From benjamin at typedown.com Mon Sep 2 17:35:55 2002 From: benjamin at typedown.com (Benjamin Fischer) Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 14:05:55 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] media-space 02 - Spaces / Rooms / Media Message-ID: media-space 02 Spaces / Rooms / Media 19 - 22 September 2002 Stuttgart, Germany ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The second edition of the media-space-event deals with the relation between New Media and the stage and its transformation. At presentations, lectures, and workshops international artists will talk about aesthetic strategies in the field of theatre, electro-acoustic music, VJ-ing, and architecture. For detailed information on the programme, supporters, cooperation partners, and hosts please visit: http://www.media-space.org -- Best regards, Benjamin Fischer | benjamin at typedown.com | http://www.typedown.com From sonikajain at yahoo.com Mon Sep 2 20:59:04 2002 From: sonikajain at yahoo.com (=?iso-8859-1?q?sonika=20jain?=) Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 16:29:04 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Rescen NightWalking Conference Message-ID: <20020902152904.89080.qmail@web13806.mail.yahoo.com> ------ Forwarded Message From: Cath Willmore Organization: NightWalking Reply-To: nightwalk at mdx.ac.uk Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 11:14:32 +0100 To: ResCen Subject: ResCen NightWalking Conference Please circulate this e-flyer to anyone you think might be interested in this event. An A5 postcard is also available. To receive one, or several copies to distribute or display, or if you know of someone we should send one to, please reply to this e-mail address with the relevant contact details (address, phone, e-mail) and how many you would like to be sent. Apologies for the inevitable cross postings. Catherine Willmore Administrator NightWalking ResCen - Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts, in partnership with NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), presents A 3-day artist-led conference event bringing into view the rarely observed processes of artistic creation. Presentations, installations, discussions, web-work and specially commissioned performance events will take place in and around the South Bank Centre & Greenwich Dance Agency in London, 27-29 September 2002. Reflective artists and practice-led researchers will navigate through aspects of their creative practice, aiming to inform understanding of the specialised work of professional artists. NightWalking will feature a host of international artists and researchers including Goat Island (USA), Rosemary Lee, Shobana Jeyasingh, Gob Squad (Germany), Desperate Optimists, André Gingras (Netherlands), Graeme Miller, Richard Layzell, Errollyn Wallen, Ghislaine Boddington, Penelope Reed Doob (Canada), Alan Read and Bobby Baker. Who is it for? Artists, performers, academics, students, practitioners of the performing arts and anyone interested in creative process. To register your interest in attending & for further information please e-mail Catherine Willmore, Conference Administrator at nightwalk at mdx.ac.uk including your name, telephone number and postal address. We look forward to hearing from you. Visit the ResCen website at www.adpa.mdx.ac.uk/rescen/ Middlesex University, Trent Park, Bramley Road, London N14 4YZ tel/fax: +44 (0)20 8411 6288 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com From geert at desk.nl Tue Sep 3 13:12:36 2002 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 17:42:36 +1000 Subject: [Reader-list] The Australian: Indians to staff software centre...and more Message-ID: <014101c2531d$ac40f390$a4de3dca@geert> Link this: Indians to staff software centre INDIAN software giant Infosys has undermined the Victorian Government's claims of 100 new programming jobs by revealing at least 60 of them will be filled by Indian expatriates. http://email.ni.com.au/Click?q=b3-QHpxQYK2CrML7n9AL6RNyx_C with this... ACS toughens migration rules THE Australian Computer Society is planning to toughen the IT skills assessment for migrants, using powers delegated to it by the Immigration Department. http://email.ni.com.au/Click?q=c8-2lnnQWOnzbYa6n8MJE1P3Pe_ since when do non-profit organizations for computer professional act as migration officers? Ciao, Geert From monica at sarai.net Tue Sep 3 18:13:56 2002 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 18:13:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban Legend or fact? Message-ID: I am sure that the memory of the Monkey Man is still fresh, along with that other more rural Wolf-man. Now there is the Muhnocchwa (Face Lacerator). And this one seems to be even less "explicable" than the ones before. I wonder if there are such "personae" in other cities/countries that people could post about? best Monica 2 reports on the Munocchwa phenomenon __________________________________________________________ 1. From the Times of India, Lucknow Edition Extra-terrestrials invade UP, says IB PERVEZ IQBAL SIDDIQUI http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=19397236 TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2002 11:16:30 PM ] LUCKNOW: With five visuals of what is feared as the muhnochwa `trapped' on video tapes -- three of which were recorded by the team of intelligence sleuths in the state -- the scare does not seem to be unfounded. The sleuths who had worked on muhnochwa do not rule out the possibility of the presence of an extra-terrestrial body (ETB) with electro-magnetic (EM) effect in at least three per cent of the cases. While the Indian agencies were yet to admit the presence of ETB, foreign research agencies, intelligence reports said, have already been to the affected areas, met the victims and collected necessary data. Sources said that after going through the video tape provided by the wife of a lawyer in Mirzapur and another frame recorded by a resident in Sitapur, which had a flash of light speeding through one end of the lens to another within a second, an intelligence team reached Sitapur on August 7 and set up an indigenously-designed observatory. A base of a mixer grinder was fitted with lights of the colours that the victims had narrated before the team varying from orange, yellow, green to the most common red and blue combination. The apparatus was put at a height in total darkness. The idea behind the exercise was that the extra-terrestrial body may take note of something resembling it and might come near it. And it did. At 1:05 am a flash of light neared the apparatus. "It was like the photocopier top plate with that sharp light while taking impressions," revealed a member of the team while drawing a parallel. The team, comprising forensic experts, serologists, medico-legal experts, electronic engineers and physicists equipped with night vision devices, zero light video cameras and telescopes apart from other gadgetry, was witness to the "light" which was seen thrice. It descended close to the handmade muhnochwa and then disappeared. The video clipping has a flash of light running across the screen but nothing more. The team of experts also conducted a study by filling up a questionnaire on the basis of the experience of the victims from Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Sitapur, Hardoi, Bara Banki, Rae Bareli, Lucknow and Sitapur. Out of a sample study of 100 injured victims, 10 were found to be victims of an insect bite or scratch. Another 10 suffered the injuries indirectly (like bruises while running after a scare in the night). The remaining had one or more of the following four common factors: Experiencing electric shock, seeing sharp light, feeling hard oval object. Out of 80 people, 65 were found to have suffered physical injuries and there were three who tried to overpower the ETB. "All the three had suffered hundreds of scars, as if caused by a blade, on the palm and it was inexplicable by any team member," said an expert who examined the injuries adding that this was what raised possibilities of an ETB being out there. But there is still a long way to go before these experts could come up with anything conclusive on the muhnochwa scare. However, Dr NK Mehrotra, professor, department of physics at Lucknow University, said that such possibilities were remote. Similar views were aired by his colleague Professor Chaman Mehrotra. "It may be out of atmospheric changes that such things might have occured and then someone might have added a dimension of mischief to it by putting up a man-made thing in the air," he said. Managar ISTRAC, a unit of ISRO, CD Sharma too expressed his doubts over possibilities of an ETB. "I do not knwo what type of a study has been conducted and what were the findings but with what I have gathered from the media reports, the ETB theory remains unconvincing," he said talking to Times News Network. ____________________________________________________________________ 2. From the Times, London India calls in X-Files agents to unmask face-scratching alien by Catherine Philp UFO sightings have sparked hysteria and riots, says our reporter The Times, London http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-389122,00.html August 20, 2002 A MYSTERIOUS flying object said to attack sleeping villagers has sparked mass hysteria and rioting across the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Police shot dead one man and injured 12 others when a mob of hundreds stormed the police station in Barabanki, demanding protection against what they believe is an alien assailant terrorising villages. The object, described as a flying sphere emitting red and blue light, is said to strike in the middle of the night, leaving victims with burns or scratches on their faces and limbs, and earning it the name the muhnochwa (face-scratcher). At least seven unexplained deaths in the area have been attributed to the muhnochwa, sparking panic among villagers who blame police for not providing enough protection. Officials have suggested a raft of explanations, from an alien invasion to a new and unknown breed of insect. Perhaps the most bizarre theory was that of Police Deputy Inspector General K. N. D. Dwivedi, who said that the assailant was a genetically engineered insect introduced by “anti-national elements” from outside India to cause mayhem. In common Indian parlance, this is taken to mean that it was the work of the Pakistani spy agency, the universal scapegoat for all unexplained Indian woes. That theory has not won over many believers. Villagers across the region no longer sleep outside, as they usually do during the sweltering summer heat and long power failures, fearing that they will be easy prey for the muhnochwa. In some villages the entire population are squeezing into the headman’s house for the night, seeking shelter and safety in numbers. Having lost faith in the police, villagers have formed nocturnal protection squads. In Shanwa village, where the attacks are said to have started, men patrol all night, banging drums and shouting slogans to frighten off intruders, such as: “Everyone be alert. Attackers beware.” Residents have dismantled television aerials and taken satellite dishes down from their roofs, fearing that they may attract the mysterious object. Even radios have fallen silent at night under selfimposed blackout. The Times of India reported that the national intelligence bureau was sufficiently concerned to send its own agents, like Mulder and Scully from television’s X-Files, to investigate the “alien” invasion. After listening to villagers’ descriptions of the muhnochwa, the agents constructed their own replica from the base of a mixer-grinder, fitted with coloured lights, and hoisted it onto a pole in an attempt to entice the extraterrestrial. Then they waited. At 1.05am they were rewarded with a flash of light “like a photocopier”, which repeated three times. A videotape was said to show a flash of light passing across the screen. The agents concluded that the villagers were right and that they were indeed experiencing an extra-terrestrial invasion. Local doctors, however, have dismissed the phenomenon as mass hysteria, saying that most of the injuries have been self-inflicted by panicked villagers, evoking memories of the “monkey man” hysteria in Delhi last year. At least three people died jumping from roofs and dozens more were injured during the mystery simian’s two-week reign of terror before officials dismissed it as a mass delusion and sightings petered out. -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From cybermohalla at sarai.net Tue Sep 3 06:18:15 2002 From: cybermohalla at sarai.net (Cybermohalla) Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 06:18:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] wall magazine 3 from cybermohalla@lnjp Message-ID: <200209030618.15661.cybermohalla@sarai.net> dear all, this is the english translation of the third issue of the wall magazine, ibarat (an inscription, a write-up), from the compughar at LNJP basti, Delhi, one of the media labs that is part of the cybermohalla project at Sarai. as you all know, ibarat is printed once every two months. It is pasted up in almost 25 places in their neighbourhood. this issue is about our trip to bombay, in january this year. a recollection of, and reflection on our perception of work practices, of time, faces, and space. best shveta ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ibarat 03 August 2002 A conversation Aadaab. "We're back". Remember the "Bombay Trip"? When our team, all packed, was waiting to fulfil its dream of going to Bombay from the basti, there was on the one hand the sadness of leaving behind our parents, and on the other the immense happiness of going to Bombay. Do you know that before we got there, we never thought that Bombay was not a city magical, but another city like Delhi, albeit with its own markings. There, as in Delhi, people breathe, children work to feed themselves, and women can also be seen working. Each person is busy with her/his own work and we would never have got to know this if we hadn't gone to Bombay. Going there has given us some courage, in a way. Now we feel we are more open to undertaking certain tasks by ourselves, individually. Many of our misconceptions were done away with, like the one about how girls are sold there, or that there is lumpen behaviour on the roads, that we would get 'spoilt' by going there. The desire to go to a new place, there definitely was. But we never thought it would be realised. Anyhow, how did we find roaming the streets of Bombay, seeing the people there, thinking, reflecting, understanding, talking, visiting different places... so, come with us, we'll take you to Bombay with our writings. The Journey > Delhi to Mumbai When we got into the train at Old Delhi railway station, in our eyes were, simultaneously, the faces of our parents and the image of Bombay, bedecked as heaven would be. That, because we thought of Bombay as a city magical. Perhaps without its shareof sadness? It's share of poverty? People who live there probably know that uppermost in our minds was the image of the city as a film city. As if film stars were going to reach the station to greet us! The scenes from the train looked beautiful. Somewhere there were high mountains, and it seemed a brown carpet was spread out. The shape of the mountains, if we were to observe them, reflect an image of life itself. Mostly, everything looked green. On the way we saw a field of marigold flowers. And many trees on which names were written. It looked like the names were coming out from the trees. Saw a brick house, the walls of which were not cemented. Just bricks, one on top of the other. Inspite of that, the house was not shaking. Sitting in the train, we saw a number of stations. Like Baroda, Surat, Ratlam, Thuriya etc. From the train, it seemed as if a lot of what we saw was travelling with us, while lots kept getting left behind. By ten or eleven at night, we were in our seats, lying down, trying to go to sleep. But we just couldn't, because our hearts were eager to see the sights outside. We spent a day and a night in the train. Enroute, we played a number of games. So the time seemed to pass by without leaving behind a trace. We also ate all kinds of things on different stations. Bhaiya was carrying all kinds of snacks for us, which we ate all through the journey. This train journey ended on the morning of the sixth, at 4:30 a.m. at Bandra station. It was still quite dark, and so the many lights that were lit, Bombay looked like the city of our dreams. Outside the staion, some shops were opening, some already had. We took a local train to Andheri from there itself. There, we sat at the Ideal Restaurant and had our morning meal. Haji Ali At twelve in the afternoon, we reached Haji Ali. On the way to Haji Ali, we first bought a chaadar (a sheet of offering) and some khil (puffed paddy). A man with a black beard, wearing a cap was sitting there. On the way were also some shops - some small, some large - and with them, crowds as well. It seemd as if it were a special day. The small shops sold talismans (tabeez), caps, sunglasses, frames, and much more. The path there was neither too broad, nor too narrow. Women, children, the elderly could be seen begging. There were many people, among them hindus, muslims, fisherfolk, foreigners. Waves playing around the path to the dargah kept increasing. They seemed to be reaching out to all the rocks and boulders there. We climbed the stairs and entered. Inside, a qawaali was on. We listened to it for a while, then moved towards the mazaar (shrine). Outside, at the entrance, there was a boy who was putting to one side everyone's slippers and shoes. There on a board was written, 'Pay whatever your heart deems fit. If harrassed for more, the matter will reach the office.' We took off our footwear and went inside. Then, into the room where the mazaar was. We all offered the chaadar, but it was Suraj and Shamsher who went inside to spread it, because it's the men and boys who do that; ladies pray for wish fulfilment. We all stood there itself and did that, then went and sat outside. Nearby were some taps where some elderly women were performing their ablutions. All of their attention was focused on the water and the ablutions. Haji Ali was surrounded by water. We set out towards the water. Where there were big boulders and it was very windy. The way to the sea was rocky, because of which our feet got bruised. We had quite a lot of fun sitting there. Then we saw that the path we had taken to get to where we were sitting was quite filled up with water. Scared of falling, and at the same time enjoying ourselves, we made our way through the water. While walking, we heard al ot of people talk, and so got a sense of the many languages spoken by the inhabitants of Bombay. We got out and had juice. It was evening now, and Haji Ali looked even more beautiful lit up. Then we got to know the story of Haji Ali. A man by the name of Haji Ali went to Saudi Arabia for Haj. He died there. Before dying he asked not to be buried, but for his body to be encased in a wooden casket and that be let into water. And that was what was done. The casket made its way to the sea, here, all the way to Bombay, where it stopped. His shrine was made right here. Juhu Beach We had gone to Juhu Beach at night. As soon as we got there, we took a ride on a ferris wheel. It was being operated by people who jumped and swung from one radiating bar to the next to propel it. All the shops there had taken the form of a restaurant. They were all lined up, and people from every shop were saying, "Come here, the food is very good, you'll get anything you want." Mats were spread on the sand by the stall owners. Which stall you were a customer of depended on which mat you chose to sit on. We all sat on one mat. A boy from the next shop came to us with a menu listed on a sheet of paper. We were just going through the list when another boy from the shop right in fromt of the mat came and told him to remove that piece of paper, that no one would eat from it. The first boy remained quiet. The other boy showed us his list. The owner of the stall from which the first boy had come called out to him and asked him in Bambaiya hindi why he was standing there if we were not going to eat. He went away. Almost all of us had pao bhaji. It seemed there was a fair on at Juhu Beach. There was a lot of light. All the shops were decorated with lights. We asked one of the people manning the swings why they weren't powered by electricity. He said that was not allowed there. We spoke to him about many things. On every ferris wheel, there were three to four men, making it rotate. There was one man who had been operating a wheel which had no people sitting in it. We felt he was very worried. When we spoke with him he said, "I have many ferris wheels, and I also man a cart during the day. Right now, at this time, no one comes for ride on the wheel. When children see it moving, they come. Otherwise parents think it's out of order." Mud Island On hearing the name "Mud Island', we conjured images of England, Switzerland in our minds. On the way there we kept thinking there would be a clean swimming pool there, the kind we often see in films. When we reached there, we were left surprised. Because it was just like Juhu Chapatti, but cleaner. There was the sea as far as we could see. The rocks in the water looked like there was a crocodile, shining through the waves. When the waves rushed towards us with speed, they brough with them many small things. Among them would be shells of all kinds. The waves would leave them on the shore as if they were entrusting the world with their treasures. And when they would come back, they would carry these back with them. There was no crowd here. We couldn't resist the water. Everyone took off their shoes and went in. And we all bathed in it, for a long, long time. When the sea water would find its way into our mouths, our mouths would become salty. There were many boats in the sea. In them were women who had loaded the boats with fish and were bringing them ashore. Two to three men were carrying away sack loads of the sand from the shore. Two children were laughing, they seemed rather excessively naughty. One was in a school uniform, and the other in clothes one wears at home. When some of us went to but some coconut water (we had to climb some steps for this), the woman there got angry and started saying, "Baba re baba, why are you coming here? If our employer sees you, he'll scold us. You go back down now." (There hindi was Bambaiya hindi.) We said, give us our coconut water first, then we'll go. We took the water and came back and sat down. Chawpatti We had gone to Chawpatti the very first day. We took off our shoes and put them on a side and went inside the water. On the Chawpatti was a huge white light that seemed to light up the whole island. And because of this light, the colour of the water seemed to be changing. There was quite a crowd here. Some people were sitting around with their families. Some were couples - a boy and a girl sitting togehter. In one place, there was an old man, with two young children. The children were collecting sand and making a house with it. The old man was looking at them with love-filled eyes. It was night, so we couldn;t see very far. Only lights from the houses in tall buildings, and billboards that were lit up. There was a woman sitting next to us. She was roasting ground nuts. She would collect sand from the ground and put it inside the iron utensil which had fire lit under it, and then would put lots of ground nuts in it. Everyone, all of us included, were sitting facing the same direction - our faces were turned towards the sea. Then bhaiya brought pao bhaji for all of us. We ate it while savouring the waves, the cool breeze and sand. Before this we saw the sun setting. As it set, its colour, and the colour of the sky around it changed. From yellow to orange, then light pink, then dark pink, and then light red. It was the first time we were witnessing a sunset. The Aquarium We bought ourselves tickets and went inside The Aquarium. Here too, there was a big crowd. There were many school children, as also could be seen people with their families. Here there were many kinds of fish. First we saw inanimate objects that had been taken out of the sea. Some were the bodies of of sea animals we had never seen before. When we moved ahead, we saw such a beautiful fish that it filled our hearts with joy. While some people seemed to be looking at the fish with great interest, others were just passing them by cursorily. There were ladies and gents who were walking side by side, as couples. Mostly, people were telling one another about the fish. We could also hear some conversations between people which seemed to be just like those of ruffians straight out of a Bombay movie. We had been looking at the fish for a while now. The boys there also seemed to be quite 'straight', there was no eveteasing of any sort. Our attention went to the man who was checking tickets at the gate. His skin was dark, he had a slight moustache, average height,. But his behavious was not pleasant. Because he was not speaking properly with people. If someone tried to get inside The Aquarium without showing him the ticket, he would start muttering under his breath, and there was absolutely no sign of a smile on his face. Slowly everyone came in through the door and so we could got out. On coming out we saw written there, in big, bold letters, 'The Aquarium'. The Fish Market Fish markets are set up in Bombay also, where different types of fish are sold. Only women can be seen selling fish here. We saw many kinds of faces in the fish market. Some feelings and reflections got associated with the faces we saw there. For instance, a face of joy, that of sorrow, a face that seemed to be making a request, a face that looked quite, thoughtful, lost, a face that seemed to hide what was in the heart. We saw many courageous women. The fish market was stinking. Maybe they didn't think so, afterall selling fish is their work. We could see fish of different types - glittering, black, white, colourful, small, large. Some of their names are - prawns, shark fish, wafer fish, etc. The fish were quite expensive. The women told us, "The men catch the fish and all of us bring them here to sell them." Looking at the women it seemed they manage things from the beginning to the end on their own. The men's work gets hidden behind the efforts of the women. One can't say, looking at them work, that the women need assistance of any kind. All of their attention was focussed on either the fish, or the buyers. The market was quite crowded. Many children were also selling fish there. Most women had oiled their hair and tied a tight bun. They were wearing a saree like a dhoti (a piece of cloth worn around the lower body, one end of which passes between the legs and is tucked in behind). There wasn't a sign of fear that could be spot in these women. Gateway of India All of us were very happy when we reached the Gsteway of India. There were ships that we could see till a great distance and these looked very beautiful. Some people were sitting in the ships and communicating with the people they knew using gestures. There were also some shops there. Shops that can be set up just about anywhere. People who had set their shops on the ground were gesturing with their eyes to the passers-by to buy their wares. We read the english words etched on the Gateway of India. They were about a king and a queen. Many pigeons were feeding on grain just in front of the Gateway of India. They were very nice to look at. A slightly old woman was standing there looking at them with great attention. She was smiling, a little, to herself. Maybe she has some memories associated with the pigeons. She was dark of colour, had white hair, short in height, was wearing black shoes and was holdign a black purse like one would carry a baby. Just like there is the India Gate in Delhi, there is the Gateway of India in Bombay. But we thought the two quite different in that what India Gate has etched on it are the names of people who sacrificed their lives in war and is surrounded by huge lawns for playing, while the Gateway has on it the name of some king and queen, and there are also some big ships in the water behind it. We also got photographs clicked at the Gateway. Just opposite it is the Taj hotel. In Delhi we had heard of the Taj hotel as being very beautiful, but when we saw it with our own eyes, it didn't seem as grand as all that talk had made it out to be. There were glasses that had been placed in front of it, on which water flowed, and that looked very beautiful. Circus We went to see the Jumbo circus on January 8. we reached there around 7:00 - 7:30 in the evening. From outside the cisrcus looked just like the one in Delhi - the one that we see on the Red Fort grounds. There were some photographs by way of glimpses to what would be seen inside. There were photographs decorated with big lights inside as well. There was a round stage for the performance of the show. That is just how it is in Delhi as well. The stage, about two thirds of its circumference, was surrounded by chairs. A little space was left for people to be able to move in and out. We got in through the gate and sat down on the chairs in the rows on the left, quite at the back so we were on a bit of an elevation. Once seated, we began to have lots of fun watching the performances. There were many wonderful programmes in the circus. For instance, a boy performed some tricks with his hat, then three girls and three men displayed their skills. One girl performed with many hula hoops, and then a much younger girl repeated the acts, and this was truly wonderful. A boy and a girl were swining from a rope and performed their routine on romantic songs. This was followed by a comedy show. Three men entertained the audience by performing dangerous feats on motor cycles in the 'well of death'. Some elephants got together to pray to lord Shiva. The accompaniment of lights and music made all the performances all the more entertaining. In the very end, we saw a trapeze show which we really liked. On seeing the performance we realised that there existed a relationship of fear between the performers and the spectators, a relationship involving the skill of the performers, and leading to the entertainement of the spectators. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Articles, photographs, design, layout by the Ibarat team at the Compughar, Cybermohalla Ibarat team: Azra Tabassum, Mehrunnisa, Shamsher Ali, Suraj Rai, Shahjehan, Nilofer, Yashodha Singh, Bobby Khan, Babli Rai, Shahana Qureshi. They can be contacted at compughar at sarai.net Translation by shveta (shveta at sarai.net) --------------------------------------------------------- Cybermohalla is an experimental collaborative initiative between Ankur, a Delhi based NGO and Sarai, for the creation of nodes of popular digital culture in Delhi . The Compughar (Media Lab) is located in LNJP basti, a working class settlement in Central Delhi. Write to cybermohalla at sarai.net About Cybermohalla: www.sarai.net From oisika at yahoo.com Tue Sep 3 19:55:27 2002 From: oisika at yahoo.com (oisika chakrabarti) Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 07:25:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Job-posting Message-ID: <20020903142528.43866.qmail@web9802.mail.yahoo.com> Hi Hope some of the people on this list find the job-posting helpful. Thanks, Oisika. > Subject: [hr-professionals] International Federation > of Journalists - South Asia Program Coordinator > > The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), > the world's largest organisation of journalists, > representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, is > seeking to employ a Program Coordinator in Delhi, > India. > > Below is a job description. To apply or enquire, > please email Jacqui Park of the IFJ's Asia-Pacific > Project Office on jpark at alliance.org.au > > Applications must be received by 12 September 2002. > > International Federation of Journalists > > Program Coordinator > > The International Federation of Journalists intends > to employ a program coordinator based in Delhi to > develop and implement IFJ activities in the South > Asia region. > > Tasks and responsibilities: > > The Program coordinator will work generally under > the direction of the IFJ's Asia-Pacific Project > office, based in Sydney. > > Under this direction, he or she will: > > Manage the formulation and implementation of the > activities associated with the IFJ Journalism Prize > for Tolerance for South Asia, including acting as > secretariat for the South Asia Prize Executive > Committee and Jury; preparing entry forms and > promotional materials, including translations; > overseeing distribution of promotion material and > entry forms; organising and overseeing judging > process; organising prize giving ceremony and forum; > preparing, editing and producing the prize report > [including translations]; providing regular reports > on progress of the prize as required and managing > the agreed budget for this program. > > Manage the implementation of activities associated > with the Natali Prize for Journalism in South Asia > including distribution of promotion material and > entry forms. > > Manage the implementation of activities associated > with the Child Rights project including organising > workshops and developing training resources. > > Develop networks among IFJ affiliates in the region > and with the project office. > > Work with affiliates in the region on trade union > and organisational development. > > Work with affiliates and the project office to > implement IFJ projects in the region. > > Prepare material as required, including for the > IFJ-Asia web page. > > Other duties as required from time to time > > Conditions: > > The position will be for a one year term (which may > be renewed for another year). > > Other conditions to be negotiated. Part time work or > flexible working hours would be considered. > > Some travel, including international travel, will be > required. > Selection criteria > > The person selected will be committed to the > principles of the IFJ, that is, to freedom of the > press and to trade unionism. > > He or she will have demonstrable skills in > organising and ability to work with others and on > their own as required. > > Must have high-level communication skills [both > written and spoken] in both English and a South > Asian language. Abilities to communicate in other > regional languages will be an advantage. > > Must have strong planning and reporting skills and > be able to identify possible funding opportunities > and to build relationships with a variety of > potential partner organisations. > > Training skills would be an advantage. > > > > ===== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com From announcements-request at sarai.net Thu Sep 5 09:56:09 2002 From: announcements-request at sarai.net (announcements-request at sarai.net) Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2002 06:26:09 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Announcements digest, Vol 1 #87 - 1 msg Message-ID: <20020905042609.13292.782.Mailman@mail.sarai.net> Send Announcements mailing list submissions to announcements at sarai.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to announcements-request at sarai.net You can reach the person managing the list at announcements-admin at sarai.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Announcements digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Call for Proposals (Monica Narula) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 12:57:37 +0530 To: announcements at sarai.net From: Monica Narula Subject: [Announcements] Call for Proposals Applications Invited for Short Term Independent Research Fellowship The Sarai Programme: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi What is Sarai? Sarai is a public initiative of media practitioners and scholars looking at media cultures and urban life. Sarai's interests are in the field of old and new media, information and communication Technologies, free software, cinema, and urban space - its politics, built form, ecology, culture and history, with a strong commitment to making knowledge available in the public domain. It is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. For more information visit www.sarai.net Who Can Apply Sarai invites independent researchers, media practitioners, software designers and programmers, urbanists, architects, artists and writers, as well as students (post graduate level and above) and university and college faculty to apply for support to research driven projects. Why Research ? What do we mean by Research? What is a Seed Grant? Sarai is committed to generating public knowledge and creativity through research. Hence the support for research driven projects and processes. The fellowships are in the nature of seed grants in order to emphasize the initiation and founding of projects that would otherwise go unsupported Here by research we mean both archival and field research, and forays into theoretical work as well as any process or activity of an experimental or creative nature - for instance in the audiovisual media, as well as in journalism or the humanities and social sciences, or in computing and architecture. The Experience of Last Year This is the second year in which Sarai has called for proposals for such fellowships. We would like to spell out the way in which the process worked during the first year, as an indication of what applicants should expect. The first year saw the selection of twenty proposals, which included work towards projects based on investigative reportage of urban issues, essays on everyday life, a history of urban Dalit performance traditions, a soundscape of an industrial suburb, a graphic novel about Delhi, a documentation of the free software movement in India, research on displacement and rehabilitation in cities, and an interpretative catalogue of wall writings and street signs. Successful applicants included free lance researchers, academics, media practitioners, writers, journalists and activists. The projects were submitted in English, Hindi or a combination of the two languages. We have seen that projects that set important but practical and modest goals were usually successful, whereas those that may have been conceptually sound but lacked sufficient motivation to actually persue a research objective on the field, usually did not take off beyond the interim stage. Sarai interacted closely with the researcher over the period of the fellowship and the grantees made interim and final presentations at Sarai which us to trace the development of work during the grant period and the grantees to obtain structured but informal feedback from us at Sarai in stages during the course of their work. Submissions by grantees included written reports and essays, photographs, tape recordings, pamphlets, maps, drawings and html presentations. What we are Looking For Like last year, this year too we are looking for proposals that are imaginatively articulated, experimental and methodogically innovative, but which are pragmatic and backed up by a well argued work plan which sets out a time table for the project, as well as suggests how the support will help with specific resources (human and material) that the project needs. Suggested Themes Sarai's interests lie in the city, and in media. Broadly speaking any proposal that looks at the urban condition, or at media is eligible. More specifically, themes may be as diverse as habitation, sexuality, labour, social/digital interfaces, urban violence, street life, technologies of urban control, health and the city, the political economy of media forms, histories of particular media practices, migration, transportation, or anything that the applicants feel will resonate with the philosophy and interests that motivate Sarai's work. Sarai supports innovative and inventive modes of rendering work into the Public Domain. Proposals, which pay attention to this, will be particularly valued. Preferred Approaches Innovative and interdisciplinary methodologies, that combine research, practice, and delivery or rendition methods will be especially welcome. Conditions Applicants should be resident in India, and should have an account in any bank operating in India. The research fellowship would be available for up to six months and for a maximum amount of Rs. 60,000. The fellowships do not require an every day presence at Sarai. These are support fellowships and fellowship holders will be free to pursue their primary occupations, if any. What you need to send There are no application forms. Simply post your - Proposal (not more than1000 words) - A brief workplan (not more than one page) - An updated CVs (not more than two pages) - Work samples (maximum two) - Envelopes should be marked - "Attention : Short Term Independent Research Fellowship" [Email proposals will not be entertained]. Proposals may be sent in English or Hindi. - Mail these to: Ranita Chatterjee, Coordinator, Programmes, Sarai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054, India. Enquires: dak at sarai.net Last date for submission: October 5, 2002. Note: Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives, faculty are welcome, so long as the grant amount is administered by a single individual, and the funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name of an individual, partnership, registered body or institutional entity. Applicants who apply to other institutions for support for the same proposal will not be disqualified, provided they inform Sarai that support is being sought (or has been obtained) from another institution. The applicants should inform Sarai about the identity of the other institution. -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Announcements mailing list Announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements End of Announcements Digest From monica at sarai.net Sat Sep 7 17:12:22 2002 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 17:12:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Organ Stealing: Fact, Fantasy, Conspiracy, or Urban Legend? Message-ID: After my last posting on urban legend i was sent a link of a possible "visualization". Enjoy! http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/zone/g/r/gregory4/martianlc.jpg.html And further gleaning from the web brought out the following paper, which is a fascinating look into another kind of urban legend. best Monica Organ Stealing: Fact, Fantasy, Conspiracy, or Urban Legend? Nancy Scheper-Hughes Professors, Department of Anthropology University of California, Berkeley, "What's true? What's false? Who knows how to evaluate anymore?" Seu João Gallo, Brazilian shantytown resident, 1990 Descend with me for a few moments into that murky realm of the surreal and the seemingly magical, into the maelstrom of grisly stories, fantastic allegations, and hideous rumors of kidnap, mutilation, dismemberment, blood and organ stealing -- and to taste the terror and panic that these stories occasion in the nervous-hungry residents of urban shantytowns, tent cities, squatter camps, and other "informal settlements" in the third world. My primary illustrations will come from the shantytowns of Brazil, where I have conducted long-term, intermittent ethnographic research since the mid 1960s. (Scheper-Hughes 1992,1995). But I also draw on related instances from elsewhere in South and Central America, and I will also refer to the current situation in and around Cape Town, South Africa where I am currently engaged in a study "everyday" violence, some of it political, some of it criminal, and some of it medical. The Rumor A ghoulish rumor first surfaced in the shantytowns of Brazil in the mid-1980s, and it has been circulating there ever since. The whisperings tell of the abduction and mutilation of children and youths who, it is said, are eyed greedily as fodder for an international trade in organs for wealthy transplant patients in the first world. Residents of the shantytown Alto do Cruzeiro in NE Brazil, the primary site of my research, reported multiple sightings of large blue and yellow combi-vans [of the type used as Gypsy taxis by the poor the world over] , driven by Americans or Japanese agents, who were said to be scouring poor neighborhoods in search of stray youngsters. The children would be nabbed and shoved into the trunk of the van. Their discarded and eviscerated bodies -- minus heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and eyes -- would turn up later by the side of roads, in between rows of sugarcane, or in hospital dumpsters. 'They are looking for 'donor organs'. You may think this is just nonsense", said my friend and research assistant, "Little Irene" in 1987. " But we have seen things with our own eyes in the hospitals and the morgues, and we know better." "Bah! These are stories of the poor and illiterate", countered another of my friends, Casorte, the skeptical new manager of the municipal cemetery of the plantation town I call Bom Jesus da Mata. 'I have been working here for over a year and never have I seen anything. Where are these bodies? [Yet, even as we spoke on the following day, a municipal truck arrived at the gates of the cemetery with the body of a "desconicido", the remains of an unknown, unclaimed man found murdered in an abandoned field not far from town. The eyes and genitals had been removed. "Death squads", whispered Casorte, by way of explanation, and he made the gesture of a throat being slit ]. The body snatching rumors were picked up by newspapers in Recife and were reported on the radio. Most of news reports mocked the credulity of simple people. But the media coverage, meant to dispel the rumors, actually exacerbated them. "Yes, it is true, wept Dona Aparecida, wringing her hands on the doorstep of her shack on the garbage strewn street called the Vultures' Path. "I heard it on the radio". Consequently, small children were kept securely locked in at home while their parents were out working. I found one terrified little girl tethered like a goat to a wobbly table leg. Globalization of the Rumor Soon after I began writing and delivering papers that interpreted the Brazilian organ stealing rumors in terms of the everyday violence practiced against the bodies of the poor and the marginal, I began to hear other variants of the organ theft stories from anthropologists working in Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, India, and Korea. The rumor -- as we now know -- has trans-national, indeed global dimensions. Media reports of the seizure and sale of children ( and of fetuses) for organ transport surfaced in domestic and international newspapers [ see Maite Pinero, Le Monde Diplomatique, 1992, for a listing of some of the most noteworthy news stories between 1987-1992]. The rumors were investigated by various international human rights organizations, and the practice was condemned in a resolution approved by the European Parliament in November l988. Though most of the stories came from Central and South America, there were reports of the organ theft rumor surfacing in Poland and Russia where it was reported that poor children's organs were being sold to rich Arabs for spare parts surgery. (Czubala 1991). Historian Luise White (1993) published stories of blood sucking/blood stealing human vampires in East and Central Africa, and South African anthropologist, Isak Niehaus (1993) has recorded blood and organ stealing rumors in the Transvaal collected during fieldwork in 1990-1993. The African variants often tell of blood sucking "firemen" or of "medical" agents driving red combie-vans looking to capture unsuspecting people to kill (or to drug) in order to drain their blood ( or to remove organs) for magical ("muti") or medical purposes (to sell to local hospitals). In Italy (of all places!) Paolo Toselli (1991) wrote a series of news features concerning rumors of poor children kidnapped for transplant surgery that surfaced in August 1990 and quickly achieved wide circulation. As many as 231 children were reported kidnapped in Italy during 1990. In the Italian instance, the stories focused on a "black ambulance" as the kidnap vehicle. Other Italian rumors warned of a mobile operating surgery touring the countryside north of Rome. And, there were rumors of a blackmarket trade in poor Brazilian children said to be illegally imported to Italy as a source of "spare parts" for organ transplants. Here we have, full circle, the rumor that began in Brazil , the "donor" nation, finding its counterpart some two years later turning up in the "receiving" nation. [Like the children's game 'Telephone'] But, I was stymied just a few days ago, when my husband and I went out to dinner with our son, Nate, and his Argentinean buddy, Mattias, both university students. I apologized for being preoccupied and explained I was a bit worried about a presentation I had to make in in Italy on organ stealing rumors. Mattias immediately perked up and asked asked what I was going to say. "Do you have any information?", I asked slyly. "Well", Mattias began, " this Mexican lady who works in the kitchen of 'Noah's Bagels' told me about a friend of hers who had gotten drugged and abducted from Spengler's [ a seafood restaurant ]. The guy was just sitting at the bar and minding his own business when a business man , dressed up to kill in a Giogio Armani suit, sat down next to him and bought him a few drinks. Well, the guy finally passed out cold and the next day the police discovered him still unconscious in a dumpster. He was O.K. but he had a very fine little incision on his stomach, like it was done by professionals, you know." One could even link the Latin American "baby parts" story with rumors in the U.S. of UFO alien abduction for sexual abuse and organ/reproductive stealing ["aliens have no genitals!" ], as reported by Luise White (1994) and by perceived abduction victims in therapy in my own community, Berkeley, California (Richard Offshey, personal communication). I encountered a version of this story in Spanish-speaking northern New Mexico a few years ago. Local farmers and ranchers there had spread a rumor of ritualized animal mutilations that was attributed to extraterrestrials. A livestock inspector I interviewed in Taos County verified instances of ritualized slaughter of livestock with mutilations and did not discount the possibility of Alien terrorists. Impact of the Rumors: The rumors have had their effects. An article I published (originally in the LA Times (1990) but picked up by international news agencies, and republished in New Internationalist in which I linked the "organ theft" rumor and panic in Brazil to the shadowy practices of international adoption there helped to shut down the American evangelical Christian "orphanage" I had investigated in a suburb of Recife and to reduce significantly the number of international adoptions from that city and from rural Pernambuco. Elsewhere, accounts of the rumor --even in media stories attempting to disprove or discount it -- have backfired and generated an anti- international adoption climate in Central America, but especially in Guatemala, where foreign tourists, suspected of child theft for organ trafficking have been attacked. The Leventhall report for USIA notes the adverse effects of the organ stealing rumor on voluntary organ donation, citing a precipitous decline in donated cornea in Columbia following national broadcasts of child organ trafficking there. Verifying the Rumor Verifying actual cases of children exported for organ transplants has lead to a predictable dead end. Allegations of "baby farms" and "fattening houses" in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Brazil, where newborns were said to be housed awaiting transport to the United States for use as organ donors , were investigated and found to be based on false accusations. The International Children's Right Monitor, published a report raising the obvious questions: Where would the operations take place? How could the murder of the child donors be concealed? Wouldn't the cost and difficulty of an illegal and criminal trade far surpass the difficulty of normal procedures? Patients awaiting a transplant in US and every organ made available to them is strictly monitored by computer through the United Network for Organ Sharing. And organs must be matched to recipients to avoid rejection. Why, then, is it that the 'baby parts story just won't die? (San Francisco Examiner, 1990), despite the appointment of a full-time disinformation specialist , Todd Leventhall, for the U.S. Information Agency in Washington who has led a long campaign to kill it? What does it mean when a lot of people around the world begin to tell variants of the same bizarre and unlikely story? In other words, how does one interpret the social imaginary of poor and third world peoples? According to one interptretive strain the rumors indicate a kind of global mass hysteria reflecting characteristic fin de siecle anxieties and post modern malaise, a misplaced new age spirituality focusing on the body and the sanctity of organs in the face of everyday threats to personal security in the forms of urban violence, anarchy, theft and loss, fragmentation. ( The world's cities, after all have never been so dangerous, so violent.) Less dramatically, the world rumors have been interpreted by some oral historians and folklorists ( see Dundes 1991; Campion-Vincent 1990, White 1993,1994) as constituting a genre, an oral literary form, the "urban legend". The stories are circulated and repeated because they are "good to think" and "good to tell", they entertain by fright , write Luise White, just like good old fashioned ghost stories 1 . Todd Leventhall, disinformation officer for the US Information Agency, has adopted this language in his report "The Child Organ Trafficking Rumor: a Modern Urban Legend" (December 1994). Citing the writings of eminent folklorists ( like Campion-Vincent 1990) who interpret the organ theft stories as the literary inventions of semi-literate people who do not possess the skills to sort out the credible and realistic from the incredible and the fantastic, Leventhall unequivocally states that the rumors are "groundless", "pernicious" , and "harmful". His position is that the rumors must be exposed, refuted, and killed. Here I will frame my remarks as a response to Mr. Leventhall's conclusions that "no government, international body, NGO, or investigative journalist has ever produced any credible evidence to substantiate the rumor ....[which constitutes] a false story that is commonly believed because it encapsulates... widespread anxieties about modern life" ( 1994:i). Among these are "fear of and resentment at wealthy foreigners...fear of wrongful mutilation and death, subconsciously stimulated by the dramatic advances during the past ten to fifteen years in the field of organ transplantaton" (1994:2). The USIA Leventhal report equates third world organ theft stories with US rumors about pets exploding in dangerous microwave ovens, and with the popularity of the American novel and film, Coma, that portrayed unsuspecting people rendered comatose state so that their organs could be removed for transplant in others. Organ theft rumors in South America and the Hollywood film are equated under the rubric of unsophisticated peoples' anxieties about modern technologies that have proceeded too far and too fast. Leventhall's report relies on peoples' stories and narratives (just like the rumors he is trying to dispel), although among his sources are police, public officials and military officers, rather than the common people who often feel threatened by these. Lacking is any familiarity with the everyday, lived experiences of the very poor who circulate and believe the baby parts and organ stealing stories. Here, the ethnographer, working in small locations over time and skilled in the tasks of gathering and interpreting "local knowledge" by means of multi-layered "thick descriptions" of everyday life can perhaps throw new light on the fantastic rumors. In Northeast Brazil where my research focused on the causes of infant and childhood death -- later of the deaths of the "disappeared" adolescents and young men of the shantytown of Alto do Cruzeiro. I began with the "official " statistics, but finding them wholly inadequate, [ Child deaths, for example, are routinely under-reported by more than 50% in rural NE Brazil (see Scheper-Hughes 1992,1995, in press; Nations and Amaral 1991)], I soon left the civil registry office to walk the length and breath of the poor barrios, hillside slums, and outlaying hamlets in order to observe and document the experiences of the sick and dying, and to hand count, as it were, the the dead, and the disappeared. My "rule of method" was simple -- follow the bodies! Into the public clinics, into hospitals , even into surgery amphitheaters. It meant attending infant and child wakes, following "angel" processions and burials, trailing "street children" on their rounds of the city and tracking them down in the local jails that illegal detained them. It meant tracking bodies in the local hospital morgue, and accompanying relatives of the "disappeared" to the the Medical-Legal Institute in Recife. It meant visits to the municipal graveyard to examine old, new and reused gravesites, and the remains of the "unknown" or the "unclaimed " that were removed prematurely from competitive gravesites and tossed into the deposito de osos (the collective paupers' deep well ) in the cemetery. Collecting peoples' narratives is important, but one needs to listen to popular voices as well as the "official story". In Brazil this meant collecting the stories of the "folk demographers" of the rural community: the priests and nuns who attend deaths, the pharmacists, hospital orderlies, the local carpenters who fashion pauper coffins of plywood, cardboard, and crepe paper, the local seamstresses who sew the shrouds, the "praying women" who prepare the bodies of the poor and despised for burial, and the venders in the local market who sell all the ritual paraphernalia used at wakes. What these people did not know the combi- taxi drivers who carry the sick and dying to and from clinics and hospitals might know. What they didn't know the local grave-digger was sure to know. The all too often "rejected knowledge" of these "specialists" can provide the missing social context within which strange events occur and even stranger rumors circulate to account for them. Based on this kind of anthropological "thick description" -- both in Brazil and in South Africa -- I have drawn rather difficult conclusions about the organ stealing rumors, suggesting that the stories are repeated and circulated because there is some truth to them (see Scheper-Hughes 1992, chapter 6). Most anthropologists ( as opposed to folklorists) who have encountered these rumors in one form or another will suggest that the stories are , like the Scriptures, at the very least metaphorically true, operating by means of symbolic substitutions. Blood sucking rumors in Africa and organ theft and fat stealing rumors in South America are cogent metaphors expressing the often grotesque nature of colonialist and neo-colonialist economic, social relations and labor practices. (See Comarff 1985; Taussig 191987,1990; Nash 1977; Niehaus 1993 ). The root metaphor concerns the radical commodification of the body and of body parts in work and in new medical practices. In its strongest and plainest version, the body parts rumors may be taken as factually true. The business of organ transplants is conducted in a transnational space. Elements of both legal and illegal trade in blood and solid organs exist in some parts of the world. Between 1983-1988, 131 patients from three renal units in the United Arab Emirates and Oman traveled to Bombay, India where they purchased, through local brokers, kidneys from living donors. The donors were from urban shantytowns outside Bombay who were compensated between $2,000 and $3,000 for a kidney. This ghoulish trade was widely publicized in an Indian news weekly, but treated as well in a Lancet article analyzing the high mortality among the Arab recipients of purchased Indian kidneys (Salahudeen et al. 1990). Where there is a legal market in the sale of blood or organs, one can be almost certain of an illegal blackmarket replete with human rights abuses. In my research on AIDS in Brazil (Scheper-Hughes 1994), for example, I found that 1 of every 5 cases of reported AIDS in Rio de Janeiro was linked to contaminated blood. Although it is unconstitutional to traffic in blood in Brazil, the new laws have not been enforced by public health authorities. In Rio, Mafia style "numbers" game bookmakers (bicheiros ) traffic openly in blood and blood products just as they do in illegal drugs. Meanwhile, in Cape Town, South Africa today cornea, heart valve, liver, and skin graft "donations" are harvested and distributed to the appropriate surgical and medical units for use in transplantation without soliciting family members' consent. The 'donor' bodies, most of them township Blacks and 'Coloureds' who were the unfortuante victims of violence and other traumas, are handled by state pathologists attached to public mortuaries still controlled by the police. (see NIM 1996: 37-38). There is strong disagreement among pathologists today about the current mortuary-to-surgery practices which are not in strict conformity with South African laws. There is no "presumed" consent for cadaveric organ procurement. Instead, doctors and hospitals are "presumed" to operate with explicit consent of organ donors or their families, a presumption that is not completely warrented. Fear of potential medical exploitation of the dead is strong enough in South Africa at present that the second section of the now hopefully final draft Bill of Rights , dealing with the security of the person, includes wording meant to protect the human rights of potential organ donors. The ANC favored wording of the section on the right to bodily integrity to specify " the right to make decisions about reproduction and their bodies free from coercion, descrimination and violence. Speaking for the ANC, Willie Hofmeyer explained the inclusion of the words 'and their bodies' with reference to the case of organ transplantation in South Africa. It should come as no surprise, then, that in the impoverished Black townships outside of Cape Town, a stone's throw from the city's famous Groote Schurr teaching hospital ( where Christian Barnard pioneered heart transplants), people express hostile and negative attitudes toward organ donation. 2 Politically astute township youths referred to the directionality of the exchanges: organs were being "harvested" from poor and black bodies -- representing the majority of the population of South Africa and accounting for a grossly disproportionate number of violent and accidental deaths -- for transplantation into wealthy, white bodies. Sophisticated, high tech medicine is the perogative, still, of South Afican whites. Negative attitudes toward organ removal also derive from older and "traditional" practices of "muti" murder in which organs are removed for magical practices. A case, verified by doctors at Groote Schurr Hospital, occurred in Nyanga, a black suburb of Cape Town this past year (Cameron 1995). Here I will argue that the organ stealing stories are told, remembered, and circulated because they are true at that indeterminate level between metaphor and fact. The poor people of urban shantytowns world wide are "on to something" ; the stories express an intuitive sense that something is gravely amiss. Timing of the Rumors: Political Disappearances / State of Emergency It is important to note the geo-political mapping and the timing of the organ stealing rumors. While rumors of blood libel and body snatching appear and disappear periodically, the current spate of organ and child stealing rumors arose and spread in the late 1980s. In Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala El Salvador, and South Africa the organ stealing rumors have arisen within a specific political context and following a recent history of military regimes, police states, civil wars, and " dirty wars" in which abductions, "disappearances", mutilations, and deaths were commonplace. During the Argentine "Dirty War" of the late 1970s and early 1980s, children were stolen, students were captured, interrogated, tortured and killed. Their bodies were abused and mutilated, and physicians often collaborated as interrogator- torturers ( as they did in El Salvador , Argentina, and in South Africa) with the military state. Anthropologist Marcelo Suarez Orozco (1987) described in lurid detail the abuse of children during the "Dirty War". Babies and small children were kidnapped and given to military families; older children were abducted by security officers, brutalized in detention, and then returned "transformed" to relatives. Some of these were used as "bait" to entrap other "subversives". Other children were tortured in front of their parents and some died in captivity. An official truth commissions, established in the mid 1980s (CONADEP 1984 ), initiated the task of documenting after the fact the kinds of atrocities that had terrorized large segments of the population there. Nonetheless, Dr. Felix Cantarovitch, reporting from the Ministry of Health in Buenos Aires in 1990, contributed an article to Transplantation Proceedings (1990) in which he states: "In Argentina between 1984 and 1987 a persistent rumor circulated about child kidnapping. The rumor was extremely troublesome because of its persistence sustained by the exaggerated press that has always been a powerful tool to attract attention of people about the matter. In November 1987 the Secretary of Health gathered the most important authorities of justice, police, medical associations and also members of Parliament with the purpose of determining the truth. As a result it was stated that all the rumors and comments made by the press were spurious." Similarly, Mayan Indian villages in Guatemala sustained military attacks that were nothing less than genocidal over the past decade. The counterinsurgency war, which reached its height between 1978 and 1984, left over 100,000 people dead, another one million internally displaced, and caused thousands to flee across the Mexican border. Over 440 rural Indian villages in the highlands were destroyed. (see Falla 1982, 1992; Green 1995). Women were widowed and children were displaced, lost, and orphaned in the tens of thousands. These displaced children became the focus of international (especially North American) adoption, contributing to villagers mounting sense of panic, terror, and disaster. The consequent hysterical attacks of American tourists, especially those seeking to adopt Indian babies, has to be understood within this recent history. That Leventhal cites interviews with Guatemala's military officials in refuting the over-detemined child and organ stealing rumors there, is a bit like asking the proverbial fox to guard the hen house. Similarly, in Brazil many vestiges of the military state remain. In the shantytowns this presence is still felt in the late-at-night knock on the door, the appearance of masked men in police uniform, and in the scuffle abduction of one's husband or teenage son. Several young men of the Alto do Cruzeiro , each black, young and in trouble with the law for petty crimes, were seized from their homes just after Christians in 1987 by masked men in uniform. Two of the bodies, slashed, mutilated, and duped between rows of sugarcane, turned up a few weeks later. The police arrived with graphic photos: "How do you expect me to recognize meu homen (my man) in these pictures? Dona Elena screamed. Finally, the men came one night for the teenage son of Black Irene, the boy that everyone on the Alto knew affectionately as "Nego De". The existence of local paramilitary death squads is suspected, but on this topic shantytown people are silent, speaking, when at all, in a complicated form of sign language. No one else wants to be marked. Meanwhile, violent attacks and the murder of unwanted street children in Brazilian cities continues unabated to this day (see Dimenstein 1992; Scheper-Hughes and Hoffman 1994). One could "read" the organ stealing and baby parts rumor and panic as a response to the nervous, unstable democracies just now emerging in parts of South and Central America. In Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, the rumors surfaced or soon after the democratization process was initiated and in the wake of the reports by " truth commission" such as Nunca Mas in Argentina and Brazil Nunca Mas. The rumors appeared, then, during a time when people finally became aware of the magnitude of the atrocities practiced by the state and its henchmen. Insofar as the poor of urban shantytowns are rarely called upon to speak before official Truth Commissions, body theft rumors may be seen as a surrogate form of political witnessing. The rumors participate in the spirit of the various official Truth Commissions by testifying to human suffering on the margins of the official story. The rumors also signify a sense of alarm, warning others in the community that their bodies, their lives, and those of their children are or have been in danger. The rumor expresses, obliquely and covertly, the abnormality of the "normal" and the chronic "state of emergency" in which poor people live (Taussig 19992, citing Benjamin). The rumors express the subjectivity of subalterns living in a "negative zone" of existence where lives and bodies are experienced as a constant crisis of presence (hunger, sickness, injury) on the one hand, and as a crisis of absence and disappearance on the other. Misplaced Bodies: Clinics and Hospitals There are even more mundane sources of the organ theft rumors as well. In Brazil the rumors allude to the way that poor peoples' bodies are usually dis-regarded in medical encounters. In public clinics and hospitals of the rural Northeast indifferent doctors in the employ of the state or the municipio are willing to over-medicate the poor, to tranquilize hungry bodies, and to order unnecessary amputations and surgical removals for treatable conditions. I think of the municipal dental clinic in Bom Jesus where poor peoples' teeth were extracted for minor toothaches. Dr. "Tiradentes" agreed, saying with a shrug of his shoulders: " Yes, this clinic is scandal,truly, and people worse off coming here than treating themselves. This is no way to run a clinic. ... What do you see here -- just a chair! All I do is pull teeth. People come in with a healthy set of teeth, but with a pain they can't bear. All they need is a filling. But they can't afford a private dentist in town. So, against my conscience I pull the tooth. If I sent them all home, I'd soon be out of a job. My job is not only to extract teeth from the poor, but to extract their votes for the mayor as well." And at the municipal clinic Dr. Joao took a cursory look at Seu Antonio, a cane cutter who had suffered a series of strokes that had left his eye damaged and his vision impaired, and said: " That eye of yours isn't worth anything; let's have it removed." The frequent accident victims among the sugarcane cutters and sugar mill workers on the plantations return home from hospital with grotesque scars and badly set bones that leave them permanently disfigured or disabled. Meanwhile, the the middle classes and the wealthy of rural Brazil indulge themselves in the very latest and most sophisticated forms of body sculpting and plastic surgery. "So many of the rich are having plastic surgery and organ transplants, "offered an older woman of the shantytown of O Cruzeiro, that we really don't know whose body we are talking to anymore". In all, the organ stealing rumor has its basis in poor peoples' perceptions, grounded in a social and bio- medical reality , that their bodies and those of their children might be worth more dead than alive to the rich and the powerful. They can all too easily imagine that their bodies , and the bodies of their young children, may be eyed longingly by those with money. As they envision it , organ exchange proceeds from the bodies of the young, the poor and the beautiful to the bodies of the old, the rich, and the ugly , and from the poor in the South to the rich in the North: Americans , Germans, Italians, Japanese and Israelis in particular. Obviously, there are many existential and ethical dilemmas concerning modern biomedical technology that are being imaginatively addressed by shantytown residents in the pre-literate form of "wild" rumors. For these reasons shantytown residents fear hospitalization and avoid dying in public hospitals where they imagine that autopsies are done to harvest usable organs from charity patients as a way of canceling their medical debts. "Little people like ourselves", I was often told, "can have anything done to them". Stories like the following, told by an elderly washerwoman from Recife confirms some of these suspicions: "When I was working in Recife," she began, "I became the lover of a man who had a huge, ugly ulcer on his leg. I felt sorry for him and so I would go to his house and wash his clothes for him, and he would visit my house from time to time. We were going along like this as lovers for several years when all of a sudden and without warning, he died. The city sent for his body. I decided to follow him to make sure that his body wouldn't be lost. He didn't have a single document, so I was going to serve as his witness and as his identification papers. But by the time I got to the public morgue they had already sent his body to the medical school for the students to practice on. So I followed him there and what I saw happening at the school I could not allow. They had his body hung up and they were already cutting off little pieces of him. I demanded the body back, and after a lot of arguing they let me take it home with me. It's true, he was only a beggar, a 'tirador de esmolas,' who sometimes did magic tricks on the bridge in Recife to amuse people. But I was the one who washed his clothes and took care of his wound, and so you could say that I was the owner of his body." When Biu's little girl Mercea, who had been sick for a very long time, finally died in late February of 1988 just as they arrived at the emergency room of the local hospital, Biu wisked the child's body away despite the protest of the clinic staff. She and her sister buried Mercea hurriedly that same day. I accompanied Biu to the registry office where she recorded the child as having died at home that morning. "We were afraid of the state", Biu said, "I didn't want an autopsy or Mercea's body tampered with. She is my child and I will be the guardian of her little body." But Mercea, like most of the more than 300 children who die in Bom Jesus each year, was buried in an unmarked grave although in her own little coffin, purchased on credit. Within less than six months her grave was cleared to make room for another "little angel" and her remains were tossed in the deep well that is called the bone depository, the "depósito de ossos". And so, Mercea's older sister, Xoxa, (who was away working on a plantation at the time of her baby sister's death) could not, on her return home, locate the little grave. This made it difficult for Xoxa to offer her sister the pretty white stockings that Mercea told Xoxa in a dream that she wanted. "Your vision was a true one", Biu told her eldest daughter. "In our rush to bury Mercea we had to put her into the ground barefoot." [ slide of Xoxa with Stockings] Unequal Exchange It was just this perceived injustice of unfair and unequal exchange of organs and body parts that kept Dona Carminha in search of medical assistance for her only living son, Tomas, who was blinded at the age of seven following the medical maltreatment of a serious eye infection. Secondary scar tissue had grown over the cornea of both eyes and the boy , now l3, was living in a world of impenetrable darkness. Carminha was certain her son's condition could be reversed by a cornea transplant. The only obstacle , as she saw it, was that the "eye banks" were reserved -- like everything else in the world -- for those with money. She had taken the boy to Recife, and then by bus to Rio where she pursued one impossible lead after another., going from hospital to hospital. Through all she persisted in her belief that somewhere she would find " a sainted doctor" , a doctor of conscience who would be willing to help. "Don't they give new eyes to the rich"? And, wasn't her own son "equal before the eyes of God?"she asked. Finally, the child and organ stealing rumor reflects unscrupulous practices of international adoption. In the shantytowns of Brazil I encountered several cases of coerced adoption and (in 1990 alone) two cases of child stealing by wealthy "patrons" 3 . Each year nearly 1,500 children leave Brazil, legally, to live with adoptive parents in Europe, the United States, and Israel. But if one adds the clandestine traffic in babies that relies on false documents and bureaucratic corruption in Brazil and abroad, exploiting the ignorance and the powerlessness of poor women , the number of children leaving Brazil has been estimated at 3,000 a year, or roughly 50 babies a week 4 . The lively market in "spare babies" for international adoption is often confused with the lively market in "spare parts" for international transplant surgery. As poor people in shantytowns see it, the ring of organ exchange proceeds from the bodies of the young, the poor, and the beautiful to the bodies of the old, the rich, and the ugly, and from poor nations in the South to rich nations in the North. In the midst of the black market for organs and babies, poor people can hardly be blamed for thinking that their babies are wanted as much dead and for their organs as or their lives. My investigations in 1989 (previously reported) led me to a small beach-front hotel in Recife, Pernambuco where I encountered several couples from Europe and the United States awaiting the final steps in adopting a Brazilian child. Most were working through adoption agencies in their native countries that had put them in touch with "Casa Alegre", a children's home in a secluded hillside suburb run by an elderly Protest missionary from the American Midwest. The couples had scheduled their arrivals to coincide with the appointment of a sympathetic children's judge who supported international adoptions. Adoption cost the couples about $3,000 excluding air fares and living expenses in Brazil, considerably less than the $l0,000 it cost in the U.S. $1,000 went directly to the Children's Home, and another thousand to the local "adoption lawyer", and the remainder paid for various legal "processing fees" and for a court translator. The couples, working through intermediaries, knew little about the birth parents, but they all believed that the birth mothers had voluntarily surrendered their children. At Casa Alegre in Recife I found a dozen babies lying in cribs. Above each head was a name and , in some cases, the name of an adoptive parent and their phone number. Some of the babies were awaiting the adoption proceedings, others had just arrived. Several babies looked ill and malnourished. The director explained that she did the best she could to match the babies according to the adoptive parents' specifications. Most wanted pretty, healthy babies, light-skinned and with white features. Girls were preferred. When I asked, directly , about the Brazilian "traffic in babies", the director admitted that aspects of the adoption process were murky. Sometimes, she had to fight with mothers to release their children. Some birth mothers resisted signing the adoption papers even when they know it would be best for their child. As I left Casa Alegre I thought of the tortured ambivalence of Dona Maria of the Alto do Cruzeiro and of the loss and humiliation suffered by her husband. "When I am very angry", she once said, "I think to myself, 'Why doesn't that rich American woman who stole my little blood (galega ) come back and rescue the rest of us as well.'" Conclusions: Organ transplantation takes place within a specific historical, social, and political context. It depends, as Cantarovitch (1990) suggests, on a social contract and a social trust. The procedures cannot exit without the protest and defiance which the organ stealing rumors register, unless the grounds for social trust are explicit. This requires national and international laws protecting the rights of both organ donors and organ recipients. At a very rudimentary level, the practice of organ transplantation requires a reasonably fair and equitable health care system. The Ministry of Health in Gauteng, South Africa was correct , I think, in proposing a temporary moratorium earlier this year on organ transplants, until the majority of South African blacks in the province could be assured access to adequate primary health care. Despite protests from the organ donor foundations, some organs ( corneas in particular, according to my sources) are taken without consent. It seems like stating the obvious to suggest that organ donation requires a transparent process of informed consent . The social ethics of transplantation requires a reasonably democratic state in which basic human rights are protected and guaranteed. Organ transplantation occurring, even in elite medical centers by the most conscientious of physicians, within the milieux of a police or military state where political "disappearances ( Brazil, South Africa ), "dirty wars" ( Argentina) , ethnic cleansing (Bosnia) or genocide (Ruanda, Guatemala) are practiced or where routine police torture and injury and deaths in detention are common ( the 'old' South Africa) , can only represent an abomination, another form of violence. Under such compromised circumstance the most vulnerable people will fight back with the only resources they have -- gossip and rumors which convey, albeit obliquely, the reality of the "situation of emergency" that exists for them. Following from the above, other requirements are a legal system concerned with the protection of women's reproductive rights, so that poor women are free from coerced sterilization and coerced adoption, both of which exist in parts of the world. Similarly, where vestiges of forced labor exist especially in "debt peonage" systems which unfairly bind workers to their "bosses", unfair exchanges -- including trade in children -- for survival fuels the panic underlying rumors of organ and child stealing. Finally, the US government needs to accept far more responsibility for reinforcing political and economic circumstances that engender the bodily, ontological insecurity registered in the organ stealing rumors. The USIA document is tone deaf to the very real suffering expressed in the rumors, a suffering based on economic imbalances and political collusions in which the US has played no insignificant part. Acknowledgements Parts of this paper was presented and discussed at the Conference on "Securing Bodily Integrity for the Socially Disadvantaged: Strategies for Controlling the Traffic in Organs for Transplantation", Bellagio, Italy, September 24 -28, 1995. That Tsuyoshi Awaya, Bernard Cohen, Abdallah Daar, Sergei Dzemeshkevich, Chun Jean Lee, Robin Monro, Hernan Reyes, Sheila Rothman, Eric Rose, Kenneth Schoen, Zaki Shapira, and Heiner Smit and myself were able to spend four intensive days together debating the philosophical, medical, and human rights dimensions, meanings and consequences of the global trade in human organs testifies either to the incredible skills of David Rothman as moderator and 'founder of the feast ' or to the calming effects of Lake Como. Probably both. Notes 1.This is how White (1993, 1995) explains Central and East African blood sucking and organ stealing stories, especially favored by poor women who are sex workers. The women tell stories of urban brothels where unsuspecting men are lured and then drugged as they sit on chairs covering a trap door which drops the unconscious client to a basement where he is "operated on", that is, his blood is drained, skin is removed, and organs are taken. Poor women, so often abused by their male clients, took great delight in telling stories of male "johns" rendered unconscious, passive, mute, and physically gutted. 2. I cite my own field research in Chris Hani squatter camp as well as professors of medicine at the University of Cape Town ( Lerer, Benataur, personal communication). Nonetheless, a survey of "public attitudes to organ donation in South Africa", published in SAMJ in Feb. 1993 remarkably reported generally positive and supportive attitudes across ethnic lines, with the exception of communities closest to Groote Schurr Hospital where most transplantations in the country have taken place (see Pike, Odell, and Kahn 1993). 3. When Maria Lourdes, the mother of five sickly and malnourished children living in a miserable hovel on the Alto do Cruzeiro was asked by her wealthy boss ) if she could "borrow" Maria's four-year-old, Maria readily agreed. The woman, for whom Maria washed clothes, said she wanted the little "blond" (galega) just for her amusement. Maria sent her daughter off just as she was: untidy, barefoot, and without a change of clothing. The patroa promised to return the child the following morning. Two nights passed and when still her daughter was not returned, Maria became worried but she did not want to anger her boss by appearing mistrustful. When Maria's husband returned home from his work on a distant plantation and he discovered his favorite daughter was missing, he shoved Maria up against the wall of their hut. "Stupid woman!", he yelled when Maria told him what had happened. The husband went off in frantic search. At the house of the patroa he learned that the child had already been given to a missionary who directed a "children's home" that specialized in overseas adoption. "Your daughter is in good hands," insisted the home's local sponsor and benefactor. "Leave her where she is and soon she will be on her way to America to become the daughter of a rich family. Don't be selfish; give her a chance." Had Maria and Manoel lodged a complaint with the police? I asked. "Do you think the police would take a complaint from us?" Maria said. She was angry at having been tricked but she came to accept what had happened. Surely her daughter was better off now. 4. Israel: About l50 Brazilian children live with their legal adoptive parents in Israel. Between 1985-1990 about 2,000 children have entered Israel from Brazil in a questionable manner. Italy: Most adoptive babies who go to Italy are from the state of Bahia which has a heavy concentration of Afro-Brazilians. Some of these adoptions have been investigated by the Italian courts. Germany: The clandestine adoptions of Brazilian babies to Germany can be traced to the Northeast Brazilian city of Fortaleza. United States: About 200 babies leave Brazil each year legally through the help of private adoption agencies, many of them affiliated with fundamentalist and evangelical Christian Churches. References Cited or Disussed at Conference Barnett, Andrew and Roger Blair and david Kaserman. 1992. Impriving Organ Donation: Compensation Versus Markets. Inquiry 29: 372-378. Black, Peter. 1978. Brain Death. NEJMed 299:338-93. Brasil - Nunca Mais Campion-Vincent, Veronique. 1990. The Baby-Parts Story: a New Latin American Legend. Western Folkore 49 (1) (January ): 9-26. Cantarovitch, F., l. Casto, and A.M. Cerrajeira. 1991 Aspects of Argentine Transplant Program: a 12 Year Review. TP 23(5): 2521-2522. Cantarovitch, Felix. 1990. Values Sacrificed and values Gained by the Commerce of Organs: the Argentine Experience. TP 22(3): 925-927. 1992. " Legal Aspects of Transplanatation in Argentina" Transplantation Proceedings 24(5): 2123-2124 Chengappa, Raj. 1990. The Organs Bazaar. In dia Today, July: 30-37. Comarff , Jean 1985 CONADEP 1984 . [Report on Torture and the Dirty War] Czubala, . 199 Daar, A.S. 1992. Rewarded Gifting. Transplanatation Proceedings 24: 2207-11. 199_. Living-Organ Donation: Time for a Donor Charter. Current Opinions. 376-380. 1992. Nonrealed Donors and Commecialism. TP 24(5): 2087-2090. Dundes, Alan, editor. 1991. The Blood Libel Legend. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. Falla, Ricardo 1982. The Massacre at the Rural Estate of San Francisco July 1992. Cultural Survival Quarterly 7(1). 1992 Massacres de la Selva. Ixcan, Guatemala 1975-1982. Guatemala: Universidadad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 1992. Fox, Renee and Judith Swazey. Spare Parts: Organ Replacement in American Society. Oxford University Press. Green, Linda. 1995. "The Routinizatio of Fear in Guatemala. Occasional papers, 2(July 1995) Department of History, University of Saskatchewan. Guttmann, R.D. 1993. Regulated Commerialism in Transplantation. TP 25(1): 58-59. International Children's Right Monitor, 198_ Human Rights Watch/Asia 1995 An Executioner's Testimony. Supplementary Submission by HRW/A to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations' May 4,1995 Hearing on China's Use of Executed Prisoners' Organs Kervorkian, Jack. 1992. A Controlled Auction Market is a Practical Solution to the Shortage of Transplantable Organs. Med Law 11: 47-55. Kjellstrand, C. 1990. The Distribution of Renal Transplants -- Are Physiians Just? TP 22(3) (June): 964-965. Leventhal, Todd . 1995. " The Illegal Transportation and Sale of Huma Organs: Reality or Myth?". Paper presented to conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. (xerox copy ). Washington, D.C.: USIA. Luhrmann, Tanya. 1992 (December). Untitled. AAA paper. San Franciso, Calif. Nash , June. 1977 Niehaus, Isak . 1993. Coins for Blood and Blood for Coins: Toward a Genealogy of Sacrifice in the Transvaal Lowveld. Paper read at the meeting of the Society for South African Anthropology, Johannesberg. NIM. 1996. Breaking With the Past: Reports of Alleged Human Rights Violatios by South African Police. Cape Town: Network of Independent Monitors. Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. 1994. Brain Death and Organ Transplantation: Cultural Bases of Medical Technology. Current Anthropology 35(3), June. Pp. 233-254. Palmer, Robin. 1984. Blood Donation in the Border Region: Black Donors, Exdonors, and Nondonors. Institute of Social and Economic Research. Rhodes University, Grahamstown. (August 1984). Pike,R.E., J.A. Odell, D. Kahan. 1993. "Public Attitudes to Organ donation in South Africa." SAMJ 83 (February): 91-94. Pinero, Maite. 1992. Le Monde Diplomatique, 1992, Quah, S.R. 1992. "Social and Ethical Aspects of Organ Donation". TP 24(5) October: 2097-98. Raymond, Janice. 1989. Children for Organ Export? Reproductive and Genetic Engineering 2(3): 237-245. Rothman, David. 1992. Rationing Life, New York Review of Books 39(5)32:37. Salahudeen et al. 1990. High Mortality among recipients of bought living-related donor kidneys. The Lancet 336 (8717): 725-727. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Daniel Hoffman. 1994. Kids Out of Place. NACLA Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1990. Theft of Life. Society 2796): 57-62. __________ 1992 Death without Weeping. Berkeley: University of California Press __________ 1994 "AIDS and the Social Body" Social Science& Medicine Seels, R.A. 1993. Consnt for Organ Donation: What are the Ethical Principles? TP 25(1) February: 39-41. Segre, Marco. 1992. Partial Liver Transplanatation from Living Donors. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 4: 305-325. Smith, Robert. 1989 "the Trafficking in Central American Children", Report of Guatemala10(3): 4-5. Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo. 1987. Te Treatment of Children in the Dirty War. In Scheper-Hughes,ed. Child Survival, pp. 227-246. Dordrecht: D. Reidel. Taussig, Michael 1987, 1990 "Nervous System" Toscelli, Paolo. 1991. "Babbini: Carne da trapianto! la leggenda esplode." Tutte Storie 1.2 (1991): 1-6. USIA The Child Organ Trafficking Rumor: a Modern Urban Legend. Report submitted to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Pornography, December 1994. White , Luise 1993. Cars Out of Place: Vampires, Technology, and Labor in East and Central Africa . Representations 43 (Summer):27-50. 1994 Alien Nation: the Hidden Obsession of UFO Literature. Transition 63: 24- 33 n.d. Between Gluckman and Foucault: Historicizing Rumor and Gossip. (unpublished paper) World Medical Association 1985 WMA Statement on Live Organ Trade, Brussels, Belgium, October. Newspaper Articles Cameron, Jackie. 1995. "Muti Doctor Arrested for Killing Boy". Cape Times August 10,1995, p.2. Chaudhary, Vivek. 1994. "Organ Trade Investigators Seize Hospital Records". The Guardian, June 22. Hebert, Hugh. Victims of the Transplant Trade. 1994 The Guardian June 24, p. 38. [Review of BBC's The Great Organ Bazaar" ] Max, Arthur. 1995. "Stolen Kidneys Supplying Idia's Transplant Industry" SF Chronicle, April 6. Wallace, Charles. 1992. For Sale: the Poor's Body Parts. LA TIMES, Aug. 27, A, 1:1. Wentworth, Richard. 1993. Italians Find Signs of Wide Corruption in Health Ministry" [Judges probe allegations of human organs secretly removed fom corpses and sold on black market ; HIV-infected blood due to black market in blood], Christian Science Monitor November 30. -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From monica at sarai.net Tue Sep 10 16:49:11 2002 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 16:49:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Anniversary of 9/11 Message-ID: As we all know too well, its a year since 9/11. There are many strands of reflection, criticism, thinking etc. that the memory of those events has and will arouse. Below is a piece forwarded to me, which may be of interest to some people on the list. best Monica Who Cares For Human Rights, It's A Just War By Ilija Trojanow and Ranjit Hoskote The events of September 11, 2001, have been widely described as a tragedy, and so they undoubtedly were, for the victims and their families. But, as we all know, one person’s tragedy can be another person’s windfall. The greatest beneficiary of these attacks, and of the perception of national threat they produced, is the military-industrial establishment that dominates the USA, and by extension, the world. It is ironic that the Pentagon, a key target of the operation, has since risen to a position of unchallenged global supremacy, an achievement signalled shortly after September 11, when the most gargantuan defence budget in history was rushed through legislation without occasioning even a ripple of dissent. Since then, no one in the US establishment has challenged the view that the best way to deal with terrorists is to out-gun, out-bomb, and out-massacre them, along with any non-combatants who happen to get in the way. And the few voices that were heard after the attacks, which drew attention to the underlying conditions of oppression and injustice that breed terrorism, have been quickly sidelined and silenced. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the American government and mainstream media have spent the last year working spin-offs from the perceived threat. Right after September 11, there were doomsday prophecies of further terrorist attacks, followed by the mass hysteria over the anthrax letters. The former never materialised; the latter were traced back to US Army biological warfare facilities, which, by the way, have never been visited by UN inspectors. The interested parties will surely do all that is necessary to ensure that the American public continues to feel besieged and under threat. The public discussion concerning the future of the WTC site in New York, for instance, reveals a strong impulse towards building a memorial shrine to the feeling of injustice, the sense of having been wronged. As is customary with patriotic monuments, which serve to declare one's own innocence and essential virtue, while emphasising the irrationality and essential evil of the enemy: they foreground a combination of martyrdom, triumphalism, and ritualised grief. Interestingly and not so paradoxically, the Pentagon, although it has grown exponentially in power, has become completely invisible in the patriotic iconography of the September 11 events. As the headquarters of the US Army, the Pentagon cannot afford exposure in the dramatic and by-now globally televised demonstration of American vulnerability. Instead, it is the civilian target, the World Trade Center, which has been fixed as the iconic reminder of the attacks. The twin towers, ablaze and collapsing, are a contemporary version of the burning ships keeling over in Pearl Harbor: they symbolise the American identity, the self-image of a people always ready to do good in the world, but who are often misunderstood, and once in an epic while, subjected to treacherous attack. But the global scenario today is light-years away from that of 1941. In the aftermath of September 11, the US has programmatically swept aside the model of equity among nations. US unilateralism becomes more entrenched with every successive operation. The bombing of Afghanistan was justified, however thinly, by invoking Article 51 of the UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolution 1373: the US deliberately misread both as authorising nation-states to launch military action in self-defence against international terrorism. But this year, the US establishment has skipped even that flimsy and dubious sanction in proposing an invasion of Iraq: high US officials have repeatedly declared that they can and will attack Iraq simply because they wish to do so. This unilateralism is in line with a corresponding strategy of withdrawal, by which the US has stepped back from most of the mutual obligations that commit it to collaboration with other nations. It has reneged on the SALT and START agreements that it signed with the erstwhile USSR and continued with the CIS successor states, and which mandate the signatories to limit their ballistic-missile capabilities. The US has also failed to ratify all the major treaties of recent years, including the Kyoto Agreement. In May, it withdrew from the proposed International Criminal Court; Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned his NATO partners against contemplating any future action against US defence personnel, proclaiming that his country "will regard as illegitimate any attempt by the court, or state parties to the treaty, to assert the ICC's jurisdiction over American citizens." And in the international groupings of which it continues to be a member, the US plays the bully. This April, it ousted the director general of the UN Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, Jose Bustani, who refused, as he testified, "to take orders from the US delegation". Again, in July, the US forced UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson to resign, for her vocal criticism of US human-rights violations during the 'war against terror'. No nation in the world has signalled its support for the US plan to attack Iraq. For one, there is not a shred of evidence that Saddam Hussein has managed to re-stock his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, in the teeth of a drastic international embargo that prevents even pediatric medicines from entering his country. For another, the Iraqi ruler has been notably quiescent. There were many occasions during his long reign when he could have been deposed on humanitarian grounds, such as when he used poison gas against Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels. But then, in those palmy days, he was the US establishment’s trusted point man against Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution, not the leader of a 'rogue state'. In the post-September 11 world order, the US propaganda machine no longer deems it necessary to convince the world of the validity of American actions. For, after all: "When Caesar says 'Do this', it is perform'd." And so, with or without the support of its allies, the US will move towards brutally establishing its control over the second largest oil reserve in the world. Already, through their man in Kabul, the former oil-company executive Hamid Karzai, US political interests have highjacked the fragile democratic process embodied by the Loya Jirga, re-empowering the warlords at the cost of progressive civil-society groups, so as to lock their hold on the Central Asian oil pipelines. The God-fearing George W. Bush has not deigned, so far, to offer any moral justification for US military aggression. To find a philosophical basis for it, we turn to the statement, "What We Are Fighting For", signed by a group of 60 US intellectuals and widely publicised this February. The signatories include reigning gurus and media pundits like Samuel Huntington, Francis Fukuyama and Michael Walzer. Defining 'radical Islam' as the global enemy and summarily dealing with concepts like pacifism, realism and holy war, they establish the universal moral principle of a 'just war', arguing for a limited and specific use of military aggression when all other means have been exhausted. One of the pillars of morality is the principle of commensurate justice. Attacking a group of German intellectuals who have criticised their position, the US intellectuals offer specious acrobatics instead: "It is moral blindness to compare the unintentional killing of civilians in a war that is morally justified, and in which it is every soldier’s aim to minimise civilian casualties, with the premeditated murder of civilians in an office building by terrorists whose prime aim is to maximise the number of civilian casualties." Evidently, this grotesque nonsense is the best that the intellectual elite of the Free World can come up with, to justify the slaughter of Afghans. Perhaps the Afghans gathered at an open-air wedding celebration in Kakarak on July 1 should have been working quietly in office buildings; they might then have qualified as legitimate civilians in the eyes of Huntington, Fukuyama, Walzer and their fellow luminaries. Instead, they suffered a two-hour US Air Force bombardment. A UN team investigating this casualty of the 'just war' reported that 80 people had been killed and 200 injured in this maniacal attack. Later, US ground forces bound the women’s hands (standard practice, apparently) and denied the injured medical treatment for several hours, while 'sanitising' the site by removing shrapnel and other image-damaging evidence. The only justification offered for the bombing of Afghanistan was the capture of the alleged perpetrators of September 11. That aim has not been achieved. The act of killing nearly 10,000 people, fighters and civilians, only so as to fail to capture a few CIA acolytes-turned-terrorist masterminds, hardly meets the criterion of commensurate justice. Instead, it is evidence of an extraordinary cynicism, and testifies to the horrifying US penchant for unleashing Beelzebub to drive out the Devil. -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Tue Sep 10 23:01:50 2002 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 23:01:50 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] Dr Sunil Sarma is no more Message-ID: <1280.203.200.124.47.1031679110.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> Dr Sunil Sarma passes away Dr Sunil Sarma, former editor of the Jorhat based Daily “The Eastern Clarion” breathed his last at a private nursing home in Jorhat on September 7. Apart from serving as a professor in Jorhat Commerce College and Assam Agriculture University, Dr Sarma also worked as a Deputy General Manager in IDBI. He completed his post-graduation and Ph.D from Delhi School of Economics. Meanwhile, Assam Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has offered his condolences and expressed his heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved family members of Dr Sarma. From shuddha at sarai.net Wed Sep 11 22:51:14 2002 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 22:51:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Call for Contributions to Sarai Reader 03 : "Shaping Technologies" Message-ID: <02091122511405.01455@sweety.sarai.kit> Call for Contributions to Sarai Reader 03 : "Shaping Technologies" Sarai, (www.sarai.net) an interdisciplinary research and practice programme on the city and the media, at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and Waag Society (www.waag.org), a center for culture and technology based in Amsterdam, invites contributions to Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies, We also invite proposals to initiate and moderate discussions on the themes of the Sarai Reader 03 on the Reader List (http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list) with a view to the moderator(s) editing the transcripts of these discussions for publication in the Sarai Reader 03. The Sarai Reader is an annual publication produced jointly by Sarai/CSDS (Delhi) and the Waag Society (Amsterdam).Previous Readers have included : 'The Public Domain' : Sarai Reader 01, 2001(http://www.sarai.net/journal/reader1.html) and 'The Cities of Everyday Life' : Sarai Reader 02, 2002, (http://www.sarai.net/journal/reader2.html ). The Sarai Reader series aims at bringing together original, thoughtful, critical, reflective, well researched and provocative texts and essays by theorists, practitioners and activists, grouped under a core theme that expresses the interests of the Sarai in issues that relate media, information and society in the contemporary world. The Sarai Readers have a wide international readership. Editorial Collective for Sarai Reader 03 : Ravi Vasudevan, Ravi Sundaram, Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula & Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Sarai) and Geert Lovink & Marleen Strikker (The Waag Society) ___________________________________________________________ The Concept - Shaping Technologies Today, technology is second nature to us. If the landscape of earlier times could be ideally represented by images of naturally occurring objects, the landscape of the contemporary is one that can only be imagined as being peopled by machines. The 'nature' of our times is technological - we are embodied, articulated, located and governed by the machines we make to extend our lives, bodies and faculties. We shape the technologies that surround us and the technologies that surround us shape the contour of our lives. This is what we mean by the term 'Shaping Technologies', which as a term with two senses suggests both a subjective, social appropriation of technological creativity, as well as the impact of technologies on society and life in general. One may even say that the technological ubiquity has gone so far as to make it nearly impossible for us to reflect upon technology as a phenomena separate from the general conditions of global urban life. We are what we work, play and think with, and today we work, play and think with our machines. We are users, inventors, practitioners, artists, hackers and artisans who work with technologies; we are technology's consumers and users, we are hobbyists, enthusiasts and addicts just as we are critics, prophets, and analysts. We are masters, slaves, victims and rebels of technology. No one remains untouched by the 'machine'. Yet, we do not have an adequate language with which to understand and articulate the presence of technology in culture, society and in politics. We are accustomed to construct utopian and dystopic technological imaginaries, even as we neglect the task of a sober and considered reflection of the ethical and cognitive dilemmas that the presence of technologies in everyday life confront us with. And even as technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous, even as it touches wider populations, even as an immersion in technoculture becomes the condition of the contemporary moment, it becomes simultaneously the discursive monopoly of experts and specialists, or of geeks and hobbyists, far removed from the concerns that animate scholars, public intellectuals, and the average curious person. Technology is the underpinning and the shadow of the public domain. Technology is ubiquitous, yet discursively invisible. Sarai Reader 03 seeks to contribute to the termination of this discursive vacuum by asking what other imaginary space there may be, besides the imperative to consume, the irrepressible desire to shop for the next gadget that comes our way, and the whine of the perennial victim of the machine, with which we can envision technology's presence in our lives ? In this third volume in the Sarai Reader series we will also look into alternative approaches towards technology, strategies to revitalize forgotten concepts (and their authors), re-readings of past debates and anticipations of future ones. We will weigh the utopian visions against the dystopic nightmares, perhaps to arrive at assessments that suggest sobriety and a 'cool' consideration of the cold touch of the machine, as well as of the heat of the fuel that animates it. If you feel these issues and questions are of interest to you. If your practice, thought, curiosities, research or creative activity has impelled you to think about some of these issues, we invite you to contribute texts to Sarai Reader 03 : Shaping Technologies. The Reader will have the following broad areas of interest: I. Technologies of Urbanism : Making the City II. The Everyday Experience of Technology III. Philosophies of Technology - Being the Machine IV. Technologies in History IV. Imagining Technologies - The Machine in Art, Literature and Cinema V. Technologies of the Body VI. Gender and Technology VII. Tactical Tech : Technologies of Power and Resistance VIII. D.I.Y (Do it Yourself) IX. Social Software X. Technology and the Environment XI. Networks and Transmissions There will also be three additional special sections: i. Selections from the Reader List on the violence in Gujarat in February/March 2002, ii. Design, Technology and the Urban Info Sphere : Case Studies from Amsterdam iii. The book (like Readers 1 and 2) will end with the Alt/Option section, which offers manifestos and alternative perspectives _______________________________________ GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS Word Limit : 1500 - 4000 words 1.Submissions may be scholarly, journalistic, or literary - or a mix of these, in the form of essays, papers, interviews, online discussions or diary entries. All submission, unless specifically solicited, must be in English only. 2.Submissions must be sent by email in rich text format (rtf) or star-office documents. Articles may be accompanied by black and white photographs or drawings submitted in the tif format. 3.We urge all writers, to follow the Chicago Manual of Style, (CMS) in terms of footnotes, annotations and references. For more details about the CMS, please see the Florida State University web page on CMS style documentation at : http://www.fsu.edu/~library/guides/chicago.html 4.All contributions should be accompanied by a three/four line text introducing the author. 5.All submissions will be read by the editorial collective of the Sarai Reader 02 before the final selection is made. The editorial collective reserves the right not to publish any material sent to it for publication in the Sarai Reader on stylistic or editorial grounds. All contributors will be informed of the decisions of the editorial collective vis a vis their contribution after December 1, 2002. 6.Copyright for all accepted contributions will remain with the authors, but Sarai and the Waag Society reserve indefinitely the right to place any of the material accepted for publication on the public domain in print or electronic forms, and on the internet. 7.Accepted submissions will not be paid for, but authors are guaranteed a wide international readership. The Reader will be published in print, distributed in India and internationally, and will also be uploaded in a pdf form on to the Sarai website. All contributors whose work has been accepted for publication will receive two copies of the Reader. Last date for submission - December 1st 2002. (but please write as soon as possible to the editorial collective with a brief outline/abstract, not more than one page, of what you want to write about - this helps in designing the content of the reader) We expect to have the reader published by mid February 2003. ________________________________________ Please send in your outlines and abstracts 1. (for articles) to Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Co Ordinator, Sarai Reader 03 Editorial Collective (shuddha at sarai.net) 2. (for proposals to moderate online discussions on the Reader List) to Monica Narula, List Administrator, the Reader List (monica at sarai.net) From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Wed Sep 11 23:40:51 2002 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 23:40:51 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: www.syhlleti.org (Global Sylheti Homeland in Cyberspace) In-Reply-To: <1072.203.200.124.86.1031767397.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> References: <1072.203.200.124.86.1031767397.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> Message-ID: <1109.203.200.124.86.1031767851.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> > www.syhlleti.org > > Global Sylheti Homeland in Cyberspace > > Our Context: > > We are probably the first website in Internet's History to be > exclusively dedicated to Sylhetis and Sylheti Culture worldwide. The > Internet > Revolution has made us feel all the better the fact that we are a > large, rich and globally spread out community. We have a very rich > heritage, very tumultuous historical experiences, a rich corpus of > linguistic tradition, a large and accommodating heart and above all we > are proud to be Sylhetis. People sometimes call us of nurturing a kind > of "exclusiveness", but we remain and will remain an individual, > powerful and harmonious note in the Symphony of Greater Bengali > Culture. In the struggle for Bengali Language since its origin, Sylheti > speaking Silchar and Barak Valley at large made an unique contribution > in history of languages and to history itself - of the 19th May of > 1961. www.syhlleti.org's geographical and ideological context lies > there and beyond. > > Who we are: > > We are a group of people you will find in the streets, in your daily > lives. Students, Professionals, businessman, official. Just like you. > We are not sponsored by anybody. We are privately founded and funded as > well. We started as documentation site two years ago and growing with > more and more Sylhetis and non-Sylhetis world over contributing. We are > not a dot com venture. We are not another Sylheti Organization. Then > what we are? We are a Community Integrator. We would like to provide a > platform where our Global Sylheti community can share ideas and > anguish, seek information (here comes the relevance of our Internet > presence) and feel that in this dizzyingly fast and changing world, > there is a community waiting where they can feel intimate. > > What we are doing and what we would like to be part of: > > We are presently doing Documentation work on Sylheti Dialect/Language. > Unless documented, some of our linguistic gems will be extinct. We are > co- operating with organizations worldwide that are working on > Sylheti/Bengali. We are publishing a weekly e-newspaper. We are > providing a platform where our Technological Contributors share their > expertise and experience. We are doing what it takes to be Resource > Center with core thrust on Sylheti history, culture and Language. We > are going to offer Sylheti Matrimonial Services over Internet as well > as in conventional way. > > We would like to be a community switch that will connect all existing > Sylheti Union like this worldwide and those that will come in the > future. We would like to create an environment using people network and > technological network a Community Service that will be a self-running > and resilient organism. And after we work together (like some > communities already do) we are going to be a stronger, denser and > richer community. We are going to launch PRABAV (Prabasi Barak Valley > Association) and visualize it to be running under a philosophy where we > give a part of our > intellectual and financial strength along with human presence to the > immediate community - to which we owe our growth and a part of us. This > way, we can build up a Venture Corpus Fund which goes into developing > education, health, training and business for the local community. We > have this dream. > > Where is your place in this picture: > > The whole picture belongs to you. We would like to know what you feel > about all these written above. We will be very fortunate as Documentor > if you can give us any information about Sylheti Culture, written > works, Music, Cooking, contact or whatever you consider useful for us > or even not useful. And finally, we would hope that you would note it > down and visit us at our Homeland in Cyberspace, at > http://www.syhlleti.org From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Thu Sep 12 00:07:19 2002 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 00:07:19 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] The Story behind the Formation of syhlleti.org Message-ID: <1225.203.200.124.86.1031769439.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> The main story about us is very simple. One summer afternoon, while talking amomg some of Internet enthusiasts, the random chat started and then suddenly, just like something happens, a team out of its own gravitation was formed. Phone calls, emails, late-night discussions started. It continued for a month with youthful festivity of brainstorming and spurning of ideas. Good sense in the form of making a plan prevailed. First page was designed. Contributors contacted. False starts and falser emails. Great Unrest and great Expectations. Greater Enthusism and Lesser patience. By that time, experienced men and women were approached and they gave practical ideas and finally the domain was named and www.syhlleti.org was born. The main contributors were dedicated lovers as time is proving and by six months, the first phase was posted. The enthusism was infectious and clicks of email carried it almost everywhere. There were a massive input of suggestions, queries, hopes, apprehensions, waiting, unanswered mails, mistimed appointments, festival holidays and other concerns of other types. Slowly we started thinking laterally and www.syhlleti.com was born. Soon we were approcahed by people to web-promote their ventures. We endorsed and participated in www.anatardristi.com Our core group contains webmistress, syhlleti, chottudi, wordsmith - foursome and their are others who lend their expertise and ideas whenever we have approached them. Out of the four, webmistress and chottudi are living in a beautiful small town named Silchar and and work from there whereas syhlleti and wordsmith haunt the Southern India for living. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- From yazadjal at vsnl.net Thu Sep 12 10:17:16 2002 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 10:17:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Questions on Iraq Message-ID: <013001c25a30$1b6c2f00$1700c5cb@vsnl.net.in> Uncomfortable questions to George Bush from a member of his own party, from his home state. -yazad Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq by Rep. Ron Paul, MD In the House of Representatives, September 10, 2002 Soon we hope to have hearings on the pending war with Iraq. I am concerned there are some questions that won't be asked - and maybe will not even be allowed to be asked. Here are some questions I would like answered by those who are urging us to start this war. 1. Is it not true that the reason we did not bomb the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War was because we knew they could retaliate? 2. Is it not also true that we are willing to bomb Iraq now because we know it cannot retaliate - which just confirms that there is no real threat? 3. Is it not true that those who argue that even with inspections we cannot be sure that Hussein might be hiding weapons, at the same time imply that we can be more sure that weapons exist in the absence of inspections? 4. Is it not true that the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency was able to complete its yearly verification mission to Iraq just this year with Iraqi cooperation? 5. Is it not true that the intelligence community has been unable to develop a case tying Iraq to global terrorism at all, much less the attacks on the United States last year? Does anyone remember that 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia and that none came from Iraq? 6. Was former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vincent Cannistraro wrong when he recently said there is no confirmed evidence of Iraq's links to terrorism? 7. Is it not true that the CIA has concluded there is no evidence that a Prague meeting between 9/11 hijacker Atta and Iraqi intelligence took place? 8. Is it not true that northern Iraq, where the administration claimed al-Qaeda were hiding out, is in the control of our "allies," the Kurds? 9. Is it not true that the vast majority of al-Qaeda leaders who escaped appear to have safely made their way to Pakistan, another of our so-called allies? 10. Has anyone noticed that Afghanistan is rapidly sinking into total chaos, with bombings and assassinations becoming daily occurrences; and that according to a recent UN report the al-Qaeda "is, by all accounts, alive and well and poised to strike again, how, when, and where it chooses." 11. Why are we taking precious military and intelligence resources away from tracking down those who did attack the United States - and who may again attack the United States - and using them to invade countries that have not attacked the United States? 12. Would an attack on Iraq not just confirm the Arab world's worst suspicions about the US - and isn't this what bin Laden wanted? 13. How can Hussein be compared to Hitler when he has no navy or air force, and now has an army 1/5 the size of twelve years ago, which even then proved totally inept at defending the country? 14. Is it not true that the constitutional power to declare war is exclusively that of the Congress? Should presidents, contrary to the Constitution, allow Congress to concur only when pressured by public opinion? Are presidents permitted to rely on the UN for permission to go to war? 15. Are you aware of a Pentagon report studying charges that thousands of Kurds in one village were gassed by the Iraqis, which found no conclusive evidence that Iraq was responsible, that Iran occupied the very city involved, and that evidence indicated the type of gas used was more likely controlled by Iran not Iraq? 16. Is it not true that anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 US soldiers have suffered from Persian Gulf War syndrome from the first Gulf War, and that thousands may have died? 17. Are we prepared for possibly thousands of American casualties in a war against a country that does not have the capacity to attack the United States? 18. Are we willing to bear the economic burden of a 100 billion dollar war against Iraq, with oil prices expected to skyrocket and further rattle an already shaky American economy? How about an estimated 30 years occupation of Iraq that some have deemed necessary to "build democracy" there? 19. Iraq's alleged violations of UN resolutions are given as reason to initiate an attack, yet is it not true that hundreds of UN Resolutions have been ignored by various countries without penalty? 20. Did former President Bush not cite the UN Resolution of 1990 as the reason he could not march into Baghdad, while supporters of a new attack assert that it is the very reason we can march into Baghdad? 21. Is it not true that, contrary to current claims, the no-fly zones were set up by Britain and the United States without specific approval from the United Nations? 22. If we claim membership in the international community and conform to its rules only when it pleases us, does this not serve to undermine our position, directing animosity toward us by both friend and foe? 23. How can our declared goal of bringing democracy to Iraq be believable when we prop up dictators throughout the Middle East and support military tyrants like Musharaf in Pakistan, who overthrew a democratically-elected president? 24. Are you familiar with the 1994 Senate Hearings that revealed the U.S. knowingly supplied chemical and biological materials to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and as late as 1992 - including after the alleged Iraqi gas attack on a Kurdish village? 25. Did we not assist Saddam Hussein's rise to power by supporting and encouraging his invasion of Iran? Is it honest to criticize Saddam now for his invasion of Iran, which at the time we actively supported? 26. Is it not true that preventive war is synonymous with an act of aggression, and has never been considered a moral or legitimate US policy? 27. Why do the oil company executives strongly support this war if oil is not the real reason we plan to take over Iraq? 28. Why is it that those who never wore a uniform and are confident that they won't have to personally fight this war are more anxious for this war than our generals? 29. What is the moral argument for attacking a nation that has not initiated aggression against us, and could not if it wanted? 30. Where does the Constitution grant us permission to wage war for any reason other than self-defense? 31. Is it not true that a war against Iraq rejects the sentiments of the time-honored Treaty of Westphalia, nearly 400 years ago, that countries should never go into another for the purpose of regime change? 32. Is it not true that the more civilized a society is, the less likely disagreements will be settled by war? 33. Is it not true that since World War II Congress has not declared war and - not coincidentally - we have not since then had a clear-cut victory? 34. Is it not true that Pakistan, especially through its intelligence services, was an active supporter and key organizer of the Taliban? 35. Why don't those who want war bring a formal declaration of war resolution to the floor of Congress? Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20020912/43e511ea/attachment.html From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Thu Sep 12 16:43:59 2002 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 16:43:59 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] Some Historical Work on the Mughal Period of Syhlet (by Srithirekha Das) Message-ID: <1153.203.200.124.81.1031829239.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> Srihatta, the original homeland of Sylhetees, was subjected to repeated political changeover during the pre-independence era. Administrative and political pressures kept changing the fates of the people residing there. Researchers and historians maintain that the people of different religio- racial stream belonging to different parts of India resided in sylhet for a long period and ultimately got absorbed into the mainstream of local population. Their contribution is by no means is insignificant. it would not be out of context to mention here two of such personalities, Dewan Manikchand and Lala Hardayal Singh. When sylhet was annexed to the Mughal Empire, Dewan Manikchand was appointed as the administrator under the title of ‘Dewan’ and posted at sylhet accompanied by a general named Lala Hardayal Singh. Both of them settled down at sylhet and got permanently absorbed in local society by marriage. The descendants of those personalities migrated from sylhet after the partition of India in 1947 and are still living in the different parts of India. Dewan Manikchand’s son was Murarichand, whose son was Raja Girish Chandra, the founder of the first college at Sylhet , Murarichand college, named after his father. He also founded the first high English school at sylhet, Raja Girish Chandra High school, popularly known as Rajar School. Lala Hardayal Singh selected a huge plot of land for his residence as well as for accommodation for his ‘sephais’(Soldiers) under his command. He too, got permanently absorbed there. The area where he resided is known as Lalar Dighir Par,’Lalar Bari’ called after his name. It is the westernmost part of Sylhet town. Lala Hardayal Singh used to wear an amulet of Mahavir Hanuman while commanding in the battle field. The holy amulet emblematic of Mahavir Hanuman, has since been worshipped by the descendants who migrated to India after 1947. Srihatta, also , also known as Sribhumi (“Sundari Sribhumi” as termed by Rabindranath Tagore in his poem written after the separation of sylhet from Bengal and its annexation with Assam) was a land of abundance. Indeed it was blessed with natural beauty and bounty. In concord with its natural wealth and gaiety were its residents, sylhetees – welcoming, warm-hearted, lovable and peace loving. Sylhet bred and shaped many eminent personalities who attained excellence in academic, artistic, political and various other spheres. Repeated administrative change-over rocked the fate of its residents time and again. But their inherent qualities – love of peace and amity, urge for harmonious co- existence remained unabated. The uprooted residents of this beautiful valley got dispersed in various parts of the glove especially after partition in 1947. But they carried with them their deep cultural essence that distinguishes them from others and at the same time links them with the mainstream of humanity. The desire to preserve and promote their cultural identity has given birth to Srihatta Sanmeelani( an association of sylhetees) in various parts of India and abroad as well. Peaceful co-existence and co- operation between two dominant religious communities in sylhet, i.e. the Hindus and the Muslims is indeed exemplary. Politics has often been, and not wrongly perhaps, termed as nuisance. Political profit mongers have often used religion as bait ‘ISM’ is their catchword. But if one happens to step in Shahjalaler Dorga in sylhet, one would be struck by the free and unhindered access of the Hindus seeking solace and comfort from Pir Baba in malady and misfortune, distress and death. Shahjalal, although a Sufi saint, was revered and adored by one and all. The Hindus and the Muslims, irrespective of cast and creed still tread on the holy soil. Shahparan,( the holy tomb of one Shahjalal’s descendants ) another such resort, is still the nurture ground of harmony. People here are seen corded in one tie – the deep tie of love ,share and care. 13 festivities in 12 months ( Baro Mashe Tero Parbon) is a famous saying that illustrates many a socio- religious festival that keep people busy all through out the year. The dance and music, light and fragrance, garland and gaiety of the hindu festivals ( be it Durga puja, saraswati puja, Nababarsha or marriage celebration) do involve and invite the other community and make them unfailing partakers. Give and take , participate and partake-still go on. Only when the political comet appears in the sky, the bright Sun of love is eclipsed. Many ( sylhetees) who felt the pain of quitting their motherland are dead and gone. Those alive , wistfully look back to the good old days. It remains in the hands the youths now to keep the flame of this unique culture alive and spread the message of good- will and amity in the strife torn world of today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- The Author Mrs. Srithirekha Das teaches English in Shillong College,Shillong. syhlleti.org is thankful to her for her contribution and would like to request her to consider contributing more. Mr. Pallab Dutta, another major contributor also deserves our thanks who has made the content available to us. Any comment to her can be sent at contact ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Thu Sep 12 16:50:39 2002 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 16:50:39 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <1183.203.200.124.81.1031829639.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> Srihatta, the original homeland of Sylhetees, was subjected to repeated political changeover during the pre-independence era. Administrative and political pressures kept changing the fates of the people residing there. Researchers and historians maintain that the people of different religio- racial stream belonging to different parts of India resided in sylhet for a long period and ultimately got absorbed into the mainstream of local population. Their contribution is by no means is insignificant. it would not be out of context to mention here two of such personalities, Dewan Manikchand and Lala Hardayal Singh. When sylhet was annexed to the Mughal Empire, Dewan Manikchand was appointed as the administrator under the title of ‘Dewan’ and posted at sylhet accompanied by a general named Lala Hardayal Singh. Both of them settled down at sylhet and got permanently absorbed in local society by marriage. The descendants of those personalities migrated from sylhet after the partition of India in 1947 and are still living in the different parts of India. Dewan Manikchand’s son was Murarichand, whose son was Raja Girish Chandra, the founder of the first college at Sylhet , Murarichand college, named after his father. He also founded the first high English school at sylhet, Raja Girish Chandra High school, popularly known as Rajar School. Lala Hardayal Singh selected a huge plot of land for his residence as well as for accommodation for his ‘sephais’(Soldiers) under his command. He too, got permanently absorbed there. The area where he resided is known as Lalar Dighir Par,’Lalar Bari’ called after his name. It is the westernmost part of Sylhet town. Lala Hardayal Singh used to wear an amulet of Mahavir Hanuman while commanding in the battle field. The holy amulet emblematic of Mahavir Hanuman, has since been worshipped by the descendants who migrated to India after 1947. Srihatta, also , also known as Sribhumi (“Sundari Sribhumi” as termed by Rabindranath Tagore in his poem written after the separation of sylhet from Bengal and its annexation with Assam) was a land of abundance. Indeed it was blessed with natural beauty and bounty. In concord with its natural wealth and gaiety were its residents, sylhetees – welcoming, warm-hearted, lovable and peace loving. Sylhet bred and shaped many eminent personalities who attained excellence in academic, artistic, political and various other spheres. Repeated administrative change-over rocked the fate of its residents time and again. But their inherent qualities – love of peace and amity, urge for harmonious co- existence remained unabated. The uprooted residents of this beautiful valley got dispersed in various parts of the glove especially after partition in 1947. But they carried with them their deep cultural essence that distinguishes them from others and at the same time links them with the mainstream of humanity. The desire to preserve and promote their cultural identity has given birth to Srihatta Sanmeelani( an association of sylhetees) in various parts of India and abroad as well. Peaceful co-existence and co- operation between two dominant religious communities in sylhet, i.e. the Hindus and the Muslims is indeed exemplary. Politics has often been, and not wrongly perhaps, termed as nuisance. Political profit mongers have often used religion as bait ‘ISM’ is their catchword. But if one happens to step in Shahjalaler Dorga in sylhet, one would be struck by the free and unhindered access of the Hindus seeking solace and comfort from Pir Baba in malady and misfortune, distress and death. Shahjalal, although a Sufi saint, was revered and adored by one and all. The Hindus and the Muslims, irrespective of cast and creed still tread on the holy soil. Shahparan,( the holy tomb of one Shahjalal’s descendants ) another such resort, is still the nurture ground of harmony. People here are seen corded in one tie – the deep tie of love ,share and care. 13 festivities in 12 months ( Baro Mashe Tero Parbon) is a famous saying that illustrates many a socio- religious festival that keep people busy all through out the year. The dance and music, light and fragrance, garland and gaiety of the hindu festivals ( be it Durga puja, saraswati puja, Nababarsha or marriage celebration) do involve and invite the other community and make them unfailing partakers. Give and take , participate and partake-still go on. Only when the political comet appears in the sky, the bright Sun of love is eclipsed. Many ( sylhetees) who felt the pain of quitting their motherland are dead and gone. Those alive , wistfully look back to the good old days. It remains in the hands the youths now to keep the flame of this unique culture alive and spread the message of good- will and amity in the strife torn world of today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- The Author Mrs. Srithirekha Das teaches English in Shillong College,Shillong. syhlleti.org is thankful to her for her contribution and would like to request her to consider contributing more. Mr. Pallab Dutta, another major contributor also deserves our thanks who has made the content available to us. Any comment to her can be sent at contact at syhlleti.org From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Thu Sep 12 16:54:36 2002 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 16:54:36 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] Communication- Human, Cosmic and Personal Message-ID: <1199.203.200.124.81.1031829876.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> Communication – Human, Cosmic and Personal - PRITAM BHATTACHARJEE (wordsmith of syhlleti.org) There are some professions, which provide you ample time, scope and if you have the temperament, to become a philosopher or a person speculating of problems of Nature or Metaphysics. I think it was Einstein, while troubled by the busy and regimented life of University Lecturer (while contemplating on the problems of Nature) once commented that he wanted to be a keeper of the Lighthouse. What would have been a highly boring job for us mortal remains a wonderful opportunity for a mind extra-ordinarily tuned. Here I beg to state that I don’t use extra-ordinary in the euphemistic sense but in a sense we say extra-terrestrial. Now, my readers might guess that this disjoint reverie might have been due to effect of some smooth intoxication of some wine and here, I discover a connection – all these are related somewhere during my last travel in the Western Ghats of India. Starting from my visit and training at India’s oldest, largest and perhaps remotest Satellite Earth Station at Arvi/Pune, then to the Metre Wave Radio Telescope (GMRT – Giant Metre Wave Radio Telescope at Khodad near Arvi and then to Chateau Indage, a vineyard and Champagne Crafting Plant near GMRT. The Keepers of Satellite Earth Station, the Keepers of Cosmic Radio Receiving Stations and the Keepers of the Wine, all three professions share one thing in common – a profession that requires patience, habit of remaining in relative solitude and the power of living in an abstract world. Such professions teach us directly that great lesson of having our inner capability to disengage ourselves temporarily from the prison of our own self and the mind changes its function of scrutiny from microscope to telescope. The Radio Telescopes at GMRT, Khodad. Radio Telescopes are used to receive the radio signals that our cosmos produces due to varied number of reasons, some known and some unknown. With those elegant objects lying in the midst of as if nowhere, radio astronomers listen to the stories of stars, galaxies, nebulas, pulsars, quasars and also of the cosmic history, written in the alphabet of radio- energy. Sitting some few kilometer from the Radio Astronomer, my colleagues of VSNL, Arvi have been doing the the similar job with almost identical looking antennas since 1972 with two fundamental differences – first, they not only receive but send and know perfectly where to and secondly, they mercilessly reject the same radio-energy that GMRT astronomers are trying to catch by putting 30 dishes of 45 m diameter. What is one’s man’s food is another man’s poison can never be as true as for my colleagues managing their Satellite Antennas talking with Satellites overhead and GMRT astronomers collecting an amount energy, regarding whose magnitude, Raleigh’s sentence is as scientific and as poetic – The total amount of radio energy collected by all the radio telescopes all over the world is less than that of the energy of a snowflake striking the earth. The twin antennas at VSNL, Arvi. The Antenna in the foreground is beaming at 359 deg E and its radio beam is almost grazing the Earth’s Surface before hitting a Satellite at 36,000 Km away. Even though the object of love of VSNL antennas and that of GMRT are different and mutually exclusive, they employ almost the same techniques to embrace and send their greetings to the distant sources. As a matter of fact, their history is somewhat related. The Satellite Communication owes its birth to an idea of Aurther C Clarke and Radio Astronomy was somewhat accidentally born. The Satellite Anetnna you see in the upper picture is locked with another antenna in a satellite, lying approx. 36,000 km away, revolving and rotating at the same speed that of earth and hence remains stationary with respect to the ground antenna. This locking of the two antennas requires little explanation so that your respect for scientists and engineers may little improve. Roughly, it is something like this – you are sitting on a moving car along an Indian Road and hold a laser gun. (that you sometimes see people focus on cinema screens) Then you are asked to focus that point on a dot printed on the backside of another car, lying on a flat highway some 5000 km away. (if such a plane highway exists !). The actual locking of antennas is much more complex and involved than this. wordsmith with one of the antennas in VSNL, Arvi If you observe the antenna in the background, you will see that it is a parabolic structure supported by complex mechanical assemblage. The purpose is to support, maneuver and keep it under lock in different atmospheric conditions. The tracking mechanism is simply to observe the Radio Beacon from the satellite, convert this into a scaled reading and depending on the direction of movement of the beacon strength, a circuitry swings into action and sends a DC current in different directions of an AC induction motor whose direction of rotation reverses by the change of the reversal of direction of current. This mechanism’s generic name in engineering shorthand is called as feedback control system. It is controlling the input to a system by mixing a part of output so that a desired output level is maintained. The most commonly used and the most delicate system of feedback system that comes to my mind is a love affair where emotional input(s) are adjusted harmoniously so as to maintain a desired output. VSNL antennas carry bundled, nicely packed slices of voice, data or video and after amplifying properly for its journey upward, it makes all human emotions invisible. Watch the antenna tip properly, from this point hangs an invisible beam where all our hellos, all our @ s are suspended – the emotions of this planetary species passing through the blue pavilion, passing through the cold cosmic space and then snooping to the Earth again – our only Home in this vastness of Space and Immensity of Time. GMRT antennas, on the other side of Pune-Nasik Highway is listening to metre wave radio waves emanating from all parts of this cosmos. They have designed it such a way as to simulate an antenna of some 1000 metre diameter by a process called Aperture Synthesis. Now if you can pardon my error in considering Aperture as diameter and coupled with the knowledge that Gain of an antenna is square of its diameter, you will immediate understand why it is so better to use a large diameter antenna. Now, GMRT people would have been happier to have an antenna of some 1000 metre diameter so that they may get maximum gain as the energy hitting the earth’s surface in metre wave radio is too feeble in the all kind of background noise, including everything that we consider useful – mobile phones signals for example. But no engineer recommended a 1000 metre diameter antenna. So they did something very intelligent by synthesizing an antenna of so much diameter by doing correlation in time and space and thus providing a mathematical antenna of 1000 or so metre diameter behavior. Here they used FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) Method and I was delighted to know that they are using Red Hat Linux as Operating System for their Co- Relator System. If some other civilization in space, some Extra-Terrestrial Life has been observing our planet in Radio Spectrum for some thousand years or so, then it will find heavy activity in Radio Waves for last 100 years or so and since 1972, their receiving antennas will detect heavy HF and later Ghz emission from the Arvi village of India, from planet Earth. We have been producing radio waves for a century, Nature has been producing it for aeons. In the late 1940’s, while testing a High Sensitive Receiver, an engineer detected a noise that he cannot eradicate fully. Later, it was found that this radio noise is coming from all directions and was fast becoming the experimental evidence that Universe was created some 20 billion years ago from an explosion called Big Bang from which sprang all matter and energy of this universe, including its so far known interpreter – we, the human species. There is a Sanskrit proverb – if you find some smoke, the fire will be nearby. So thought George Gammow. He said if such a massive explosion happened sometime back, search for the smoke, it will be found everywhere in the cosmos. Not only that, Eddington’s expanding Universe and Edwin Hubble’s observations all pointed to the fact that we are possibly living in an Universe that expanding from the singularity of Big Bang. If that is so, Gammow reasoned that all traces of that primordial energy might have Doppler Shifted to higher wavelengths and hence Radio Waves. Radio astronomers and also fascinating objects like Pulsars and Quasars detected this cosmic background radiation, which would have been unknown without the technology of radio astronomy. This was really found and after Second World War, a lot of military radars antennas became radio telescopes. Other than exploring the Mother of All Queries – Who we are? Wherefrom do we spring ? And Metre wave Radio waves holds a tremendous link – the emission line of Hydrogen atom lies at 21 cm and hydrogen atom is the simplest of all atoms. If Mind of God loves simplicity and order – a thought loved by Freeman Dyson, while listening to the ticks of radio waves hitting the planes of Khodad GMRT antennas, we are not only getting radio signatures from very distant cosmic objects but also encountering the infancy of our Universe itself. ************************ Western Waters of my country witnessed a decade of my misspent youth and this time Western Ghats offered me memories to cherish. Below are two landscapes of Eastern side of Western Ghats which could have been easily captioned as my friend Selvam would have said – "These view(s) of Southern France was shot at the Western Ghats" Mr. Thdanai, my friend at VSNL, Arvi who came their to arrange our training from CPI , a very young man, double my age also ignited my imagination by telling that the meadows and the weather both can deceive grapes into thinking that this is not Burgandy or Riviera but Western Ghats. Some blessed person has smelt this message and set up a Wine Crafting Plant nearby with a beautiful name – Chateau Indage, where Western Ghats grapes are transformed into wine and share the table without shame with their cousins at France. I remembered looking at the cellar where some 5% wine evaporates and Frenchmen says – that’s angel’s share and in Burgundy, I was told by a French Doctor on board a French Ship CS Vercors (please read wordsmith’s ocean voyage in connection with undersea optical cable laying of SAFE – South Africa Far East at http://203.197.150.140/preev/voyage2.htm) that after the first harvest, the grapes are put in the vat and village maidens come in long white gowns and crush the first grapes barefoot, standing on the vat. I could only ejaculate – "Blood on Marble". The French Doctor corrected me – "Blood on Greek Pillars." The pillars of my body, my knees trembled! The Vineyard at Western Ghats As I was driving along the Pune-Nasik Highway, overlooking the feminine meadows of Western Ghats, interspersed by small hedges, a golden yellow radiant kiss of the sun on the hills, vineyards, I felt that I am being transported and cycling in Tour de France. I believe my readers and here I confess that in the midst of those enchanting atmosphere, I remembered the face of a young, very soft-spoken and shy woman, whose name remains la belle dame con merci and hence, I went to my office and when I made the call, the Antenna there dutifully and accurately beamed it to the destination and there was the Ring. In the Beginning was the Ring and then They spoke. For some moments, there was only the Call, the Caller and the Called. I looked at the GMRT antennas far away and thought of our human plaque on-board Voyager which have gone past our solar system If Voyager ever comes across another civilization in the cosmic womb, they will find that picture of a man and a woman, designed by one of my heroes of youth, scientist-humanist Dr.Carl Sagan, and I wonder what they will figure. A garden at Western Ghats – Gifted by Nature, Nurtured by Man What will that civilization think about all the hopes and aspirations of us ? What message we will be to them? As a very bright evening was closing in and I sat in the garden you see above, I felt a great hope for us. We, in spite of all straight or crooked path, strong or tottering steps are searching for that Beyond – with us, within us and Us everywhere. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- wordsmith at vsnl.com acknowledges his debt to Mr. Raybole of GMRT,Khodad for his co-operation, to Mr. Thadani of CPI who has been a wonderful companion during our stay. As for web renedition of the document and images, thanks to Mr. Sony, Mr. Montu of VSNL, Calcutta. And finally, Mr. Rakesh Upadhay, Senior Veteran of Calcutta's Internet Campaign, dating back to 1995 when VSNL launched the service for the first time in the country, deserves a great thanksgiving from me for his SMSs, his curiosity and that rare ability to stay young, in body and in mind. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Disclaimer and Additional Information: VSNL, GMRT and Chateau Indage - information about the three organization are available at VSNL, GMRT, Chateau Indage respectively. The technical details mentioned in the work are generic and any ambiguity or error are author's responsibility and the organizations cannot be and should not be held responsible. From starchild at anjalika.demon.co.uk Fri Sep 13 05:58:35 2002 From: starchild at anjalika.demon.co.uk (Anjali Sagar) Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 09:28:35 +0900 Subject: [Reader-list] Stand by Iraq, say no to Bush: Siddharth Varadarajan In-Reply-To: <200209130445.AEN03139@mail06.onetel.net.uk> Message-ID: Siddharth Varadarajan, Deputy Chief of Bureau, The Times of India The Times of India, 12 September 2002./ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp? art_id=21892022 Say No To Bush [THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2002 12:00:44 AM ] THE WORLD MUST STAND BY IRAQ SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN Here¹s a simple quiz to mark the anniversary of 9/11. (a) Who is threatening to use aeroplanes to attack civilians and civilian installations like water treatment plants and power stations? (b) Who is refusing to rule out using nuclear weapons in his Œholy war¹? (c) Who is using television for a messianic propaganda campaign justifying this plan-ned terrorism? (d) Who is saying his fatwas count for more than international law? The correct answer to all these questions is not Osama bin Laden but George W Bush and the US administration. One year after terrorists killed more than 3,000 innocent people in New York and Washington, the world is waiting nervously not for another murderous strike by Al-Qaida but for the bombs the US plans to drop on the equally innocent people of Iraq. Regardless of the scripted dissension within, the Bush administration¹s drive to open the Iraqi front in what is wrongly called the ŒWar on Terrorism¹ has crossed the point of no return. Massive US-UK air attacks have already taken place at al-Nukhaib, al-Baghdadi and the ŒH-3¹ air defences in western Iraq. The war is already on. And if you don¹t believe the nukes threat, consider the August 27 interview given by the ranking US official on Œarms control¹, John Bolton, to Fuji-TV. Question: Is it possible that nuclear weapons will be used against Iraq? Bolton: Since there¹s no decision on the use of military force, there¹s no decision on exactly how it would be carried out.¹¹ Washington says the Œcrisis¹ has been provoked by Saddam Hussein¹s failure to allow UN inspectors to certify Iraq has rid itself of all proscribed weapons. ŒNews¹ is leaked to scare the world into believing Iraq has nuclear arms. At the same time, Mr Bush openly talks about Œregime change¹ as if it were the God-given right of the US to decide how the Iraqi people are to be governed. Even on the weapons issue, the dishonesty of the US stand is self-evident. UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 687 mandates Iraqi disarmament, and for more than six years the UN Special Commission (Unscom) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited suspected weapons sites in Iraq to ensure compliance. On April 13, 1998, the IAEA certified that Iraq had compiled a ŒŒfull, final and complete¹¹ account of its previous nuclear projects and that there was no evidence of any prohibited activity. In December 1998, Unscom volun-tarily pulled out of Iraq on the eve of the US attack codenamed ŒOperation Desert Fox¹. In its last month of inspections, according to Unscom head Richard Butler, the commission carried out as many as 427 inspections and reported Iraqi non- cooperation in only five of these. The truth is the US has never been interested in an objective, UN- run disarmament programme for Iraq. Washington deliberately pushed the limits of Iraqi tolerance by! using Unscom inspections for espionage. Rolf Ekeus, a former head of Unscom, told Swedish Radio in July 2002 that at times, intrusive inspections were deliberately used by the US to create a crisis that could possibly form the basis for military action. Scott Ritter ‹ a US marine who was part of Unscom and later admitted the CIA used him to spy against Iraq ‹ has written that Iraq no longer has chemical and biological weapons programmes. ŒŒIn all of their inspections, the (Unscom) monitors could find no meaningful evidence of Iraqi circumvention of its commitment not to reconstitute its biological weapons program¹¹, he wrote in Arms Control Today in June 2000. Eleven years after Iraq was evicted from Kuwait, the country is subject to the tightest regime of economic sanctions ever imposed on any country. Despite the so-called Œsmart sanctions¹ introduced by UNSC resolution 1409 in May this year, Iraq¹s capacity to provide clean drinking water, electricity and sanitation is hampered by US objections to machinery imports. If food imports and the public distribution system are disrupted by a full-scale US attack, there will be a massive food shortage in Iraq. Every UN resolution mandating Iraqi compliance with disarmament also explicitly states that Iraq¹s sovereignty has to be respected. The US flouted these resolutions to establish illegal Œno-fly zones¹ over Iraqi airspace and has bombed the country hundreds of times in the past dec-ade. In March this year, Iraq submitted a list of 19 questions to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. Among these were (i) Can the UN guarantee the elimination of the two no-fly zones? (ii) How do you explain the stance of a permanent member of the Security Council which openly calls for the invasion of Iraq? Baghdad has yet to receive an answer. The world has a right to demand that Iraq comply with its disarmament obligations but it must not legitimise US contempt for international law. Iraq has said it will allow UN weapons inspectors back provided they do not indulge in espionage and work according to a time-bound plan, and also provided there is synchronicity between the degree of Iraqi compliance and the phased elimination of sanctions. This is a reasonable proposal. The US, for its own domestic economic and political reasons, wants to press-gang the world into war. The UN must not allow its mandate of ensuring peace and security to be subverted by Washington. Under no circumstances must it be pushed into providing a Œmultilateral¹ cover for US aggression. svaradarajan at indiatimes.com -------------------------------------------------------------- Siddharth Varadarajan Deputy Chief of Bureau, The Times of India 7 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002 INDIA Tel: 91-11-349 2048 / Fax: 91-11-335 1606 Email: svaradarajan at hotmail.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From aiindex at mnet.fr Fri Sep 13 18:46:10 2002 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 14:16:10 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Where the Mighty Mogul Ruled, It's Mighty Unruly (Amy Waldman) Message-ID: The New York Times September 13, 2002   DELHI JOURNAL Where the Mighty Mogul Ruled, It's Mighty Unruly By AMY WALDMAN DELHI, Sept. 11 ‹ When the Moguls laid out a broad avenue linking the imperious glory of the Red Fort to the Fatehpuri Mosque, they saw it as a sweeping public space, a sedate counterpoint to the grandeur of their monuments. Little did they know what was to come. Four centuries later, Chandni Chowk remains one of Delhi's best known streets, but not for any reason the Moguls imagined. More than any other place in Delhi, and perhaps India, Chandni Chowk has become home to the chaos of humanity trying to sustain itself any way it can. The name means Moonlight Square, reputedly because the moon cast a silvery glint on a pool that flowed into a canal running the length of the street. Forty yards wide, more than 400 yards long, it was once lined with banyan trees, flanked by a wide platform for sitting, sedately trafficked by horse-drawn carriages and palanquins. Today, Traffic-Clogged Boulevard might be a better name, given the bicycle rickshaws and motor rickshaws that compete for space. It is the bazaar of bazaars, home to thousands of shops, some mere cubicles packed on top of one another, behind each other, beneath and between. There is little that cannot be bought here in the walled city, from peacock feathers to hearing aids to wedding rings, and the maze of lanes off the main street have each developed a specialty. People travel from all over India to shop here, often buying in bulk to sell back home. There are hundreds of sari stores, an old-fashioned printing press, air-conditioner repair and astrology. There are snack shops by the dozens, dishing out fried delicacies in banana-leaf plates, the poor man's china. There are new arts, like digital photography, and dying arts, like the making of paratha, a fried disc of bread eaten with pickles and sometimes stuffed. Anand Prakash's store boasts of five generations of paratha business but it is one of only three left. "The margins are too low," he said. When hand-wringing articles are written about Delhi's decline, Chandni Chowk, with its exposed and dangerously untethered electrical wiring, its treeless and crowded sidewalks, the haphazard evolution and degradation of its buildings, is inevitably mentioned. Architecturally speaking, it is hard to argue. Grafted onto lovely havelis, the large and lovely houses of the Mogul era, is an unsightly, jam-packed, unordered scene. At unexpected turns, the Mogul period flashes unexpectedly to life, with arches now graced, or disgraced, with ads for phone service or sexual problems. Chandni Chowk's evolution from urban planning wonder to crassly commercial center is best left to a longer exegesis. The British bricked over the canal and set up a tram system. A clock tower collapsed in 1953 and was never rebuilt. Post-independence, commerce and construction, legal and otherwise, flourished unchecked by municipal overseers. Like cells cleaving, businesses divided and subdivided to make room for newcomers. "Congestion is the bane of Chandni Chowk," a newspaper headline proclaimed earlier this year. But those interested in human capital might see Chandni Chowk more optimistically ‹ as a place that today contains more striving per square foot than perhaps anywhere on earth. There are men performing remarkable feats of labor, hoisting loads that one suspects Hercules would have shirked. There are 200 watch sellers, 180 camera dealers, and 50 to 60 ear cleaners. There are doctors and money changers ("We accept torn money," the sign says). A sign on the wall of S. K. Grover's watch store says, "Try not to follow the crowd," but here it is hard not to. Mr. Grover proclaims Chandni Chowk India's biggest market of watches and watch accessories. Much of the striving is off the books. Mr. Grover noted (after declining to discuss sales revenues), "People are not paying all the proper taxes." Chandni Chowk is known as the No. 2 Market, the Indian term for off-the-books trade. Many of the businesses here have been passed down through generations. Mr. Grover's family had a watch business in Lahore in what is now Pakistan and migrated just before British India was partitioned. Some stores here still bear the proud, if parenthetical, boast: "(of Lahore)." Then there is Mussabir Hussein, ear cleaner since the age of 12 or 13. It is the family business; his father and two of his brothers clean ears, too. The tools: a long needle and pluckers. The cost: five rupees, or one cent (far cheaper than a doctor, Mr. Hussein pointed out). The job has everything but dignity, Mr. Hussein said, which is why his own sons won't follow him. "'People scold you and insult you," he sniffed, his needle tucked beneath his red, rakishly cocked cap. If family histories have played out here, so has Indian society's. Chandni Chowk was home to mass meetings during the struggle for independence from Britain. Just about every religion is represented, including a Baptist church, built in 1860. Just about every opinion is represented, too, which is why Mr. Grover weighed in against the Moguls on the street they built. "The Mogul period gave us nothing, only big forts," he said. From tripta at sarai.net Mon Sep 16 17:53:04 2002 From: tripta at sarai.net (Tripta) Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 17:53:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Is it the night which makes things dark or is it the darkness? Message-ID: <200209161753.04062.tripta@sarai.net> The digital clock at the railway station showed 9:17 p.m. I had just seen off a friend and had to go back home. Alone. The cacophony and the synchronized movement at the New Delhi railway station was blinding and i just waded my way across. The moment i stepped out I was suddenly gripped by a sudden fear. The fear was inexplicable. I could not put my finger on it. Carrying that sensation, I approached the pre paid auto stand and got myself a voucher for my destination. And after much persuasion got an auto. Stopped at the corner paan shop and got myself cig's. It wasn't that late. I have been out much later and in much worse situations. And all this while i was trying very hard to figure out what i was feeling so uncomfortable about. Was it the departure of my friend? was it travelling alone? was it the night? or was it the darkness? the unfamiliarity? or was it just my imagination? My trance was disrupted by comments from three `young men' in a maruti esteem closely following the auto i was travelling in. I knew it then as i know it now, feeling more secured being on familiar grounds, that nothing will happen. And that `nothing' i cannot define. What is the `something' of that `nothing' i don't know or maybe don't want to articulate? Those guys kept following. Disappearing at strange alleys and re-appearing suddenly. At one moment, I actually felt that I was following them more closely that they were. And in long, short, broad, wide of it I was Scared. I meekly requested the auto driver to drop me at the nearest market place because i was too scared to go my place alone. The auto driver comlied. But before leaving he turned back and asked, `aap karti kya hain?'. In other situations, that is, during the Day I would have shouted at him. Yelled. And all of that. During the day, i would also not be scared of men following. During the day, i would walk the streets alone. During the day, i would also not think about `nothing' happening. During the day, i would be okay. and that half an hour of tensed moments and anticipation and apprehensions, i thought of the accessories at the moment which would make me feel safer. A mobile. A Car. or simply, A male companion. What is about the night? what is about the city in the night? It's almost like demons in the head are let loose to play ping pong on the streets, with no referee to count the points. And it made me wonder, when did i start feeling scared of the `darkness'? when did the need to reassure myself constantly about `nothing' happening arise? why does the city transforms so radically in the night? why do the agents/agencies associated with control, surveillance and inefficiency become the source of security and protection, for both: the offender and the victim? Why can't i let go the control and fear instilled by these agencies? why can't be fearless and feel free and safe? why does it always have to be `something' `someone' to make me feel that way? will i be able to navigate the city in the night? will i ever be okay in the night? what am i scared of in the night? why does the burden of my carrying myself become so difficult to bear? these are questions, i am not looking answer for. and i am going to not go out in the night. and i am not going to get a car, a mobile or necessarily a male companion. but i am also not going to stop feeling scared going out alone in the night. From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Sun Sep 15 15:43:18 2002 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 15:43:18 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] Statement of Parents and Teachers on the National Curriculum Framework for School Education Message-ID: <1603.203.200.121.39.1032084798.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> Statement of Parents and Teachers on the National Curriculum Framework for School Education As parents and teachers of schoolchildren, we are deeply concerned over the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for School Education prepared by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). The NCERT was set up by the Government of India in 1961 to advise and assist the Ministry of Education in the formulation and implementation of policies in school education. The NCERT has prepared similar Curriculum Frameworks in 1975 and 1988. These Curriculum Frameworks have, in the past, influenced the school syllabi of almost every State in the country. The influential role of the NCERT requires us to closely examine the present National Curriculum Framework. School education should inculcate a quest for truth, a logical bent of mind and the faculty of scientific reasoning. It must foster a secular and democratic approach to life and to society, enabling the student to rise above casteist, communal, linguistic and other parochial prejudices. It must develop social awareness, a sense of obligation to society, a sense of dignity of labour, and strength of character to fight against exploitation and injustice. We are aware that school curricula and syllabi do not adequately address these objectives, and we support genuine efforts at reform. But we are deeply disturbed to note that the NCF, while paying lip service to many of these objectives, arrives at contrary results through its recommendations. In particular, (i) we are completely opposed to the NCF’s recommendation of introduction of religious ideas and teachings into the curriculum and co- curricular activities. In a multi-religious nation like ours, peaceful coexistence of all is possible only if religion is treated as a private matter of its citizens, and religious concepts should not be introduced into school subjects. The values that we have enumerated above should be promoted in schools through development of scientific temper and its application to tackle problems in society. (ii) while we value the learning of vocational skills as a part of education, we are opposed to the vocationalisation of education that is the underlying philosophy of the entire NCF. The purpose of education, as we have stated above, is to build the citizens of tomorrow, with all-round human abilities, not just vocational skills for the market. The concept of the Indian nation inherent in the NCF, as an ancient and changeless entity free of social contradictions, is ahistorical and erroneous. The attempt to inculcate national pride through the application of this erroneous concept in all subjects will damage both national pride and a correct sense of our history. The NCF falsely glorifies the system of education that prevailed in pre-colonial times and seeks to revive aspects of it. In reality, that system of education was, understandably, neither national nor modern. It was rooted in the caste system, and was appropriate for local agricultural production, trade and administration. The NCF completely ignores the efforts of our 19th century social reformers, who forced changes in the colonial educational system to include the best of Western thought in order to create a new Indian character. The NCF invokes `globalisation’ to advocate a number of sweeping changes in pedagogy and curriculum. It creates a false impression that current methods of teaching and learning are completely useless and need to be swept away. In particular, it attacks and devalues the standing and role of the teacher in the education process. Simultaneously, it valorises `learning how to learn’ by students at the cost of much of the existing curriculum on subjects like history. In our opinion, a student who passes out of school should be grounded in basic concepts of the natural and social sciences, as well as in art and literature. The sacrifice of content at this early stage would be an opportunity lost for building character and outlook that would be a lifelong asset for both the individual and society. The role of the teacher in this process is crucial. Globalisation is a contentious topic on even the definition of which, there is little consensus. Based on one’s location in society, and based on perceptions of future gains and losses, the undefined phenomenon is both hailed and condemned. Its complexities can be understood only with a sound grasp of history and economics, and is usually a research area in higher education. The NCF’s own references to globalisation suggest that oversimplified and one-sided versions are to be taught at school level. We strongly oppose this. In its pronouncements on language teaching, the NCF creates highly avoidable confusion. An assertion that Hindi is fast becoming the lingua franca of the country is injudicious and not backed by evidence. While Sanskrit is a rich language and a worthy optional subject of study, the NCF seems to suggest that it will become a compulsory subject at the primary or upper primary stage. Language teaching is compartmentalised into `pure’ and `applied’ forms, and `functional’ courses are advocated, which would only hamper linguistic development. We also object to the substitution of the learning of science by `science and technology’. Science provides the fundamentals while technology is an evolving process building on basic science. The merit of the Indian education system has been in building sound fundamentals which has enabled Indians to perform well anywhere in the world. Compromising that element of the education system would be a retrograde step from all perspectives. At school-level, it is far more important to gain a firm foundation in the concepts of science. Similarly, the NCF’s ideas for mathematics suggest that the curriculum will be diluted by orienting it towards mundane applications alone. These changes will seriously hamper the development of scientific reasoning and outlook among school students. We are completely opposed to the proposed distortion of the teaching of history by the NCF. The proposal to reduce the quantum of history in the social science syllabus is fraught with grave dangers. The present would be a meaningless jumble of events unless it is informed by a sense of history. The NCF’s proposals imply that that there will be no teaching of historical developments in chronological order, or of methods of historical analysis. Over-emphasis on the cultural heritage of India, lack of emphasis on economic and political history, and the proposal to change the “Europe- centred view of the world”, would result in unacceptable distortions. The assimilation of European scientific, economic and political thought, contributing to the creation of a national freedom movement, is one of the important elements of Indian national consciousness. The NCF’s proposals negate this historical truth. The most pernicious proposals in the NCF are those that will lead to the further deepening and legitimisation of class divisions in education. The rationalisation that most students will drop out of education after the higher secondary stage has no place in an education policy document. We also reject the NCF’s plan to create vocational and academic streams after the secondary stage. A close reading of the NCF document clearly indicates that it is a blueprint to push the poor and the socially disadvantaged sections of our society to the vocational stream using a distorted interpretation of “equality of opportunity” and “dignity of labour”. The NCF is already mired in controversy, it has been challenged by a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court on grounds of its content, as well as the procedure by which it has been finalised. The NCF was finalised without referring it to the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE), which has eminent educationists and State Education Ministers as its members. The Supreme Court stayed implementation of the language and social science curricula until disposal of the case. A number of educationists, teachers and Principals of public schools in Delhi have issued a statement demanding withdrawal and re-examination of the NCF. Our study of the NCF makes it clear to us that its premises and contents are fundamentally inimical to scientific, secular and democratic education, and its accessibility to all, the concepts of which are a legacy of our freedom movement. We therefore find no scope to improve the NCF and reject it completely. In doing so, we also question previous policy recommendations and decisions on the basis of which much of the current NCF is framed. While we support the petitioners’ challenge of the NCF in the Supreme Court, we recognise the need for parents and teachers to be much more organised and aware of syllabus and curriculum design processes. Regardless of the Court’s verdict, we are of the firm opinion that the NCERT should start the NCF preparation exercise afresh, involving CABE and inviting wide participation from parents, teachers and educationists in the true sense. 1. Poonam Batra 2. Mukul Priyadarshini 3. Rajesh R. 4. Smita Gupta 5. Gayatri Ratnam 6. Jayati Ghosh 7. Abhijit Sen 8. S.N. Shabbeer 9. M. Ragiba 10. Rukmini Datta 11. S. Nandakumar 12. Shiney Varghese 13. Madhu Sarin 14. Apoorvanand 15. Aromar Revi 16. Prakash Kashwan 17. Sheema Mookherjee 18. Mohammed Imran 19. Francis Lobo 20. Rupa Mukerji 21. Geeta Nambisan 22. Govind Shahani 23. Bharati Jagannathan 24. Viren Lobo 25. Depinder Singh 26. Ajinder Kaur 27. Kavitha Anand 28. Abdul Mabood 29. Manvinder Singh 30. Suminder Kaur 31. D.N. Kalia 32. Rajive Tiwari 33. Preeti Vajpeyi 34. Kabir Vajpeyi 35. Suvasini Iyer 36. Sonia Shamihoke 37. Gita Dewan Verma 38. Daman Singh 39. Ragini Bajaj 40. Tarun Debnath 41. Rajneesh Rastogi From announcements-request at sarai.net Sat Sep 14 09:55:47 2002 From: announcements-request at sarai.net (announcements-request at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 06:25:47 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Announcements digest, Vol 1 #90 - 1 msg Message-ID: <20020914042547.13037.23704.Mailman@mail.sarai.net> Send Announcements mailing list submissions to announcements at sarai.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to announcements-request at sarai.net You can reach the person managing the list at announcements-admin at sarai.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Announcements digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Urgent Public Meeting - NBA (=?iso-8859-1?q?bonojit=20hussain?=) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 10:31:41 +0100 (BST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?bonojit=20hussain?= To: announcements at sarai.net Subject: [Announcements] Urgent Public Meeting - NBA A group of us, students from delhi university have just returned from the narmada valley. We were witness to one of the worst submergences caused by the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the recent past in the region around the villages of Domkhedi and Jalsindhi. The major cause for this year'smonsoon submergence has been the increase in the dam height from 90 to 95 meters. In light of this , rising government apathy and near total lack of media coverage it seems neccesary to highlight these happenings and publicly dicsuss the consequent issues and implications. There is also an urgent need to reactivate NBA support in Delhi. A public meeting is called on Sunday the 15th of September at the Indian Social Institute(ISI),Lodhi Road at 3pm. Agenda for the meeting: Presentations by students who were in the valley Prashant Bushan will speak about legal issues involved and the 9th september court hearing Usha Ramanathan will brief us on the public hearing that took place in Jalsindhi during the early part of the monsoon sathyagraha Discussion on future action in Delhi ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Announcements mailing list Announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements End of Announcements Digest From geert at desk.nl Tue Sep 17 21:44:40 2002 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 02:14:40 +1000 Subject: [Reader-list] NYT: Indian Starts A Campaign Against Cash For Militants Message-ID: <008301c25e87$9c61db90$22e27f50@geert> The New York Times August 18, 2002, Sunday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section 1; Page 15; Column 1; Foreign Desk HEADLINE: Indian Starts A Campaign Against Cash For Militants BYLINE: By BARBARA CROSSETTE Shabnam Hashmi never imagined herself leading an international campaign until she came from New Delhi to New York in July to implore Indian-Americans not to send money to militant Hindu organizations in India that she says are leading the country away from secularism into Hindu nationalism and religious violence. What put Ms. Hashmi on the road with her one-woman tour -- she spoke in a telephone interview from Atlanta after stops in the Midwest, Texas, California and Seattle -- were the Hindu attacks on Muslims in the state of Gujarat beginning in late February that left hundreds dead, according to Indian government figures. Independent Indian and international human rights groups have estimated that at least 1,000 people were killed, possibly 2,000 or more. The attacks on Muslims in Gujarat and the destruction of 360 mosques followed the killings by Muslims of 59 Hindu activists who were returning on a train from the ruins of a mosque in Uttar Pradesh that had been destroyed by Hindu mobs in 1992. The anti-Muslim violence also raised concern among some American experts on India, who now echo Ms. Hashmi's fears, especially because India's national government is led by a Hindu nationalist party. "The response has been very good," said Ms. Hashmi, a Muslim by birth but an agnostic now. Her message about the dangers of condoning or supporting mob violence, as the Indian news media report is done by Hindu nationalist politicians and their backers in the United States, draws on a painful personal history. In 1989, her brother, Safdar Hashmi, a street theater director and writer, was killed by a hired mob after he lent his support to striking industrial workers in India. She started a foundation in his memory to aid artists and intellectuals. Ms. Hashmi and her husband, Gauhar Raza, a government scientist who also makes documentaries, went to Gujarat in April and came back with a 30-minute video, "Evil Stalks the Land," which intertwines footage from the history of Hindu fundamentalism and interviews with survivors of the Gujarat massacres. Ms. Hashmi returned to Gujarat to spend three months talking to victims. She says that she believes hundreds of women were raped and that many of them were killed by Hindu militants in the kind of systematic assaults that characterized ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Rwanda. "There are a lot of Indian-Americans who are very disturbed at what's happening in India," Ms. Hashmi said. "But at the same time, the amount of money that is being pumped from America into these right-wing organizations is terrible." She echoed the conclusion of India's Human Rights Commission in citing the World Hindu Council, along with other national and local Hindu organizations, as among the groups responsible for the attacks in Gujarat. The council has denied any link. Ms. Hashmir said Indians in the United States had to guard against the possibility that groups here were funneling money to militants. She urged Americans in and out of government to start investigating organizations that might be supporting anti-Muslim terror. In Washington, Robert M. Hathaway, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, said Indian journalists were producing enough evidence of the complicity of Hindu nationalist organizations and their branches abroad in the killings in Gujarat to demand some response in the United States. "Indian journalists seem to have uncovered some very damaging and what look to me to be persuasive ties between fund-raising activities in the United States and some of these groups who had some shadowy role in the Gujarat violence," Mr. Hathaway said. But he added that for Americans the evidence was still secondhand, "which is why I thought it would be useful to have some sort of investigation by people who do have the ability to look at financial transactions and transfers." In testimony in June to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a body created by Congress, Mr. Hathaway, formerly the South Asia specialist for the House International Relations Committee, was critical of the extremely low-key reaction in Washington to the Muslim deaths in Gujarat. "Friends of India should have taken the lead in raising this on the floor of Congress, with a constructive initiative, not some bash-India initiative," he said. "Something that says, 'If things like this were to happen on a frequent basis, that does undermine the public and political support in this country for the creation and maintenance of this new relationship with India.' " Mr. Hathaway also told the commission that the American ambassador in India, Robert Blackwill, should have gone to Gujarat in the wake of the violence. It would have sent a message, he said, "that we do care about Muslims as well as going after terrorists." From geert at desk.nl Tue Sep 17 22:05:19 2002 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 02:35:19 +1000 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Bytesforall_Readers] expanation from list managers needed References: <20020915050055.9607.qmail@webmail10.rediffmail.com> <3D84DD52.CF9D2B50@attglobal.net> Message-ID: <008701c25e87$a12e57c0$22e27f50@geert> > Balarama Krishna Varanasi wrote: > I represent a group of Information Technology professionals that > believe that it is possible to reverse the slowdown in Information > Technology with our active initiative. Unfortunately, the media > around the world is obsessed with presenting the news that the > slowdown in Information Technology is simply a market trend. What is the problem with this point of view, if I may ask? Technology is as much a product as any other. The media are not 'obsessed'. They have a hilarious short term view, yes. They are not in particularly interested in the IT scandals. Quite the opposite. There is, worldwide, not all that much investigative journalism done into the dubious financial schemes of the dotcoms and telcos. Most stories only report about firms once they have filed bankrupcy. Go out and look for critical literature.... there is almost none of it. The IT sector is NOT a victim of the media. Instead it would be good to look into the greedy mentitality of its executives. Ciao, Geert From aiindex at mnet.fr Wed Sep 18 05:06:04 2002 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 00:36:04 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: The Village Voice (New York) September 18 - 24, 2002 Kolkata Sex Workers Earn Respect and Protection From Fighting Disease Giving AIDS the Red Light by Paroma Basu KOLKATA, INDIA‹In recent years, public health officials, social workers, and politicians swarmed Kolkata's red-light areas, advocating safe sex, offering medical services, and distributing condoms. These campaigns resulted in tremendously successful initiatives like the Sonagachi AIDS Project, which went from being a quasi-governmental program to one of the largest community-run intervention projects in the world. Sex workers themselves now run the show, and in Sonagachi (meaning "golden tree"), famous as the oldest, largest, and most storied red-light district in the city, only 9 percent of about 6000 sex workers are HIV positive. In comparison, rates of infection among Mumbai (formerly Bombay) prostitutes as of 1997 were as high as 70 percent. At the end of 2001, the total number of people living with AIDS in India was 3,970,000, according to UNAIDS. But while high-risk communities are way savvier about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), the rest of society has hardly been as enlightened. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), new Indian AIDS cases are rapidly seeping out of high-risk groups and into the general population. As is the case in other societies, clients who get infected in the brothels put their unsuspecting wives at risk, and alternatively, wives or "floaters" earning secret cash through sex may also bring the HIV home. Behavior in homosexual communities here is only beginning to be discussed. Noticing such trends and drawing inspiration from the Sonagachi AIDS Project, a group of doctors, psychologists, and other concerned citizens opened the City Counseling Center (CCC) in downtown Kolkata. The nonprofit provides medical and psychological consultation, as well as cheap antiretroviral drugs. It has also started one of the country's first support networks, the Kolkata Network of HIV Positive People, through which individuals can finally exchange their experiences with HIV without encountering raised eyebrows. "Intervention programs running in high-risk areas are only the tip of the iceberg. Awareness has to spread to the rest of society," said Dr. Debjani Banerjee, one of the CCC's chief coordinators. The new center might never have come to life, however, if the city's sex workers had not set such an incredible precedent. In 1995, the Sonagachi women organized themselves into the first union of sex workers in all of Asia, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), and took control of the local government AIDS project. With a current membership of almost 60,000 male and female sex workers from all over the state of West Bengal, the union is fiercely picketing at many sites for the decriminalization of prostitution and equal workers' rights (including entitlement to negotiate issues such as work conditions). Union representatives who might never have dreamed of stepping outside the brothels, have flown as far as Geneva and Australia to publicize their cause. Union coordinator Putul Singh is now a sex worker by night and activist by day. She calls AIDS her "friend," because, she says, "before the project no one cared if we were healthy or not. After stemming the flow of AIDS among our sisters, we want to spread the message to ordinary people too." The sex workers' success did not come easy, however, especially in light of the harsh lives they had led for most of their lives. Located on the western fringe of Kolkata, Sonagachi is a maze of narrow lanes with ancient, rotting tenements rising up on either side. Thousands of sex workers rent box-like rooms the size of an office cubicle, usually paying exorbitant rent for a few feet of space. If working for brothel owners, sex workers usually turn over all their income to them. The owners use the money to pay off the police, pimps, and local gangsters, explained "Geeta," a Sonagachi sex worker who did not want her name used. At present, how much a sex worker charges roughly depends on how much time she spends with a customer, how old she is, and how good she looks. "For most of their lives these people have been outside even the most marginal fringes of society," said Ishika Basu (no relation), one of the first social workers to approach the initially distrustful prostitutes. "They've been constantly cheated and taken advantage of," she added. So going into Sonagachi to begin AIDS education, Dr. Smarajit Jana, the governmental epidemiologist who spearheaded the project, knew it would be an uphill road. After a preliminary survey to understand the habits and lifestyles of Sonagachi sex workers, he explored enhancing self-esteem as a start to changing deeply entrenched sexual practices. Jana convinced 12 sex workers to come forward and train as "peer educators." For about a $1 a day, and wearing green cotton coats, these women informed their "sisters" about STDs, urged them to get the clinic-provided blood tests every three months, and distributed condoms. Soon, hundreds of women were refusing unprotected sex, even if their clients offered to pay more. While in 1992 a government survey showed a mere 2.7 percent of 450 sex workers were using condoms, two years later that figure had leaped to 69.3 percent, said Mrinal Kanti Dutta, present director of the sex workers' union and the son of a sex worker. "When a customer comes, I take the money first and then let him in my room," said Priya Begum, a 23-year-old Sonagachi sex worker who had never heard of AIDS until a peer educator enlightened her last year. "Then I ask whether he'll use a condom. If he says no, I keep the money and show him out," she laughed. This is a tactic made more feasible by the cooperation of pimps, who have in most cases, agreed to back the women's demands for safe sex. Today, 430 peer educators spread awareness throughout Bengal, and 36 brothel-based medical clinics regularly treat sex workers. Among other things, DMSC has established a school for sex workers' children, a money-lending co-op, and a cultural group that spreads AIDS awareness through music, dance, and street theater. Meanwhile, the City Counseling Center feels positive that more and more people will visit to get treatment or just to talk. Since January of this year, Banerjee and her colleagues have treated 205 patients, of whom 35 tested positive for HIV. Not surprisingly, only a handful of infected patients are sex workers, says Counselor Nabanita Ghosh. Rather they are mostly ordinary people like housewives and college students from middle-class homes. The center offers generic antiretroviral drugs like Stavudine, Lamivudine, and Nevirapine, at the dirt cheap price of $10 a month (a 75 percent discount from the already discounted price of $40 a month offered by Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals). But most HIV-positive patients avoid pursuing treatment unless they absolutely have to, probably for fear of social rejection. Center staff hope the Kolkata Network of HIV Positive People will help to clear the stigma veiling AIDS, and will provide easy access to sympathy, support, and guidance. Since January, when the network had 40 members, the size of the network has more than doubled to 85 members. "Now instead of checking horoscopes, people should check each other's blood before marriage," joked Nandita Banerjee, one of the center counselors. From slumbug at rediffmail.com Wed Sep 18 22:36:18 2002 From: slumbug at rediffmail.com (slumbug) Date: 18 Sep 2002 17:06:18 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] On the night. Message-ID: <20020918170618.11220.qmail@mailweb33.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20020918/47c6e1bb/attachment.pl From announcements-request at sarai.net Wed Sep 18 09:55:46 2002 From: announcements-request at sarai.net (announcements-request at sarai.net) Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 06:25:46 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Announcements digest, Vol 1 #92 - 1 msg Message-ID: <20020918042546.19929.27776.Mailman@mail.sarai.net> Send Announcements mailing list submissions to announcements at sarai.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to announcements-request at sarai.net You can reach the person managing the list at announcements-admin at sarai.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Announcements digest..." Today's Topics: 1. PUKAR Monsoon Review (PUKAR @ The Paperie) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 22:25:20 +0530 To: Recipient List Suppressed:; From: "PUKAR @ The Paperie" Subject: [Announcements] PUKAR Monsoon Review Dear Friends: PUKAR cordially invites its Associates, Advisors, and friends to a series of presentations and a discussion on PUKAR MONSOON 2002 -- a series of events and interactions with undergraduate college students conducted by the PUKAR Associates in July and August 2002. The theme of the PUKAR Monsoon was "The City at Work: Livelihoods and Ways of Belonging". Some of those participating in the discussion are: SHUBHALAKSHMI SHUKLA Lecturer in Art History Kamala Raheja Vidhyanidhi Institute of Architecture (KRVIA), Juhu SANJAY BHANGAR PUKAR Intern Bombay Independent Media Centre (IMC) ANANYA RANE Organiser, Malhar 2002 St Xavier's College Brief presentations by the students and staff of Abhinav College of Arts and Commerca, Bhayander, and of Srimathi P.N. Doshi College, SNDT Women's University, Ghatkopar. Video clippings of "the city at work", produced as part of the PUKAR Monsoon documentary film-making workshop held during MALHAR, 11-14 August 2002, at St Xavier's College. Edited with the help of Indu Agarwal, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), Mumbai. Date: SATURDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2002 6.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. At: The BOMBAY PAPERIE Mezzanine Floor, Soonawalla Building 59, Bombay Samachar Marg Opposite the Stock Exchange Fort, Bombay 400001 R.S.V.P. Phone Shekhar Krishnan or Rahul Srivastava at 2077779 E-Mail About the PUKAR MONSOON: Educational institutions are neglected as environments for reflection and criticism on contemporary society. Pedagogic interventions are important to a new generation of urban youth, whose critical understandings of society are formed in the spaces of the undergraduate college. In a spirit of engagement with these relatively unexplored spaces and voices, the PUKAR Monsoon this year focussed on the theme of "The City at Work: Looking at Livelihoods and Ways of Belonging". We hope that reflection on the history and economics of life in the city will help students cultivate critical sensibilities about the market, at a pre-professional stage in their lives. The series of events in the PUKAR Monsoon this year used the idea of livelihood or work as the entry point for student participation in small activities or documentation projects, on how identities of class and culture are changing in the context of globalisation in Mumbai. The colleges which participated in the PUKAR Monsoon 2002 were Kamala Raheja Vidhyandihi Institute of Architecture (Juhu), Abhinav College of Arts and Commerce (Bhayander), Srimathi P.N. Doshi College (Ghatkopar), K.C. College (Churchgate), Wilson College (Chowpatty), Sophia Polytechnic (Breach Candy), Rizvi College (Bandra) and MALHAR, St Xavier's College (Dhobi Talao). PUKAR Associates who conducted the sessions were Himanshu Burte, Paromita Vohra, Gomathy Balasubramanian, Shilpa Phadke, Abhay Sardesai. Others who conducted sessions were Nirupa Bhangar, Lakshmi Lingam, Mrinal Desai, Vikas Sharma, Sanjay Bhangar, Svati Shah, and Arafaat Amin Valiani. About PUKAR @ The Paperie: This discussion, and future gatherings focused on discussing issues of common interest and concern to the PUKAR Associates, is part of a monthly programme organised by PUKAR for invited friends and guests at The Bombay Paperie, Fort. These gatherings are usually held on the third or fourth Saturday of every month at 6.00 p.m. PUKAR thanks the Manager of The Bombay Paperie, Neeta Premchand, for hosting PUKAR @ The Bombay Paperie. We look forward to your attendance and participation, and suggesting names of people and organisations to add to our mailing list. Regards, Rahul Srivastava, Shekhar Krishnan and Vyjayanthi Rao Coordinators _____ PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action & Research) P.O. Box 5627 Dadar, Mumbai 400014, India E-Mail Phone +91 (022) 2077779, +91 98200.45529, +91 98204.04010 Web Site http://www.pukar.org.in --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Announcements mailing list Announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements End of Announcements Digest From cyberravisri at yahoo.co.in Fri Sep 20 00:13:02 2002 From: cyberravisri at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?ravi=20sri?=) Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 19:43:02 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Journal surveillance-and-society Message-ID: <20020919184302.48067.qmail@web8203.mail.in.yahoo.com> http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/journalv1i1.htm ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From tripta at sarai.net Sun Sep 22 13:55:22 2002 From: tripta at sarai.net (Tripta) Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 13:55:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Night is day and black is white. Message-ID: <200209221355.22607.tripta@sarai.net> That's the way it is which is both intriguing and intimidating. The night or even the day. The realms we haven't explored, the streets we haven't walked enough, the people we haven't seen and the lack of experience of interaction...not knowing their strengths and insecurities make you fear them, loathe them and love them. Not many times but quite a few nevertheless, travelling in an auto late at night, I have wondered even he must be scared. What if a passenger attempts to rob him, kill him or anything? That this man I am scared of maybe as scared of everything around and strangely i feel guilty. Not for long though. A friend of mine sent me a mail after reading mine. It's another city. It's night. It;s a male. It's the same insecurities and similar exhilarations and it all fits in well. so with his permission i send the excerpts from the mail. > Hopping from one alien city to other he steps out of the airport > immediately lights up a cigarette, he doesn't like the taste of cigarette, > doesn't smokes either at least that's what he tells his "friends", more > then that hates the thirsty and porcupine throat that it leaves after doing > its job. But still he has to light the cig. > > hey, I did it to tell them that I am a localite, someone who is comfortable > smoking as soon as he steps out. > > he ignores hello sir . first visit sir taxi sir .taxi sir and room hotel > sir and marches with slow fast, big-small careful step towards the prepaid > taxi stand dishes out the fare. Rs 195. > > What are you afraid of? Being cheated? > > Its not that late in the night I think its 8:40 or something. So, he agrees > with this guy who in a very authoritative tone asks "prepaid hoye-gache". > haan he says chalo he says and takes him to a cab in the parking lot. he > puts his luggage and himself in the cab and lights another one. > > Hey, this one is to initiate a conversation. > > Can I smoke in your car? He asks. > > But you already had it lit before you asked. > > Shut up. > > Just before exiting the airport another dude hops in the car and pushes the > meter down. Maybe to tell me that he is an assistant to put meter up/down > not part of a conspiracy against me. > > Whenever I travel in and out of Delhi I cant escape this fear of > Getting killed? > No. > Yes. > Ok. Yes, getting robbed and killed. Actually, it has nothing to do > with "alien" factor of the city last time > I came back to Delhi after a month I felt the same thing. It was 1 o clock > in the night and ..... > > So, it has to do something with the hour is it? > Maybe. > > He lights up another one we will grant the cause as tension. and says "this > road goes to barakpur right"? >Seeking familiarity. > > No, the other side of the road he replies finishing the thread. The dude > meanwhile is unbuttoning his shirt and > is enjoying the breeze in an I the owner of the car manner. > > while he, our protagonist, is busy defining situations and tackle methods in his head. > > Shut the fuck up I have no fucking clue where i am right now where this guy > is taking me don't have any contact except a phone number and address and >cant call out of my phone. A mobile. > > what am I supposed to do? > > Ok now this road looks pretty deserted he will stop here now pull out a > rapier and rob him off > all his money which is not much and probably get frustrated because of that > and slit his throat. > > He will probably scream shout and ask for help, does a 80 kg 6 feet 21 year > old monster looks nice > screaming for help? > > looks nice? what kind of argument is that? hey, its life and death i am > talking about here, maybe mine > maybe yours. > > just a thought. > > he will put up a fight. our hero yes, he will. what if someone finds this > out. shame it will be no. > nice city they have already started out puja preparations and why the fuck > are you thinking about > getting killed instead of enjoying it. if they have planned to take you out > rob and kill they bloody > well will do it. its nothing worth thinking about. > > dada right from the hospital? he asks > haan > > he walks the adventure is over > > what are you sad about? Being cheated? > > I didn't want to get killed. > > sure. From jchaudhuri at mantraonline.com Fri Sep 20 21:00:09 2002 From: jchaudhuri at mantraonline.com (Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri) Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 22:00:09 +0630 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: [undercurrents] monitoring US academics In-Reply-To: <20020920132813.38585.qmail@web12906.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Apologies for cross-posting. Should interest some of you. Sincerely, Jyoti ---------- From: coco fusco Reply-To: undercurrents at bbs.thing.net Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 06:28:13 -0700 (PDT) To: undercurrents at bbs.thing.net Subject: [undercurrents] monitoring US academics From: Judith Butler Subject: monitoring u.s. academics I suggest that we volunteer our individual names to the think tank that wants to make a list of suspect American academics critical of Israel. In fact, we should inundate them with voluntary self-nominations. www.campus-watch.org here is my suggested wording: "I have recently learned that your organization is compiling dossiers on professors at U.S. academic institutions who oppose the Israeli occupation and its brutality, actively support Palestinian rights of self-determination as well as a more informed and intelligent view of Islam than is currently represented in the U.S. media. I would be enormously honored to be counted among those who actively hold these positions and would like to be included in the list of those who are struggling for justice during these times." __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com From ansarirehan at hotmail.com Fri Sep 20 22:01:22 2002 From: ansarirehan at hotmail.com (rehan ansari) Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 16:31:22 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] This Fall Message-ID: Is this how it felt to live in Rome? At the start of the decline, I am sure thing were very good. Things look so good that it is hard to believe they may decline. So I am not certain. Would I give it a 50/50 chance? The night has a nip in it. Its clearly fall now. This is the season when I first came to the US as a 17 year-old student. Fall was possibility. This fall morning I visited the site of the World Trade Center. Before leaving, I looked it up on the web to see if there were any recommendations on how to best view the site. I had heard that there was a viewing platform and I wondered if it was still there. I didn�t find that information, but what I noticed was that several sites were referring to something called the WTC "pilgrimage." I remembered a net to phone conversation with my uncle Ifti in Lahore, who responding to how many times he saw the towers come down on television said that he thinks WTC will be an American Karbala. How will Americans perform maatam, I wondered. That wondering was before they started bombing Afghanistan. The site is no longer a scene of a crime, a gash in the concrete and steel heart of New York. It is now a construction site, neither more nor less interesting than a bunch of cranes and bulldozers cranking away. Nor was there a viewing platform anymore. I was relieved, it would be a nightmare to peer down into nothingness. The site is fenced off but from a corner, one can see the construction. That is where the tourists assemble. Most of them are blatantly not New Yorkers. I saw one though, in a business suit and heels, her office could not be too far, with tears in her eyes. Someone was passing out leaflets proclaiming, "Homeland Insecurity." She gave one to a police officer managing the crowd. The officer accepted and, though busy, but not that busy, kept glancing at the fine print in the flyer. I reached for one, laughing. It said that the US needed to halt immigration as the enemy was already within the walls. It also specified that there were 30 million immigrants in the country, and that 40 percent of New York was foreign born. New York would not remain New York if it the world of people and markets ceased to come here. Could it ever happen that stock exchanges of Shanghai and Singapore become more important? I started walking towards Broadway. At the corner was a church whose perimeter fence was covered with flags, mementos, t-shirts, firefighter helmets, poetry, photographs and other remembrances of the tragically departed. In the corner someone had also stuck the front page from the New York Post newspaper, that had a picture of Saddam and headline blaring, "Bomb Iraq!" I took the subway to Union Square where on Fridays there is a farmers' market. Farmers from upstate drive in with their tomatoes, melons, fresh baked bread and set up stalls. I bought an egg plant, bread, tomatoes, fresh mozarella cheese and walked back to the subway. Close to the subway entrance on the south west corner of Union Square, before I went underground, I glimpsed the statue of Gandhi. So he was back. He had been missing for almost a year because of park construction at that end. I took the Q train to Brooklyn, which travels over the Brooklyn Bridge, so that from the subway car you can see yourself leaving Manhattan. The city looks magnificent this fall, I hope nobody ruins it. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx From aiindex at mnet.fr Sun Sep 22 21:50:36 2002 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 17:20:36 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Eric Hobsbawm interview Message-ID: [See towards the end, Eric Hobsbawm comments on the BJP destroying democracy and secularism in India xxx Harsh] o o o Guardian Unlimited Observer http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,796531,00.html The Observer Sunday September 22, 2002 Interview Man of the extreme century Eric Hobsbawm is one of Britain's greatest historians. His long, eventful life has mirrored the great events of the twentieth century. The rises of imperialism, fascism and communism are as much components of his life as subjects of his books, and have turned Hobsbawm into a 'lifelong communist'. Now, he has published his autobiography. In this wide-ranging conversation with Tristram Hunt, one of Britain 's new generation of historians, he reveals how he continues to believe in a spirit of progress as the surest route for happiness Tristram Hunt: Much of your work as a historian has consciously appealed to a broader audience beyond the academic establishment. There is a dramatic resurgence in the popularity of history: more people are reading history, visiting monuments, watching TV programmes than ever before. But you have recently warned of a 'permanent present' - the creation of a new generation who might know a great deal about the past but have little sense of continuity or identity with it. Has history become simply a consumable product in a deeply transient age? Eric Hobsbawm: Well, choosing to write for a broad public isn't only my personal choice. I regard it as part of a long English tradition. After all, this is a country in which even the most important thinkers have expressed their views for the broad public, going back to Adam Smith via Charles Darwin to name but two. For me, the sort of ideal reader may be a construct of the educated but non-specialist reader who wants to find out about the past - is curious about the past and wishes to understand how and why the world has come to be what it is today. And where it's going. This is also part of the Marxist Historian Movement. We reacted against a tradition of historians between the wars who were suspicious of talking to the public for fear of talking down. And there were only very few people, G.M. Trevelyan or A.J.P. Taylor, who were courageous enough to do this, even at the risk of people saying well, of course, he's talking down, you know. There is also today a huge upsurge of do-it-yourself history. It's mostly about the past of people's own families. Family history and the study of genealogy has become democra tised. This may or may not help to explain the enormous passion for biographies and autobiographies which is very marked here. What it shows to me is that history is an essential part of human life. It's a critique of the two basic principles on which the modern society appears to be run. First, the problem-solving approach of technology which means the past is absolutely irrelevant to it. Second, the buy-it-now approach of the consumer society. For practical purposes, history doesn't come into this except as a sort of decoration. Well, people know that this isn't the case. They're stuck in the past, they grow out of the past. And I think this - without their knowing it - is a protest against the kind of society which wishes to cut them off from the past and cut them off from each other. TH: So much of the current surge in history has to do with English and British identity. What came out from your autobiography was a strong affection for England and your own sense of Englishness. Do you think the public obsession with British roots and identity illustrates a fallow intellectual retreat? We seem to be returning to nation-state history and an insecurity about our identity. EH: Nation-state history is probably the most damaging part of history today since the world cannot be understood in terms of nation states. On the other hand, it's very difficult to know how to break away from it since schools are essentially geared to states. This business about English history ... I can understand it, but I'm a bit worried about it as I'm worried about all kinds of identity history. Identity isn't a good basis for history. It's a new problem for the English, partly because of globalisation but chiefly because of devolution and the end of empire. Both of these have left the English with a need to define themselves as such. Part of the British tradition was that unlike so many others, we were actually proud of being a mongrel race. Everybody said, oh well you see my grandmother was Irish and my auntie is Welsh and all the rest of it. There was no sense you had to pick and choose - you could do both. But I think this is a similar problem to the one which in the past faced Spaniards and Russians. It's a pre-nationalist political consciousness. TH: One of your most important academic contributions was your work on the invention of national traditions. In an age of resurgent nationalism and new concern with identity there seems to be a whole wave of traditions being invented for naked political, sectarian and ethnic reasons. Does that make the role of historian more crucial as an exposer of myth? EH: The worrying thing at the moment is that history - including tradition - is being invented in vast quantities. In the past 30 years there's been an explosion of heritage sites and historical museums. On top of this, particularly since the end of communism, there's been the foundation of new states which need to invent histories to show how important they are. And the way you do this is that you invent or collect yourself a past. The extreme example of this is in Croatia where the man who actually created the new state, Franjo Tudjman, was a professional historian who invented a phoney tradition. So, the world is today full of people inventing histories and lying about history and that's largely because the people who do this are not actually interested in the past. What they are interested in is something which will make the punters feel good. At present it's more important to have historians, especially sceptical historians, than ever before. TH: Martin Amis's new book, Koba The Dread, has impugned the British Left - and you personally - for not condemning Stalin's atrocities. In your autobiography you vividly bring out the mindset of a believing Communist in the 1940s and 1950s: the party discipline and a reluctance 'to believe the few who told us what they knew' of Soviet Russia. Yet you also bring out the historical context for joining the Communist Party - the battle against fascism on the streets of 1930s Berlin and a strong sense of the idealism of the October Revolution. There also remains the broader historical context that the Soviet Union remained a viable economic and political model to many in the West right up to the 1970s. Do you think this historical context seems absent in the current debate about 'Communist guilt'? EH: I must leave the discussion of Amis's views on Stalin to others. I wasn't a Stalinist. I criticised Stalin and I cannot conceive how what I've written can be regarded as a defence of Stalin. But as someone who was a loyal Party member for two decades before 1956 and therefore silent about a number of things about which it's reasonable not to be silent - things I knew or suspected in the USSR - I don't want to be critical of a book which brings out some of the horrors of Stalin. It isn't an original or important book. It brings nothing that we haven't known except perhaps about his personal relations with his father. But I don't want to say anything that might suggest to people that I'm in some ways trying to defend the record of something which is indefensible. TH: Amis has criticised those on the Left who deny any moral equivalence between Nazism and Communism because the latter committed atrocities in the cause of a higher social ideal as opposed to racial genocide. The majority of deaths in the Soviet Union came not from political or racial persecution but famine caused by economic policies. As you have written of Stalin: 'His terrifying career makes no sense except as a stubborn, unbroken pursuit of that utopian aim of a communist society.' I want to tease out this issue of idealism. You stayed in the party after 1956 partly because of solidarity to the fallen and partly because of a belief in a societal ideal. Are you still drawn to an Enlightenment ideal of societal perfectibility or have you come to accept the limits of the human condition - what your friend Isaiah Berlin called, 'the crooked timber of humanity'? EH: Why I stayed [in the Communist Party] is not a political question about communism, it's a one-off biographical question. It wasn't out of idealisation of the October Revolution. I'm not an idealiser. One should not delude oneself about the people or things one cares most about in one's life. Communism is one of these things and I've done my best not to delude myself about it even though I was loyal to it and to its memory. The phenomenon of communism and the passion it aroused is specific to the twentieth century. It was a combination of the great hopes which were brought with progress and the belief in human improvement during the nineteenth century along with the discovery that the bourgeois society in which we live (however great and successful) did not work and at certain stages looked as though it was on the verge of collapse. And it did collapse and generated awful nightmares. I don't think that this particular movement is likely to revive, certainly not as a global movement of its kind because its particular historical moment has passed. TH: Did you ever discuss these ideas with Isaiah Berlin? EH: I liked Isaiah Berlin - we used to lunch together. We got on very well. He was a marvellous fellow and he had enormous charm and warmth but, it's a funny thing, we didn't actually discuss controversial matters much. I think the main difference is that I don't actually believe he was an Enlightenment liberal. On the contrary, he could see the world as individuals and as groups. He couldn't see the world. I believe that whatever the limitations of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment it was the only principle on which it is possible to demand improvements or rights for every human being. And I think this is what he couldn't believe. He believed that this would lead to very bad results. Well, he was right, of course. It can, among other things, lead to very bad results. And it did, for instance in the case of Soviet Union. TH: What struck me in your autobiography was that despite your lifelong Communist Party membership, you were deeply hostile to Militant Tendency attempts to take over the Labour Party during the 1980s. Indeed, to the fury of your comrades you became a committed supporter of Neil Kinnock's modernisation of the party - describing the 1992 general election night as the 'saddest and most desperate in my political experience'. Yet you have spoken out against Tony Blair, branding him 'Thatcher in trousers'. Surely New Labour was the inevitable conclusion of Kinnock's modernisation process? EH: Most communists and indeed most socialists disagreed at the time [1980s] with the few of us who said it's absolutely no use, the Labour Party has got to go in a different direction. On the other hand, what we thought of was a reformed Labour Party not a simple rejection of everything that Labour had stood for. Obviously, any Labour Government, however watered down, is better than the right-wing alternative as the USA demonstrates. But I'm not absolutely certain that Labour Prime Ministers who glory in trying to be warlords - subordinate warlords particularly - are a thing that I can stick and it certainly sticks in my gullet. TH: Yet in the wake of Lionel Jospin's defeat in France is there any other progressive way for centre-Left administrations than the Third Way? Do you think the concept of the Third Way has any intellectual validity? EH: The Third Way is a topographical and not a political term. It means between two arbitrary points. Ideally, there's the totally centralised command economy and the complete anarchism of a non-state free market. Now, we know everybody's against the first and it doesn't exist and when they tried to introduce it, it didn't work, so that's no longer around. Now, instead of being halfway between these two, the so-called Third Way is considerably skewed towards the free-market segment. I think perhaps they can now revise things a bit. But they haven't done enough in the past. TH: In that context, given his radical socialist heritage and his academic work on Jimmy Maxton [Independent Labour Party MP for Glasgow during the Red Clydeside era], have you been at all disappointed by Gordon Brown's chancellorship? EH: I recognise where Gordon Brown comes from. I recognise where he wants to go to and for that I give him confidence. I don't recognise either of those things in some other people in the Government - including some that were much further to the left than I was. TH: This is an interesting point. The way you characterise Communist Party behaviour - the need for party discipline, the importance of the 'line to take' and the hostility to criticism - some people will find an echo of in New Labour's control-freakery. Do you find ironic those aspects of Communist Party behaviour in New Labour? EH: CP people have never been able to get anything done in politics. The only field where they got anything done and which fitted in very much with the CP is the unions. The unions also believe in discipline: unions believe that even if you don't like it, if the decision's taken, you don't cross a picket line. Which is where you still find the ultra-left today, which has no political presence at all now. It still has a presence in unions. As for all the people who once were Trotskyists of varying descriptions or CP people, they were all able people who found themselves in movements which didn't provide enough scope for able people and I don't blame them for looking after their political interests - for going where the action is. TH: The 11 September attacks and the crusade of al-Qaeda against America marks a break from the certainties of the twentieth-century military and diplomatic world. We are seeing a return to pre-nation state fundamentalism where religious and cultural orthodoxy overrides 'national' interests. In your autobiography, you hint that the growth of groups like al-Qaeda is partly the result of a weakening of social democracy and the collapse of communism. Do you believe like Terry Eagleton that the threat from such religious fundamentalists is far greater than socialism ever was to the capitalist world? The West seems to have chosen barbarism above socialism? EH: Well, they obviously chose barbarism above socialism in Afghanistan. They financed the al-Qaeda guys [the Taliban], specifically, because they thought communism was worse than that. I don't believe communism was worse than that. I don't believe that al-Qaeda or fundamentalism is the main danger to capitalism. Capitalism will live with it; will make money out of it. Fundamentalist Islam isn't a danger, if only because it can't win any wars. The basic element to understanding the present situation is that 9/11 did not threaten the US. It was a terrible human tragedy which humiliated the US, but in no sense was it any weaker after those attacks. Three, four or five of those attacks will not change the position of the US or its relative power in the world. An example of collapsing social democracy and growing fundamentalism is in India where there is a government breaking with a westernising, secular, tolerant democratic society, a socialist society, in order to create a kind of exclusive Hinduist society. TH: Much of it built on spurious historical foundations. EH: Oh, completely spurious. They are re-jigging the entire textbooks of India in order to make a more saffron past. What more saffron means is pogroms against Christians and Muslims and no further belief in democracy and truth and a secular society. TH: You characterised the short twentieth century as a period of unprecedented brutality. As the twenty-first century gets under way, America bestrides the world like few other hegemonies in history. You have spoken before of how the US revolutionary heritage gives it a certain domineering impulse. In the hands of President Bush is this now the most pressing danger to world stability? EH: Any great power with the capacity to conquer the world is a danger to those other than itself. The US was such a power but for 50 years it was kept in check to some extent. But it was kept in check by a power [USSR] which most people in the Western world didn't like on good grounds. The only people who maintained the view that almost any great power not kept in check is a danger were the French. The French are now too weak to do much about it, but they have maintained their rational traditions. America is a world propagandist power. That's what happened to the French in 1789, it happened to communist powers and now to the US, which is a revolutionary regime. When you get the chance to spread your influence, you end up becoming an empire. That is what happened to the French under Napoleon. They said they were doing a lot of good to the countries they conquered, but they were regarded by the rest of the world as a conquering empire. The difference was that unlike the German Empire, which didn't aim to do good to anybody, the French, like the Russians and now the Americans aim to do good to the world by introducing their own ideas. The Americans are in a position to do what the French did after the Napoleonic period, and the arguments for and against are similar to those. But they are not arguments about spreading the [ideals of the] French Revolution any more. The Americans have used 9/11 as an occasion to assert that they are the only power in the world which can dominate. What they want to achieve other than establish this assertion is by no means clear. The Iraq war has no rational justification at all. The United States would have to learn that there are limits even to its own power and I think with some luck this may happen, but right now the learning process has only just begun. TH: One of the leading causes of diplomatic instability is the actions of Israel under Sharon. You have always identified yourself as a pre-Second World War cosmopolitan Jew - in contrast to the Zionists of the later 1940s. Despite the strong ties between the Left and early Zionism, you never seem to have felt a great loyalty to Israel. Did you differ on this point with Isaiah Berlin? EH: I was never a Zionist. Once Israel was in existence or Jews were settled there then the idea they should disappear was not on. I have never been in favour of destroying or humiliating Israel. I am a Jew, but being a Jew does not imply being a supporter either of Zionism and even less of the particular policies now being pursued by the government of Israel, which are disastrous and evil. They are policies logically leading to the ethnic cleansing of the occupied territories - the official policy of those Jewish parties now governing says that Judaea and Samaria are part of what God gave the Israelis. I am very strongly of the opinion that Jews must say it is possible to be a Jew and not to support Israel. I know that Isaiah was desperate about the direction that Israel was going under Likud. In some ways, it was to him what the discovery of the nature of what Stalinism was to me. I told him, now you probably understand how I feel. Because it was a terrible thing for a man who believed in humanity and the humanist idea of Judaism to see [the direction Israel was taking], but he believed he could not tear himself away from that identification [with Israel]. His Jewish identity implied identity with Israel because he believed that the Jews should be a nation. TH: Finally, would an Eric Hobsbawm of the future born in 2017 see the same degree of 'interesting times' that you witnessed in the twentieth century? EH: I hope not. I don't look forward to the next 30 to 40 years with any kind of pleasure (although I won't see very much of them), but then I think most people today share my pessimism about the immediate future. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 From zamrooda at sarai.net Mon Sep 23 12:06:08 2002 From: zamrooda at sarai.net (zamrooda) Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 12:06:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Women and MCD Message-ID: <200209231206.08093.zamrooda@sarai.net> Rape, harassement, sexual assult. Seems to me to be the flavour of the month........ a fleeting glance at the Delhi newspapers , would make one realise that there is nothing new in what is happening today. What is new is the fact that the media as has become the trend today is sensationaling the whole issue. If I am giving the impression of not being in favour of this publicity then I apologise for it. Yet the picture that is building up as a result of this is what I am against. Radio FM 102.6 was very proud to announce what they believed is Something for the women of the city to look forward to......... The New Delhi Municipal Corporation in its attempt to make Delhi a safe haven for women, is planning to make provisions for "walks","pathways" specially reserved for women. These walks will have high walls to sheild women from vision. WIll be well lit with specially trained gaurds posted to make sure that no "male members" trespass. Look forward to or be transfered back to the dark ages.......gives a feeling of a caged animal for the world to pity. Is this a solution or a further subgugation and humiliation for the women of this city? A similar protective mesaure is in place in Jamma Masjid. Women (whatever be the number) without a male escort are not allowed to enter the dark minnarets of the monument. This is simply justified- the minnarets being dark and dingy with no light provisions, chances of sexual harassement are high. The authorities are not willing to take any responsibility for any unwanted event in the premises. Hence keep unescorted women out of the "DANGER AREA." Here again its the logic of simple solutions for simple problems. Keep the element which has the chance of attracting trouble under control.....rest all will control itself. Is this the solution? Is it all so simple? Or are we simply not willing to look at the problem and its solution eye to eye? From newsgroup at cyrilgupta.com Tue Sep 24 22:48:34 2002 From: newsgroup at cyrilgupta.com (Billu23) Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 10:18:34 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Keeping women out of sight In-Reply-To: <20020924042547.14736.30229.Mailman@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20020924100551.00a41dd0@mail.cyrilgupta.com> I have been living in Delhi for the past six years. I am not trying to ruffle any feathers but the fact is, Delhi is not exactly the friendliest of towns. I have found that the general attitude of Delhi-ites is that of hostility and aggressiveness. Everyone here looks so insecure and angry about something or the other. The fact is that much of Delhi's population is paranoid and there's a complete lack of trust and communication among residents. Coming from a small town like Bhopal where people were friendly I've found this attitude hurting a lot. But building special pathways for women, where they'll be out of the sight of the men, this is beyond expectation. Who thought of this crazy idea? I mean did that man/woman/person even think what's he implying? What was he/she trying to do? Do a mass burqah-karan of the population? Guards! indeed. In the city when the policemen themselves establish a lead in harassing women (Recently 5 policemen in a car harassed some social workers of Navjyoti an NGO who were travelling in a Maruti Van, they were reprimanded because Navjyoti is promoted by Dr. Kiran Bedi), the pathways will probably provide a more secluded spot for the would be harassers and rapists. In my opinion, a better alternative would be to educate people. To establish a sense of fraternity and belonging in Delhi-ites which is missing right now. This would encourage public safety more than anything else, because most crimes in Delhi are not committed by Delhi-ites but by outsiders (Ghaziabad...). If Delhi-ites learn to help and protect each other, nothing else would be required. Let's not make special pathways for women please. It is absurd. From starchild at anjalika.demon.co.uk Tue Sep 24 06:18:17 2002 From: starchild at anjalika.demon.co.uk (Anjali Sagar) Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 09:48:17 +0900 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: War & Rumours of War In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MULTITUDES Thanks to Pervaiz Khan in Birmingham for this piece by Tariq Ali War & Rumours of War A major rally was organised by the South Asian Alliance in Birmingham on Sunday 15th September 2002.The aim of the rally was to look at the world one year on from September the 11th.The speakers at the rally were Tariq Ali, Shaukat Butt, Asma Jhangir, Tariq Mehmood, Colin Prescod, Amrit Wilson. What follows is the text of a speech given by TARIQ ALI at the rally. THE balance sheet one year on, in the war on terror is very clear. It has de-stabilised the world much more than it was prior to September 11th. We have a situation now where the United States Empire, the only Empire in the world, is very open about what it wants to do. Essentially what we have seen is the American administration using the events of September 11th to re-map the world and the re-mapping of the world according to their own economic, political and strategic military interests. The notion, which is very common amongst sections of liberals, humanitarian NGOs, that somehow Western interventions, which have taken place since the Cold War came to an end, are humanitarian interventions is a sick joke. These interventions are carried out to open up new markets, to establish new controls. If we just go through what the Americans said their war aims were after September 11th, we see what is happening very clearly. In the first place it was not an act of war that was committed against them, it was an act of terror and when terrorists attack buildings or individuals, the normal way to deal with them is basically to use police methods; to find the evidence, to arrest them and to bring them to trial. This was totally rejected and it was rejected for a very clear reason; in a number of serious articles in the Washington Post and the New Yorker magazine, analysing what happened on September 11th and 12th in the United States, make it very clear that Condoleezza Rice the National Security Advisor of Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, the most hard-line member of the administration and Donald Rumsfeld, argued that 'we should use September 11th now to re-order the world and to bring people back into line', and that's what they've been doing. The aims in Afghanistan were to break the back of Al-Qaeda to capture Osama Bin Laden, to capture Mullah Omar and bring them back for trial. That aim has failed; they have not succeeded in breaking the back of this organisation, they have not succeeded in capturing its leadership. The only person they captured is Abu Zubeida who was number three in the hierarchy, was captured in the sleepy Pakistani town of Faislabad by using traditional time honoured police methods. As far as Afghanistan is concerned the situation is a mess. The notion that somehow the overthrow of the Taliban regime, which none of us supported and had been fighting against and arguing against for many years. The notion that bringing down this regime by military force from the outside would suddenly create democracy or social justice in Afghanistan has proved to be a complete joke. Basically what we have is a colonial regime in Afghanistan set up by the United States, symbolised by the fact that Hamid Karzai, the puppet leader of Afghanistan does not trust any Afghans to guard him, so his entire bodyguard is supplied by the USA which is very symbolic of the situation and this is not a situation which can last too long. The only way the Americans can keep this regime in power is if they have their troops there for the next 50 years. Without that, it is not going to be possible to have that puppet regime in power and in terms of rebuilding the country, all our information suggests that very little is being done. Secondly the war in Afghanistan has de-stabilised the situation between India and Pakistan on the following levels:- as far as India, the regional big power, is concerned, they argue that if the United States can go and invade a foreign country, change its government to destroy terrorist bases, why can't we? Now, the logic is impeccable on one level but on another level this is not possible because India is not a big empire and India cannot do what it wants to do if the United States opposes it and the main reason the war between India and Pakistan did not take place has nothing to do with the needs and desires of the Indian regime or the Pakistani regime. The simple fact was that there were American troops and pilots present in all Pakistan's Military and Air Force Bases, this meant that if India attacked Pakistan given the war in Afghanistan and the American presence in Pakistan it was a very risky operation. So I was one of those who never took that war threat or all the talk of war seriously. It was sabre- rattling however what that sabre- rattling shows is that the region has become more de-stabilised since the American intervention in Afghanistan and that a solution has to be found to the problems confronting these two countries. Now we have an irony in that Pakistan currently has a military dictator - un-elected, unaccountable, except to the army, but this military dictator happens to be secular. And we have an Indian government which is an elected government, elected by the Indian people in coalition with other parties which is essentially a religious, fundamentalist government with an extremely right wing programme. Now, if a secular dictator could deliver the army which has been the main obstacle in creating a lasting peace in the sub-continent, one would have assumed that the fundamentalists in India could deliver public opinion but the problem is they don't want to, so relations between these two countries are paralysed at the present time, each digging itself deeper into positions. I have always argued that the only solution in the sub-continent is a long-term treaty of peace between all the major powers and some creation of a South Asian Union which preserves the borders of each country but allows them to collaborate with each other economically, politically, reduces restrictions on travel. Within such a new union you could have autonomy for regions like Kashmir and the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka because it should involve all the countries in that region. But at the moment this seems a Utopian hope, though I'm convinced that it's the only one. If we go from South Asia then to the Middle East, here we have a situation which has been disrupted by September 11th in a very brutal way. Ariel Sharon, the leader of Israel and an old war criminal used the so-called war against terror to toughen his stance against the Palestinians, to go on an offensive against the Palestinians, to kill Palestinians at will and to try and destroy the Palestinian cause and the Palestinians as a political entity. The aim of Sharon is very clear - he wants to destroy the political identity of Palestine and in this he is being backed by George Bush, Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney. Rumsfeld, the American Defence Secretary recently referred to the occupied areas of Palestine as the "so-called occupation" which indicates how deep the links are between the Zionist establishment in Israel, the military establishment in that country and the United States. If the United States wanted to, it could stop this business very quickly by putting massive economic pressure on Israel, but they don't want to because Israel has been their enforcer in this oil-rich region for far too long. So what we are seeing is the use that is being made of September 11th to re-map the Middle East, to give the Israelis the green light to really crush the Palestinians which may work temporarily but isn't going to work in the long run. As for imagining that this sort of behaviour in Palestine is going to reduce acts of terrorism, only someone who lives in a dream world could believe that because what it will do is actually increase the threats of terrorism by small groups of embittered, angry and frustrated individuals all over the world, who will feel that all their hopes and their aspirations are now being crushed. At the same time as George Bush and his gang are giving the green light to Sharon to crush the Palestinians, they are preparing an invasion of Iraq and this is a very critical time now for us. It is a time to mobilise the broadest possible anti-war movement against this war. The plan is to invade Iraq and to change it's regime. This can only lead, even in the medium term to the Balkanisation of this country. Why do the United States want to do it? The reason they want to do it is because essentially oil remains a crucial commodity to fuel the needs of global capitalism. All the talk we heard for the last 25-30 years of substitutes being found for oil has not happened - oil is absolutely essential for Western Capitalist economies to function, that is what gives this oil-rich region of the Middle East the priority it has. The notion that the reason the Americans are doing it is because they hate Islam is a joke to be perfectly honest. They have worked with Islam against other enemies in the past. Many of the Islamic fundamentalist groups which have now become big bogies for them were created by them, they worked with them throughout the Cold War period. So I don't accept this idea of a permanent division or a clash between the United States and Islam. When it suits them both sides have worked together - right wing Muslim groups and the United States have worked together. It's worth stressing this fact and making this very clear, so the conflict which appears to be a conflict between the American Empire and the world of Islam is in fact basically a conflict to win control of all the oil reserves in the region indefinitely. That is what the American Empire is after. Now Iraq is an oil-rich country but it has a regime which the Americans don't like - though they used to work with Saddam Hussain for many years, but they don't like him now so they want to topple him, to have a pliant regime in that region. The second reason is that they view the Iraqi army, which is now outside their control, as the only strong military force which could balance Israel. And so there is a lot of Israeli military pressure on the United States to sort out the Iraqi army which is the only army of which they are nervous and suspicious. As for the notion that the reason they are going in is because Saddam has dangerous weapons, this is such a joke, such a set of lies that it makes one despair to think that people even believe them. No-one has come up with any proof that he has any nuclear weapons. What they are saying is that he has the capacity to make nuclear weapons. Well these days, intelligent students of physics in any part of the world have the capacity to make nuclear weapons. It is not a secret provided you can get the raw materials and in the free market of capitalism, raw materials are available if you have the money - so anyone with money can construct a nuclear device. So what? That's the condition to which we have been brought. So Saddam Hussain and the Iraqi regime have the capacity to make nuclear weapons but there is one country in the Middle East which already has nuclear weapons and that's Israel so here we have double standards pertaining in the most grotesque way. Israel has nuclear weapons, Israel has chemical weapons but that is fine. Saddam Hussain getting these weapons is a problem. Why? Because he might use them because he's a dictator. Excuse me! The only country so far in the world which has used nuclear weapons was not a dictatorship, it was the United States of America the world's largest democracy at the time which used nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killed hundreds and thousands of civilians, maimed others. So the balance sheet on that is clear; it's got nothing to do with democracy and dictatorship, it's got everything to do with power and who exercises it and who wants to dominate the world and control it. And that is what the attack on Iraq is all about. Now, will the United States succeed? They might temporarily, I don't think we should have too many illusions about that, they have the power, they will have to lose lives, they will probably. They are capable of taking Iraq militarily, but after then what? Will we see democracy in Iraq? I don't think so and the reason we won't see democracy in Iraq is because the majority of the Iraqi population is Shiah Muslim. The United States even as it talks about fighting Islam has been actually encouraging the religious Shiah leaderships, giving them money to fight against Sadam Hussain. So in having created and encouraged making politics in that country religious and using everyone they can get, they are repeating the mistakes they've made in the past. If they permit a free general election in Iraq, there will be a Shiah majority - a Shiah majority in Iraq which could technically have a long term pact between Iran and Iraq. Which would spell disaster for American policy in that region as presently conceived. So we are not going to have democracy in Iraq. Essentially we will have a protectorate, an American protectorate, possibly with UN sanction. I'm very nervous of the argument which says that if the UN backs this war it makes it a just war. The UN is largely under the control of the United States, they need to bully France into submission and pressure China by making a few concessions to abstain and they can get their own way. So what is being offered to the people of Iraq is an American protectorate. Now what the consequences of this will be immediately are unforeseeable but I can predict that in the medium and long term it will lay the seeds of despair and destruction which will actually make the world much less safe than it has been for a long time . If the United States is fearful of acts of terrorism against it, this is the best way of actually going and increasing them. So I think it is extremely important to understand and see the war against Iraq in the context in which it is being waged - it has nothing to do with the character of the Saddam Hussain, regime, it is nothing to do with nuclear weapons or chemical weapons it is everything to do with American war aims and American imperial strategy and that is why I have been arguing now for the last year since September 11th, that the mother of all fundamentalisms is American imperialist fundamentalism and unless this is fought and resisted we will face more and more disasters on a global scale. So what we need is a broad anti-imperialist alliance which can take the movement forward. And I will end on a note which might make some people unhappy which is the following:- that in order to defeat this imperialism, you can resist it for a long time, but in order to defeat it you have to come up with a global alternative which is superior to what the West offers and this alternative cannot come from religious fundamentalists because they do not have a vision apart from a very unrealistic one of imposing some form of that religion on the world. They are not able to provide the answers. But until we move back to a situation where we look for different ways of reordering and reorganising the world, something the anti-globalisation movement is struggling towards, we are going to face problems. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20020924/02792046/attachment.html From cyberravisri at yahoo.co.in Wed Sep 25 02:35:29 2002 From: cyberravisri at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?ravi=20sri?=) Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 22:05:29 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] article on Larry Lessig Message-ID: <20020924210529.85354.qmail@web8202.mail.in.yahoo.com> See This story on lessig and the relevance of his fight against copyright term extension http://www.latimes.com/la-tm-copyright38sep22001450(0,3658280).story ravi srinivas ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From cyberravisri at yahoo.co.in Wed Sep 25 02:36:28 2002 From: cyberravisri at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?ravi=20sri?=) Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 22:06:28 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] copyright extension-law&cases Message-ID: <20020924210628.77669.qmail@web8203.mail.in.yahoo.com> http://www.law.asu.edu/HomePages/Karjala/OpposingCopyrightExtension/ ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Mon Sep 23 18:46:43 2002 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 18:46:43 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] History of Northeast Frontier Railways Message-ID: <1478.203.200.121.69.1032787003.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> HISTORY Railway first entered Assam in 1881 when the Assam Railway and Trading Company began construction of a 65-Km long metre gauge line from Dibrugargh to Makum Collieries in Margherita for the sole purpose of transporting tea and coal. The year 1881 was a landmark year for railways in this region for yet another event and that was the famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway with the legendary Toy Train was commissioned. With the partition of India, the Bengal and Assam Railway had to be re- divided according to the political boundary. As a result of which the Assam Railway was formed and from August 1947, with headquarters at Pandu. To establish an all India rail route, the construction of the Assam Rail Link between Kishanganj and Fakiragram, 142 miles long project was started on a war footing on 26th January, 1948 and completed and opened in December 1949 within a record time. The first passenger train run on January26, 1950. On April14, 1952 with the regrouping of the Indian Railways, the entire Assam Railway system was amalgamated to from the North Eastern Railway with its HQ at Gorakhpur in UP. Carved out of the unbifurcated NER, the Northeast Frontier was formed in 15th January,1958 with the aim to give greater impetus to the development of the Northeast with its HQ at Maligaon. The N.F.Railway in under the administrative charge of the General Manager, who reports to Railway Board assisted by heads of departments .It is divided into four divisions-Alipurduar division, Katihar division, Lumding division and Tinsukia division. The N.F.Railway is the smallest railway in the country but the dedicated service of the railwaymen and the sincere desire to meet the special requirement of this region helped progressively to improve the performance of this railway. The N.F.Railway serves as many as ten states, besides providing interchange facility with Bangladesh and serves as railhead for Nepal and Bhutan. During the last four-decade, we have been continuously striving towards overall upliftment of this region by taking up numerous projects and executing them successfully. Construction of Saraighat Bridge, the first rail-cum-road bridge over river Brahmaputra was started on January1958. It was opened to goods traffic in Oct.1962. The then prime minister of India Late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru opened passenger traffic on 7th June. The estimated cost of the bridge was Rs.10,65,16,891.00 With the completion of the Saraighat Bridge, a modern era of Rail Transport has dawned in Assam and Northeast India, opening a new horizon of progress and development. (Source: www.nfr.railnet.gov.in) From neetbabu at rediffmail.com Thu Sep 26 13:44:06 2002 From: neetbabu at rediffmail.com (Babu P. Remesh) Date: 26 Sep 2002 08:14:06 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Michael Fisher's Seminar Message-ID: <20020926081406.25405.qmail@webmail10.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20020926/86a54113/attachment.pl From raviv at sarai.net Thu Sep 26 14:35:35 2002 From: raviv at sarai.net (Ravi Vasudevan) Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 14:05:35 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Michael Fisher's Seminar In-Reply-To: <20020926081406.25405.qmail@webmail10.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20020926140535.00853cb0@mail.sarai.net> At 08:14 AM 9/26/02 -0000, Babu P. Remesh wrote: Dear Babu and Prabhu, Please save a copy of M.Fisher's talk for me in case I cant come - I think it would be very useful to the course I am currently teaching - one of the topics is on criminal law and labour regulation. Tahnks a lot Radhika >Integrated Labour History Research Programme - Seminar >Announcement > >Michael Fisher (Professor of History, Oberlin College, USA)will >talk on the topic, `Extending Indian Labour History to Early >Britain, 1600-1857" on 4th October 2002 at V.V.Giri National >Labour Institute, NOIDA. >All are welcome. > > > >_________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >Critiques & Collaborations >To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. >List archive: > Ravi Vasudevan The Sarai programme: city/media/public domain Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi-110054 India Tel. 395-1190, 394-2119, 396-0040 Fax. 394-3450 From slumbug at rediffmail.com Thu Sep 26 21:34:08 2002 From: slumbug at rediffmail.com (slumbug) Date: 26 Sep 2002 16:04:08 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Michael Fisher's Seminar Message-ID: <20020926160408.17593.qmail@mailFA12.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20020926/3642195f/attachment.pl From starchild at anjalika.demon.co.uk Thu Sep 26 19:41:28 2002 From: starchild at anjalika.demon.co.uk (Anjali Sagar) Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 23:11:28 +0900 Subject: [Reader-list] Defending ourselves Message-ID: Defending ourselves Peter Kilfoyle Only a united Europe can counterbalance an increasingly paranoid and hawkish America Monday September 23, 2002 The Guardian In ancient Rome, the statesman Cato the Elder was renowned for declaiming, at the end of every speech, that "Carthage must be destroyed", referring to Rome's long-standing enemy. It is perhaps appropriate, therefore, that one of the rightwing thinktanks in the US should be called the Cato Institute - except that the ultra-right of American politics sees enemies everywhere. The thinking of these ideologues is alien to most of us. So extreme is one of their number, Paul Wolfowitz, that it is said that the description "hawk" does not do him justice ("What about velociraptor?" one of his former colleagues once remarked). Yet this world is cosily comfortable for its inhabitants. They speak to each other and for each other, and their websites are seamlessly linked. If, for example, one accesses the website of the National Institute for Public Policy - largely responsible for the current posture whereby the US is ready to attack non-nuclear nations with nuclear weapons - better known organisations like the Heritage Foundation appear, together with an eclectic collection of bodies, from the Korean Central News Agency, the Government of Pakistan and the US Department of Defence's Missile Defence Agency (for which the institute works). Possibly the strangest pair of these factories of paranoia are the Centre for Security Policy, and the Project for the New American Century. The former is run by the ultra-hawk Frank J Gaffney. He calls UN inspections in Iraq "harebrained" and is very well-connected in Washington. Back in 1997 Gaffney was cosignatory of the principles of PNAC, along with Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis Libby (all senior officials to President Bush), together with Jeb Bush, brother of the president and famed for his dimpled chads. It was this organisation that wrote to President Bush last Friday saying: "Should Iran and Syria refuse to comply with [our demands], the administration should consider appropriate measures of retaliation against these known state sponsors of terrorism." War without end. What does the PNAC stand for? Four things: increased defence spending; challenging regimes "hostile to our interests and values"; the promotion of "political and economic freedom"; and America's need to keep the world "friendly to our security, our prosperity and our principles". In short, they wish to impose an imperialist Pax Americana on the world. The links and ideas among the far right are well-embedded in the current administration. Those links are both personal and ideological, and heavily influence American government policy. They are closely tied in, too, with the defence industry, oil interests, hawkish Israel supporters and the fundamentalist Christian right. Its current manifestation is the bellicose demand for a military solution to the problem of Saddam Hussein. Many around the world breathed a sigh of relief when President Bush went to the UN recently, unaware that the approach was merely a tactic. This administration and its leading lights have been consistently hostile to the UN; and they quickly made clear after Bush's address that, UN mandate or not, they will take out Saddam. This can hardly have comforted the British government, which switched under the pressure of public opinion to the inspections option, only to find it blocked by American determination to effect regime change. The ramifications of this hardline American policy on the US relationship with the world are huge. First, no one can doubt in the short term America's ability to enforce its will on much of the globe. Indeed, its defence document Joint Vision 2020 explicitly states: "The label 'full spectrum dominance' implies that US forces are able to conduct prompt, sustained and synchronised operations with combinations of forces tailored to specific situations, and with access to and freedom to operate in all domains - space, sea, land, air and information." It clearly intends total military domination - including missile defence - to effect such a strategy. The present administration also has the will to pursue such a course. It is both unilateral and isolationist, and will act in America's immediate national interest, regardless of international opinion and convention. Thus, the administration has unilaterally rejected Kyoto, the international criminal court, the ABM treaty, the Biological Weapons Convention, World Trade Organisation provisions and many more - all in favour of narrow American interests. It openly despises any restraint on its autonomy. For international organisations, this "might is right" approach is disastrous. What value is the UN when the world's only superpower treats it with open contempt? What of the EU, derided as "wimps"? What of the WTO, portrayed as a one-way street to American advantage? What of Nato, wherein national armies are seen as subordinate to American control and whim? Here in the UK, we are in a substantially worse predicament. Successive governments have deluded themselves that we have a "special relationship" with the US - special only in so far as we tend to fall in with every crazed administration notion, and ask for nothing in return. We end up as America's handrag, with diminished credibility within Europe and facing increased hostility across the globe. Is this in the British national interest? I fear not. A unipolar world is a dangerous place. It is like standing on one leg - one is far more liable to lose balance than when one is standing on two, or even four legs. Increasingly, it is clear that there needs to be an effective counterbalance to this over-powering American hegemony, best illustrated by the tragedy of Palestine. Here, the EU invested large amounts in the civilian infrastructure of the embryonic Palestinian Authority. Along came the Israeli government, using massive American military aid, and with tacit American approval, to destroy that peace-building capacity. Where is the sense, or the justice, in that? Is British and European opinion of no account? The time has surely come for the UK government, along with its European partners, to have the courage, within the restraints of realpolitik, to reassess its foreign policy priorities in line with our national interests and these new realities. Do those interests lie with those with whom we do our trade? Do we have more to gain in a strengthened relationship with Europe? Are we to be Europe's heartland or America's frontline? As we approach a heightening of the debate on the euro, it would be appropriate to widen that debate to include a full consideration of our community of interest with our European partners in a world overshadowed by the rampant hawks in Washington. As recent events have shown, a truly independent common defence and security policy for the EU is long overdue. · Peter Kilfoyle is MP for Liverpool Walton and a former defence minister (1999-2000) kilfoylep at parliament.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20020926/ab5640ef/attachment.html From rmazumdar at vsnl.net Sat Sep 28 06:45:58 2002 From: rmazumdar at vsnl.net (Ranjani Mazumdar) Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 06:45:58 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Kiarostami is denied U.S VISA Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.2.20020928064536.00b07ec0@mail.vsnl.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20020928/0c331124/attachment.html From alokrai at hss.iitd.ernet.in Sun Sep 29 09:01:16 2002 From: alokrai at hss.iitd.ernet.in (Dr. Alok Rai) Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 09:01:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Guardian article by A Roy Message-ID: <001501c26768$abd025c0$4a01050a@x6o6l2> I don't know if this article has already been circulated on the List. If it has, apologies. Alok Rai ****** Not again Tomorrow thousands of people will take to the streets of London to protest against an attack on Iraq. Here, the distinguished Indian writer Arundhati Roy argues that it is the demands of global capitalism that are driving us to war Friday September 27, 2002 The Guardian Recently, those who have criticised the actions of the US government (myself included) have been called "anti-American". Anti-Americanism is in the process of being consecrated into an ideology. The term is usually used by the American establishment to discredit and, not falsely - but shall we say inaccurately - define its critics. Once someone is branded anti-American, the chances are that he or she will be judged before they're heard and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised national pride. What does the term mean? That you're anti-jazz? Or that you're opposed to free speech? That you don't delight in Toni Morrison or John Updike? That you have a quarrel with giant sequoias? Does it mean you don't admire the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who marched against nuclear weapons, or the thousands of war resisters who forced their government to withdraw from Vietnam? Does it mean that you hate all Americans? This sly conflation of America's music, literature, the breathtaking physical beauty of the land, the ordinary pleasures of ordinary people with criticism of the US government's foreign policy is a deliberate and extremely effective strategy. It's like a retreating army taking cover in a heavily populated city, hoping that the prospect of hitting civilian targets will deter enemy fire. There are many Americans who would be mortified to be associated with their government's policies. The most scholarly, scathing, incisive, hilarious critiques of the hypocrisy and the contradictions in US government policy come from American citizens. (Similarly, in India, not hundreds, but million s of us would be ashamed and offended, if we were in any way implicated with the present Indian government's fascist policies.) To call someone anti-American, indeed, to be anti-American, is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination. An inability to see the world in terms other than those that the establishment has set out for you: If you don't love us, you hate us. If you're not good, you're evil. If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists. Last year, like many others, I too made the mistake of scoffing at this post-September 11 rhetoric, dismissing it as foolish and arrogant. I've realised that it's not. It's actually a canny recruitment drive for a misconceived, dangerous war. Every day I'm taken aback at how many people believe that opposing the war in Afghanistan amounts to supporting terrorism. Now that the initial aim of the war - capturing Osama bin Laden - seems to have run into bad weather, the goalposts have been moved. It's being made out that the whole point of the war was to topple the Taliban regime and liberate Afghan women from their burqas. We're being asked to believe that the US marines are actually on a feminist mission. (If so, will their next stop be America's military ally, Saudi Arabia?) Think of it this way: in India there are some pretty reprehensible social practices, against "untouchables", against Christians and Muslims, against women. Pakistan and Bangladesh have even worse ways of dealing with minority communities and women. Should they be bombed? Uppermost on everybody's mind, of course, particularly here in America, is the horror of what has come to be known as 9/11. Nearly 3,000 civilians lost their lives in that lethal terrorist strike. The grief is still deep. The rage still sharp. The tears have not dried. And a strange, deadly war is raging around the world. Yet, each person who has lost a loved one surely knows that no war, no act of revenge, will blunt the edges of their pain or bring their own loved ones back. War cannot avenge those who have died. War is only a brutal desecration of their memory. To fuel yet another war - this time against Iraq - by manipulating people's grief, by packaging it for TV specials sponsored by corporations selling detergent or running shoes, is to cheapen and devalue grief, to drain it of meaning. We are seeing a pillaging of even the most private human feelings for political purpose. It is a terrible, violent thing for a state to do to its people. The US government says that Saddam Hussein is a war criminal, a cruel military despot who has committed genocide against his own people. That's a fairly accurate description of the man. In 1988, he razed hundreds of villages in northern Iraq and killed thousands of Kurds. Today, we know that that same year the US government provided him with $500m in subsidies to buy American farm products. The next year, after he had successfully completed his genocidal campaign, the US government doubled its subsidy to $1bn. It also provided him with high-quality germ seed for anthrax, as well as helicopters and dual-use material that could be used to manufacture chemical and biological weapons. It turns out that while Saddam was carrying out his worst atrocities, the US and UK governments were his close allies. So what changed? In August 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait. His sin was not so much that he had committed an act of war, but that he acted independently, without orders from his masters. This display of independence was enough to upset the power equation in the Gulf. So it was decided that Saddam be exterminated, like a pet that has outlived its owner's affection. A decade of bombing has not managed to dislodge him. Now, almost 12 years on, Bush Jr is ratcheting up the rhetoric once again. He's proposing an all-out war whose goal is nothing short of a regime change. Andrew H Card Jr, the White House chief-of-staff, described how the administration was stepping up its war plans for autumn: "From a marketing point of view," he said, "you don't introduce new products in August." This time the catchphrase for Washington's "new product" is not the plight of people in Kuwait but the assertion that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Forget "the feckless moralising of the 'peace' lobbies," wrote Richard Perle, chairman of the Defence Policy Board. The US will " act alone if necessary" and use a "pre-emptive strike" if it determines it is in US interests. Weapons inspectors have conflicting reports about the status of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and many have said clearly that its arsenal has been dismantled and that it does not have the capacity to build one. What if Iraq does have a nuclear weapon? Does that justify a pre-emptive US strike? The US has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. It's the only country in the world to have actually used them on civilian populations. If the US is justified in launching a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, why, any nuclear power is justified in carrying out a pre-emptive attack on any other. India could attack Pakistan, or the other way around. Recently, the US played an important part in forcing India and Pakistan back from the brink of war. Is it so hard for it to take its own advice? Who is guilty of feckless moralising? Of preaching peace while it wages war? The US, which Bush has called "the most peaceful nation on earth", has been at war with one country or another every year for the last 50 years. Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons. They're usually fought for hegemony, for business. And then, of course, there's the business of war. In his book on globalisation, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Tom Friedman says: "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps." Perhaps this was written in a moment of vulnerability, but it's certainly the most succinct, accurate description of the project of corporate globalisation that I have read. After September 11 and the war against terror, the hidden hand and fist have had their cover blown - and we have a clear view now of America's other weapon - the free market - bearing down on the developing world, with a clenched, unsmiling smile. The Task That Never Ends is America's perfect war, the perfect vehicle for the endless expansion of American imperialism. In Urdu, the word for profit is fayda. Al-qaida means the word, the word of God, the law. So, in India, some of us call the War Against Terror, Al-qaida vs Al-fayda - The Word vs The Profit (no pun intended). For the moment it looks as though Al-fayda will carry the day. But then you never know... In the past 10 years, the world's total income has increased by an average of 2.5% a year. And yet the numbers of the poor in the world has increased by 100 million. Of the top 100 biggest economies, 51 are corporations, not countries. The top 1% of the world has the same combined income as the bottom 57%, and the disparity is growing. Now, under the spreading canopy of the war against terror, this process is being hustled along. The men in suits are in an unseemly hurry. While bombs rain down, contracts are being signed, patents registered, oil pipelines laid, natural resources plundered, water privatised and democracies undermined. But as the disparity between the rich and poor grows, the hidden fist of the free market has its work cut out. Multinational corporations on the prowl for "sweetheart deals" that yield enormous profits cannot push them through in developing countries without the active connivance of state machinery - the police, the courts, sometimes even the army. Today, corporate globalisation needs an international confederation of loyal, corrupt, preferably authoritarian governments in poorer countries, to push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies. It needs a press that pretends to be free. It needs courts that pretend to dispense justice. It needs nuclear bombs, standing armies, sterner immigration laws, and watchful coastal patrols to make sure that its only money, goods, patents and services that are globalised - not the free movement of people, not a respect for human rights, not international treaties on racial discrimination or chemical and nuclear weapons, or greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, or, God forbid, justice. It's as though even a gesture towards international accountability would wreck the whole enterprise. Close to one year after the war against terror was officially flagged off in the ruins of Afghanistan, in country after country freedoms are being curtailed in the name of protecting freedom, civil liberties are being suspended in the name of protecting democracy. All kinds of dissent is being defined as "terrorism". Donald Rumsfeld said that his mission in the war against terror was to persuade the world that Americans must be allowed to continue their way of life. When the maddened king stamps his foot, slaves tremble in their quarters. So, it's hard for me to say this, but the American way of life is simply not sustainable. Because it doesn't acknowledge that there is a world beyond America. Fortunately, power has a shelf life. When the time comes, maybe this mighty empire will, like others before it, overreach itself and implode from within. It looks as though structural cracks have already appeared. As the war against terror casts its net wider and wider, America's corporate heart is haemorrhaging. A world run by a handful of greedy bankers and CEOs whom nobody elected can't possibly last. Soviet-style communism failed, not because it was intrinsically evil but because it was flawed. It allowed too few people to usurp too much power: 21st-century market-capitalism, American-style, will fail for the same reasons. ********* From choikamchuen at yahoo.com Sun Sep 29 15:23:56 2002 From: choikamchuen at yahoo.com (Jimmy Choi) Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 02:53:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] I condemn the US government for denying VISA to Kiarostami Message-ID: <20020929095356.28339.qmail@web12808.mail.yahoo.com> Following the barbaric treatment Iranian director Jafar Panahi received ealier, this denial adds another insult to the civilized world and, in particular, to filmmakers. We should condemn the Bush Administration for their uncivilized act and imperialistic mentality. American people and the rest of the world should protest and make it clear to the US government that if they do not change their policy and mentality they will bring war and destruction to the world. Choi Kam Chuen ===== Take care Choi __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com From aiindex at mnet.fr Mon Sep 30 06:42:01 2002 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 02:12:01 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] NYTimes: As Security Cameras Sprout, Someone's Always Watching (Dean E. Murphy) Message-ID: The New York Times September 29, 2002   As Security Cameras Sprout, Someone's Always Watching By DEAN E. MURPHY ORTERVILLE, Calif., Sept. 27 ‹ This is the kind of place, small and out of the way, where people keep count of things taken for granted elsewhere. Three McDonald's restaurants, including the one in the Wal-Mart. One Starbucks, new. Nine screens at the Galaxy theater. Seventy-three jobs at Mervyn's department store. But even in this town, pushed against the parched foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where oranges and dairy cows seem as plentiful as people, at least one big-city item creates little excitement. "Surveillance cameras?" asked Donnette Carter of the Porterville Chamber of Commerce. "Offhand, I couldn't tell you." With the recent arrest of a woman in Indiana whom a security camera videotaped beating her daughter in a parking lot, the presence of electronic eyes across America has drawn new attention. But what security and privacy specialists have long known might surprise people in towns like this: the surveillance equipment is everywhere, not just in big cities and at obvious places like Times Square or outside the White House, but also in Porterville and Mishawaka, Ind., and hundreds of other places. More often than not, private rather than public hands are controlling the lenses, as was the case in Indiana. "There is the very deep notion of private property in our culture, that if you own it, you can do what you want with it," said William G. Staples, a University of Kansas sociology professor who has written two books about surveillance. "That has contributed to the proliferation of surveillance cameras on the private side. It is only since Sept. 11 that the public side has been catching up with what the private sector has been doing for a long time." There has been much discussion since Sept. 11 of the growing role of government as Big Brother, with law enforcement agencies turning to tools like face-recognition technology at airports and closed-circuit television systems in public buildings. But Professor Staples and other surveillance experts suggest the general debate should include "Tiny Brothers," a term he and others use to describe the many private security cameras that most people quietly tolerate or do not think about. Tiny Brothers might be less known, but they disturb people who worry about civil liberties. "I don't know if we want to uncover everything that goes on," Professor Staples said. "The cameras function as a net-widening effect, catching all kinds of activities they may not have been intended to catch. Those cameras in the parking lot could zoom over someone in a romantic tryst in a car. Do we really want to know all of this?" The Security Industry Association estimates that at least two million closed-circuit television systems are in the United States. A survey of Manhattan in 1998 by the American Civil Liberties Union found 2,397 cameras fixed on places where people pass or gather, like stores and sidewalks. All but 270 were operated by private entities, the organization reported. CCS International, a company that provides security and monitoring services, calculated last year that the average person was recorded 73 to 75 times a day in New York City. "We went out and counted every camera we could find," said Arielle Jamil, a company spokeswoman. "Some have dummy cameras, but the real one is looking at you from a different direction." Here in Porterville, four cameras are mounted above the entrance to Wal-Mart. Mervyn's has one outside and one inside its front door. Some dangle above the tellers in banks on Olive Avenue, and others capture images of visitors and patients strolling the halls at Sierra View District Hospital. The town's biggest employer, the Wal-Mart Distribution Center, has cameras perched like pigeons on its warehouses. The list goes on, and it is growing. For about a year, Tom Barcellos, a dairy farmer, has had them watching his employees in a milking parlor on the outskirts of town. A few months ago he turned to the videotapes to resolve a dispute that had ended in a shoving match between two employees. Pleased with the result, Mr. Barcellos is adding cameras to monitor what goes on outdoors on his farm, which has about 800 cows. "It is more or less a precautionary thing, something to fall back on," he said. "I understand the arguments against them, but I don't worry because I am not doing anything wrong. I consider it security. The people with the biggest problem seem to have a guilty conscience and have something to hide." This summer, the Sierra View hospital added cameras to cover a parking garage for doctors and employees. The system is connected to a computer, which a security official can use to focus the lenses to show the faces of people inside cars. Across town, school officials were so upset when the new Burton Middle School was covered with graffiti before it opened that they decided to install four surveillance cameras on the grounds. "There is a great increase everywhere," said Ronald L. Irish, vice president of S.T.O.P. Alarm, a Porterville security company hired to install the school's cameras. "I even get calls about two or three times a month from people wanting to put cameras around their homes." One of the nation's biggest suppliers of video security equipment, Pelco, is based just north of here in Clovis, Calif. Company officials said commercial uses for the equipment far outnumbered public uses, even with new concerns about terrorism. Dave Smith, Pelco's vice president for marketing, said many companies were still evaluating their needs after Sept. 11, so an expected surge in sales had not yet occurred. Even so, a market research firm in Connecticut that specializes in security, the J. P, Freeman Company, estimates that the digital video surveillance market is growing 15 percent a year, about four times as fast as the security industry as a whole, as companies seek better surveillance systems and images. "That growth is quite remarkable against the soft economy," said Joe P. Freeman, the company's chief executive. "In the end, a picture is worth a thousand words. All other forms of security provide you with data, not pictures. People want images stored in a huge storage file so that if anything is discovered later they can go back and see what happened." Law enforcement officials almost everywhere have encouraged the trend. Videotaped images generally strengthen criminal cases and take a big load off the investigators trying to piece together a crime. In some cases, trade organizations have also become involved. Michael Marsh, the chief executive of the Western United Dairymen, said his group had recommended surveillance equipment to help deter animal rights extremists and more recently to cope with threats of bioterrorism. Private security officials in gambling towns, like Reno, Nev., informally share data from cameras mounted outside casinos. Wayne Harvey, chairman of the Reno-Sparks Security Directors Association, said new cameras were constantly being added in areas not related to gambling. "The surveillance systems are just as important in the back of the house," Mr. Harvey said. "There is talk of getting Big Brother, but it is a necessary evil in this day and time." Mr. Staples, the Kansas professor, said public attitudes about the cameras had changed and tended to be generational. When he speaks about his research to older audiences, he said, he inevitably hears cries of outrage and complaints about the infringement of civil liberties. Younger audiences, like a high school philosophy class he addressed recently, are far more accepting, having grown up with images of Rodney King being beaten by Los Angeles officers and reality television shows, like "Big Brother," that extol camera-driven voyeurism. The Sept. 11 attacks might also have created a sense that it is unpatriotic to oppose surveillance. In Quincy, Calif., a tiny mountain town in rural Plumas County, a three-term county supervisor is facing a recall by his constituents because of his stance on surveillance cameras. The supervisor, Robert A. Meacher, unplugged some surveillance equipment set up by the sheriff's department at a music festival last July. It was apparently intended to monitor drug sales. Mr. Meacher has since apologized for having used some extreme language in criticizing the sheriff's department's tactics, and he said he might not have opposed the equipment if someone had told him about it in advance. Nonetheless, the recall petition accuses him of being against law enforcement, and many people in the sheriff's department are still angry with him. "The very fact that you raise a question makes you suspect, makes you anti-American," Mr. Meacher said. "It's, `Whose side are you on?' It shouldn't be like that. I can't help but think of the Buffalo Springfield song: `Step out of line, and the man comes and takes you away.' " -- From newsgroup at cyrilgupta.com Mon Sep 30 19:21:11 2002 From: newsgroup at cyrilgupta.com (Billu23) Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 06:51:11 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Encarta's Biased Portrayal of Hinduism In-Reply-To: <20020930042546.9070.21941.Mailman@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20020930064711.00a20ec0@mail.cyrilgupta.com> >This article was posted some days ago on Sulekha.com. I wonder if you've >read it? Are Hinduism studies prejudiced? A look at Microsoft Encarta Sankrant Sanu ~ Sep 24, 2002 Author's note: The scholarship of certain sections of the academic community studying Hinduism has been controversial in the Indian community. In this article we try to examine whether there is truth to this controversy, and whether such academics influence the mainstream portrayal of “Hinduism” in standard sources. We use Microsoft® Corporation's Encarta® Encyclopedia as the reference in this study. Introduction In this article we discuss the differences, in both approach and result, of Encarta's articles on Hinduism in comparison with the articles on some of the other major world religions in Encarta. Encarta Encyclopedia is published by Microsoft Corporation, which claims that it is the “Best-selling encyclopedia brand.” Encarta is widely used as a reference source in American schools. In particular, because of its widespread use amongst children, we would expect Encarta's coverage of religions to be even-handed, sensitive and unprejudiced. In a world of religious conflict, it becomes particularly important that children are given balanced viewpoints of mainstream beliefs and practices of all religions. In particular, we contrast Encarta's treatment of Hinduism, with the two other major religions -- Islam and Christianity. On occasion, we also refer to the treatment of other religions like Judaism and Buddhism. The purpose of this article is not to make value judgments or a comparative study of the religions themselves. In studying such a vast and complex phenomena as the major religions, one can always find conflicting or questionable issues, just as one can find highly elevating truths. What aspects of the religion get highlighted is a matter of editorial choice. Our interest is not in comparing the religions per se, but in understanding the differences in editorial choice -- both in the selection of content as well as style, in the scholarly treatment of these religions in Encarta. Unless otherwise noted, all references below are to the main content article on each of the religions in Encarta. We have used Encarta Encyclopedia 2002 (US edition) for our reference, though a casual look at Encarta 2003 suggests that the articles on the major religions have remained the same as Encarta 2002. All actual quotes are in quotation marks preceded by the name of the article in Encarta. The Contents Page Our study begins with the main contents page for each of the religions. In some cases, the contents page contains, in quotes, a single highlighted statement about the religion. In the 2002 version of Encarta, these quotes are present for Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, and not for Christianity and Islam. · Judaism: “The God of creation entered into a special relationship with the Jewish people at Sinai.” · Buddhism: “Karma consists of a person's acts and their ethical consequence.” · Hinduism: “Rama and Krishna are said to be avatars of Vishnu though they were originally human heroes.” Note, that the one statement that was chosen about Hinduism is that which repudiates Hindu belief, while the statements for the other two religions reflect a balanced positive or neutral stance. Notice also the use of “said to be” in Hinduism while the statement on Judaism is presented in the editorial voice as a presentation of fact. To understand this representation, let us draw up a hypothetical quote on Christianity to parallel the quote on Hinduism. · Christianity*: Jesus Christ is said to be the “Son of God” though he was just a human. Irrespective of belief in the truth or falsity of this statement, or the parallel one in the case of Hinduism, when such a statement is the highlight of the commentary on a religion, it reflects a certain attitude about how the subject is approached. Let us see if this attitude continues to persist in the article on Hinduism in comparison to other religions. Fundamental principles In the article on Hinduism, we find the “Fundamental Principles” divided into four sections -- Texts, Philosophy, “Gods” and “Worship and Ritual.” We find the sequencing of ideas within this section fairly haphazard -- generally moving to specifics without laying out the general -- giving the impression of a somewhat incoherent system. Hinduism: “The canon of Hinduism is basically defined by what people do rather than what they think. Consequently, far more uniformity of behavior than of belief is found among Hindus, although very few practices or beliefs are shared by all. A few usages are observed by almost all Hindus: reverence for Brahmans and cows; abstention from meat (especially beef); and marriage within the caste (jati), in the hope of producing male heirs.” In doing so, the author takes the richness and diversity of Hindu thought and tries to approach it from the point of view of an orthodox church defining a single “canon.” Failing to find the “canon” or articulate the underlying worldview of a system that allows many paths to flourish within it, the author gives up to quickly start listing mainly social practices. Let us see how the same issue is treated in Christianity. Christianity: “Any phenomenon as complex and as vital as Christianity is easier to describe historically than to define logically, but such a description does yield some insights into its continuing elements and essential characteristics.” In the description of Christianity, Encarta approaches it from a point of view of humility -- the problem being of the expository limitations of the author. No such humility is visible in the description of Hinduism, where the author quickly reduces any notion of complexity to an anthropological viewpoint. Further on, we explore various examples of how the anthropological viewpoint dominates the article on Hinduism. Dealing with “contradiction” Let us see how the articles deal with supposed contradictions. Hinduism: “Although Hindus believe and do many apparently contradictory things -- contradictory not merely from one Hindu to the next, but also within the daily religious life of a single Hindu -- each individual perceives an orderly pattern that gives form and meaning to his or her own life.” The article on Hinduism is very clear that there are contradictions, and highlights this aspect. The articles on Christianity and Islam are either unable to find any contradictions, or don't find them the most significant aspect of the religion to cover. In the few instances when they do, they use substantially different language to talk about these. In Christianity, any contradictions of behavior are attributed to the limitations of individuals rather than limitations of the faith or of “Christians” as a generalized entity. Christianity: “To a degree that those on the inside often fail to recognize, however, such a system of beliefs and values can also be described in a way that makes sense as well to an interested observer who does not, or even cannot, share their outlook.” The article on Islam does not mention any “contradiction” at all, but a continued “refinement.” Islam: “Recurring debates among Islamic scholars over the nature of God have continued to refine the Islamic concepts of God's otherness and Islamic monotheism.” Even when the article on Islam admits differences in contemporary practice, it puts the difficulty of these on the analytical or expository abilities of the author (“difficult to identify”), rather than the religion. Islam: “Yet the radically different political, economic, and cultural conditions under which contemporary Muslims live make it difficult to identify what constitutes standard Islamic practice in the modern world.” The key to understanding both the diversity as well as the unity of Hinduism is neither in the search for a “canon” (a strongly Christian worldview), nor in the anthropology of particular practices. It is in recognizing that the philosophical foundations of Hinduism have celebrated diversity of path and individuality (which itself is a distinctive feature), while at the same time encouraging theological debates to further understanding. In the articles on Christianity and Islam the problem, if any, is usually depicted as that of the author's inability to describe rather than any contradictions. The author of Hinduism, apparently, faces very little difficulty -- she carries on with an anthropological description of practices “from above” -- sure that any contradiction that is found is surely in the religion itself, and not in any lack of understanding or expository ability. Peaceful “Jihad” and violent “Ahimsa” A further study about the difference in approach and attitude in the articles on religion can be found in the description of subtle concepts. We take two -- jihad and ahimsa, in particular, both of which may be somewhat familiar to the lay reader. Islam: “Many polemical descriptions of Islam have focused critically on the Islamic concept of jihad. Jihad, considered the sixth pillar of Islam by some Muslims, has been understood to mean holy war in these descriptions. However, the word in Arabic means "to struggle" or "to exhaust one's effort," in order to please God. Within the faith of Islam, this effort can be individual or collective, and it can apply to leading a virtuous life; helping other Muslims through charity, education, or other means; preaching Islam; and fighting to defend Muslims. Western media of the 20th century continue to focus on the militant interpretations of the concept of jihad, whereas most Muslims do not.” Hinduism: “The most important tenet of sanatana dharma for all Hindus is ahimsa, the absence of a desire to injure, which is used to justify vegetarianism (although it does not preclude physical violence toward animals or humans, or blood sacrifices in temples).” [Em. added] In both cases, the authors treat subtle subjects in the respective religions. In the article on Islam, the author presents a sympathetic view of Jihad, and attempts to favorably influence Western perceptions. In the article on Hinduism the author adds decidedly unfavorable editorial asides seeking to “correct” possibly favorable perceptions by introducing “contradictions.” The tone of the article again is of a higher entity looking down on lowly customs and illogical “native” interpretations (as in (“ahimsa” “is used to justify”). This is an illustration of the very different viewpoint (dare we say “agenda”) from which the article on Hinduism is written. While the articles on Islam and Christianity attempt to uplift the reader to a refined understanding of those religions, the article on Hinduism attempts to denigrate instead. To understand what we mean by this let us see how Encarta would present Christianity and Islam, if it were to use the same logic and attitude as used in the article on Hinduism. Christianity*: The most important tenet of Christianity is love (although it does not preclude burning heretics and witches at the stake, the Crusades, Christian colonization and the Jewish Holocaust). Islam*: Muslims claim that Islam is a religion of peace (although it does not preclude suicide bombing or other terrorist acts). To be really clear, we are not suggesting that such descriptions of Christianity or Islam should have been in Encarta -- they would be decidedly negative portrayals. Unfortunately, this tone of portrayal prevails in the article on Hinduism. This is, surprisingly, not the only example of the technique of negative editorial aside in the article on Hinduism. We see also: Hinduism: “Svadharma comprises the beliefs that each person is born to perform a specific job, marry a specific person, eat certain food, and beget children to do likewise and that it is better to fulfill one's own dharma than that of anyone else (even if one's own is low or reprehensible, such as that of the Harijan caste, the Untouchables, whose mere presence was once considered polluting to other castes). A positive portrayal of “Svadharma” (literally “Self-Dharma”) would introduce it as a high statement to an individual to discover and understand their purpose and calling in the cosmos and actualize it, rather than letting it be defined by some “other”, like an orthodox religious hierarchy. Yet in the hands of the Encarta author it becomes an excuse for an aside on the historical practice of untouchability that is derided in contemporary mainstream Hinduism. In neither of the other two articles of the major religions, Christianity or Islam, do we find the use of the technique of the denigrating editorial aside. Indeed, the purpose of the other two articles appears to be to elevate rather than to denigrate -- and quite rightly so for a mainstream source dealing with religion. Philosophy or Anthropology? The article on Hinduism appears quite disjointed in its understanding of Philosophy, Anthropology, Cosmology and Mythology. “Fundamental Principles” leads with Anthropology. As we see below, the section on “Philosophy” is mostly “Mythology” depicting “Cosmology” -- the very limited coverage of the well-developed schools of Hindu philosophy is relegated to a list in the section “Rise of Devotional Movements,” in the topic on History. Without setting out the philosophical principles underlying beliefs and practices in Hinduism, the coverage of “Gods” and “Rituals” appears particularly bizarre. Let us see how the section on “Philosophy” starts. Hinduism: “Incorporated in this rich literature is a complex cosmology. Hindus believe that the universe is a great, enclosed sphere, a cosmic egg, within which are numerous concentric heavens, hells, oceans, and continents, with India at the center.” “They believe that time is both degenerative -- going from the golden age, or Krita Yuga, through two intermediate periods of decreasing goodness, to the present age, or Kali Yuga -- and cyclic: At the end of each Kali Yuga, the universe is destroyed by fire and flood, and a new golden age begins.” Firstly, this is not philosophy, but as the author points out, cosmology. Secondly, as a description of Hindu cosmology, it is fairly inadequate and reductive. It fails to point that there are multiple creation myths in Hindu texts. Also, as far as Hindu cosmology goes, people like notable astronomer and author, Prof. Carl Sagan, have pointed that the calculations of the age of the universe based on this cosmology works out to be fairly close to our current scientific estimates -- and “(Hinduism) is the only ancient religious tradition on the Earth which talks about the right time-scale.”[i] Mentioning any of this, would, of course be quite contrary to the tone of the article. Rather than presenting the creation myth as a story and presenting the hidden elements of scientific truth, the article gives a reductive description, preceded by the phrase “Hindus believe.” To understand this better, let us compare it with the article in Encarta about the Biblical creation myth. Adam and Eve: “Adam and Eve, in the Bible, the first man and woman, progenitors of the human race. The biblical account of the creation of human beings occurs twice: in Genesis 1:26-27 and in Genesis 2:18-24. Marked differences in vocabulary, thought, and style between these accounts have led to the scholarly consensus that these creation stories reflect two distinct sources (see Bible: The Development of the Old Testament). In the first account, the Hebrew common noun Adam is used as a generic term for all human beings, regardless of gender; Eve is not mentioned at all. In the second account, Adam is created from the dust of the earth, whereas Eve is created from Adam's rib and given to him by God to be his wife.” The first notable difference is that of the expository technique. The latter article presents different creation accounts in the reading of Biblical texts. Note how this shifts subtly if it were preceded by “Christians believe ”. That there are differences in the two stories in the same book could then be extrapolated, as is done in the article on Hinduism to state, “Christians believe many contradictory things.” Instead the article about Adam and Eve treats it as a scholarly study of text (where different “accounts” are found), rather than conclusive statements about “Christian belief.” Let us see how one would present a section on Christian “Philosophy” with the same approach as in the case of Hinduism. Christianity*: Christians believe that all humans descend from one man and woman, called Adam and Eve and calculated the age of the world to be about 10,000 years. They believe also that the female Eve was created from male Adam's rib by God to be his wife (which is used to justify Christian attitudes towards women such as a historical denial of voting rights). Christians believe many contradictory things -- for example, that an all-loving, forgiving God puts human beings in everlasting Hell, if they sin without repenting in this life. [Em. added] This would be a similarly reductive account presenting “Christians” as irrational, and failing to grasp the multiple levels of subtleties involved in understanding a religion. As we see in the description of Hinduism, this is precisely the approach of the Encarta article. An account similar to the one in Encarta of Adam and Eve would be a neutral objective treatment of similar material in Hindu mythology, rather than a treatment that “boxes-in” the rich and diverse Hindu cosmology into “Hindu belief.” Adding the relationships to modern scientific understanding would make it a “sympathetic” treatment for current audiences. Instead, the Encarta article on Hinduism consistently chooses a subtle (and sometimes, not so subtle) negative portrayal. Despite a very rich philosophical tradition, the anthropological view dominates the article on Hinduism. Both the articles on Christianity and Islam, lead instead with the philosophical ideas. Apparently the broadness of Hindu philosophical ideas “Vasudeva Kutumbha” (the world is a family), and the ideas of religious pluralism (“many paths lead to God”) that continue to guide most Hindus, find no place in the Encarta article. “Gods” Nowhere is the anthropological view more apparent than in the treatment of “gods”. Firstly, an inadequate attempt is made to put the idea of “gods” (not “Gods”) in proper perspective for a Western reader. The word “deva” in Sanskrit, is less akin to the “God” of Christianity, but more so to “angel” (a power higher than man but lesser than “God”). Secondly, the concepts that “God” is “unknowable” and that different deities are thus representations of different aspects (“roop”) of “God,” is glossed over. The Encarta article also completely misses the concept of the Hindu trinity -- that any Hindu child could recite -- a key idea in the presentation of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as creator, preserver and destroyer, and their female counterparts as three aspects of the One God. That the male and the female energies co-exist in Indian thought and the idea of God as both male and female (at the same time being beyond gender) is also missed. Having skipped all the structure, the topic of “Gods” is presented as a confusing “curio-shop” of unrelated deities and sects, complete with sensational descriptions of blood and gore. Hinduism: Shiva embodies the apparently contradictory aspects of a god of ascetics and a god of the phallus. He is the deity of renouncers, particularly of the many Shaiva sects that imitate him: Kapalikas, who carry skulls to reenact the myth in which Shiva beheaded his father, the incestuous Brahma, and was condemned to carry the skull until he found release in Benares; Pashupatas, worshipers of Shiva Pashupati, “Lord of Beasts”; and Aghoris, “to whom nothing is horrible,” yogis who eat ordure or flesh in order to demonstrate their complete indifference to pleasure or pain. Shiva is also the deity whose phallus (linga) is the central shrine of all Shaiva temples and the personal shrine of all Shaiva householders; his priapism is said to have resulted in his castration and the subsequent worship of his severed member. While “phallus” is one interpretation of “linga” there are others as well. Apparently the author, whose interests appear to have a limited focus, continues to find contradictions from that single point of view -- missing both other common interpretations as well as the underlying symbolisms. A disproportionate interest in the dimension of esoteric “sects”, “phallus”, “skulls”, “flesh” and “ordure” dominates the article and we find that practices and aspects far more prevalent and relevant to contemporary times -- like Yoga or Chakras, meditation or mantras, breath and Pranayama that are practically absent in the article. The article continues with these descriptions, clearly showing the author's interest in particular ways of looking at Hinduism. Hinduism: As Durga, the Unapproachable, she kills the buffalo demon Mahisha in a great battle; as Kali, the Black, she dances in a mad frenzy on the corpses of those she has slain and eaten, adorned with the still-dripping skulls and severed hands of her victims. The Goddess is also worshiped by the Shaktas, devotees of Shakti, the female power. This sect arose in the medieval period along with the Tantrists, whose esoteric ceremonies involved a black mass in which such forbidden substances as meat, fish, and wine were eaten and forbidden sexual acts were performed ritually. In the well-embellished description of Kali, the intensity of the language speaks for itself of the Encarta's author interest in this particular area. Clearly blood and gore, erotica and exotica are of much greater interest to this particular writer than Hindu philosophy, or any of the symbolism of these ancient descriptions. Again, the article shows more interest in the portrayal of esoteric sects and ceremonies than exploring mainstream and commonplace Hindu rituals -- like saying “namaste”, the sacred syllable “Om”, lighting diyas or wearing bindis (the “dot on the forehead”) -- practices that are vastly more familiar to a Westerner and a Hindu child alike, none of which find a place in the Encarta article. The article instead describes various “Gods” and “Goddesses”, particularly emphasizing the sensational, as we saw in the description of Kali above, without presenting these within the unifying coherent theme that most Hindus view these manifestations -- of different forms of One Supreme Reality, which cannot be boxed into a single set of attributes or descriptions. As the section on “Indian Philosophy” on Encarta states: “Most of the poems of the Veda are religious and tend to be about the activities of various gods. Yet some Vedic hymns and poems address philosophic themes such as the henotheism that is key to much Hindu theology. Henotheism is the idea that one God takes many different forms, and that although individuals may worship several different gods and goddesses, they really revere but one Supreme Being.” [Em. added] Has the Encarta article on Hinduism lost all keys? While there is a passing mention of this concept in the Encarta, it is, characteristically, watered down from the clearer statement above. Hinduism: In this way Hindus have been able to reconcile their Vedantic monism (see Vedanta) with their Vedic polytheism: All the individual Hindu gods (who are said to be saguna,”with attributes”) are subsumed under the godhead (nirguna,”without attributes”), from which they all emanate. [Em. added] A common Hindu saying is: “As you are, so God's image appears to you” -- since God is beyond images or attributes, we superimpose our own. Does Encarta's choice of subjects and descriptions in the article -- scatological and incoherent, reflect the author's own state? Finally, let us see how the article describes Rama and Krishna, considered as incarnations of God (as Vishnu). Hinduism: “Most popular by far are Rama (hero of the Ramayana) and Krishna (hero of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata-Purana), both of whom are said to be avatars of Vishnu, although they were originally human heroes.” [Em. added] The article appears to speak with the certainty of divine knowledge! Let us see how a similar issue, the divinity of Jesus is treated in the article on Christianity; Christianity: “The ultimate mystery of the universe, called by many different names in various religions, was called “Father” in the sayings of Jesus, and Christians therefore call Jesus himself “Son of God.” At the very least, there was in his language and life an intimacy with God and an immediacy of access to God, as well as the promise that, through all that Christ was and did, his followers might share in the life of the Father in heaven and might themselves become children of God. “ We note both the subtlety of thought and the sensitivity of expression in description, versus the heavy-handed certainty by which the article on Hinduism speaks, of happenings and events further back in time than the historical Jesus. Is this certainty born out of knowledge of fact, or simply a disregard for the corresponding religious sentiment? More “blood” and animal “sacrifice” The presentation of “Gods” is not the only place in the article that Encarta is interested in gory descriptions -- of “blood”, “skulls”, “ordure” and the like. Starting from the concept of ahimsa (which refers to “blood sacrifices”) to the celebration of the Indian festival of Holi, this point of view permeates the article. In fact, the Encarta article on Hinduism has more references to “blood” and “animal sacrifices” than it does to Yoga. Yoga, arguably the most popular contribution of Hinduism to the West is mentioned in two places -- both insignificant, as we see later on. Other than the quote above, let us see where else Encarta mentions themes related to “blood” or “animal sacrifice” in the article on Hinduism. Hinduism: “Holi, the spring carnival, when members of all castes mingle and let down their hair, sprinkling one another with cascades of red powder and liquid, symbolic of the blood that was probably used in past centuries. Let us start with factual accuracies -- Holi, as any Hindu knows, is celebrated with all the colors of spring -- green, yellow, red, pink, not just “red” as the article states. It celebrates the coming of spring with a riot of color. Factual details aside, for Encarta the suggestion of “cascades of red powder and liquid” works well to further the theme of blood and gore prevalent in the article. This goes on in the description of “Worship and Rituals.” Hinduism: “In many temples, particularly those sacred to goddesses (such as the Kalighat temple to Kali, in Kolkata), goats are sacrificed on special occasions. The sacrifice is often carried out by a special low-caste priest outside the bounds of the temple itself. Similarly, the vast majority of Hindus living today have probably never seen an animal sacrifice in their life -- and “many temples” is certainly a gross inaccuracy. Why is this rare practice chosen when we don't find mention of commonplace practices like “satsang” (literally, company of truth, or good), meetings where people congregate to communally chant or read from scripture, that are orders of magnitude more prevalent? The comment on “low-caste” that rounds out the quote above is obligatory to keep the “otherness” of Hinduism on centre stage -- a technique we find employed elsewhere in the article. It is also very worthwhile to compare this overall approach to highlighting “blood and gore” with the treatment of “animal sacrifice” in the Encarta article on Islam, a religion on which such sacrifices are obligatory that every Muslim is required to perform on Hajj (rather than a rare occurrence). Islam: “The final ritual is the slaughter of an animal (sheep, goat, cow, or camel). This is a symbolic reenactment of God's command to Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail, which Ibrahim and Ismail duly accepted and were about to execute when God allowed Ibrahim to slaughter a ram in place of his son. (In the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, Abraham is called to sacrifice his son Isaac rather than Ishmael.) Most of the meat of the slaughtered animals is to be distributed to poor Muslims.” Notice how the stress is on symbolism and how the last line is used to soften the theme. We shall spare the reader a rewrite of the Islamic depiction with details of the animal's severed head and pouring blood and omitting any hint of symbolism. Would an anthropologist probing the Bible many millennia from now condemn Christians as cannibals when reading of Christ's disciples being asked to partake of Christ's “blood and flesh”? If approached from the point of view of the Encarta article on Hinduism, devoid of either sensitivity or an understanding of symbolism, this would probably be the case. Surprisingly, the author chooses this approach to Hinduism, which is a living contemporary tradition rather than simply an anthropological study of relics and past rituals. These are choices in both omission and commission that are worth noting. While including exotic details and ritual the author continually misses large and commonplace topics -- like the forms of Indian dance and music as a component of the religion, the celebration of “Ram Lila” -- public enactments of Ram's life common throughout the north, and major Hindu celebrations like Janamashtami (Krishna's birth), Raksha Bandhan or Onam. Where is the real “Philosophy” and “Yoga”? Now that we have read the description in Encarta of Aghoris, ““to whom nothing is horrible,” yogis who eat ordure or flesh in order to demonstrate their complete indifference to pleasure or pain,” we look around for the yogis we have seen or known. Unfortunately, with the concern of the Encarta article on Hinduism in looking for scatology, it completely misses the highly refined theology and practices like Raja Yoga or Hatha Yoga or Patanjali or yogic meditation. In fact, the word “Yoga” has exactly two occurrences in the article (other than the one description of “Aghoris” as yogis above): Hinduism: “Many elements of Hinduism that were not present in Vedic civilization (such as worship of the phallus and of goddesses, bathing in temple tanks, and the postures of yoga) may have been derived from the Indus civilization, however. See Indus Valley Civilization.” “The philosophies of Shankara and Ramanuja were developed in the context of the six great classical philosophies (darshanas) of India: the Karma Mimamsa (“action investigation”); the Vedanta (“end of the Vedas”), in which tradition the work of Shankara and Ramanuja should be placed; the Sankhya system, which describes the opposition between an inert male spiritual principle (purusha) and an active female principle of matter or nature (prakriti), subdivided into the three qualities (gunas) of goodness (sattva), passion (rajas), and darkness (tamas); the Yoga system; and the highly metaphysical systems of Vaisheshika (a kind of atomic realism) and Nyaya (logic, but of an extremely theistic nature).” The first reference serves to separate Yoga from Hinduism. In the second reference, it is buried in a list of themes, each of which is probably more significant to describe than long-winded descriptions of Kali. Note that this section which lists classical philosophies is the only significant description of these philosophies in the entire article on Hinduism -- that too not in the explicit section for Philosophy, but embedded in the “Rise of Devotional Movements” section of “History” To be fair to Encarta, there does exist a separate article on Yoga that the article on Hinduism does not directly reference. That article states: Yoga: As a system of practice, Yoga has from the beginning been one of the most influential features of Hinduism. Surely, as one of the most influential features of Hinduism, Yoga merits more than a single word (with no link or reference) mention in the article on Hinduism. In the obsession with external aspects of myth and ritual, blood and gore, the article gives very little space to either the highly developed systems of Hindu theology and philosophy or its most commonplace practices in comparison to the other articles on religion, neither does it link directly to a separate article on Indian philosophy. In the next section we will see a surprising example of what it does choose to include as a link. Contemporary growth of the religion There are other differences in detail that consistently add an unsympathetic flavor to the reading on Hinduism. We will end with some examples relating to the contemporary spread of these religions. Islam: “The Muslim community comprises about 1 billion followers on all five continents, and Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world.” “Today about 1 billion Muslims are spread over 40 predominantly Muslim countries and 5 continents, and their numbers are growing at a rate unmatched by that of any other religion in the world.” Both in the introduction and conclusion, the article on Islam repeats positively how Islam is growing, almost from the point of view of an evangelist. Let use see how Encarta covers the spread of Hinduism. Hinduism: “In more recent times, numerous self-proclaimed Indian religious teachers have migrated to Europe and the United States, where they have inspired large followings. Some, such as the Hare Krishna sect founded by Bhaktivedanta, claim to base themselves on classical Hindu practices.” As is consistent with the tone of the article, notice the deprecating use of “self-proclaimed” and “claim to”, words rarely used in similar ways in the other articles. The author also fails to mention the fast growing “Yoga” movement (which Time magazine reported as having over 15 million practitioners in the US) and the large influence of Hindu thought on the “New Age” movement. The article completely misses movements like “Transcendental Meditation” of Maharishi Mahesh Yoga and the Self-realization fellowship of Parmahansa Yogananda, or the influence on Americans of the beat generation or the 60's culture (Swami Satchitananda was called the “Woodstock guru”) -- people like George Harrison, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Mia Farrow, Madonna. To do that would bring Hinduism in, leave it less “other.” But, unfortunately, the quote above follows the general theme of the article -- to obscure or denigrate anything positive, and find and highlight that, which is likely to be misunderstood, failing to provide it in the proper context. Endnote The article on Hinduism ends with a bang -- something that can aptly demonstrate the deep-seated prejudice and even, perhaps, a political agenda. After failing to have links for “yoga” or “Indian philosophy” in the Encarta article, at the very end Encarta discovers the power of links. Hinduism: For information on religious violence in India, See India. This is the appropriate ending for the article on Hinduism? We first surmised that this might be due to some current events (even then it would not be an appropriate ending for an academic article on Hinduism, other than motivated by considerable prejudice). But we find the same ending, for the same article, as far back as Encarta 1999! As a crosscheck, let us look at the other articles on religion. Christianity: “For additional information, see articles on individual Christian denominations and biographies of those persons whose names are not followed by dates.” Islam: [No link suggested at the end] Given the thread of negativity that permeates the Encarta article on Hinduism, it comes as no surprise when, in the end, it suggests the topic of “religious violence” as additional reading. If the articles of Christianity and Islam were written with the same intent, this is what the last links could look like. Christianity*: For additional information about burning witches at the stake, see Witch Hunt. Islam*: For terrorist violence, see International Terrorism. Again, we do not suggest these endings be used, nor does Encarta do so. They are provided for the purpose of illustrating the underlying attitude in choosing such endings -- an attitude that pervades the article on Hinduism. Analysis of cause We have established a significant difference in the treatment of Hinduism versus other religions, notable Christianity and Islam. In this section, we look at probable cause for the difference in treatment. Selection of Authors Encarta provides the following names and biographical information for the authors of the three Encarta articles in question: · Christianity. Prof. Jaroslav Pelikan, B.D., Ph.D. Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University. Author of The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Historical Theology, and other books. · Islam. Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Yale University. Dallal, Ahmad S., B.E., M.A., Ph.D. Author of An Islamic Response to Greek Astronomy: Kitab Ta'dil Hay'at al-Aflak of Sadr al-Shari'a. · Hinduism. Doniger, Wendy, M.A., Ph.D., D.Phil. Mircea Eliade Professor of History of Religions and Indian Studies, University of Chicago. Author of The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, Siva: the Erotic Ascetic, and Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities. Emic or Etic? The first observation we make is that scholars who profess those faiths have written the articles on Christianity and Islam; this is not the case with Hinduism. While the topic of emic (insider) and etic (outsider) study is often debated within academia, we would expect Encarta to choose uniformly either the emic or etic view of the major religions. In the Encarta article on Christianity, Prof. Jarsolav Pelikan strongly defends the emic viewpoint: “Like any system of belief and values -- be it Platonism, Marxism, Freudianism, or democracy -- Christianity is in many ways comprehensible only “from the inside,” to those who share the beliefs and strive to live by the values; and a description that would ignore these “inside” aspects of it would not be historically faithful. To a degree that those on the inside often fail to recognize, however, such a system of beliefs and values can also be described in a way that makes sense as well to an interested observer who does not, or even cannot, share their outlook.” The same logic, apparently, does not apply to Eastern religions. In general, though not always, we would expect the “emic” view to be more sympathetic than the “etic” view, particularly when the “emic” author is a practicing member of their faith. Areas of interest of the authors While the orientation of study of Professors Pelikan and Dallal is towards the philosophical, scientific and theological aspects of the religions they write about, Prof. Doniger's orientation is more anthropological -- studying rituals and myths rather than philosophy and theology. Even within that field, Prof. Doniger's dominant area of interest, going by the books she has authored, is in the exotic and erotic aspects of these rituals and myths. Thus the study of Professors Pelikan and Dallal is a living practicing view of the religion, including theological, metaphysical and scientific issues that would positively engage contemporary audiences, Prof. Doniger's appears to be an archeological dig, turning over quaint specimens that strike her fancy for examination. While this is certainly a valid field for study, it is clear that it leads to very different viewpoints and results in the articles. Acceptability of the authors in the represented community The third aspect of authorship is the broad acceptability of the author in the religious community they purport to represent. In general, it is more likely for emic authors to be acceptable, though not universally so. A research on the web shows that while Profs. Pelikan and Dallal are not regarded as controversial, Prof. Doniger has come in for considerable criticism for her lopsided portrayal, and unsubtle understanding of Hinduism[ii]. While Hindus, in general, are known for their tolerance of criticism (which is probably why the Encarta article has survived, without protest, for several years), we wonder why Encarta, as a mainstream encyclopedia, would deliberately choose to continue with authors that are highly controversial within the communities they write about. Note that, particularly in Hinduism, this could be very true for supposedly “emic”, but in reality, non-practicing, authors as well. Deliberate prejudice or error? While there is some evidence of prejudice on the part of Encarta's author on Hinduism, it is not clear whether prejudice also exists in Encarta as well. Certainly, as the ultimate editorial authority, Encarta cannot evade responsibility for the situation, at the very least in the selection of authors and editorial oversight over prejudiced treatment in a sensitive topic like religion. However, Encarta may well have, knowingly or unknowingly participated in an environment of bias. A western graduate student of Hinduism in a US university, suggests a broader prejudice: “ in American academia it is politically incorrect to treat Hinduism in a positive light and it is taboo to deal negatively with Islam.”[iii] Certainly, the comparison of the articles on Encarta would validate this thesis. However, more study of this topic is clearly required. Effects We have not studied the effects of such negative portrayal of Hinduism on Hindu children growing up in America. We can speculate that derogatory mainstream portrayals of Hinduism, quite different from what they have seen or experienced first hand, would at the very least be confusing, and ultimately damaging to the self-esteem of such children. In the author's personal experience, many Hindus are reluctant to identify themselves as such publicly, even when they are practicing Hindus -- we conjecture that this may result from unconsciously accepting the negative portrayals of their religion. We find that this subject has not been studied much -- however, the one study[iv] that we found supports this possibility. There are also accounts that scholars studying Hinduism that also “come out” to be practicing that faith face allegations of “bias” -- apparently this is not seen to be the case when Christians or Muslims study their own faiths in the academic community (which is the general rule). Such articles in “Encarta” also get used by various religious fundamentalists and hate groups to label Hinduism a “cult” -- the Encarta article serves as a good “objective” reference to make their point. The interested reader can do a web search on “Hinduism cult Encarta” to find examples. Inaccurate, negative mainstream portrayals of a religion can ultimately only prove harmful to the community. Clearly much more work is needed to study the exact effects and consequences of such portrayals. Conclusion and Recommendations In this article, we compare the treatment of different religions in Encarta. We find that there are significant differences in the treatment of Hinduism vs. the treatment of Islam or Christianity in both the selection of content and the attitude displayed in the writing -- resulting in a distinctly negative portrayal of Hinduism vs. the other religions. We conjecture that the reason for this difference is related largely to the difference choices in the selection of authors -- whether they are emic or etic and their area of interest or specialization in the religion they study. We also find that Prof. Doniger, the author of the Encarta article on Hinduism is controversial within the Hindu community. The authors of the article on “Islam” and “Christianity” have a mature and balanced viewpoint and they represent their religions in a way that the vast majority of adherents will find appropriate and positive. We commend Encarta for their choice of authors in portraying these religions in a sympathetic way. Unfortunately, the same balance and sympathy is not visible in the article on Hinduism. While Prof. Doniger is certainly free to pursue her specific areas of interest and scholarship in Hinduism, we do not believe that her article represents the mainstream of Hindu thought in both the selection of content and its interpretation, which would be appropriate for a widely read source such as Encarta. Given that Prof. Doniger's specific interests and attitudes strongly influence the article, it would be insufficient to simply remove a few of the most glaring examples of negativism, while leaving the rest of the article unchanged. We recommend instead that an article written by someone “emic” to the community, who can represent Hinduism in a positive, mainstream viewpoint, promptly replace the article on Hinduism in Encarta. We also recommend that further research be done to study the instances, causes, effects and resolutions for the prejudice in the study of Hinduism in America. Microsoft® and Encarta® are registered trademarks of Microsoft® Corporation. Note: Unless otherwise stated, all quotes are from Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. * These are hypothetical quotations for the purpose of illustration, not actual quotations from Encarta. These quotations are also not the views of the author who neither supports these quotations nor suggests that they be used to depict that religion in question. [i] Prof. Carl Sagan, distinguished Cornell University astronomer, covered this in the television series “Cosmos” dealing with Astronomy and Scientific exploration. http://www.rediff.com/news/jan/29sagan.htm presents an interview from which this quote is taken. [ii] See, for instance, Rajiv Malhotra's, “RISA Lila - 1: Wendy's Child Syndrome” and associated comments. [iii] Yvette Claire Rosser, “Puzzling Dimensions and Theoretical Knots in my Graduate School Research.” [iv] Yvette Claire Rosser, “Stereotypes in Schooling: Negative Pressures in the American Educational System.” From ritter at aesthetic-machinery.com Mon Sep 30 01:29:30 2002 From: ritter at aesthetic-machinery.com (Don Ritter) Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 15:59:30 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] NEW WEB PROJECT EVERY-THING.NET DETERMINES EVERYTHING Message-ID: <3D975BA1.A3442CFF@aesthetic-machinery.com> NEW WEB PROJECT EVERY-THING.NET DETERMINES EVERYTHING http://every-thing.net EVERY-THING.NET presents a unified perspective of every thought, person, society, object and history by determining the number of their possibilities. "Every person" is determined by combining the world's supply of ova with the world's supply of sperm, and "every thought" determines the number of different thoughts which are possible. "Every object" determines the number of atoms containable in the universe and the number of possible molecular structures of the universe. "Every history" determines the number of histories which could have happened over 13.5 billion years and "Every society" determines the number of possible societies which could be formed from the current world population. Calculations for every-thing.net require over 4.28 googol octillion (4.28 x 10^127) years of computer processing, a duration of time 3170000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times greater than the history of the universe. EVERY-THING.NET was created by Don Ritter, a New York based Canadian artist whose work has focused on interactive and network based digital art since 1979. His work has been exhibited in 15 countries in North America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Asia, including Ars Electronica(Austria), Sonambiente Festival(Berlin), European Media Art Festival(Osnabruck), Art Institute of Chicago, Musee d'art Contemporain de Montreal, Banff Centre for the Arts(Canada) and ArtFuture 2000(Taipei). contact: ritter at aesthetic-machinery.com http://aesthetic-machinery.com