considered outlandish, bizarre or bold depending upon one’s view on the subject of sexuality. The sculptures of long limbed big bosomed women in a variety of sexual activities including same sex acts, sexual intercourse between men and women, men and men and humans and animals…all is boldly depicted in these temple carvings, they leave nothing to imagination. What really takes one’s breath away is the sheer quantity of sexual positions that have been put on those walls.
Khajuraho temples were constructed between 950 and 1050 A.D. during the reign of Chandel Empire. The construction of the current Jagannath temple was initiated by the ruler of Kalinga, Anantavarman Chodaganga Dev (1078 - 1148 CE) - during the 12th century. The Jagamohana and the Vimana portions of the temple were built during his reign. But it was only in the year 1174 CE that the Orissan ruler Ananga Bhima Deva rebuilt the temple to give a shape in which it stands today.
From the above chronology it appears that sexual practices in India in general and laws prohibiting certain sexual activities in particular went through many attitudinal changes. People who shout and tout the erotic and homoerotic sculptures at Khajurao and Puri temples as examples of liberal attitudes towards sex seem to ignore the historic variations in the sexual attitudes of people and law givers in India during various periods of time in history.
The Khajurao type sexual liberalism blossomed only after the Manu Smriti stipulations against homosexual practices and in effect may be a result of too many restrictions on homosexual and sexual activities among consenting adults in India. It would be erroneous to think or say that the whole Indian subcontinent was awash with unbridled sexual romp during the historic period that is cited above.
The Indian Penal Code was enacted in 1861 (that criminalized homosexual activities in India) and the first English translation of Kama Sutra was published in 1883. Among other topics dealing with human sexuality, Kama Sutra also gave a detailed description of various homosexual acts.
The India Penal Code also was instrumental in ending the sexually promiscuous and abhorrent practices by the Vaishnav Gurus in Bombay. In the famous libel case against the Vaishnav Maharaj, that came to be known as the Maharaj Libel Case, the Bombay Court rejected the defense by the Vaishnav Maharaj that his sexual activities were sanctioned by his ‘religion’ and dismissed the case against the publisher Karsondas Mooljee of the publication Satya Prakash that published the account of Jadunathjee Maharaj, the chief of the Vaishnav sect in Bombay.
During much of the 19th century and possibly prior to that all kind of sexual practices were prevalent in India. According to Sir Richard Burton, General Charles Napier who was worried that his troops were patronizing the brothels in Karachi asked Burton to investigate the rumors about the brothels. Burton in his report concluded that there were three brothels in the port city of Karachi (now in Pakistan) “in which not women but boys and eunuchs… lay for hire”. He listed the prices and services that were offered to the customers. Burton noted in his report that the boys cost twice as much as the eunuchs because - “the scrotum of the unmutilated boy could be used as a kind of bridle for directing the movement of the animal”. The report was sent to Bombay and Napier was asked to dismiss young Richard Burton. This whole episode could be found described in numerous biographies of Sir Richard Burton. Burrton’s report was censored by the wounded sensibilities of the officials of the British Empire.
Burrton’s writings published during the 19th century throw much light on the sexual and homosexual practices around the world and perhaps that is what provoked the enactment of so-called prudish Victorian laws.
In the Terminal Essay of The Arabian Nights, 1885, Burton outlined his theory of a "Sotadic Zone" where homosexuality/pederasty flourished. According to Burton the Sotadic Zone included most of the Mediterranean countries, the Middle East, China, Japan, the islands of the South Seas and North and South America, the northern cost of Africa particularly Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.
Burton further notes, ‘Subsequent enquiries in many and distant countries enabled me to arrive at the following conclusions:
“Running eastward the Sotadic Zone narrows, embracing Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and Chaldaea, Afghanistan, Sind, the Punjab and Kashmir.
“Beyond India, I have stated, the Sotadic Zone begins to broaden out, embracing all China, Turkistan and Japan. The Chinese, as far as we know them in the great cities, are omnivorous and omnifutuentes: they are the chosen people of debauchery, and their systematic bestiality with ducks, goats, and other animals is equalled only by their pederasty...
According to Burton the Sotadic Zone extended to South Sea Islands and the New World where, at the time of its discovery, Sotadic love was, with some exceptions, an established racial institution.
“Passing over to America we find that the Sotadic Zone contains the whole hemisphere from Behring's Straits to Magellan's... In California the first missionaries found the same practice, the youths being called Joya... (Burton)
The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton: Fawn McKay Brodie, 1984.
Fawn McKay Brodie in her biography of Burton The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton - refers to twenty-five pederastic terms Burton has quoted in one of which we find, “A favourite Persian punishment for strangers caught in the harem or gynaeceum is to strip and throw them and expose them to the embraces of the grooms and Negro-slaves. I once asked a Shirazi how penetration was possible if the patient resisted with all the force of the sphincter muscle: he smiled and said, ‘Ah, we Persians know a trick to get over that; we apply a sharpened tent-peg to the crupper-bone (or coccyges) and knock till he opens.’”
On the subject of homosexuality in England and Europe Fawn McKay again quotes Burton (page 307) – “In our modern capitals, London, Berlin and Paris for instance, the Vice seems subject to periodical outbreaks. For many hears, also England sent her pederasts to Italy, and especially to Naples whence originate the term ‘Il vizio Inglese’” Berlin, “is not a whit better than her neighbours… Paris is by no means more depraved than Berlin and London; but, whilst the later hushes up the scandal, Frenchmen do not; hence we see a more copious account of it submitted to the public.”
Burton is further quoted as saying, “A friend knowledgeable in such matters had informed me that many distinguished men of the pat had been homosexuals; among them were Alexander, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and Shakespeare. Among the monarchs he included Henri III, Louis XIII, Louis XVIII, Frederick the Great, Peter the Great, and William II of Holland”. Burton does not cite any evidence to substantiate his observations about the European and Russian royalty and rulers.
The above gives us a fairly good account about homosexual practices during the Victorian period and the prevailing moral attitudes across the world including India.
In the summer of 2003, India witnessed its first Gay Pride parade in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) when several dozen activists, waving rainbow colored flags marched in the city streets.
There are many gay and lesbian groups and organizations in India. Some of the leading ones include HUMRAHI (meaning fellow traveler) is an organization for gay and bisexual men. It is based in Delhi. It has been active since 1997. Among other such organizations include SANGINI (meaning a female friend), AANCHAL (Aanchal means the sheltering folds of a woman's saree) Aanchal was the first help line solely for lesbian and bisexual women in Mumbai, India. In Aanchal, the women who were isolated and fearful of others discovering their sexuality have found a safe place to interact with like-minded women. There is also a group in Delhi, India called Campaign for Lesbian Rights (CALERI). It is an activist collective working for lesbian and bisexual women's rights.
Gay websites and hangouts have proliferated, especially in the capital New Delhi and the southern city of Bombay. During the decade of 1994 to 2005 the groups working on gay issues have grown from only two in 1994 to nearly one hundred in 2005 the last year for which the figures are available. The number of gay and lesbian organization is probably much higher than one hundred of a few years ago.
In a survey done on Indian males by popular magazine INDIA TODAY, the number of Indian men having had homosexual experience at a whopping 37%. Many social critics and commentators have shown skepticism about the survey conducted by India Today. If the above survey were correct then every third person in India would be gay or a lesbian. Even if one accepts the conservative estimate of 5 per cent of the India’s population is gay or lesbian, considering the population of over a billion people, the number of gay and lesbian people is very large.
In this country (U.S.A) there is one major organization devoted to Asian and South East Asian community’s gay and lesbian members. It is called TRIKON.
China lifted its ban on gay sex in 1997. Besides China, Brazil and Russia too retired the law long ago. Nepal’s Supreme Court in 2007 ordered its government to scrap laws that discriminate against homosexuals.
Elsewhere in the world, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and Kazakhstan in Asia; South Africa, Chad, Congo, and Madagascar in Africa; Peru, Chile, Columbia and Bolivia have decriminalized homosexual practices. The 27-nation European Union has of course been at the vanguard of the movement to recognize the rights of LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans genders).
France legalized homosexuality way back in 1791, after the revolution. England lifted the ban in 1967. And now India has joined the major nations of the world and decriminalized homosexual behavior.
India, welcome to the new world order!
* * * * *
1) Sources: Kama Sutra, Sir Richard Burrton’s translation, Manu Smriti or The Laws of Manu – Sir William Jones translation - from my personal collection.
2) Spellings in the quotes are kept as in original.
Part II AIDS and HIV in India - tomorrow
Warning: Some readers may consider the contents of this aricle inappropriate.
Homosexuality has been practiced practically all across the world – including India since time immemorial. In some cultures it has been considered as an accepted form of behavior.
India, and indeed, most cultures of the East, had a very liberal attitude towards such matters. Love for a man for a boy was prevalent in ancient Greece. During the time of the Roman Empire and some Arab cultures have made no distinction between sex with a woman and sexual relations with a man or a boy.
The Victorian times effectively put an end to all open conversations about sexuality, despite the fact that those were the most debauch times in Europe.
Post independent India had behaved like an ostrich, with its head buried in the sand of prudish propriety when it came to the subject of homosexual practices.
India has followed, first the strictures imposed by the Laws of Manu and then the laws enacted by the British Raj during the colonial times. It has been illegal in India since 1861, when British rulers codified a law prohibiting “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal.” Its detractors have long viewed the law, known as Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, as an archaic holdover from colonialism.
But all that changed when homosexuality as a topic of human rights and acceptable human behavior was brought out in open when nine years ago gay activist groups in India filed a case in Delhi. And after nine years the historic decision came on July 2nd of this year when the Delhi court ruled that effectively decriminalized homosexual practices in India.
“The inclusiveness that Indian society traditionally displayed, literally in every aspect of life, is manifest in recognizing a role in society for everyone,” judges of the Delhi High Court wrote in a 105-page decision, India’s first to directly address rights for gay men and lesbians. “Those perceived by the majority as ‘deviants’ or ‘different’ are not on that score excluded or ostracized,” the decision said.
The decision was not received well by all the segments of the India’s poly-ethnic and multi-religious society.
Following the Delhi court’s decision a group of Sikh and Hindu activists staged a demonstration in the national capital to protest the Delhi High Court’s recent verdict on Article 377.
The Shahi Imam of Punjab, Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Sani Ludhianvi, at a press conference said that homosexual relations were not approved by any religion. He also said that the Europe and US were intentionally trying to spread homosexuality in India. Mercifully he did not use the word the Great Satan or issue a fatwa against the ruling judges of the court.
In view of this development it is worthwhile to put the whole subject of sexual practices, including homosexual practices in India in a historic context.
The reference to sexual practices in ancient India could be roughly divided in to a) the Vedic period, b) the post Vedic period and the time of compilation of Manu Smriti or the Laws of Manu, c) the Kama Sutra period, d) the era of erotic sculptures across India and the official ban imposed by the colonial government or the British Raj when it enacted the Indian Penal Code in 1861.
a) The Vedic period:
In these temple sculptures the women in ancient India appear to be uninhibited and very much aware of their femininity or so the statuettes leads us to believe. The Vedic philosophy that is the basis of the present Indian culture was very well spelled out in the four Vedas and subsequent treatises. But nowhere in this voluminous works the subject of same sex marriage or homosexual relations has been explicitly discussed, defined or denounced.
The Indian mythology on the other hand has depicted Gods changing their sex or gender at will, often for sexual purposes. Lord Krishna has done it, and the sagely Brahma is known to have taken the female form. Such fusion of gender in Hindu scriptures is based on unique philosophy of cosmic creation. Wendy Doniger of University of Chicago writing about Bisexuality in the Mythology of Ancient India says, “Hindu texts call into question our own gender conceptions; they tell us that desire for bisexual pleasure and the wish to belong to both sexes at the same time are very real…. Many myths bear witness to the existential perception of human beings as bisexual and to active bisexual transformations. Some may show the desire to be androgynous and, contrary to the dominant homophobic paradigm, present veiled images of a bisexuality fulfilled in happiness and satisfaction” Episodes depicted in Indian mythology particularly those related to Shiva and Parvati …illustrate this carefree, joyous way of crossing the gender barrier. -Diogenes, Vol. 52, No. 4, 50-60 (2005)
Such depictions in the Indian mythology suggest that sex; change of sex or varied sexual practices was not a taboo in ancient India.
b) Manu Smriti or the Laws of Manu:
A range of historical opinion generally dates composition of the text any time between 200 BCE and 200 CE. After the breakdown of the Maurya and Shunga empires, there was a period of uncertainty that led to renewed interest in traditional social norms. According to some scholars the strict prohibition and severity of the treatises such as Manu Smriti and subsequent commentary on the same was a result of insecurity of the orthodox Vedic preachers and parishioners in a period that was in historic transition.
The Manu Smriti – The Code or Law of Manu - was written as the words of the original creator, the Supreme Creator “Brahmā”. By attributing the words to supernatural forces, the text takes on an authoritative tone as a statement on Dharma (meaning Duty or Responsibility), in opposition to previous texts in the field, which were more scholarly. The eighteen Titles of Law or Grounds for Litigation make up more than one fifth of the work and it deals primarily with matters of the king, state, and judicial procedure.
The Manu Smriti, lists the oldest codes of conduct that were to be followed by a Hindu does refer to homosexual practices, but only as in its regulation. There were punishments, ranging from what could be described as very mild, to slightly harsher punishments, but interesting nonetheless. For instance if a mature woman was found having a lesbian relationship with a young girl, the punishment for older woman was immediately shaving of her head or two of her fingers were to be cut off, and she was made to ride on a donkey.
There are no kind words for a male homosexual either, but the severity is much less.
"Causing an injury to a priest, smelling wine or things that are not to be smelled, crookedness, and sexual union with a man are traditionally said to cause loss of caste" And: "If a man has shed his semen in non-human females (meaning animals or beasts), in a man, in a menstruating woman, in something other than a vagina, or in water, he should carry out the 'Painful Heating' vow." This meant he would have to drink a mixture of "cow's urine, cow dung, milk, yogurt, melted butter, water infused with sacrificial grass, and a fast of one night". Compared to what the woman would have to go through, this is definitely less severe. Perhaps this skewed treatment was due to the fact that most religious orders, had homosexuals in their members, whether acknowledged or unacknowledged. The punishment for a homosexual priest would, therefore, is much milder than say, an erring woman. Besides, Manu Smriti is the same scripture that has stated that the status of woman in the society is the same (or even lower than) that of a man’s land, his cattle and other possessions. It would be safe to say that a man or a group of men composed Manu Smriti.
Manu Smrti - Laws of Manu – pertaining to Homosexuality:
Chapter VIII
Verse 369: A damsel who pollutes (another) damsel must be fined two hundred (panas the prevalent currency), pay the double of her (nuptial) fee, and receive ten lashes.
Verse 370: A woman who pollutes a damsel shall instantly have (her head) shaved
or two fingers cut off, and shall be made to ride (through the town) on a donkey.
Chapter XI
Rules or Laws pertaining to a male offender:
Verse 67: Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, intercourse with women who drink spirituous liquor, slaying women were considered only minor offences that caused loss of caste.
Verse 175: A twice-born man – meaning a Brahmin who commits an unnatural offence with a male, or has intercourse with a female in a cart drawn by oxen, in water, or in the day-time, shall bathe, dressed in his clothes.
In matters sexual, there were no stiff penalties for offending men during the time of Manu Smriti.
c) The era of Kama Sutra:
It is generally believed that India is the country that gave humanity the first, most scientific and most explicit treatise of love in the form of Kama Sutra. The authorship is attributed to one Mallanga Vatsyayana.
Mallanaga was a holy man, a seer, and a sage and lived primarily a religious life. Other than this scant information, not much is known about this sage Mallanaga Vatsyayana.
At one time the scholars believed that Kama Sutra was composed sometime between the 6th century B.C. and the 6th century A.D. (the Gupta Period in Indian civilization) - a very wide berth of time - but recent evidence indicates that Vatsyayana wrote the Kama Sutra around 150 B.C.
Based on references to 1st Century historical figures in the Kama Sutra, and on references to the Kama Sutra in early 5th Century works, some historians and anthropologists maintain that the Sutra was composed sometime between the 1st and 4th Centuries A.D.
Historian John Keay says that the Kama Sutra was collected into its present form in the second century CE
But for the purposes of present discussion we have a fairly good idea of the time frame during which this mammoth work was compiled.
Traditionally, the first transmission of Kama Shastra or "A Treatise on Kama" is attributed to Nandi - the sacred bull, God Shiva's doorkeeper, who overheard the sacred utterances of Shiva while Shiva was making love to his wife - goddess Parvati The bull Nandi later recorded Shiva’s sacred and profound utterances for the benefit of mankind.
The Mallanaga Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra has 1250 verses, distributed in 36 chapters, which are further organized into 7 parts. Kama means "love, pleasure, and the life of the senses" and a Sutra is a group of aphorisms - short, pithy sayings. The Kama Sutra is recognized as the true surviving text of the original Kama Shastra.
The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian text which is considered the primary Sanskrit work on human sexuality. Although Sir Richard Burton edited and published this very first English translation, he was not the main translator.
Burton had studied Sanskrit language, but he had not mastered it. He had assigned the translation of the primary text of Kama Sutra to two Sanskrit scholars from Bombay - Mr. Bhagwanlal Indraji who was an archeologist, numismatist and a linguist and Mr. Shivram Parshuram Bhide a student of Sanskrit language and a scholar. Burton also took assistance of his associate and a Civil Servant Forster Fitzgerald Arhuthnot.
Bhagwanlal and Shivram consulted four available manuscripts of Kama Sutra, compared the texts and used the text that seemed most authentic from all the available copies. Burton compared all the three translations, re-wrote the text to maintain consistency of language, provided footnotes and a preface to the final work. The first edition was published in 1883.
It should be noted here that Bhagwanlal Indraji worked for Dr. Bhau Daji Lad of Bombay. He helped Dr. Bhau Daji with translations of edicts discovered in Sopara (situated a little north of Bombay) and he also translated inscriptions on many of the coins that he had discovered during his excavations in various parts of India. Based on this Dr. Bhau Daji wrote various articles for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and Numismatics magazines. Dr. Bhau Daji also collected some rare Sanskrit manuscripts of various treatises and sent it to the noted Orientalist Max Muller – who incidentally never visited India. (Source: The Biography of Dr. Bhau Daji titled Dr. Bhau Daji: Vyakti Kaal Va Kartrutva by A. K. Prioker in Marathi language).
Kama Sutra, Chapter IX: Homosexuality
The Kama Sutra specifies that two [male] citizens might have reciprocal (sexual) relations with one another (2.9.36).
Given the emphasis placed on distinctions of gender, caste, or age in all relationships between a man and a woman in the context of Vedic preaching, the above passage creates a mystery because it does not say anything about caste or age of the men in homoerotic relationship. Perhaps there was some complex set of norms that were to be applied in certain circumstances.
Sex Between Women
The Kama Sutra (2.8) also describes "virile sexual behavior in women." Whether this chapter refers to female homoeroticism (as opposed to women sitting on top of men), is controversial. In a later passage (5.6.2), however, the text clearly describes gender-differentiated sex between royal women and their female-to-male cross-dressed servants. The commentary (2.9.36) also mentions female-female oral sex, conducted in the privacy of harems or quarters restricted to women in other households.
Kama Sutra says that The Auparishtaka (fellatio) was also practiced by unchaste and wanton women, female attendants and maids - those who were single and not married to anybody, but who lived by working as maids.
The Acharyas (i.e. ancient and venerable authors) are of opinion that this Auparishtaka is the work of a dog and not of a man, because it is a low practice, and opposed to the orders of the Holy Writ, and because the man himself suffers by bringing his lingam into contact with the mouths of eunuchs and women. But Vatsyayana says that the orders of the Holy Writ do not affect those who resort to courtesans, and the law prohibits the practice of the Auparishtaka with married women only. As regards the injury to the male, that can be easily remedied.
Tritiya-Prakriti or People of the “Third Sex”
There are two kinds of eunuchs, those that are disguised as males, and those that are disguised as females. Eunuchs disguised as females imitate their dress, speech, gestures, tenderness, timidity, simplicity, softness and bashfulness. The acts that are done on the jaghana or middle parts of women are done in the mouths of these eunuchs, and this is called Auparishtaka. These eunuchs derive their imaginable pleasure, and their livelihood from this kind of congress, and they lead the life of courtesans. So much concerning eunuchs disguised as females.
Eunuchs disguised as males keep their desires secret, and when they wish to do anything they lead the life of shampooers. Under the pretence of shampooing, a eunuch of this kind embraces and draws towards himself the thighs of the man whom he is shampooing, and after this he touches the joints of his thighs and his jaghana, or central portions of his body. Then, if he finds the lingam of the man erect, he presses it with his hands and chaffs him for getting into that state. If after this, and after knowing his intention, the man does not tell the eunuch to proceed, then the latter does it of his own accord and begins the congress. If however he is ordered by the man to do it, then he disputes with him, and only consents at last with difficulty.|
The following eight things are then done by the eunuch one after the other:
The nominal congress, Biting the sides, Pressing outside, Pressing inside, Kissing, Rubbing, Sucking a mango fruit, Swallowing up…
'The male servants of some men carry on the mouth congress with their masters. Some citizens, who know each other well, also practice it. Some women of the harem, when they are amorous, do the acts of the mouth on the yonis of one another, and some men do the same thing with women. The way of doing this (i.e. of kissing the yoni) is similar to kissing on the mouth.
d) The era of erotic and homoerotic sculptures in the temple carvings of Khajurao, Puri and Thanjuvar:
The temple carvings of Khajuraho in central India and Jagganath Puri temples in the state of Orissa in eastern India or the temple architecture of Thanjuvar in the South India is full of very explicit depiction of a variety of sexual activities and homosexual acts that could be considered outlandish, bizarre or bold depending upon one’s view on the subject of sexuality. The sculptures of long limbed big bosomed women in a variety of sexual activities including same sex acts, sexual intercourse between men and women, men and men and humans and animals…all is boldly depicted in these temple carvings, they leave nothing to imagination. What really takes one’s breath away is the sheer quantity of sexual positions that have been put on those walls.
Khajuraho temples were constructed between 950 and 1050 A.D. during the reign of Chandel Empire. The construction of the current Jagannath temple was initiated by the ruler of Kalinga, Anantavarman Chodaganga Dev (1078 - 1148 CE) - during the 12th century. The Jagamohana and the Vimana portions of the temple were built during his reign. But it was only in the year 1174 CE that the Orissan ruler Ananga Bhima Deva rebuilt the temple to give a shape in which it stands today.
From the above chronology it appears that sexual practices in India in general and laws prohibiting certain sexual activities in particular went through many attitudinal changes. People who shout and tout the erotic and homoerotic sculptures at Khajurao and Puri temples as examples of liberal attitudes towards sex seem to ignore the historic variations in the sexual attitudes of people and law givers in India during various periods of time in history.
The Khajurao type sexual liberalism blossomed only after the Manu Smriti stipulations against homosexual practices and in effect may be a result of too many restrictions on homosexual and sexual activities among consenting adults in India. It would be erroneous to think or say that the whole Indian subcontinent was awash with unbridled sexual romp during the historic period that is cited above.
The Indian Penal Code was enacted in 1861 (that criminalized homosexual activities in India) and the first English translation of Kama Sutra was published in 1883. Among other topics dealing with human sexuality, Kama Sutra also gave a detailed description of various homosexual acts.
The India Penal Code also was instrumental in ending the sexually promiscuous and abhorrent practices by the Vaishnav Gurus in Bombay. In the famous libel case against the Vaishnav Maharaj, that came to be known as the Maharaj Libel Case, the Bombay Court rejected the defense by the Vaishnav Maharaj that his sexual activities were sanctioned by his ‘religion’ and dismissed the case against the publisher Karsondas Mooljee of the publication Satya Prakash that published the account of Jadunathjee Maharaj, the chief of the Vaishnav sect in Bombay.
During much of the 19th century and possibly prior to that all kind of sexual practices were prevalent in India. According to Sir Richard Burton, General Charles Napier who was worried that his troops were patronizing the brothels in Karachi asked Burton to investigate the rumors about the brothels. Burton in his report concluded that there were three brothels in the port city of Karachi (now in Pakistan) “in which not women but boys and eunuchs… lay for hire”. He listed the prices and services that were offered to the customers. Burton noted in his report that the boys cost twice as much as the eunuchs because - “the scrotum of the unmutilated boy could be used as a kind of bridle for directing the movement of the animal”. The report was sent to Bombay and Napier was asked to dismiss young Richard Burton. This whole episode could be found described in numerous biographies of Sir Richard Burton. Burrton’s report was censored by the wounded sensibilities of the officials of the British Empire.
Burrton’s writings published during the 19th century throw much light on the sexual and homosexual practices around the world and perhaps that is what provoked the enactment of so-called prudish Victorian laws.
In the Terminal Essay of The Arabian Nights, 1885, Burton outlined his theory of a "Sotadic Zone" where homosexuality/pederasty flourished. According to Burton the Sotadic Zone included most of the Mediterranean countries, the Middle East, China, Japan, the islands of the South Seas and North and South America, the northern cost of Africa particularly Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.
Burton further notes, ‘Subsequent enquiries in many and distant countries enabled me to arrive at the following conclusions:
“Running eastward the Sotadic Zone narrows, embracing Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and Chaldaea, Afghanistan, Sind, the Punjab and Kashmir.
“Beyond India, I have stated, the Sotadic Zone begins to broaden out, embracing all China, Turkistan and Japan. The Chinese, as far as we know them in the great cities, are omnivorous and omnifutuentes: they are the chosen people of debauchery, and their systematic bestiality with ducks, goats, and other animals is equalled only by their pederasty...
According to Burton the Sotadic Zone extended to South Sea Islands and the New World where, at the time of its discovery, Sotadic love was, with some exceptions, an established racial institution.
“Passing over to America we find that the Sotadic Zone contains the whole hemisphere from Behring's Straits to Magellan's... In California the first missionaries found the same practice, the youths being called Joya... (Burton)
The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton: Fawn McKay Brodie, 1984.
Fawn McKay Brodie in her biography of Burton The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton - refers to twenty-five pederastic terms Burton has quoted in one of which we find, “A favourite Persian punishment for strangers caught in the harem or gynaeceum is to strip and throw them and expose them to the embraces of the grooms and Negro-slaves. I once asked a Shirazi how penetration was possible if the patient resisted with all the force of the sphincter muscle: he smiled and said, ‘Ah, we Persians know a trick to get over that; we apply a sharpened tent-peg to the crupper-bone (or coccyges) and knock till he opens.’”
On the subject of homosexuality in England and Europe Fawn McKay again quotes Burton (page 307) – “In our modern capitals, London, Berlin and Paris for instance, the Vice seems subject to periodical outbreaks. For many hears, also England sent her pederasts to Italy, and especially to Naples whence originate the term ‘Il vizio Inglese’” Berlin, “is not a whit better than her neighbours… Paris is by no means more depraved than Berlin and London; but, whilst the later hushes up the scandal, Frenchmen do not; hence we see a more copious account of it submitted to the public.”
Burton is further quoted as saying, “A friend knowledgeable in such matters had informed me that many distinguished men of the pat had been homosexuals; among them were Alexander, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and Shakespeare. Among the monarchs he included Henri III, Louis XIII, Louis XVIII, Frederick the Great, Peter the Great, and William II of Holland”. Burton does not cite any evidence to substantiate his observations about the European and Russian royalty and rulers.
The above gives us a fairly good account about homosexual practices during the Victorian period and the prevailing moral attitudes across the world including India.
In the summer of 2003, India witnessed its first Gay Pride parade in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) when several dozen activists, waving rainbow colored flags marched in the city streets.
There are many gay and lesbian groups and organizations in India. Some of the leading ones include HUMRAHI (meaning fellow traveler) is an organization for gay and bisexual men. It is based in Delhi. It has been active since 1997. Among other such organizations include SANGINI (meaning a female friend), AANCHAL (Aanchal means the sheltering folds of a woman's saree) Aanchal was the first help line solely for lesbian and bisexual women in Mumbai, India. In Aanchal, the women who were isolated and fearful of others discovering their sexuality have found a safe place to interact with like-minded women. There is also a group in Delhi, India called Campaign for Lesbian Rights (CALERI). It is an activist collective working for lesbian and bisexual women's rights.
Gay websites and hangouts have proliferated, especially in the capital New Delhi and the southern city of Bombay. During the decade of 1994 to 2005 the groups working on gay issues have grown from only two in 1994 to nearly one hundred in 2005 the last year for which the figures are available. The number of gay and lesbian organization is probably much higher than one hundred of a few years ago.
In a survey done on Indian males by popular magazine INDIA TODAY, the number of Indian men having had homosexual experience at a whopping 37%. Many social critics and commentators have shown skepticism about the survey conducted by India Today. If the above survey were correct then every third person in India would be gay or a lesbian. Even if one accepts the conservative estimate of 5 per cent of the India’s population is gay or lesbian, considering the population of over a billion people, the number of gay and lesbian people is very large.
In this country (U.S.A) there is one major organization devoted to Asian and South East Asian community’s gay and lesbian members. It is called TRIKON.
China lifted its ban on gay sex in 1997. Besides China, Brazil and Russia too retired the law long ago. Nepal’s Supreme Court in 2007 ordered its government to scrap laws that discriminate against homosexuals.
Elsewhere in the world, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and Kazakhstan in Asia; South Africa, Chad, Congo, and Madagascar in Africa; Peru, Chile, Columbia and Bolivia have decriminalized homosexual practices. The 27-nation European Union has of course been at the vanguard of the movement to recognize the rights of LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans genders).
France legalized homosexuality way back in 1791, after the revolution. England lifted the ban in 1967. And now India has joined the major nations of the world and decriminalized homosexual behavior.
India, welcome to the new world order!
* * * * *
1) Sources: Kama Sutra, Sir Richard Burrton’s translation, Manu Smriti or The Laws of Manu – Sir William Jones translation - from my personal collection.
2) Spellings in the quotes are kept as in original.
Part II AIDS and HIV in India - tomorrow
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Why Are Asian American Executives Scarce?
Wednesday July 15, 2009, Asian Diversity/Asianlife Magazine issue # 132, July 15, 2009
Why Are Asian American Executives Scarce?
Dan Woog
She points out that IBM is one of the few US companies with enough Asian American executives to form this type of support network. The population is over represented in certain industries, particularly technology. According to Goldsea.com, an Asian American Web site, Asian Americans make up 60 percent of Silicon Valley’s professional and technical workforce and 28 percent of enrollment at the top 20 business schools. Yet eagerness and education do not necessarily pave the way to the top in any industry. Asian Americans account for only 1.5 percent of top executives at Fortune 1000 firms, according to the site.
So how can ambitious Asian Americans overcome obstacles to the executive suite? Insiders like Akutagawa say it’s important to recognize the multifaceted nature of the problem and get both individuals and companies to change the way they operate without forsaking culture or the bottom line.
Reasons for the Executive Shortage
Akutagawa cites several reasons for the scant number of top Asian American executives, beginning with stereotypes and perceptions. “It goes back to the model-minority myth of the ’60s, when we were seen as studying hard, working hard and never complaining,” she says. “In fact, at the entry level, a lot of us do that. We were raised to not rock the boat or question authority. Part of leadership is standing up for what’s right. When we sit quietly in meetings, others may see us as followers or think we lack knowledge or insight.”
Socioeconomic conditions and family backgrounds also play a role. Akutagawa says that first or second-generation Asian Americans may have no role models of success in large corporations. Recent immigrants from affluent families may have those models and can hit the ground running, even if their English may not be as strong as those who were born here.
But blame does not rest solely on Asian Americans’ shoulders. There is a pipeline of talent in large companies that is eager to advance, says Ivan Fong, executive vice president and chief legal officer of Cardinal Health Inc. But, unfortunately, there are leaks along that pipeline.
What Companies Can Do
Companies must recognize what is happening, Akutagawa says. “They bear responsibility for building a pipeline of qualified and prepared employees who can compete for top positions. They have to ensure they have a diverse pool of candidates. That means encouraging people to get broad exposure through rotational jobs, recruiting them for the executive track and going back to find people they may have missed in their first search.”
Some companies already do this. Akutagawa singled out “those who are global competitors or recognize changing demographics. They realize their customer base is evolving and that the next generation of executives won’t look like the white men they’re replacing.”
Right now, anecdotal evidence shows Asian Americans rising fastest at technology companies. That may stem from the stereotypes that Asian Americans are good at science and math, and fluency in English is not as important in those areas.
What Would-Be Execs Should Do
Fong says there are things Asian Americans can do to help their chances of getting an office in the executive suite. Immigrants who are sensitive about their accents may seem even more reserved than they are. He encourages mid-level managers to speak up more in meetings, and learn about popular culture and sports. Casual conversation about those topics is important at senior levels, he notes. So is image and exposure to those in a position to promote.
Akutagawa advises Asian Americans in all fields that “to be successful in the executive suite, we shouldn’t give up our culture and values. But we have to recognize the skills needed to be an effective leader. We have to learn to speak up and be noticed, even if it’s just to point out that we work well collaboratively.”
Why Are Asian American Executives Scarce?
Dan Woog
She points out that IBM is one of the few US companies with enough Asian American executives to form this type of support network. The population is over represented in certain industries, particularly technology. According to Goldsea.com, an Asian American Web site, Asian Americans make up 60 percent of Silicon Valley’s professional and technical workforce and 28 percent of enrollment at the top 20 business schools. Yet eagerness and education do not necessarily pave the way to the top in any industry. Asian Americans account for only 1.5 percent of top executives at Fortune 1000 firms, according to the site.
So how can ambitious Asian Americans overcome obstacles to the executive suite? Insiders like Akutagawa say it’s important to recognize the multifaceted nature of the problem and get both individuals and companies to change the way they operate without forsaking culture or the bottom line.
Reasons for the Executive Shortage
Akutagawa cites several reasons for the scant number of top Asian American executives, beginning with stereotypes and perceptions. “It goes back to the model-minority myth of the ’60s, when we were seen as studying hard, working hard and never complaining,” she says. “In fact, at the entry level, a lot of us do that. We were raised to not rock the boat or question authority. Part of leadership is standing up for what’s right. When we sit quietly in meetings, others may see us as followers or think we lack knowledge or insight.”
Socioeconomic conditions and family backgrounds also play a role. Akutagawa says that first or second-generation Asian Americans may have no role models of success in large corporations. Recent immigrants from affluent families may have those models and can hit the ground running, even if their English may not be as strong as those who were born here.
But blame does not rest solely on Asian Americans’ shoulders. There is a pipeline of talent in large companies that is eager to advance, says Ivan Fong, executive vice president and chief legal officer of Cardinal Health Inc. But, unfortunately, there are leaks along that pipeline.
What Companies Can Do
Companies must recognize what is happening, Akutagawa says. “They bear responsibility for building a pipeline of qualified and prepared employees who can compete for top positions. They have to ensure they have a diverse pool of candidates. That means encouraging people to get broad exposure through rotational jobs, recruiting them for the executive track and going back to find people they may have missed in their first search.”
Some companies already do this. Akutagawa singled out “those who are global competitors or recognize changing demographics. They realize their customer base is evolving and that the next generation of executives won’t look like the white men they’re replacing.”
Right now, anecdotal evidence shows Asian Americans rising fastest at technology companies. That may stem from the stereotypes that Asian Americans are good at science and math, and fluency in English is not as important in those areas.
What Would-Be Execs Should Do
Fong says there are things Asian Americans can do to help their chances of getting an office in the executive suite. Immigrants who are sensitive about their accents may seem even more reserved than they are. He encourages mid-level managers to speak up more in meetings, and learn about popular culture and sports. Casual conversation about those topics is important at senior levels, he notes. So is image and exposure to those in a position to promote.
Akutagawa advises Asian Americans in all fields that “to be successful in the executive suite, we shouldn’t give up our culture and values. But we have to recognize the skills needed to be an effective leader. We have to learn to speak up and be noticed, even if it’s just to point out that we work well collaboratively.”
Asian Americans: The Model-Minority Myth
Asian Diversity/Asianlife Magazine issue # 132, July 15, 2009
From Asianlife.com
Jane Hyun
"Asian Americans are good in technical fields, but are not good managers."
"Asian Americans are doing just fine; they don't need any help."
"Asian Americans are America's success story."
Even in the age of multiculturalism and political correctness, many people still believe these statements about Asian Americans. The model-minority myth is the assumption that Asian Americans have overcome all barriers to success in the US, and implies they make up an intelligent, hard-working minority group that has achieved the American Dream. Unfortunately, these depictions aren't always the case, and they have created unrealistic expectations many Asian Americans simply cannot live up to in work, academic and social settings. For every Asian American who fits the model-minority standard, there are others who are struggling to survive financially. As with any minority group, Asian Americans come from all socioeconomic backgrounds. A Vietnamese immigrant in urban Chicago shares little in common with the second generation Taiwanese American who was raised in a midwestern suburb speaking only English in the home.
Outside the Model Myth
Tom Hoang*, a 26-year-old Vietnamese American, has never felt like a model minority. His family has always struggled financially, and even now, he helps support his parents, who speak little English and are too elderly to work. He never went to college -- breaking another Asian American stereotype -- and currently works as a manager of a hardware store. “I never lived up to what my non-Asian American teachers and friends expected of me,” he says. “While I'm pretty happy with my career, as an Asian who hasn't lived up to others' expectations, I often feel alienated.”
Even Positive Stereotypes Can Hurt
The myth can also hurt professionals in work settings (http://diversity.monster.com/articles/positivebias). Karen Chan*, a Chinese
American, had worked in the finance department of a midsize retail chain for seven years and was the controller for the last two. Last year, her new boss started making odd but casual remarks about her work and http://www.hrguru.com/training/articles/331-why-are-asian-american-executives-scarce ethnicity. “My boss would make comments like, ‘I can always count on you to get the budget right, because I know Asians are good with numbers,'” Chan says. Though on the surface his comments seemed harmless, other department heads thought of Chan as a finance expert and nothing else. “I actually majored in English, and when I chose finance as a career, it wasn't because I was a quantitative expert. I knew I had an eye for detail, and I appreciated the foundation finance would provide for a long-term career in business,” Chan adds. After a while, Chan decided to approach her boss over lunch. “At first, it was hard to believe my boss's comments were said to me in this day and age,” she says. “I knew he didn't mean to make the comments to deliberately hurt me, but I didn't want him to continue doing it. I may want to make a switch to operations or marketing, and my boss's comments were cornering me into a finance career within the firm.” After their initial discussion, they both agreed to continue to communicate about these slips and to discuss them as they occur.
Overcome Perceptions
As an Asian American professional, how do you combat misguided perceptions and better inform others about Asian Americans? Chan took the time to discuss how these perceptions were misguided (http://diversity.monster.com/articles/differences/) . Another way to help foster a culturally aware workplace is to become an active member of your corporate diversity program (/asam/articles/corpamerica/) , provided your company has such an organization. Make sure you're visible; join company subcommittees and task forces, thereby becoming a voice for Asian Americans in your firm.
*The subjects for this story requested that their names be changed or removed to protect their identities.
The purpose of this article is to both provide information and facilitate general dialogue about various employment-related topics. No legal advice is being given and no attorney-client relationship created. Please see the disclaimer.
(http://discussion.monster.com/disclaimer/) for further limitations and conditions.
From Asianlife.com
Jane Hyun
"Asian Americans are good in technical fields, but are not good managers."
"Asian Americans are doing just fine; they don't need any help."
"Asian Americans are America's success story."
Even in the age of multiculturalism and political correctness, many people still believe these statements about Asian Americans. The model-minority myth is the assumption that Asian Americans have overcome all barriers to success in the US, and implies they make up an intelligent, hard-working minority group that has achieved the American Dream. Unfortunately, these depictions aren't always the case, and they have created unrealistic expectations many Asian Americans simply cannot live up to in work, academic and social settings. For every Asian American who fits the model-minority standard, there are others who are struggling to survive financially. As with any minority group, Asian Americans come from all socioeconomic backgrounds. A Vietnamese immigrant in urban Chicago shares little in common with the second generation Taiwanese American who was raised in a midwestern suburb speaking only English in the home.
Outside the Model Myth
Tom Hoang*, a 26-year-old Vietnamese American, has never felt like a model minority. His family has always struggled financially, and even now, he helps support his parents, who speak little English and are too elderly to work. He never went to college -- breaking another Asian American stereotype -- and currently works as a manager of a hardware store. “I never lived up to what my non-Asian American teachers and friends expected of me,” he says. “While I'm pretty happy with my career, as an Asian who hasn't lived up to others' expectations, I often feel alienated.”
Even Positive Stereotypes Can Hurt
The myth can also hurt professionals in work settings (http://diversity.monster.com/articles/positivebias). Karen Chan*, a Chinese
American, had worked in the finance department of a midsize retail chain for seven years and was the controller for the last two. Last year, her new boss started making odd but casual remarks about her work and http://www.hrguru.com/training/articles/331-why-are-asian-american-executives-scarce ethnicity. “My boss would make comments like, ‘I can always count on you to get the budget right, because I know Asians are good with numbers,'” Chan says. Though on the surface his comments seemed harmless, other department heads thought of Chan as a finance expert and nothing else. “I actually majored in English, and when I chose finance as a career, it wasn't because I was a quantitative expert. I knew I had an eye for detail, and I appreciated the foundation finance would provide for a long-term career in business,” Chan adds. After a while, Chan decided to approach her boss over lunch. “At first, it was hard to believe my boss's comments were said to me in this day and age,” she says. “I knew he didn't mean to make the comments to deliberately hurt me, but I didn't want him to continue doing it. I may want to make a switch to operations or marketing, and my boss's comments were cornering me into a finance career within the firm.” After their initial discussion, they both agreed to continue to communicate about these slips and to discuss them as they occur.
Overcome Perceptions
As an Asian American professional, how do you combat misguided perceptions and better inform others about Asian Americans? Chan took the time to discuss how these perceptions were misguided (http://diversity.monster.com/articles/differences/) . Another way to help foster a culturally aware workplace is to become an active member of your corporate diversity program (/asam/articles/corpamerica/) , provided your company has such an organization. Make sure you're visible; join company subcommittees and task forces, thereby becoming a voice for Asian Americans in your firm.
*The subjects for this story requested that their names be changed or removed to protect their identities.
The purpose of this article is to both provide information and facilitate general dialogue about various employment-related topics. No legal advice is being given and no attorney-client relationship created. Please see the disclaimer.
(http://discussion.monster.com/disclaimer/) for further limitations and conditions.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
India's Foreing Policy "Software" by Daniel Markey
In a landmark paper titled, Developing India’s Foreign Policy "Software," Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow for South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, "outlines significant shortcomings in India’s foreign policy institutions that undermine the country’s capacity for ambitious and effective international action, and proposes steps that both New Delhi and Washington should take, assuming they aim to promote India’s rise as a great power."
The paper goes on to say:
India’s own foreign policy establishment hinders the country from achieving great-power status for four main reasons:
(1) The Indian Foreign Service is small, hobbled by its selection process and inadequate midcareer training, and tends not to make use of outside expertise;
(2) India’s think-tanks lack sufficient access to the information or resources required to conduct high-quality, policy-relevant scholarship;
(3) India’s public universities are poorly funded, highly regulated, and fail to provide world-class education in the social sciences and other fields related to foreign policy; and
(4) India’s media and private firms—leaders in debating the country’s foreign policy agenda—are not built to undertake sustained foreign policy research or training.
For India to achieve great-power status, a number of improvements to its foreign policy software will be required:
• expand, reform, pay, and train the Indian Foreign Service to attract and retain high-caliber officers
• encourage the growth of world-class social science research and teaching schools in India through partnerships with private Indian and U.S. investors, universities, and foundations
• invest in Indian think-tanks and U.S.-India exchange programs that build capacity for foreign policy research
• bring non-career officers into the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and other parts of the foreign policy establishment as term-limited fellows to improve outside understanding of the policy process
• support the efforts of Indian researchers to maximize public access to material related to the history of India’s foreign policy by way of the 2005 Right to Information Act.
To read an executive summary as well as the full 24 page report, please log on to http://usindiafriendship.net/ and turn to the top left hand corner of the page.
The paper goes on to say:
India’s own foreign policy establishment hinders the country from achieving great-power status for four main reasons:
(1) The Indian Foreign Service is small, hobbled by its selection process and inadequate midcareer training, and tends not to make use of outside expertise;
(2) India’s think-tanks lack sufficient access to the information or resources required to conduct high-quality, policy-relevant scholarship;
(3) India’s public universities are poorly funded, highly regulated, and fail to provide world-class education in the social sciences and other fields related to foreign policy; and
(4) India’s media and private firms—leaders in debating the country’s foreign policy agenda—are not built to undertake sustained foreign policy research or training.
For India to achieve great-power status, a number of improvements to its foreign policy software will be required:
• expand, reform, pay, and train the Indian Foreign Service to attract and retain high-caliber officers
• encourage the growth of world-class social science research and teaching schools in India through partnerships with private Indian and U.S. investors, universities, and foundations
• invest in Indian think-tanks and U.S.-India exchange programs that build capacity for foreign policy research
• bring non-career officers into the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and other parts of the foreign policy establishment as term-limited fellows to improve outside understanding of the policy process
• support the efforts of Indian researchers to maximize public access to material related to the history of India’s foreign policy by way of the 2005 Right to Information Act.
To read an executive summary as well as the full 24 page report, please log on to http://usindiafriendship.net/ and turn to the top left hand corner of the page.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Beware of this Telephone Scam
A reader has forwarded the following message. Do verify the authenticiy of this message independently.
90# on your telephone
I dialed '0' and asked the operator who confirmed that this was correct
so please pass it on . . (l also checked out Snopes.com..this is true,
and also applies to cell phones!)
PASS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW
I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying
himself as an AT&T Service Technician (could also be Telus) who was
conducting a test on the telephone lines. He stated that to complete the
test I should touch nine(9), zero(0), the pound sign (#), and then hang
up. Luckily, I was suspicious and refused.
=0 A
Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing
90#, y ou give the requesting individual full access to your telephone
line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your
home phone number.
I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local jails/prisons
DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE.
The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information with
EVERYONE I KNOW.
After checking with Verizon they also said it was true, so do not dial
90# for anyone
90# on your telephone
I dialed '0' and asked the operator who confirmed that this was correct
so please pass it on . . (l also checked out Snopes.com..this is true,
and also applies to cell phones!)
PASS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW
I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying
himself as an AT&T Service Technician (could also be Telus) who was
conducting a test on the telephone lines. He stated that to complete the
test I should touch nine(9), zero(0), the pound sign (#), and then hang
up. Luckily, I was suspicious and refused.
=0 A
Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing
90#, y ou give the requesting individual full access to your telephone
line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your
home phone number.
I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local jails/prisons
DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE.
The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information with
EVERYONE I KNOW.
After checking with Verizon they also said it was true, so do not dial
90# for anyone
Whimsy: What is it about the word UP?
That little 2-letter "UP"
When in doubt, Look up -
Lovers of the English language might enjoy this. It is yet another example of why people learning English have trouble with the language. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language. (But then, that's probably true of many languages.)
There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]…
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election, and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house, and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP, because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning, but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
Know about the proper uses of UP by looking up the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP ,
for now ........ my time is UP, so time to shut UP!
Oh...one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?
U P ! ! !
Don't screw up. Send this on to everyone you look up in your address book.
Now I'll hush up.
When in doubt, Look up -
Lovers of the English language might enjoy this. It is yet another example of why people learning English have trouble with the language. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language. (But then, that's probably true of many languages.)
There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]…
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election, and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house, and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP, because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning, but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
Know about the proper uses of UP by looking up the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP ,
for now ........ my time is UP, so time to shut UP!
Oh...one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?
U P ! ! !
Don't screw up. Send this on to everyone you look up in your address book.
Now I'll hush up.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
India: Foreign Policy Challenges
PRAGATI: THE INDIAN NATIONAL INTEREST REVIEW
http://pragati.nationalinterest.in/2009/07/foreign-policy-challenges-for-upa-20/Foreign policy challenges for UPA 2.0
With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh forming a second-successive government at the head of the UPA coalition in May, Pragati asked several leading Indian experts what, in their opinions, were the top foreign policy challenges and priorities for the new government.
Dhruva Jaishankar
What India’s foremost experts say:
WITH PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh forming a second-successive government at the head of the UPA coalition in May, Pragati asked several leading Indian experts what, in their opinions, were the top foreign policy challenges and priorities for the new government.
C Raja Mohan
Many of India’s national security and foreign policy priorities come together in the Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) region. These include the unmet challenge of terrorism with links across our Western borders, the management of the bitter legacy of Partition with Pakistan, the projection of India’s power beyond its immediate borders in Afghanistan and the consolidation of India’s most important great power relationship with the United States. Therefore getting the policy towards our north-western neighbourhood is likely to be at the top of the new government’s agenda.
The post-Mumbai pessimism about engaging Pakistan and the expectation of a less-than-warm relationship with the Obama administration seemed to have lent a dark edge to the foreign policy calculus of Dr Manmohan Singh in the second term.
I would in fact make the case for a more optimistic and even ‘opportunistic’ approach to the Af-Pak region. Whatever the pessimists might say about Pakistan and Mr Obama, the current crisis in the region between the Indus and the Hindu Kush is too valuable to be wasted. India must make a bold attempt at using American weight and its current extraordinary interest in the Af-Pak region to produce long-term structural change within Pakistan and in the relationship between New Delhi and Islamabad. This will require shedding many of the shibboleths that currently guide India’s policies towards Islamabad, Kabul and Washington.
C Raja Mohan is professor of South Asian Studies at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
VR Raghavan
The election results have ushered the Indian state and its citizens into a period of political stability. The government has the opportunity to boldly go forward on definitive measures in the security and strategic arena. The first need is to put into place a more responsive, effective and integrated internal security arrangement to make the country safe from catastrophic terrorist acts like 9/11 or 26/11. This requires improved centre-state co-ordination and far superior intelligence management than hitherto.
The second priority should be to build a national consensus on India’s international nuclear disarmament commitment. What would India’s position be if the United States and China ratify the CTBT? In my view India ratifying the CTBT, after the U.S. and China, will attain two purposes. It will enhance its role as a responsible nuclear weapons state. It will also encourage Pakistan to do so.
Third, the government should push for building the foundations of economic and social growth. Infrastructure development and widening the reach of school education are the key to national power in the long run.
Lt Gen (Retd) V R Raghavan is director of the Delhi Policy Group and president of the Centre for Security Analysis.
B Raman
Our relations with Pakistan should have the topmost priority because of their impact on our internal security situation. How can we convince Pakistan that it will never be able to change the status quo in Jammu & Kashmir by using terrorism against us?
Our relations with China should have the second priority. Military confrontation with China would be unwise, but we should strengthen our economic relations hoping that the economic linkages and the Chinese interest in sustaining those linkages would moderate its present rigid stand in Arunachal Pradesh. Political power flows out of economic power, and we are at least a decade behind China in our economic power.
Our relations with the United States should have the third priority. The Obama administration’s only interest is in preventing us from retaliating against Pakistan for its acts of terrorism in Indian territory. This policy will act as a speed-breaker for further strengthening India-US relations. Despite this, we should be open to new ideas coming from the United States, provided those ideas are not detrimental to our national interests.
Our relations with Russia should have the fourth priority. Russia might be able to moderate Chinese policies towards India and is still a dependable supplier of arms, ammunition and nuclear power stations.
Our relations with Bangladesh and Nepal are important because they too have an impact on our internal security. Now that the LTTE is gone, we should get rid of our inhibitions in playing a more active role in Sri Lanka as we were doing before 1991.
Internal security management has not received the attention it deserves. Our persisting internal security problems in different parts of the country are acting as a drag on our emergence as a major economic power. We have many weaknesses, including intelligence collection and assessment, rapid intervention capability, and retaliatory self-defence capability. Finally, the preparation of a long-term perspective plan for the modernisation of our armed forces needs attention, as well as the development of military-related technologies and production capabilities.
B. Raman is director of the Institute for Topical Studies in Chennai.
K Subrahmanyam
India’s top priority is to mobilise international public opinion to combat jihadism as an ideology as was done with respect to Nazism. Support from Muslim populations, especially in non-Arab Muslim countries and cooperation with the United States, European Union and Russia is absolutely essential. The final aim is to de-jihadise the world, just as it was de-Nazified.
On regional issues, India must pay a lot of attention to Bangladesh and improve relations, security and economic cooperation to the maximum extent. It must play the pre-eminent role in the relief and rehabilitation of Tamils, and promote economic integration with Sri Lanka. A new treaty with Nepal should be negotiated. Faster economic growth of Nepal and job creation there should be our priority and friendly external powers may be encouraged to get involved there.
Particular attention needs to be paid to relations with United States, with the projection of soft power. We must develop a basic strategy of parallel defence R&D and manufacturing cooperation with Russia and the United States, as well as Israel.
Finally, success in foreign policy depends on success in economic policy. Our diplomats should understand this. The Foreign Service should give up its generalist orientation and start developing expertise on specific areas and subjects. There should be far greater co-ordination between the ministries of external affairs, commerce, defence and science & technology.
K Subrahmanyam was formerly director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and convener of the National Security Advisory Board.
Mohan Guruswamy
India’s foremost priority should be to ensure international economic stability and work to reduce the usage of the US dollar as the preferred international reserve currency. The United States’ profligacy is uncurtailable and its appetite for debt undiminished. India can contribute by establishing bilateral currency trading relations with major trading partners. India must also support the enlargement of the Special Drawing Rights pool with the International Monetary Fund.
India also needs to engage China more seriously, both as a regional threat and a partner on international forums. It must also concern itself more seriously with its growing economic and political asymmetry with China. China’s hostility towards India does not seem to be diminishing and India must support cost-imposing opportunities that come its way. China cannot be allowed to indefinitely subsidise the sundry consumption appetites of US and Western consumers and hurt other low-cost production countries by taking advantage of its totalitarian regime.
India also needs to renew its military relations with Russia as the collapse of the Russian arms industry gives the United States and NATO a near monopoly on hi-tech arms such as fifth-generation aircraft. India must also reconsider its military commerce with Israel, given the costs it imposes on its relations with Muslim nations and in dealing with its own Muslim population. A reduced focus on the United States and compliance with its domestic laws will only enhance the quality of its relations with that country in the long run. India must not forget that along with China and the United States it will be one of the big three world economies in the next two decades or so. It must now learn to carry a big stick and walk, and even talk, softly.
Mohan Guruswamy is chairman and founder of the Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Swaminathan S Ankelsaria Aiyar
The major foreign policy issue is undoubtedly security in the light of Islamic militancy. This has long been an issue in Kashmir, has now spread to the rest of the country. It has the potential to polarise Indian Muslims in ways that could seriously threaten internal stability. India on its own can do nothing to check the menace that threatens to take over Pakistan and Afghanistan. What can it do?
First, it needs to remain calm even in the face of fresh terrorist incidents like 26/11, and resist the temptation to bomb camps in Pakistan. Such bombing will do little damage and may even increase recruitment into the jihadi cause. Rather, India should offer military force reductions on the Pakistan border to enable the Pakistan army to move forces to the trouble areas bordering Afghanistan.
The Pakistani state is now threatened by the Frankenstein’s monsters that it once incubated, and is reluctantly acting against them. India’s strategic aim must be to enable Pakistani liberals to beat jihadis in the war for hearts and minds. This will have to be done subtly, so that Pakistani liberals are not “tainted” in domestic debates as Indian stooges.
Swaminathan S. Ankelsaria Aiyar is Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and consulting editor of The Economic Times.
Bharat Karnad
Four issues, I hope, will be foreign policy priorities for the Indian government. First, it must firm up opposition to signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty or negotiating a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty. The nuclear deal will be leveraged by the U.S. to get India to sign these, but neither treaty is in India’s long-term interests, mainly because India’s thermonuclear weapon designs are unproven and unreliable and will require physical testing. The argument should be that given the American reluctance to accept time-bound and full disarmament, countries such as India cannot afford to remain vulnerable.
Secondly, Pakistan has to be helped to right itself. India’s position that it will begin talking only after Islamabad starts “dismantling the terrorist infrastructure” is to presume that Pakistan government is in control of Pakistan. Composite talks ought to get rapidly underway and the lesser issues, like Sir Creek, formally resolved.
Thirdly, before China or some other extra-regional power intervenes in Sri Lanka, India ought to take the lead in hammering out an enduring “federal” solution for the country, with Tamils given some measure of autonomy in the north and north-east, and sufficient representation in Colombo. Economic and reconstruction aid and massive military assistance should be ample and forthcoming.
Finally, strategic co-operation with Indian Ocean littoral countries and with countries on China’s periphery should be enhanced, and “free market” agreements should be extended. This will geopolitically hedge in China and limit its political options and military reach.
Bharat Karnad is Research Professor at the Centre for Policy Research.
P R Chari
The major security challenges before India arise from its traditional concerns—Pakistan and China. The threat from Pakistan is multi-dimensional, including conventional conflict, sub-conventional conflict, cross-border insurgency and terrorism. There is, moreover, the danger of Pakistan losing control over its nuclear weapons and breaking up due to its inner contradictions, which has security implications for India.
A conventional conflict with China is a remote possibility, but it could instigate subversion within its vulnerable north-eastern states. More subtly, China is showcasing its development of Tibet, which contrasts vividly with what India’s non-development of its border regions. China has not abjured its traditional policy of spreading disaffection among India’s South Asian neighbours to box India within the confines of the subcontinent. The most important foreign policy issue before India will be crafting its relationship with the United States, while seeking meaningful relations with other power centres in the world like Russia, Japan and the European community.
India needs American support to meet the security challenges posed by Pakistan and China. India needs to craft its foreign policy, therefore, to respect American sensitivities on issues like climate change, but also join US efforts to stabilise Asia.
P R Chari is Research Professor at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.
* * * * *
____________________________
http://pragati.nationalinterest.in/2009/07/foreign-policy-challenges-for-upa-20/Foreign policy challenges for UPA 2.0
With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh forming a second-successive government at the head of the UPA coalition in May, Pragati asked several leading Indian experts what, in their opinions, were the top foreign policy challenges and priorities for the new government.
Dhruva Jaishankar
What India’s foremost experts say:
WITH PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh forming a second-successive government at the head of the UPA coalition in May, Pragati asked several leading Indian experts what, in their opinions, were the top foreign policy challenges and priorities for the new government.
C Raja Mohan
Many of India’s national security and foreign policy priorities come together in the Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) region. These include the unmet challenge of terrorism with links across our Western borders, the management of the bitter legacy of Partition with Pakistan, the projection of India’s power beyond its immediate borders in Afghanistan and the consolidation of India’s most important great power relationship with the United States. Therefore getting the policy towards our north-western neighbourhood is likely to be at the top of the new government’s agenda.
The post-Mumbai pessimism about engaging Pakistan and the expectation of a less-than-warm relationship with the Obama administration seemed to have lent a dark edge to the foreign policy calculus of Dr Manmohan Singh in the second term.
I would in fact make the case for a more optimistic and even ‘opportunistic’ approach to the Af-Pak region. Whatever the pessimists might say about Pakistan and Mr Obama, the current crisis in the region between the Indus and the Hindu Kush is too valuable to be wasted. India must make a bold attempt at using American weight and its current extraordinary interest in the Af-Pak region to produce long-term structural change within Pakistan and in the relationship between New Delhi and Islamabad. This will require shedding many of the shibboleths that currently guide India’s policies towards Islamabad, Kabul and Washington.
C Raja Mohan is professor of South Asian Studies at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
VR Raghavan
The election results have ushered the Indian state and its citizens into a period of political stability. The government has the opportunity to boldly go forward on definitive measures in the security and strategic arena. The first need is to put into place a more responsive, effective and integrated internal security arrangement to make the country safe from catastrophic terrorist acts like 9/11 or 26/11. This requires improved centre-state co-ordination and far superior intelligence management than hitherto.
The second priority should be to build a national consensus on India’s international nuclear disarmament commitment. What would India’s position be if the United States and China ratify the CTBT? In my view India ratifying the CTBT, after the U.S. and China, will attain two purposes. It will enhance its role as a responsible nuclear weapons state. It will also encourage Pakistan to do so.
Third, the government should push for building the foundations of economic and social growth. Infrastructure development and widening the reach of school education are the key to national power in the long run.
Lt Gen (Retd) V R Raghavan is director of the Delhi Policy Group and president of the Centre for Security Analysis.
B Raman
Our relations with Pakistan should have the topmost priority because of their impact on our internal security situation. How can we convince Pakistan that it will never be able to change the status quo in Jammu & Kashmir by using terrorism against us?
Our relations with China should have the second priority. Military confrontation with China would be unwise, but we should strengthen our economic relations hoping that the economic linkages and the Chinese interest in sustaining those linkages would moderate its present rigid stand in Arunachal Pradesh. Political power flows out of economic power, and we are at least a decade behind China in our economic power.
Our relations with the United States should have the third priority. The Obama administration’s only interest is in preventing us from retaliating against Pakistan for its acts of terrorism in Indian territory. This policy will act as a speed-breaker for further strengthening India-US relations. Despite this, we should be open to new ideas coming from the United States, provided those ideas are not detrimental to our national interests.
Our relations with Russia should have the fourth priority. Russia might be able to moderate Chinese policies towards India and is still a dependable supplier of arms, ammunition and nuclear power stations.
Our relations with Bangladesh and Nepal are important because they too have an impact on our internal security. Now that the LTTE is gone, we should get rid of our inhibitions in playing a more active role in Sri Lanka as we were doing before 1991.
Internal security management has not received the attention it deserves. Our persisting internal security problems in different parts of the country are acting as a drag on our emergence as a major economic power. We have many weaknesses, including intelligence collection and assessment, rapid intervention capability, and retaliatory self-defence capability. Finally, the preparation of a long-term perspective plan for the modernisation of our armed forces needs attention, as well as the development of military-related technologies and production capabilities.
B. Raman is director of the Institute for Topical Studies in Chennai.
K Subrahmanyam
India’s top priority is to mobilise international public opinion to combat jihadism as an ideology as was done with respect to Nazism. Support from Muslim populations, especially in non-Arab Muslim countries and cooperation with the United States, European Union and Russia is absolutely essential. The final aim is to de-jihadise the world, just as it was de-Nazified.
On regional issues, India must pay a lot of attention to Bangladesh and improve relations, security and economic cooperation to the maximum extent. It must play the pre-eminent role in the relief and rehabilitation of Tamils, and promote economic integration with Sri Lanka. A new treaty with Nepal should be negotiated. Faster economic growth of Nepal and job creation there should be our priority and friendly external powers may be encouraged to get involved there.
Particular attention needs to be paid to relations with United States, with the projection of soft power. We must develop a basic strategy of parallel defence R&D and manufacturing cooperation with Russia and the United States, as well as Israel.
Finally, success in foreign policy depends on success in economic policy. Our diplomats should understand this. The Foreign Service should give up its generalist orientation and start developing expertise on specific areas and subjects. There should be far greater co-ordination between the ministries of external affairs, commerce, defence and science & technology.
K Subrahmanyam was formerly director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and convener of the National Security Advisory Board.
Mohan Guruswamy
India’s foremost priority should be to ensure international economic stability and work to reduce the usage of the US dollar as the preferred international reserve currency. The United States’ profligacy is uncurtailable and its appetite for debt undiminished. India can contribute by establishing bilateral currency trading relations with major trading partners. India must also support the enlargement of the Special Drawing Rights pool with the International Monetary Fund.
India also needs to engage China more seriously, both as a regional threat and a partner on international forums. It must also concern itself more seriously with its growing economic and political asymmetry with China. China’s hostility towards India does not seem to be diminishing and India must support cost-imposing opportunities that come its way. China cannot be allowed to indefinitely subsidise the sundry consumption appetites of US and Western consumers and hurt other low-cost production countries by taking advantage of its totalitarian regime.
India also needs to renew its military relations with Russia as the collapse of the Russian arms industry gives the United States and NATO a near monopoly on hi-tech arms such as fifth-generation aircraft. India must also reconsider its military commerce with Israel, given the costs it imposes on its relations with Muslim nations and in dealing with its own Muslim population. A reduced focus on the United States and compliance with its domestic laws will only enhance the quality of its relations with that country in the long run. India must not forget that along with China and the United States it will be one of the big three world economies in the next two decades or so. It must now learn to carry a big stick and walk, and even talk, softly.
Mohan Guruswamy is chairman and founder of the Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Swaminathan S Ankelsaria Aiyar
The major foreign policy issue is undoubtedly security in the light of Islamic militancy. This has long been an issue in Kashmir, has now spread to the rest of the country. It has the potential to polarise Indian Muslims in ways that could seriously threaten internal stability. India on its own can do nothing to check the menace that threatens to take over Pakistan and Afghanistan. What can it do?
First, it needs to remain calm even in the face of fresh terrorist incidents like 26/11, and resist the temptation to bomb camps in Pakistan. Such bombing will do little damage and may even increase recruitment into the jihadi cause. Rather, India should offer military force reductions on the Pakistan border to enable the Pakistan army to move forces to the trouble areas bordering Afghanistan.
The Pakistani state is now threatened by the Frankenstein’s monsters that it once incubated, and is reluctantly acting against them. India’s strategic aim must be to enable Pakistani liberals to beat jihadis in the war for hearts and minds. This will have to be done subtly, so that Pakistani liberals are not “tainted” in domestic debates as Indian stooges.
Swaminathan S. Ankelsaria Aiyar is Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and consulting editor of The Economic Times.
Bharat Karnad
Four issues, I hope, will be foreign policy priorities for the Indian government. First, it must firm up opposition to signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty or negotiating a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty. The nuclear deal will be leveraged by the U.S. to get India to sign these, but neither treaty is in India’s long-term interests, mainly because India’s thermonuclear weapon designs are unproven and unreliable and will require physical testing. The argument should be that given the American reluctance to accept time-bound and full disarmament, countries such as India cannot afford to remain vulnerable.
Secondly, Pakistan has to be helped to right itself. India’s position that it will begin talking only after Islamabad starts “dismantling the terrorist infrastructure” is to presume that Pakistan government is in control of Pakistan. Composite talks ought to get rapidly underway and the lesser issues, like Sir Creek, formally resolved.
Thirdly, before China or some other extra-regional power intervenes in Sri Lanka, India ought to take the lead in hammering out an enduring “federal” solution for the country, with Tamils given some measure of autonomy in the north and north-east, and sufficient representation in Colombo. Economic and reconstruction aid and massive military assistance should be ample and forthcoming.
Finally, strategic co-operation with Indian Ocean littoral countries and with countries on China’s periphery should be enhanced, and “free market” agreements should be extended. This will geopolitically hedge in China and limit its political options and military reach.
Bharat Karnad is Research Professor at the Centre for Policy Research.
P R Chari
The major security challenges before India arise from its traditional concerns—Pakistan and China. The threat from Pakistan is multi-dimensional, including conventional conflict, sub-conventional conflict, cross-border insurgency and terrorism. There is, moreover, the danger of Pakistan losing control over its nuclear weapons and breaking up due to its inner contradictions, which has security implications for India.
A conventional conflict with China is a remote possibility, but it could instigate subversion within its vulnerable north-eastern states. More subtly, China is showcasing its development of Tibet, which contrasts vividly with what India’s non-development of its border regions. China has not abjured its traditional policy of spreading disaffection among India’s South Asian neighbours to box India within the confines of the subcontinent. The most important foreign policy issue before India will be crafting its relationship with the United States, while seeking meaningful relations with other power centres in the world like Russia, Japan and the European community.
India needs American support to meet the security challenges posed by Pakistan and China. India needs to craft its foreign policy, therefore, to respect American sensitivities on issues like climate change, but also join US efforts to stabilise Asia.
P R Chari is Research Professor at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.
* * * * *
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
About Giving...My personal opinion
Just a thought -
As some of you have experienced, I do get this kind (like the one shown below) of email messages for assistance for worthy causes and charities in India. So far good. All these projects need assistance.
My concern or question is why aren't rich and well-to-do people in India such as Birlas, Ambanis, Tatas, Bachhans, Premjees and a whole lot of other such super rich people not helping these causes?
Some people from our Asian Indian community ask for donation for a Gramin Bank, some ask money for a hospital or a school in rural India and so on. In addition there are always causes related to a particular religious denomination. Further more there is no end in site of the visits by the traveling spiritualists, some Maas and Bapus and Gurus. The Guru export has become one of the major export items. Temple building activities in this country is still an on-going activity. It seems as if there is a competition called I can build a larger temple than you can or some such thing. Sure there are devotees and supporters who patronize such events, but when is a proper time to call enough is enough?
Compare such activities and support there of with philanthropic activities such as endowing a Chair of Indian Studies at a University of choice, donating funds for buying books on India to be donated to a local public library, donating funds for Indian art related cultural centers, supporting Indian cultural events with a capital C.... We always seem to run out of money when time comes for the support of Indian arts in this Country, this country many of us call Home or second HOME, where some of us got educated, where some of us got married, some of us raised family, some of us were able to get our relatives on various kinds of Visas... What do we give back to the community, the city or county, the state and the nation that gave us such opportunity? I know some friends who refuse to contribute to any cultural project because they say they are committed to build a hospital, school or a clinic in their home town in India - all very worthy and enviable. And as if this was not enough we get appeal from the group such as AID and other acronyms that probably includes all the letters of the alphabet.
Mind you I am not begrudging all those who give to or patronize worthy causes in India, but when it comes to indulging in such activities at a cost to such activities in this country that we consider or call HOME it seems blantantly one sided and a very parochial, very narrowly focused philanthropy.
I think it is about time that we think, that we discuss, that we debate, that we speak up...and begin investing in Arts, Culture and Education in this country. There are orphans here too. There are poor and needy people here too. There are homeless people here too... and there is need to increase awareness about Indian arts and culture in this country too - all these are worthy causes and need your support, our support and help.
Thank you all who took time to read this... and Cheers!
Harish
Email message received by Harish Trivedi on July 8, 2009 is reproduced below -
Dear ....,
My name is Sandesh Samdaria. I am a volunteer with Association for India's Development (AID). I am contacting you in regards to spreading the word around (as you/your organization has supported AID in the past) about a fund raising concert (Indian Ocean) organized by AID.
Associationfor India's Development (AID) is a non-profit, voluntary organization that supports a wide variety of social service and development projects addressing problems such as literacy, health care, rural credit, vocational training, women's empowerment and children's welfare.
AID has been presenting "Harmony' cross-cultural programs over the years. Last year, AID presented a tantalizing fusion dance that was highly acclaimed. This year, AID presents Indian Ocean, a world-renowned contemporary fusion music band that plays an an eclectic original mix of various genres - rock, jazz, classical and folk music. Their landmark “Desert Rain” album was number 2 on the iTunes UK world music charts in 2006. In 2003, Indian Ocean was nominated as MTV’s Artists of the Month. They have also performed at numerous prestigious events such as the New Zealand Arts Festival, the Melbourne Arts Festival, and the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival (Washington DC). Indian Ocean will enthrall the tri-state area with its creative energy and their concert will be a richly diverse, cross-cultural experience.
Please visit http://cincinnati.aidindia.org/ for details on the event, and http://www.indianoceanmusic.com/ for information on the band.
Please mark your calendars for October 10th, 2009 (6pm), for this musical extravaganza. All proceeds from the event go towards supporting grassroot developmental works in India. We look forward to your presence at the event.
Feel free to pass along the attached flier to your members if you feel appropriate.
Call me if you have any questions.
Regards,
Sandesh
513-550-5473
AID Cincinnati. http://cincinnati.aidindia.org/
As some of you have experienced, I do get this kind (like the one shown below) of email messages for assistance for worthy causes and charities in India. So far good. All these projects need assistance.
My concern or question is why aren't rich and well-to-do people in India such as Birlas, Ambanis, Tatas, Bachhans, Premjees and a whole lot of other such super rich people not helping these causes?
Some people from our Asian Indian community ask for donation for a Gramin Bank, some ask money for a hospital or a school in rural India and so on. In addition there are always causes related to a particular religious denomination. Further more there is no end in site of the visits by the traveling spiritualists, some Maas and Bapus and Gurus. The Guru export has become one of the major export items. Temple building activities in this country is still an on-going activity. It seems as if there is a competition called I can build a larger temple than you can or some such thing. Sure there are devotees and supporters who patronize such events, but when is a proper time to call enough is enough?
Compare such activities and support there of with philanthropic activities such as endowing a Chair of Indian Studies at a University of choice, donating funds for buying books on India to be donated to a local public library, donating funds for Indian art related cultural centers, supporting Indian cultural events with a capital C.... We always seem to run out of money when time comes for the support of Indian arts in this Country, this country many of us call Home or second HOME, where some of us got educated, where some of us got married, some of us raised family, some of us were able to get our relatives on various kinds of Visas... What do we give back to the community, the city or county, the state and the nation that gave us such opportunity? I know some friends who refuse to contribute to any cultural project because they say they are committed to build a hospital, school or a clinic in their home town in India - all very worthy and enviable. And as if this was not enough we get appeal from the group such as AID and other acronyms that probably includes all the letters of the alphabet.
Mind you I am not begrudging all those who give to or patronize worthy causes in India, but when it comes to indulging in such activities at a cost to such activities in this country that we consider or call HOME it seems blantantly one sided and a very parochial, very narrowly focused philanthropy.
I think it is about time that we think, that we discuss, that we debate, that we speak up...and begin investing in Arts, Culture and Education in this country. There are orphans here too. There are poor and needy people here too. There are homeless people here too... and there is need to increase awareness about Indian arts and culture in this country too - all these are worthy causes and need your support, our support and help.
Thank you all who took time to read this... and Cheers!
Harish
Email message received by Harish Trivedi on July 8, 2009 is reproduced below -
Dear ....,
My name is Sandesh Samdaria. I am a volunteer with Association for India's Development (AID). I am contacting you in regards to spreading the word around (as you/your organization has supported AID in the past) about a fund raising concert (Indian Ocean) organized by AID.
Associationfor India's Development (AID) is a non-profit, voluntary organization that supports a wide variety of social service and development projects addressing problems such as literacy, health care, rural credit, vocational training, women's empowerment and children's welfare.
AID has been presenting "Harmony' cross-cultural programs over the years. Last year, AID presented a tantalizing fusion dance that was highly acclaimed. This year, AID presents Indian Ocean, a world-renowned contemporary fusion music band that plays an an eclectic original mix of various genres - rock, jazz, classical and folk music. Their landmark “Desert Rain” album was number 2 on the iTunes UK world music charts in 2006. In 2003, Indian Ocean was nominated as MTV’s Artists of the Month. They have also performed at numerous prestigious events such as the New Zealand Arts Festival, the Melbourne Arts Festival, and the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival (Washington DC). Indian Ocean will enthrall the tri-state area with its creative energy and their concert will be a richly diverse, cross-cultural experience.
Please visit http://cincinnati.aidindia.org/ for details on the event, and http://www.indianoceanmusic.com/ for information on the band.
Please mark your calendars for October 10th, 2009 (6pm), for this musical extravaganza. All proceeds from the event go towards supporting grassroot developmental works in India. We look forward to your presence at the event.
Feel free to pass along the attached flier to your members if you feel appropriate.
Call me if you have any questions.
Regards,
Sandesh
513-550-5473
AID Cincinnati. http://cincinnati.aidindia.org/
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