From subhajitc at rediffmail.com Sat Feb 1 13:03:49 2003 From: subhajitc at rediffmail.com (Subhajit Chatterjee) Date: 1 Feb 2003 07:33:49 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Sarai posting 2 Message-ID: <20030201073349.19665.qmail@webmail7.rediffmail.com> Sarai posting 2 (All names have been changed to protect identity of the narrators.) I would like to start off by taking up some conceptual frameworks within which my research is to be located. My primary concern is the ways in which urban space in Kolkata is used for purposes pertaining to the realm of romance and intimacy. But before charting histories of particular spaces and the city in general one should reflect on the actual mapping on the city in terms of the perspectives of such users of urban space. I would imagine that Michel de Certeau's article on 'Walking in the City would be helpful start of with , particularly his contrast between two perspectives on city space : the impersonal cartographic gaze that envisions the city as an architecture and the outward gaze of the inhabitants who 'live'the city day in and out. The pedestrian's gaze one might say if one were to be concerned simply with walking . In fact Certeau's text does immediately remind me of Midnight Cowboy and the whole technology of looking at New York from 'down below' in the streets.But I would like to interpret Certeau's notion of walking as a metaphoric concept embodying practices that go beyond the act of walking. Let's come back to the point after considering an example from my own memory. Years ago there used to be an amorous couple , friends of mine who used to meet up almost every evening to walk. If you happened to be passing through the area near Gariahat you could not have missed the pair, boy , girl and a cat on the girl's lap ,walking down the lanes , circling around the neighborhood passing people, building , cars, shops .all the while talking , till they reached back at the point of origin to wish each other off from the day. Years have passed now, almost a decade gone , but going down that road in most evenings I still see the woman walking with the cat on her lap, walking alone now for her boyfriend as I personally know has walked off to a different register of life. The boy in question has been a heroin addict for the last few years struggling through the procedure of 'rehab' , mostly unsuccessful ones which lead you back to the same road. Yes , literally down the same road , for as I saw her walking with a gloom suspended over her face , I could almost visualize the boy walking down the road , meet the dealer , craving for the next 'hit' and worrying over future ones. What is involved in such everyday stories however sensational they might be? How does one locate this act of walking in social terms? Is 'walking' in itself a subversive activity? What relation does walking have to our imaginary of public space? I would like to use 'walking' as a concept that is the paradigm case for inhabiting the city. Of course the couple in question were not only walking literally, they must also have stopped, sat etc. and then even while walking they were symbolically doing something more. What is the significance of the fact of articulation of a most intimate exchange in a space that is explicitly public? 'Walking' in this sense is a journey through urban or semi urban spaces , journeys that have no destination or objective other than itself. It has a relationship to ways in which public spaces are claimed or used for purposes that are legally or socially unsanctioned. Whether this in itself constitutes any sort of subversion is another matter about which we would have to think further. Courtship as we all know are practiced in various sorts of manner and do have intricate complimentary commercial networks ranging from cinema halls, restaurants, cafes and card shops, gift galleries. In metro cities today dating is a major target for circulation of carefully constructed products. But 'walking' still happens to one of the amorous practices, perhaps of a somewhat archaic kind given the contemporary 'erotechnics' that permeate city spaces. In Kolkata at least, it is still a predominant mode of courtship particularly for the middle classes. From an economic angle for lower middle class citizens 'walking' does form a solution to the financial limits that threaten to dissolve private lives. Such 'archaic' (from the point of view of global cosmopolitanism) activities are of course complimented by comparably archaic network of street workers particularly sellers of various chats, the most popular in Kolkata being the 'phuchka'. The matter of course is more complicated, for it is not the economic angle that influences people to walk, the purchasing power of the Indian middle class does not require them to take recourse to walking and cheap food. It is in most cases a matter of choice. Today it would be difficult to imagine whether such an activity could have been a part of a rural or pre modern culture.People very well might have walked but what is specific with the kind of walking I'm talking about is the nature of anonymity involved. Secondly I'mn not claiming any specificity of this method of courtship in Kolkata for the way in which I use'walking' as a concept operates in other Indian contexts as well. I had conducted oral discussions with two men from Kerala who had interesting stories to tell about such notions of 'walking.' Manoj and Ajay belong to middle class families from different ditricts in Kerala and are both within the age range 25-30. Manoj used to court his girlfriend mainly in the universities but he claims that in towns of Kerala one is always generally recognised by people who in most cases would probably also know your family. So they uesd to take a bus ride in the afternoon from Calicut to Tellichery which is about a 2 hour ride. Now this ride was not visit Tellichery but rather to spend time with each other in a space where you would be anonimous. It was the journey itself that was important for them. They would have to catch a bus again as soon as they reached for there were as usual time restrictions particularly for the girl. Once as Manoj reported they were disheartened, as they had to catch a bus back and did not get two seats side by side . Ajay has had similar experiences and claims that sometimes ever train rides happen to be important venues for flowering of romance. Foe eg. Many times he has travelled from Calicut to Pattambi which is about 2 and a half hour train ride. But as he points out that sometimes they even failed to achieve the desirable anonymity. Once while they 'sweettalking' in a bus they realized that the whole bus was looking at them trying to pry into the conversation which lost all its intent at such a moment.In fact Ajay has one more funny story to tell about Kannur where he comes from. A friend of his, failing to obtain a private space for a romantic conversation went to the Employment Exchange with his girlfriend ,where amidst all the busy schedules they would just sit in some corner. Nobody would notice them precisely because of the nature and purpose of the space. But after two three days some workers sensed their logic and instantly drove them out. I wish to look at similar instances and experiences primarily in Kolkata but also in other places as well I will try to understand their social , legal aspects and ways in which the theme of romancing (in) the city figures in popular representations like film and literature. I will be using interviews, oral narratives to locate a particular ongoing struggle to obtain render public spaces private. I believe that the logic is not simply about the empirical fact of unavailability of space but has more complex social and psychic resonance that have to do with ideas of urban space and citizenship. Reference: Michel de Certeau, 'Walking in the City' in Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley, California, University of California Press, 1984. Comments, suggestions, criticisms are welcome. I would also appreciate if any one has stories or materials that might relate my field. Subhajit Chatterjee From menso at r4k.net Sat Feb 1 20:00:13 2003 From: menso at r4k.net (Menso Heus) Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2003 15:30:13 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] is bhangra taking over? In-Reply-To: <3E27F697.77974D7E@subroutine.de> References: <3E27F697.77974D7E@subroutine.de> Message-ID: <20030201143013.GG73265@r4k.net> On Fri, Jan 17, 2003 at 01:27:03PM +0100, staun wrote: Hi Staun, > Dear list, > it's hard to tell if it's the breakthrough of a genre or just another > one-hit-wonder: Panjabi MC's bhangra-pop song "Mundian to bach ke" that > stormed the german charts end of last year and will now be re-released > in Britain. Anyway, the attempt to cross the border between two musical > parallel universes within the U.K., between the world of High Street > megastores and Indipop cornershops is remarkable. I've listened to the track and I personally quite liked it. The song is a bit of a sure shot, since it uses the rocksolid bassline from the knight- rider theme as it's main groove. I think you can basically mix anything over that and it'll still sound good :) Also, the newness quite quickly fades off, when you've heard it a couple of times, you've heard it. Whether it's a one-hit-wonder or not depends on whether his original stuff is any good or on how succesfully he can repeat this 'trick'. People like Puff Daddy do nothing else than rip the groove from old songs, rap over it and present it as something new. I ran into this Dutch forum where people were giving comments on this song and, next to the fact that there were a couple of idiots that responded with "I don't need to listen to this Islamic crap" most people actually quite seemed to like it. The quick toggling on the snare instrument is generally received as 'uplifting' and the funniest comment I read was that the 'sing-a-long' factor was rather low (I must admit, to me it also sounds lalalala lalalalolololalala and I have no idea what he's talking about, but with modern rap music that's generally a good thing ;) > I cannot deny that, as a cultural critic without any greater insight nor > preference for that kind of music, I am as much interested in the > question where that sound comes from as in the question when it will go > away again. Any hints to interesting material about the U.K. bhangra > scene, its perception in India, its significance as culture or economy > would be very welcome. I'm not at all familiar with any bhangra scene, so if you can provide me with some more names I'd greatly appreciate it. As to 'where that sound comes from' I think it's just a rather logical follow-up of other 'cross- cultural' mixtures, perhaps stimulated extra by the fact that the 'Well Of New Musical Things To Do' has run rather dry in Europe, so we're quite welcoming any new sound, where ever it comes from. Menso -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "All things flow" - Heraclitus -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From shashiarun at yahoo.com Mon Feb 3 00:48:11 2003 From: shashiarun at yahoo.com (Shashi Gupta) Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 11:18:11 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] hi there Message-ID: <20030202191811.52998.qmail@web40510.mail.yahoo.com> hi to you all!!! not much to write on self except... looking for constant reaffirmation to justify my presence for being here....learning and growing...want to say that sarai is doing a great job....wish i had discovered it much earlier!!! looking forward to future exchanges. Shashi __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From ravig at del6.vsnl.net.in Mon Feb 3 16:07:36 2003 From: ravig at del6.vsnl.net.in (ravi) Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 16:07:36 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 2nd posting Bhatti Mines References: <20030202191811.52998.qmail@web40510.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <000d01c2cb70$9f80f6c0$0300a8c0@ravi> JANUARY POSTING Ravi Agarwal & Anita Soni During the first month we made many exploratory visits (over 10) to the area of Bhatti mines as well as the adjoining areas outside the Ridge. Our work has been of great interest to the villagers and we found them to be willing participants. The villagers already know us from our many associations with them before, both in helping them on their impledings in the Supreme Court as well as in their interest for their plight to be documented. It is with this growing perspective that we explore the project, under a tentative working title : "Jaan de denge, ghar nahin. Marginalizing communities: People, environment and urban spaces", has been conceived of as documentation, visual and textual, of a site whose very identity is contentious, and which has been surviving for over a decade now 'in the twilight of illegality, where the poor dwell" - to borrow Usha Ramanathan's succinct articulation. The site has multiple descriptions, serving various purposes of the concerned parties. The official description is one of 'jhuggi clusters in the middle of Wildlife Sanctuary': environmentally harmful encroachments, slotted for relocation on the orders of the Supreme Court. The rhetorically 'people-oriented' description projects a confident rural community aware of its rights and engaged in a 'movement against eviction'. The saffron-coloured, demagogical description is that of undeservedly neglected, long-settled urban colonies awaiting regularization and rehabilitation in situ, in order to continue as serviceable vote banks. All these descriptions have some element of plausibility about them. Each of them can be endorsed and substantiated by suitable visuals and narratives, and we have planned to include such 'quotes' with ironical intent, as part of our project. The challenge before us as chroniclers of this contentious site is how to avoid getting entrapped in any of those externally stereotyped projections, since each of them is 'partly true and wholly false'. To meet this challenge, we must step out of the confines of residential site and follow its inhabitants to their variously defined work sites, spread not only in the vicinity of the sanctuary, but over vast stretches of the National Capital Region, from Gurgaon to NOIDA We must also transcend the synchronic practices of urban ethnography and enter the diachronic discourse of socio-economic transformation, in which hereditary rural workers (the pre-modern, non-agricultural skilled labour of the countryside) have been reduced, in the span of barely 30 years, to casual wage earners of the urban informal sector. We have to reconstruct, through an imaginative handling of the camera, and sociological insights gained from a decade-long field research, the continuous narrative of dislocations altering irreversibly the legal/administrative status, and even the physical appearance of the surrounding land, along with the lives and livelihoods of its inhabitants. The use of archival photographs, found in possession of many old-time settler families, and in Dr. Smitu Kothari's personal file from the time of investigation by the PUCL team (l983) can help to bring out graphically the vastness of change. What strikes us as the defining feature of the present human situation at Bhatti Mines is the coexistence of rural and urban frames of reference in the everyday experience of the people. Bhatti Mines has three separate areas of human habitation, since l990 classified as "JJ Clusters" with code numbers S-l63 (Balbir Nagar), S-l64 (Indira Nagar) and S-l65 (Sanjay Colony). The first two are non-happening places, without an internal dynamics of their own. Balbir Nagar is practically a deserted village, with large open spaces made use of by the stationing ECO Task Force of the military. Indira Nagar is a shabby cluster of huts resembling a city slum. It is the main settlement, where the memories and pride of the labouring communities of Bhatti Mines are kept alive. Since l980, its official name has been Sanjay Colony. Unofficially, it has been known as Od Mandi. The tribal Od component makes up three quarters of the population, and imparts an archaic rustic flavour to this multi-ethnic locality. On the residential plane, Od Mandi is still very much a village , with an unspoilt rural ambience of homes, neighbourhoods, public spaces - both sacred, like places of worship, and quite profane, like roadside gambling sessions of idle old men. There is still a community feeling and conviviality, albeit largely restricted to kinship groups. In the work context - which is now located in the outside world, away from the village - there is complete subjugation to the urban market, there is dispersal and atomization of labour force, even when working in gangs deployed by the same contractor. Here, kinship loyalties and hierarchies do not hold. It is cut-throat competition. We find it tempting to document this duality - of the close-knit, supportive relationships marking the village life, and of depersonalized, competitive 'market ethos' ruling at the work sites, in the specific instances of a few typical families from Od Mandi. We think this duality explains quite a few things. It explains the respectability of the village paradigm in the imaginings of Bhatti Mines residents (Convening 'Gram Bachao Sangharsh Samiti' was their response to the relocation order of l996). It also explains why the seemingly militant graffiti on the house walls (inspired by a former NAPM activist who in l996-97 led an agitation against the proposed resettlement of Bhatti Mines residents to Jaunapur) do not reflect any sustained militancy in real terms. The people know that the rules of the game are set by the market, and that "marginalization, exclusion and the creation of urban nomads rest cheek by jowl with the privileging of those in the city who can cast into the ring the price of legality.' (Usha Ramanathan). Their village community may survive only in memories. There is no place for it in the new all-urban scheme of things in Delhi. Still, as long as it exists, it is worth documenting as "a living critique of the city", in the words of Ashish Nandy. ('The City of the Mind" a lecture at the function of release of Sarai Reader 02 : The village has now emerged as a living critique of the city.") In this particular case, the city finding its living critique in the village of Od Mandi is not the historical Delhi, but the futuristic imperial project of a firewalled, high-tech city-state, a megafortress of the rich, with lush green urban estates and an exclusive "city forest" managed by the Forest Department with some help from the military. This expansionist global city still needs the labouring poor, but denies them their autonomous spaces, which the village did provide, but the slum will not. From staun at subroutine.de Mon Feb 3 18:55:15 2003 From: staun at subroutine.de (staun) Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 14:25:15 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] is bhangra taking over? References: <3E27F697.77974D7E@subroutine.de> <20030201143013.GG73265@r4k.net> Message-ID: <3E3E6DBB.ECF9B83D@subroutine.de> Hi Menso, Menso Heus schrieb: > The quick toggling on the snare instrument is generally received as > 'uplifting' and the funniest comment I read was that the 'sing-a-long' > factor was rather low (I must admit, to me it also sounds lalalala > lalalalolololalala and I have no idea what he's talking about, but with > modern rap music that's generally a good thing ;) Menso Heus schrieb: judge yourself, this is the english translation of the lyrics, doesn't really fit to the stylish video (have you seen it? the most intersting thing imo is the remarkable staging of the Petrona-Towers with some kind of implicit schadenfreude): keep yor face down and hide it with a scarf don't just give your love to anyone chorus be careful of the boys you've only just grown up it's not your fault that you've got beautiful eyes once you've realised this you will become shy look after your youth this time won't come again chorus as you are growing up people are becoming aware of your good looks everyone is looking at your thin waist theres no one like you chorus the boys are talking about you everyday the streets are full of stories about your looks don't let the attention drown you. chorus > As to 'where that sound > comes from' I think it's just a rather logical follow-up of other 'cross- > cultural' mixtures, perhaps stimulated extra by the fact that the > 'Well Of New Musical Things To Do' has run rather dry in Europe, so we're > quite welcoming any new sound, where ever it comes from. especially in germany, i think there is some kind of longing for a south-asian immigrant community. not, of course, that the majority is in favour of opening up the borders in general or is about to turn into advocates of another wave of "guest workers" as the turkish immigrants during the sixities/seventies were called, but within the reglementaton of a strict quota there was a certain discoures about "the indian" as our favourite alien. the goverment issued green cards for computer experts, which didn't quite work to satisfy the desire for curry, tantra and spiritualism, because in the end most of the applications came from eastern-europe. but, as you say, there may be a certain lack of "experts" in pop music as well, a lack that cannot completly be met by the search for idols/superstars on television. Harald From dak at sarai.net Mon Feb 3 17:12:53 2003 From: dak at sarai.net (dak) Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 17:12:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] [Sarai Newsletter] February 2003 Message-ID: <200302031712.53747.dak@sarai.net> Contents: Sarai Newsletter, February 2003 Workshop@ Sarai 22 Workshop in New Media Curatorial Practices Friday Films @ Sarai: 7 Metropolis 14 Clockwork Orange 21 Existenz City One Conference Sarai @ Asian Social Forum, Hyderabad Forthcoming Events: March 1 Urban Study Group Meet March 3-5 Crisis Media Workshop --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORKSHOP @ SARAI Saturday, February 22, 2003 10:30 am – 5 pm Workshop in New Media Curatorial Practices by Amanda McDonald Crowley This one day workshop on curatorial practice will focus on new media art, providing an overview of the following topics: - New media art practices and access to art work using new technologies - New media art theory - Techniques and technical considerations of new media art exhibition - Audience development - Collaborative practice Amanda McDonald Crowley is a freelance cultural worker, facilitator, researcher, curator from Australia. She is currently artsworker in residence, at Sarai with support from Asialink. To pre-register email dak at sarai.net FRIDAY FILMS @ SARAI All screenings are on Fridays at 4:30 pm at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054. The films are listed in the order of screening. The Archaeology of the Future: Science Fiction @ Sarai While scanning sci-fi genres in the cinema, we may well wonder if we aren't confronted with futures past, visionary essays which already seem threatened with obsolescence. Perhaps these films afford us a sense of the times that produced them rather than an unattained future condition. Looking back to the days of early cinema history, it was probably Godard who noted, ironically, that rather than think of Georges Melies as fantasist and visionary of the future (amongst his credits was `Man on the Moon'), we should think of him as a realist, fully alert to technological developments that compose our present reality. In turn, what is futuristic, anymore, about Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926), with its vertiginous highways and its dank subways; the brainwashing sequences of Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971), which were perhaps already anticipated in cold war fantasies such as The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962, released around the same time as Anthony Burgess's novel); and how far off is the bio port so central to the imaginings of Cronenberg's 1999 eXistenZ, when chip implants are so widely advertised in current scientific practice and biometrics so central to the lineaments of surveillance regimes? Rather than visions of a technological future, perhaps we should think of science fiction as always composed of a layering of times past, present and future. Consider the Christian narrative of Metropolis, with the angelic Maria urging workers in the catacombs below the city to bear suffering with fortitude; or the grotty London council housing, parents attired in miniskirts and bellbottoms dating to the film's present time in Clockwork Orange. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), conjures up the neon nights of Japanese advertising, just as Tarkovsky's 1972 Solaris uses the spectacular Tokyo flyover for his vision of the future. Blade Runner also mobilizes the oriental bazaar, where dancers cavort with (mechanical) snakes cheek by jowl with body part manufacturers. This is the rub: these are not simply visions of the future, perhaps, but of its contemporary archaeology. February 7, 2003 Metropolis (1927), 122 minutes Directed by Fritz Lang Metropolis, a visionary and elaborate spectacle by director Fritz Lang is an epic projection of a futuristic city divided into a working and an elite class. In 2026, a de-humanized proletariat labours non-stop in a miserable subterranean city beneath a luxurious city of mile-high skyscrapers, flying automobiles, palatial architectural idylls, tubes and tunnels. With stunningly inventive special effects, Lang's allegorical narrative and architectural vision creates a highly stylized vision of a not-so-unlikely future (especially for 1926 when the film was made.) As the elite frolic above the clouds, thousands of miserable workers toil night and day inside the belly of the gigantic machine that runs the entire city. Metropolis is controlled by a sinister authoritarian whose son, Freder, rejects his father's callous philosophy and attitude towards labourers. Meek though they are, the workers are encouraged by Maria, a wistful young woman who wills her comrades to embrace patience and silent strength. Upon discovering her influence upon the workers, a mad scientist kidnaps Maria and creates a robot in her image that will incite the workers to revolt. As Freder races against time to save Maria and curtail the damage done by her doppelganger robot, Metropolis is enveloped in chaos and the classes are brought together in a breathtaking and highly moralistic climax. February 14, 2003 Clockwork Orange (1971), 131 mins Directed by Stanley Kubric From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Mon Feb 3 22:58:29 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 09:28:29 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Basant'03: Active Partners in the Indian Legacy Message-ID: <20030203172829.96182.qmail@web20906.mail.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, Your feedback will be extremely helpful in making this syncretic festival of our shared heritage a success. This ancient people's festival includes schoolchildren, grown-ups, the rural and urban, cutting across castes, creeds and economic differences.. ( hopefully, the copy of 'Destiny' will also be here..) more later.. peace.. Lehar. >>>>>THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BASANT '03 >>>>>. Not only Hindus and Muslims but people from other religions would >>>>>also be involved to turn it into truly, the People's festival. >>>>>2. The locations would be such that they not only represent the " >>>>>traditionality "of the event but that are also easily accessible to >>>>>people of all communities. >>>>>3. The thrust of the events would be such that they would be >>>>>consciously canvassing solidarity and may also be perceived by people >>>>>as such. >>>>>4. Events involving different target groups - of different income >>>>>levels; different age groups; of different interests shall be aimed at. >>>>>5. By highlighting a forgotten festival and critical heritage sites >>>>>/monuments, this event would give great boost to Tourism. >>>>> >>>>>You may have recieved our earlier message about our forthcoming Basant >>>>>festival at New Delhi, celebrating the true spirit of Hindu Muslim >>>>>syncretic culture. While the detailed programme of this four day >>>>>festival can be seen below, we are making a request you to contribute >>>>>in whatever way you can for the organizing of the festival. >>>>> >>>>>We have recieved a promise of a small grant from the Delhi government >>>>>(through their institution, Sahitya Kala Parishad) for this programme >>>>>which too would come only after the festival. We were hoping to recieve >>>>>some sponsorship from other private sources and corporate house, but so >>>>>far (a week prior to the programme) there is hardly any response. If >>>>>you see the programme below, you would realize what the entire thing is >>>>>going to cost, which unfortunately we haven't been able to organize so >>>>>far. We are making an urgent appeal to all of you to make whatever >>>>>little monetary contribution you could make to make this programme >>>>>successful. In return we would be able to put your name as sponsors in >>>>>our various souvenirs, banners and other suitable locations. >>>>> >>>>>Contributions of any small or large amounts of money could be made >>>>>through our bank account (telegraphic transfer) or through paypal >>>>>(credit card). More details can be found at the following site. >>>>>http://www.cc-india.org/contribute.htm If you wish to make a contribution, OR HAVE A PROBLEM DOING SO, kindly let us know by email: basant at cc-india.org or ysaeed7 at yahoo.com >>>>>Thanks, and looking forward to a positive reply. >>>>> >>>>>Yousuf Saeed, Lehar Sethi Zaidi, Vagish K. Jha, Ajai Chawla >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>From: "Vagish k. Jha" >>>>> Subject: Seeking your support for Basant >>>>> >>>>>Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 22:50:35 +0530 >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>Dear Cooperators and Friends, >>>>> >>>>>Here is an update on Basant '03. >>>>>It is also an appeal to Join us Active parners in progress. >>>>> >>>>>Please find attached the Basant proposal that we have worked out for >>>>>Basant and are pitching in to the possible collaborators. We just have >>>>>couple of days to freeze the final nature and shape of the programme >>>>>depending upon the support we are able to garner. >>>>> > >>>>>It has, however, been an extremely educating experience so far!! We are >>>>>prepared to put up the best possible show within the existing budget >>>>>provided for by SKP. >>>>> >>>>>It is felt that an informal press meet will also go a long way. We have >>>>>been following Indian Express for a possible Media Partnership for the >>>>>event with little success. Some newspapers (particularly Hindi) could >>>>>still be explored. Any lead? >>>>> >>>>>If the press meet has to be organised, it has to be latest by 1st of >>>>>February. Before this we must clinch all the issues and go ahead with >>>>>printing invitation letters with names of our partners in progress (and >>>>>or their logos). So will be case of Posters which should be up at least >>>>>four days in advance (300 B& W pre-event Posters have already been sent >>>>>to different places so far). Can we wait any further for partners to >>>>>make their minds? I don't know exactly. Please suggest!! >>>>> >>>>>We need youy inputs as the scale is enormous and so is the challenge. >>>>>Please join us in setting the Basant spirit flow in gay abundance! >>>>> >>>>>Thanks and regards, >>>>>Vagish >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>SCHEDULE AND COMPONETS OF THE FESTIVAL: >>>>> >>>>>------ >>>>> >>>>>This is our second Basant festival (the first one was held last year in >>>>>February). The Basant Utsav basically celebrates the spirit of >>>>>traditional Basant Panchami and Sufi Basant that is being held in the >>>>>dargah of Nizamuddin for last more than 700 years. Kindly see the >>>>>details below and forward this message to others who may be interested. >>>>> >>>>>BASANT UTSAV - 2003 >>>>>NEW DELHI >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>Day I: Thursday, 6th February, 2003 >>>>>10.30 a.m.: Humayun's Tomb >>>>>� Basanti Walk through Hazrat Nizamuddin, culminating at Rahim's Tomb >>>>>12.30 p.m.: Rahim's Tomb >>>>>� Children's Choir - 'Saraswati Vandana' (e.g. Remand Home kids present >>>>>Nirala' famous poem composed and prepared by Iqbal Ahmed Khan) >>>>>� Basanti Udaan releasing of yellow balloons, followed by kite flying >>>>>3.00 - Ghalib's Tomb >>>>>� Kavi Sammelan/ Mushaira. >>>>>5.00 p.m. : Join Traditional Basant procession to Dargah of Hazrat >>>>>Nizammuddin Aulia >>>>>6:30 lighting and releasing of paper lamps. >>>>>Day II: Friday, 7th February 2003 >>>>>11.30 a.m.: Rahim's Tomb >>>>>� Basanti Sanskriti (Thematic painting competition) >>>>>3.00 p.m. : Ghalib Academy Hall >>>>>� Basanti Cinema >>>>>Day III - Saturday, 8th February, 2003 >>>>>10.00 a.m.: Hauz e shamshi (Mehrauli) (venue of Phool Walon Ki Sair) >>>>>� Basanti Prabhat Pheri & Sir-e-Virasat (Heritage Walk) culminating at >>>>>Jamaali Kamaali. >>>>>12.00 p.m.: Jamali Kamali >>>>>� Basanti Haat >>>>>3.00 p.m. >>>>>� Basanti Jhoom/Nritya (The Spring Dance) >>>>>� Day IV - Sunday, 9th February,2003 >>>>>10.00 a.m: Qutub Minar >>>>>� Basanti Prabhat Pheri & Sir-e-Virasat (Heritage Walk) culminating at >>>>>Jamaali Kamaali, >>>>>12.00 p.m.: Jamali Kamali >>>>>� Basanti Haat >>>>>3.00 p.m. >>>>>Basanti Samaa (Musical Evening) >>>>> >>>>>Basant Time line >>>>> >>>>>Day I: Thursday, 6th February, 2003 >>>>> >>>>>� 10.30 a.m.: Start of Basanti Walk from Humayun's Tomb. >>>>>� 12.30 p.m.: Saraswati Vandana at Rahim's Tomb >>>>>� releasing of yellow balloons, Basanti Udaan (kite flying) >>>>>� 3:00 Kavi Sammelan/ Mushaira at Ghalib's tomb. >>>>>� 5.00 p.m. : Join the traditional Procession to Dargah of Hazrat >>>>>Nizammuddin Aulia light and release paper lamps. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>Day II: Friday, 7th February 2003 >>>>> >>>>>� 10.30 a.m.: Basanti Sanskriti at Rahim's Tomb (Thematic painting >>>>>competition) >>>>>� 3.00 p.m. : Basanti Cinema at Ghalib Academy Hall >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>Day III - Saturday, 8th February, 2003 (Mehrauli) >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>� 9.00 a.m.: Basanti Prabhat Pheri & Sir-e-Virasat (Heritage Walk) >>>>>starting from Hauz e shamshi (venue of Phool Walon Ki Sair) and >>>>>culminating at Jamaali Kamaali, >>>>>�12.00 p.m.: Basanti Haat at Jamali Kamali, Mehrauli including Basanti >>>>>Jhoom/Nritya (The Spring Dance) from 3.00 p.m. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>Day IV - Sunday, 9th February,2003 >>>>> >>>>>� 9.30 a.m: Basanti Prabhat Pheri & Sir-e-Virasat (Heritage Walk) >>>>>Starting from Qutub Minar, Mehrauli and culminating at Jamaali Kamaali, >>>>>Mehrauli. >>>>>� 12.00 p.m.: Basanti Haat at Jamali Kamali, Mehrauli including Basanti >>>>>Samaa from 3.00 p.m. >>>>> >>>>>Other activities: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>1. Basanti pocket Flags: >>>>> >>>>> Small yellow coloured flags (1"x2") symbolizing peace and harmony >>>>>shall be sold all over Delhi throughout the campaign. Also stickers for >>>>>cars would be printed. >>>>> >>>>>2. Basanti souvenirs: >>>>> >>>>>Printed souvenirs carrying articles related to Basant and poetry, >>>>>stories, history, and literature on Basant in Hindi, Urdu and English >>>>>shall be distributed during the entire campaign. >>>>> >>>>>3. Basanti bookmarks: >>>>> >>>>>Bookmarks related to Basant shall be printed and distributed. >>>>> >>>>>4. Other memorabilia: >>>>> >>>>>Other memorabilia associated with the 4 day Basanti festival shall be >>>>>sold >>>>>as a package. This would include a T-shirt, a scarf, a bookmark, a map >>>>>of >>>>>the heritage walk, a flag, a souvenir etc. These would be sold during >>>>>the campaign. video cassette containing clippings of films showing >>>>>Basant, an audio cassette with songs related to Basant may be added to >>>>>the package and /or may be sold separately during or even after the >>>>>festival. >>>>> >>>>>5. Video coverage: >>>>> >>>>>Video coverage of the entire festival: Digital video shooting and >>>>>editing >>>>> >>>>>6. Digital audio coverage: >>>>> >>>>> Digital audio coverage of the shows. >>>>> >>>>>7. Publicity: >>>>> >>>>> Invitations, handouts, Press and Electronic Media Publicity and >>>>> advertisements in the newspapers. >>>>> >>>>> __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From meenugaur at hotmail.com Tue Feb 4 00:50:13 2003 From: meenugaur at hotmail.com (meenu gaur) Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 19:20:13 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Forced Migration & Kashmiri Pandits: A Historical Perspective (Posting 2) Message-ID: I�d like to begin with a brief cultural and historical introduction to the Kashmiri Pandits, which I hope would serve as the background for my research on the Kashmiri Pandit refugees in Delhi. Kashmiri Pandits are the Hindus of the Kashmir Valley. To begin with, the designation Pandit that is applied to Kashmiri Hindus was requested by Jai Ram Bhan, a Kashmiri Hindu courtier in the Mughal court of Emperor Muhammad Shah (1719-1749) in Delhi. Before this period both Kashmiri Hindus and Muslims were addressed as khwajah in the Mughal court. Kashmiri Hindus call themselves and are called by their Muslim compatriots, batta, from the Sanskrit bhartri, meaning master. They are a minority in the Muslim majority Valley (which has a more than 95% Muslim population), which in turn forms a part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The estimates of their population vary from the 7 lakhs of some right-wing Kashmiri Pandit organizations to the more moderate figures of about 2 lakhs. As to the Indian census, the figures on Kashmir�s demographics have been mired in controversy. (Even then according to the government of India census 1981, there were 124,078 Hindus living in the Valley in 1981. Assuming a rate of �natural increase� of 2 % per annum, one can, more or less, reach an approximate figure). All in all, the Kashmiri Pandits are a very small but significant minority in Kashmir. Their centrality to the cultural and political life in Kashmir can�t be overstressed. There is much that has been written on the distinct cultural identity of Kashmiri Pandits who have a long historical and cultural tradition that goes back centuries to pre-Islamic, pre-Buddhist Kashmir. But interestingly their peculiar way of life came into being only in the time of the Muslim Sultans and the ethnicity which marks their difference from the Hindus of North India has more to do with cultural and philosophical exchanges with Sufi Islam. Here we are concerned with the forced migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in 1990s after a pro- Independence armed uprising challenged India�s rule over Kashmir. The Kashmiri Pandits were a Hindu minority in a moderate Muslim Kashmir up in arms against India. Moreover the uprising turned to Islam for inspiration. In early 1990, the Kashmiri Pandits began to migrate out of the Kashmir Valley. (The arguments and counterarguments on these migrations will be discussed at length in future postings). The migrations of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley (voluntary or forced) have happened across centuries. The 1990 migration, though unprecedented in scale (most of the Pandits, barring a few exceptions, slowly but gradually left the Valley), seems to be a repetition of earlier such migrations in Kashmir�s history. For example, in 1394 A.D Sultan Sikandar came to the throne and soon earned the nickname of �Butshikan� or Iconoclast because of the fanaticism with which he destroyed the temples of Kashmir. The Pandits were offered the choice between exile and death. And many Pandits migrated from the Valley. But Zain-ul-Abidin succeeded to the throne in Kashmir in 1417 A.D and his long reign of 52 years is believed to be one of the happiest periods of Kashmir�s history. The chief glory of the great king�s reign was his tolerance towards the Kashmiri Pandits, the king manifested every desire to repair the wrongs inflicted on the Hindus by Sultan Sikandar. He encouraged the Pandits to learn Persian, inducted them into the bureaucracy and gave them grants of land. Zain-ul-Abidin repaired some of the Hindu temples and revived Hindu learning. As a consequence, the exiled Pandits returned to the Valley and with them came many Brahmans from the South. Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin came to be known popularly as �Budshah� from Batta- shah i.e. the King of the Battas or the Kashmiri Pandits. So, in the matter of a century we have both a Butshikan and Budshah. Certain commentators on the extreme Hindu Right, however, argue that it is Zain-ul-Abidin who initiated the process of what they call �the cultural colonization of Kashmir by West Asia�, but as a matter of fact it is in the reign of Zain-ul-Abidin that arts and culture flourished and added to the rich heritage of Kashmir as we witness it today. The political class in Kashmir has often been tyrannical. Different communities ruled Kashmir - the Hindus and the Buddhists, the Shias and the Sunnis, the Sikhs of the Punjab and the Dogras of Jammu. And it is in these periods that those communities which were persecuted migrated from Kashmir. The point being made here is not that the migrations of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s should be seen in the perspective of such medieval and late medieval migrations. But that there are precedents to such migrations in Kashmir�s history not without relevance to the ways in which the people in the Camps construct their present. For instance, none of these migrations were irreversible. At the Sultanpuri Kashmiri Pandit refugee camp in New Delhi, when I asked some residents whether they would return to the Valley, they said that they would if they had security of life and employment. When asked whether socially it would still be possible for them to live with Kashmiri Muslims, a retired teacher told me that it was hardly the problem, �We (the Pandits) would apologize to them (the Muslims) for leaving the Valley and they would apologize to us for letting us go and things would be the same but the only consideration is a secure and free life, full of dignity�. Due to the political climate, the relationship between the Hindus and Muslims might have come under pressure but has not collapsed totally under the machinations of the political elite. The tensions in the relationship between the Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims have roots in the post-1947 developments in Kashmir which I�ll take up in my next posting. [It should also be remembered that in the last 12 years of insurgency in the Kashmir Valley, people have been displaced on both sides of the LOC. The migrations from the Valley also include thousands of Kashmiri Muslims to India but more significantly tens of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims migrated from the border districts of Kashmir to Pakistan. After the Chittisinghpura massacre of 35 Sikhs in South Kashmir there were apprehensions of an exodus of Kashmiri Sikhs. But this has so far been avoided.] Any comments or suggestions are welcome. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail From dfontaine at fondation-langlois.org Tue Feb 4 01:59:18 2003 From: dfontaine at fondation-langlois.org (Dominique Fontaine) Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 15:29:18 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Recent News from the Daniel Langlois Foundation - February 2003 Message-ID: French version / Version française : http://www.fondation-langlois.org/f/nouvelles/index.html [ Apologies for cross-posting / veuillez excuser les envois multiples ] ************************************************************************ *RECENT NEWS - FEBRUARY 2003* *New Program at the Foundation* - The Foundation is proud to announce its new program, STRATEGIC GRANTS FOR ORGANIZATIONS. Press release: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/informations/nouvelles/index.html To consult the program's guidelines: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/programmes/program_org.html *ANARCHIVE 2: DIGITAL SNOW Launched in Toronto* After an initial launch of ANARCHIVE 2: DIGITAL SNOW in Montreal and Paris last October, the Daniel Langlois Foundation and Époxy Communications will hold a second launch in Toronto on February 7. Press release: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/informations/nouvelles/index2.html *New Acquisitions by the Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D)* As we do every month, we're publishing a bibliography of the latest current acquisitions made by the Foundation's Centre for Research and Documentation. New Acquisitions List: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/CRD/acquisitions/index.html *REMINDER* *Descriptions of funded projects from organizations in 2002* Following its last call for projects within its two programs for organizations (the EXHIBITION, DISTRIBUTION AND PERFORMANCE PROGRAM FOR ORGANIZATIONS and the PROGRAM FOR ORGANIZATIONS FROM EMERGING REGIONS, both of which have now been suspended), the Foundation selected 19 projects, six from Canada, three from the United Kingdom, two from Columbia, two from the United States, and one from each of the following countries: Brazil, Ghana, Latvia, Peru, the Netherlands and Sweden. You will find a more detailed description of the funded projects and their participants here: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/projets/index.html *Three researchers in residence at the Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D) in 2003* In response to a call for research proposals in its Program of Grants for Researchers in Residence, the Foundation is happy to announce that three eminent researchers are coming to Montreal. The three are Mona Jimenez (United States) [http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/crd/residences/jimenez.html], Yvonne Spielman (Germany) [http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/crd/residences/spielman.html] and Ricardo Dal Farra (Argentina) [http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/crd/residences/dalfarra.html]. This program is open to historians, curators, critics, independent researchers, artists and scientists, including those working in computer science and related fields in the humanities and social sciences. The research must be conducted at the Foundation and focused on its documentation or archive collections. Nevertheless, a research project may include activities outside the CR+D (field work, laboratory activities, a workshop) and draw on resources outside the Foundation. One of the program's aims is to develop knowledge on the impact of new digital technologies on man and society. Hence, grant recipients are invited to publish their research findings on our Web site or place digitized documents on-line after first contextualizing and interpreting them. *The 9 EVENINGS OF THEATRE AND ENGINEERING FONDS* The Foundation is pleased to announce that it has acquired the 9 EVENINGS OF THEATRE AND ENGINEERING FONDS. In 1965, with help from Robert Rauschenberg, Billy Klüver sought out the expertise of engineers at Bell Laboratories research centre (Murray Hills, New Jersey, U.S.) to carry out an interdisciplinary project blending avant-garde theatre, dance and new technologies. The artists John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Öyvind Fahlström, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor and Robert Whitman each produced an original performance piece. Engineers were paired with the 10 artists to develop the technical components used on stage by the participants (dancers, actors, musicians). 9 EVENINGS OF THEATRE AND ENGINEERING was to be presented within the Stockholm Festival of Art and Technology in 1966. When the festival's American program was cancelled, Billy Klüver moved the performance series to the 69th Regiment Armory in New York, where it ran from October 13 to 23, 1966. These archives include in particular 35 and 16 mm films, sound recordings, photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, technical drawings, and various artifacts used as performance props. Please take note that in date of December 2002, the Foundation has only received part of these archives which include audio-visual documents used in the making of two documentary films on performances by Öyvind Fahlström and Robert Rauschenberg, respectively entitled Kisses Sweeter than Wine and Open Score. A more detailled description of these archives will be available on our Web site during the course of 2003. ************************************************************************ *About the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology* The Daniel Langlois Foundation's purpose is to further artistic and scientific knowledge by fostering the meeting of art and science in the field of technologies. The Foundation seeks to nurture a critical awareness of technology's implications for human beings and their natural and cultural environments, and to promote the exploration of aesthetics suited to evolving human environments. The Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D) seeks to document history, artworks and practices associated with electronic and digital media arts and to make this information available to researchers in an innovative manner through data communications. ************************************************************************ From aiindex at mnet.fr Tue Feb 4 22:44:35 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 18:14:35 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Code Pink : Womens's Pre-Emptive Strike For Peace Message-ID: http://www.codepink4peace.org/codepink.html Code Pink : Womens's Pre-Emptive Strike For Peace We call on women around the world to rise up and oppose the war in Iraq. We call on mothers, grandmothers, sisters and daughters, on workers, students, teachers, healers, artists, writers, singers, poets, and every ordinary outraged woman willing to be outrageous for peace. Women have been the guardians of life-not because we are better or purer or more innately nurturing than men, but because the men have busied themselves making war. Because of our responsibility to the next generation, because of our own love for our families and communities and this country that we are a part of, we understand the love of a mother in Iraq for her children, and the driving desire of that child for life. Our leaders tell us we that we can easily afford hundreds of billions of dollars for this war. But in the United States of America, many of our elders who have worked hard all their lives now must choose whether to buy their prescription drugs, or food. Our children's education is eroded. The air they breathe and the water they drink are polluted. Vast numbers of women and children live in poverty. If we cannot afford health care, quality education and quality of life, how can we afford to squander our resources in attacking a country that is no proven immediate threat to us? We face real threats every day: the illness or ordinary accident that could plunge us into poverty, the violence on our own streets, the corporate corruption that can result in the loss of our jobs, our pensions, and our security. In Iraq today, a child with cancer cannot get pain relief or medication because of sanctions. Childhood diarrhea has again become a major killer. 500,000 children have already died from inadequate health care, water and food supplies due to sanctions. How many more will die if bombs fall on Baghdad, or a ground war begins? We cannot morally consent to war while paths of peace and negotiation have not been pursued to their fullest. We who cherish children will not consent to their murder. Nor do we consent to the murder of their mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandfathers, or to the deaths of our own sons and daughters in a war for oil. We love our country, but we will never wrap ourselves in red, white and blue. Instead, we announce a Code Pink alert: signifying extreme danger to all the values of nurturing, caring, and compassion that women and loving men have held. We choose pink, the color of roses, the beauty that like bread is food for life, the color of the dawn of a new era when cooperation and negotiation prevail over force. We call on all outraged women to join us in taking a stand, now. And we call upon our brothers to join with us and support us. These actions will be initiated by women, but not limited to women. Stand in the streets and marketplaces of your towns with banners and signs of dissent, and talk to your neighbors. Stand before your elected representatives: and if they will not listen, sit in their offices, refusing to leave until they do. Withdraw consent from the warmongers. Engage in outrageous acts of dissent. We encourage all actions, from public education and free speech to nonviolent civil disobedience that can disrupt the progress toward war. CONTACTS: Jodie Evans Medea Benjamin < http://www.globalexchange.org/ Starhawk http://www.starhawk.org/ o o o Women United Against War Petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/waw2002/petition.html [ See related News Report] The Washington Post Monday, November 18, 2002; Page B05 Antiwar Activists Plan to Stay The Course Women Settling In For Four-Month Vigil Women -- and some men -- march near the White House in a protest of any U.S. strike against Iraq. Some are planning to camp out in Lafayette Square until March 8. (Photos Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post) By Nancy Trejos Washington Post Staff Writer Women from the Washington area and across the country gathered in front of the White House yesterday to kick off a four-month, 24-hour vigil to protest the possible war with Iraq. "We feel that this is a time when our country is in great danger," said organizer Medea Benjamin, 50, of San Francisco. "The Bush administration has begun a course of militarism and violence that will beget more violence." At least 30 women and a few men attended the rally, which started at Lafayette Square and moved along Pennsylvania Avenue NW -- a small presence compared with the tens of thousands who converged upon Washington last month to protest any military action against Iraq. But yesterday's crowd said that what it lacked in numbers it would make up for in persistence. At least six will stay in the park in four-day shifts until March 8, resting on the ground in sleeping bags or on benches, organizers said. Some said they will fast for days or even weeks. Many of the women wore pink jackets and buttons that read "Code Pink -- Women for Peace." "Bush says Code Red; we say Code Pink!" they shouted. "Women united -- We'll never be divided!" Many were members of human rights or women's groups, such as the National Organization for Women. Others were simply mothers or grandmothers who wanted to let President Bush know that they don't want another war. They want money to go toward health care, education and other social services instead, they said. "We are the mothers and wives and sisters of those who will be killed for oil," said Anise Jenkins, 53, a D.C. activist who works as a secretary. Loree Murray, 81, sported a button that said "Hail to the Thief" above a picture of Bush. "The women, we're trying to teach peace. We're trying to teach the president something," the D.C. resident said. The protest was peaceful, with a few police officers on hand to monitor activities. There were no counter-protesters, except for one man who walked past the group and shouted, "War will be declared on us even if we don't do anything." Diane Wilson, 54, traveled from a small town in Bush's home state of Texas to participate in the vigil. A commercial fisherman who last year earned $12,000, she said she wants the Bush administration to spend more money on health care than war. She has never had health insurance. She plans to fast for 40 days and had her last meal -- several slices of pizza -- Saturday night. "I want to tell Bush and Congress exactly how we feel in small-town America," she said. Kristi Laughlin, a human rights activist from San Francisco, visited Afghanistan in June to see for herself the aftermath of the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. She said Kabul looked like the site of an archaeological dig. "To see where our money goes and the end result of our production of weapons and distribution of weapons, to me it was a sobering reality," she said. Laughlin, 33, said that too often the Bush administration relies on aggression rather than negotiation. The money spent on military campaigns is needed elsewhere, she said, to help women and children. © 2002 The Washington Post Company -- From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Tue Feb 4 23:04:06 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 09:34:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Basant '03 Press Release Message-ID: <20030204173406.56998.qmail@web20909.mail.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, Please do come and bring your friends also. The Musical evening willbe inaugarated by Delhi CM, Smt.Shiela Dixit. PRESS RELEASE Wednesday, February 5, 2003 New Delhi, India Basant 2003 A 4-day festival of Spring, Colour, Music & Celebration February 6-9, 2003 New Delhi Organized by Communicators' Cooperative Co-sponsored by Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi Few would know that Basant Panchami, the ancient Hindu festival of spring, is also celebrated by many Muslims in India, especially at the dargah (tomb) of Nizamuddin Aulia at Delhi, every year. This 700 year old colourful tradition is attributed to the Sufis, especially the Chishti saint Nizamuddin and his disciple Amir Khusrau Dehlavi, who were probably among the first Muslims to begin the revival of the celebration of Basant. In February 2002, Communicators' Cooperative, a collective of media and arts professionals, decided to revive the spirit of Basant festival and to make more people participate in it, by organizing a public event in and around the dargah Nizamuddin area. The Basant Utsav 2002 (held on the 17 February 2002), involved many activities such as a heritage walk in the dargah area, an exhibition of books and other material related to Basant and Amir Khusrau, a screening of films related to Basant, and finally, an evening of classical and Sufi music in which eminent artists such as Iqbal Ahmad Khan, Madan Gopal Singh, Vidya Shah, Dhruv Sangari and others performed. This event was attended by about 2000 people, including Delhi's chief minister Ms. Sheila Dixit. Buoyed by the success of the 2002 festival, the group has organized a 4-day festival of Basant this year (6-9 February, 2003) at two locations in Delhi (around Dargah Nizamuddin, and at Mehrauli). Following is a brief schedule of the programmes. The entry in all events in free and all are cordially invited. (The festival is co-sponsored by the Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi) Day I: Thursday, 6th February, 2003 (Dargah Nizamuddin area) 10.30 a.m.: Basanti Heritage Walk: Starting at Humayun�s tomb, and going through Hazrat Nizamuddin, culminating at Rahim's Tomb. 12.30 p.m.: Children's Choir - Saraswati Vandana (children from various communities present Nirala's famous poem, composed and arranged by Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan of Dilli gharana) at Rahim�s Tomb. 1:00 p.m.: Basanti Udaan releasing of yellow balloons, kite flying and kite exhibition by Bhai Mian at Rahim�s Tomb. 3.00 - Kavi Sammelan/Mushaira at Ghalib's Tomb (Some of poets invited are Kedarnath Singh, Manglesh Dabral, Debiprasad Mishra, Mateen Amrohvi, Gauhar Raza, and others) 5.00 p.m.: Traditional Basant procession to Dargah of Hazrat Nizammuddin Aulia, which involves offering mustard flowers to the graves of important saints in the area. Day II: Friday, 7th February 2003 (Dargah Nizamuddin area) 11.30 a.m.: Basanti Sanskriti at Rahim�s Tomb (Thematic painting competition) 3.00 p.m.: Basanti Cinema at Ghalib Academy Hall -- (films on the themes of Basant, including two documentary films about Basant festivities at Lahore, Pakistan, and a film on Amir Khusrau) Day III � Saturday, 8th February, 2003 (Mehrauli/Qutab area) 10.00 a.m.: Heritage Water Walk starting from Hauz e shamshi (Mehrauli, the venue of Phool Walon Ki Sair) and culminating at Qutab Minar 3.00 p.m. Western/pop music groups (including Ind Transit) perform World Music and Urban Balladeering Day IV � Sunday, 9th February, 2003 (Mehrauli/Qutab area) 10.00 a.m: Heritage Walk starting at Qutub Minar and culminating at Jamaali Kamaali 3.00 p.m. Basanti Samaa (Evening of traditional Sufi Qawwalis and classical music related to Basant, and Amir Khusrau. Invited artists include Ustad Iqbal Ahmad Khan, Madan Gopal Singh, Hamsar Hayat Qawwal, and others) Delhi's Chief Minister Mrs. Shiela Dikshit has kindly consented to inaugurate the Basanti Samaa evening at 3 pm on 9th February 2003. (The schedule is subject to change. For more details and a final schedule, kindly visit the site: http://www.cc-india.org, or contact the organizers at basant at cc-india.org or call Vagish K. Jha at 91-11-26166155) -------- More information: http://www.sphosting.com/ccindia/photo/basantphoto.html Sanjhi VIrasat: www.ektaramusic.com/sqalam THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BASANT '03 >>>>>. Not only Hindus and Muslims but people from other religions would >>>>>also be involved to turn it into truly, the People's festival. >>>>>2. The locations would be such that they not only represent the " >>>>>traditionality "of the event but that are also easily accessible to >>>>>people of all communities. >>>>>3. The thrust of the events would be such that they would be >>>>>consciously canvassing solidarity and may also be perceived by people >>>>>as such. >>>>>4. Events involving different target groups - of different income >>>>>levels; different age groups; of different interests shall be aimed at. >>>>>5. By highlighting a forgotten festival and critical heritage sites >>>>>/monuments, this event would give great boost to Tourism. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - I have learned so much from God That I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me That I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an angel.. Love has befriended me. It has turned to ash and freed me Of every concept and image my mind has ever known. - Hafiz, Persian Sufi Organised religion is the prop of a man who has not found his Self/ God within. - Shaheed Bhagat Singh __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From amitbasu55 at hotmail.com Wed Feb 5 18:32:17 2003 From: amitbasu55 at hotmail.com (Amit R Basu) Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 13:02:17 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Pakshees:Urban Cannabis Culture in 19th century Kolkata Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030205/2ea11956/attachment.html From anna_blume1 at yahoo.de Wed Feb 5 16:53:28 2003 From: anna_blume1 at yahoo.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?Anna=20Blume?=) Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 12:23:28 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] exhibition of Julia Wegat, paintings in Hildesheim, Germany Message-ID: <20030205112328.4981.qmail@web21102.mail.yahoo.com> pressinformation for the exhibition frau für's leben (woman for life) in Convent St.Vinzenz, Hildesheim, Germany from 07.02.03 to 30.03.03 Julia Wegat, student of Viennese Hyperrealist Gottfried Helnwein and degree 2001 of Munich Academy of Arts , got her first national publication with the video-painting-installation "Schönheitengalerie" (gallery of Beauty) in Castle of Nymphenburg in Munich, followed by other acknowledged events like the ben-jakov-paintings. The exhibition in Convent St. Vinzenz in Hildesheim will thematically follow the Beauty Gallery. Not only because Sr. Lea, who became part of Wegat’s installation will also be part here, hosting an international women symposium at the convent during the exhibition on 10.03. Wegat's paintings will here be frame and thematical challenge. Quite a lot of discussion they will provide, the partially big paintings of women and children which Wegat selected according the topic. First the unusual technique of painting: Starting with a photo – newspaperclipping, internetpic, private picture – which gets painted photo – realistic in oil on tablecloth, curtains or bedcovers (all of them mostly used!) Then again a photo of the finished painting. Next an overpainting of the finished painting which will be hidden under an partially dense cover of oil-wax-colour. The original painting lost? Rest a photo from the painted photo? A picture of the picture? Looking for the possibilities of pictur-ing? To hide and therefor to show, to focus again what got lost some days, weeks ago in newspapers, internet, old schoolbooks... To show and to take away which is visible is a process of looking for a new definition of visibility and its possibilities. The hidden contents of the stories fulfil in the fantasy of a spectator who make visible again, who dis-covers and combines in an new, individual way. This is interactive art on a very subtle way, impressive and very silent. Pressetext zur Ausstellung: frau fürs leben Im Kloster St.Vinzenz, Hildesheim vom 07.02.03 bis 30.03.03 Julia Wegat, Schülerin des Wiener Hyperrealisten Gottfried Helnwein und Diplomabgängerin 2001 der Münchener Akademie aus der Klasse von Professor Ben Willikens, erlangte erstmals überregionale Bekanntheit durch ein Video-Malerei-Projekt in Schloß Nymphenburg in München, einen zeitgenössische Adaption der "Schönheitengalerie". Es folgten andere viel beachtete Projekte, die ben-jakov-paintings, um nur eines zu nennen, aber die Ausstellung im Kloster St-Vinzenz wird an die Thematik der "Schönheitengalerie" anknüpfen. Nicht zuletzt deswegen, weil die unvergleichliche Schwester Lea, die allen, Männern, wie Frauen gleichermaßen durch ihr Engagement und ihren Mut beispielgebend ist, Teil von Wegats "Schönheitengalerie" wurde und, hier im Zusammenhang mit SOLWODI e.V. als Veranstalterin des 3.Symposiums im Bernwardshof am 10.03.03 in Erscheinung treten wird. Rahmen und inhaltliche Erweiterung hierzu sollen die bildnerischen Arbeiten von Julia Wegat liefern. Diskussionsgrundlage werden sie sicherlich sein, die teils großformatigen Bilder von Frauen und Kindern, die Wegat, zum Thema passend für Hildesheim ausgewählt hat. Hierfür spricht allein die ungewöhnliche Technik der Künstlerin: Zunächst gab es ein Photo – einen Zeitungsausschnitt, ein Bild aus dem Internet, ein privates Amateurphoto. Dieses wird penibel realistisch abgemalt, in Öl zumeist auf (benutzten) Damasttischtüchern, Gardinen oder Bettwäsche. Dann gibt es wieder ein Photo, von dem fertigen Ölbild. Anschließend wird das fertige Bild mit einer Wachs-Öl Schicht übermalt. Das Bild ist damit weitgehend verschwunden. Was bleibt vom Bild ist das Photo. Eine Erinnerung. Die gemalte Photographie eines Photos. Das Bild des Bildes des Bildes. Eine Frage zu den Bildern und dem Abbildbaren. Zu verbergen und dadurch erneut kenntlich zu machen, erneut zu fokussieren, über was man vielleicht vor einigen Tagen, Monaten hinweggeblättert hat, ein Zeitungsphoto vom Krieg, ein Bild aus einem alten Geschichtsbuch, oder die Farbphotographie einer Blüte. Zu Zeigen und wieder zu Entfernen, den Prozess des Sehens zu hinterfragen, das kann Sinn dieser Arbeiten sein. Die verborgenen Geschichten enthüllen sich erst in der Phantasie des Betrachters, der das Dargestellte in seiner Vorstellung ent-deckt und neu zusammensetzt. Interaktive Kunst auf ihre leiseste und gleichzeitig intensivste Art – sicherlich ein gelungenes Gegengewicht zu den Themen, die auf dem Symposium besprochen werden. --------------------------------- Gesendet von http://mail.yahoo.de. Bis zu 100 MB Speicher bei http://premiummail.yahoo.de. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030205/a61f1c64/attachment.html From pukar at bol.net.in Wed Feb 5 14:10:44 2003 From: pukar at bol.net.in (PUKAR @ Kala Ghoda) Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 14:10:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Presentations at KG Arts Festival 2003 Message-ID: Dear Friends: PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action & Research) invites you to attend and participate in the following presentations/discussions to be held during the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2003. The PUKAR Associates will present and discuss various dimensions of their work on the city of Mumbai, from the fields of anthropology and architecture to documentary film and literature. All of these presentations will be held from 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. in the AUDITORIUM of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), behind the Prince of Wales Museum in Kala Ghoda. See below for the details of each 45 minute presentation, to be followed by discussion with the audience. SUNDAY 9 FEBRUARY "Heritage and the City" PANKAJ JOSHI is a conservation architect in private practice, and works in the fields of urban heritage and planning. He is involved in the PUKAR Studio and the Post-Industrial Landscapes projects. MONDAY 10 FEBRUARY "Gender and Urban Space" SHILPA PHADKE is a sociologist pursuing her doctorate at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has written extensively on feminism, has taught sociology for many years in the city, and is involved in the PUKAR Gendered Spaces project. TUESDAY 11 FEBRUARY "Packaging Urban Space" SHEKHAR KRISHNAN is a social scientist and is a Coordinator of PUKAR. He is involved in the PUKAR Studio and Post-Industrial Landscapes project. WEDNESDAY 12 FEBRUARY "Writing Across the City" ABHAY SARDESAI is a writer and translator in several Indian languages, and is the Editor of Art India Magazine. He is involved in the PUKAR Writing Across the City project. FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY "The Space of the Public" HIMANSHU BURTE is a practising architect, and a critic and writer on issues of public space and art institutions. SATURDAY 15 FEBRUARY "Visualising Locality: Focus on Kala Ghoda" (with the students of Elphinstone College) RAHUL SRIVASTAVA is an anthropologist and is a Coordinator of PUKAR. QUAID DOONGERWALA is a practising architect and designer. They work with students on the PUKAR Neighbourhood Project. SUNDAY 16 FEBRUARY "Unlimited Girls": Film Screening PAROMITA VOHRA is a documentary film-maker and writer, and the director of "Unlimited Girls", a film on feminism. She is involved in the PUKAR Gendered Spaces and Post-Industrial Landscapes projects. For more information on PUKAR @ Kala Ghoda, contact us at the address and phone numbers below. Regards, Rahul Srivastava and Shekhar Krishnan _____ 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 mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From arunlists at softhome.net Thu Feb 6 08:46:02 2003 From: arunlists at softhome.net (Arun Mehta) Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 08:46:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] copyright ad absurdum Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.2.20030206084432.0285d008@202.54.15.1> from The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, February 5, 2003: >COPYRIGHTING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION™ >http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15026 > The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 has given > corporations increased power to censor speech that they don't like. > It severely curtails the "fair use” doctrine which allows artists, > writers and scholars to use fragments of copyrighted works without > permission for the purposes of education, criticism and parody. > Kembrew McLeod notes that trademark law has been used to spike a > web site that parodied Dow Chemical, and Vivendi Universal studios > used it to kill VivendiUniversalSucks.com on grounds that "certain > members of the public ... would be likely to understand 'sucks' as > a banal and obscure addition to the reasonably well-known mark > Vivendi Universal." Just to prove the absurdity of the law, McLeod > has taken out a trademark on the phrase "freedom of expression" > itself. "Apparently, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office did not > find the idea of someone controlling this phrase morally, socially > and politically unsettling, and it granted me ownership of the mark > in 1998," he writes. >SOURCE: AlterNet, January 27, 2003 >More web links related to this story are available at: > http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2003.html#1043643601 >To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: > http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043643601 From oman at heimat.de Thu Feb 6 17:23:03 2003 From: oman at heimat.de (oman) Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 18:53:03 +0700 Subject: [Reader-list] call for submissions [CHIANGMAI FIRST NEW MEDIA ART FESTIVAL ] Message-ID: ICECA - Initiative for Cultural Exchange and Computer Arts CHIANGMAI FIRST NEW MEDIA ART FESTIVAL 05th Feb. 2003 Chiangmai, Thailand Theme: New Media art [Unrestricted] Venue: CMU Art Museum and selected locations at Chiangmai University (CMU) Chiangmai, Thailand Dates: 28 March - 13 April 2003 Sponsors: ICECA Chiangmai Chiangmai University Art Museum Faculty of Fine Arts, Faculty of Architecture Kunstpunkt - Berlin Call for submissions Deadline for submissions: 20 February 2003 ****************************************** Introduction: ICECA Chiangmai, in collaboration with CMU Faculty of architecture, is organizing the first New Media Art Festival in Chiangmai Thailand. The festival's exhibition is to be presented on the occasion of the opening of ICECA's collaborative media space and will be held in this space as well as in other parts of the university. A series of workshops for the public will be held from 29 March - 1 April and selected 25 best works will be presented after that in the exhibition. Submission information: Works should contain, but are not limited to, digital works of the artist's choice. Acceptable digital formats include: -video/animation/movie: VHS, mpeg, .mov, Shockwave etc. -sound: .mp3 .wav .mid -executable PC or Mac software art -media files on CD-ROM (DVD no recommended but possible) -webpage (on CD-ROM) -image: .jpg,.gif,.png, pdf etc. (no max. dimensions) -small/lightweight installation/ electronic sculpture etc. -URL's (for inclusion in the Festival's "virtual gallery") In preparing for this exhibition, please note that ICECA can provide only equipment for exhibition of works, and cannot offer financial assistance. Therefore the Media Festival can accept only works which are exhibited using existing equipment i.e. PCs and Macintoshes, video/data projectors, sound equipment, video/web cameras, still cameras. Many media installations can be quite complex. However, ICECA is only able to provide for works using our existing equipment. Artists requiring more than this should submit concept papers (in Thai or English) together with videos of exhibited works. These videos will be presented in lieu of the work itself and we expect them to form a major part of the Festival workshops and exhibitions. And, with permission, they will be the foundation of the CMU-ICECA New Media Library. Works will be selected by a committee of the Chiangmai University Art Museum. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Dear artist, We cordially invite you to participate in this festival and contribute to the emerging media art scene in Thailand by submitting works for exhibition and as content for workshops about forms of media art reflecting the subject of your choice. Please keep in mind that ICECA can only provide assistance in setting up fairly ordinary equipment, such as your work, light, video player/recorder projector, PC, sound system etc. If you require any special purpose equipment, such as special computer interfaces, please describe these in detail on your submission so we can consider how to accommodate your needs. Applications will only be accepted by Email, artists should submit their applications via email using attached files in the formats suggested above. After your submission is accepted we will provide you with a mailing address for sending CDROMs, videotapes etc. Please send your application together with any media files to or to . Those accepted will be notified by email. Francis Wittenberger ICECA Thailand ------------------------------------------------------------------- Please use this entry form for submissions: ************************************************* Artist: Family name: Given (first) name: Email: URL: Short biosketch (not more than 300 words in English) Work: Title Year Technology/type of media file short description of the work (not more than 300 words, in English) URL (if net based) or several photos/screen shots to be attached as .jpg (you may send several Emails but a single email should not exceed 1 Mb) *Confirmation/authorization: I confirm that I hold all rights on the submitted work and agree that it can be included in [ ] future Festival/ [ ] media library as well. Name: Address: Deadline 20 February 2003. ********************************** ICECA media art Festival http://iceca.chiangmai.ac.th/events ---------------------------------------- ICECA Cultural Exchange and Computer Arts 17 Taewarit road T.Chang Puek Muang District 50300 Chiangmai Thailand Telephone: +66 (0)53-357 919 Mobile: +66 (0)9-954 1719 ---------------------------------------- (please forward, thanks !) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030206/add48270/attachment.htm From info at nmartproject.net Thu Feb 6 22:51:44 2003 From: info at nmartproject.net (NewMediaArtProjectNetwork) Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 18:21:44 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [R]-[R]-[F] - Festival - call for entries Message-ID: <05d201c2ce04$42c20dc0$0600a8c0@NMARTPROJECTNET> ****************************************************** A Virtual Memorial - Memorial Project against the Forgetting and for Humanity www.a-virtual-memorial.org New Media art project by Agricola de Cologne ****************************************************** Table of Contents: a) [R]-[R]-[F] - Festival Call for submissions open from 03 February 2003 - deadline 31 March 2003 terms and submissions form on www.a-virtual-memorial.org b) Features of the month February 2003 ****************************************************** a) Call for submissions [R]-[R]-[F] - Festival It is so far! A Virtual Memorial receives a festival of itsown!!! The February 2003 edition is entirely dedicated to this new online New Media event, entitled [R]-[R]-[F] - Festival 'Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting'. [R]-[R]-[F] - Festival will be an ongoing and experimental (in many ways) online project to be presented in virtual and physical exhibition and festival environments. The festival will include artists/art works on two major levels: 1. invited curators in the fields of art and New Media who select and curate artists/artworks of their choice according the conception and subjects of the festival -remembering-repressing-forgetting - 2. artists selected and curated by Agricola de Cologne based on an open call in Internet. The intermediate result of the first phase (1st invitation series to curators) can be currently listed in form of the names of several invited/confirmed curators: Prof. Dr. Wilton Azevedo (Sao Paulo, Brazil) Stefano Caldana (Barcelona, Spain) Fernando Garcia Delgado (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Anna Hatziyiannaki (Athens, Greece) Eugeny Umansky (Kaliningrad, Russia) Celine Harlet (Rennes, France) Branca Bencic (Croatia) Fran Ilich (Mexico) Caterina Davinio (Italy) Some further confirmations will follow. It is the meaning to invite and add at a later stage new curators from different countries and their contributions for participating in future project versions. In the second phase, submissions to be received via an open call in Internet will serve Agricola de Cologne as a resource for selecting and curating. **Artists who would like to participate, are kindly invited to go to the start page of www.a-virtual-memorial.org where they can find the call, the terms and the submissions form. This call is online since 3 February 2003! Deadline 31 March 2003** The third phase, will be the creation of a specific dynamic artistic online environment, eg new types of memory fields where the curators' contributions will be embedded in. It will be a step by step development which allows to feature the curators' contributions. The fourth phase will represent the ongoing aspect as it is planned to execute major changes and add new aspects of experimenting in each new presentation - project version. It is planned to launch [R]-[R]-[F] - Festival in May 2003 online. Detailed information about [R]-[R]-[F] - Festival and artists' participations can be found on: www.a-virtual-memorial.org ********************************** New month - new subject ********************************** b) ***Features of the Month Selected Memorial Days in February 2003 International Year of Fresh Water 06 February 1904 - Begin Russian - Japanese war 20 February 1940 - Lodz ghetto (Poland) established by the Nazis 13 February 1945 - US and British bombs destroy city of Dresden (Germany) 21 February 2003 - International Mother Language Day *The Features of the Month are monthly changing collections of multimedia works and links which form in the totality of the composition an artwork of theirown to be created on a webpage of theirown within the Memorial project.* ************************************************** Features of the Month February 2003 Subject: Up and over the eagle's nest - Tribute to the Victims of Torture Featured Artist: Christina McPhee TextObject: Torture (poem by Wislawa Szymborska) Women: Dalia Gilboa's Mass Rape: War on Women ArtObject: Watch: Seconds: Forever (video) Animal: Siberian Tiger People: Siberian peoples ***************************************** Until the next time all the best, Wilfried Agricola de Cologne info at a-virtual-memorial.org www.a-virtual-memorial.org Memorial project against the Forgetting and for Humanity - ongoing New Media art project by Agricola de Cologne A short description as PDF file for free download from http://www.a-virtual-memorial.org/downloads/pdf/pdf.htm Optimized for 1024x768 VGA resolution, MS IE 6.0+ and NN 6.0+, soundcard, Flash 6 required ***************************************** A Newsletter is a free InformationService of NewMediaArtProjectNetwork Public Relations pr at nmartproject.net NewMediaArtProjectNetwork -the experimental platform for art in Internet - www.le-musee-divisioniste.org www.javamuseum.org www.a-virtual-memorial.org www.engad.org www.agricola-de-cologne.de www.nmartproject.net www.newmediafest.org copyright © 2000-2003 by AGRICOLA de Cologne All rights reserved. *************************************************** From jhuns at vt.edu Fri Feb 7 05:06:03 2003 From: jhuns at vt.edu (jeremy hunsinger) Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 18:36:03 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] REMINDER - Call for Papers - Internet Research 4.0: Broadening the Band - 4th Annual AoIR Conference Message-ID: [please distribute widely] Call for Papers - IR 4.0: Broadening the Band International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 16-19 Lead organizer Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto Submission site opens: January 15, 2003 Deadline for submissions: March 1, 2003 Conference Website: http://www.aoir.org/2003 | http://www.ecommons.net/aoir Digital communications networks such as the Internet are changing the way people interact with each other, with profound effects on social relations and institutions. Yet many remain excluded from access and meaningful participation. It is timely to consider who is included, who is excluded and what we now know about the composition and activities of online communities. Internet Research (IR) 4.0 will feature a variety of perspectives on Internet, organized under the theme Broadening the Band. As in previous conferences, the aim is to develop a coherent theoretical and pragmatic understanding of the Internet and those that are empowered and disenfranchised by it. IR 4.0 will bring together prominent scholars, researchers, creators, and practitioners from many disciplines, fields and countries for a program of presentations, panel discussions, and informal exchanges. IR 4.0 will take place at the Hilton Hotel in the heart of downtown Toronto. The conference is hosted by a team led by the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) and its partners at the University of Toronto. The IR 4.0 steering and working committees reflect the growing pan-Canadian network of Internet researchers, including members from Quebec, Alberta, and New Brunswick, in addition to the local contingent from Toronto, York and Ryerson Universities. This year's theme, Broadening the Band, encourages wide participation from diverse disciplines, communities, and points of view. Under the umbrella theme, contributors are called to reflect upon, theorize and articulate what we know from within the emerging interdisciplinary space known as Internet Research. In a cultural sense, the theme calls attention to the need to examine access, inclusion and exclusion in online communities. What role do race, gender, class, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, age, geography, and other factors play in the degree of online participation? What are the indicators of meaningful participation? In a technical sense, the theme points to the development of broadband, wireless and post-internet networks and applications that are currently coming on-stream including community, private, public as well as national research networks (e.g. CA*net 4, Internet 2). We plan to use these technologies to make the conference an internet-mediated and internationally accessible event. In an organizational sense, the theme reflects a widening of AoIR's reach to include more researchers and constituencies involved in the evolution of the Internet. French language presentations will be included in the call for papers for the first time. Researchers and practitioners in the arts and culture sectors are encouraged to participate alongside social scientists and humanities scholars and researchers. In a thematic sense, "Broadening the Band" suggests widening the scope of topics and problematics considered within past conferences, while retaining the consistent emphasis on rigorous research work. This call for papers thus initiates an inclusive search for theoretical and methodological correspondences between this expanding theme and the many disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches that are required to address it with precision. Possible Topics: - Who is bridging what: Questions and answers on the digital divide - New directions in digital art - E-me, e-you? (E- health, E-governance, E-commerce,E-business, E-games, E-entertainment, E-other) - Ethnicity, race, identity, gender, sexuality, language(s) and diverse cultural contexts online - Who Decides: Ethics, law, politics and policy of the internet - We can't measure that, can we? Meaningful indicators for internet access, participation, use and effects - Who owns what? Value, space, and commons on the internet - Is there an author, a publisher, or writing on the internet? - Transformed by technics: new technologies and the post-internet age - Who is watching your computer, when you're not watching it.... - When we are glocal: The internet in global and local manifestations - I put my lesson plans on the internet, what changed? Teaching, learning and the internet - Digital media and terror/ism: global flows, economies, and surveillance - Social movements, net-based activism, and hactivism in a global arena - Which methods, whose theories? Determining approaches to internet research - Why did we digitize that, and what's it worth? Exploring the value of digital content This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to trigger ideas and encourage submissions from a range of disciplines. The organizers will take an active role in generating and joining the various interests into appropriate formats. Submission of Proposals The Association of Internet Researchers invites paper, presentation, and panel proposals from AoIR members and non-members on topics that address social, cultural, political, economic, and aesthetic aspects of the Internet. We welcome interdisciplinary submissions as well as submissions from within specific disciplines. French language presentations will be included in the call for papers for the first time. We especially seek panel proposals that establish connections across disciplines, institutions, and/or continents. We also encourage creative presentations that will make use of Internet technologies and artistic techniques. Proposals for papers should be in the form an approximately 500-750 word abstract. Creative presentations and demonstration projects should consist of an approximately 500-750 word abstract, plus brief illustrative material. Panels will generally include three to four papers or presentations. The panel organizer should submit an approximately 500 word statement describing the session topic, include abstracts of up to 250 words for each paper or presentation, and indicate that each author is willing to participate in the session. Abstracts and proposals may be submitted for review in English or in French. Papers, presentations and panels will be selected from the submitted abstracts on the basis of peer review, coordinated and overseen by the Program Chair, assisted by sub-chairs with expertise in specific areas of scholarly and aesthetic knowledge relating to the Internet. Proposals can be for three types of contribution to the conference: - papers, creative presentations, and panels. Each person is invited to submit a proposal for 1 paper or 1 presentation. People may also propose a panel of papers or presentations, of which their personal paper or presentation must be a part. Average time allotted for a paper or creative presentation will be 20 minutes. Average time allotted for a panel will be 1 hour and 30 minutes, including discussion time. Detailed information about format of submission and review is available at the conference website http://www.aoir.org/2003. All proposals must be submitted electronically at http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/confman/ (_note_ - submission site opens January 15, 2003). Deadlines: Submission site available: January 15, 2003 Final date for proposal submission: March 1, 2003 Author notification: April 1, 2003 Presenter's Registration to the conference: September 1, 2003 Student Award: Completed paper: September 1, 2003 Graduate Students: Graduate students are strongly encouraged to submit proposals. They should note their student status with submission in order to be considered for a special Student Award. Students wishing to be a candidate for the Student Award must also send a final paper by 1st September 2003. Canadian graduate students outside of central Canada should note that funds may be available for travel and subsistence. Notice will be sent out to the AoIR list as soon as funding commitments are confirmed. To ensure diverse participation, registration fees will be kept low for presenters, and a billeting and room sharing system will be established. Simultaneous French language translation will be available (subject to budgetary considerations) in certain sessions. Pre-Conference Workshops Prior to the conference, there will be a limited number of pre-conference workshops which will provide participants with in-depth, hands-on and/or creative opportunities. We invite proposals for these pre-conference workshops; local presenters are encouraged to propose workshops that will invite visiting researchers into their labs or studios or locales. Proposals should be no more than 1000 words, and should clearly outline the purpose, methodology, structure, costs, equipment and minimal attendance required, as well as explaining its relevance to the conference as a whole. Proposals will be accepted if they demonstrate that the workshop will add significantly to the overall program in terms of thematic depth, hands on experience, or local opportunities for scholarly or artistic connections. These proposals and all inquires regarding pre-conference proposals should be submitted as soon as possible to the Conference Chair aoir at ecommons.net, and will be accepted up to June 15th. Notification of terms and space allocations will be sent out as soon as details are confirmed, with final acceptance required by June 30, 2003. CONTACT INFORMATION If you have questions about the conference, program, or AoIR, please contact: Program Chair: Matthew Allen, Curtin University of Technology, Australia m.allen at curtin.edu.au - All inquiries on review and acceptances Program Co-chair: David Mitchell, University of Calgary mitchell at ucalgary.ca - Inquiries on conference themes and special technology themes Conference Chair: Liss Jeffrey, Knowledge Media Design Institute and McLuhan Program, University of Toronto aoir at ecommons.net - All inquiries on Toronto conference and pre-conference workshops Associate coordinator: Katherine Parrish, OISE/University of Toronto aoir at ecommons.net AoIR President: Steve Jones sjones at uic.edu Association Website: http://www.aoir.org Conference Website: http://www.aoir.org/2003 | http://www.ecommons.net/aoir jeremy hunsinger jhuns at vt.edu on the ibook www.cddc.vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy/blog () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Fri Feb 7 22:39:51 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 09:09:51 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Basant:Sky Without frontiers: The Kite soars..above mullahs/pundits Message-ID: <20030207170951.27829.qmail@web20904.mail.yahoo.com> where have all the kites gone..from Delhi, the city of phoolwallahs, kitemakers and djinns? -- Dear friends > >As part of our ongoing Basant festival, we have a screening of the >following films on 7th Feb (Friday) at Ghalib Academy (near dargah >Nizamuddin) at Delhi, from 2:30 pm. >Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. >Affordable. Mela Basant Bahar: Sky Without frontiers, a film about Basant in Lahore by Samina Aslam info on: www.cc-india.org -- -- Sky Without frontiers: Mela Basant Bahar in Lahore The sight of a whole city caught up in a `Basant' frenzy startles an Indian ignorant of customs and traditions in Pakistan, says C. RAMMANOHAR REDDY. Qoute: -We in Lahore have over the years taken to Basant and kite-flying," said an elderly Lahori, "while for some reason Amritsar has given it up," referring to the rather lukewarm celebration of Basant in our Indian Punjab. Basant does not belong to the Hindus or the Muslims. "It is a festival of Punjab. You in India may not be too excited by Basant. But for us in Lahore it has become a passion." - YOU wouldn't think that a public festival in Lahore goes by the name Basant. A Hindu name for a public holiday in Pakistan? One which falls on the same day as Basant Panchami in India? Yes it is. Basant is one of the biggest festivals on the Lahori's calendar; a mammoth social occasion that does not revolve around a religious ritual but around putting thousands of kites into the sky. The sight of a whole city caught up in a "Basant" frenzy startles an Indian ignorant of customs and traditions in Pakistan. The inevitable question on the mind of a visitor from India is how have the Lahoris taken to an event whose name suggests that it is a Hindu festival, even if there are no religious rituals to accompany it. The answers you hear are interesting. Some see the public embrace of a secular Basant as a way of striking back at the fundamentalists who want to constrain their lives. Some say that during the Zia years of the 1980s there was a stifling of celebrations as it was labelled "a Hindu" festival. Even later, Nawaz Sharif, who was beholden to the religious right, was less than open about his visiting social events on Basant. The near frenetic celebrations of Basant today are seen as a reaction to past controls. And yet others perhaps rightly tell a visitor from India that Basant does not belong to the Hindus or the Muslims. "It is a festival of Punjab. You in India may not be too excited by Basant. But for us in Lahore it has become a passion." "We in Lahore have over the years taken to Basant and kite-flying," said an elderly Lahori, "while for some reason Amritsar has given it up," referring to the rather lukewarm celebration of Basant in our Punjab. Lahore's Basant is such a social event that it attracts people from the rest of Punjab. The popularity of this Lahori festival has grown so much that other cities in Pakistan too have started to organise their own versions, "copy-cat" Basants as a parochial Lahori will tell you. For the wealthier Lahori, Basant is not just about flying kites. It is also a time to get together, to host family and friends and to celebrate with a lavish meal. The growing popularity of Basant has naturally meant the entry of corporate hospitality. Companies host their guests on Basant even by "renting" roof-tops in the walled city at exorbitant rates for just the evening. Ahmedabad has its kite flying ritual in January on Makar Shankranthi. Other Indian cities and states too have their annual seasons, if not particular days, in which kite-flying is a big event. But none is likely to match the scale and fervour of Lahore on Basant day. Like in North India, Basant in Pakistan's Punjab is a spring festival. It heralds both the approach of the harvest and the end of winter. This year the festival was celebrated on February 17, but Lahore began its party the night before in the walled city. The real celebrations took place the next day. The Lahoris' involvement in Basant is like our involvement in Deepavali. The big difference is that in Lahore's Basant, kites replace crackers. From the morning onwards, the roofs of Lahore were full of young and old keeping their kites afloat. By early afternoon, the sky was peppered with kites of different colours. They come in different sizes as well � some have to be transported on the roofs of cars, others are small enough to be carried on bicycles. Yellow is the predominant colour. "This is the colour of the mustard ripening in the field," says a gracious Lahori host, as he drapes a yellow dupatta on the shoulders of each visitor. The fun of Basant does not preclude the intense competition that is a uniquely south Asian phenomenon � cutting each other's kite lines. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2002/03/17/stories/2002031700160200.htm -- BASANT - 'A sky without frontiers' - the Spring Festival of Kites http://www.the-south-asian.com/March2002/Basant_the_kite_festival_of_south_Asia_2.htm -- http://www.nrilinks.com/NRINews/EN1154.htm Samina Aslam's Mela Basant Bahar dispels the notion being spread by Muslim fundamentalist groups that kite flying is a Hindu ritual. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - I have learned so much from God That I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me That I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an angel.. Love has befriended me. It has turned to ash and freed me Of every concept and image my mind has ever known. - Hafiz, Persian Sufi Organised religion is the prop of a man who has not found his Self/ God within. - Shaheed Bhagat Singh >From: Yousuf >>Subject: [schoolworkshop] Screening of films on Basant, Kite-flying and >>Amir Khusrau >Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 20:34:01 -0800 (PST) > > > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com Sat Feb 8 09:40:49 2003 From: sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com (=?iso-8859-1?q?Sagnik=20Chakravartty?=) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 04:10:49 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Congress-INPT Poll Alliance in Tripura Message-ID: <20030208041049.6830.qmail@web20306.mail.yahoo.com> Dear friends, See below a comment by Daniel Debbarma being reproduced from tripurainfo.com message board. His comment is on the Congress-INPT Poll Alliance in the forthcoming Assembly Elections in Tripura. Enjoy reading this comment. Bye Cheers Sagnik Chakravartty ------------------------------------------------------- (Courtesy:www.tripurainfo.com) DANIEL DEBBARMA - MY COMMENT ON THE " CONG-INPT POLL ALLIANCE" IS THAT, THERE IS A NEED FOR THE CHANGE IN THE GOVERNMENT.SO FOR THAT VERY REASON, THE CONG-INPT POLL TIE IS VERY MUCH ESSENTIAL.IF A PARTY IS ALLOWED TO REMAIN IN POWER FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME, THERE ARE LOTS OF DRAW BACKS FOR THE PEOLPE AND FOR THE STATE AS WELL.IN THE PAST YEARS, I MEAN THE REIGN OF THE LEFT FRONT,WHAT HAS THE GOVT. DONE TO HELP THE STUDENTS STUDYING OUTSIDE THE STATE?THEY ARE LEAST BOTHERED FOR STUDENTS STUDYING OUTSIDE THE STATE. INFACT THEIR QUESTIONS ARE WHY SHOULD A STUDENT GO OUT SIDE FOR HIGHER STUDIES.IF THAT IS THE CASE THEN WHY DID THE INDIAN LEADERS LIKE GANDHI, NEHRU, ETC FEW TO MENTION, GO OUT SIDE INDIA FOR THEIR HIGHER STUDIES.AND TO TELL YOU FRANKLY, THERE IS LOT OF DISCRIMINATION BY THE LEFT FRONT GOVT. DONE TO THE INDEGENEOUS PEOPLE, NOT DIRECTLY BUT INDIRECTLY. WE ARE SUPPRESED BY THE SO CALLED REFUGEES FROM BANGLADESH.WE ARE BEING REDUCED TO MINORITY AND WHEN WE ASSET OUR RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH OR EXRESSIONS THEN WE ARE TERMED AS ANTINATIONALS OR MILITANTS OR THE MORE APROPRIATE WORD AS YOU ALL CALL "UGROPONTHI".SO ITS FOR YOU TO JUDGE WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG.IF I WOULD BE EXRESSING MY VIEWS OPENLY THEN I WILL BE CALLED A MILITANT, SO I THANK THE TRIPURAINFO.COM FOR MAKING SUCH FACILITIES THROUGH WHICH WE CAN EXPRESS OUR VIEWS WITHOUT BEING TERMED AS MILITANTS. SO ALL THE BEST CARRY ON WITH YOUR GOOD EFFORTS. THANKING YOU IN ANTICIPATION. ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com Sat Feb 8 10:06:00 2003 From: sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com (=?iso-8859-1?q?Sagnik=20Chakravartty?=) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 04:36:00 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] VIEW FROM TRIPURA - POLTICS AS PERCEIVED BY PEOPLE Message-ID: <20030208043600.47640.qmail@web20307.mail.yahoo.com> Dear friends, See below comments on Politics written by IT- savvy generation of Tripura that includes tripura-watchers like me also . This is being reproduced from www.tripurainfo.com. These comments will give you an idea about the common perception of politics.Also you will get an idea about the penetration of I.T. in Tripura and the participation of women in such message boards is striking. This shows that to some extent women in Tripura have empowered themselves in being IT-Savvy. Some of these comments may be written in a joking fashion. Enjoy reading- Bye Sagnik Chakravartty ------------------------------------------------------TRIPURAINFO.COM MESSAGE BOARD POLITICS - Posted by: manik sarkar kutta bacha. Date: 30-01-2003 Time: 12:19:13 iam kutta manik,do you know iam the king of bangali,but sure this iam not going to be king any more because of the tripuri(borok)unity.thier unity will bring us no luck this time.so one day will be keep under thier feet.this is thier mother land and they are indegeneous people of tripura. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: A TRIPURI Date: 12-01-2003 Time: 09:33:10 the debate over changing the name of our state to twipra is nothing but yet another attempt of the vested interests to shift the focus from the burning issues of the hour.... what people require is the basic needs of life and a good society to live in.....it is better to have a developed and healty "tripura" than an underdeveloped "twipra"....what´s in name after all folks....will the name change erase poverty or hunger? or change our status as a poor state ridden by terrorism and poverty? fuelling caste and tribal sentiments has been the long time business of the so called "leaders"...lets not fall into their trap...cmon brothers and sisters...don´t tolerate this nonsense. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: BWSKANG DEBBARMA Date: 07-01-2003 Time: 09:42:36 POLITICS IS A WIDELY OBSERVED PHENOMENON .WE CAN INVOVLE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY.WE BOROK PEOPLE NEED POLITICALLY INVOLVED TO GAIN OUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOM. ----------------------------------------------------- Posted by: BWSKANG DEBBARMA Date: 07-01-2003 Time: 09:42:31 POLITICS IS A WIDELY OBSERVED PHENOMENON .WE CAN INVOVLE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY.WE BOROK PEOPLE NEED POLITICALLY INVOLVED TO GAIN OUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOM. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: BWSKANG DEBBARMA Date: 07-01-2003 Time: 09:40:37 POLITICS OS A WIDELY OBSERVED PHENOMENON .WE CAN INVOVLE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY.WE BOROK PEOPLE NEED POLITICALLY INVOLVED TO GAIN OUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOM. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: ramkumar deborma Date: 30-12-2002 Time: 03:43:28 The future of the Twiprasas is in politics.Today we r politically displaced and economically suppressed.Unless politically conscious youths join politics and become watchdogs of political development in Twipra our future is at stack.It is sad that power-hungry Borok leaders have in the name of the Boroks captured power in Twipra. Politics in our state today is centred around Tribals and Bengalee lower caste.It is tribal politics versus caste politics.I,therefore eanestly urge all the educated Borok youths to come together and pust our heads together and commit ourselves to the cause of the Boroks. ----------------------------------------------------- Posted by: birajit sinha Date: 27-12-2002 Time: 18:07:34 wah mishti ki mishti mishti katha tomar . tomar jonye aamar bedroom sab shamay khola come any time baby ----------------------------------------------------- Posted by: sil Date: 09-12-2002 Time: 16:08:27 Hi, The online poll survey is not a quality one.I don´t think there are more than 10000 users in tripura to vote for online survey.Still it´s showing so much discrepency. Actually one user can vote for infinite number of times by pressing "enter".So the SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR ,PLEASE LOOK INTO THIS ISSUE.As people or you may misinterpret this survey outcome.Because nontechnical people will not understand,how you can give so many votes.Some people (who don´t know the value of online survey has already done that). SO PLEASE RECTIFY THE VOTING SYSTEM.In the page code,put some check so that the same user from same IP address can´t vote more than once. If u need any technical assistance feel free to mail me at kaushik.sil at indiatimes.com .I will be proud to the same for my state. Thanks ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: MISHTI Date: 03-12-2002 Time: 12:01:34 TO ME POLITICS IS NOTHING BUT SOME HANDSOME GUYS LIKE BIRAJIT SINHA ETC. I LIKE TO LOVE HIM. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: Rubel Date: 03-12-2002 Time: 05:42:30 Politics is noting but we have to follow and make it fresh. rubelmr at yahoo.com ===================================================== Posted by: Subhendu Choudhury Date: 23-11-2002 Time: 00:19:16 Forget About politics want to enjoy Financial freedom..want to earn money..by ethics ..want to do a business...want to be a millionaire....fulfill all your dreams ..mail me subha_ch_in at yahoo.com...i am successful i can make you too... ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: m.r. Date: 18-11-2002 Time: 17:12:47 politics is a fourth class game played by fifth class people .god save tripura from such bloody people. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: Deman Date: 11-10-2002 Time: 01:46:12 To me..... the politics is as sweets as honey... ====================================================== Posted by: Manasi Datta Date: 03-10-2002 Time: 02:11:41 To me: In the ancient days ´Politics´ means ´the Rules of King´ but now a days in a democratic country it is converted into ´the Rules of General Public´. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: Kiran Shankar Date: 03-10-2002 Time: 01:45:01 Politics can play an important role for making a nation strongest one in the world by all means. But now a days it is observed maximum people believe on politics only for personal interest and not for the interest of the nation. Every citizen should have the positive attitude for making his/her nation strongest instead of personal interest. Then only the meaning of ´politics´ will be justified. ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: Sanjoy paul Date: 31-08-2002 Time: 08:10:23 Nothing als ----------------------------------------------------- Posted by: ........ Date: 24-08-2002 Time: 16:35:37 Politics .... my ass ! ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: demann Date: 19-08-2002 Time: 05:06:48 Wake up, Major dude, and welcome to the 21st century. Granted, politics sucks big time in tripura. The kingdom is long gone, and we have to chill out together with everyone, right ? If you don’t keep the scores in your own hood, then it will be all the mean muther-fucka who’ll be scoring the home runs. Come on, if ya say “I don’t give a shit”, all these jerks will keep on making funny speeches in geneva and all over the place, and come home and say they were mis-interpreted and get away with it too. And all those gangsta boys of NLFT and ATTF have mud in their head. Hey !! it’s not cool to kick ass with AK47 and shit like that. If you are pissed off with your job and and bored with yer religion, just go buy yourself a drink or smoke, or shit like that !! can’t go around behaving like son-of-a-gun and messing other people. take it easy, people ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: Sgt/Maj. Gabriel B. Koloi (R.B.A). Date: 08-08-2002 Time: 02:43:39 THE POLITICS IN TWIPRA KINGDOM IS DIRTY GAME. SO I DO NOT REALLY LIKE TO BACK UP ANY PARTICULAR POLITICAL PARTY OF TWIPRA KINGDOM. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: DEBU GHOSH Date: 29-07-2002 Time: 05:36:01 POLITICS IS MOST INTERESTING THING. I LIKE IT. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: APANGSHU DEBNATH Date: 29-07-2002 Time: 05:28:29 POLICTS IS THE BONE OF A REPUBLIC NATION. ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: sa re ga maa Date: 04-07-2002 Time: 06:04:17 politics is the most interestring thing in this otherwise lacklustre world. Starting from French Industrial revolution, to the sepoy mutiny in 1857, if there had been no polticis we would not have independence. its another thing what is the topic all about. be more specific. ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: Rajib GanChaudhuri Date: 13-06-2002 Time: 18:28:47 Apathy to politics won´t solve any of problems. Common people must get involved; and honest dynamic people with a passion to improve the state of the public, must enter politics. Politics should not be allowed to remain the last refuge of the scoundrel. Democracy has no future otherwise. Let´s have positive attitude, let´s dream, let´s believe. ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: Sagnik Chakravartty Date: 02-06-2002 Time: 15:20:50 I agree with Bhaswati´s point that politics means the King of Laws. But to add , it also means the art of the possible. ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: Jayanta Debbarma Date: 24-05-2002 Time: 11:15:48 Politics is nothing but an easy way to make easy money. All the scams are a testimony to it. If it is not true, why don´t the brilliant students and toppers choose it as a career ? ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: A. Ray Date: 22-05-2002 Time: 09:23:40 Politics is not a mission now. Its a proffession ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: Bhabes Debbarma Date: 18-05-2002 Time: 01:25:02 Politics is very essential for everybody.Without politics our Nation can´t mobilise in present situation & coming situaton for facing problem in our country. ------------------------------------------------------ Posted by: Date: 14-05-2002 Time: 14:56:52 Posted by: Partha B Date: 13-05-2002 Time: 23:28:02 Politics is part of life, everybody plays the game of politics in one form or other. It is the players of this game who spoiled the spirit of the game in todays world. One of the main reason that soiled the game is illiteracy (also includes those so called intelectual group who does not have the ability to analyze a situation, allways thinks "mind your own business") of the spectetors. ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: Hrishikesh Majumder Date: 12-05-2002 Time: 12:13:12 In my point we r not really aware which is politics and qwhat is political science.It is the ignorance and stay away attitude of people that made it worse.Had the leaders faced cut throat competition as it exists in Business world that would be more beneficiary for our people.Because leaders then thribed for doing something as they would know unless they perform people would throw them out of power. ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: BHASKARJYOTI BHAUMIK. Date: 02-05-2002 Time: 06:26:34 Politics to me is nothing but a botheration for the public.Nowadays it is really hard to find politics based on the service of manhood. ------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: BHASWATI RAY Date: 28-04-2002 Time: 20:10:23 POLITICS MEANS THE KING OF LAWS ------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com Sat Feb 8 10:30:57 2003 From: sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com (=?iso-8859-1?q?Sagnik=20Chakravartty?=) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 05:00:57 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] VIEW FROM TRIPURA : POPULAR PERCEPTION OF RELIGION Message-ID: <20030208050057.94989.qmail@web20301.mail.yahoo.com> Dear friends, Below a deabte is on regarding religion with a diversity of views ranging from communal to humane secular opinions. You will also get to know the psyche of the Tripura people and Tripura watchers regarding religion. Enjoy reading. Some of these may contain derogatory language. Take the essence of them and throw the derogatory phrases into the dustbin. Some of these contributors have mentioned their email so that any queries regarding their views could be sent to them via email. Bye Sagnik Chakravartty ------------------------------------------------------- www.tripurainfo.com Discussion Topic "Religion"(24 Posts) Posted by: you. Date: 05-02-2003 Time: 09:29:42 i don,t believe in religeion. Posted by: Sujit Chakraborty Date: 29-01-2003 Time: 14:38:28 Religion and Dharma are not the same. Religion is not Dharma but Dharma Mat or Majhab. It creats small barriers on the basis of dogma and superstitions. Dharma has no English equivalent word. Some people terms it with the word ´Spirituality´ which doesn´t reflect the inner meaning of the word "Dharma". Dharma means the inner most charracteristic of an entity. For example, the Dharma or the inner most charracteristic of fire is to burn, the Dharma of the water is make something wet or to flow. In the same way the Dharma of animals to eat, sleep, try to protect from dangers and to make reproduction. If human beings are limited with these four basic activities only, they are in no way different from the animals. What makes the humans different from the animals? That is the inner desire to attain the infinite happiness. "Sukham Anantam Anandam". When the happiness reaches the state of infinity that is called Anandam. To attain Anandam is the Dharma of human beings. If we analise with a rational mind, human society had experienced a numerous bloodsheds in the name of religion. Religions don´t preech the message of peace or Anandam rather they create divisions in the society. They are the diseases of the human society. To attain the Anandam or the infinite happiness, one doesn´t have to limit oneslef with the barrier of any religion. By the scientific excersises of psycho-spiritual practices, one can attain that noble goal of life. The path of human beings to attain bliss is not any religion but the Dharma which is universal. Dharma of all the human beings of this universe is only one. God or the final destination of all human beings is One. There can not be any division in the human society. We are the members of the Cosmic family where the Supreme Consciouness (Parama Purusa) the father, the Supreme Creative faculty (Prama Prakrti) is the mother and the whole universe is our homeland. "Harame Pita, Gauri Mata, Svadesa Bhuvanatrayam" this is the essence of all spiritual teachings. Thanks Posted by: Mr. Alam Date: 28-01-2003 Time: 07:20:43 The KALYAN ASHRAM in TRIPURA is nothing but the SEX trade with some unemploy indigenious women. With Love and SEX, Posted by: TripuraHindu Date: 28-01-2003 Time: 01:43:04 Im sick and tired of hearing fellow Hindus in tripura get raped and forced to convert by these drugged-up Christian terrorists. When will our fellow Hindus come to help us? RSS, VHP are you listening? Posted by: MR. SECULAR KINGDOM BOROK. Date: 18-01-2003 Time: 09:07:09 Money can buy RELIGION, but can not buy SURVIVAL. rEGARDS, SECULAR. Posted by: MR. SECULAR KINGDOM Date: 18-01-2003 Time: 09:04:17 Money can buy RELIGION, but can not buy SURVIVAL. Posted by: raj Date: 16-01-2003 Time: 04:40:44 hello dear, how are you?? Posted by: amit kaushal. Date: 22-12-2002 Time: 09:28:05 these muslims mustbe fucked only . Posted by: amit kausshal Date: 22-12-2002 Time: 09:24:39 Posted by: hindu Date: 26-11-2002 Time: 17:36:03 these fucking muslims are polluting the earth they must be forced to change their religion and those in india ,should be and must be hindus hindustanis must be hindus . vhp and rss plz pay atention to it. Posted by: rajiv reang. Date: 26-11-2002 Time: 04:55:56 religion is like a tree..where we are like a leaves of tree.. with out tree we can"t servive.. and without people religion is not fulfiled .so religion and we are verymuch connected. Posted by: religion is my asshole Date: 24-11-2002 Time: 12:23:05 bloody muslims are the most fucked up people on earth. they need to be killed and destroyed if people need to live in peace and harmony. muslims are the new face of satan (devil). Posted by: Subham Date: 23-11-2002 Time: 00:23:06 Religon .. whatever it might be.. it teaches us values...but at the end of the day ..what we earn from it..any addition of our bank balance ..No..so Forget About Religion..if you want to enjoy Financial freedom..want to earn money..by ethics ..want to do a business...want to be a millionaire....fulfill all your dreams ..mail me subha_ch_in at yahoo.com...i am successful i can make you too... Posted by: prabir&sushavan Date: 26-10-2002 Time: 12:03:31 Religion is abest . about religion we don´t talk any thing. after all hindu religion is a best religion. we are also hindu. we thought religion is the best site for community.we are now at bangalore. Posted by: Mg. T. Thomas. Vill/ Huku Twisa. P/O, Do, P/S, Manu ghat, Dhalai, TWIPRA KINGDOM Date: 25-09-2002 Time: 10:11:13 Religion is an individual concerned, no one can force to practice or propagate showing different sourses of tamptation. Posted by: Subhas Chatterjee Date: 13-08-2002 Time: 01:54:11 Religion is like the river which meets in the ocean(the creator). Any one who is following that river is bound to know HIM or meet HIM in unique way as every river has a different delta near the ocean. That is what Hinduism says. I don´t like the meaning of Hinduism marginalised by considering it as a religion as is done by the swami. Hinduism is like the universal father of all religion not mother as it nourishes all religion under its shadow, where as a mother gives birth to a religion like shaivism, vaishnavism, buddhism, christianity were created by some follower of shiva, chaitanya, buddha or christ correspondingly. Posted by: Subhas Chatterjee Date: 13-08-2002 Time: 01:52:42 Religion is like the river which meets in the ocean(the creator). Any one who is following that river is bound to know HIM or meet HIM in unique way as every river has a different delta near the ocean. That is what Hinduism says. I don´t like the meaning of Hinduism marginalised by considering it as a religion as is done by the swami. Hinduism is like the universal father of all religion not mother as it nourishes all religion under its shadow, where as a mother gives birth to a religion like shaivism, vaishnavism, buddhism, christianity was created by some follower of shiva, chaitanya, buddha or christ correspondingly. Posted by: Sgt/Maj. Gabriel B. Koloi (R.B.A). Date: 08-08-2002 Time: 03:04:09 RELIGION IS ONES OWN FAITH, NOBODY SHOULD NOT DISTURB IT TO THE PERSON WHO BELIVED IN THE PARTICULAR RELIGION. WE SHOULD HELP THEM AS MUCH AS WE CAN. Posted by: Sgt/Maj. Gabriel B. Koloi (R.B.A). Date: 08-08-2002 Time: 03:00:07 RELIGION IS ONES OWN FAITH, NOBODY SHOULD NOT DISTURB IT TO THE PERSON WHO BELIVED IN THE PARTICULAR RELIGION.THAT IS THE HOLIEST ONE IN THE WORLD TO HIM/HER. WE SHOULD HELP THEM AS MUCH AS WE CAN. Posted by: debapratap ghosh Date: 28-07-2002 Time: 23:47:05 religion is a best. i faith in my religion. most needed religion for person. Posted by: Rajib GanChaudhuri Date: 13-06-2002 Time: 18:56:05 Does it give peace, tolerance, happiness, strength, hope? Does it preach love to all of humanity & beyond, does it have unlimited catholicity? Does it attempt to answer profound philosophical questions? Has it matured & refined over the ages? Does it allow/encourage knowledge, rather than renounce or restrain it in static stubborn boundaries? If yes, I´ll take that religion. Posted by: Swami Tirthananda Date: 04-06-2002 Time: 07:26:14 Hinduism is the best religion as they does not create jehadis in the name of religion to kill inocent people. Posted by: Naren Debbarma Date: 04-06-2002 Time: 03:21:04 To me religion is nothing but a issu of creating trabble.MANAB JATI-is the only JATI(Religion), every body should fllow it. Posted by: Sagnik Chakravartty Date: 02-06-2002 Time: 15:18:56 Well, to me religion is a personal experience. ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com Sat Feb 8 10:41:45 2003 From: sagnik_chakravartty at yahoo.com (=?iso-8859-1?q?Sagnik=20Chakravartty?=) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 05:11:45 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] MEDIA IN TRIPURA : COMMENTS from tripurainfo.com message board Message-ID: <20030208051145.14057.qmail@web20306.mail.yahoo.com> www.tripurainfo.com Message Board Discussion Topic "Press/Media In Tripura"(52 Posts) Last Posted Posted by: Sagnik Chakravartty Date: 07-02-2003 Time: 23:11:12 Well I enjoyed reading the views on media in this section. Friends, you can logonto www.sarai.net and participate in the online discussion list - reader-list by posting your views on such topics there. You can have great interaction and debates with other friends across India on the Sarai Reader-list. Posted by: bengali of tripura Date: 05-02-2003 Time: 19:09:56 hey tipras dont shout too much here u fucking pahairas came out of cave yesterday and now think that u are the owner of this state fuck u mamas . just have a look around all the cities and then think about how it has been developed and who did all that. u better know that all the developments in the main land of tripura is done by bengalis . why on earth did u come out of ur hills stay there in peace . dont come nearby agartala also or else ur bhai bandhus will be killed . and those churches which has washed ur brain(brain do u have really!!!) will never come to ur rescue if all the bengalis go against u .so plz tipra brothers and sisters go back to ur caves and sing ´phaidi phaidi´ and be happy there .if u really want to do something develop ur adc area and show us . bye mama and mamis Posted by: MANIK BARMAN Date: 02-02-2003 Time: 14:46:59 STOP THIS ARGUMENT AMONG YOURSELVES.EVERYONE IS MIGRATED FROM SOME WHERE. SOME ONE YESTERDAY AND SOME ONE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, SO WHY DO YOU KILL YOUR TIME IN POLLUTING YOUR BROTHERHOOD. SEE OTHERS, THEY ARE DEVELLOPING AND ACCELERATING THEIR DEVELOPMENTS,AND WE?????? SO, BE COMPATATIVE BUT NOT WITH YOUR OWN BROTHERS. AND THE PEOPLE STAYING OUTSIDE, DON´T YOU OBSERB THAT HOW OTHERS ARE NEGLECTING THE NORTHEASTERN STATES ONLY BECAUSE OF THIS EXTREMIST PROBLEMS. SO, BETTER LEAVE ALL THESE FALTU IDEAS AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR STATE. Posted by: ayungsa tripura. Date: 30-01-2003 Time: 12:46:42 hi. icecandyman iwill fuck your mother and sister be ready okay.i will come every night 10p.m and i will pay you ahuge amount of money.Be ready to accept it.fucking your mother and sister i enjoy alot.wah what a night to fuck with your mom and sis. Posted by: iam a tripuri (nokbar)Delhi. Date: 30-01-2003 Time: 12:40:05 iam a tripuri.iam not afraid of you bangali(musok).iam ready to give my life,blood and scrafice for my people you know musok.let me finish first my education.after that iam going to serve for my people.you all musok are refugees from bangladesh.this is my motherland,iam not afraid to say that this is my motherland.iam ready to give my life for my tripuri.you all will have to leave our land,i think you all know(musok). Posted by: Augustus Date: 30-01-2003 Time: 03:19:54 It seems some constructive ideas are coming out at last.But seriously--------we can make this forum productive only if we can do something positive rather than simply discussing in this forum.Because,very few of our friends sitting in Tripura are looking at the site.Public opinion can not be influenced by merely discussing things in this forum.At the most one might derive some sort of pseudo intellectual satisfaction out of this activity. Posted by: INPT killed them Date: 28-01-2003 Time: 06:04:34 INPT 100% behind this incident why the govt. is just watching Posted by: Tripura Date: 28-01-2003 Time: 01:46:46 Tripura Hindus and Bengali Hindus must unite together against the Christian narcoterrorists who want a christian-only state. Fight back brothers. Posted by: icecandyman Date: 27-01-2003 Time: 06:51:04 we don´t need the "party-office" culture for any developement activity either. Let the govt.( who ever be in power) invite the industrialists to explore the market in tripura and neighbouring states and of course a market in bangladesh can also be explored( all they need is an export license). They can set up their manufacturing units some place in tripura where rail access is available. Govt. also should be pro-active( i know they have many policies, but ultimately all end under the dreaded Red Tape)in approaving their place, providing some soaps in taxes etc.. When mass employment is generated, education, IT and eveything else will follow. Posted by: Ei Samay Date: 27-01-2003 Time: 05:45:14 Now the very basic question for all of us is what would be the policy in this globalize scenario for a small state like Tripura? Is it only the education dept. has to create job opportunity for the youth? the all rapidly developing states (e.g Karnataka, Maharastra, Andra Prasesh etc.) giving more focus on I.T sector, i do believe that, communication is not a barrier for us as far as I.T industry is concerned as we have Agartala airport and we do have nice access Kolkata International airport. Now the question is where from we will get skilled man power, i would say, yes we do have eng. college, but that´s not enough, here govt. has to take more and more initiatives, (I think current govt. has to review their industry/economic policies towards I.T, every evening their employees/comrades like TGEA, etc shout for anti-IT and they send their sons/daughters for IT education outside state, this attitude must change, also the attitude of copying Bodhababu has to change first) Why there is no MCA course in Tripura University?why there is no BCA/B.Sc (CS) course in colleges? Agartala needs to give more importance to other towns like Dharmanagar, a complete statewise education program we do need today. state also has nice access of silchar REC, and Assam University, therefore i don´t think quality man power at the initial stage would be a problem, and now the most vital issue is infrastructure, political as well as social, it has to come from govt, from public attitude, should not come from party office of-course.. at least in I.T sector we don´t want party-office culture...are our state leaders visualizing this state as one of the I.T developed state in india after 10 years down the line? Posted by: icecandyman Date: 27-01-2003 Time: 04:05:08 Amra bangali stinks.. sucks... maan, grow up!! Loverof Tripura, this msg board has taken a diversion from it´s topic and taken for good. Stay out if you don´t like the comments, we certainly don´t require any editorial judgement from you..if you have something to contribute towards the diverted topic, post else shut up. Posted by: amora bangali Date: 27-01-2003 Time: 01:47:58 11 massacred what more...start killing back the consultant of millitants in agartala the babus of debbarma lets massacre Mr.Rabindra debbarma,Upendra debbarma,Nishikanta debbarma, Harinath debbarma,and NC debbarma Finsih them, there will be peace for both the community.The media should call all our amora bangali,and arrest them or finish them,we will live in peace.I hope the major tripuris will support me blindly Posted by: Mr. LoverofTripura Date: 26-01-2003 Time: 23:34:01 I guess the topic of discussion over here was the role of media in Tripura but, i wonder why people are putting their sentimental feelings over the board like fools. In my opinion press/media in Tripura is not very effective. The role of midia should be to make people aware of every possible opportunity to grow. Posted by: Amra Bangali Date: 25-01-2003 Time: 00:59:27 As war has been one of the most effective solutions method for all problems since ancinet times, we should not rule out of any war between Tripuris and Bengalis in Tripura. As a nation and community, one should reserve this war option whenever need arises. So, I don´t discount Charu das´s suggestion as mere cynic views. But rather it should be reality one day if need arises. We can quote Mr. Anil Sarkar´s statement where he had called all non-tribals of Tripura to unite and kill/maime as many tribals as possible whenever there´s attack on bengalis in hilly areas. But thing is that do Bengalis have the guts to unitedly fight any war? As history shows Hindu Bengalis have never been able to unitedly fight any big war except those stray shootings against the British officials and some naxalite movements. So, be prepared to fight or leave Tripura otherwise. Being kshatriyas, Tripuris are battle hardened community, and hence defeating them in any war would be daunting tasks. Posted by: icecandyman Date: 24-01-2003 Time: 05:11:41 I am clueless why my messge has been posted thrice..it was not intended by me to be so --- Posted by: icecandyman Date: 24-01-2003 Time: 04:18:55 Mr. Debbarma´s message is praise worthy. Ei Samay also has very valid points. Mr. Charu´s message do touch one´s heart. So where the msg. board is heading towards? A trouble free, prosperous and peaceful Tripura. I personally think, most of the msgs that are in the mesg board are coming out directly from the heart with a genuine concern for the well being of Tripura. I only wish, that common sense prevail to those who want the same at the expense of the bengali´s, we also belong as much to tripura as anybody else. I don´t understand why the bigotrious and stubborn attitude of a few wel educated guys towards the bengali community. Mr. Adhir, same happens to anyone who goes to MBB or TEC or Tripura Polytechnic from the mofussil towns/villages. Let´s ponder more on Mr. Debbarma´s question, and find out who the real loosers are. Let the messages flow, let the commonsense precail, let the political authotrity take some rear guard action, let the tribals join the main stream, let the people go and work fearlessly in the remote villages, let the infrastructure develop, let the mayhem stop, let all forces go out of tripura, let us all leave an amicable life full of camaraderie. (Micheal, you still haven´t stopped bragging, yes I know how it feels from being a prestigious institution, ´cause I am ) Posted by: icecandyman Date: 24-01-2003 Time: 03:35:40 Mr. Debbarma´s message is praise worthy. Ei Samay also has very valid points. Mr. Charu´s message do touch one´s heart. So where the msg. board is heading towards? A trouble free, prosperous and peaceful Tripura. I personally think, most of the msgs that are in the mesg board are coming out directly from the heart with a genuine concern for the well being of Tripura. I only wish, that common sense prevail to those who want the same at the expense of the bengali´s, we also belong as much to tripura as anybody else. I don´t understand why the bigotrious and stubborn attitude of a few wel educated guys towards the bengali community. Mr. Adhir, same happens to anyone who goes to MBB or TEC or Tripura Polytechnic from the mofussil towns/villages. Let´s ponder more on Mr. Debbarma´s question, and find out who the real loosers are. Let the messages flow, let the commonsense precail, let the political authotrity take some rear guard action, let the tribals join the main stream, let the people go and work fearlessly in the remote villages, let the infrastructure develop, let the mayhem stop, let all forces go out of tripura, let us all leave an amicable life full of camaraderie. (Micheal, you still haven´t stopped bragging, yes I know how it feels from being a prestigious institution, ´cause I am ) Posted by: icecandyman Date: 24-01-2003 Time: 03:28:49 Mr. Debbarma´s message is praise worthy. Ei Samay also has very valid points. Mr. Charu´s message do touch one´s heart. So where the msg. board is heading towards? A trouble free, prosperous and peaceful Tripura. I personally think, most of the msgs that are in the mesg board are coming out directly from the heart with a genuine concern for the well being of Tripura. I only wish, that common sense prevail to those who want the same at the expense of the bengali´s, we also belong as much to tripura as anybody else. I don´t understand why the bigotrious and stubborn attitude of a few wel educated guys towards the bengali community. Mr. Adhir, same happens to anyone who goes to MBB or TEC or Tripura Polytechnic from the mofussil towns/villages. Let´s ponder more on Mr. Debbarma´s question, and find out who the real loosers are. Let the messages flow, let the commonsense precail, let the political authotrity take some rear guard action, let the tribals join the main stream, let the people go and work fearlessly in the remote villages, let the infrastructure develop, let the mayhem stop, let all forces go out of tripura, let us all leave an amicable life full of camaraderie. (Micheal, you still haven´t stopped bragging, yes I know how it feels from being a prestigious institution, ´cause I am ) Posted by: charu das Date: 24-01-2003 Time: 02:54:50 So, let Bengalis and Tripuris declare formal war on each other. Tripuris and Bengalis fight in open way. Whoever wins the bloody fight, would stay in the state. Let all Central forces be taken away from the state. All Bengalis and Tripuris TSRs and Police would go to each others side. Let the national Highway be closed so that no one can go out without getting killed or killing someone. Let the border be patrolled by B´desh rilfes so that no one from Tripura can escape to B´desha also. This war would settle all issues - either one of the community would perish. My this suggestion should stop any further discussion on this topic in this message board. Posted by: Ei Samay Date: 24-01-2003 Time: 01:08:26 Let me put my view without any ambiguity 1. If tripura is the motherland of my tripuri friends, it is also my motherland. (Even though my ancestors came from other part of the world). I also can´t tolerate any uncivilized activities in my state such as kidnappings or militants activities etc. If some of my tripuri brothers believe in this ideology, they have to pay for that. 2. What US or other countries doing today can´t be the solutions to every ground ALWAYS, our emotion is the integral part of our life, we have to respect it. 3. Tripura needs urgent development in socio-economic area, and we need complete participation from everyone of the society, you can´t dream a develop state just with few class VIII pass Kakbarak teachers, (Please, don´t take it other way, I have honest respect to this language), and once again i would like to mention, just pushing others from you, you can´t have the refugee solutions, we have to address it globally, it can´t be the tripura´s problem only. we have to search for a global solution for that. Posted by: Mr. Debbarma Date: 24-01-2003 Time: 00:07:24 Hi Guyz, I think there is lot of mud spilling over each othere´s lineages... We at this stage need understanding from each of the people living in Tripura. I should ask you a question please ask yourself? Who is really suffering by this so called the communal conflict, who damn is the looser... It is us the common people, everyone fights for its right. Even an insect when it is surrounded by lots of ants protects itself. But, ofcourse we are not insects or ants we are human beings, and if the situatin continues i am afraid we will be left only with wounds on either side.... Posted by: for augustus and icecandyman from adhir Date: 23-01-2003 Time: 23:54:14 Audustus You are very mean to say that? How do you say nobody is stopping them to compete in open category.First you look into the administration.I don´t understand,why bengalis from tripura are so much possessive about the hindu bengalis from bangladesh.If you are so much aware for them,why don´t you create some place in west bengal?Look at the national level politics also.The VHP and RSS are only after muslims bangladeshi never after the Hindu bengalis from "opaar bangla".Bengalis are never developing mind although they are brilliant but those days are already past.Now the situation has turned the opposite.What the whole indians think today the bengalis think after 20 years.And still the bengalis in tripura think putting them in that state will improve the state.Why you guys are worrying for tripura and people from that state?Its been already tested for last 50 years.You have done nothing for that state.Today we don´t even have good postal service in remote area.You should look into yourself and find the reason why bengal today is vanishing from the world´s map of development.Bengalis now live only remembering the past.What we tripuris will do whether great mind of bengals help india win over the british or not.We need to think for our own interest.There was a day when Tagore/JC bose and Dr meghnath saha seek the financial help from tripura govt(the then king).Are you forgetting all those help? Mr.Icecandyman is also forgetting how communal and castiest the bengalis are .Now you are thinking the terrorist problem.When I was a student in my school I never get good marks in geography inspite of my scoring the highest in all other subjects because of my one communal teacher.But I am not blaming all other bengali teachers.Don´t you think that one bengali teacher has created my mind as separatist towards bengali?When I came to Princeton the situation turned otherway around....I am the best. We have been mistreated,looked down,discriminated and overthrown from all of our rights.We lost our basic human rights in tripura.There should be some good people who shd rule the state.Even we can not go to MBB college for admission.I still remember when I went for applying admission in science alongwith one of my good bengali friends.I was forced to take out my shirt and run around the college.So imagine now,why should not I go against the bengalis.More or less,95% bengalis from tripura are communal.5% are very good to tribals.They are helpful and good bengali may be real bengalis/ Posted by: Michael Deb Barma Date: 23-01-2003 Time: 21:04:59 Hi to icecandyman and Mr./Ms. Ei Samay, You guys may have plenty of time to discuss on this Refugee problem vis-a-vis Tripura Media topic, but my opinions remain the same. 1. Refugee Bengalis from Tripura would have to be either pushed to Bangladesh or relocated to other bigger states of India. Why should Tripura being so small state bear so much pain and sufferings caused by the Bangladeshi refugees? It´s neither emotional nor political. It´s the most practical solution in this modern world. Malaysia has done recently the same with Indonesian illegal immigrants in Malaysia. Every nation/every state in this world has adopted this solution. UAE recently ordered all those illegal Indian workers to leave UAE within stipulated time. Currently US is requiring all those male muslims above the age of 16 to register with INS. US says that they are open to outsiders but at the same time, they must protect their homelands/their nation. For Tripura and Tripuris it is the same-we must protect our motherland, our identity, our political rights from refugees/illegal migrants with whichever means we need to adopt. 2. As far as the current mindless violence of the militants is concerned, it´s created by the Refugee Bengalis administration ONLY. Whether they are left or right leaders, they have polluted the young Tripuris minds to such an extent that a section of young Tripuris have turned to this path of mindless violence. Of course, this is thanks to a section of foolish Tripuri politicians being tricked by the refugee bongs. 3. Whether you agree or not, the refugee problem has to be settled once for all. No excuse , saying it´s emotional issue , Bengalis are part of Tripura etc. etc. Else Tripura will further burn in coming days. Crooked Tripuri politicians also need to remember this that they would be punished severly if they keep on cheating on their own people by creating these politically motivated mindless terrorists. 4. As far as political parties of Tripura/India are concerned, all of them are crooked and corrupt. But taking complete apolitical and practical point of view, we must accept this fact that TRipura has been a great victim of the refugee problem. In coming days, Meghalaya and Assam would be another victims. Time is not far behind when these two states face the extinction of indigenous people from its landscape. Therefore, all the indigenous people of the north east must be aware of this fact and struggle toward protecting their rights and lands. Any comments icecandyman and Mr./Ms. Ei Samay? (Note: icecandyman, No use of being after my degree or academic background. Just try to see what it looks like or feels to be in prestigious instition, instead of making long list of those passing out from them). Posted by: icecandyman Date: 23-01-2003 Time: 07:23:28 oops!! so many msgs on the board and I can see Mr. Micheal´s myopic and blurred views are getting clearer.. He is not the same man who bragged about IIM lineage( how stupid it sounded!!! ) and eradicating the bengalis "whichever way is possible" thus showing his solidarity with the nonsense carnage that´s going these days in tripura. How vindictive he sounded.. and he is an IIM product that too without availing reservation( well, IIM do have reservation policy as per govt rule and your fraternity can avail that as well- MIND IT) was appearing as a total fallacy. I have managed a team consisting of IIM guys in recent past, and I know the trait of the guys coming out from those Prestigious Institute. YOU (Mr. Micheal) apparently sound as "the odd man out". However, I am seeing more sense in Mr. Micheal’s last posting. No more personal mud-slinging. Let´s all address the teething troubles that is disturbing the socio-economic scenario of Tripura. Driving the bongs out by any means is not a good solution, probably my tripuri friends will also agree. We need to stop this mindless act called insurgency ( in other, fighting for a free twipra) ASAP. This alone will solve many problems. Investments will also start flowing in. Society will settle down, the scars left in the mind of all communities in Tripra will slowly erase. The vindictive talks and useless ruckus of driving bongs will not work. WE BONGS ARE ALSO AN INTEGRAL PART of Tripura. Let´s all understand that. Mr. Micheal, would eagerly wait for your views on the massacre of Tribals by so called terrorist outfit just because the follow some political lineage? The plight of those Tripuri´s who are badly affected due to this? The guys who are going to the interiors of Tripura to build the infrastructure ( Railways, water supply, health centre, docs, teachers etc etc...) and getting kidnapped or killed? The answer to your point regarding the infrastructures in the tribal areas not improving lies here... Posted by: Ei Samay Date: 23-01-2003 Time: 06:07:02 Hi, Mr Michael Deb Barma ... Please don´t generalize your view with the entire Tripuri´s view. and regarding your name, the explanation you have given, sounds good, but sorry to mention that you have deviated the point from the track, as far as your name is concerned, i don´t have any problem, but the problem is with "Michael" culture, and i have mentioned one of the example of that, "Ujan Maidan" what was that Mr. DebBarma? how you will describe that? i would like to see... Yes, influx of refugees is an issue, and the issue not only exists with Tripura, rather with other north-east states, for that we simply can´t blame just one community! we have to ask this question to our history, you agree or not, it´s more an emotional issue rather than a political, you can´t expect solution for this from political point of view. what is you view? is the solutions of the problem are kidnappings, raping bengali woman, not allowing bengali teachers, doctors in ADC area? you can´t not ignore history as far as you claim yourself as a member of the civilized world. and as far as identity is concerned, you can´t survive with it just pushing other from you, we have to learn from others, specially, in this globalize era, we all have to accept it, doesn´t matter, you are a tripuri or i am a bengali...you must have competitive attitude, that´s more important, what Churls Darwin said long back even today it is universally accepted but in a civilized manner... Posted by: Augustus Date: 23-01-2003 Time: 03:55:55 At last Mr Michael Deb Barma has started behaving sensibly. Yes we do need dialogues like this to solve the problems.It seems the media at last is inching towards maturity (at least we now have a platform to discuss). Posted by: Michael Deb Barma Date: 22-01-2003 Time: 11:59:02 Hi to Mr./Ms. Ei Samay, Thanks for questioning my educational background or rather the entire Tripuri´s credibility as a nation. I understand this fact that to the ordinary refugee Bengalis the Tripuris as a community have no credibility-in education, in sports, in jobs, in fact nowhere. But why? Because they know very little of our culture, our history, our civilization. They came from Bangladesh yesterday although they teach us today on Tripura history. As far as my name is concerned, Mr./Ms. Ei Samay seems to be living in the age which is at least 200-300 years back. My dear friend, please have a look at some Asian countries only-no need to go to far Western countries. So many Chinese, so many Malays, Indonesians, Vietnamese, or rather so many Indians have English names today. What is wrong with names? Mr. Bruce lee too had English name, he was born in US, but he was Chinese at heart, in his life style, in his practice. I may have English name, but at heart I am a Tripuri. I find my heart still in the hills of Tripura. Having English name doesn´t indicate you are lost to Western culture or you are Westernized. Today Tripuris neither needs Michael culture-as Mr./Ms. Ei Samay said(read Western) nor Benagli culture. What we need today is the solution to the continuous influx of refugee problem. Until and unless this is stopped, the entire next generation is going to face extinction. Tripuris as such have no personal hatred against the Benagli community. In fact, Tripura has long history of Bengali population living side by side Tripuris. Concern is: today in our own land we are in negligible minority due to influx of refugees. We have lost all political, economic power to the refugee population. These factors have contributed to anger toward the refugees.Make no mistake Bengalis did have great contribution to Tripura since the Maniky times. But the current large refugee population has only contributed to the sufferings of both the Tripuris and original Tripura Bengalis. Rgds Michael Deb Barma. Posted by: Ei Samay Date: 22-01-2003 Time: 08:30:18 If it is true that Mr. "Michael" Deb Barma from IIM, then we have to change our idea, i don´t think any IIM graduate needs such self advertisement, the unique student quality of IIM itself is the identity of "IIM-graduate". His soft skill, attitude etc are enough to tell, yes, this guy is from IIM. anyway, let us do some research with his Name "Michael" Deb Barma. Why "Michael"? Mr. DebBarm! Your name doesn´t reflect your originality, sorry to mention here, even today, a new born baby of Tripura knows the driving force behind the so-called "Michael" culture of Tripura. And the fact is, Govt. of Tripura is spending money to promote traditional festivals, and it is very sad to see, very few are participating,...question is where are the people? They all are "Michael" today! ...and what is their culture? "Ujan Maidan"! We do remember it Mr. DebBarma!!! and let me tell you one thing, Bengali culture is not only with/for bengali speaking people, it has complete respect for all other community also. Today (and even in past) Tripura´s identity is not only it´s tribe-culture (please, ignore "Michael" culture) but also with parallel bengali culture. This unique combination gives us the confidence and driving force to fight against this "Michael" group today. Posted by: Augustus Date: 22-01-2003 Time: 03:26:17 Mr Charu Das Nobobody has stopped tribals from competing in the open seats.If they are confident they can compete for the open seats,prove their mettle and strive for a better qualitry of life.How long do they expect to be spoonfed? Posted by: for mr august from Charu das Date: 22-01-2003 Time: 00:33:26 Dear friend augustas You are totally wrong.Consider a small example.Higher study.Show me good REC seat for our good friends real tripuris.Except Jamshedpur and jalandhar what seat they get?Nothing.Otherway the bengalis are enjoying all the things.Do you still mean tribals would have been developed more had there been bengali rules right from 1900 or before that?What about west bengal then?where does it stand now? Please try to understand the problem of daily influx by hindu bengalis who are becoming sky-high problem for tripura.Tripuris are no more tribals.Their culture,noncastiest culture far better than bengalis.Intelligent bengalis have spoiled the future of tripura people by starting the education of tripura in bengali medium.Now neither majority of people can go out of state for job nor minority due to major language problem.You should not only concentrate on tripura history.You shd concentrate on the development work also.What these RSS and VHP are targetting now?Only muslims migrants never hindu migrants.The same case stands for pakistanis also. Posted by: non refugee bengali Date: 20-01-2003 Time: 21:11:27 what mr. michael debbarma has said is not wrong totally . tripura was a much happier and peaceful state till 1970´s too till the refugees started coming in .it became complicated since the pouring of these bangladeshi refugees started they not only polluted our minds but also spoiled the society so i request all the tripuraites to fight against this flow and save the state Posted by: Augustus Date: 19-01-2003 Time: 09:48:09 This is in reply to Michael Deb Barma´s venomous outburst against the Bengali population of Tripura.Mr Deb Barma claims to have received education from the topmost institutions in India, and yet he can not think in an openminded way,shedding parochialism.He has not been able to point out any specific way the Bengalis have harmed the Tripuris.He has cited the times when Tripura was a princely state.He has said that the state was developed even then.Probably he needs a refresher course in history.The Maharajas of Tripura had only undertaken to develop a handful of towns in Tripura.The rail heads were in Tripura,but the tracks lay in the erstwhile East Bengal.Had they taken enough measure to develop the entire state,tribals today would have been far more developed.Just to remind Mr Deb barma,The Maharajas were tribals and not Bengalis.Through this message board I shall keep updating Mr Deb Barma about such lessons of history,which probably he has forgotten after his stint abroad. Posted by: Michael Deb Barma Date: 19-01-2003 Time: 04:10:16 Hi, I would like to comment on Mr. Icecandyman´s 4 points - one by one. It´s so ridiculous to see this kind of responses from Mr. Icecandyman which reflects nothing but the Tripura Bengalis´ age-old chauvinism, belief and false pride that the Tripuris developed this much just becasue of the blessings of the Bengalis, else Tripuris would have been living in the STONE age even now. 1. Tripura without Bongs majority would have been 100 times more developed than it´s today. All the central funds allocated for Tripura would have not been spent on the refugees well-beings. Rather it would have been utilized for Tripuris development. The current account deficit and budget deficit that Tripura Govt currently has , would have diasppeared completely. With its vast natural resources and no sign of militancy, Tripura would have economically become strong and self-sufficient. 2.Tripuris and Bengalis lived happily earlier because those Bengalis then were from Tripura; they were NOT refugess from Bangaldesh. In earlier times, smarter bengalis always fooled around the simple-minded Tripuris which the Tripuris couldn´t realize they were being fooled. Today we can´t live happily together because Tripuris are awaken now and know Bengalis trick and tactics of fooling them. 3. Tripuris never need this shit thing called , reservation. I am a Tripuri and I went to study engineering with my own merit and excelled in engineering too. I went to IIM for my Post Graduation and excelled there too in my MBA. Today, I am working with top notch multi-national company in Australia. This is NOT by that shit thing called, Indian reservation system that I am here with the multi-national company. Mind you, MNCs don´t have reservation for STs the way Bengalis have blessed the Tripuris with reservation in Tripura. Let the reservations go off today and Tripuris can challenge in any field with Tripura bengalis-whether in sports, in academics, in any field. The real problem why Tripuris need reservation today is because Bengalis are in majority and by sheer numbers they would occupy all seats-in jobs, in engg, in medical. Reservation for Tripuri is there--NOT because Tripuris are less intelligent. (Note: Mr. icecandyman, do you knwo what IIM means? It´s Indian Institute of Management- a place for hard working and intelligent students where they are groomed to be the best future managers. Real hard place to be. No place for reservation, mind you). 4. Tripura´s infrastucture during the Manikya time was much good or even better, for your kind information. Tripura had railways and airport for outside connection. As far as roads are concerned, no NE state had good road during 1940s. After India´s independence when the NE joined India, anyway Indian government was developing roads for the NE. SO whether Bengalis are there or NOT, Tripuras infrastucture would have been the same or better. Tripura government spends so much money currently on feeding those useless state government Bengali refugee employees. That money would have been used for developing roads and electricity. Mind you, during Indira Gandhi´s time, she made it a point for "Roti Kapda aur Makaan". SO whether Bengalis were in Tripura or not, India Gandhi´s programme would have been implemented in Tripura. Understand, India´s Five Year Plan programme happened and implemented in Tripura too, NOt beacuse Bengalis are here. This would have been implemented anyway in Tripura because Tripura is part of India. At last but not the least, make no mistake this fact that Tripuris get NO blessings from tripura refugee Bongs. The overflooding of refugees into Tripura has given our motherland much curse and sufferings. Today or tomorrow every Tripuri must get rid of this curse and sufferings-whichever means we have to take. Rgds Michael Deb Barma Perth, Australia Posted by: Manik Barman,IIT KGP Date: 18-01-2003 Time: 10:48:58 Hello, I am targetting to the Adminstrator, you appoint a editor to edit the massages /sugessions put by the viewer. First you edit,then allow the massages to be published. I am observing here lots of massages are not related to the given topics, but with some ugly sense and slang words. Thats all. Posted by: for icecandy man Date: 18-01-2003 Time: 06:57:01 Great!you guy shd be the CEO and CTO of tripura to uplift the state. Posted by: RC Date: 17-01-2003 Time: 19:23:23 I am really happy to see that the site gets so many hits,earlier there used to be one person saying all rubbish stuff.Good!!Tripurainfo. What i feel is that we are moving away from the whole point of ´Tripura as a state progressing or not´-how would media help here;not if bengalis are ahead or who wins the race.I think every tripurite should have the equal ammount of feelings for the state as we always had.In anycase, the rest of India looks upon the entire north eastern states in a different note,here if we also react in a similar way then what media are we talking about,there won´t be any people left to join the media.Everybody is interested in other stuff. Though a small state of Tripura, we have tons of problems that we only understand.Taking a small eg,how media can be strong enough for the people;natural beauty is in abundance but no tourism industry flourishes,why? we know the ans.can some one do anything as a common person,we can atleast voice our grieveances against the govt thru the media.The role of media is not only to report who is being murdered and killed etc,but to build up the state as a whole.I don´t think so media is that dumb that it knows no way to get the voice of common people heard to the govt.They have to find out ways and means how to do it and am sure people are there to support.But do we have that kind of a fraternity of journalist´s who really want to do something or everybody somewhere or the other is overtaken by the system.I see someone sitting in Perth, Australia, i ask this gentleman,what is the kind of system of relating incidents to the common masses in Austrlia,isn´t it so that they make you feel as if everything is your own and every incident somewhere or the other values individual person,weather it is drought,lack of gas, simple thing as swiming etc. Tell me if they can do it why can´t we, there is no rocket science involved.Here there is no question of technology but how we channelise our thoughts and present. Media can change the face of the state but we must have that urge to do it.I hope all the various channels of media in tripura is listening. Posted by: MANIK BARMAN Date: 17-01-2003 Time: 12:40:31 TRIPURAINFO.COM IS A GREAT TOOL IN SPREADING THE NEWS OF THE STATE TO THE STUDENTS STAYING OUTSIDE THE STATE. I FEEL PROUD TO SHOW ALL MY FRIENDS THAT WE HAVE AN WEBSITE IN OUR STATE WHICH IS BECOMING ONE OF THE GROWING WEBSITE IN INDIA. Posted by: icecandyman Date: 14-01-2003 Time: 10:46:33 This message board is getting heavy on non-bengali sentiments et al. I would like to put a few crooked fact straight, Infiltration is a problem in Tripura, agreed. But then in many a ways, it´s a boon in disguise. I am a bengali, born and brought up in Dharmanagar( ancestors, yes from bangladesh) and feel my myself a tripurite as much as anyone can feel. Bengalis has provided a perfect ballance to Tripura and despite of many odds have excelled and tried to make tripura a better place to live. Now the boons, 1. Think, tripura without the bongs. It would be in a state of bliss, but perhaps lagging by a 100 years from outside world. (Unfortunately we are still a good 20 years lagging from other states in India, the credit goes to all those mushrooming non-sense terrorist organisations) 2. I have seen in my childhood, that tribals and bengalis were living a life of perfect harmony, though bongs were in commanding position purely based on merit. Tribals were also benefitted, they were happy. 3. All those diaspora voices that we are hearing in the message board malligning the bongs, should have to admit that, just because bongs were there they have reached to certain position and excelled professionaly in the outer world. They were silver spooned, with reservations with them. take out the reservation, they might not get a chance to study in any third graded college in india. 3. The infrastructure, system and education in Tripura has progressed under the tutelege of so called immigrants. None the less, spewing venoms against the bong won´t help. Give a chance to the much maligned media to cover the finer aspects of tripura rather than the customery news of kidnap, killing and ambushes. The more the divide, more the hatred, implying that tribals in bengali dominated area(more developed too) and vice-versa will find it impossible to co-exist, which will hit the tribal fraternity more than anything. Are you listening???? Posted by: SWKANG DEBBARMA Date: 07-01-2003 Time: 09:23:02 MEDIA IN TRIPURA IS ACOMMUNAL TOUCHED.I WOULD LIKE TO COMMENTS IS THAT,THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN TRIPURA ALWAYS BRING DIVIDE AND ROLE POLICY AMONG THE TRIPURI PEOPLE.WE TRIPURI,WE LOVE TWIPRA.NO ONE CAN DIVIDE US,UNITY IS OUR STRENTHG. DELHI-54. Posted by: SWKANG DEBBARMA Date: 07-01-2003 Time: 09:16:43 MEDIA IN TRIPURA IS ACOMMUNAL TOUCHED.I WOULD LIKE TO COMMENTS IS THAT,THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN TRIPURA ALWAYS BRING DIVIDE AND ROLE POLICY AMONG THE TRIPURI PEOPLE.WE TRIPURI,WE LOVE TWIPRA.NO ONE CAN DIVIDE US,UNITY IS OUR STRENTHG. DELHI-54. Posted by: Mr. Debbarma Date: 01-01-2003 Time: 00:13:48 Mr augustus must be more ashamed of himself. Forget about all the discriminisation and nepotism the authority act as,just imagine whether anybody of bengali commmunity ever introduce themselves as tripuri like their counterpart living in orissa and assam? For another example,how many police station you can show me inside the nonbengali dominated area before 1980?Doesn´t it mean that all the time and again the govt is trying to protect only bengalis but never nonbengalis from all antisocial elements....Isn´t it a anti kokborok speaking rules and regulations of the administrators and govt? Have you ever investigated how many innocent tripuris were tortured and arrested after 1980 riots? Whenever we go to study in agartala,we are first of called "Paira"(one who lives in hilly area) which is ,much more hatred than the whites towards the black...I even faced hundreds of harrassment by such people whenever I approached any office in tripura....Are you ever concerned about it. How many area in non bengali living place you can show a proper drinking water supply?In fact tripura is not bigger than one district of other state of the country...why is not possible to do when the questions come for non bengali? Pennstate USA Posted by: Michael Deb Barma Date: 27-12-2002 Time: 11:47:27 Hi All, Nice to see so many comments coming out on this. I am no media expert to comment on much on Tripura media. But as an ordinary Tripuri whenever I go home, I see the local bengali newspapers all full of communal news, comments and columns. Newspapers seem to behave as if they are read by the Bengalis ONLY and hence they are almost anti-Tripuri. They seem to be playing Divide-and-Rule policy among the different Tripuri clans-inciting Jamatias against Deb Barmas(latest craze among newspapers being full of praises for the Jamatia Hoda organization), reminding Reangs about Deb Barma Kings´ "atrocities" on them etc. etc., besides, of course, inciting the Bengalis , directly/indirectly, against the Tripuris. This kind of media behavior is definitely in consonant with the main national media-both English and regional languages. The media in Tripura must understand that Tripuris are no more to be played by, the way they used to be treated 20 years back. Tripuris today are as much outside world oriented as Bengalis are. They are everywhere in this world-as software engineers, as students, as doctors, they live everywhere. And hence media must play critical rule to foster communal harmony and the concept of living together peacefully among communities. As everybody says, Tripuris and Bengalis must live together for economic development of this state and hence, the media must play important role in this direction. Hope when I go home next time, I see some improvement in the quality of Tripura media content. Rgds Michael Deb Barma Perth, Australia Posted by: Augustus Date: 27-12-2002 Time: 01:59:27 Mr Debbarma should be ashamed of himself.Can he define the term Tripuri?Are not Bengalis a part of Tripura?What does he think?Though he is right in saying that infiltration is a problem,why should he point out at Non Muslim Bengalis? Posted by: S.debbarma Date: 26-12-2002 Time: 23:20:43 MEDIA in tripura? Whats that?Dainik sambad or tripura darpan? Damn,they are all the speakers communalism and no different from modi and togadia.Is media ever concerned about the infiltration of the nonmuslim bengalis from bangladesh are the main reason for terrorism and poverty in tripura? I may be too communal if I say so.But don´t the non tripuris feel the same? Posted by: R.Ghosh Date: 25-12-2002 Time: 03:12:05 The media in Tripura has largely failed to live upto its task.It has grossly ignored the smalller towns(especially North Tripura) and focussed mostly on Agartala.As a result of this callousness on the part of the media,corruption and social crimes are on the rise.Infiltration across the border is another menace.All these could have been countered more effectively,had the media been a little more alert. Posted by: NRC Date: 23-12-2002 Time: 11:42:50 MEDIA RELATION M- MEDIUM E-ECHONOMICAL D-DIMENSIONS I-IDEA GENERATIONS A-AVENGERS According to me this should be the full form of media.But if we count how much of the defination is full filled i dont know.sitting from far away distance and giving lectures is not the duty of media.every body is well aware about the role played by the media no body has a question about it.Nothing will be gained by blaming the media cause MEDIA will potray what is happening. In a small State like tripura where there is no hope and that is the bitter truth media is playing a big role.The only daily which is gaining is DAINIK SAMVAD rest all the news papers a trying hard to compit. where Ndtv has been discusssed i hardly find any news about tripura rather much about tripura is covered in E-TV. And one thing N.D.TV COVERS WHERE THERE IS NEWS THERE no chance of something which is not in the news.for instance both kashmir and tripura has insurgency problem every one knows why and for what kashmir is much talked about. we all have to accept that tripura is economically ,geographically back ward but literacy rate is quite high, so we should not discourage who wants to pursue, where ever he gets chance.Today in tripura people in the politics are the person who is econimically stable how and why every body know, Now why media is not into that because handling media is a dirty bussiness and falling with the politician is dirtier. personally being a P.R.O(PURSUING)I HAVE TO HANDLE media relations.trus the they will hbardly let you down. But according to my opinion staying 4years away from home,while writing iam still in delhi,whenever i come home i feel condition in tripura is detroiting ,coming home is really a pleasure i want to do some thing i want to start some thing in tripura but whenever i go home i feel there is nothing to start with. why this is so no one knows. Posted by: Haimanti Chakraborty Date: 16-12-2002 Time: 01:11:02 India Media today is very big and very important,media in Tripura can change the face of this state but,unfortunately I don´t think we have that kind of journalist´s who really really want to do something.Somewhere or the other even the younger generation is also giving up in contributing.I am not saying that because it is easy to say but I am also in the same profession.Of course there is the "brain drain"most of the people from agartala are in US everybody wants to get out of the state. We have our own set of problems but there should be some force to pull that up which is no where visible.Media in Tripura can take a step forward and do a great job. We can see today how NDTV is working and learn from them.NDTV is´No Foreigner´,very much Indian.Today, a lot depends upon the media. Posted by: Date: 15-12-2002 Time: 17:59:24 I think dainik sambad is doing a great job in tripura. they are playing a big role in the society but sometimes they too twist the stories . people of tripura have a lot of faith on this newspapaer so i wish they will do justice with the facts and call spade a spade Posted by: R.D. BARMAN Date: 15-12-2002 Time: 03:53:27 SIR, MY MESSAGE IS THAT THE DUTY OF THE PRESS R TO PLAY A VERY IMPORTANT ROLE BUT WHAT I SEE IN TRIPURA, IT IS VERY DIFFERENT. THEY R VERY COMMUNAL N DON´T MIND THEY ALWAYS TWIST THE TRUE STORY.OFTEN TRUE INCIDENTS GO UN REPORTED. Posted by: Subham Date: 04-12-2002 Time: 00:30:51 Through this media I want to help the people who always feel the need for financial security, fullfill their families dream.. If you want so feel free to contact me at subha_ch_in at yahoo.com ... I have changed my life I can change yours too...if u want.. ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From ghoshvishwajyoti at rediffmail.com Sat Feb 8 21:08:35 2003 From: ghoshvishwajyoti at rediffmail.com (vishwajyoti ghosh) Date: 8 Feb 2003 15:38:35 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] MEDIA IN TRIPURA : COMMENTS from tripurainfo.com message board Message-ID: <20030208153835.8958.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com> THIS IS REGARDING THE TRIPURA NEWSLETTER, ya nice to know all about the marginalised voices from the north east, the subaltern semiotics and all that crap, but i definitely think we could do with a moderator here, coz i'm not coming online to know bout whos interested in fucking whos mom, or whos going fr whos blood... media and the public domain also can hve certain parameters to function in, right? vishwajyoti ghosh On Sat, 08 Feb 2003 Sagnik Chakravartty wrote : >www.tripurainfo.com Message Board > >Discussion Topic >"Press/Media In Tripura"(52 Posts) > Last Posted > Posted by: Sagnik Chakravartty Date: 07-02-2003 >Time: 23:11:12 >Well I enjoyed reading the views on media in this >section. Friends, you can logonto >www.sarai.net and participate in the online discussion >list - reader-list by posting your views on such >topics there. You can have great interaction and >debates with other friends across India on the Sarai >Reader-list. > Posted by: bengali of tripura Date: 05-02-2003 >Time: 19:09:56 >hey tipras dont shout too much here u fucking pahairas >came out of cave yesterday and now think that u are >the owner of this state fuck u mamas . just have a >look around all the cities and then think about how it >has been developed and who did all that. u better know >that all the developments in the main land of tripura >is done by bengalis . why on earth did u come out of >ur hills stay there in peace . dont come nearby >agartala also or else ur bhai bandhus will be killed . >and those churches which has washed ur brain(brain do >u have really!!!) will never come to ur rescue if all >the bengalis go against u .so plz tipra brothers and >sisters go back to ur caves and sing ´phaidi phaidi´ >and be happy there .if u really want to do something >develop ur adc area and show us . bye mama and mamis > Posted by: MANIK BARMAN Date: 02-02-2003 Time: > 14:46:59 >STOP THIS ARGUMENT AMONG YOURSELVES.EVERYONE IS >MIGRATED FROM SOME WHERE. SOME ONE YESTERDAY AND SOME >ONE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, SO WHY DO YOU KILL YOUR TIME >IN POLLUTING YOUR BROTHERHOOD. >SEE OTHERS, THEY ARE DEVELLOPING AND ACCELERATING >THEIR DEVELOPMENTS,AND WE?????? >SO, BE COMPATATIVE BUT NOT WITH YOUR OWN BROTHERS. >AND THE PEOPLE STAYING OUTSIDE, DON´T YOU OBSERB THAT >HOW OTHERS ARE NEGLECTING THE NORTHEASTERN STATES ONLY >BECAUSE OF THIS EXTREMIST PROBLEMS. >SO, BETTER LEAVE ALL THESE FALTU IDEAS AND PUT YOUR >HANDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR STATE. > > Posted by: ayungsa tripura. Date: 30-01-2003 >Time: 12:46:42 >hi. >icecandyman iwill fuck your mother and sister be ready >okay.i will come every night 10p.m and i will pay you >ahuge amount of money.Be ready to accept it.fucking >your mother and sister i enjoy alot.wah what a night >to fuck with your mom and sis. > Posted by: iam a tripuri (nokbar)Delhi. Date: >30-01-2003 Time: 12:40:05 >iam a tripuri.iam not afraid of you bangali(musok).iam >ready to give my life,blood and scrafice for my people >you know musok.let me finish first my education.after >that iam going to serve for my people.you all musok >are refugees from bangladesh.this is my motherland,iam >not afraid to say that this is my motherland.iam ready >to give my life for my tripuri.you all will have to >leave our land,i think you all know(musok). > Posted by: Augustus Date: 30-01-2003 Time: >03:19:54 >It seems some constructive ideas are coming out at >last.But seriously--------we can make this forum >productive only if we can do something positive rather >than simply discussing in this forum.Because,very few >of our friends sitting in Tripura are looking at the >site.Public opinion can not be influenced by merely >discussing things in this forum.At the most one might >derive some sort of pseudo intellectual satisfaction >out of this activity. > Posted by: INPT killed them Date: 28-01-2003 >Time: 06:04:34 >INPT 100% behind this incident >why the govt. is just watching > > Posted by: Tripura Date: 28-01-2003 Time: >01:46:46 >Tripura Hindus and Bengali Hindus must unite together >against the Christian narcoterrorists who want a >christian-only state. Fight back brothers. > Posted by: icecandyman Date: 27-01-2003 Time: >06:51:04 >we don´t need the "party-office" culture for any >developement activity either. Let the govt.( who ever >be in power) invite the industrialists to explore the >market in tripura and neighbouring states and of >course a market in bangladesh can also be explored( >all they need is an export license). > >They can set up their manufacturing units some place >in tripura where rail access is available. Govt. also >should be pro-active( i know they have many policies, >but ultimately all end under the dreaded Red Tape)in >approaving their place, providing some soaps in taxes >etc.. When mass employment is generated, education, IT >and eveything else will follow. > > Posted by: Ei Samay Date: 27-01-2003 Time: >05:45:14 >Now the very basic question for all of us is what >would be the policy in this globalize scenario for a >small state like Tripura? Is it only the education >dept. has to create job opportunity for the youth? the >all rapidly developing states (e.g Karnataka, >Maharastra, Andra Prasesh etc.) giving more focus on >I.T sector, i do believe that, communication is not a >barrier for us as far as I.T industry is concerned as >we have Agartala airport and we do have nice access >Kolkata International airport. Now the question is >where from we will get skilled man power, i would say, >yes we do have eng. college, but that´s not enough, >here govt. has to take more and more initiatives, (I >think current govt. has to review their >industry/economic policies towards I.T, every evening >their employees/comrades like TGEA, etc shout for >anti-IT and they send their sons/daughters for IT >education outside state, this attitude must change, >also the attitude of copying Bodhababu has to change >first) Why there is no MCA course in Tripura >University?why there is no BCA/B.Sc (CS) course in >colleges? Agartala needs to give more importance to >other towns like Dharmanagar, a complete statewise >education program we do need today. state also has >nice access of silchar REC, and Assam University, >therefore i don´t think quality man power at the >initial stage would be a problem, and now the most >vital issue is infrastructure, political as well as >social, it has to come from govt, from public >attitude, should not come from party office >of-course.. at least in I.T sector we don´t want >party-office culture...are our state leaders >visualizing this state as one of the I.T developed >state in india after 10 years down the line? > Posted by: icecandyman Date: 27-01-2003 Time: >04:05:08 >Amra bangali stinks.. sucks... maan, grow up!! >Loverof Tripura, this msg board has taken a diversion > from it´s topic and taken for good. Stay out if you >don´t like the comments, we certainly don´t require >any editorial judgement from you..if you have >something to contribute towards the diverted topic, >post else shut up. > Posted by: amora bangali Date: 27-01-2003 Time: > 01:47:58 >11 massacred >what more...start killing back the consultant of >millitants in agartala the babus of debbarma >lets massacre Mr.Rabindra debbarma,Upendra >debbarma,Nishikanta debbarma, Harinath debbarma,and NC >debbarma >Finsih them, there will be peace for both the >community.The media should call all our amora >bangali,and arrest them or finish them,we will live in >peace.I hope the major tripuris will support me >blindly > > Posted by: Mr. LoverofTripura Date: 26-01-2003 >Time: 23:34:01 >I guess the topic of discussion over here was the role >of media in Tripura but, i wonder why people are >putting their sentimental feelings over the board like >fools. >In my opinion press/media in Tripura is not very >effective. The role of midia should be to make people >aware of every possible opportunity to grow. > Posted by: Amra Bangali Date: 25-01-2003 Time: > 00:59:27 >As war has been one of the most effective solutions >method for all problems since ancinet times, we should >not rule out of any war between Tripuris and Bengalis >in Tripura. As a nation and community, one should >reserve this war option whenever need arises. So, I >don´t discount Charu das´s suggestion as mere cynic >views. But rather it should be reality one day if need >arises. We can quote Mr. Anil Sarkar´s statement where >he had called all non-tribals of Tripura to unite and >kill/maime as many tribals as possible whenever >there´s attack on bengalis in hilly areas. But thing >is that do Bengalis have the guts to unitedly fight >any war? As history shows Hindu Bengalis have never >been able to unitedly fight any big war except those >stray shootings against the British officials and some >naxalite movements. So, be prepared to fight or leave >Tripura otherwise. Being kshatriyas, Tripuris are >battle hardened community, and hence defeating them in >any war would be daunting tasks. > Posted by: icecandyman Date: 24-01-2003 Time: >05:11:41 >I am clueless why my messge has been posted thrice..it >was not intended by me to be so --- > Posted by: icecandyman Date: 24-01-2003 Time: >04:18:55 >Mr. Debbarma´s message is praise worthy. Ei Samay also >has very valid points. Mr. Charu´s message do touch >one´s heart. So where the msg. board is heading >towards? A trouble free, prosperous and peaceful >Tripura. > >I personally think, most of the msgs that are in the >mesg board are coming out directly from the heart with >a genuine concern for the well being of Tripura. I >only wish, that common sense prevail to those who want >the same at the expense of the bengali´s, we also >belong as much to tripura as anybody else. I don´t >understand why the bigotrious and stubborn attitude of >a few wel educated guys towards the bengali community. >Mr. Adhir, same happens to anyone who goes to MBB or >TEC or Tripura Polytechnic from the mofussil >towns/villages. > >Let´s ponder more on Mr. Debbarma´s question, and find >out who the real loosers are. Let the messages flow, >let the commonsense precail, let the political >authotrity take some rear guard action, let the >tribals join the main stream, let the people go and >work fearlessly in the remote villages, let the >infrastructure develop, let the mayhem stop, let all >forces go out of tripura, let us all leave an amicable >life full of camaraderie. > >(Micheal, you still haven´t stopped bragging, yes I >know how it feels from being a prestigious >institution, ´cause I am ) > Posted by: icecandyman Date: 24-01-2003 Time: >03:35:40 >Mr. Debbarma´s message is praise worthy. Ei Samay also >has very valid points. Mr. Charu´s message do touch >one´s heart. So where the msg. board is heading >towards? A trouble free, prosperous and peaceful >Tripura. > >I personally think, most of the msgs that are in the >mesg board are coming out directly from the heart with >a genuine concern for the well being of Tripura. I >only wish, that common sense prevail to those who want >the same at the expense of the bengali´s, we also >belong as much to tripura as anybody else. I don´t >understand why the bigotrious and stubborn attitude of >a few wel educated guys towards the bengali community. >Mr. Adhir, same happens to anyone who goes to MBB or >TEC or Tripura Polytechnic from the mofussil >towns/villages. > >Let´s ponder more on Mr. Debbarma´s question, and find >out who the real loosers are. Let the messages flow, >let the commonsense precail, let the political >authotrity take some rear guard action, let the >tribals join the main stream, let the people go and >work fearlessly in the remote villages, let the >infrastructure develop, let the mayhem stop, let all >forces go out of tripura, let us all leave an amicable >life full of camaraderie. > >(Micheal, you still haven´t stopped bragging, yes I >know how it feels from being a prestigious >institution, ´cause I am ) > Posted by: icecandyman Date: 24-01-2003 Time: >03:28:49 >Mr. Debbarma´s message is praise worthy. Ei Samay also >has very valid points. Mr. Charu´s message do touch >one´s heart. So where the msg. board is heading >towards? A trouble free, prosperous and peaceful >Tripura. > >I personally think, most of the msgs that are in the >mesg board are coming out directly from the heart with >a genuine concern for the well being of Tripura. I >only wish, that common sense prevail to those who want >the same at the expense of the bengali´s, we also >belong as much to tripura as anybody else. I don´t >understand why the bigotrious and stubborn attitude of >a few wel educated guys towards the bengali community. >Mr. Adhir, same happens to anyone who goes to MBB or >TEC or Tripura Polytechnic from the mofussil >towns/villages. > >Let´s ponder more on Mr. Debbarma´s question, and find >out who the real loosers are. Let the messages flow, >let the commonsense precail, let the political >authotrity take some rear guard action, let the >tribals join the main stream, let the people go and >work fearlessly in the remote villages, let the >infrastructure develop, let the mayhem stop, let all >forces go out of tripura, let us all leave an amicable >life full of camaraderie. > >(Micheal, you still haven´t stopped bragging, yes I >know how it feels from being a prestigious >institution, ´cause I am ) > Posted by: charu das Date: 24-01-2003 Time: >02:54:50 >So, let Bengalis and Tripuris declare formal war on >each other. Tripuris and Bengalis fight in open way. >Whoever wins the bloody fight, would stay in the >state. Let all Central forces be taken away from the >state. All Bengalis and Tripuris TSRs and Police would >go to each others side. Let the national Highway be >closed so that no one can go out without getting >killed or killing someone. Let the border be patrolled >by B´desh rilfes so that no one from Tripura can >escape to B´desha also. This war would settle all >issues - either one of the community would perish. My >this suggestion should stop any further discussion on >this topic in this message board. > Posted by: Ei Samay Date: 24-01-2003 Time: >01:08:26 >Let me put my view without any ambiguity >1. If tripura is the motherland of my tripuri friends, >it is also my motherland. (Even though my ancestors >came from other part of the world). I also can´t >tolerate any uncivilized activities in my state such >as kidnappings or militants activities etc. If some of >my tripuri brothers believe in this ideology, they >have to pay for that. > >2. What US or other countries doing today can´t be the >solutions to every ground ALWAYS, our emotion is the >integral part of our life, we have to respect it. > >3. Tripura needs urgent development in socio-economic >area, and we need complete participation from everyone >of the society, you can´t dream a develop state just >with few class VIII pass Kakbarak teachers, (Please, >don´t take it other way, I have honest respect to this >language), and once again i would like to mention, >just pushing others from you, you can´t have the >refugee solutions, we have to address it globally, it >can´t be the tripura´s problem only. we have to search >for a global solution for that. > > Posted by: Mr. Debbarma Date: 24-01-2003 Time: > 00:07:24 >Hi Guyz, >I think there is lot of mud spilling over each >othere´s lineages... We at this stage need >understanding from each of the people living in >Tripura. >I should ask you a question please ask yourself? >Who is really suffering by this so called the communal >conflict, who damn is the looser... >It is us the common people, everyone fights for its >right. Even an insect when it is surrounded by lots of >ants protects itself. >But, ofcourse we are not insects or ants we are human >beings, and if the situatin continues i am afraid we >will be left only with wounds on either side.... > Posted by: for augustus and icecandyman from adhir > Date: 23-01-2003 Time: 23:54:14 >Audustus You are very mean to say that? >How do you say nobody is stopping them to compete in >open category.First you look into the administration.I >don´t understand,why bengalis from tripura are so much >possessive about the hindu bengalis from bangladesh.If >you are so much aware for them,why don´t you create >some place in west bengal?Look at the national level >politics also.The VHP and RSS are only after muslims >bangladeshi never after the Hindu bengalis from "opaar >bangla".Bengalis are never developing mind although >they are brilliant but those days are already past.Now >the situation has turned the opposite.What the whole >indians think today the bengalis think after 20 >years.And still the bengalis in tripura think putting >them in that state will improve the state.Why you guys >are worrying for tripura and people from that >state?Its been already tested for last 50 years.You >have done nothing for that state.Today we don´t even >have good postal service in remote area.You should >look into yourself and find the reason why bengal >today is vanishing from the world´s map of >development.Bengalis now live only remembering the >past.What we tripuris will do whether great mind of >bengals help india win over the british or not.We need >to think for our own interest.There was a day when >Tagore/JC bose and Dr meghnath saha seek the financial >help from tripura govt(the then king).Are you >forgetting all those help? >Mr.Icecandyman is also forgetting how communal and >castiest the bengalis are .Now you are thinking the >terrorist problem.When I was a student in my school I >never get good marks in geography inspite of my >scoring the highest in all other subjects because of >my one communal teacher.But I am not blaming all other >bengali teachers.Don´t you think that one bengali >teacher has created my mind as separatist towards >bengali?When I came to Princeton the situation turned >otherway around....I am the best. >We have been mistreated,looked down,discriminated and >overthrown from all of our rights.We lost our basic >human rights in tripura.There should be some good >people who shd rule the state.Even we can not go to >MBB college for admission.I still remember when I went >for applying admission in science alongwith one of my >good bengali friends.I was forced to take out my shirt >and run around the college.So imagine now,why should >not I go against the bengalis.More or less,95% >bengalis from tripura are communal.5% are very good to >tribals.They are helpful and good bengali may be real >bengalis/ > > Posted by: Michael Deb Barma Date: 23-01-2003 >Time: 21:04:59 >Hi to icecandyman and Mr./Ms. Ei Samay, >You guys may have plenty of time to discuss on this >Refugee problem vis-a-vis Tripura Media topic, but my >opinions remain the same. > >1. Refugee Bengalis from Tripura would have to be >either pushed to Bangladesh or relocated to other >bigger states of India. Why should Tripura being so >small state bear so much pain and sufferings caused by >the Bangladeshi refugees? It´s neither emotional nor >political. It´s the most practical solution in this >modern world. Malaysia has done recently the same with >Indonesian illegal immigrants in Malaysia. Every >nation/every state in this world has adopted this >solution. UAE recently ordered all those illegal >Indian workers to leave UAE within stipulated time. >Currently US is requiring all those male muslims above >the age of 16 to register with INS. US says that they >are open to outsiders but at the same time, they must >protect their homelands/their nation. For Tripura and >Tripuris it is the same-we must protect our >motherland, our identity, our political rights from >refugees/illegal migrants with whichever means we need >to adopt. > >2. As far as the current mindless violence of the >militants is concerned, it´s created by the Refugee >Bengalis administration ONLY. Whether they are left or >right leaders, they have polluted the young Tripuris >minds to such an extent that a section of young >Tripuris have turned to this path of mindless >violence. Of course, this is thanks to a section of >foolish Tripuri politicians being tricked by the >refugee bongs. > >3. Whether you agree or not, the refugee problem has >to be settled once for all. No excuse , saying it´s >emotional issue , Bengalis are part of Tripura etc. >etc. Else Tripura will further burn in coming days. >Crooked Tripuri politicians also need to remember this >that they would be punished severly if they keep on >cheating on their own people by creating these >politically motivated mindless terrorists. > >4. As far as political parties of Tripura/India are >concerned, all of them are crooked and corrupt. But >taking complete apolitical and practical point of >view, we must accept this fact that TRipura has been a >great victim of the refugee problem. In coming days, >Meghalaya and Assam would be another victims. Time is >not far behind when these two states face the >extinction of indigenous people from its landscape. >Therefore, all the indigenous people of the north east >must be aware of this fact and struggle toward >protecting their rights and lands. > >Any comments icecandyman and Mr./Ms. Ei Samay? (Note: >icecandyman, No use of being after my degree or >academic background. Just try to see what it looks >like or feels to be in prestigious instition, instead >of making long list of those passing out from them). > Posted by: icecandyman Date: 23-01-2003 Time: >07:23:28 >oops!! so many msgs on the board and I can see Mr. >Micheal´s myopic and blurred views are getting >clearer.. He is not the same man who bragged about IIM >lineage( how stupid it sounded!!! ) and eradicating >the bengalis "whichever way is possible" thus showing >his solidarity with the nonsense carnage that´s going >these days in tripura. How vindictive he sounded.. and >he is an IIM product that too without availing >reservation( well, IIM do have reservation policy as >per govt rule and your fraternity can avail that as >well- MIND IT) was appearing as a total fallacy. I >have managed a team consisting of IIM guys in recent >past, and I know the trait of the guys coming out from >those Prestigious Institute. YOU (Mr. Micheal) >apparently sound as "the odd man out". However, I am >seeing more sense in Mr. Micheal’s last posting. > >No more personal mud-slinging. Let´s all address the >teething troubles that is disturbing the >socio-economic scenario of Tripura. Driving the bongs >out by any means is not a good solution, probably my >tripuri friends will also agree. We need to stop this >mindless act called insurgency ( in other, fighting >for a free twipra) ASAP. This alone will solve many >problems. Investments will also start flowing in. >Society will settle down, the scars left in the mind >of all communities in Tripra will slowly erase. The >vindictive talks and useless ruckus of driving bongs >will not work. WE BONGS ARE ALSO AN INTEGRAL PART of >Tripura. Let´s all understand that. > > >Mr. Micheal, would eagerly wait for your views on the >massacre of Tribals by so called terrorist outfit just >because the follow some political lineage? The plight >of those Tripuri´s who are badly affected due to this? >The guys who are going to the interiors of Tripura to >build the infrastructure ( Railways, water supply, >health centre, docs, teachers etc etc...) and getting >kidnapped or killed? The answer to your point >regarding the infrastructures in the tribal areas not >improving lies here... > > Posted by: Ei Samay Date: 23-01-2003 Time: >06:07:02 >Hi, Mr Michael Deb Barma ... >Please don´t generalize your view with the entire >Tripuri´s view. and regarding your name, the >explanation you have given, sounds good, but sorry to >mention that you have deviated the point from the >track, as far as >your name is concerned, i don´t have any problem, but >the problem is with "Michael" culture, and i have >mentioned one of the example of that, "Ujan Maidan" >what was that Mr. DebBarma? how you will describe >that? i would like to see... > >Yes, influx of refugees is an issue, and the issue not >only exists with Tripura, rather with other north-east >states, for that we simply can´t blame just one >community! we have to ask this question to our >history, you agree or not, it´s more an emotional >issue rather than a political, you can´t expect >solution for this from political point of view. what >is you view? is the solutions of the problem are >kidnappings, raping bengali woman, not allowing >bengali teachers, doctors in ADC area? > >you can´t not ignore history as far as you claim >yourself as a member of the civilized world. and as >far as identity is concerned, you can´t survive with >it just pushing other from you, we have to learn from >others, specially, in this globalize era, we all have >to accept it, doesn´t matter, you are a tripuri or i >am a bengali...you must have competitive attitude, >that´s more important, what Churls Darwin said long >back even today it is universally accepted but in a >civilized manner... > > Posted by: Augustus Date: 23-01-2003 Time: >03:55:55 >At last Mr Michael Deb Barma has started behaving >sensibly. >Yes we do need dialogues like this to solve the >problems.It seems the media at last is inching towards >maturity (at least we now have a platform to discuss). > > Posted by: Michael Deb Barma Date: 22-01-2003 >Time: 11:59:02 >Hi to Mr./Ms. Ei Samay, > >Thanks for questioning my educational background or >rather the entire Tripuri´s credibility as a nation. I >understand this fact that to the ordinary refugee >Bengalis the Tripuris as a community have no >credibility-in education, in sports, in jobs, in fact >nowhere. But why? Because they know very little of our >culture, our history, our civilization. They came from >Bangladesh yesterday although they teach us today on >Tripura history. > >As far as my name is concerned, Mr./Ms. Ei Samay seems >to be living in the age which is at least 200-300 >years back. My dear friend, please have a look at some >Asian countries only-no need to go to far Western >countries. So many Chinese, so many Malays, >Indonesians, Vietnamese, or rather so many Indians >have English names today. What is wrong with names? >Mr. Bruce lee too had English name, he was born in US, >but he was Chinese at heart, in his life style, in his >practice. I may have English name, but at heart I am a >Tripuri. I find my heart still in the hills of >Tripura. Having English name doesn´t indicate you are >lost to Western culture or you are Westernized. > >Today Tripuris neither needs Michael culture-as >Mr./Ms. Ei Samay said(read Western) nor Benagli >culture. What we need today is the solution to the >continuous influx of refugee problem. Until and unless >this is stopped, the entire next generation is going >to face extinction. > >Tripuris as such have no personal hatred against the >Benagli community. In fact, Tripura has long history >of Bengali population living side by side Tripuris. >Concern is: today in our own land we are in negligible >minority due to influx of refugees. We have lost all >political, economic power to the refugee population. >These factors have contributed to anger toward the >refugees.Make no mistake Bengalis did have great >contribution to Tripura since the Maniky times. But >the current large refugee population has only >contributed to the sufferings of both the Tripuris and >original Tripura Bengalis. Rgds Michael Deb Barma. > Posted by: Ei Samay Date: 22-01-2003 Time: >08:30:18 >If it is true that Mr. "Michael" Deb Barma from IIM, >then we have to change our >idea, i don´t think any IIM graduate needs such self >advertisement, the unique >student quality of IIM itself is the identity of >"IIM-graduate". His soft skill, >attitude etc are enough to tell, yes, this guy is from >IIM. >anyway, let us do some research with his Name >"Michael" Deb Barma. Why "Michael"? >Mr. DebBarm! Your name doesn´t reflect your >originality, sorry to mention here, even >today, a new born baby of Tripura knows the driving >force behind the so-called >"Michael" culture of Tripura. And the fact is, Govt. >of Tripura is spending money >to promote traditional festivals, and it is very sad >to see, very few are >participating,...question is where are the people? >They all are "Michael" today! >...and what is their culture? "Ujan Maidan"! We do >remember it Mr. DebBarma!!! >and let me tell you one thing, Bengali culture is not >only with/for bengali speaking >people, it has complete respect for all other >community also. Today (and even >in past) Tripura´s identity is not only it´s >tribe-culture (please, ignore >"Michael" culture) but also with parallel bengali >culture. This unique combination >gives us the confidence and driving force to fight >against this "Michael" group today. > > Posted by: Augustus Date: 22-01-2003 Time: >03:26:17 >Mr Charu Das >Nobobody has stopped tribals from competing in the >open seats.If they are confident they can compete for >the open seats,prove their mettle and strive for a >better qualitry of life.How long do they expect to be >spoonfed? > Posted by: for mr august from Charu das Date: >22-01-2003 Time: 00:33:26 >Dear friend augustas >You are totally wrong.Consider a small example.Higher >study.Show me good REC seat for our good friends real >tripuris.Except Jamshedpur and jalandhar what seat >they get?Nothing.Otherway the bengalis are enjoying >all the things.Do you still mean tribals would have >been developed more had there been bengali rules right > from 1900 or before that?What about west bengal >then?where does it stand now? >Please try to understand the problem of daily influx >by hindu bengalis who are becoming sky-high problem >for tripura.Tripuris are no more tribals.Their >culture,noncastiest culture far better than >bengalis.Intelligent bengalis have spoiled the future >of tripura people by starting the education of tripura >in bengali medium.Now neither majority of people can >go out of state for job nor minority due to major >language problem.You should not only concentrate on >tripura history.You shd concentrate on the development >work also.What these RSS and VHP are targetting >now?Only muslims migrants never hindu migrants.The >same case stands for pakistanis also. > > Posted by: non refugee bengali Date: 20-01-2003 >Time: 21:11:27 >what mr. michael debbarma has said is not wrong >totally . tripura was a much happier and peaceful >state till 1970´s too till the refugees started coming >in .it became complicated since the pouring of these >bangladeshi refugees started they not only polluted >our minds but also spoiled the society so i request >all the tripuraites to fight against this flow and >save the state > Posted by: Augustus Date: 19-01-2003 Time: >09:48:09 >This is in reply to Michael Deb Barma´s venomous >outburst against the Bengali population of Tripura.Mr >Deb Barma claims to have received education from the >topmost institutions in India, and yet he can not >think in an openminded way,shedding parochialism.He >has not been able to point out any specific way the >Bengalis have harmed the Tripuris.He has cited the >times when Tripura was a princely state.He has said >that the state was developed even then.Probably he >needs a refresher course in history.The Maharajas of >Tripura had only undertaken to develop a handful of >towns in Tripura.The rail heads were in Tripura,but >the tracks lay in the erstwhile East Bengal.Had they >taken enough measure to develop the entire >state,tribals today would have been far more >developed.Just to remind Mr Deb barma,The Maharajas >were tribals and not Bengalis.Through this message >board I shall keep updating Mr Deb Barma about such >lessons of history,which probably he has forgotten >after his stint abroad. > Posted by: Michael Deb Barma Date: 19-01-2003 >Time: 04:10:16 >Hi, >I would like to comment on Mr. Icecandyman´s 4 points >- one by one. It´s so ridiculous to see this kind of >responses from Mr. Icecandyman which reflects nothing >but the Tripura Bengalis´ age-old chauvinism, belief >and false pride that the Tripuris developed this much >just becasue of the blessings of the Bengalis, else >Tripuris would have been living in the STONE age even >now. > >1. Tripura without Bongs majority would have been 100 >times more developed than it´s today. All the central >funds allocated for Tripura would have not been spent >on the refugees well-beings. Rather it would have been >utilized for Tripuris development. The current account >deficit and budget deficit that Tripura Govt currently >has , would have diasppeared completely. With its vast >natural resources and no sign of militancy, Tripura >would have economically become strong and >self-sufficient. > >2.Tripuris and Bengalis lived happily earlier because >those Bengalis then were from Tripura; they were NOT >refugess from Bangaldesh. In earlier times, smarter >bengalis always fooled around the simple-minded >Tripuris which the Tripuris couldn´t realize they were >being fooled. Today we can´t live happily together >because Tripuris are awaken now and know Bengalis >trick and tactics of fooling them. > >3. Tripuris never need this shit thing called , >reservation. I am a Tripuri and I went to study >engineering with my own merit and excelled in >engineering too. I went to IIM for my Post Graduation >and excelled there too in my MBA. Today, I am working >with top notch multi-national company in Australia. >This is NOT by that shit thing called, Indian >reservation system that I am here with the >multi-national company. Mind you, MNCs don´t have >reservation for STs the way Bengalis have blessed the >Tripuris with reservation in Tripura. Let the >reservations go off today and Tripuris can challenge >in any field with Tripura bengalis-whether in sports, >in academics, in any field. The real problem why >Tripuris need reservation today is because Bengalis >are in majority and by sheer numbers they would occupy >all seats-in jobs, in engg, in medical. Reservation >for Tripuri is there--NOT because Tripuris are less >intelligent. (Note: Mr. icecandyman, do you knwo what >IIM means? It´s Indian Institute of Management- a >place for hard working and intelligent students where >they are groomed to be the best future managers. Real >hard place to be. No place for reservation, mind you). > > >4. Tripura´s infrastucture during the Manikya time was >much good or even better, for your kind information. >Tripura had railways and airport for outside >connection. As far as roads are concerned, no NE state >had good road during 1940s. After India´s independence >when the NE joined India, anyway Indian government was >developing roads for the NE. SO whether Bengalis are >there or NOT, Tripuras infrastucture would have been >the same or better. Tripura government spends so much >money currently on feeding those useless state >government Bengali refugee employees. That money would >have been used for developing roads and electricity. >Mind you, during Indira Gandhi´s time, she made it a >point for "Roti Kapda aur Makaan". SO whether Bengalis >were in Tripura or not, India Gandhi´s programme would >have been implemented in Tripura. Understand, India´s >Five Year Plan programme happened and implemented in >Tripura too, NOt beacuse Bengalis are here. This would >have been implemented anyway in Tripura because >Tripura is part of India. > >At last but not the least, make no mistake this fact >that Tripuris get NO blessings from tripura refugee >Bongs. The overflooding of refugees into Tripura has >given our motherland much curse and sufferings. Today >or tomorrow every Tripuri must get rid of this curse >and sufferings-whichever means we have to take. > >Rgds Michael Deb Barma >Perth, Australia > Posted by: Manik Barman,IIT KGP Date: >18-01-2003 Time: 10:48:58 >Hello, >I am targetting to the Adminstrator, you appoint a >editor to edit the massages /sugessions put by the >viewer. First you edit,then allow the massages to be >published. >I am observing here lots of massages are not related >to the given topics, but with some ugly sense and >slang words. >Thats all. > Posted by: for icecandy man Date: 18-01-2003 >Time: 06:57:01 >Great!you guy shd be the CEO and CTO of tripura to >uplift the state. > Posted by: RC Date: 17-01-2003 Time: 19:23:23 > >I am really happy to see that the site gets so many >hits,earlier there used to be one person saying all >rubbish stuff.Good!!Tripurainfo. >What i feel is that we are moving away from the whole >point of ´Tripura as a state progressing or not´-how >would media help here;not if bengalis are ahead or who >wins the race.I think every tripurite should have the >equal ammount of feelings for the state as we always >had.In anycase, the rest of India looks upon the >entire north eastern states in a different note,here >if we also react in a similar way then what media are >we talking about,there won´t be any people left to >join the media.Everybody is interested in other stuff. > >Though a small state of Tripura, we have tons of >problems that we only understand.Taking a small eg,how >media can be strong enough for the people;natural >beauty is in abundance but no tourism industry >flourishes,why? we know the ans.can some one do >anything as a common person,we can atleast voice our >grieveances against the govt thru the media.The role >of media is not only to report who is being murdered >and killed etc,but to build up the state as a whole.I >don´t think so media is that dumb that it knows no way >to get the voice of common people heard to the >govt.They have to find out ways and means how to do it >and am sure people are there to support.But do we have >that kind of a fraternity of journalist´s who really >want to do something or everybody somewhere or the >other is overtaken by the system.I see someone sitting >in Perth, Australia, i ask this gentleman,what is the >kind of system of relating incidents to the common >masses in Austrlia,isn´t it so that they make you feel >as if everything is your own and every incident >somewhere or the other values individual >person,weather it is drought,lack of gas, simple thing >as swiming etc. >Tell me if they can do it why can´t we, there is no >rocket science involved.Here there is no question of >technology but how we channelise our thoughts and >present. >Media can change the face of the state but we must >have that urge to do it.I hope all the various >channels of media in tripura is listening. > Posted by: MANIK BARMAN Date: 17-01-2003 Time: > 12:40:31 >TRIPURAINFO.COM IS A GREAT TOOL IN SPREADING THE NEWS >OF THE STATE TO THE STUDENTS STAYING OUTSIDE THE >STATE. I FEEL PROUD TO SHOW ALL MY FRIENDS THAT WE >HAVE AN WEBSITE IN OUR STATE WHICH IS BECOMING ONE OF >THE GROWING WEBSITE IN INDIA. > Posted by: icecandyman Date: 14-01-2003 Time: >10:46:33 >This message board is getting heavy on non-bengali >sentiments et al. I would like to put a few crooked >fact straight, > >Infiltration is a problem in Tripura, agreed. But then >in many a ways, it´s a boon in disguise. I am a >bengali, born and brought up in Dharmanagar( >ancestors, yes from bangladesh) and feel my myself a >tripurite as much as anyone can feel. Bengalis has >provided a perfect ballance to Tripura and despite of >many odds have excelled and tried to make tripura a >better place to live. Now the boons, > >1. Think, tripura without the bongs. It would be in a >state of bliss, but perhaps lagging by a 100 years > from outside world. (Unfortunately we are still a good >20 years lagging from other states in India, the >credit goes to all those mushrooming non-sense >terrorist organisations) > >2. I have seen in my childhood, that tribals and >bengalis were living a life of perfect harmony, though >bongs were in commanding position purely based on >merit. Tribals were also benefitted, they were happy. > >3. All those diaspora voices that we are hearing in >the message board malligning the bongs, should have to >admit that, just because bongs were there they have >reached to certain position and excelled professionaly >in the outer world. They were silver spooned, with >reservations with them. take out the reservation, they >might not get a chance to study in any third graded >college in india. > >3. The infrastructure, system and education in Tripura >has progressed under the tutelege of so called >immigrants. > >None the less, spewing venoms against the bong won´t >help. Give a chance to the much maligned media to >cover the finer aspects of tripura rather than the >customery news of kidnap, killing and ambushes. The >more the divide, more the hatred, implying that >tribals in bengali dominated area(more developed too) >and vice-versa will find it impossible to co-exist, >which will hit the tribal fraternity more than >anything. > >Are you listening???? > Posted by: SWKANG DEBBARMA Date: 07-01-2003 >Time: 09:23:02 >MEDIA IN TRIPURA IS ACOMMUNAL TOUCHED.I WOULD LIKE TO >COMMENTS IS THAT,THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN TRIPURA ALWAYS >BRING DIVIDE AND ROLE POLICY AMONG THE TRIPURI >PEOPLE.WE TRIPURI,WE LOVE TWIPRA.NO ONE CAN DIVIDE >US,UNITY IS OUR STRENTHG. >DELHI-54. > Posted by: SWKANG DEBBARMA Date: 07-01-2003 >Time: 09:16:43 >MEDIA IN TRIPURA IS ACOMMUNAL TOUCHED.I WOULD LIKE TO >COMMENTS IS THAT,THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN TRIPURA ALWAYS >BRING DIVIDE AND ROLE POLICY AMONG THE TRIPURI >PEOPLE.WE TRIPURI,WE LOVE TWIPRA.NO ONE CAN DIVIDE >US,UNITY IS OUR STRENTHG. >DELHI-54. > Posted by: Mr. Debbarma Date: 01-01-2003 Time: > 00:13:48 >Mr augustus must be more ashamed of himself. >Forget about all the discriminisation and nepotism the >authority act as,just imagine whether anybody of >bengali commmunity ever introduce themselves as >tripuri like their counterpart living in orissa and >assam? >For another example,how many police station you can >show me inside the nonbengali dominated area before >1980?Doesn´t it mean that all the time and again the >govt is trying to protect only bengalis but never >nonbengalis from all antisocial elements....Isn´t it a >anti kokborok speaking rules and regulations of the >administrators and govt? >Have you ever investigated how many innocent tripuris >were tortured and arrested after 1980 riots? >Whenever we go to study in agartala,we are first of >called "Paira"(one who lives in hilly area) which is >,much more hatred than the whites towards the >black...I even faced hundreds of harrassment by such >people whenever I approached any office in >tripura....Are you ever concerned about it. >How many area in non bengali living place you can show >a proper drinking water supply?In fact tripura is not >bigger than one district of other state of the >country...why is not possible to do when the questions >come for non bengali? > >Pennstate >USA > > > Posted by: Michael Deb Barma Date: 27-12-2002 >Time: 11:47:27 >Hi All, >Nice to see so many comments coming out on this. I am >no media expert to comment on much on Tripura media. >But as an ordinary Tripuri whenever I go home, I see >the local bengali newspapers all full of communal >news, comments and columns. Newspapers seem to behave >as if they are read by the Bengalis ONLY and hence >they are almost anti-Tripuri. They seem to be playing >Divide-and-Rule policy among the different Tripuri >clans-inciting Jamatias against Deb Barmas(latest >craze among newspapers being full of praises for the >Jamatia Hoda organization), reminding Reangs about Deb >Barma Kings´ "atrocities" on them etc. etc., besides, >of course, inciting the Bengalis , >directly/indirectly, against the Tripuris. This kind >of media behavior is definitely in consonant with the >main national media-both English and regional >languages. The media in Tripura must understand that >Tripuris are no more to be played by, the way they >used to be treated 20 years back. Tripuris today are >as much outside world oriented as Bengalis are. They >are everywhere in this world-as software engineers, as >students, as doctors, they live everywhere. And hence >media must play critical rule to foster communal >harmony and the concept of living together peacefully >among communities. As everybody says, Tripuris and >Bengalis must live together for economic development >of this state and hence, the media must play important >role in this direction. Hope when I go home next time, >I see some improvement in the quality of Tripura media >content. >Rgds Michael Deb Barma >Perth, Australia > Posted by: Augustus Date: 27-12-2002 Time: >01:59:27 >Mr Debbarma should be ashamed of himself.Can he define >the term Tripuri?Are not Bengalis a part of >Tripura?What does he think?Though he is right in >saying that infiltration is a problem,why should he >point out at Non Muslim Bengalis? > Posted by: S.debbarma Date: 26-12-2002 Time: >23:20:43 >MEDIA in tripura? >Whats that?Dainik sambad or tripura darpan? >Damn,they are all the speakers communalism and no >different from modi and togadia.Is media ever >concerned about the infiltration of the nonmuslim >bengalis from bangladesh are the main reason for >terrorism and poverty in tripura? >I may be too communal if I say so.But don´t the non >tripuris feel the same? > Posted by: R.Ghosh Date: 25-12-2002 Time: >03:12:05 >The media in Tripura has largely failed to live upto >its task.It has grossly ignored the smalller >towns(especially North Tripura) and focussed mostly on >Agartala.As a result of this callousness on the part >of the media,corruption and social crimes are on the >rise.Infiltration across the border is another >menace.All these could have been countered more >effectively,had the media been a little more alert. > Posted by: NRC Date: 23-12-2002 Time: >11:42:50 >MEDIA RELATION >M- MEDIUM >E-ECHONOMICAL >D-DIMENSIONS >I-IDEA GENERATIONS >A-AVENGERS >According to me this should be the full form of >media.But if we count how much of the defination is >full filled i dont know.sitting from far away distance >and giving lectures is not the duty of media.every >body is well aware about the role played by the media >no body has a question about it.Nothing will be gained >by blaming the media cause MEDIA will potray what is >happening. >In a small State like tripura where there is no hope >and that is the bitter truth media is playing a big >role.The only daily which is gaining is DAINIK SAMVAD >rest all the news papers a trying hard to compit. >where Ndtv has been discusssed i hardly find any news >about tripura rather much about tripura is covered in >E-TV. And one thing N.D.TV COVERS WHERE THERE IS NEWS >THERE no chance of something which is not in the >news.for instance both kashmir and tripura has >insurgency problem every one knows why and for what >kashmir is much talked about. >we all have to accept that tripura is economically >,geographically back ward but literacy rate is quite >high, so we should not discourage who wants to pursue, >where ever he gets chance.Today in tripura people in >the politics are the person who is econimically stable >how and why every body know, >Now why media is not into that because handling media >is a dirty bussiness and falling with the politician >is dirtier. >personally being a P.R.O(PURSUING)I HAVE TO HANDLE >media relations.trus the they will hbardly let you >down. >But according to my opinion staying 4years away from >home,while writing iam still in delhi,whenever i come >home i feel condition in tripura is detroiting ,coming >home is really a pleasure i want to do some thing i >want to start some thing in tripura but whenever i go >home i feel there is nothing to start with. >why this is so no one knows. > Posted by: Haimanti Chakraborty Date: >16-12-2002 Time: 01:11:02 >India Media today is very big and very important,media >in Tripura can change the face of this state >but,unfortunately I don´t think we have that kind of >journalist´s who really really want to do >something.Somewhere or the other even the younger >generation is also giving up in contributing.I am not >saying that because it is easy to say but I am also in >the same profession.Of course there is the "brain >drain"most of the people from agartala are in US >everybody wants to get out of the state. >We have our own set of problems but there should be >some force to pull that up which is no where >visible.Media in Tripura can take a step forward and >do a great job. We can see today how NDTV is working >and learn from them.NDTV is´No Foreigner´,very much >Indian.Today, a lot depends upon the media. > Posted by: Date: 15-12-2002 Time: 17:59:24 >I think dainik sambad is doing a great job in tripura. >they are playing a big role in the society but >sometimes they too twist the stories . people of >tripura have a lot of faith on this newspapaer so i >wish they will do justice with the facts and call >spade a spade > Posted by: R.D. BARMAN Date: 15-12-2002 Time: >03:53:27 >SIR, MY MESSAGE IS THAT THE DUTY OF THE PRESS R TO >PLAY A VERY IMPORTANT ROLE BUT >WHAT I SEE IN TRIPURA, IT IS VERY DIFFERENT. >THEY R VERY COMMUNAL N DON´T MIND THEY ALWAYS TWIST >THE TRUE STORY.OFTEN TRUE INCIDENTS GO UN REPORTED. > Posted by: Subham Date: 04-12-2002 Time: >00:30:51 >Through this media I want to help the people who >always feel the need for financial security, fullfill >their families dream.. If you want so feel free to >contact me at subha_ch_in at yahoo.com ... I have changed >my life I can change yours too...if u want.. > > >________________________________________________________________________ >Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. > visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com >_________________________________________ >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: From avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in Mon Feb 10 02:32:59 2003 From: avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?Avishek=20Ganguly?=) Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 21:02:59 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] France out , India in !! Message-ID: <20030209210259.32391.qmail@web8004.mail.in.yahoo.com> From areflagan at artpanorama.com Mon Feb 10 03:15:17 2003 From: areflagan at artpanorama.com (Are Flagan) Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2003 16:45:17 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] France out , India in !! In-Reply-To: <20030209210259.32391.qmail@web8004.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: I hope the enthusiasm of the !! in the subject line comes with more than a sliver of parody about Mr. Friedman. There are bumper stickers emerging in the US that say "Iraq first, then France." What Friedman's piece really tells you is what he actually, between the lines, thinks about India. Think about it. -af From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Mon Feb 10 17:08:36 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 03:38:36 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Consequences for Iraqi people of a war Message-ID: <20030210113836.29977.qmail@web41104.mail.yahoo.com> If things go badly... Feb 6th 2003 From kerstin at mur.at Wed Feb 12 18:06:40 2003 From: kerstin at mur.at (Kerstin Braun) Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 13:36:40 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] announcement Message-ID: <200302121236.h1CCakHc029121@fox.mur.at> hello, we - mur.at, association for supporting netart in Graz, Austria - send an advertisment from the Landesmuseum Joanneum for the Kunsthaus in Graz to you. They plan to found a media art lab and are looking for projects. Plaese read the text below. With best regards Kerstin Braun --- ADVERTISEMENT MEDIA ART LAB KUNSTHAUS GRAZ The Landesmuseum Joanneum GmbH, which will in future operate the Kunsthaus  Graz, is looking for projects to incorporate in a media art lab from  mid-2003. These should consist of proposals for a two year period of  operation. Information regarding conditions is available from  gabriele.lind at stmk.gv.at. Submissions may be both from individuals and from groups. During the period  of operation of the project, it is expected that the operator will have a  highly visible presence in Graz and contact with the local media and net-art  scene. Applications should be submitted to the Landesmuseum Joanneum GmbH,  Raubergasse 10, A-8010 Graz, Austria no later than 21st March 2003. Information: www.kunsthausgraz.at gabriele.lind at stmk.gv.at ---- http://www.kunsthausgraz.at/downloads/medienkunstlabor_anzeige_deutsch.pdf http://www.kunsthausgraz.at/downloads/en_media_advertisment_lab.pdf   From aiindex at mnet.fr Thu Feb 13 08:10:45 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 03:40:45 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] India - Surveillance / Snooping stories: ID Card (MNIC) + V-Cop + SMS Tapping .... Message-ID: India: Surveillance and Snooping stories Recent reports on {a.} Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC); {b.} The national police station inter-connect system called V-Cop; {c} Tapping of SMS on the cell phone networks {d.} [Security vendors at work] Security International 2003 - India: Exhibit / Conference (Feb. 2003) [From: India Pakistan Arms Race and Militarisation Watch (IPARMW) # 113 12 February 2003] ______ a) Indian Express Monday, January 13, 2003 'Mother of I-cards': 5000-cr tag Bhavna Vij- Aurora New Delhi, January 12: The government is already calling it the ''mother of all cards'' and here's some idea why: it will be the most definitive proof of citizenship ever, overriding your passport, your ration card, even your prized electoral card. It will contain your personal details, your photograph, finger biometry and blood group. And to ensure that each and every Indian carries the Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC), the government could spend upto Rs 5,000 crore. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is so keen on the MNIC project that it brushed aside the opposition voiced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), which pointed out that electoral identity cards were ''good enough'' proof of identity. The EC spent Rs 1,000 crore over a decade, yet didn't manage to cover the country's 600 million voters. ''We suggested streamlining the process of issuing electoral I-cards instead since so much money had already been spent by both the Centre and states. There's no point spending five times more on a Utopian project,'' an EC official said. But the Home ministry insists that the MNIC was required for purposes of national security, and that the EC's identity cards could easily be duplicated. ''The MNIC will provide a credible and unique individual identification system. The minister also drew attention to the disparity in the distribution of the aid. ''There are a few constituencies, represented by ministers and influential legislators of the previous government, where the number of the beneficiaries is in thousands while others had just a few hundred,'' he alleged. This social welfare scheme is primarily aimed at providing sustenance to the most distressed sections of society. ''This scheme has been going on for years now,'' said Feroz Ahmad, Director, Social Welfare Department. ''I also came across reports that money orders were being returned. So, I have constituted a probe committee, engaging officers of the department who are not linked to this scheme,'' he added. According to Ahmad, the government had constructed a foolproof mechanism to identify those who would benefit from this scheme. Obviously, it wasn't so foolproof. ''There is a board at the district level, chaired by the deputy commissioner, with our district social welfare officer as its member secretary. There are one or two public representatives who are local legislators from that district. They identify the people, after which our tehsil-level officers do the physical verification,'' he said. ''The power to identify the beneficiaries and the disbursement of money rests with the deputy commissioners. We have to see what has gone wrong and where,''he added. Other sources in the welfare dartment were more forthcoming. ''It is impossible that the district boards would not know about this scam. Such siphoning of funds is only possible because of the connivance of the officers of the welfare department as well as those legislators who are part of the board,'' alleged a senior social welfare officer. o o o BBC Wednesday, 8 January, 2003, 05:07 GMT India to test-drive identity cards The Indian Government says it will test a proposed national identity-card scheme in selected districts of 13 states later this year. It says the scheme will help it track down illegal foreign nationals who pose a security risk. The decision was taken on Tuesday at an internal security meeting of state police, intelligence and other officials. The Indian Government also said it would launch a special drive to deport about 20 million people of Bangladeshi origin who it says are illegal immigrants. Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani strongly supported an official campaign, announced last month, to deport thousands of Pakistanis living illegally in India. Speaking at the security conference, Mr Advani said immediate steps should be taken to identify illegal residents, locate them and expel them. From fls at kein.org Fri Feb 14 07:14:29 2003 From: fls at kein.org (Florian Schneider) Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 02:44:29 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] f15 live stream from berlin Message-ID: f15 LIVE STREAM SAT FEB 15, 2003 12:00 -24:00 CET http://de.indymedia.org http://www.expertbase.net/f15 While the US-goverment and it's allies are preparing for the next war on Iraq, multitudes are raising up against the destructive power, hypocrisy and corruption of the exisiting world order. Next saturday, February 15, about 20 million people are supposed to march on the streets in hundreds of cities all over the world. In order to connect the worldwide protests media-activists around the globe are currently preparing for the up- and download of all sorts of texts, reports, interviews, audio- and video-material, streams and satellite feed: looping up to a hybrid media marathon and shaping a global network of local and remote collaboration. After the success of the live video streaming session from the protests against the nato- conference last weekend in munich, dozens of independent media activists from Germany have joined to set up a 12 hours f15 live stream from Berlin. The program will be divided into two parts: 1. LIVE FROM THE ANTI-WAR RALLYE IN BERLIN Full coverage of the demonstration in Berlin at Brandenburger Tor: - All together more than 20 teams of media activists and videographers are going to provide audio and video reports directly from the demonstration in Berlin - The video-material will be roughly edited and uploaded for viewing on demand http://kanalB.de http://subtv.org - Starting around 2 am CET the protest march will be live- casted by several camera units, the footage will be encoded and uploaded through a wireless connection from a tent next to the stage 2. f15 - LATE NIGHT PROTEST SHOW - Starting around 6 pm CET a video studio will be set up in bootlab in Berlin, Ziegelstrasse 23, - Livecasting of incoming reports from Amsterdam, London, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna, Rome etc. - Live reports of correspondants via mobile phone from Buenos Aires and New York and many other places - DJ-sets, videomixes and screening of globally found footage - Live talks with spontaneous guests and special contributions from the temporary f15- studio in bootlab, Berlin - IRC chat at: irc.indymedia.org #f15-stream Attention: The f15 live stream is another test-run after beta-versions from the esf in florence and the anti-nato protests in munich. it is proud to be at experimental stage and doesn't even tend to be clean of all kinds of interruptions, breaks, failures, mistakes, crashes, congestions... if you are not afraid of restarting your player -- stay tuned! 3. CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS Please get in touch with us if you are planning to film, edit and upload your clips from your local protest. we'd be happy to get to know about it and include it into the live stream. Join the chat on saturday, send a message to or subscribe to the f15-info mailinglist: http://www.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/f15-info You can easily link to the f15 LIVE STREAM by pasting this piece of html-code onto your website: From sadan at sarai.net Sat Feb 15 07:02:48 2003 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan) Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 20:32:48 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] city and sexuality Message-ID: <200302142032.48148.sadan@sarai.net> Dear friends, just read an ineteresting report and thought to share with you. The HIndustan Times, Tuesday, March 7, 1940, p.4. " His virgin Bride Turns out to be a Married Woman. Delhi Thursday: Mr. Ved Prakash Gautama, Megistrate, convicted one Ghisa yesterday under section 420, IPC (cheating) and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. The allegation against the accused was that he got an already married gujjar woman married to a Brahman in Qarol Bagh telling him that she was a Brahman virgin." no spin this time. thanking you. sadan. From avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in Sat Feb 15 12:51:53 2003 From: avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?Avishek=20Ganguly?=) Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 07:21:53 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Empire and Cricket...anyone? (the non-Lagan variety!) Message-ID: <20030215072153.7881.qmail@web8006.mail.in.yahoo.com> http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030215/asp/opinion/story_1672076.asp NOT WITH A STRAIGHT BAT The International Cricket Council is playing empire, it is not playing cricket. The time has come to move the headquarters of cricket away from Lord’s White domination of the world, ever since it began in the 17th century, has been marked by double standards. Ideas like freedom, justice, equality were good for “home” consumption, but never to be put into practice in the colonies. The tradition continues. The International Cricket Council remains largely a white-dominated body. And its double standards are enough to take one’s breath away. It gave the English team management time to decide whe- ther it would play in Zimbabwe. The match scheduled to be played in Harare was not played. It is not clear yet if England has forfeited the match and lost four points. The English team is reluctant to play in Zimbabwe because of security reasons. This argument, on the face of it, is a spurious one. There is no denying that Mr Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, is a tyrant and that democratic rights are non-existent for both the blacks and the whites of the country. This cannot be a good enough reason for not playing in Zimbabwe. If it is, then England should not be playing in Pakistan. England or Britain should object to the Olympic games being held in countries where democracy does not exist. If law and order are at the root of the reluctance, then England should show the same hesitation about playing in any third world country. The fact of the matter is that the nature of the political regime has little or nothing to do with sports. The boycott of South Africa was based on reasons that transcended the political; moreover, it was unanimous. England’s reluctance is grounded elsewhere. There is a widespread feeling among the white settlers that Mr Mugabe’s regime is treating them unfairly and is expropriating them from their land. The controversy is rooted in history. It is entirely possible to argue that the white settlers are an imposition and that the land they now claim to own is based on nothing more than the right of conquest. That right no longer exists. Mr Mugabe is trying to give the land back to their rightful owners, the natives of the country. He is, in fact, expropriating the expropriators. The white settlers are showing their lack of integration with Zimbabwean society by falling back on London. The indecision of the English cricket team about playing in Harare is a product of this controversy. The ICC has embarrassed itself by not penalizing England in the first instance. On a previous occasion, during the World Cup of 1996, when Australia and West Indies refused to play in Sri Lanka for security reasons, they forfeited their matches. This makes the special treatment being given to England in 2003 all the more glaring. It raises the suspicion that the ICC is run by a small cabal from within the Long Room at Lord’s. Cricket spread with the British Empire, but it has now acquired an independent and autonomous status. It can no longer be run by the prejudices that prevailed when Britannia ruled the waves. The ICC is playing empire, it is not playing cricket. The time has come perhaps to physically move the headquarters of cricket away from Lord’s. Maybe the second city of the British empire is cricket’s best home. ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com Sun Feb 16 22:39:50 2003 From: rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com (rehan ansari) Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 09:09:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] saturday in new york Message-ID: <20030216170950.93804.qmail@web40102.mail.yahoo.com> It was heartwarming the anti-war protest in New York City on Saturday. I am glad because standing in the cold, many degrees below freezing, we all needed all the warmth we could get. I had a feeling that by going to the protest I was going to be part of the largest assembly of people in my experience. The protest centered around the UN Headquarters building, which lies on 1st Avenue and 41st street. The closest I could get to it was 68th street. People flooded all of 3rd avenue, 2nd avenue and 1st avenue, between 41st and 68 streets. When a cheer would rise it would travel 20 blocks and lift you up. After the protest I went to my sister's home in Brooklyn where she and her husband are packing to leave for Lahore. As I surfed channels I noted CBS News reported 500,000 people, and CNN's grudging admission of "several hundred thousand" people at the protest. My sister, Saniya was filling kitchen utensils into boxes and talking about her work in New York. She was a host for a television show produced for Zee about NRIs, and currently worked in advertising. She said she is thinking about the move to Lahore as a "sabbatical" from work. Baber, walked into the apartment with beer. Baber came to the US at 17, attending Philadelphia College of Textiles; upon graduation working with Nike in Portland (Oregon) and then landing a job with Dyersburg, a garment manufacturing corporation in New York. Dyersburg went bankrupt last year. He went into business for himself, which he found to be a wonderful change in his life. However, with the new Registration law the authorities are no longer tolerating out of status Muslims in America. The fact that his H-1 visa has lapsed when his corporate job ended, he can only stay in the US with short term business visas. So its goodbye to living in New York. He can only come here for business. Friends began to trickle in, as this was Baber and Saniya's last night in their Bergen Street apartment, the scene of many parties over the last four years. Their place is not large, it's a one-bedroom, but they do have a rooftop deck, and their hearts are large. Asohan Amarasingham, 'Han' to everybody, walked in, Saniya looked up and said "Calculate something for me, Han." Whenever she meets Asohan, a math Phd at Brown University, she greets him by saying something randomly math-sounding. Han was at the protest as well. We started talking about posters and signs that we liked, recalling the following: "Drop Bush not the bomb; Baby, I am the bomb; Axis of assholes; Reelect Carter; Screw interns not the economy; Fight plaque not Iraq; Smoke Iraqi weed not Iraqis; Bake cookies not Iraqis; Take the War Heads out of Washington; Jews for Burning Bush; Colin Powell you are from the Bronx-- Shame on you!" Han asked Baber why he didn't go to the protest. Baber responded: "They gave me a business visa, not a protest visa." I asked him about his experience of getting the visa and the registration process. Baber said, "It took a long time, the fingerprinting and everything else. I did get a sympathetic officer who began by saying that everything has changed. The worst part was when she asked me if I had any relationship with New York City: if I ever lived here, if I had any friends. I said, no, no, and No!" __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com From tbyfield at panix.com Sun Feb 16 22:56:11 2003 From: tbyfield at panix.com (t byfield) Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 12:26:11 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] saturday in new york In-Reply-To: <20030216170950.93804.qmail@web40102.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20030216170950.93804.qmail@web40102.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20030216172611.GA4673@panix.com> rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com (Sun 02/16/03 at 09:09 AM -0800): > It was heartwarming the anti-war protest in New York indeed it was. it was the biggest manifestation in this city in over 20 years. here are some pictures i took yesterday: http://a.parsons.edu/~byfield/msc/f15/ cheers, t From sadan at sarai.net Mon Feb 17 21:34:53 2003 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 11:04:53 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] city and sexuality In-Reply-To: <20030214170848.3703.qmail@webmail16.rediffmail.com> References: <20030214170848.3703.qmail@webmail16.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <200302171104.53084.sadan@sarai.net> On Pathology and Interesting: I agree with you, Shree. But interesting may not always convey positive/moralist... attractions. Pathology has its own attraction. violence has its own zones of engagements. Thus pathetic and interesting are not always in contradiction with each other. I agree with your main body of comments. Thanks sadan. On Friday 14 February 2003 12:08 pm, you wrote: > P.S. > > P.S. > > Pathetic, not interesting. > Why the love and only the real love is not the ingredient of > marriage? > To hell with this verginity syndrome, which forces the female to > claim the fraud. > > shree > > On Sat, 15 Feb 2003 sadan wrote : > >Dear friends, > >just read an ineteresting report and thought to share with you. > >The HIndustan Times, Tuesday, March 7, 1940, p.4. > >" His virgin Bride Turns out to be a Married Woman. > >Delhi Thursday: Mr. Ved Prakash Gautama, Megistrate, convicted > >one Ghisa > >yesterday under section 420, IPC (cheating) and sentenced him to > >undergo > >rigorous imprisonment for one year. The allegation against the > >accused was > >that he got an already married gujjar woman married to a Brahman > >in Qarol > >Bagh telling him that she was a Brahman virgin." > > > >no spin this time. > >thanking you. > >sadan. > >_______________________________________________ > >Urbanstudygroup mailing list > >Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City From amc at autonomous.org Mon Feb 17 12:33:44 2003 From: amc at autonomous.org (Amanda McDonald Crowley) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 12:33:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: GILC Alert In-Reply-To: <6E73BE89626B004790F0CAFA57284BE0019FB4DE@exch1.aclu.org> Message-ID: -- Amanda McDonald Crowley tel: +61 (0)419 829 313 e: amc at autonomous.org / amc at va.com.au ------ Forwarded Message From: Chris Chiu Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 12:01:25 -0500 To: "GILC announce (E-mail)" Subject: GILC Alert GILC Alert Volume 7, Issue 1 31 January 2002 Welcome to the Global Internet Liberty Campaign Newsletter. Welcome to GILC Alert, the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign. We are an international organization of groups working for cyber-liberties, who are determined to preserve civil liberties and human rights on the Internet. We hope you find this newsletter interesting, and we very much hope that you will avail yourselves of the action items in future issues. If you are a part of an organization that would be interested in joining GILC, please contact us at . If you are aware of threats to cyber-liberties that we may not know about, please contact the GILC members in your country, or contact GILC as a whole. Please feel free to redistribute this newsletter to appropriate forums. =============================================== Free expression [1] Jailed Tunisian Net dissident on hunger strike [2] Norwegian teen faces DVD computer speech retrial [3] Chinese gov't targets weblogs, arrests Net activists [4] Malaysian web news agency raided [5] Vietnamese online dissident gets jail time [6] German Internet censor plan papers cause alarm [7] Pro-Net fair use bill resubmitted in US Congress [8] Court holds cybercafe chain liable for copyright violations [9] Music labels consider Net blocking, more crippleware [10] Several European nations sign online hate speech pact [11] Emails to British politicians censored Privacy [12] EU privacy concerns lead to Microsoft Passport changes [13] New bills target Total Informational Awareness spy program [14] Verizon appeals Net customer info subpoena decision [15] Panel rejects British gov't data retention plan [16] Transmeta microchips to include TCPA-type features [17] Studies indicate barriers to mass surveillance are eroding [18] Big Brother Awards ceremonies held in Bulgaria, France & Denmark [19] European privacy & civil rights newsletter launched ============================================================ [1] Jailed Tunisian Net dissident on hunger strike ============================================================ The proprietor of a prominent Tunisian news website has begun a hunger strike to protest the conditions of his confinement. Zouhair Yahyaoui founded and edited TUNeZINE, which included coverage of political affairs in the North African nation and materials from opposition party leaders. The Tunisian government arrested, tortured, then imprisoned him for republishing a letter online written by his uncle that derided the country's legal system. During his detainment, he has been forced to share a cell with 100 other inmates, and prison authorities have reportedly denied Yahyaoui medical aid even though he has been suffering from several serious medical ailments. Nearly two weeks ago, Yahyaoui began a hunger strike, saying that in "any event, the suffering is so intense that I am unable to eat." These latest developments have spawned grave concern from free speech advocates. Robert Menard, the Secretary-General of Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF-a GILC member), charged: "Not only does the Tunisian regime imprison persons whose only crime is to express themselves, but it also detains them in deplorable conditions." For more information in French (Francais), visit the TUNeZINE website at http://www.tunezine.com/ Additional details are available from the Digital Freedom Network (DFN-a GILC member) website under http://dfn.org/news/tunisia/hunger.htm An RSF press statement about this case is available under http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=4756 ===================================================== [2] Norwegian teen faces DVD computer speech retrial ===================================================== Authorities in Norway are attempting to prosecute a teenager once more for creating a DVD-related computer program. Jon Johansen created DeCSS in 1999. DeCSS is designed to help Linux operating system users watch DVDs on their machines. Norwegian authorities briefly detained him in early 2000 for his activities but released him not long afterwards. Nearly 2 years later, he was arrested again on the theory that by developing DeCSS, he violated a Norwegian law against break-ins. Presiding judge Irene Sogn subsequently vindicated Johansen, holding that there was "no evidence" that he had used DeCSS for illegal purposes. Sogn went on to rule that there was no proof that anyone else had used the program to break the law, and that Johansen could not be held liable as an accessory. Furthermore, the judge found there was no sign that Johansen had the necessary intent to cause illegal copying to take place. Finally, she held that, under Norwegian law, it was legal to use DeCSS to watch legally obtained DVDs, citing past personal property precedents. Norwegian prosecutors have announced plans to appeal the decision. The trial court ruling drew positive reactions from a number of free expression experts. Cindy Cohn from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF-a GILC member) noted that the "Norwegian court has recognized Jon has the right to take the steps necessary to view his own DVDs on his own computers. Johansen's acquittal, along with that of Russian company Elcomsoft in the U.S. last month, will hopefully convince Hollywood to stop filing unfounded charges in cases where there is no copyright infringement." Cohn was referring to the case of Dmitry Sklyarov, who developed a program for Elcomsoft, his employer, that circumvents the copy protection scheme contained on Adobe Systems electronic books. He was subsequently found innocent of having violated the criminal law provisions contained in the controversial United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act. For the latest details, read "Special division will retry 'DVD-Jon'," Aftenposten, 21 January 2003 at http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=475400 An EFF press release on the lower court ruling is posted at http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DeCSS_prosecutions/Johansen_DeCSS_case/20030107_ eff_pr.html For an archive of documents regarding the Johansen case, visit the EFF website under http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DeCSS_prosecutions/Johansen_DeCSS_case/ For video and text coverage, see "Teenager wins DVD court battle," BBC News, 7 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2635293.stm Read Lisa M. Bowman, "Norway piracy case brings activists hope," CNet News, 8 January 2003 at http://news.com.com/2102-1023-979769.html For further information in French (Francais), read Jerome Thorel, "Justice: acquittement de Jon Johansen, poursuivi pour 'piratage de DVD,'" ZDNet France, 7 January 2003 at http://news.zdnet.fr/story/0,,t118-s2128287,00.html ============================================================== [3] Chinese gov't targets weblogs, arrests Net activists ============================================================== Beijing continues to tighten its grip on Internet speech, both through technical methods and criminal prosecutions. Earlier this month, the Chinese government apparently blocked its citizens from accessing Blogspot.com. The website is used by hundreds of thousands of individuals to create weblogs or "blogs"-lists of weblinks (which occasionally include commentary) that spotlight Internet pages of interest, such as news articles. While Chinese authorities have reputedly since removed the block on other blogs on BlogSpot.com, the block on one blog in particular remains in place - DynaWeb (http://dweb.blogspot.com), which has lists of proxy servers that Chinese Internet users can use to gain access to restricted Web sites from within the country. The ban has angered many Chinese Internet users; one of them warned that the block would only lead to "more dissent. The bloggers who have something to say won't be deterred by the blockage at all. We'll find other ways." Meanwhile, concern is growing over 2 recently arrested Net activists. The Chinese government reportedly has convicted Tao Haidong of "inciting the overthrow of the state power." He had been accused of posting excerpts from 2 books he had written that decried the health of the country's economy and criticized various Chinese leaders. The excerpts appeared on various Chinese and foreign websites. While his sentence has yet to be announced, he could face the death penalty. In addition, Chinese authorities have formally arrested Ouyang Yi, who is a member of the banned Chinese Democratic Party and allegedly wrote online about the 1989 Tiananmen protests, disparaged Beijing's economic strategies and advocated structural reforms. For further information on the Blogspot ban, visit the Digital Freedom Network (DFN-a GILC member) website under http://dfn.org/news/china/blogblock.htm See "Beijing blocks bloggers," Reuters, 15 January 2003 at http://news.com.com/2102-1023-980707.html See also "China blocks bloggers' sites," NewScientist.com, 14 January 2003 at http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993260 Additional details concerning Tao Haidong are available from the Human Rights in China website under http://iso.hrichina.org/iso/news_item.adp?news_id=1172 For more about the Ouyang Yi case, click http://iso.hrichina.org/iso/news_item.adp?news_id=1179 Read "China charges web dissident," BBC News Online, 16 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/asia-pacific/2664167.stm ========================================================= [4] Malaysian web news agency raided ========================================================= Malaysian government agents have raided the offices of a prominent independent online news agency. Malaysiakini (also known as Malaysia Now) is an award-winning web publication that features critical reporting on the nation's political scene. The organization recently posted a letter from a concerned reader complaining about state policies that provide preferential treatment to ethnic Malays. After a complaint from the youth-wing of the country's ruling party, Malaysian authorities demanded that the news agency reveal the name of the letter's author. When the request was denied, police officers went into the agency's offices and confiscated of all 19 of its computers. The government has since accused Malaysiakini co-founder Steven Gan of breaking criminal sedition and racial hatred incitement laws; a court hearing on the matter is scheduled for May 2003. In the latest development, the agency's landlord, which has links to the government, is planning to evict Malaysiakini from its offices. The incursion has spurred protests both at the domestic and international levels. Some 200 people held a vigil outside Malaysiakini's offices to support the agency in its fight against the government harassment. Elsewhere, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF-a GILC member) issued a statement warning that the persecution of Malaysiakini "threatened once again the country's chief source of independent news." The text of the letter is available at http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/200301090033726.php A Malaysiakini press release about the raid is posted at http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/200301200018964.php A RSF statement on this case is posted under http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=4787 Read "Malaysian police raid website office," BBC News Online, 20 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2676297.stm Further analysis is available from Amnesty International via http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/ASA280032003?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\M ALAYSIA ======================================================== [5] Vietnamese online dissident gets jail time ======================================================== The Vietnamese government is apparently continuing efforts to stifle its online critics. The Vietnamese government has sentenced Nguyen Khac Toan to 12 years in prison. A former soldier, Nguyen was charged with allegedly emailing various "reactionary" overseas human rights organizations. His trial was reportedly marred by numerous procedural failings. For example, the trial was held in secret and lasted less than a day; Vietnamese authorities prevented him from consulting privately with his attorney, and limited consultations with his lawyer to 2 visits held several days prior to the hearing. The sentence itself is reputedly the heaviest ever levied in Vietnam against a person for his or her Internet activities. Not surprisingly, the prosecution of Nguyen has drawn sharp criticism from free speech advocates. In a statement, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF-a GILC member) "strongly condemned" his sentencing, labeled his trial a "sham" and called on Vietnamese "justice minister Uong Chu Luu to free him at once." The RSF statement is posted at http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=4676 ======================================================== [6] German Internet censor plan papers cause alarm ======================================================== Recently revealed documents concerning local German government attempts to censor Internet content are causing considerable anxiety among civil society activists. The district government of Duesseldorf had previously ordered Internet service providers (ISPs) to prevent users from reaching selected foreign websites. Duesseldorf officials have tried to justify these efforts as a way to fight right-wing extremists. However, according to government papers and audio recordings obtained by the cyber-rights group ODEM, authorities would not only prevent access to neo-Nazi sites, but would also be able to censor political criticism, entertainment files and sexual content. Indeed, the information uncovered by ODEM indicates how one of the prime backers of the blocking order, Jurgen Buessow, who is the head of administration of the Duesseldorf region, pressured a local broadcaster to takedown an online critique of his behavior. Even before these revelations, the Duesseldorf Internet content control plan had generated protests from a coalition of groups and politicians, not to mention a series of court challenges by affected ISPs. The newly unearthed documents have served to intensify this opposition. Foerderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft (FITUG-a GILC member) issued a call on private Internet users and non-governmental organizations to help defend "against Mr. Buessow's assault on our freedom" and ominously compared the Internet censorship scheme to past German government efforts to block foreign radio broadcasts. ODEM's Alvar Freude fears that if the Duesseldorf government has its way, information that is that only available from outside Germany "shall be taken offline with the help of the access providers. ... Do we actually want the internet or the germany.net?" To read the documents uncovered by ODEM, click http://odem.org/informationsfreiheit/o-ton.html The censored critique of Governor Buessow has been republished at http://web.archive.org/web/20011127185655/http://online.wdr.de/online/comput er/schiebwoche/index.phtml A FITUG press release on the subject is posted under http://www.fitug.de/news/pes/21012003_de.html An English-language translation of the release is available at http://www.fitug.de/news/pes/21012003_en.html See "Website-Sperrungen: Internet oder Deutschland-Net?" Heise Online, 28 January 2003 at http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-28.01.03-011/ See also Stefan Krempl, "Internet oder Deutschland-Net?" C't, 28 January 2003 at http://www.heise.de/ct/aktuell/data/jk-28.01.03-010/ ============================================================ [7] Pro-Net fair use bill resubmitted in US Congress ============================================================ Renewed efforts are being made to protect traditional free expression rights in the Information Age. United States Representative Rick Boucher has submitted a proposal to amend the much-criticized U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Among other things, the plan would allow users to bypass copy protection schemes "if such circumvention does not result in an infringement of the copyright" in a given work, which would ostensibly include fair uses, that is, making use of the work for research, public commentary, and educational or other salutary purposes. In addition, the bill would permit the manufacture, distribution and "noninfringing use" of software or hardware "capable of enabling significant noninfringing use of a copyright work"-a provision that might apply to such items as music sharing software and optical disc burners. The proposal would also require special labeling for copy-protected CDs. Boucher explained that he resubmitted the bill because the "fair use doctrine is threatened today as never before. ... The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the Fair Use rights of the users of copyrighted material. The re-introduced legislation will assure that consumers who purchase digital media can enjoy a broad range of uses of the media for their own convenience in a way which does not infringe the copyright in the work." The resubmission of the Boucher bill came just as a recent report indicated that the DMCA is having an adverse impact on free speech in the digital domain. Entitled "Unintended Consequences: Four Years under the DMCA," the study documents how key portions of the Act "have not been used as Congress envisioned. ... In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy." The report was commissioned by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF-a GILC member). The text of the bill is available (in PDF format) under http://www.house.gov/boucher/docs/dmcra108th.pdf A statement from Rep. Boucher on his proposal is posted at http://www.house.gov/boucher/docs/dmca108.htm For further information in German (Deutsch), read "US-Gesetzesinitiative fur Recht auf private digitale Kopie," Heise Online, 9 January 2003 at http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anw-09.01.03-001/ The Unintended Consequences report is posted under http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/DMCA/20030102_dmca_unintended_consequences.html Read Lisa M. Bowman, "EFF: DMCA is choking innovation," ZDNet News, 10 January 2003 at http://zdnet.com.com/2102-1106-980112.html For further information in German (Deutsch), see Monika Ermert, "Unbeabsichtigte Folgen des US-Urheberrechts," Heise Online, 13 January 2003 at http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anw-13.01.03-003/ ================================================================== [8] Court holds cybercafe chain liable for copyright infringement ================================================================== A global business mogul is refusing to surrender in his battle against the recording industry over alleged copyright violations. Stelios Haji-Iannou is the founder of the EasyGroup business empire, which includes the European airline EasyJet and the EasyInternet Café chain. A number of major recording companies, including the British Phonographic Industry (which represents Universal, Virgin and EMI) have sued EasyGroup, claiming that that it should be liable for music that allegedly has been downloaded illegally by EasyInternet Café customers. Sony went so far as to ask the court for a "gag order" to prevent public discussion of the dispute-a request that was denied. A court in London has since ruled in the music companies' favor. Judge Peter Smith rejected arguments by EasyInternet that it should not be held responsible for what its customers do while using its computers. The tribunal has not yet announced what penalties it will impose. Haji-Iannou savaged the ruling, accusing Smith of failing to answer one of his firm's key arguments: that downloading music was a legally permitted fair use, similar to recording a television program for later viewing. "I believe the judge side-stepped the issue because it would have opened a can of worms for the music industry, throwing it into disarray, but that is not a good reason." He has vowed to appeal the ruling. See "Net café to appeal against ruling," BBC News Online, 28 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2702071.stm Read Jill Treanor, "Music chiefs win net café ruling," The Guardian, 29 January 2003 at http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,884428,00.html See also Owen Gibson, "Internet café guilty of piracy," Media Guardian, 28 January 2003 at http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,884052,00.html For further information in French (Francais), read Estelle Dumont, "Les cybercafes Easy Internet epingles pour contrefacon au Royaum-Uni," ZDNet France, 29 January 2003 at http://news.zdnet.fr/story/0,,t118-s2129563,00.html ========================================================= [9] Music labels consider Net blocking, more crippleware ========================================================= In order to prevent music piracy, we must censor the Internet on a global scale, and restrict people's use of audio discs, even if they were purchased legally. Those are several ideas reportedly being pushed by Pascal Nègre, the Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music France, and the president of the a leading music industry trade group (Société civile des producteurs phonographiques-SCPP). Among other things, he is calling for national procedures to block access to Internet content as an antipiracy measure. Negre has tried to justify this notion by claiming most music is downloaded from websites hosted outside of France. He is also lobbying for measures that would limit buyers of CDs to making just one copy-a concept that may be coming closer to reality. Microsoft has recently unveiled a new copy protection scheme that features multiple layers of information encoded on compact discs. Microsoft claims that its new Windows Media Data Session Toolkit is an improvement on past copy protection systems, which produced CDs that couldn't be played on personal computers, portable devices or car stereos. Questions remain, however, as to whether such measures would simply be rejected by consumers. For example, Fred von Lohmann from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF-a GILC member) commented that crippled audio discs were "going to drive people to use alternative means to get a hold of the music that they legitimately purchased." Indeed, in Japan, a system of copy protected CDs launched by Label Gate nearly a year ago has flopped due to poor sales. For more on Pascal Negre's comments, see Estelle Dumout, "Musique: les producteurs francais exigent un filtrage de l'internet," ZDNet France, 10 January 2003 at http://news.zdnet.fr/story/0,,t118-s2128510,00.html Read "Label Gate CDs tackle 'burning' question," Asahi Shimbun, 24 January 2003 at http://www.asahi.com/english/business/K2003012400229.html For more on Microsoft's new copy protected CD format, read "Microsoft's new CDs face uphill battle," Associated Press, 23 January 2003 at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/23/tech/printable537733.shtml See "Microsoft sets sights on CD piracy," BBC News Online, 20 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2675903.stm See also "Microsoft unveils new CD copy protection," Reuters, 18 January 2003 at http://news.com.com/2102-1023-981279.html =========================================================== [10] Several European nations sign online hate speech pact =========================================================== Various European nations have signed a controversial protocol regarding online hate speech. The protocol was considered in connection with the Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention. The proposal essentially requires signatory nations to bar people from "making available" or "distributing ... racist and xenophobic material ... through a computer system." Among other things, the plan also calls for signatories to criminalize the use of computer networks to conduct various "racist and xenophobic" activities. The pact had previously been approved by the CoE's Council of Ministers in November 2002. The list of signatories includes Armenia, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Sweden. However, the United States government, which supported the underlying Convention, has signaled that it will not sign the protocol, due to concerns that the hate speech agreement would run afoul of Constitutional free expression protections. A Council of Europe press release on this subject is posted at http://press.coe.int/cp/2003/048a(2003).htm For additional background information on U.S. resistance to the protocol, see Declan McCullagh, "U.S. won't support Net 'hate speech' ban," CNet News, 15 November 2002 at http://news.com.com/2102-1023-965983.html ================================================================ [11] British politicians' emails to be censored ================================================================ A number of politicians in the United Kingdom are raising objections to a new plan that will censor their email messages. The British Parliamentary Communications Director has announced changes in the way electronic mail will be handled. Under the new rules, messages that contain "profanities of a sexual or offensive nature" will not be tolerated. However, many details regarding the scheme have yet to come to light, and it is not clear even to the affected politicians which words will be censored. Instead, Members of Parliament (MPs) will be forced to write to the directorate to discover precisely what is taboo. Not surprisingly, the plan has met with irritation from a number of MPs. One of them, Paul Tyler, explained: "We might be more relaxed about censorship and the nanny state if we knew who the nanny was. Some MPs are known for their colourful language. Even the grey prime minister, John Major, was known to describe his colleagues as bastards. Would he now be bleeped?" Read "MPs face foul language censorship," BBC News Online, 17 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2668461.stm ============================================================ [12] EU privacy concerns lead to Microsoft Passport changes ============================================================ The world's leading provider of computer operating systems has entered into an agreement with European government regulators to alter its user personal information practices. Microsoft has agreed to make changes to its .NET Passport user authentication service in order to comply with European Union privacy rules. The company had intended Passport to act as a central repository for such personal information as birth dates and credit card numbers, which, in turn, could be used for a variety of purposes, such as commercial transactions online. As explained in a report issued by the EU Working Party on Data Protection, Microsoft will have to allow users greater control over how much information they divulge through the service. Key measures include recoding the registration system to separate "the creation of a Passport account from the decision to communicate personal data to participating sites or to store it in the [respective user's] profile," and permitting users "to decide on a site-by-site basis whether they want to communicate their profile data or not." Other steps involve "revising the text of the .NET Passport privacy statement and providing additional information on registration pages." The report also mentions other online authentication schemes, including the Sun Microsystems-backed Liberty Alliance Project, and notes that the Working Party "will continue to monitor" future developments in this field. Passport had been the subject of intense scrutiny from privacy experts for years. In 2001, several organizations, including GILC members the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Net Action, had filed formal papers with the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding the potential detrimental impact that Microsoft Windows XP might have on user privacy, especially its Passport component. Those complaints led to an investigation and settlement with the FTC. The EU report is available (in PDF format) under http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/dataprot/wpdocs/wp68_en.pdf An EPIC archive of materials concerning Passport is available via http://www.epic.org/privacy/consumer/microsoft/passport.html Read Matt Loney, "Microsoft agrees to Passport changes," CNet News, 30 January 2003 at http://news.com.com/2102-1001-982790.html See "Microsoft OKs 'Passport' Changes," Associated Press, 30 January 2003 at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/30/tech/printable538597.shtml For further information in German (Deutsch), see "Microsoft verbessert Datenschutz von Passport," Heise Online, 30 January 2003 at http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anw-30.01.03-003/ ================================================================ [13] New bills target Total Informational Awareness spy program ================================================================ Several new proposals may curb the development of a shadowy United States government program to collect a wide range of personal information. A project of the U.S. Department of Defense, Total Informational Awareness (TIA) is designed to gather personal data on a grand scale, including emails, phone calls, financial records, transportation habits, and medical information. Its proponents believe that by scanning and analyzing this massive pile of data, government agents will be able to predict and prevent crime. Many specifics concerning this plan have yet to be determined, including methods to protect the security of the warehoused information and other prevent unauthorized access. It is known, however, that the U.S. government is already funding projects to develop tools that could be used as part of this system, including software to predict an individual's behavior based on what that person does online. Experts believe the recently created U.S. Department of Homeland Security will use TIA. Not long after details began to surface about the program, a coalition of non-profit groups issued a letter urging United States lawmakers "to act immediately to stop the development of TIA and other similar programs that create massive public surveillance systems." Among other things, the document pointed out that, according to the various Defense Department documents, "TIA would expand domestic intelligence activities to include the analysis of innocent people's personal information-credit card transactions, hotel reservations, or even prescription receipts. ... By definition, the program is privacy-intrusive. ... Yet even as millions of dollars are spent to develop a hi-tech domestic surveillance system, the Defense Department's recent response to a Freedom of Information Act request strongly suggests that privacy policy has received little consideration-if any-in TIA's development." The list of signatories included a number of GILC member organizations, notably the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. Since then, several pro-privacy bills on the subject have been submitted for consideration in the U.S. Senate. The Data-Mining Moratorium Act, sponsored by Senators Russ Feingold, Ron Wyden and John Corzine, would halt development of all data-mining systems in the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security (which would ostensibly include TIA). The Act would also require all Federal agencies to submit reports within 90 days about any or all such systems that they are developing or using as well as what measures are being implemented to protect individual privacy. In addition, Senator Wyden has put forth an amendment to an omnibus budget bill that would essentially restrict the use of Federal funds for "any research, development, test, and evaluation" of TIA technology. The Senate approved the amendment, but the bill itself must now go through a conference committee to resolve differences between the Senate version and the version passed by the House of Representatives (which does not contain the anti-TIA language). The text of the Feingold bill is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.188: For a summary of the Data-Mining Moratorium Act and a press release from Sen. Feingold, click http://www.senate.gov/~feingold/releases/03/01/2003116745.html The text of the Wyden amendment (in PDF format) is posted under http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/sa59.html To read the coalition letter (in PDF format), click http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/TIA_coalition_letter.pdf See Dan Eggen and Robert O'Harrow Jr., "Surveillance Plan Worries GOP Senator," Washington Post, 22 January 2003, page A13 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24480-2003Jan21.html Read Declan McCullagh, "Senate limits Pentagon 'snooping' plan," CNet News, 23 January 2003 at http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981945.html For more on one U.S. government-funded computer user behavior prediction project, read Ben Dobbin, "Mission: Find Intruders Instantly," Associated Press, 23 January 2003 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30761-2003Jan22.html ======================================================== [14] Verizon appeals Net customer info subpoena decision ======================================================== A major United States Internet service provider (ISP) has appealed a decision that would force it to divulge personal information about one of its subscribers to a recording industry trade group. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has requested data concerning a customer of telecom giant Verizon. The RIAA alleges that the individual in question had engaged in copyright infringement through peer-to-peer music file trading over the Internet. The Association claims it has the power to gather such information under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) even though it has not actually filed a lawsuit yet. The cited DMCA provision essentially says that copyright owners can request a U.S. Federal court to subpoena "information sufficient to identify the alleged infringer" from a "service provider." Verizon refused, claiming that this power can only be used when infringing material is stored or controlled on the service provider's network. A trial court in the U.S. subsequently agreed with the RIAA and ordered Verizon to turn over the requested information. In his ruling, presiding judge John D. Bates did not determine whether the affected individual was engaged in copyright infringement. Instead, he focused on fears that "Verizon's reading of the act, a significant amount of potential copyright infringement would be shielded from the subpoena authority of the DMCA." Judge Bates then broadly interpreted the term "service provider" to include companies that merely provide a conduit for allegedly infringing material. He also suggested it was unnecessary to institute measures (similar to those used in anonymous online speech cases) to protect the privacy of Internet users, using terms like "cumbersome" and "uneconomical for copyright holders" to describe such procedures. Verizon has since appealed the decision. Privacy advocates have blasted the trial court's ruling, warning it may allow copyright holders unchecked power to gather personal information based on mere allegations. Gwen Hinze from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF-a GILC member) noted that "[p]eople used to rest assured that their ISP would protect their privacy. After this decision, your ISP will be required to turn over your identity to any copyright holder simply because they claim you're doing something illegal." To read the text of the decision (in PDF format), click http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/verizon/inreverizon12103opn.pdf An EFF press release on this subject is posted under http://eff.org/Cases/RIAA_v_Verizon/20030121_pr.php See Declan McCullagh, "Verizon appeals RIAA subpoena win," CNet News, 30 January 2003 at http://news.com.com/2102-1023-982809.html Read Jonathan Krim, "Recording Labels Win Copyright Ruling," Washington Post, 22 January 2003, page E1 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24577-2003Jan21.html For audio and text coverage, go to "Music labels win net piracy case," BBC News, 22 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2682243.stm ============================================================ [15] Panel rejects British gov't data retention plan ============================================================ The British Home Office's data retention plans have received a thumbs-down from a Parliamentary inquiry panel. The All Party Internet Group (APIG), which is comprised of Members of Parliament and Peers, had analyzed a retention scheme put forward under the British Anti-Terrorism Crime & Security Act of 2001. The proposal called for customer telecommunications traffic data to be retained for up to a year for law enforcement purposes. The types of data to be stored under this plan would ostensibly include email header information, web surfing habits, callers' and recipients' names, and the geographic locations of individual mobile phones. The APIG has since issued a report indicating that that the entire scheme should be dropped. The Group based its decision on several grounds, including concern that the data retention plan would run afoul of various human rights laws. The panel also concluded that the proposal, if implemented, would cost far more money than the Government's prior estimates, and that there would be great difficulty in getting the necessary cooperation from industry. The panel's report was warmly embraced by cyber-rights experts. Ian Brown from the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR-a GILC member) stated that data retention "would be a gross invasion of all of our privacy. It would also be extremely costly, ineffective against terrorism, and illegal under human rights law. We hope the Home Office will take the inquiry's advice and drop the whole idea." For further information, visit the FIPR website under http://www.fipr.org/press/030128APIG.html See "MPs urge changes to net snooping laws," BBC News Online, 28 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2702889.stm See also "UK stands firm on snooping laws," BBC News Online, 30 January 2003 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2706677.stm ============================================================ [16] Transmeta microchips to include TCPA-type features ============================================================ A new line of microprocessors will include various "security" features, but it is unclear whether they will enhance or reduce computer users' rights. Transmeta has announced that these functions will be built into its T5800 chips. While precise details about these microdevices have yet to be released, they will apparently include an encryption engine that supports many key algorithms. The T5800 will also have a special "invisible" tamper-resistant area that could be used to store such items as encryption keys, digital certificates and intellectual property files. The chips are scheduled to go on the market later this year. Since the announcement, one of Transmeta's main rivals, Intel, has unveiled similar plans for its next generation of mobile processors. The T5800 bears a strong resemblance to the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance project and its Microsoft-led Palladium software counterpart, which have generated a great deal of concern from cyber-rights experts. Skeptics worry that Palladium-type systems will be used to control everything that users can do on their machines, such as barring people from reading or downloading files from the Internet. In addition, there are fears that central microchip repositories such as the "invisible" area in the T5800 will hurt online privacy by denying individual users control over their personal information while making it easier for outsiders to access the same data. See John G. Spooner, "Transmeta notches up notebook security," CNet News, 14 January 2003 at http://news.com.com/2102-1001-980521.html See also Lisa Gill, "Transmeta Embeds Security Features in Mobile Chip," NewsFactor, 14 January 2003 at http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20460.html The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC-a GILC member) has created a special dossier on Palladium under http://www.epic.org/privacy/consumer/microsoft/palladium.html For links to information on TCPA in German (Deutsch), visit the Stop1984 (a GILC member) website under http://www.stop1984.info/index2.php?text=tcpa.txt ================================================================ [17] Studies indicate barriers to mass surveillance are eroding ================================================================ A new report suggests that the emergence of an Orwellian surveillance state may not be far off. Entitled "Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains," the report, which was written by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-a GILC member) describes how recent advances in data-gathering technology (such as biometric identification scanners, implantable Global Positioning System chips and cell phone location systems) have made it possible to create a "mosaic of information ... on every individual." Meanwhile, recent legislation such as the USA Patriot Act have steadily eroded long-standing bulwarks against privacy abuses. As a result, the report continues, "a surveillance society does loom over us, and privacy, while not yet dead, is on life support." The document concludes that there is a need for new comprehensive privacy laws to cope with new invasive technologies, rather than a "patchwork of largely inadequate protections." To read the "Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains report, visit http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacylist.cfm?c=39 See Lisa M. Bowman, "ACLU: You're being watched," CNet News, 16 January 2003 at http://news.com.com/2102-1023-980964.html For further information in German (Deutsch), read "Burgerrechtler: Big Brother formiert sich," Heise Online, 17 January 2003 at http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anm-17.01.03-001/ ======================================================================== [18] Big Brother Awards ceremonies held in Bulgaria, France & Denmark ======================================================================== The winners of the Bulgarian, French and Danish Big Brother Awards were announced earlier this month. These prizes are given out by Privacy International (a GILC member) and affiliated groups in several nations to government agencies, companies and initiatives that have done the most to invade personal privacy. Special awards are also given to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the protection of privacy. The list of Bulgarian Big Brother Awards recipients included the Bulgarian Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov for wiretapping his colleagues, the ex-President, opposition party members, and ordinary citizens; Mobiltel, which retains records of all text messages sent through their systems, to allow government officials "to find out a customer who has been sending uncensured, vulgar, based on personal, religious, faith or political ground"; register.bg, which is requiring users of the country's top-level domain to provide large amounts of personal data, and the Bulgarian Interior Ministry for several incidents of intrusive behavior, including the curious seizure of a teenager's computer because the installed version of Microsoft Windows was not authorized by the country's National Combat Unit against Organized Crime. Special citations were presented to the Bulgarian Council of Ministers for secretly farming out customs searches to a foreign-based private company, Crown Agents, and for a secret contract for the government to make large-scale purchases of Microsoft products at inflated prices. A positive award was given to Snezhanka Georgieva, the head of the nation's Civil Registry and Administrative Services of the Ministry of regional development, for her continuous attempts to stop publishing citizens' social security numbers on the election voters lists. In France, Orwell awards (for privacy villains) were given to Alain Bauer of AB Associates (Special Prize, Lifetime Achievement), Logiciel Géoprévention / Ville de Roubaix (Technologies, products and systems category) Carrefour / France Express Recouvrement (Private enterprises and professional organizations), Jack Lang & Xavier Darcos - logiciel SIGNA (States, administrations, elected officials and personalities) and Gérard Collomb / Municipalité de LYON (Cities and urban policies). On the other hand, Voltaire prizes were given to Act Up Paris (Special Prize, Lifetime Achievement), GISTI and le Collectif RATP (joint winners in the Freedom of movement and assembly category), Collectif Bureau d'Etudes - Strasbourg (Freedom of information and expression), Collectif CLARIS (Methods of monitoring and security control), and No-Log - Globenet (Private life, personal correspondences and data). In Denmark, the second-ever Big Brother Awards ceremony helped establish the event as an annual tradition, as well as heighten media attention and public awareness of privacy issues. Danish Orwell Awards were handed out to the Danish Data Protection Agency (State category) for failing to address the issue of continuing massive function creep related to National IDs (introduced more than 30 years ago), Høje-Taastrup County (District/County) and DSB (Company) received awards for installing remote monitored video surveillance systems, eBoks - KMD (Project/product) for attempting to establish a digital depository for personal data based on National IDs, Henrik Qvortrup (Person) for repeatedly invading the privacy of celebrities and public figures, and the Anti Piracy Group (Peoples Choice) for establishing a system for non-police searches of people's homes based on information from the Kazaa service. Line Barfoed (Person) from the left-wing party Enhedslisten received the only Simon (positive award) for her work against Anti-terror/Data Retention legislation. Although local organizers sought and called for candidates for positive awards in other categories, there were no nominations due to a dearth of suitable candidates, reflecting an apparent trend against privacy rights. The full list of Bulgarian Big Brother Awards winners for 2003 is posted at http://www.bg.bigbrotherawards.org/ For further details on the 2003 French Big Brother Awards, click http://www.bigbrotherawards.eu.org/2002/ Additional information on the 2003 Danish Big Brother Awards is available under http://www.bigbrotherawards.dk/uk/award/2002/index.uk.html See also http://www.bigbrotherawards.org/ ========================================================= [19] European privacy & civil rights newsletter launched ========================================================= EDRI-gram is a new bi-weekly newsletter about freedom, rights and rules in the information society in Europe. It is produced by European Digital Rights (EDRi), an association currently made up of 10 different privacy and civil rights organizations from 7 European countries. EDRi has an active interest in developments regarding these subjects in the EU accession countries; the goal of this new publication is to share knowledge and raise awareness on these issues throughout the continent. To submit ideas for the EDRI-gram, email edrigram at edri.org To subscribe to the EDRI-gram, click http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/edri-news ========================================================= ABOUT THE GILC NEWS ALERT: ========================================================= The GILC News Alert is the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, an international coalition of organizations working to protect and enhance online civil liberties and human rights. Organizations are invited to join GILC by contacting us at gilc at gilc.org. To alert members about threats to cyber liberties, please contact members from your country or send a message to the general GILC address. To submit information about upcoming events, new activist tools and news stories, contact: Christopher Chiu GILC Coordinator American Civil Liberties Union 125 Broad Street, 17th Floor New York, New York 10004 USA Or email: cchiu at aclu.org More information about GILC members and news is available at http://www.gilc.org You may re-print or redistribute the GILC NEWS ALERT freely. This edition of the GILC Alert will be found on the World Wide Web under http://www.gilc.org/alert/alert71.html To subscribe to the alert, please send e-mail to gilc-announce at gilc.org with the following message in the body: subscribe gilc-announce ======================================================== PUBLICATION OF THIS NEWSLETTER IS MADE POSSIBLE BY A GRANT FROM THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE (OSI) ======================================================== ------ End of Forwarded Message From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Mon Feb 17 14:56:23 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 01:26:23 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Robert Fisk on why no one is supporting this war Message-ID: <20030217092623.98073.qmail@web41101.mail.yahoo.com> The case against war: A conflict driven by the self-interest of America 15 February 2003 Robert Fisk, The Independent, UK In the end, I think we are just tired of being lied to. Tired of being talked down to, of being bombarded with Second World War jingoism and scare stories and false information and student essays dressed up as "intelligence". We are sick of being insulted by little men, by Tony Blair and Jack Straw and the likes of George Bush and his cabal of neo-conservative henchmen who have plotted for years to change the map of the Middle East to their advantage. No wonder, then, that Hans Blix's blunt refutation of America's "intelligence" at the UN yesterday warmed so many hearts. Suddenly, the Hans Blixes of this world could show up the Americans for the untrustworthy "allies" they have become. The British don't like Hussein any more than they liked Nasser. But millions of Britons remember, as Blair does not, the Second World War; they are not conned by childish parables of Hitler, Churchill, Chamberlain and appeasement. They do not like being lectured and whined at by men whose experience of war is Hollywood and television. Still less do they wish to embark on endless wars with a Texas governor-executioner who dodged the Vietnam draft and who, with his oil buddies, is now sending America's poor to destroy a Muslim nation that has nothing at all to do with the crimes against humanity of 11 September. Jack Straw, the public school Trot-turned-warrior, ignores all this, with Blair. He brays at us about the dangers of nuclear weapons that Iraq does not have, of the torture and aggression of a dictatorship that America and Britain sustained when Saddam was "one of ours". But he and Blair cannot discuss the dark political agenda behind George Bush's government, nor the "sinister men" (the words of a very senior UN official) around the President. Those who oppose war are not cowards. Brits rather like fighting; they've biffed Arabs, Afghans, Muslims, Nazis, Italian Fascists and Japanese imperialists for generations, Iraqis included � though we play down the RAF's use of gas on Kurdish rebels in the 1930s. But when the British are asked to go to war, patriotism is not enough. Faced with the horror stories, Britons � and many Americans � are a lot braver than Blair and Bush. They do not like, as Thomas More told Cromwell in A Man for All Seasons, tales to frighten children. Perhaps Henry VIII's exasperation in that play better expresses the British view of Blair and Bush: "Do they take me for a simpleton?" The British, like other Europeans, are an educated people. Ironically, their opposition to this obscene war may make them feel more, not less, European. Palestine has much to do with it. Brits have no love for Arabs but they smell injustice fast enough and are outraged at the colonial war being used to crush the Palestinians by a nation that is now in effect running US policy in the Middle East. We are told that our invasion of Iraq has nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict � a burning, fearsome wound to which Bush devoted just 18 words in his meretricious State of the Union speech � but even Blair can't get away with that one; hence his "conference" for Palestinian reform at which the Palestinians had to take part via video-link because Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, refused to let them travel to London. So much for Blair's influence over Washington � the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, "regretted" that he couldn't persuade Sharon to change his mind. But at least one has to acknowledge that Sharon � war criminal though he may be for the 1982 Sabra and Chatila massacres � treated Blair with the contempt he deserves. Nor can the Americans hide the link between Iraq and Israel and Palestine. In his devious address to the UN Security Council last week, Powell linked the three when he complained that Hamas, whose suicide bombings so cruelly afflict Israelis, keeps an office in Baghdad. Just as he told us about the mysterious al-Qa'ida men who support violence in Chechnya and in the "Pankisi gorge". This was America's way of giving Vladimir Putin a free hand again in his campaign of rape and murder against the Chechens, just as Bush's odd remark to the UN General Assembly last 12 September about the need to protect Iraq's Turkomans only becomes clear when one realises that Turkomans make up two thirds of the population of Kirkuk, one of Iraq's largest oil fields. The men driving Bush to war are mostly former or still active pro-Israeli lobbyists. For years, they have advocated destroying the most powerful Arab nation. Richard Perle, one of Bush's most influential advisers, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton and Donald Rumsfeld were all campaigning for the overthrow of Iraq long before George W Bush was elected � if he was elected � US President. And they weren't doing so for the benefit of Americans or Britons. A 1996 report, A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm (http://www.israeleconomy.org/strat1.htm) called for war on Iraq. It was written not for the US but for the incoming Israeli Likud prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and produced by a group headed by � yes, Richard Perle. The destruction of Iraq will, of course, protect Israel's monopoly of nuclear weapons and allow it to defeat the Palestinians and impose whatever colonial settlement Sharon has in store. Although Bush and Blair dare not discuss this with us � a war for Israel is not going to have our boys lining up at the recruiting offices � Jewish American leaders talk about the advantages of an Iraqi war with enthusiasm. Indeed, those very courageous Jewish American groups who so bravely oppose this madness have been the first to point out how pro-Israeli organisations foresee Iraq not only as a new source of oil but of water, too; why should canals not link the Tigris river to the parched Levant? No wonder, then, that any discussion of this topic must be censored, as Professor Eliot Cohen, of Johns Hopkins University, tried to do in the Wall Street Journal the day after Powell's UN speech. Cohen suggested that European nations' objections to the war might � yet again � be ascribed to "anti-Semitism of a type long thought dead in the West, a loathing that ascribes to Jews a malignant intent." This nonsense, it must be said, is opposed by many Israeli intellectuals who, like Uri Avnery, argue that an Iraq war will leave Israel with even more Arab enemies, especially if Iraq attacks Israel and Sharon then joins the US battle against the Arabs. The slur of "anti-Semitism" also lies behind Rumsfeld's snotty remarks about "old Europe". He was talking about the "old" Germany of Nazism and the "old" France of collaboration. But the France and Germany that oppose this war are the "new" Europe, the continent which refuses, ever again, to slaughter the innocent. It is Rumsfeld and Bush who represent the "old" America; not the "new" America of freedom, the America of F D Roosevelt. Rumsfeld and Bush symbolise the old America that killed its native Indians and embarked on imperial adventures. It is "old" America we are being asked to fight for � linked to a new form of colonialism � an America that first threatens the United Nations with irrelevancy and then does the same to Nato. This is not the last chance for the UN, nor for Nato. But it may well be the last chance for America to be taken seriously by her friends as well as her enemies. In these last days of peace the British should not be tripped by the oh-so-sought-after second UN resolution. UN permission for America's war will not make the war legitimate; it merely proves that the Council can be controlled with bribes, threats or abstentions. It was the Soviet Union's abstention, after all, which allowed America to fight the savage Korean war under the UN flag. And we should not doubt that � after a quick US military conquest of Iraq and providing 'they" die more than we die � there will be plenty of anti-war protesters who will claim they were pro-war all along. The first pictures of "liberated" Baghdad will show Iraqi children making victory signs to American tank crews. But the real cruelty and cynicism of this conflict will become evident as soon as the "war" ends, when our colonial occupation of a Muslim nation for the US and Israel begins. There lies the rub. Bush calls Sharon a "man of peace". But Sharon fears he may yet face trial over Sabra and Chatila, which is why Israel has just withdrawn its ambassador to Belgium. I'd like to see Saddam in the same court. And Rifaat Assad for his 1982 massacre in the Syrian city of Hama. And all the torturers of Israel and the Arab dictatorships. Israeli and US ambitions in the region are now entwined, almost synonymous. This war is about oil and regional control. It is being cheer-led by a draft-dodger who is treacherously telling us that this is part of an eternal war against "terror". And the British and most Europeans don't believe him. It's not that Britons wouldn't fight for America. They just don't want to fight for Bush or his friends. And if that includes the Prime Minister, they don't want to fight for Blair either. Source: http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=378428 __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com From VinitaNYC at aol.com Tue Feb 18 04:11:41 2003 From: VinitaNYC at aol.com (VinitaNYC at aol.com) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 17:41:41 EST Subject: [Reader-list] re: saturday in new york Message-ID: <2b.3923a714.2b82bf25@aol.com> Last night I wrote a sad story but it has been lost in a computer hazard. My friend Baber tells me it is good I lost that sad story. What a fine way to blow it away. Instead of staying sad we toast together to the ghosts that the fbi will find in his apartment this evening instead of him, or Saniya or Rehan. We make plans to meet in Colombo, Mumbai or lahoreinaugust--maybe a new world in south asia? This morning my eyes open to a different world. The lost story is still in the cage of my chest. I am thinking about witnessess and how Saniya and Baber have been mine, how they made this tough and angular city gentle and round. And how, according to new INS registration laws, they have two weeks to cross the circles around the house, around the brownsugarnewyourkcity nation in which they lived and dreamed and played in (with me). I feel they will enter their own vortex. I will enter mine. This is different than saying goodbye to friends in other places. This carries a sense of injustice and ache. This was a fast re-wiring of dreams. This was goodbye bush, usa, fbi, ins. And now I have had my last night with them in their apartment - the end of Bergen street in Carrol Gardens. It was packed in a day and the cd's, jewels, books, clothes have been distributed between a sister in law and a brother's ex-girlfriend and we will spend the next two weeks talking like this: freedom, travel, movement, no way usa and meet you in an air-conditioned cinema in july in colaba, or for hash in peshawar. Still, i feel lonely. I feel so lonely it hurts. And I am trying not to. I am trying to get my winter jacket on so that I can go to that protest. On the subway platform a woman wearing a white fur vest hands out flyers, "one million people protest the war." I get on the brooklyn bound Q subway without taking one. I am on the way home and as I get closer, passing graffiti on concrete walls, to Cortelyou, that street I cannot wait to get to, I start to cry. I am hoping to embrace this in the way my friends Saniya and Baber have, excited and open to their brave new world. And maybe I'll go to that protest now and shake myself a little. Shed a little? Find some new skin? See the wonders of protest in New York City and gear up for that trip to Lahore. From fatimazehrarizvi at hotmail.com Tue Feb 18 10:04:29 2003 From: fatimazehrarizvi at hotmail.com (zehra rizvi) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 23:34:29 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] warming hearts Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030217/8f2383e8/attachment.html From avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in Tue Feb 18 10:24:15 2003 From: avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?Avishek=20Ganguly?=) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 04:54:15 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Why the media/government chose to ignore peace demos in India? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20030218045415.38545.qmail@web8007.mail.in.yahoo.com> For Zehra and others... http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=18609 Eyes wide shut, ears plugged Why has the media and the government chosen to ignore peace demos in India? Syeda Saiyidain Hameed The truth is that governments the world over are turning a Nelson’s eye to the wishes of millions. Having glued themselves to the seats of power they turn a deaf ear to those who stand outside their bastions, demanding that their voices be heard and heeded. Take what happened in our very own watan. On February 15, a worldwide call was given for a global protest against the impending Iraq war. Millions came out to say ‘no’ to war. Banners expressed mass outrage and a staggering number of bodies filled public squares in London, Melbourne,Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Moscow and Toronto, apart of course from several US cities. All over South Asia voices were raised against USA, the global supercop. Earlier, on February 10, thousands had taken to the streets in Delhi. Given this, some of us wondered whether people would turn up again in five days’ time. A candlelight vigil was announced in front of the andhi Samadhi at Rajghat. The moving spirit behind it was Nirmala Deshpande, a woman who has become synonymous with India’s peace movement. At 6 pm, two rows of schoolchildren stood in front of Rajghat. How many more will come, we wondered. Slowly the numbers swelled: students,teachers, professionals, housewives, women and men of all ages. It was a perfect evening, cool and clear. As the candles were lit, children from Kasturba Balika Vidyalaya and Harjan Sewak Sangh sang songs they had prepared for the occasion. Banners fluttered in the gentle breeze carrying the words: ‘The American Dream has created a Nightmare for Many’. I saw a family in which three generations had come to participate. The first generation was represented by three women, now graceful in their old age. As young girls, they had jumped into the freedom struggle. Their children symbolised the second generation: young professionals who had been at the vanguard for two decades. Their grandchildren represented the third, college students who felt they had a stake in the future. A young woman, a filmmaker I have known since she was a child, was there with her two-year-old son on her shoulder. The lighted candles were reflected in the child’s eyes. Later that night, calls started pouring in. Gandhians had organised rallies, inter-faith meetings, dharnas, vigils all over India. In Bihar,protests were held in 25 places including Madhubani and Bhagalpur. In Jharkhand, at Daltonganj. In UP, at Muzaffapur, Shahjehanpur, Hardoi,Faizabad. In J&K, at Srinagar, Jammu, Doda, and Kishtwar; in Maharashtra,at Phandharpur. There were protests in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bubhaneswar,Mumbai, Kolkata. How many papers reported this? Did TV channels reflect the general abhorrence for a war that will train missiles on innocent Iraqi civilians? What about our leaders? Did they listen to voices they claim to represent? If European nations can demand that the war option be rejected, why has India — the traditional bastion of peace — chosen to remain silent? ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in Tue Feb 18 10:31:49 2003 From: avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?Avishek=20Ganguly?=) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 05:01:49 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] in the name of the people In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20030218050149.2892.qmail@web8001.mail.in.yahoo.com> Saturday morning on the streets of New York was magical...for a moment you would have thought you matter, people still matter, and who knows they might actually make a difference! ...if only we, ALL OF US, would be prepared to come down on the streets again...and again.. ...after all wasn't that how it used to be? Avishek --- zehra rizvi wrote: --------------------------------- sarai didnt post my response to rehans piece...i used a bad word. so sorry. wanted to know about protests all over...heard about stuff all over the world, wondering if others from the reader list were part of it and wanted to get responses...anything in south asia? i heard about somethign in srinagar... some fisk to warm our hearts....the protest was great...i did hear some people living in bubbles saying they didnt know *anyone* who was pro war... wake up people. i love where fisk takes this. zehra >Published on Sunday, February 16, 2003 by the lndependent/UK >The US: A Nation Divided, With No Bridges Left to Build >In Austin, Texas, Robert Fisk sees at first hand the vast gulf between the pro- and anti-war movements in the United States > >by Robert Fisk > >The show was over, recorded for one of those nice liberal local American TV cable channels this time in Texas where everyone agrees that war is wrong, that George Bush is in the hands of right-wing Christian fundamentalists and pro-Israeli neo- conservatives. > >Don Darling, the TV host, had just turned to thank me for my long and flu-laden contribution. Then it happened. Cameraman number two came striding towards us through the studio lights. "I want to thank you, sir, for reminding us that the British had a lot to do with the chaos in the Middle East, " he said. "But I have something else to say." > >His voice rose 10 decibels, his bare arms bouncing up and down at his sides, his shaven head struck forward pugnaciously. "Yeah, I wanna tell you that the cause of this problem is the fucking medieval Arabs and their wish to enslave us all and I tell you that it is because we want to save the Jews from the fucking savage Arabs who want to throw them into the sea that we are about to fuck Saddam." There was a pause as Don Darling looked at the man, aghast. "And that," cameraman number two concluded, "is the fucking truth." > >Darling called to the studio manager. "Where does this man come from?" he demanded to know. The lady from the University of Texas organizer of this gentle little pow-wow advanced on to the studio floor in horror: "Who is this person?" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. All of a sudden, our nice anti-war chat had been brought to a halt by a spot of redneck reality. There really were right-wingers out there in the darkness who really did want George Bush to zap the Arabs. I asked the guy his name: "Gregg Aykins," he said. "And the FBI can do nothing to me if you give them my name." > >It was a telling moment, a symbol of the vast gulf of reason between the pro- and anti-war movement in America. They don't talk to each other. And if they do, neither comprehends the other. Like the endless chat programs on Pacifica Radio and all the smaller liberal talk shows from Boston to LA that serve up inedible dollops of anti-Bush, anti-Republican rant, there is simply no contact between the intellectual "elite" of the left and the less privileged Americans who work with their hands and join the military to gain a free education and end up fighting America's foreign wars. > >At a seminar at the University of North Carolina, I listened to a group of professors and senior lecturers and "activists" debating how to influence the "path to war". "What we've got to do is to reach out to mainstream press and bridge-build to other activists," a lady with long gray hair announced, reading a list of proposals all couched in the language of academic discourse that ensures her message is incomprehensible outside academia which she wished to discuss. > >Quite apart from the irredeemable nature of the "mainstream" press The New York Times, The Washington Post and the rest are far too busy carrying more Iraqi horror stories from "intelligence sources" than reporting the American anti-war movement the lady's desire to "bridge-build" with fellow "activists" was all too familiar a theme. > >The people with whom these liberal academics should be building bridges are the truck-drivers and bell-hops and Amtrak crews, the poor blacks and the cops whose families provide the cannon fodder for America's overseas military adventures. But that, of course, would force intellectuals to emerge from the sheltered, tenured world of seminars and sit-ins and deal directly with those whose opinions they wish to change. > >When I made this very point at Harvard and several other universities, I was told, rather patronizingly, that these people the phrase was almost identical had "so little information" or are "not very informed". This is, in fact, untrue. I have heard as much sense about the Middle East from a train crew en route from Washington to Georgia and from a waiter in a St Louis diner as I have from the good folks of North Carolina. > >Black Americans, for example, are uninhibited in their sympathy for Palestinians under occupation. But when I told a lecturer in Austin that I had asked hotel staff and air crews to turn up to my lectures on the Middle East and America and that all had come I was treated with a kind of weird amazement, puzzlement that I should bother to ask such unpromising material to think about the Arab-Israel conflict mixed with faint pity that I should ever expect them to understand. > >Sometimes I rather suspect that the anti-war left in America likes being in a permanent minority. I mean no disrespect to the Noam Chomskys and Daniel Ellsbergs and Dennis Bernsteins; they fight, amid abuse and threats, to make their voices heard. Yet I have an uneasy feeling that many on the intellectual left are fearful that America will lose its next war amid massive casualties but are even more fearful that America may win with minimal casualties. > >Perhaps this is unfair. But as long as America's anti-war movement talks to itself rather than to others, it is going to go on being surprised when the Gregg Aykinses emerge from the darkness with their hatred and venom intact to support George Bush's forthcoming war in Iraq. > > > 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd > > --------------------------------- Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*_________________________________________reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.Critiques & CollaborationsTo subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.List archive: ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com Tue Feb 18 22:33:08 2003 From: rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com (rehan ansari) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 09:03:08 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] The Urdu Press in New York Message-ID: <20030218170308.84925.qmail@web40104.mail.yahoo.com> Dear friends, Since September 11th, 2001 I have been reading the Urdu press in the New York area (would you believe that there are seven weeklies!), pitch stories and translate them for Voices That Must Be Heard, a web publication of the Independent Press Association. (www.indypressny.org). Independent Press Association is interested in issues of social justice in the ethnic press on New York. Below are some of the stories. I think you would be surprised by what is carried in the Urdu press. We never thought we would flee America By M. R Farrukh, Pakistan Post, 8 January 2003. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. Plattsburgh, New York, a small town on the border of Canada, was until recently unknown to Pakistanis living in New York. Now it has become a familiar stop along the route that many Pakistanis are taking as they flee the United States for Canada. According to immigration and refugee authorities in Montreal, 70 refugee claims were filed there this year. Last year, only six claims were filed. The claimants are overwhelmingly Pakistanis. Many of these Pakistanis are business and homeowners in New York who are leaving with only the belongings they can carry. Pakistan Post spoke with a number of families seeking asylum in Canada. One, the head of a family of 7, said that he had left Pakistan 30 years ago and simply does not have the heart to go back, which is what he will be made to do since he is staying in the United States illegally. In another family, the husband is undocumented but his wife and kids are not. They feel their choice is to run or risk the husband being indefinitely detained if he complies with the new requirement and registers at the INS. A single mother with two children, afraid because of her undocumented status, is fleeing New York. Several other people were issued deportation orders and attempted to enter Canada as refugees, rather than face the prospect of deportation to Pakistan. They said their deportation orders were issued prior to September 11th, but that they had no fears until the recent change in American official attitudes. It was obvious that Canadian immigration officers were startled and concerned to see so many Pakistanis. However, according to Canadian refugee law, one is allowed immediate entry into Canada if one claims refugee status. They will later have to prove their status before a judge. This reporter spoke with legal experts who said that too many Pakistanis are filling identical claims for refugee status and they must be prepared to recount their individual circumstances for fleeing the United States before a Canadian judge. They must do so calmly and with confidence. The new registration requirements for Pakistanis are giving people sleepless nights, and it seems that for many the journey to Montreal by way of Plattsburgh, is the solution for peace of mind. These days, the modest immigration office at Plattsburgh, with its few benches, is seeing a lot of activity. Entire families of Pakistanis can be seen milling around as the head of the household busies himself with registering a refugee claim. This reporter met people who were from Long Island, Westchester, Rochester and towns in Connecticut and New Jersey. All these families fear that things will get worse in the United States if they stay. This article appeared in Edition 47 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of Pakistan Post. Speakers at Brooklyn�s largest mosque consider registration law Sada-e-Pakistan NY, 30 January 2003. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. At Makki Masjid, Brooklyn`s largest and most prominent mosque, located on Coney Island Avenue, many people turned out to hear speakers discuss the registration law. This event was unique in that it was the first time that a non-religious meeting was held at the mosque. The speakers included two Pakistani American lawyers�Saleem Rizvi and Sajid Jafri. The event was organized by the Pakistani Community Center. Rizvi said that if the registration process continues, then many thousands of Pakistanis will be in danger of deportation. He said people who are afraid of registering are not afraid of arrest, they are afraid deportation. This includes people who came here illegally and those who are out-of-status. Politicians, community leaders and the Pakistani government should impress upon the Bush Administration that those who register should risk deportation. In Rizvi�s opinion, those who register and receive a Notice To Appear will eventually face deportation when they see a judge. Rizvi went on to say that there are administration officials sympathetic to the Pakistani community. There are also legal activists who we should all support in the long legal battle that lies ahead. Imam Hafiz Sabir, in his sermon, said that previously, people used to overflow the space and stand in the street during Friday prayers. Now, people are afraid of being seen at the mosque, and the entire first floor of the mosque is empty during Friday prayers. "It is sad that General Musharref has given the United States the run of the place in Pakistan to pursue its war on terrorism; but over here, it is the Pakistani community that is suffering." He said that Mexican President Vincente Fox demanded that Bush offer amnesty to the estimated three million Mexicans living in the United States. "Why can�t Musharref, given Pakistan`s services to the United States, ask for amnesty for Pakistanis living in the United States?" asked Sabir. He also thanked Rana Saeed, Malik Jameel and Aziz Butt for their presence at the INS office at the Federal Building, and for giving moral support to the Pakistanis registering there, as well as for providing people standing in long lines in the cold with food and tea. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of Sada-e-Pakistan NY. Public, political, religious and cultural life in Pakistani Brooklyn By Hamad Khan, News Pakistan, 25 December 2002. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. Brooklyn and Queens, but particularly Brooklyn, has a flourishing Pakistani public, political, and religious culture, but to describe it, one may very well have to come up with a new sense of the public, the political, the religious and the cultural. Organizations mushroom, all headed by "leaders" of the Pakistani community who claim the goal of "uniting the community." What most of these organizations seem to do is run advertisements. The advertisements praise to the skies this or that Pakistani politician. Within hours of the appointment of a new civilian prime minister in Pakistan, his image was plastered all over several local Urdu-language newspapers. I can only assume that this practice, by the myriad organizations and their sponsors, is to curry favor from politicians and other patrons near and far. Such publicity goes hand in hand with public meetings organized to pray for the success of the politician, and such meetings engender further publicity for those who attend and pray, as is painfully clear from the subsequent editions of the Urdu papers. None of these public meetings are possible without clergy, who lead the prayers. I wish this were otherwise. I would hope that the Imam of Makki Masjid in Brooklyn would realize that such practices make a mockery of religion, and that he would consider establishing a different tradition. While he�s considering things, he might also choose not to participate when people, particularly the wealthy, make an ostentatious show of having public prayers for their deceased. A short mention of the deceased at the end of Friday prayers in the mosque should suffice. What is happening is that as these political organizations flourish, many mosques are also being established. The mosque administration committees serve as immigration sponsors for the clergy. These clerics, often from small towns in Pakistan, are becoming indispensable for leading prayers, presiding at circumcisions, and teaching the Quran to children. These clerics, though physically present in the United States, retain the habits of leading small and struggling congregations in Pakistan. So, the clerics are quite adept at fighting turf battles with the clerics of other mosques. For example, no two of them will agree on when the new moon of Ramzan is sighted. They remain in their own worlds, not learning English, not adapting to their new environment. No matter how many years they stay here, they prefer to give their sermons in Urdu and Punjabi. Perhaps they enjoy the language as much as a Punjabi friend of mine, who says that even when he is arguing with an English speaker in English, he loves to curse in Punjabi because it�s just more pleasurable! I wish that the clergy who reach these shores would use the change in their environment to reflect on themselves and not make fools of themselves and the religion. They could begin by learning the language of the land and not indulge in the old world habits of fighting petty turf wars. This article appeared in Edition 48 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of News Pakistan. Nirma, the courtesan, in New York By Ifti Nasim, News Pakistan, 6 November 2002. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. Recently Nirma, a movie star from the Pakistani film industry, performed a dance in New York that has provoked the Pakistani community in all sorts of interesting ways. Pakistani papers are carrying headlines about the brazen nature of the dance, and male columnists are falling over each other in disapproval. It is the sexual aggressiveness of Nirma�s dance that has the Pakistani community chattering excitedly and the columnists muttering negatively. Regardless of the response, is a pleasure to see the community�s lively response to a public event; since September 11th there has been so much fear and anxiety. Some of the columnists� remarks reminds me of the legend of the cleric who, while lecturing against "brazen" women, described a scantily clad female form in such great detail than an audience member wondered when disapproval ended and approval began. As for the disapproval of Nirma�s "aggressiveness," I am afraid they must realize that Nirma�s dance is nothing unusual, for New York or traditional South Asian art. In New York there are many performers who play with gender roles, and ideas of domination and submissiveness. So what if Nirma, from Pakistan, has crossed sexual boundaries? The Persian roots of the name "Nirma" mean one who has the qualities of both man and woman. Perhaps for the males in the audience, Nirma appealed to their feminine side�thus, the outrage. But why be upset with a performance so steeped in tradition? In the epic love story from Punjab, "Heer and Ranjha", still popular today, there is the couplet in which Heer sings she has desired Ranjha for so long that she has become him. I feel that Nirma has turned the tables on her male audience. For a while now, we have been content to see the woman be the dancer in films and on stage. She is the spectacle. Nirma�s supremely confident dance in New York made a spectacle of the men who are dancing around in outrage. This article appeared in Edition 42 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of News Pakistan. A Pakistani writes from an American jail By Azeem M. Mian, Pakistan Post, 9 October 2002. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. A friend of the editors of Pakistan Post received a letter from Zubair Hanafi, which has been forwarded to me and I am including in this column. Zubair�s address is the Brooklyn Detention Center. His prisoner number is 67898053. The letter bears an Aug. 15 postmark, meaning the letter has taken almost two months to get to me. Let us hope that Zubair is safe, either released in the United States or deported to Pakistan. Zubair writes to Afaq, a man he doesn�t know: Dear Sir, I know you are well connected in the community and have contacts with the media. Perhaps you will be able to get me help. I am from the Memon community of Karachi and living legally in the US. I have a green card. At 7:00am on 29th May the authorities raided my apartment. They did not produce a warrant. They arrested my brother Sajjad Ahmed, my roommate Ali Reza, and myself. As they were leaving with us, my neighbour Salahuddin Qureshi, unfortunately opened his apartment door in response to the activity in the corridor and they arrested him as well. Two of the men have been already deported, I am still in detention. I can be freed on bail. I have made phone calls to people I know but nobody is stepping forward to help me. Please tell my story in the media and to the many organizations and please write to me to let me know if you can help. I have written back to him but have not received a phone call. I find myself upset with our community leaders, who have their photographs taken with the Pakistani ambassabor and visiting politicians from Pakistan but make no moves to help those who are in suffering terrible ordeals. I also possess the legal papers of another case involving a Pakistani-American. Ahsan ul Haq is in danger of having his American citizenship revoked. Due to his arrest after September 11th, his files have been opened and combed for misstatements he made in his application for naturalization. There are millions of cases of naturalized citizens who, knowingly or unknowingly, made false statements in their application of citizenship. Since September 11th, it is Pakistani-Americans and other Muslim-Americans who are targeted. In the case of Ahsan ul Haq, he made his way to California from Pakistan without a visa in 1984. He then applied for political asylum and was denied in November 1985. His appeal was rejected in 1988. He received a letter demanding that he "surrender" himself to the authorities. He did not and applied for legal status under the agricultural workers� program. It was accepted. He received his green card and applied for citizenship in 1997, and received it in 2000. His wife and children are also American citizens. His arduous but not untypical journey to American citizenship seemed to have ended. He had a successful construction business and things looked good. After September 11th, he was arrested for false statements he made in his application for naturalization. He had not revealed that he had been rejected for legal status previously. Ahsan is now out on bail but very worried. Ahsan�s case shows that even Pakistanis who are naturalized Americans cannot be secure. Their American citizenship can always be investigated and revoked given the current political circumstances. These circumstances are not affecting any other community besides Pakistanis and other Muslims. I am not arguing that Pakistanis and Muslims should be allowed to get away with breaking the law, just that the law be applied equally. Racial profiling is also against the law. There are any number of people of Mexican and Latin American origin, and from India and Southern Europe who are not targeted, whose naturalization files are not reopened. This is unfair, particularly when not one Pakistani has been charged with terrorism. I still hear of raids and arrests in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Houston, California and Florida. Our Pakistani community leaders are not organizing, and people are too afraid to speak up. There is still no credible forum in the community, where we can address the difficulties that Pakistanis face now and will face in the future. This is a time that tests our inner strength and conscience. This article appeared in Edition 37 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of Pakistan Post. The special relationship between America and Pakistan By Ifti Nasim, News Pakistan, 25 September 2002. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. In one of her poems, Sylvia Plath talks of a foot that was trapped in a black shoe for "thirty years, poor and white, barely daring to breathe." That foot is Pakistan, which has suffered for thirty years in the black shoe of American-sponsored military dictatorships. Similar American-bought black shoes have tramped over civilians in Latin America as well. Ever since the era of the Vietnam War American administrations have comfortably supported military dictators around the world. Such a policy allows them to wield influence in a country through one client instead of dealing with a multifarious public. Accordingly the current Administration is rolling out the red carpet for General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. The red carpet can be extravagant; Kitty Kelley in her biography of Jackie Kennedy claims that Field Marshal Ayub Khan (the famously handsome American supported martial leader of Pakistan from 1958-68) had intimate relations with the First Lady. But Musharraf be warned: that carpet is red with the blood of Pakistani demagogues, who become irrelevant to American foreign policy. General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq supported the American sponsored war in Afghanistan against the Russians. That was when Osama and the Taliban were designated freedom fighters by the U.S. government. When the Soviet Union withdrew, the Geneva Accords were signed, and General Zia seemed to be pursuing an independent policy in the region, he was assassinated. Afghanistan was a country abandoned by the United States. Wealthy Osama and the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Now a decade later, Osama and the Taliban pursue objectives no longer in accordance with American interests and are men with an American death warrant. And Musharraf, who was a usurper and called so by U.S. State Department officials when he staged a coup, is now a key ally. As for the Pakistani public, they see their constitution mangled by a dictator, a state whose coffers are full of dollars, (the Pakistani rupee is doing very well against the dollar). But they, the public, continue to face chronic inflation and unemployment. They also face war-like conditions with India, something else that happens whenever a military dictator comes to power in Pakistan. Iti Nasim is a well-known humorist, Urdu poet and literary critic. This article appeared in Edition 35 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of News Pakistan. Pakistani Detainees Speak Out Special to IPA - New York, 3 January 2002. English Language. "We are not criminals, but we are treated as such. We do not even know what the future holds for us. We are not certain whether we will ever be freed, deported or remained jailed." The man being treated like a "criminal" is one of about 200 Pakistanis being held on immigration violations in the Passaic County Jail in Paterson, New Jersey. For the first time, civil liberties and immigration lawyers say, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is selectively enforcing its laws, not to control immigration but to pursue a criminal investigation. Nor are the laws enforced always so clear. "The judges are not judges anymore," basing decisions on their judgment of the law, says Sarah Hogarth, director of the National Lawyers Guild�s 9/11 project. "They are just taking instructions from the INS." Judges who do make their own decisions, reports the New Jersey Law Journal, may find their decisions overturned by the INS or Justice Department. "We�re seeing the strictist�overly strict�application of INS laws to keep people detained," said Claudia Slovinsky, Esq., an immigration lawyer who is representing several detainees. "Immigration statutes are the mechanism used to hold people while [the US government] performs terrorism investigations," said Manny Vargas, Esq. Vargas is a lawyer with the Immigrant Defense Project, New York State Defenders Association. He explained that this development is particularly dangerous because, while the criminal justice system guarantees rights to those accused of crimes�"especially the right to counsel," those rights "are not particularly attached to immigration proceedings," he said. Detainees are brought into closed hearings in full leg irons with hands shackled to their waist, report their lawyers. Guards unshackle a hand only to allow a prisoner to take an oath. Conditions in the cells are even worse, report detainees. A man held in the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn told his paralegal they suffer from 23 hour lockdown, lights blaring at all hours, no toilet paper, full strip searches, verbal abuse from guards�The Paterson detainee asks, "Why me?" "There are around 2 million Mexicans and others who can be arrested on the same grounds." he said. "It must be because I am a Muslim." Some immigration lawyers agree. Many of those detained have been picked up on the authority of anonymous FBI tips, Claudia Slovinsky said. She called the detentions "racial profiling." The detained man also feels abandoned by his own country, charging that the Pakistani consul neglects his countrymen who languish in American prisons. [In an interview with the New York Times on December 20, the Pakistani vice consul reports visiting detainees but admits being "in the dark" on about 100 cases.] Consulates have enormous power to defend the rights of their nationals, working with U.S. lawyers. With the help of a paralegal, the Canadian consulate in December pressured the INS to act on the case of a Pakistani-Canadian doctor arrested for illegally reentering the United States. Without consular support, Pakistani nationals may face even more trouble resolving their cases. As many as half of those in detention are in Pakistan, according to U.S. Justice Department data analyzed by Mae Cheng in Newsday on Dec. 17th. Of the 563 cases on which the Justice Department released information, Cheng counted 204 Pakistanis. "When I�m visiting, it does seem the largest country is Pakistan," confirms Subhash Kateel of DRUM, a South Asian advocacy group working with about 20 detainees and their families. "The second seems to be Egypt and the third seems to be India." Even three months after September 11th, the INS continues to sweep largely South Asian neighborhoods for immigration violations, says Kateel. South Asian students here on H-1 visas are being visited and interviewed by the FBI. "Neighborhoods like Midwood (in Brooklyn) have been hit really hard, with the INS just picking people up. Elmhurst and Flushing, Astoria, Paterson and Jersey City too," says Kateel. Even little-known, or previously unenforced, laws are now being cited as INS officials work more closely with law enforcement officials to detain non-citizens, say immigration lawyers. "For example, it�s little known that non-citizens must report any change of address within 10 days," said Vargas. With hundreds of people being detained, many without legal counsel, overworked human rights and civil liberties organizations recently met to better coordinate their legal support for the detainees. In mid-December, civil liberties groups held two meetings, one in New Jersey and one in New York City to plan their efforts. In attendance were lawyers and others from The American Civil Liberties Union, Legal Aid Society, Center for Constitutional Rights, American Immigrant Lawyers Association, Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, National Lawyers Guild, and Human Rights Education & Law Project (HELP), a New Jersey group formed after September 11th to provide legal support and advocacy for detainees. "Regionally we�re attempting to divvy up tasks amongst the different legal organizations," says Hogarth of NLG, who planned the New York meeting. "We want to identify who�s in detention, see who doesn�t have lawyers and refer them to one. We don�t have enough lawyers so we also want to identify and train them, and mentor them with more experienced lawyers." Detainees have the right to a lawyer, but they do not have the right to a free lawyer, says Hogarth. That�s why the organizations are referring detainees to lawyers who will work for free. Because a detainee�s access to a phone is severely limited, immigrants should carry a lawyer�s phone number at all times so they easily call for help. Two important hotlines are now in operation. Those visited and questioned by the FBI can now call the ACLU to secure a lawyer in the (212-344-3005 x226, x224 or x240). At its hotline, HELP is accepting collect calls from detention centers and connecting detainees up with lawyers (973-676-5660). The lawyers� work is cut out for them, not the least because the federal government is keeping two lists, a public list and a secret one. MacDonald Scott, a legal worker with the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, encountered the list while representing Shakir Ali Baloch, the Pakistani-Canadian doctor. Scott found Dr. Baloch on the MDC prison roster one day, and told his wife in Canada to fly down, only to discover once she�d arrived that her husband had been removed from the list. Dr. Baloch had not yet been released, only made invisible by the secret list. "Families should know that when they call that they might not be told," says Hogarth. "Also, if people are looking for people, chances are they are in New Jersey. HELP is maintaining lists of detainees in New Jersey. They are a good place to call." The INS also moves detainees without warning, making it difficult for lawyers and supporters to find them again. "The legal community is running around," says Hogarth of NLG. "We can�t even find our clients!" Subhash Kateel of DRUM says their volunteers have lost track of about 5 of the 20 detainees they have been working with. Even minor violations of immigration law by those in the country legally can lead to a prolonged detention in the new post-September 11th world � detentions lasting two to three months. Abdul Sattar was taken into custody with two roommates from his home on Webster Venue in Brooklyn. Although his 1993 application for political asylum is under review, he was nabbed because his work permit expired a few months ago. He was held 48 days in the Passaic County Jail before being released on bail on Nov. 19. "The majority of the Pakistanis detained in the Paterson Prison are willing to be deported and return to Pakistan. Yet they cannot because of the slow pace of INS," says Sattar. After September 11, the INS extended the period of time non-citizens can be held for questioning, and permitted indefinite detention in "emergency" situations. The INS also adopted a rule allowing it to detain non-citizens even after an immigration judge orders their release for lack of evidence. Moreover, all non-citizen detainees questioned in connection with Sept. 11 must pass now an FBI security clearance to be deported, even if they choose to return to their native countries. This process is delaying some people�s release from prison, immigration lawyers say. And the federal government took on the power to monitor the communication between a federal detainee and his or her lawyer if the government believes their discussion may support terrorism. The ACLU, NLG, Human Rights Watch, Council of American-Islamic Relations and others have denounced the new rules as subverting civil liberties and called for the release of information on those in detention. To date, the U.S. Attorney General has released only the country of origin of certain detainees, not their names, nor their location, nor the charges against them, as these groups requested in court. In late October, Human Rights Watch requested that the INS release information on any medical screening or support given Muhammad Butt, the Pakistani national who died while in detention in a New Jersey jail. The agency refused without a signature from the deceased man on the grounds of protecting his privacy. Additional reporting by Huma Ali. This article appeared in Edition 3 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Included by permission of Special to IPA - New York. Voices � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. ��Previously published at Voices That Must Be Heard (www.indypressny.org) __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com From rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com Tue Feb 18 22:54:06 2003 From: rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com (rehan ansari) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 09:24:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] The Urdu Press in New York Message-ID: <20030218172406.53794.qmail@web40102.mail.yahoo.com> Dear friends, Since September 11th, 2001 I have been reading the Urdu press in the New York area (would you believe that there are seven weeklies!), pitch stories and translate them for Voices That Must Be Heard, a web publication of the Independent Press Association. (www.indypressny.org). Independent Press Association is interested in issues of social justice in the ethnic press on New York. Below are some of the stories. I think you would be surprised by what is carried in the Urdu press. We never thought we would flee America By M. R Farrukh, Pakistan Post, 8 January 2003. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. Plattsburgh, New York, a small town on the border of Canada, was until recently unknown to Pakistanis living in New York. Now it has become a familiar stop along the route that many Pakistanis are taking as they flee the United States for Canada. According to immigration and refugee authorities in Montreal, 70 refugee claims were filed there this year. Last year, only six claims were filed. The claimants are overwhelmingly Pakistanis. Many of these Pakistanis are business and homeowners in New York who are leaving with only the belongings they can carry. Pakistan Post spoke with a number of families seeking asylum in Canada. One, the head of a family of 7, said that he had left Pakistan 30 years ago and simply does not have the heart to go back, which is what he will be made to do since he is staying in the United States illegally. In another family, the husband is undocumented but his wife and kids are not. They feel their choice is to run or risk the husband being indefinitely detained if he complies with the new requirement and registers at the INS. A single mother with two children, afraid because of her undocumented status, is fleeing New York. Several other people were issued deportation orders and attempted to enter Canada as refugees, rather than face the prospect of deportation to Pakistan. They said their deportation orders were issued prior to September 11th, but that they had no fears until the recent change in American official attitudes. It was obvious that Canadian immigration officers were startled and concerned to see so many Pakistanis. However, according to Canadian refugee law, one is allowed immediate entry into Canada if one claims refugee status. They will later have to prove their status before a judge. This reporter spoke with legal experts who said that too many Pakistanis are filling identical claims for refugee status and they must be prepared to recount their individual circumstances for fleeing the United States before a Canadian judge. They must do so calmly and with confidence. The new registration requirements for Pakistanis are giving people sleepless nights, and it seems that for many the journey to Montreal by way of Plattsburgh, is the solution for peace of mind. These days, the modest immigration office at Plattsburgh, with its few benches, is seeing a lot of activity. Entire families of Pakistanis can be seen milling around as the head of the household busies himself with registering a refugee claim. This reporter met people who were from Long Island, Westchester, Rochester and towns in Connecticut and New Jersey. All these families fear that things will get worse in the United States if they stay. This article appeared in Edition 47 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of Pakistan Post. Speakers at Brooklyn�s largest mosque consider registration law Sada-e-Pakistan NY, 30 January 2003. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. At Makki Masjid, Brooklyn`s largest and most prominent mosque, located on Coney Island Avenue, many people turned out to hear speakers discuss the registration law. This event was unique in that it was the first time that a non-religious meeting was held at the mosque. The speakers included two Pakistani American lawyers�Saleem Rizvi and Sajid Jafri. The event was organized by the Pakistani Community Center. Rizvi said that if the registration process continues, then many thousands of Pakistanis will be in danger of deportation. He said people who are afraid of registering are not afraid of arrest, they are afraid deportation. This includes people who came here illegally and those who are out-of-status. Politicians, community leaders and the Pakistani government should impress upon the Bush Administration that those who register should risk deportation. In Rizvi�s opinion, those who register and receive a Notice To Appear will eventually face deportation when they see a judge. Rizvi went on to say that there are administration officials sympathetic to the Pakistani community. There are also legal activists who we should all support in the long legal battle that lies ahead. Imam Hafiz Sabir, in his sermon, said that previously, people used to overflow the space and stand in the street during Friday prayers. Now, people are afraid of being seen at the mosque, and the entire first floor of the mosque is empty during Friday prayers. "It is sad that General Musharref has given the United States the run of the place in Pakistan to pursue its war on terrorism; but over here, it is the Pakistani community that is suffering." He said that Mexican President Vincente Fox demanded that Bush offer amnesty to the estimated three million Mexicans living in the United States. "Why can�t Musharref, given Pakistan`s services to the United States, ask for amnesty for Pakistanis living in the United States?" asked Sabir. He also thanked Rana Saeed, Malik Jameel and Aziz Butt for their presence at the INS office at the Federal Building, and for giving moral support to the Pakistanis registering there, as well as for providing people standing in long lines in the cold with food and tea. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of Sada-e-Pakistan NY. Public, political, religious and cultural life in Pakistani Brooklyn By Hamad Khan, News Pakistan, 25 December 2002. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. Brooklyn and Queens, but particularly Brooklyn, has a flourishing Pakistani public, political, and religious culture, but to describe it, one may very well have to come up with a new sense of the public, the political, the religious and the cultural. Organizations mushroom, all headed by "leaders" of the Pakistani community who claim the goal of "uniting the community." What most of these organizations seem to do is run advertisements. The advertisements praise to the skies this or that Pakistani politician. Within hours of the appointment of a new civilian prime minister in Pakistan, his image was plastered all over several local Urdu-language newspapers. I can only assume that this practice, by the myriad organizations and their sponsors, is to curry favor from politicians and other patrons near and far. Such publicity goes hand in hand with public meetings organized to pray for the success of the politician, and such meetings engender further publicity for those who attend and pray, as is painfully clear from the subsequent editions of the Urdu papers. None of these public meetings are possible without clergy, who lead the prayers. I wish this were otherwise. I would hope that the Imam of Makki Masjid in Brooklyn would realize that such practices make a mockery of religion, and that he would consider establishing a different tradition. While he�s considering things, he might also choose not to participate when people, particularly the wealthy, make an ostentatious show of having public prayers for their deceased. A short mention of the deceased at the end of Friday prayers in the mosque should suffice. What is happening is that as these political organizations flourish, many mosques are also being established. The mosque administration committees serve as immigration sponsors for the clergy. These clerics, often from small towns in Pakistan, are becoming indispensable for leading prayers, presiding at circumcisions, and teaching the Quran to children. These clerics, though physically present in the United States, retain the habits of leading small and struggling congregations in Pakistan. So, the clerics are quite adept at fighting turf battles with the clerics of other mosques. For example, no two of them will agree on when the new moon of Ramzan is sighted. They remain in their own worlds, not learning English, not adapting to their new environment. No matter how many years they stay here, they prefer to give their sermons in Urdu and Punjabi. Perhaps they enjoy the language as much as a Punjabi friend of mine, who says that even when he is arguing with an English speaker in English, he loves to curse in Punjabi because it�s just more pleasurable! I wish that the clergy who reach these shores would use the change in their environment to reflect on themselves and not make fools of themselves and the religion. They could begin by learning the language of the land and not indulge in the old world habits of fighting petty turf wars. This article appeared in Edition 48 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of News Pakistan. Nirma, the courtesan, in New York By Ifti Nasim, News Pakistan, 6 November 2002. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. Recently Nirma, a movie star from the Pakistani film industry, performed a dance in New York that has provoked the Pakistani community in all sorts of interesting ways. Pakistani papers are carrying headlines about the brazen nature of the dance, and male columnists are falling over each other in disapproval. It is the sexual aggressiveness of Nirma�s dance that has the Pakistani community chattering excitedly and the columnists muttering negatively. Regardless of the response, is a pleasure to see the community�s lively response to a public event; since September 11th there has been so much fear and anxiety. Some of the columnists� remarks reminds me of the legend of the cleric who, while lecturing against "brazen" women, described a scantily clad female form in such great detail than an audience member wondered when disapproval ended and approval began. As for the disapproval of Nirma�s "aggressiveness," I am afraid they must realize that Nirma�s dance is nothing unusual, for New York or traditional South Asian art. In New York there are many performers who play with gender roles, and ideas of domination and submissiveness. So what if Nirma, from Pakistan, has crossed sexual boundaries? The Persian roots of the name "Nirma" mean one who has the qualities of both man and woman. Perhaps for the males in the audience, Nirma appealed to their feminine side�thus, the outrage. But why be upset with a performance so steeped in tradition? In the epic love story from Punjab, "Heer and Ranjha", still popular today, there is the couplet in which Heer sings she has desired Ranjha for so long that she has become him. I feel that Nirma has turned the tables on her male audience. For a while now, we have been content to see the woman be the dancer in films and on stage. She is the spectacle. Nirma�s supremely confident dance in New York made a spectacle of the men who are dancing around in outrage. This article appeared in Edition 42 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of News Pakistan. A Pakistani writes from an American jail By Azeem M. Mian, Pakistan Post, 9 October 2002. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. A friend of the editors of Pakistan Post received a letter from Zubair Hanafi, which has been forwarded to me and I am including in this column. Zubair�s address is the Brooklyn Detention Center. His prisoner number is 67898053. The letter bears an Aug. 15 postmark, meaning the letter has taken almost two months to get to me. Let us hope that Zubair is safe, either released in the United States or deported to Pakistan. Zubair writes to Afaq, a man he doesn�t know: Dear Sir, I know you are well connected in the community and have contacts with the media. Perhaps you will be able to get me help. I am from the Memon community of Karachi and living legally in the US. I have a green card. At 7:00am on 29th May the authorities raided my apartment. They did not produce a warrant. They arrested my brother Sajjad Ahmed, my roommate Ali Reza, and myself. As they were leaving with us, my neighbour Salahuddin Qureshi, unfortunately opened his apartment door in response to the activity in the corridor and they arrested him as well. Two of the men have been already deported, I am still in detention. I can be freed on bail. I have made phone calls to people I know but nobody is stepping forward to help me. Please tell my story in the media and to the many organizations and please write to me to let me know if you can help. I have written back to him but have not received a phone call. I find myself upset with our community leaders, who have their photographs taken with the Pakistani ambassabor and visiting politicians from Pakistan but make no moves to help those who are in suffering terrible ordeals. I also possess the legal papers of another case involving a Pakistani-American. Ahsan ul Haq is in danger of having his American citizenship revoked. Due to his arrest after September 11th, his files have been opened and combed for misstatements he made in his application for naturalization. There are millions of cases of naturalized citizens who, knowingly or unknowingly, made false statements in their application of citizenship. Since September 11th, it is Pakistani-Americans and other Muslim-Americans who are targeted. In the case of Ahsan ul Haq, he made his way to California from Pakistan without a visa in 1984. He then applied for political asylum and was denied in November 1985. His appeal was rejected in 1988. He received a letter demanding that he "surrender" himself to the authorities. He did not and applied for legal status under the agricultural workers� program. It was accepted. He received his green card and applied for citizenship in 1997, and received it in 2000. His wife and children are also American citizens. His arduous but not untypical journey to American citizenship seemed to have ended. He had a successful construction business and things looked good. After September 11th, he was arrested for false statements he made in his application for naturalization. He had not revealed that he had been rejected for legal status previously. Ahsan is now out on bail but very worried. Ahsan�s case shows that even Pakistanis who are naturalized Americans cannot be secure. Their American citizenship can always be investigated and revoked given the current political circumstances. These circumstances are not affecting any other community besides Pakistanis and other Muslims. I am not arguing that Pakistanis and Muslims should be allowed to get away with breaking the law, just that the law be applied equally. Racial profiling is also against the law. There are any number of people of Mexican and Latin American origin, and from India and Southern Europe who are not targeted, whose naturalization files are not reopened. This is unfair, particularly when not one Pakistani has been charged with terrorism. I still hear of raids and arrests in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Houston, California and Florida. Our Pakistani community leaders are not organizing, and people are too afraid to speak up. There is still no credible forum in the community, where we can address the difficulties that Pakistanis face now and will face in the future. This is a time that tests our inner strength and conscience. This article appeared in Edition 37 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of Pakistan Post. The special relationship between America and Pakistan By Ifti Nasim, News Pakistan, 25 September 2002. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari. In one of her poems, Sylvia Plath talks of a foot that was trapped in a black shoe for "thirty years, poor and white, barely daring to breathe." That foot is Pakistan, which has suffered for thirty years in the black shoe of American-sponsored military dictatorships. Similar American-bought black shoes have tramped over civilians in Latin America as well. Ever since the era of the Vietnam War American administrations have comfortably supported military dictators around the world. Such a policy allows them to wield influence in a country through one client instead of dealing with a multifarious public. Accordingly the current Administration is rolling out the red carpet for General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. The red carpet can be extravagant; Kitty Kelley in her biography of Jackie Kennedy claims that Field Marshal Ayub Khan (the famously handsome American supported martial leader of Pakistan from 1958-68) had intimate relations with the First Lady. But Musharraf be warned: that carpet is red with the blood of Pakistani demagogues, who become irrelevant to American foreign policy. General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq supported the American sponsored war in Afghanistan against the Russians. That was when Osama and the Taliban were designated freedom fighters by the U.S. government. When the Soviet Union withdrew, the Geneva Accords were signed, and General Zia seemed to be pursuing an independent policy in the region, he was assassinated. Afghanistan was a country abandoned by the United States. Wealthy Osama and the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Now a decade later, Osama and the Taliban pursue objectives no longer in accordance with American interests and are men with an American death warrant. And Musharraf, who was a usurper and called so by U.S. State Department officials when he staged a coup, is now a key ally. As for the Pakistani public, they see their constitution mangled by a dictator, a state whose coffers are full of dollars, (the Pakistani rupee is doing very well against the dollar). But they, the public, continue to face chronic inflation and unemployment. They also face war-like conditions with India, something else that happens whenever a military dictator comes to power in Pakistan. Iti Nasim is a well-known humorist, Urdu poet and literary critic. This article appeared in Edition 35 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Translation � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of News Pakistan. Pakistani Detainees Speak Out Special to IPA - New York, 3 January 2002. English Language. "We are not criminals, but we are treated as such. We do not even know what the future holds for us. We are not certain whether we will ever be freed, deported or remained jailed." The man being treated like a "criminal" is one of about 200 Pakistanis being held on immigration violations in the Passaic County Jail in Paterson, New Jersey. For the first time, civil liberties and immigration lawyers say, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is selectively enforcing its laws, not to control immigration but to pursue a criminal investigation. Nor are the laws enforced always so clear. "The judges are not judges anymore," basing decisions on their judgment of the law, says Sarah Hogarth, director of the National Lawyers Guild�s 9/11 project. "They are just taking instructions from the INS." Judges who do make their own decisions, reports the New Jersey Law Journal, may find their decisions overturned by the INS or Justice Department. "We�re seeing the strictist�overly strict�application of INS laws to keep people detained," said Claudia Slovinsky, Esq., an immigration lawyer who is representing several detainees. "Immigration statutes are the mechanism used to hold people while [the US government] performs terrorism investigations," said Manny Vargas, Esq. Vargas is a lawyer with the Immigrant Defense Project, New York State Defenders Association. He explained that this development is particularly dangerous because, while the criminal justice system guarantees rights to those accused of crimes�"especially the right to counsel," those rights "are not particularly attached to immigration proceedings," he said. Detainees are brought into closed hearings in full leg irons with hands shackled to their waist, report their lawyers. Guards unshackle a hand only to allow a prisoner to take an oath. Conditions in the cells are even worse, report detainees. A man held in the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn told his paralegal they suffer from 23 hour lockdown, lights blaring at all hours, no toilet paper, full strip searches, verbal abuse from guards�The Paterson detainee asks, "Why me?" "There are around 2 million Mexicans and others who can be arrested on the same grounds." he said. "It must be because I am a Muslim." Some immigration lawyers agree. Many of those detained have been picked up on the authority of anonymous FBI tips, Claudia Slovinsky said. She called the detentions "racial profiling." The detained man also feels abandoned by his own country, charging that the Pakistani consul neglects his countrymen who languish in American prisons. [In an interview with the New York Times on December 20, the Pakistani vice consul reports visiting detainees but admits being "in the dark" on about 100 cases.] Consulates have enormous power to defend the rights of their nationals, working with U.S. lawyers. With the help of a paralegal, the Canadian consulate in December pressured the INS to act on the case of a Pakistani-Canadian doctor arrested for illegally reentering the United States. Without consular support, Pakistani nationals may face even more trouble resolving their cases. As many as half of those in detention are in Pakistan, according to U.S. Justice Department data analyzed by Mae Cheng in Newsday on Dec. 17th. Of the 563 cases on which the Justice Department released information, Cheng counted 204 Pakistanis. "When I�m visiting, it does seem the largest country is Pakistan," confirms Subhash Kateel of DRUM, a South Asian advocacy group working with about 20 detainees and their families. "The second seems to be Egypt and the third seems to be India." Even three months after September 11th, the INS continues to sweep largely South Asian neighborhoods for immigration violations, says Kateel. South Asian students here on H-1 visas are being visited and interviewed by the FBI. "Neighborhoods like Midwood (in Brooklyn) have been hit really hard, with the INS just picking people up. Elmhurst and Flushing, Astoria, Paterson and Jersey City too," says Kateel. Even little-known, or previously unenforced, laws are now being cited as INS officials work more closely with law enforcement officials to detain non-citizens, say immigration lawyers. "For example, it�s little known that non-citizens must report any change of address within 10 days," said Vargas. With hundreds of people being detained, many without legal counsel, overworked human rights and civil liberties organizations recently met to better coordinate their legal support for the detainees. In mid-December, civil liberties groups held two meetings, one in New Jersey and one in New York City to plan their efforts. In attendance were lawyers and others from The American Civil Liberties Union, Legal Aid Society, Center for Constitutional Rights, American Immigrant Lawyers Association, Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, National Lawyers Guild, and Human Rights Education & Law Project (HELP), a New Jersey group formed after September 11th to provide legal support and advocacy for detainees. "Regionally we�re attempting to divvy up tasks amongst the different legal organizations," says Hogarth of NLG, who planned the New York meeting. "We want to identify who�s in detention, see who doesn�t have lawyers and refer them to one. We don�t have enough lawyers so we also want to identify and train them, and mentor them with more experienced lawyers." Detainees have the right to a lawyer, but they do not have the right to a free lawyer, says Hogarth. That�s why the organizations are referring detainees to lawyers who will work for free. Because a detainee�s access to a phone is severely limited, immigrants should carry a lawyer�s phone number at all times so they easily call for help. Two important hotlines are now in operation. Those visited and questioned by the FBI can now call the ACLU to secure a lawyer in the (212-344-3005 x226, x224 or x240). At its hotline, HELP is accepting collect calls from detention centers and connecting detainees up with lawyers (973-676-5660). The lawyers� work is cut out for them, not the least because the federal government is keeping two lists, a public list and a secret one. MacDonald Scott, a legal worker with the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, encountered the list while representing Shakir Ali Baloch, the Pakistani-Canadian doctor. Scott found Dr. Baloch on the MDC prison roster one day, and told his wife in Canada to fly down, only to discover once she�d arrived that her husband had been removed from the list. Dr. Baloch had not yet been released, only made invisible by the secret list. "Families should know that when they call that they might not be told," says Hogarth. "Also, if people are looking for people, chances are they are in New Jersey. HELP is maintaining lists of detainees in New Jersey. They are a good place to call." The INS also moves detainees without warning, making it difficult for lawyers and supporters to find them again. "The legal community is running around," says Hogarth of NLG. "We can�t even find our clients!" Subhash Kateel of DRUM says their volunteers have lost track of about 5 of the 20 detainees they have been working with. Even minor violations of immigration law by those in the country legally can lead to a prolonged detention in the new post-September 11th world � detentions lasting two to three months. Abdul Sattar was taken into custody with two roommates from his home on Webster Venue in Brooklyn. Although his 1993 application for political asylum is under review, he was nabbed because his work permit expired a few months ago. He was held 48 days in the Passaic County Jail before being released on bail on Nov. 19. "The majority of the Pakistanis detained in the Paterson Prison are willing to be deported and return to Pakistan. Yet they cannot because of the slow pace of INS," says Sattar. After September 11, the INS extended the period of time non-citizens can be held for questioning, and permitted indefinite detention in "emergency" situations. The INS also adopted a rule allowing it to detain non-citizens even after an immigration judge orders their release for lack of evidence. Moreover, all non-citizen detainees questioned in connection with Sept. 11 must pass now an FBI security clearance to be deported, even if they choose to return to their native countries. This process is delaying some people�s release from prison, immigration lawyers say. And the federal government took on the power to monitor the communication between a federal detainee and his or her lawyer if the government believes their discussion may support terrorism. The ACLU, NLG, Human Rights Watch, Council of American-Islamic Relations and others have denounced the new rules as subverting civil liberties and called for the release of information on those in detention. To date, the U.S. Attorney General has released only the country of origin of certain detainees, not their names, nor their location, nor the charges against them, as these groups requested in court. In late October, Human Rights Watch requested that the INS release information on any medical screening or support given Muhammad Butt, the Pakistani national who died while in detention in a New Jersey jail. The agency refused without a signature from the deceased man on the grounds of protecting his privacy. Additional reporting by Huma Ali. This article appeared in Edition 3 of Voices That Must Be Heard. Included by permission of Special to IPA - New York. Voices � 2002, IPA, all rights reserved. ��Previously published at Voices That Must Be Heard (www.indypressny.org) __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com From sanjayb at hotpop.com Wed Feb 19 02:54:07 2003 From: sanjayb at hotpop.com (Sanjay Bhangar) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 02:54:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Outsourcing taken to extremes? Message-ID: <000e01c2d794$14d0e000$870e0a0a@IDLI> http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/qtr1_2003/0218-102.html BuzzFlash.com Says Bush, GOP Launched 'Bold' Jobs Program for India- Based Telemarketers to Fundraise for Republican Party, President To: National Desk Contact: BuzzFlash.com, 312-474-0461 CHICAGO, Feb. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a statement released today by BuzzFlash.com on a Republican Party jobs program for telemarketers in India: In a startling expose, BuzzFlash.Com reveals that the Republican Party and President Bush have apparently launched a "bold" new jobs programs for telemarketers in India. Of course, this "bold" program means that these 75 jobs have been lost to American workers in need. And what will a "band of young and enthusiastic (Indian) fundraisers" be doing for Bush and the GOP? Why raising money for the Republican coffers, of course. Okay, you think BuzzFlash is making this up. How could a man in a leadership position in the White House export 75 jobs that American workers might get paid for -- at a time of great economic need in the U.S. -- to India? Especially (Ah, the sweet cruel irony) when the project is to raise more cash for the Republicans. So here's the proof. According to a January 31, 2003, article in a New Delhi business publication called the "Business Standard," the Bush Cartel has retained HCL eServe, the business process outsourcing arm of the India based HCL Technologies. "HCL eServe has put in place a team of 75 people to work on the project out of its call centres in Noida and Gurgaon," according to the article. Now, let's get to the bottom line, as George W. would want us to: "These operators are required to call up people in the US seeking their support for President George W Bush and a donation for the Republican cause." Working out of a software technology park in Noida, not far from New Delhi, these 75 telemarketers may be joined by additional workers if they raise lots of cash for the GOP and Bush (which means more jobs lost to Americans). Let's get this straight. So the Republicans are saving a few pennies by hiring a firm in India to use Indian telemarketers to raise money for Bush and the GOP to better enable Bush and the GOP to "inform" American workers about all that the Republicans and Bush are doing to increase jobs in America. Ain't that Grand! Not that BuzzFlash in anyway begrudges residents of India from enjoying a growth in job opportunities, but it does seem a bit -- shall we say -- sly, cynical and disgusting for Mr. Bush and the Republicans to be exporting jobs to raise money for the GOP. But it's not the first telemarketing/fundraising betrayal of American workers. According to the article in the "Business Standard" of India, "The Republican contract comes on the heels of a successful anti-abortion campaign run by HCL eServe for a US politician." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030219/1a4866d0/attachment.html From amitbasu55 at hotmail.com Wed Feb 19 11:50:43 2003 From: amitbasu55 at hotmail.com (Amit R Basu) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 06:20:43 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Way Back Home: A Film on Partition Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030219/aca50a25/attachment.html From amitbasu55 at hotmail.com Wed Feb 19 12:05:11 2003 From: amitbasu55 at hotmail.com (Amit R Basu) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 06:35:11 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Way Back Home: A Film on Partition Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030219/8173912d/attachment.html From jamie.dow at pobox.com Wed Feb 19 16:23:04 2003 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 10:53:04 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: The Poverty of Debate on Iraq Message-ID: I am against war on Iraq, on what I take to be some good grounds. Those grounds are to do with what I think justifies going to war, and why I think that this kind of justification does not exist. What appalls me about the current debate is its poverty on both sides. Reasons are advanced which are no reasons at all for or against, or which are either woefully incomplete or in fact incoherent. Let me start with the pro-war case: - Human rights abuses in a country do not normally justify going to war. This is because the harm done both to the country in war, and to international stability by going to war. - The advantages to Iraq of toppling Saddam do not justify going to war. No doubt it would be rather better for America to have its regime changed, or for Zimbabwe, or for Israel, but we do not take these as sufficient reasons to go to war. Things have to get to nearer the levels of Serbia before we think war is warranted. - A link with Al-Qaida is more tricky. If a state is harbouring terrorists and is complicit in activities like the twin-towers attack or the Bali bombing, and is not open to a change of stance through other means, then I think this does constitute a case for war. But this has not really been shown. It is significant that the US and UK have been cagy about advancing the case for war on this basis. - Weapons of Mass Destruction: enforcing global disarmament does seem like a good reason. The UN certainly thinks so, in relation to a number of resolutions prior to and including 1441. But what is it a good reason for? Presumably it is a good reason for doing things that will promote global disarmament, and war is not the most obvious first move here. In order to argue for war, one needs not just to show that there is reason to do something, but that there is reason to choose war as the thing to do, in preference over other options. There seems to me to be in this regard much better reason to have weapons inspectors crawling all over Iraq, and opening up Iraq to the world media, doing things that would make it impossible for Iraq to use powerful and destructive weapons. - Iraq and Destabilising the Middle East: that Iraq's regime threatens middle east stability counts as a reason to do something that will restore middle east stability, or improve it. To count as a reason for war, it must be the case that war would improve middle east stability. It seems obvious to me that it would have just the reverse effect. Seeking a political coalition centering perhaps around the Emirates and Saudi to deal item by item with the problems Iraq poses to the region would seem a much more promising candidate. - Iraq and Global Terrorism: the US and the UK are right to be extremely concerned about this issue. And those that are not moved by the threat of organisations like al-qaida ought to be. But here too, the wrongs of global terrorism give reasons to do things that will reduce the threat of global terrorism. Making war on Iraq is not one such thing. The threat just now seems to centre around radicalised young muslims. War would radicalise more. Providing an acceptable settlement for the Palestinian people would be much more promising in drying up the support for radical islamic groups. I am not saying these reasons count for nothing. But they are certainly individually insufficient. Cumulatively they seem insufficient too, to me at least. And there seem to me to be better other options - not that these get discussed much in the YES vs NO debates! The lobby anti-war - Oil. It almost seems enough to mention the word oil to make the case, in some people's minds. Such minds are debased if the mere hint of a slur counts as an argument. To say that oil has something to do with a reason against (see how vague the case is!) requires an argument that war would bring some oil-related advantage to the US (and perhaps the west in general). EVEN THEN, the case is insufficient, since all that would be shown by that would be that there is a possible motivation for the US & UK. It does not tell us ANYTHING about the rights and wrongs of war. (Let me illustrate: suppose the police offer a reward for information leading to the conviction of a serial rapist, does the advantage to me of the reward make it wrong for me to bring forward the information? Does it make it wrong to bring forward the information even if my ONLY motivation is the reward? The answer to both is a clear NO. If I was only motivated by rewards, I would be a sick sort of person, but if I helped in the conviction of a serial rapist, I would have done the right thing, even though through base motives.) There is an additional problem about oil. Even to show that the US has bad motives is pretty tricky. The west needs low oil prices. War would raise the price of oil. So where is the advantage? I'm not saying there's not a slur to be made on America's motives here, I'm just saying that noone's making it! A closer look at the facts on oil might make the slur difficult to substantiate. And it horrifies me at how so vague a case is so easily accepted. - Global Imperialism: again the case here is at best eliptical. It looks like another case of slurring motives, rather than dealing with the rights and wrongs of the case. And again it is hard EVEN to establish the slur on motives. Is it really thought that the US is trying to take over countries? If something less than full-blown empire, then what? Establish & support friendly regimes in countries throughout the world? Seems like a reasonable thing to do..... doesn't every nation try to do that? .... and if they don't, shouldn't they start?!! Again, we need better than a hint of a slur. - "We aren't dealing with Israel's weapons of mass destruction." This looks like either (a) a reason not to deal with anybody's weapons of mass destruction; or (b) a reason FOR dealing with Israel's. Interpreted as (a), it is a reason against war with Iraq, but is a plainly ridiculous policy. Interpreted as (b), it would seem like no reason against war with Iraq at all, just a reason for doing something else AS WELL. I can't help thinking that the cause of global disarmament would actually be helped by trying to tackle regimes one by one. - "We aren't enforcing UN resolutions flouted by Israel". Parallel arguments apply. This is either (a) a reason not to enforce any UN resolutions; or (b) a reason FOR enforcing those against Israel, the US, etc. etc.. - "War should never be adopted as long as a shred of doubt remains, or another option is left open." There is some truth in this reason, but it's certainly not quite right as it stands. On this view, all that a Hitler or a Milosevic would need to do (and they DID adopt these approaches) would be to ensure that a glimmer of hope remained always to sustain the case for appeasement. Real politics seems to me to involve taking some hard decisions on the balance of probabilities. Risk is never altogether eliminated - bad people will always ensure that a good gloss can be put on their actions. The best case against war seems to me to start with the "burden of proof". War involves killing people and destroying infrastructure, buildings, and the like. It needs substantial and overwhelming reasons BOTH (i) for doing something about a particular problem; AND (ii) that the "something" in question should be war. If the case is not made on both counts, we should not go to war. I also heard a point made nicely on a BBC programme recently, by Maj Gen Sir Michael Rose. He said that if the west focussed its mind on its overall priorities they would see that a war made no sense. If the priorities lined up something like the following: Priority 1. Minimise Global Terrorism Priority 2. Peaceful solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict Priority 3. Oust Saddam Hussein, or End Iraq's Weapons programme. then getting clear on the priorities helps us draw the simple lesson that we should not pursue priority 3 in such a way as to jeopardise priority 1. War on Iraq would do just that. Finally, it is not enough to assert the case anti-war. Moral decisions and political decisions are about "what to do". And they are about weighing reasons. Sometimes it's right to do something that is in some respects bad, violates some reasons, because it is the best available option. In order really to establish an anti-war case, we need to show what could be done instead. Nothing is not an acceptable answer, in my opinion, for some of the reasons given above. I suggest the following lines of approach. 1. Weapons inspectors crawling all over Iraq 2. The power of investigative journalism unleashed on Iraq 3. A serious attempt to find a just settlement to the Palestinian / Israeli conflict 4. A serious attempt at a pragmatic coalition between NATO-type countries and the more influential of the Middle-Eastern states. There are surely some more promising avenues of inquiry? Jamie Dow From jamie.dow at pobox.com Thu Feb 20 00:10:26 2003 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 18:40:26 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Debate on Iraq (2) Global Imperialism Message-ID: I'm struggling here again. Can you make your case more explicit? Or am I the only one that finds this kind of elliptical argument really hard to follow? From jamie.dow at pobox.com Thu Feb 20 00:10:28 2003 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 18:40:28 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Debate on Iraq (3) theory Message-ID: I think I agree with much else that you wrote, and it sounds as though you agree with me on at least some points. You ended with (apart from your final rhetorical question!) a more theoretical consideration, which I don't really understand. Could you spell it out for me? You wrote: "It is one thing to disqualify arguments as not being good, another to deny and simplify their existence." Which of these disjuncts represents what you thought I was doing? And what would be the difference between (i) disqualifying an argument as not being good; and (ii) denying its existence? (I suppose you could deny the existence of an argument by claiming that noone ever used such-and-such an argument, but that doesn't seem relevant here....) And what would it be to "simplify the existence" of an argument? I suppose I thought I was talking actually about REASONS, and searching for GOOD REASONS for courses of action. For reasons of clarity, I find it better to talk about (good) reasons than about arguments. Why? Well, a bad argument is still an argument, but a bad reason for xing is no good reason at all for xing. Talking of reasons also allows important possibilities like: That's a reason for xing, but it's not SUFFICIENT reason to x, in the face of contrary reasons against xing. But I've really no idea what your sentence quoted above was suggesting: it sounds like you think I've made an improper inference somewhere. But I can't understand quite what. Sorry if this all sounds belligerent. I think it's worth pursuing. Yours Jamie From jamie.dow at pobox.com Thu Feb 20 00:10:30 2003 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 18:40:30 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Debate on Iraq (1) OIL Message-ID: I'm still not clear on what case you are making. Your paragraph below is hard to understand - you allude to lots of things, in a long list, as though it were obvious from them what the case is. Your last sentence has me baffled for its syntax. I am truly not skeptical about this. I just can't hear the argument for the rhetoric. "What if you were also a serial rapist framing another serial rapist to get off and then claim the reward?" Yes, that would be a bad motivation. But to pass on true and accurate information that helped with a just conviction would still be a good thing to do. Of course you changed the word to "framing" (a rhetorically charged word, and crucially with a different meaning), and this does affect whether it's a good thing to do. Framing implies misleading information to engineer a miscarriage of justice. Do you see? It is the rights and wrongs of the case that is the issue. Nobody thinks that the US is an altruistic regime. The question in hand is not about the niceness of regimes, nor even about their integrity over a period of time (e.g. frequent mention of UK use of nerve agents in 1930's....). That is an interesting question, but leaves unanswered the crucial question which is "WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO?". To return to the oil question. The only thing that arguments here can possibly even hope to establish is poor motivation on the part of the west. And that leaves untouched the question of what is the right thing to do. I hesitate to write this, but your argument (1) by allusion, and (2) based on motive, and (3) not in fact recommending any course of action at all is quite a nice example of what has frustrated me in this debate. These are life and death issues, and we need better than this. respectfully, Jamie > > The lobby anti-war > > - Oil. It almost seems enough to mention the word oil to make the case, in > some people's minds. Such minds are debased if the mere hint of a slur > counts as an argument. To say that oil has something to do with a reason > against (see how vague the case is!) requires an argument that war would > bring some oil-related advantage to the US (and perhaps the west in > general). EVEN THEN, the case is insufficient, since all that would be shown > by that would be that there is a possible motivation for the US & UK. It > does not tell us ANYTHING about the rights and wrongs of war. (Let me > illustrate: suppose the police offer a reward for information leading to the > conviction of a serial rapist, does the advantage to me of the reward make > it wrong for me to bring forward the information? Does it make it wrong to > bring forward the information even if my ONLY motivation is the reward? The > answer to both is a clear NO. If I was only motivated by rewards, I would be > a sick sort of person, but if I helped in the conviction of a serial rapist, > I would have done the right thing, even though through base motives.) There > is an additional problem about oil. Even to show that the US has bad motives > is pretty tricky. The west needs low oil prices. War would raise the price > of oil. So where is the advantage? I'm not saying there's not a slur to be > made on America's motives here, I'm just saying that noone's making it! A > closer look at the facts on oil might make the slur difficult to > substantiate. And it horrifies me at how so vague a case is so easily > accepted. > What if you were also a serial rapist framing another serial rapist to get off and then claim the reward? Plenty of people are making the case for oil, from the US's 59% reliance, to the problems in Venezuela, to the diminishing domestic reserves, to the control of a truly price fixing depository, to the Saudi relations breaking apart, to the Iraq switch to the Euro, to the Bush cronyism fortune amassed since Prescott hosted the Nazis and Georgie traded inside with Harken and lobbied for Enron and Condies oil tanker...and so on and on. The other question is of you think gaining control of another country's natural riches qualifies as legit, and if economic imperialism is OK and on a par with the _progress_ of corporate globalization. From jamie.dow at pobox.com Thu Feb 20 00:25:35 2003 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 18:55:35 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Are Flagan's full reply to "The Poverty of Debate on Iraq" Message-ID: Re: 2/19/03 5:53, "Jamie Dow" : > > The lobby anti-war > > - Oil. It almost seems enough to mention the word oil to make the case, in > some people's minds. Such minds are debased if the mere hint of a slur > counts as an argument. To say that oil has something to do with a reason > against (see how vague the case is!) requires an argument that war would > bring some oil-related advantage to the US (and perhaps the west in > general). EVEN THEN, the case is insufficient, since all that would be shown > by that would be that there is a possible motivation for the US & UK. It > does not tell us ANYTHING about the rights and wrongs of war. (Let me > illustrate: suppose the police offer a reward for information leading to the > conviction of a serial rapist, does the advantage to me of the reward make > it wrong for me to bring forward the information? Does it make it wrong to > bring forward the information even if my ONLY motivation is the reward? The > answer to both is a clear NO. If I was only motivated by rewards, I would be > a sick sort of person, but if I helped in the conviction of a serial rapist, > I would have done the right thing, even though through base motives.) There > is an additional problem about oil. Even to show that the US has bad motives > is pretty tricky. The west needs low oil prices. War would raise the price > of oil. So where is the advantage? I'm not saying there's not a slur to be > made on America's motives here, I'm just saying that noone's making it! A > closer look at the facts on oil might make the slur difficult to > substantiate. And it horrifies me at how so vague a case is so easily > accepted. > What if you were also a serial rapist framing another serial rapist to get off and then claim the reward? Plenty of people are making the case for oil, from the US's 59% reliance, to the problems in Venezuela, to the diminishing domestic reserves, to the control of a truly price fixing depository, to the Saudi relations breaking apart, to the Iraq switch to the Euro, to the Bush cronyism fortune amassed since Prescott hosted the Nazis and Georgie traded inside with Harken and lobbied for Enron and Condies oil tanker...and so on and on. The other question is of you think gaining control of another country's natural riches qualifies as legit, and if economic imperialism is OK and on a par with the _progress_ of corporate globalization. > - Global Imperialism: again the case here is at best eliptical. It looks > like another case of slurring motives, rather than dealing with the rights > and wrongs of the case. And again it is hard EVEN to establish the slur on > motives. Is it really thought that the US is trying to take over countries? > If something less than full-blown empire, then what? Establish & support > friendly regimes in countries throughout the world? Seems like a reasonable > thing to do..... doesn't every nation try to do that? .... and if they > don't, shouldn't they start?!! Again, we need better than a hint of a slur. > Yes, but not by first promising to eradicate the population with shock and awe (why not THE BOMB, he, he, we can't rule it out) and then govern via strings. See the current Afghan puppet and consider his previous employment record. Remember "free" trade agreements? And did you read anything at all about the last *US* election? Ah, a model of democracy. > "We aren't dealing with Israel's weapons of mass destruction." This looks > like either (a) a reason not to deal with anybody's weapons of mass > destruction; or (b) a reason FOR dealing with Israel's. Interpreted as (a), > it is a reason against war with Iraq, but is a plainly ridiculous policy. > Interpreted as (b), it would seem like no reason against war with Iraq at > all, just a reason for doing something else AS WELL. I can't help thinking > that the cause of global disarmament would actually be helped by trying to > tackle regimes one by one. > The obvious conjuncture lies in AND. And the US and...oh, we need to disarm with arms so someone trustworthy must hold the gun? Let's pick a truly psychopathic personality without accountability and a low, uncaring IQ then. It makes perfect sense. > - "We aren't enforcing UN resolutions flouted by Israel". Parallel arguments > apply. This is either (a) a reason not to enforce any UN resolutions; or (b) > a reason FOR enforcing those against Israel, the US, etc. etc.. > And. And why not start with the oldest where there is bloodshed in the streets every day? Oh...the emerging Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel axis and the 1996 plan drawn up by quite a few members of the current admin to redraw the map of the Middle East. > - "War should never be adopted as long as a shred of doubt remains, or > another option is left open." There is some truth in this reason, but it's > certainly not quite right as it stands. On this view, all that a Hitler or a > Milosevic would need to do (and they DID adopt these approaches) would be to > ensure that a glimmer of hope remained always to sustain the case for > appeasement. Real politics seems to me to involve taking some hard decisions > on the balance of probabilities. Risk is never altogether eliminated - bad > people will always ensure that a good gloss can be put on their actions. > The difference lies in a _preemptive_ strike based on scant evidence, which history has show is frequently manufactured by the powers that be to justify the action. See, for example, the other Gulf in Vietnam. Hence the below. > > The best case against war seems to me to start with the "burden of proof". > War involves killing people and destroying infrastructure, buildings, and > the like. It needs substantial and overwhelming reasons BOTH (i) for doing > something about a particular problem; AND (ii) that the "something" in > question should be war. If the case is not made on both counts, we should > not go to war. > It is one thing to disqualify arguments as not being good, another to deny and simplify their existence. Do you have any affiliation with FOX news at all? From areflagan at artpanorama.com Thu Feb 20 01:15:02 2003 From: areflagan at artpanorama.com (Are Flagan) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:45:02 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: The Poverty of Debate on Iraq In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Re: 2/19/03 13:55, "Jamie Dow" : > Are, > I'm assuming you intended this to go to the Sarai list, for the benefit of > all. > I've replied to bits of it separately, but have posted the full thing lest I > misrepresent you with my editing. > Thanks for engaging on this. > Jamie Actually, no, it was for your eyes only. But since the FW mechanism took on a life of its own: I am bored to tears about how this debate is framed. It is ultimately not about the Saddam and George showdown (someone, please, get these two a room or a ring), but about the relations between civil society and an increasingly militant and corporate globalization. It is about the oligopolies ability to forcefully ignore millions of people in their spread of profitable "democracy" around the world. The way moral questions are being pushed around on the swinging good and evil barometer of a polled mood belongs primarily to the duplicity of the media to dupe the public. The same goes for justifiable motivations along the cause and effect scenario of thesis, antithesis, synthesis, chasing enlightenment reason in the "right" thing to do. We live on a world of flows and forces where such resolutions, even when voted on by the UN, must give way to a much broader and complex understanding of direction and power. -af From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Thu Feb 20 02:39:57 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 13:09:57 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] The Poverty of Debate on Iraq In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20030219210957.97762.qmail@web41115.mail.yahoo.com> Are, Jamie I think there are two separate projects going on here. There is the attempt to formulate simple arguments for and against a US-led war on Iraq that can help to improve the level of the debate. This is Jamie's project. And there is the attempt to understand the whole phenomenon: motives, politics, alliances, who stands to gain from what, what is the nature of the system all this is taking place within, etc. I think it is because this is Are's project that he is frustrated with what he sees as the limited scope of what Jamie is saying. I think both projects are important, and stand separately. But I have deep sympathy for what Jamie is trying to do because I think that at a time like this there need to be arguments presented in terms that everyone can understand and agree on. At a time like this there is no point formulating arguments that can only be accepted by people who already agree with your entire world view: who already believe that global capitalism is a menace, that America is a marauding aggressor with > a truly > psychopathic personality without accountability and > a low, uncaring IQ as President, etc. We need to leave those issues aside and formulate arguments that could actually mean something and perhaps even convince people who would completely disagree with us on those other things. (Since you bring up the phrase, "civil society", Are, is this not a fine civic project?) I don't think that those who focus on how f**ked up everything is - and it is - have a monopoly on seriousness in these kinds of issues. When things are so polarised as they are right now such a focus will change nothing. To restrain one's bewilderment and dismay and build a language that can act on the problem is an equally serious project right now - no, more so. I think the rather pathetic Fox News slight - though not intended for the public domain - is therefore completely unjustified. R __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com From areflagan at artpanorama.com Thu Feb 20 06:13:33 2003 From: areflagan at artpanorama.com (Are Flagan) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 19:43:33 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] The Poverty of Debate on Iraq In-Reply-To: <20030219210957.97762.qmail@web41115.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Re: 2/19/03 16:09, "Rana Dasgupta" : > I think the rather pathetic Fox News slight - though > not intended for the public domain - is therefore > completely unjustified. But FOX News, on the other hand, is intended for and shapes the public domain...so why should an argument that questions an argument that closely follows it's rhetoric, albeit with a different outcome, then be deemed pathetic, cruel and unjustified? The point is to recognize that if one accepts that the world is a field of flows, forces and vectors, one must in the same instance give up on the universality of anything being just "right" or "wrong." Einstein tried to quantize space and time for decades to come up with a unified theory and, gravity always pending, failed. Powerful fields push and pull with different forces depending on where you are and who you are. Einstein worked around the problem by establishing _constants_ to make the other parts operative, but we now have compelling theories that argue for the variable speed of light and, thereby, open up for the possibility of parallel universes. My time here has expired. -af From aiindex at mnet.fr Thu Feb 20 06:57:47 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 02:27:47 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Israel: a new Palestinian diaspora Message-ID: Le Monde Diplomatique February 19, 2003 Threats of forced mass expulsion Israel: a new Palestinian diaspora The repugnant idea of the 'transfer' of the Palestinians - meaning their total expulsion - now appeals to many Israelis. The Israeli army and some settlers are already organising 'mini-transfers' in the West Bank, and any serious new threat to Israel (for example, missile attacks from Iraq at war) could precipitate the brutally enforced expulsion of millions. by Amira Hass* A European diplomat spotted a road sign in Israel's Jordan Valley in December, showing that the road had been renamed Gandhi, which was the nickname of General Rehavam Zeevi, founder of the far-right Moledet (Homeland) party. Zeevi, who had publicly called for Palestinians to be "transferred" to Arab countries, was killed in 2001 by a gunman from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Was the sign an example of cynicism or just a joke in bad taste? It stood just before the road cuts east to the Allenby Bridge linking Israel and Jordan, indicating the way Zeevi's "transferees" might have to take. Just before his assassination, and soon after another Palestinian suicide attack, Zeevi said in a radio broadcast that the only solution to Israel's problems was the "approved transfer" of its Arab population. He clearly felt he then had the necessary support to deliver this unambiguous message, although he had been obliged to keep it secret for years. The real problem is that Israelis do not view the suicide bombings as part of the Palestinian struggle to end Israel's occupation, nor do they see them as revenge for the aggressive tactics of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). (According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, military action has caused more than 2,000 Palestinian casualties, at least 1,500 of them civilian.) Israelis see the attacks as proof that the Palestinians are determined to destroy the state of Israel, and to kill Jews because they are Jews. In this climate the expulsion of the Palestinians is touted as a security measure, a humane response to an intractable problem. The Israeli authorities are doing nothing to check the momentum of such plans. Which populations will be "transferred" remains deliberately unclear: Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank? Those in the refugee camps? Or all Palestinians between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river, including Israel's Arab citizens? Limor Lavnat, the Israeli education minister, legitimised the debate when she ordered schools to observe the anniversary of Zeevi's death. Anti-Arab slogans appeared across the country: "No Arabs, no attacks"; "Transfer equals Peace"; "Palestine is Jordan". One poll found that 20% of Israeli Jews would consider voting for the extreme-right Kach party if it were legally permitted to field candidates. (Kach was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1973: in the early 1980s it won one seat in parliament, getting just 1.5% of the vote. Kahane was barred from standing for election in 1988 and the party was banned after the February 1994 massacre in Hebron.) Some 73% of those who live in the Jewish settlements, euphemistically known as development towns (1), believe that Israel should encourage its Arab population to leave. This rises to 76% among Jews from the former Soviet Union and to 87% among religious Jews. With the assistance of foreign recruitment firms that publish job ads in Arab newspapers, Moledet activists have been encouraging Palestinian workers to find work abroad - to demonstrate that Palestinian emigration is somehow legal, feasible and humane. They acknowledge, though, that "transferring" hundreds of thousands of people voluntarily would be impossible: an operation of that magnitude would have to be compulsory. Professor Arieh Eldad, the IDF's former chief medical officer, is the second candidate on Moledet's electoral list. Eldad makes a distinction between voluntary and approved transfers: the first category assumes that all Palestinians would agree to emigrate, even though Eldad acknowledges that it is unlikely that any fellah would leave his land of his own accord. He also believes that any approved transfer would require international support, which Moledet actively seeks. Some rightwingers would go even further: they see a link between "transfer" and the intifada. Effi Eitam, who heads Mafdal, the National Religious party, would like to see Israel exert sovereignty over all territories between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean. A Palestinian state would be established in Jordan and the Sinai. The Palestinians would then have to choose their status: either "enlightened" residents of Greater Israel or "obscure" citizens of a Palestinian state. "I wouldn't use the term transfer," Eitam explains. "I don't see it as a political option, nor do I find it morally acceptable." Yet he describes war as a game with different rules (2). Although Eitam, a former brigadier general, claims not to seek a military confrontation, he believes when war breaks out, "many Arab citizens will not stay here". He also draws parallels between Israel's war of independence and the expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians in 1948-1949. Zvi Katzover, mayor of the Kiryat Arba settlement outside Hebron, is more upfront. He is one of the founders of Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful), spearhead of the settlers' movement. In an interview after the Israeli military assault on Hebron, which left 12 Israeli soldiers and three Palestinians dead, Katzover said: "When the big war begins and the Arabs run away from here, sooner or later we'll be back in the [Hebron] houses" (3). He was referring to homes inhabited by Jews before the 1929 massacre of Jewish residents in Hebron. Most Israelis still view those who back expulsion as a tiny minority with unrealistic and immoral objectives. Newspaper columnists and writers of letters to papers condemn the proponents of "transfer", although more and more Israelis approve their efforts. Likud and most other rightwing parties avoided the issue during the election campaign. But given this minority's attempts to stir up public opinion, one wonders if Israel's political and military leaders have planned for the worst-case scenarios. Are Israel's democratic forces powerful enough to stop the scheme before it is too late? All Palestinians, whether Israeli Arabs or those in the West Bank or Gaza, remember the 1948 expulsion and unceasingly vow: "This time we won't let them drive us out." The Palestinians are well aware of the danger, though their legal expertise and their links to the international community on both sides of the Green Line separating Israel from the occupied territories provide some protection. Before the 28 January elections the rightwing-majority central election committee sought to disqualify the list of candidates submitted by the National Democratic Assembly (NDA), an Arab party, together with two individuals: the NDA leader, Azmi Bishara, and Ahmad Tibi, of the Ta'al party (Arab Movement for Renewal). The attorney-general, Elyakim Rubinstein, who denounced Bishara for advocating the destruction of the Israeli state and for supporting terrorism, also tried to ban Kach's former leader, Baruch Marzel, who ran for the far-right Herut (Freedom) party. Herut has toned down its statements on expulsion, though it refuses to condemn those who promote "voluntary transfer" by offering the Palestinians work abroad. The Israeli left organised rallies to fight the proposed ban affecting Arab legislators. These were sparsely attended even though the civic rights of 20% of Israel's Arab population - the NDA's supporters - were at stake. The supreme court finally stepped in, ruling on 9 January that the NDA could put forward candidates. Democracy in Israel was boosted and a mass Palestinian boycott of the elections averted. Israel's attorney general has come out against the "transfer" scheme but has refused to take action against its proponents. This prompted a Labour member of the Knesset to call for an official investigation into "voluntary" emigration, noting that Israel's anti-racist legislation prohibits any distinction between voluntary and compulsory "transfer". Young Labour activists have joined in a campaign to stamp out racist slogans, launched by Courage to Refuse, a group of soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories (4). Some Labour party veterans resent the refuseniks, branding them anti-Zionist traitors. Others on the left who oppose the refuseniks' efforts are loath to see the Israeli army controlled by the right, and by hardline Jewish settlers all too ready to make "transfer" a reality when the time comes. Several surveys indicate that the number of Jews from the former USSR in Israeli combat units has risen significantly, as has the proportion of religious rightwingers in the upper echelons of the military. Both groups are avid supporters of "transfer". The presence of military pacifists in the occupied territories has not prevented "mini-transfers". Faced with non-stop harassment from their 500 Jewish neighbours and a round-the-clock military curfew designed to protect settlers, many Palestinians have moved out of the ancient city of Hebron. In the northern West Bank 180 Palestinian villagers in Yanun were forced to abandon their homes and relocate after increased harassment from the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Itamar. Other expulsions have taken place because of the construction of Israel's infamous wall (5). Though such "mini-transfers" have come to the attention of the Israeli public and resulted in demonstrations, the loss of land and homes over the past two years has left the Palestinians feeling dispossessed. "Internal closure" has meant 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and 1 million Gaza residents confined to their towns and villages. The IDF, still trying to quell the violent uprising that broke out in September 2000, has prohibited the Palestinians (except for a few special permit-holders) from using primary roads, leaving their villages or travelling to larger centres. Palestinian towns are hemmed in by roadblocks, fences, iron gates, mounds, tanks and military vehicles. This has hindered movement, but has done little to stop those who enter Israel to carry out attacks. To avoid the checkpoints many Palestinians have moved to the cities to work. Anyone travelling in Israeli-only sections might get the impression that the expulsion has already happened: the roads, Palestinian villages, lands and orchards, are deserted. Tormented by the fear of more attacks, Israelis still reject the notion that internal closure is a form of collective punishment, which only leads to increased support for the suicide bombers. Senior military officers describe the policy as reversible and say it will be discontinued when the Palestinians finally renounce terrorism. Meanwhile closure dovetails nicely with the "definitive agreement" espoused by the same rightwing parties that have dodged the issue of transfer. Russian Jewish supporters of Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home), currently allied with Moledet, have proposed creating isolated prison-like enclaves with no territorial contiguity. The size of the enclaves is the only thing that separates this plan from the Palestinian state envisioned by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Some fear that military intervention in Iraq by the United States might create a climate that could lead to the mass expulsion of Palestinians, especially if Baghdad attacks Israel with chemical weapons or if the Palestinians show support for Saddam Hussein. Should either of these happen, things could rapidly get out of control. But to achieve its objectives, the US needs stability in the Middle East, and mass expulsions would have the opposite effect. Others worry that a Palestinian group will carry out a lethal mega-attack. A senior officer, sounding fearful, expressed doubt that the army would or could stand in the way of local initiatives to expel the residents of Palestinian villages thought to be harbouring terrorists. To illustrate this he recalled how the Israeli authorities and the IDF refused to take action against Jewish settlers who had forcibly prevented Palestinians from harvesting their olive crops. Yet those Palestinians who send their young to Israel on bombing missions or to launch a possible mega-attack do not seem to understand that such actions could lead to mass expulsion. In extreme circumstances a majority of the Israeli public and many Western nations might look favourably on extreme countermeasures. Palestinian and Jewish fundamentalists have expressed similar beliefs that a great war may be the only way to change history. Over the past two years the Jordanian government has tightened regulations on West Bank and Gaza residents who enter its territory. Jordan envisages huge influxes of Palestinians fleeing the miseries of Israeli occupation, and other dire scenarios. Its fears are understandable: as the daily Ha'aretz reported on 28 November, Sharon has offered no assurances that Israel will not expel the Palestinians to Jordan, on the grounds that such a suggestion is offensive. This prompted Jordan's prime minister, Ali Abu al-Ragheb, to point out the Israel-Jordan peace treaty prohibits expulsions of any kind. But the proponents of "transfer" take a dim view of treaties. Until now Israelis and the international community have not shown much interest in the "mini-transfers" and other relocations within the occupied territories. But opposing such illegal and dangerous practices is extremely necessary, since the threat of mass expulsion is all too real. Recent developments in Israel are disturbing: fundamentalist and apocalyptic beliefs are on the rise, moral considerations have disappeared from politics and the IDF has devised new forms of oppression. With international passivity and the absence of Palestinian leaders capable of guiding the resistance to the occupation, these are discouraging signs. * Amira Hass is the correspondent for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. She is based in Ramallah. (1) These mushroom towns are similar to France's former villes nouvelles (new cities, or suburban housing projects). (2) Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv; 22 February 2002. (3) Quoted in a television interview on Israel's Channel One on 27 November 2002. (4) See Joseph Algazy, "Irael's army refuseniks", Le Monde diplomatique, English language edition, March 2002. (5) See Matthew Brubacher, "Israel: walled in, but never secure", Le Monde diplomatique, English language edition, November 2002. Translated by Luke Sandford From jamie.dow at pobox.com Wed Feb 19 16:05:51 2003 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 10:35:51 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] The Poverty of Debate on Iraq Message-ID: Jamie StationeryI am against war on Iraq, on what I take to be some good grounds. Those grounds are to do with what I think justifies going to war, and why I think that this kind of justification does not exist. What appalls me about the current debate is its poverty on both sides. Reasons are advanced which are no reasons at all for or against, or which are either woefully incomplete or in fact incoherent. Let me start with the pro-war case: - Human rights abuses in a country do not normally justify going to war. This is because the harm done both to the country in war, and to international stability by going to war. - The advantages to Iraq of toppling Saddam do not justify going to war. No doubt it would be rather better for America to have its regime changed, or for Zimbabwe, or for Israel, but we do not take these as sufficient reasons to go to war. Things have to get to nearer the levels of Serbia before we think war is warranted. - A link with Al-Qaida is more tricky. If a state is harbouring terrorists and is complicit in activities like the twin-towers attack or the Bali bombing, and is not open to a change of stance through other means, then I think this does constitute a case for war. But this has not really been shown. It is significant that the US and UK have been cagy about advancing the case for war on this basis. - Weapons of Mass Destruction: enforcing global disarmament does seem like a good reason. The UN certainly thinks so, in relation to a number of resolutions prior to and including 1441. But what is it a good reason for? Presumably it is a good reason for doing things that will promote global disarmament, and war is not the most obvious first move here. In order to argue for war, one needs not just to show that there is reason to do something, but that there is reason to choose war as the thing to do, in preference over other options. There seems to me to be in this regard much better reason to have weapons inspectors crawling all over Iraq, and opening up Iraq to the world media, doing things that would make it impossible for Iraq to use powerful and destructive weapons. - Iraq and Destabilising the Middle East: that Iraq's regime threatens middle east stability counts as a reason to do something that will restore middle east stability, or improve it. To count as a reason for war, it must be the case that war would improve middle east stability. It seems obvious to me that it would have just the reverse effect. Seeking a political coalition centering perhaps around the Emirates and Saudi to deal item by item with the problems Iraq poses to the region would seem a much more promising candidate. - Iraq and Global Terrorism: the US and the UK are right to be extremely concerned about this issue. And those that are not moved by the threat of organisations like al-qaida ought to be. But here too, the wrongs of global terrorism give reasons to do things that will reduce the threat of global terrorism. Making war on Iraq is not one such thing. The threat just now seems to centre around radicalised young muslims. War would radicalise more. Providing an acceptable settlement for the Palestinian people would be much more promising in drying up the support for radical islamic groups. I am not saying these reasons count for nothing. But they are certainly individually insufficient. Cumulatively they seem insufficient too, to me at least. And there seem to me to be better other options - not that these get discussed much in the YES vs NO debates! The lobby anti-war - Oil. It almost seems enough to mention the word oil to make the case, in some people's minds. Such minds are debased if the mere hint of a slur counts as an argument. To say that oil has something to do with a reason against (see how vague the case is!) requires an argument that war would bring some oil-related advantage to the US (and perhaps the west in general). EVEN THEN, the case is insufficient, since all that would be shown by that would be that there is a possible motivation for the US & UK. It does not tell us ANYTHING about the rights and wrongs of war. (Let me illustrate: suppose the police offer a reward for information leading to the conviction of a serial rapist, does the advantage to me of the reward make it wrong for me to bring forward the information? Does it make it wrong to bring forward the information even if my ONLY motivation is the reward? The answer to both is a clear NO. If I was only motivated by rewards, I would be a sick sort of person, but if I helped in the conviction of a serial rapist, I would have done the right thing, even though through base motives.) There is an additional problem about oil. Even to show that the US has bad motives is pretty tricky. The west needs low oil prices. War would raise the price of oil. So where is the advantage? I'm not saying there's not a slur to be made on America's motives here, I'm just saying that noone's making it! A closer look at the facts on oil might make the slur difficult to substantiate. And it horrifies me at how so vague a case is so easily accepted. - Global Imperialism: again the case here is at best eliptical. It looks like another case of slurring motives, rather than dealing with the rights and wrongs of the case. And again it is hard EVEN to establish the slur on motives. Is it really thought that the US is trying to take over countries? If something less than full-blown empire, then what? Establish & support friendly regimes in countries throughout the world? Seems like a reasonable thing to do..... doesn't every nation try to do that? .... and if they don't, shouldn't they start?!! Again, we need better than a hint of a slur. - "We aren't dealing with Israel's weapons of mass destruction." This looks like either (a) a reason not to deal with anybody's weapons of mass destruction; or (b) a reason FOR dealing with Israel's. Interpreted as (a), it is a reason against war with Iraq, but is a plainly ridiculous policy. Interpreted as (b), it would seem like no reason against war with Iraq at all, just a reason for doing something else AS WELL. I can't help thinking that the cause of global disarmament would actually be helped by trying to tackle regimes one by one. - "We aren't enforcing UN resolutions flouted by Israel". Parallel arguments apply. This is either (a) a reason not to enforce any UN resolutions; or (b) a reason FOR enforcing those against Israel, the US, etc. etc.. - "War should never be adopted as long as a shred of doubt remains, or another option is left open." There is some truth in this reason, but it's certainly not quite right as it stands. On this view, all that a Hitler or a Milosevic would need to do (and they DID adopt these approaches) would be to ensure that a glimmer of hope remained always to sustain the case for appeasement. Real politics seems to me to involve taking some hard decisions on the balance of probabilities. Risk is never altogether eliminated - bad people will always ensure that a good gloss can be put on their actions. The best case against war seems to me to start with the "burden of proof". War involves killing people and destroying infrastructure, buildings, and the like. It needs substantial and overwhelming reasons BOTH (i) for doing something about a particular problem; AND (ii) that the "something" in question should be war. If the case is not made on both counts, we should not go to war. I also heard a point made nicely on a BBC programme recently, by Maj Gen Sir Michael Rose. He said that if the west focussed its mind on its overall priorities they would see that a war made no sense. If the priorities lined up something like the following: Priority 1. Minimise Global Terrorism Priority 2. Peaceful solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict Priority 3. Oust Saddam Hussein, or End Iraq's Weapons programme. then getting clear on the priorities helps us draw the simple lesson that we should not pursue priority 3 in such a way as to jeopardise priority 1. War on Iraq would do just that. Finally, it is not enough to assert the case anti-war. Moral decisions and political decisions are about "what to do". And they are about weighing reasons. Sometimes it's right to do something that is in some respects bad, violates some reasons, because it is the best available option. In order really to establish an anti-war case, we need to show what could be done instead. Nothing is not an acceptable answer, in my opinion, for some of the reasons given above. I suggest the following lines of approach. 1. Weapons inspectors crawling all over Iraq 2. The power of investigative journalism unleashed on Iraq 3. A serious attempt to find a just settlement to the Palestinian / Israeli conflict 4. A serious attempt at a pragmatic coalition between NATO-type countries and the more influential of the Middle-Eastern states. There are surely some more promising avenues of inquiry? Jamie Dow -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030219/19518952/attachment.html From fatimazehrarizvi at hotmail.com Mon Feb 17 04:28:04 2003 From: fatimazehrarizvi at hotmail.com (zehra rizvi) Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 17:58:04 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] saturday in new york Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030216/dd7e48c6/attachment.html From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Thu Feb 20 12:48:39 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 23:18:39 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] The Poverty of Debate on Iraq In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20030220071839.75005.qmail@web41102.mail.yahoo.com> are: my time is also expiring, and i don't think you read what i wrote. > The point is to recognize that if one accepts that > the world is a field of > flows, forces and vectors, one must in the same > instance give up on the > universality of anything being just "right" or > "wrong." i don't think that the issue is one of metaphysics. it is one of pragmatics. without putting words into jamie's mouth i don't think the effort to construct arguments with which we can argue such issues (in the "public domain" which seems to be such a term of abuse for you!) is anything other than a pragmatic project; it makes no claims on some truth beyond the "field of flows, forces and vectors" that you allude to. the relevance of einstein's TOE failure to this is, i think, close to zero. i tried to say in my last mail that such a pragmatic project is important. i wonder what kind of productive social debate you would like to put in its place. > But FOX News, on the other hand, is intended for and > shapes the public > domain...so why should an argument that questions an > argument that closely > follows it's rhetoric, albeit with a different > outcome, then be deemed > pathetic, cruel and unjustified? sorry: the rhetoric of FOX News is that of simple assertion and suggestion. i don't think what Jamie was trying to do - even in your own analysis of it - can be similarly labelled. and i never said anything about "cruel". my understanding of cruelty is much less mild than this. R __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ From jamie.dow at pobox.com Thu Feb 20 15:47:18 2003 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 10:17:18 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] The Poverty of Debate on Iraq In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Are, Rana, Rana is right to see 2 different agendas here. One is descriptive and sees the world in terms of impersonal or semi-personal forces. In fact, on this view, even the personal forces are typically described impersonally. Hence, Are, you reach instinctively for an analogy with physics to illuminate what you are saying. Inevitably the scope of this kind of view will be wider, since human (intended) action is only part of what affects things in the world. On this model, we are passive recipients of what the world throws at us - we react to it, it elates or (predominantly) angers or depresses us. The other project, though, sees us as agents ourselves. Not as victims. And this is the blessing it offers, since it is not content simply to describe the world. It asks what to do, and - yes - what one ought to do, what one's nation ought to do. This kind of motivation for action will not come from anywhere else. In fact, my opinion is that the less we take this view of things, the more hope/anger fades and gives way just to resignation. At risk of cutting less gently, I think there is something to be worried about in the type of rhetoric we use. Words like "domain" and "space" and "oligopoly" and so on, sentences used in inscrutable ways - these are all things that exclude others from understanding what we are saying. I think it is prevalent in the way you write, Are. This way of writing is characteristic of the kind of quest to understand the world as "a field of flows, forces and vectors". I'm wary here, since cultural differences can be important in the way in which language is used. Words are much more commonplace and inclusive in one culture than the next - Are, I've no idea where you're from, and so this is not necessarily directed at you, therefore. But I think that a drift to a more inscrutable type of language can typically be motivated by two reasons: (1) a worry that if a point is too clearly understood it could get refuted; and (2) the belief that academic language should be opaque and technical. Of course, both of these are ill-founded. Clear points will persuade if they are good ones. To be helped to be rid of a bad argument is a blessing. And real academic language aims to be clear and down-to-earth. I would therefore plead for a "lowering of the tone", making our case in plain language. These seem to be virtues in the business of building community, letting voices be heard, and very much necessary to enable people to connect with each other in almost anything to do with either the media or the city. I appeal of course here to the values of Sarai. Jamie On Behalf Of Are Flagan Sent: 20 February 2003 00:44 To: Rana Dasgupta; reader-list at sarai.net Subject: Re: [Reader-list] The Poverty of Debate on Iraq Re: 2/19/03 16:09, "Rana Dasgupta" : > I think the rather pathetic Fox News slight - though > not intended for the public domain - is therefore > completely unjustified. But FOX News, on the other hand, is intended for and shapes the public domain...so why should an argument that questions an argument that closely follows it's rhetoric, albeit with a different outcome, then be deemed pathetic, cruel and unjustified? The point is to recognize that if one accepts that the world is a field of flows, forces and vectors, one must in the same instance give up on the universality of anything being just "right" or "wrong." Einstein tried to quantize space and time for decades to come up with a unified theory and, gravity always pending, failed. Powerful fields push and pull with different forces depending on where you are and who you are. Einstein worked around the problem by establishing _constants_ to make the other parts operative, but we now have compelling theories that argue for the variable speed of light and, thereby, open up for the possibility of parallel universes. My time here has expired. -af _________________________________________ 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: From pollyhazarika at rediffmail.com Thu Feb 20 15:55:54 2003 From: pollyhazarika at rediffmail.com (polly hazarika) Date: 20 Feb 2003 10:25:54 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] poverty of debate on iraq Message-ID: <20030220102554.20645.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030220/a6a2d649/attachment.pl From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Thu Feb 20 16:10:25 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 02:40:25 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] An Iraqi perspective Message-ID: <20030220104025.80288.qmail@web41103.mail.yahoo.com> from Guardian. the assumed passivity of Iraqis is obviously an important part of this equation. R Iraqis will not be pawns in Bush and Blair's war game An American attack on my country would bring disaster, not liberation Kamil Mahdi Thursday February 20, 2003 The Guardian Having failed to convince the British people that war is justified, Tony Blair is now invoking the suffering of the Iraqi people to justify bombing them. He tells us there will be innocent civilian casualties, but that more will die if he and Bush do not go to war. Which dossier is he reading from? The present Iraqi regime's repressive practices have long been known, and its worst excesses took place 12 years ago, under the gaze of General Colin Powell's troops; 15 years ago, when Saddam was an Anglo-American ally; and almost 30 years ago, when Henry Kissinger cynically used Kurdish nationalism to further US power in the region at the expense of both Kurdish and Iraqi democratic aspirations. Killing and torture in Iraq is not random, but has long been directly linked to politics - and international politics at that. Some of the gravest political repression was in 1978-80, at the time of the Iranian revolution and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. But the Iraqi people's greatest suffering has been during periods of war and under the sanctions of the 1990s. There are political issues that require political solutions and a war under any pretext is not what Iraqis need or want. In government comment about Iraq, the Iraqi people are treated as a collection of hapless victims without hope or dignity. At best, Iraqis are said to have parochial allegiances that render them incapable of political action without tutelage. This is utterly at variance with the history and reality of Iraq. Iraqis are proud of their diversity, the intricacies of their society and its deeply rooted urban culture. Their turbulent recent history is not something that simply happened to Iraqis, but one in which they have been actors. Iraqis have a rich modern political tradition borne out of their struggle for independence from Britain and for political and social emancipation. A major explanation for the violence of recent Iraqi political history lies in the determination of people to challenge tyranny and bring about political change. Iraqis have not gone like lambs to the slaughter, but have fought political battles in which they suffered grievously. To assert that an American invasion is the only way to bring about political change in Iraq might suit Blair's propaganda fightback, but it is ignorant and disingenuous. It is now the vogue to talk down Iraqi politics under Saddam Hussain as nothing but the whim of a dictator. The fact is that leaders cannot kill politics in the minds of people, nor can they crush their aspirations. The massacres of leftists when the Ba'athists first came to power in 1963 did not prevent the emergence of a new mass movement in the mid-1960s. The second Ba'ath regime attempted to buy time from the Kurdish movement in 1970 only to trigger a united mobilisation of Kurdish nationalism. Saddam co-opted the Communist party in the early 1970s only to see that party's organisation grow under a very narrow margin of legality before he moved against it. In the 1970s, the regime tried to control private economic activity by extending the state to every corner of the economy, only to face an explosion of small business activity. The regime's strict secularism produced a clerical opposition with a mass following. When the regime pressurised Iraqis to join the Ba'ath party, independent opinion emerged within that party and Saddam found it necessary to crush it and destroy the party in the process. In the 1980s, the army was beginning to emerge as a threat, and the 1991 uprising showed the extent of discontent. In the 1990s, Saddam fostered the religious leadership of Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, only to see the latter emerge as a focal point for opposition. Even within Saddam's family and close circle, there has been opposition. Of course Saddam Hussain crushed all these challenges, but in every case the regional and international environment has supported the dictator against the people of Iraq. It is cynical and deceitful of Tony Blair to pretend that he understands Iraqi politics and has a meaningful programme for the country. Iraq's history is one of popular struggle and also of imperial greed, superpower rivalries and regional conflict. To reduce the whole of Iraqi politics and social life to the whims of Saddam Hussain is banal and insulting. Over the past 12 years of vicious economic blockade, the US and Britain have ignored the political situation inside Iraq and concentrated on weapons as a justification for their policy of containment. UN resolution 688 of April 1991, calling for an end to repression and an open dialogue to ensure Iraqi human and political rights, was set aside or used only for propaganda and to justify the no-fly zones. Instead of generating a real political dynamic backed by international strength and moral authority, Iraqis were prevented from reconstructing their devastated country. Generations of Iraqis will continue to pay the price of the policy of sanctions and containment, designed for an oil glut period in the international market. Now that the US has a new policy, it intends to implement it rapidly and with all its military might. Despite what Blair claims, this has nothing to do with the interests and rights of the Iraqi people. The regime in Iraq is not invincible, but the objective of the US is to have regime change without the people of Iraq. The use of Iraqi auxiliaries is designed to minimise US and British casualties, and the result may be higher Iraqi casualties and prolonged conflict with predictably disastrous humanitarian consequences. The Bush administration has enlisted a number of Iraqi exiles to provide an excuse for invasion and a political cover for the control of Iraq. People like Ahmad Chalabi and Kanan Makiya have little credibility among Iraqis and they have a career interest in a US invasion. At the same time, the main forces of Kurdish nationalism, by disengaging from Iraqi politics and engaging in internecine conflict, have become highly dependent upon US protection and are not in a position to object to a US military onslaught. The US may enlist domestic and regional partners with varying degrees of pressure. This in no way bestows legitimacy on its objectives and methods, and its policies are rejected by most Iraqis and others in the region. Indeed, the main historical opposition to the Ba'ath regime - including various strands of the left, the Arab nationalist parties, the Communist party, the Islamic Da'wa party, the Islamic party (the Muslim Brotherhood) and others - has rejected war and US patronage over Iraqi politics. The prevalent Iraqi opinion is that a US attack on Iraq would be a disaster, not a liberation, and Blair's belated concern for Iraqis is unwelcome. Kamil Mahdi is an Iraqi political exile and lecturer in Middle East economics at the University of Exeter K.A.Mahdi at exeter.ac.uk __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ From jamie.dow at pobox.com Thu Feb 20 16:33:31 2003 From: jamie.dow at pobox.com (Jamie Dow) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 11:03:31 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] poverty of debate on iraq In-Reply-To: <20030220102554.20645.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: Polly, Very to-the-point. Curiously, I wonder if your email illustrates nicely the situation you describe yourself as being in. Our best attempts at abandoning reasons, and somehow thereby move to a deeper discussion, giving up on good and bad, seem to be impossible. As soon as we try, we seem to deny that we are capable of action at all. For to choose a course of action necessarily involves seeing something good about it. And so to abandon ever calling something 'good' is to abandon ever choosing. I don't think we can abandon good and bad, and the wealth of moral and value-laden language. Part of the reason for this is that we are psychologically incapable of the detachment this would require. But there is a deeper reason than this. To fail to rejoice in justice, in a person's growth & development, and to fail to be moved by another's suffering is a failure of perception - a failure to see things that are there in the world. And to see properly is to see some things as good, just, progress, and others as cruel, sick, wrong. And it is to see these things as reasons for action. Review the last few emails - those that try to abandon evaluative language actually just smuggle it back in on the sly! What we do need is a more nuanced understanding of moral concepts, one that is not characterised by a "one size fits all" cultural insensitivity, and a failure to appreciate fully that moral decisions depend on specific circumstances. But that is still to retain the concepts. I am curious about a couple of things: - why would it be humble to stop trying to change the world? - how might giving up on trying to communicate through agreed concepts & values possibly result in *deeper more meaningful* discussion? Giving up on these things is to give up on communication itself, and the result of that would be silence and isolation, no? - why you characterise the 2 projects as activist and intellectualist. I would like to claim both of these labels! ;-) Activism means talking about how to act, and that is what I am doing. Intellectualism involves advancing reasons, also what I am trying to do. I wonder if "aestheticism" or "empiricism" might be better terms for the project of describing the flux of forces, trying to understand them, with emotions fully engaged. I remain to be convinced that we do not need good reasons to go to war! Nor incidentally that there could never be good reasons for going to war. Thanks for all this. Jamie -----Original Message----- From: reader-list-admin at mail.sarai.net [mailto:reader-list-admin at mail.sarai.net]On Behalf Of polly hazarika Sent: 20 February 2003 10:26 To: reader-list at sarai.net Subject: [Reader-list] poverty of debate on iraq the war on iraq has thrown up exactly the kind of responses that all debates on activism vs intellectualism seem to end up in... jamie...is it even necessary to go looking for 'rational' arguements for going to war? why would you assume that there is any kind of 'justification'? simply pointing out that the reasons forwarded by the US are not 'sufficent' or not 'clearly proved' naturally suggests that in some cases a war would be justified?...can we never speak about war except in this way, where it may not be desired now...but is always a possibility looming over the horizon? i find it very difficult to imagine that the situation would be any different even if all your suggestions were implimented... Are...i too want to believe that this is a world in flux, in which concepts such as a universal 'good' and 'bad' are of not much use in understanding anything...the problem is that if one lets go of even that..then 'doing' becomes so impossible...and in the face of the flux it even becomes futile...and i for one have not acquired the humility to give up the attempt to 'change the world' :) Rana...just curious...is it really better to engage in arguements at a 'level that everyone can agree on'? i probably do that myself too all the time...but i was just thinking...maybe that is what keeps the issue in binaries....maybe its just that kind of political move that disables a deeper discussion... between getting everyone to agree and saying something meaningful...i at least have not yet been able to make the choice. :) polly _________________________________________ 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: From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Thu Feb 20 18:36:17 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 05:06:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] poverty of debate on iraq In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20030220130617.68948.qmail@web41115.mail.yahoo.com> which of us finds it difficult to find the language that will help us decide whether we need to buy eggs, or whether it is better to do that than to visit our mother just because "the world is in flux" and "there is no universal truth"? why is such mysticism being brought in here? R __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ From pukar at bol.net.in Wed Feb 19 15:41:42 2003 From: pukar at bol.net.in (PUKAR) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 15:41:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Bombay to Mumbai Book Release Message-ID: Dear Friends: Oxford University Press India cordially invites you to the release of Bombay and Mumbai: The City in Transition Edited by Sujata Patel and Jim Masselos by Mr Krishna Raj, Editor, Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai who has kindly consented to chair the session at The Convention Hall Y.B. Chavan Centre, 4th Floor General Jagannath Bhosle Marg Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021 on TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2003 at 5.30 p.m. PROGRAMME Welcome Address: Oxford University Press Book Introduction: Sujata Patel, Professor, Department of Sociology, Pune University Book Release: Krishna Raj Presentation of First Copy to Alice Thorner BOOK DISCUSSION Panelists: Kalpana Sharma, Deputy Editor, The Hindu, Mumbai Arjun Appadurai, Professor of International Studies, Yale University Chairperson: Krishna Raj VOTE OF THANKS: Oxford University Press ABOUT THE BOOK This volume, third in the series on Bombay, or Mumbai, brings together essays that treat the renaming of the city as a point of departure in visiting enduring themes in Bombay's life. As Bombay explodes into the megapolis of Mumbai, the volume examines whether transition is merely in the name or it has larger implications for the city's growth—in terms of an enormous expansion in size, diversity, population and function. The essays collected here offer exhilarating and provocative insights on what Bombay has become, as it steps into the new millennium. Has living in Mumbai meant a better life for its inhabitants or are they still condemned to the continued struggle for existence, and consequently withdrawal? Among other themes, the volume inquires whether the city has managed to retain its identity or is it has lost it like any other large metropolis. More specifically, the essays focus on diverse aspects of the city's social, political and economic life including housing rent control, the participation of Dalits and minorities in the city's life and activity, health-care and life in the shanties, the twin evils of crime and communalism, and the world of films. This vivid but realistic volume on Mumbai will serve as an essential and contemporary urban social history of Mumbai and will be useful to sociologists, historians, urban theorists, political scientists, and culturalists. In addition, activists, scholars, journalists and academics concerned with everyday life, culture, history and urban spaces of cities and particularly Mumbai will also find the volume of interest. Editors: Sujata Patel is Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Pune. Jim Masselos is Professor of History at the University of Sydney, Australia. Contributors: P.K.Das, Lalit Deshpande, Sudha Deshpande, Mahesh Gavaskar, Amrit Gangar, Neha Madhiwala, Suhas Palshikar, Sandeep Pendse, Jyoti Punwani, Edward Rodrigues, Madhura Swaminathan, and Rajendra Vora. ISBN 0195663179 Rs.645/- _____ 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 mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Fri Feb 21 14:24:28 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 00:54:28 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] protests & Basant Dilli Lahore Message-ID: <20030221085428.34453.qmail@web20906.mail.yahoo.com> yes. india protested too..5000 in dilli last basant week. media sleeps as usual. so many 'white' folks protested that they carried it on front pages..regardless of the psuedo nationalist American lobby in power. TImes of India bhi! uncle jee on road side saying..80 lakh in Sydney bhaisahab! general janta feeling a trifle abashed..what happened to us?.. land of Gandhi and Soul force yaar?? True. Soul Force, Gandhi resurrected. stirring in his land. despite the Lobby. Basant may bridge gaps. Dilli Lahore wait. -- Friends, fyi.. Lehar. From:Yousuf To : Lehar sethi zaidi , Subject : Basant films available for screening Date:Thu, 20 Feb 2003 05:40:53 -0800 (PST Dear friends You may remember our Basant festival that was held in Delhi (between 6th and 9th Feb. 2003). As part of this event, we showed two short films about the traditional Basant being observed in Delhi and in Lahore. These two films portray some unique and colourful traditions, and break a lot of stereotypes, using simple visuals - the kind of material that should be shown at more and more places and to a large cross-section of people. At the moment, these films are available with us in the form of a VCD or even on miniDV tapes, which we can lend to anybody who wishes to screen them. We can also be present at the screening (in Delhi) to give an introduction or participate in a discussion followed by the films. Some details of the films are given below. We (friends) incurred some cost in the acquiring of the Lahore film and the making of VCDs of both these, and are hoping that whoever plans to screen these could make whatever little contribution is possible, to recover the costs and for making more copies of the films. We would even request those who have a video projector (with sound amplification) to lend us, so that we can hold more public screenings. The VCDs can also be borrowed by people outside Delhi. I would especiall request schools and colleges to consider this. If the films are shown in this season of Basant (preferably, before Holi) it would be more relevant. Both films have Hindustani commentary. Basant � Dilli Lahore Screening of Two Films on the Themes of Basant Basant Directed by Yousuf Saeed (Consortium for Educational Communication) 13 minutes, New Delhi, Hindustani, 1997 A short film documenting a day in the life of Sufis and Qawwals at the dargah of Nizamuddin, celebrating Basant. The film traces the history behind the Sufi Basant and why is it an important metaphor of the Hindu-Muslim syncretic culture. This film has been screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF'98), and also in the 6th International Short Film Festival, Dhaka (Bangladesh) 1999, and at a symposium in Harvard University in 2002, besides being telecast on the Doordarshan. Mela Basant Bahar Directed by Samina Aslam (Eveready Pictures Pvt. Ltd., Karachi) 25 minutes, Karachi, Urdu and English A colourful film about the popular culture associated with the Basant celebration at Lahore, Pakistan, focusing on the mammoth kite flying and Basant events in Lahore, involving more than 6 million people!! Telecasted on PTV, and participated at Film South Asia Festival, Kathmandu, Nepal, the film traces the story of Basant and kite flying from the Mughal period to the modern times. An Indian viewer of this film said: "�even Diwali is not celebrated in India at the scale Basant is held in Lahore�" Lahore and Delhi are just a couple of hundred kilometers apart, but the Lahore film (when requested by us from the Pakistani director last month), came to Delhi via Dubai� a reflection of the times we are living in. For more details about these films, please contact Yousuf (9810379016) ysaeed7 at yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - I have learned so much from God That I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me That I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an angel.. Love has befriended me. It has turned to ash and freed me Of every concept and image my mind has ever known. - Hafiz, Persian Sufi Organised religion is the prop of a man who has not found his Self/ God within. - Shaheed Bhagat Singh __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Fri Feb 21 14:57:59 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 01:27:59 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] sold in the name of honour Message-ID: <20030221092759.66407.qmail@web20909.mail.yahoo.com> a look at south asia's oldest mohalla. from action aid's country director. -- Fwded message: asiapeace at yahoo... AUTHOR: Fouzia Saeed: Is Taboo taboo? Published in Dawn, 16 February, 2003 Fouzia Saeed: _Taboo. The Hidden Culture of a Red Light Area_. Oxford University Press, 2002. By Shabnam Nasir Labelled as the oldest profession in the world, prostitution has had roots in South Asia since the earliest times. The Mughal era provided ample support for prostitution, as courtesans enjoyed a prominent status amongst society due to their knowledge of singing and dancing. Surrounded by an aura of being unmentionable and forbidden amongst 'respectable' people, the flesh market is however continuing to grow at an alarming rate. Fouzia Saeed's work has shown that the boldness and courage of one woman can alter the way we perceive society. Although written on a highly controversial issue, she deserves a lot of credit for going where no woman from outside the Mohalla has gone before, and with such sensitivity. It was, therefore, with an open heart and mind that Fouzia Saeed approached the famous Shahi Mohalla, the red light district of Lahore, attempting to make sense of an area that has visitors who publicly shun the very place they have created for their own recreation. As we learn from the book Taboo, life inside the Shahi Mohalla consists of an upside down world, where the birth of a girl is celebrated with joy, while news of a son brings unhappiness. It is a place where men take a back seat in the running of the household, as it is the woman who assumes the role of head of the family. Created as a result of a self-serving patriarchal society, the Mohalla has effectively provided the country with numerous poets, singers and actresses. However, Taboo is not just a story of life in the red light district of Lahore. It has been included in the syllabi of the University of London and is also being read in some American Universities as an anthropology textbook. "The performing arts have always held an immense personal interest for me," says Fouzia. "At the age of 17 I wanted to learn how to play the sitar, but I soon came across the perception that it was not something that a 'nice' woman should do. When I expressed my interest in dance, I came across the same resistance, and this sparked my curiosity as to why there was such a stigma attached to both these arts." It was mainly this love of music and dance and her work as a woman activist, that sent Fouzia looking for answers directly where the problem sprouted. As she holds a doctorate in Education from the University of Minnesota, the researcher inside her, took over; looking for answers directly amongst the culture of pimps, prostitutes, and mirasis. Currently, Fouzia is the Country Director of Action Aid, Pakistan - an NGO involved with eradicating poverty and fighting social injustice. She has also worked for the Lok Virsa, where she first encountered performers who hailed from the Mohalla. While working at the Lok Virsa, Fouzia wrote Women in folk theatre which dealt with women's issues in our culture. She has also written many articles about problems concerning women's rights and violence against women. Born in Lahore, she also lived in Peshawar for sometime. With two older sisters and a younger brother who she is very close to, she belongs to a very close-knit family. After initial schooling in Peshawar, she went on to obtain her Bachelor's, Master's and PhD degrees from America. When I went to interview her at her office in Action Aid, Fouzia explained the reasons behind writing on such a 'sensitive' topic, and the conclusions she had drawn after completing the book. What kind of pressure did you come across while gathering information for the book? Fouzia Saeed: It was not so much of any feelings of intimidation from the residents of the Mohalla but in fact it was the "nice" people who were making my life hard. I encountered a lot of problems at the bureaucratic level and the police definitely did not want me any where around the mohalla either. I had the tires of my car slashed by "unidentified people" but this only made me resolute in pursuing the mission I had set out for myself. As to the people who lived in the Mohalla, I always felt comfortable amongst them. Were your family members comfortable with your particular field of study? FS: Initially no. They were subconsciously retaining the myth that girls who went near the mohalla were in danger of being kidnapped and forced into prostitution. When I discussed my reasons and motivation for uncovering the myths associated with the performing arts and prostitution, they began to understand how much this research meant to me and how resolved I was in pursuing it. I was very lucky in having extremely supportive parents. My husband, Paul, who is an American, gave me immense moral support in viewing the book from the reader's perspective. How long did Taboo take to write? FS: The research part took about eight years, while the actual writing took two years. When I wrote the book I gathered all my information and went to the Philippines with my husband. From there I was able to reflect on everything I had learnt from society, and the Mohalla. It was almost as if I had to distance my self from Pakistan to be able to write with a clear perspective. My husband contributed immensely to the book, as he urged me to modify my style from purely a research presentation, to an informal approach, so I could identify with the readers at a much larger scale. From bea at nungu.com Fri Feb 21 15:37:52 2003 From: bea at nungu.com (::bea:) Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 15:37:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Human Capital Software Solutions! Message-ID: Human Capital Software Solutions launched its Beta version at Transmediale and is now available for purchase! Ceo :Beatrice Gibson Executive Director: Sejal Chad Executive Technician : Adrian Ward Executive Sonitician: Mukul Deora Human Capital vers. 0.1.017 is piece of voice [text.sound] composition software, packaged as a training tool for call center agents in India. Part tool part satire, the software parodies the 'communication philosophy' of the burgeoning remote processing industry, namely its concept of a generic 'globalised' identity. At the same time Human Capital attempts to invert the logic of telematic communications structures when appropriated by capital, by allowing, through composition potential, for processes which might frustrate // subvert the mechanisms of modelization and homogeneity. Human capital presents a simulated call center environment. On entering this environment users receive a randomly generated client query and must subsequently construct, from a library of stock phrases // words // and adopted identities, responses to these queries. Tele-workers can then potentially re-appropriate and mutate possible identities, disconnecting from capital. By dragging text sound clips onto a timeline, much like conventional music software, the software hopes to introduce the potential for mixing // morphing // and mutation within an otherwise mono environment, opening up 'fissures in pattern subjectivity'. Ie. This sucks but i can fuck with it. Human Capital Software version PUBLIC BETA 0.1.017 is currently viewable at www.humancapitalsoftwaresolutions.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030221/bd96ac16/attachment.html From avinash332 at rediffmail.com Fri Feb 21 22:10:20 2003 From: avinash332 at rediffmail.com (avinash kumar) Date: 21 Feb 2003 16:40:20 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20030221164020.22714.qmail@webmail30.rediffmail.com> Somebody asked for a first hand report of the London march. Here you are. The march took place in a curious situation out here with the major political parties, both Labour and conservatives strongly in support of war. Only the Liberal democrats, who are a minor force anyway, came out openly against it with their leader Charles Kennedy speaking to the gathering alongwith Jesse Jackson and others. The situation is curious because it is by now clear that an overwhelming majority of Britons (according to one estimate 89%) is against the attack for various reasons, more ably demonstrated through the march and this has led to serious repercussions both within the Labour (on the verge of a public split) and the conservatives. Anyway, the ground for march was set many days earlier by the media, print, radio, t.v., debating the issue round the clock, further precipitated by a missile attack scare at the Heathrow (also leading to speculations that it was another of the pressure tactics used by the Blair govt.). Daily Mirror, strongly supporting the cause against the war on Iraq, came out with a cover showing Bush jr. and Saddam in a smooching posture with the caption ‘Make Love, Not War’, a prominent poster displayed throughout the march. At SOAS, School of Oriental and African Studies, Centre for South Asia had organised a film-screening on the nuclear proliferation between Pakistan and India and a follow-up discussion on the eve. Made by a Professor of Physics, Parvez Hoodbhoy, it was cogently argued, engagingly made and executed and could perhaps give a lesson or two to some of our ‘professional’ documentary filmmakers. He was himself present for the discussions along with Amartya Sen, Prafulla Bidwai, Khalid Naqvi and John Snow, the BBC Channel Four presenter. The gathering was huge and follow-up discussions went quite till late in the evening. Many of the participants in the march camped at SOAS itself in the night to catch the procession early even though the stipulated time was 12:00 noon. Since it was one of the two points in central London (the other being the Embankment at Thames) where people converged before marching towards Hyde Park via Piccadilly, it was convenient for them. We joined the march late, around 1:00, and could only reach the destination after 4:00, even though the distance was barely 3-4 kilometres. The march did look immense, reported by the organisers over 2 million, reported by the London Police around three quarters of a million, reported by ‘Independent’(s?) over a million. Take your pick; they are not really different from us Indians in so far as making varying and conflicting claims is concerned. It was like witnessing a large mass of people out picknicking (many of them in fact did use the occasion with their families and friends) or a carnival march with bands, songs (both from the portable music systems as well directly coming from the throats of the people), loudspeakers, different kinds of attires (some of them scary, forecasting our future in the grave!), masks, thousands of children holding anti-war placards pushed in their prams by their vigilant parents, old women and men in wheel chairs pushed by their dutiful sons and daughters or maybe sons, daughters in law, students with their faces painted with slogans and ever ready to pose if you wanted a snap; policemen standing very ‘respectfully’ in their luminous covers (along with several volunteers stationed at different points in fluorescent jackets) to help you out if you lost your way though there was hardly a chance (you couldn’t do it even if you wanted to!); shops surprisingly open along the streets (though some of them gingerly) including Marks and Spencer but people preferred superstores like Sainsbury’s, particularly those who had forgotten to get their food from home. It was a march with all sorts of placards (a more ambitious one requesting ‘F*** the World’ while the sober ones asking you to ‘Bomb Bush and Blair’ and not Iraq!) and pamphlets distributed (some of them telling you to know more about the murky deals between the arms industry and the Labour or how radical Islamic critique of capitalism could only save the world!). People would often get carried away at the ‘prospect’ of a huge audience and not waiting for their ‘free Sunday speech at the Hyde Park corner’ they decided to jump on whatever was available in the name of ’high pedestal’ to shout sermons, speeches at the passing crowd. It was a march where radical Islamic groups professing the cause for Palestine were followed closely on the heels by the sex-workers of a certain locality (I forget which), followed gingerly a step behind by the Communist Party of Britain. Is it a change of order one was witnessing? It was a march where very old women and men could be seen holding their placards in one hand and their walking sticks in the other. We could be back only around nine in the evening. Having come from India only a month ago and being a part of this march set me thinking. When was the last time a truly representative civil society had come out in the streets of India? Emergency 1975 or Quit India 1942? I wouldn’t remember the former, being too young and know of the latter only through history books. We come from a country not immune to rallies and marches. I remember having come across the mother of all ‘Garib Railla’ organised by Laloo Yadav a few years ago. But apart from a mass of people literally herded by their local, regional musclemen leaders, have we really witnessed a ‘truly democratic representation’ of late in such marches? I am not asking English speaking middle classes to come out en masse on the streets (they are too busy sitting in their comfort, ready to bark at you the moment you pass in front of their cars with a placard in hand), but is it asking for too much to see families, friends, social groups coming out as political units? Or is it possible only when we have to participate in pogroms like Gujarat? From rajarambhadu at yahoo.co.in Sat Feb 22 11:08:23 2003 From: rajarambhadu at yahoo.co.in (rajaram bhadu) Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 11:08:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Independent research : Second posting Message-ID: Study of Cultural Transition in Urban Slums of Jaipur City Second posting As I stated earlier in my research proposal, Out of jaipur city's total population of 22,02,645 around 6,68,126 live in slum areas. In terms of percentage, the slums population comes to 30% living in 279 scattered bastis. At present many slums situated within the city which seem like dirty spots on the beautiful skirt of city according to citizen's perception. Many slums situated on the periphery of the city which are concrete example of the marginalization of these people. Once upon a time, many families of these slums were the part of the mainstream population of the city which came here due to some critical situations. Other type of people are migrated here from other cities/states to get job opportunities in this city. In both case people are derooted from their native place. Rajasthan faces famine frequently and this is fourth famine year. In this year problem is more acute. Naturally the number of immigrate people have increased. The footpaths and rain baseras (night-shelters) are overcrowded by the famine-ridden people, who gather early in the morning on the chokhaties (a type of labour-mandi/market) to get the job. The population of slums have increased due to the newcomers and the problem of unemployment become more complex in these days for slum-dwellers. I have mentioned in the research proposal my general observation that the social structure of the slums is quite different from urban or rural societies. For example social hierchy and specific roles of the people are defined in rural social structure. The rural social structure have mechanism of social control and provides remedial measures to regulate deviations from social norms. My visits in these slums confirmed above conception. The people who reside in these slums came from various areas and belong different casts, dialects and religions. They have not any common socio-cultural background. So they have their different customs, beliefs and value-structure. The social interaction in these slums motivates by certain factors. It is not governed by established social norms which are accepted by the majority of the people. So there is not any social discrimination exists here on the basis of the role of power and individual. But a particular type of relationship emerged here among the people because they are living at same place in common situations. When they face any unfavorable situation or risk position in which they can loose their occupied land, they fight collectively and in united manner. Last year, after declaration of Jaipur as 'heritage city', local administration shifted some slums on the name of the beautification under operation pink. At that time effected slum-dweller raised their voice collectively. Then they relocated outside city by the administration under rehabilitation scheme. Some slums are relocated at Paldi Meena, people who rehabilitated here, are till struggling for civic amenities. Paldi Meena is my another research site. I will discuss on this site in my next posting. Otherwise, after a time period, stability takes place in slum and any type of social system starts to emerging. My First research site Manoharpura is an example of this type. Manoharpura established in 1989, 280 families were shifted over here from Jalebi Chowk which is the heart of the old city. At that place Janata market – a posh market - exists at present. When families shifted here, it was a pasture land beside a drain (Ganda Nala). Only three-four huts of Kalbelia (Snake-Charmers) families were here before new comer families. Now kalbalia families have increased. Raisa (60), a dai (midwife) by profession told me that they did fight long time to get settled here. Some dominating people of nearby village try to throw him from this place. Then they called city corporation and JDA for help and filed a case in supreme court. Raisa told that in those days Gundas (goons) and police persons harassed their bahu-betis (women of the family). They contacted a women organization and seek help in this matter. After normalizing the situation, some other families also came here to reside. Manoharpura basti situated between the Gandhinagar railway station and sanganer airport. It is surrounded by planned colonies. Circular road alongside with this basti. In this basti, the residents are Balmiki, Bairwa, Raiger, Kalbelia, Banjara and Balai Families. A Few newly immigrant families from Bengal and Madras also reside here. Bairwas, Raigers and Balais are equal according to the cast- hierarchy, like this Banjaras and Kalbelias are have same status whenever Balmikis (Bhangis) are at the lowest level in the cast system. These all castes are avarn (untouchable) according to the hindu caste system. Caste is the primary social unit in the basti. A Balmiki women dropped out their three children from Govt. school, bachchon se chiuachant Karte the, pani nahin peene dete the, bachhe pyase rahte they. (The teacher and children of the Govt. School discriminated her children as untouchable, forbidden drinking water, children suffered thirst in the school so she dropped out her children from the school.) Govt. School located at some distance from the basti, there are also two private schools, one Jashala and Anganwadi center. In Bairwa community some people are Govt. Servant, most of them fourth class and others are labourers. Raigers engaged in their traditional work of leather processing. But young generation of Raiger community engaged in different manual jobs. Young group of Kalbalias formed a band and playing it in marriage ceremonies for earning. Muslim community engaged in iron works and kabada karobar (recycling). Some people from Balmikis are working in corporation as sweeper other engaged in different occupation. Many persons of the basti are rikshaw pullers. Most houses are actually thatch roofed excluding some brick-houses. The children and adolescents of basti used to scrap-picking. The woman Maina told Jindgi bhar pinni bini, shadi ho gayi, bachche ho gaye. A large number of basti women are working in nearby colonies as kamwalis (House worker). The use of liquor is very common in this basti. One English and one deshi (local) wine shop situated at the basti bus-stand. Some groups of the people may be seen involved in gambling. The husband of Sharifan (48, muslim women) divorced her and did second marriage. Now Sharifan lived with her five children three girls and two boys. Whole family is depend on crap pickerning. On the schooling of her children Sharifan argues-paisa nahin hai, school jayenge to Khayenge Kya? The cultural forms, pattern and processes are not visible on the surface of social life in the slums. Many of these manifests in some special occasions and in the particular situations. Monoharpura Basti constituted a development committee in which local councilor is very interested. In last days chief minister allotted land patta's to the basti residents. Two temples are shining in the basti between the jhuggis. There are so many cassette shops in the basti, cassette recording facilities are also available at these shops. Everybody can hire a VCR from these shops. Film posters are displayed on a particular hoarding at bus stand. From ravikant at sarai.net Sun Feb 23 03:08:38 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (ravikant at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 21:38:38 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Independent research posting Message-ID: <200302222138.h1MLccrV021464@mail.sarai.net> This is the first posting by Naresh Goswami. Comments and suggestions are welcome. ------------------ Weekly Markets of East Delhi Bhajanpura is one of those densely populated and unplanned colonies that have emerged on the outskirts of Delhi in the recent past. Demographically, it is a significant part of the northwestern geography of trans-Yamuna area. The topography of the area is marked by a network of narrow, criss-cross bylanes. The bylanes connect the numerous clusters of habitation. Unlike many of the celebrated ghetto-settlements � The 'Koochas' and 'Galees' of the walled city - this part of Delhi does not carry a rich history behind it. So, far an outsider, Bhajanpura does not hold out any tourist attraction whatsoever. My object of study is Bhajanpura, but also the adjoining clusters. Before it acquired an identity of being a settlement somewhere in trans-Yamuna area � this is the dominant perception of most of the people who live on the other side of the river- Bhajanpura together with Ghonda, Maujpur, Khajuri, Usmanpur, Kaithwada etc. was an agricultural area. But in the early 70s, the geography and the life based on it began to change and a slow process of migration from the rural to this part of the city became visible. The Asian Games held in 1982, intensified this process manifold. The large scale construction activities opened up great opportunities for all kinds of craftsmen. It was largely in these years that Delhi became a destination for rural workers including masons and artisans from eastern and western parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Uttranchal. A great number of such people either got some job in various construction works, or started dhabas, tea and pan-shops,etc. This is how many of the existing colonies � Sonia Vihar, Brijpuri, Ganga Vihar came up in this area. For the last few years I have been an observer of the everyday hustle-bustle of life in these colonies. In the beginning, when I first saw a market-like scene on a crowded road in a narrow bylane in this area, it seemed so commonplace that I did not even notice. But when I saw more of such situations emerging in other parts of the area, I could notr help noticing a pattern. Soon I found that these were not stray events. The phenomenon was called a 'Painth' or saptahik bazaar (weekly haats). Today, for some time now, every colony has its own weekly market on a particular day. On such a day one gets to see more women on the main streets and in bylanes, buying different kinds of things with large bags in their hands and on their shoulders. In these colonies the market-day is identified with heightened activities, calls of shopkeepers to attract buyers, scenes of people striking a deal with a vendor, colourful clothes dangling from rickety platforms and ramshackle masts. The place gets dramatically transformed for an evening and the next day becomes normal almost as suddenly and quietly. It was from here that this phenomenon of weekly markets turned into a sort of engagement and provoked me to study the structure and operations within. It was revealed in the preliminary investigations that the issues of organisation of this weekly market, profile of people engaged in this, generation of livelihood and the cultural coordinates would be essential constituents of this study. Even a cursory look at a weekly haat makes it obvious that it is a market of small producers, where in many instances, a producer, is him/herself a shopkeeper. Although at an obvious level this is a poorman's market, however, it is not unusual to find here a buyer from nearby middle class colonies. This thing lands a strange character to such a market. The weekly haats that are held in the vicinity of rich and planned colonies, offer better quality products. Traditionally weekly markets are an extension of what used to be 'Painth' or 'Haat's' in the older days. For the migrant population such a market mechanism comes as a continuation of its tradition. Here, it may be noted that in rural areas shopping used to be a weekly affair. But what makes these weekly markets click in a city like Delhi is the overall marginalisation of people in the peripheral areas. They can not have access to mainstream markets and hence create their own markets corresponding to their purchasing power and status. In this part of the city, the weekly markets generally cater to everyday needs - like vegetables, spices, crockery, clothes - of the local community. In this context, it is important to see that a large number of goods and products being sold in such markets are locally produced. But you are likely to be surprised by the presence of foreign, in particular Chinese goods and may start thinking about the complex networks that govern such local but moving markets. Moving, because it is not uncommon to find the same set of wandering vendors pitching their tents in different areas on different days of the week. An interesting aspect of this phenomenon of weekly markets is that besides shopkeepers, vendors and/or traders, a lot more people draw sustenance from it. For example, persons supplying tables, bamboos and other accessories to the shopkeepers look upon the weekly markets as a source of fairly stable employment. At times, even a house owner gets away with some money in return for allowing shopkeepers to lay down his articles in the space outside his house. When we move from the socio-economic coordinates of weekly markets to the issue of control, regulation etc., we are dismayed at the callous and prohibitive role of government machinery. The vendors are often punished and fined for taking their shop in the interiors of bylanes in an obvious situation of overflow. The MCD and police raise issues of legality and harass the vendors. I would like to investigate this whole issue of administrative controls, pressures, rules, laws and corruption in my study. Till now we have mainly focussed on the economic part of the weekly markets, but we just can not understand the actual significance of this phenomenon, if we do not realise that a weekly haat challenges and redefines the design of our ordered public space. For a woman who is largely confined to the four walls of a home a weekly market comes as an open space where she can participate and make choices. In this process, they silently cut into the structure of patriarchy. This area has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims. Today when the process of alienation is deepening between the two communities, such markets provide a much needed platform for a dialogue. To sum up, here we would basically focus on the interplay between the weekly market and the local community. I wish to emphasize that this preliminary description is rather indicative of many elements that constitute this phenomenon. So here my basic intention is to unravel this structure of symbiosis and conflict as I explore the significance of such markets for the local people. I think the answers emerging from this study would be able to shed some light on lesser known and hitherto largely unexplored facet of contemporary urban culture. From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Sat Feb 22 23:48:17 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 10:18:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Manto thinks.. Message-ID: <20030222181817.70410.qmail@web20905.mail.yahoo.com> fyi.. --- qoute: The partition of colonial India was accompanied by some of the bloodiest religious rioting in recorded history. And it is the ghosts from 1947 that continue to scare off healthy relations in the present day, post-Ayodhya and post-Gujarat. Why did the killings take place and on such a scale? Explanations depend on which side one listens to. Saadat Hasan Manto got it right when he wrote: �I found it impossible to decide which of the two countries was now my homeland - India or Pakistan. Who was responsible for the blood that was being so mercilessly shed every day? (Every) question had different answers - the Indian answer, the Pakistani answer, the British answer - but when you tried to look for truth, they were no help India was free. Pakistan was free. But man was slave in both countries to prejudice, religious fanaticism, bestiality and cruelty.� full article: Open the window and let the sun in Khalid Hasan Friday Times, 21 February, 2003 One LONGER DOES ANYONE SEEM TO HAVE time or patience for the constant bickering between Pakistan and India that drones on like a worn-out gramophone record, needle stuck in the same groove. Fifty-three years, three wars and a lot of ill will later one would think that the two neighbours would be able to put aside their differences and call truce not only for the benefit of the billion-strong population of the Subcontinent but the four billion others around the globe. The fault for the sorry state of Subcontinental affairs rests squarely with Pakistani and Indian governments, past and present. Quaid-i-Azam, a man of logic and cold reason, believed that once the contentious issue of who would rule whom after the British departed could be settled with the creation of two independent states, it would foster peace and goodwill between Muslims and Hindus. This did not happen and Jinnah died of a broken heart. The partition of colonial India was accompanied by some of the bloodiest religious rioting in recorded history. And it is the ghosts from 1947 that continue to scare off healthy relations in the present day, post-Ayodhya and post-Gujarat. Why did the killings take place and on such a scale? Explanations depend on which side one listens to. Saadat Hasan Manto got it right when he wrote: �I found it impossible to decide which of the two countries was now my homeland - India or Pakistan. Who was responsible for the blood that was being so mercilessly shed every day? (Every) question had different answers - the Indian answer, the Pakistani answer, the British answer - but when you tried to look for truth, they were no help India was free. Pakistan was free. But man was slave in both countries to prejudice, religious fanaticism, bestiality and cruelty.� In Simla in 1972, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said to Indira Gandhi that the world was tired of �our quarrels�. How long, he asked, were the two countries going to go knocking at the doors of foreign chancelleries complaining about each other? Mrs Gandhi, to her credit, saw the point and despite tremendous pressure from the opposition and her own party opted for a negotiated peace. It is a great pity that the two countries moved not an inch forward after putting their signatures down on the Simla Accord. Simla met the same fate as the earlier Tashkent Accord behind which the then powerful Soviet Union had thrown all its authority. Another missed opportunity was 1962. Those who argue Pakistan should have taken advantage of India�s �helplessness� and annexed Kashmir are wrong. Even if this had happened the gains would have been short lived. One need only go to the Wagah-Atari border to witness firsthand the hatred and ugliness that lie at the heart of official Pakistan-India relations. The end-of-the-day black opera that soldiers of both countries stage while hundreds of civilians on either side watch with the same fascination they would a nest of cobras in full venomous fury puts out a clear message: the hatred is mutual and deep seated. The exaggerated gestures, overdone drill, flaunting of weapons, thumping of jackboots, banging of gates, arrogant lowering and folding of flags make one's skin crawl. If His Heaviness wants to be taken seriously, perhaps he should consider immediately banning the ceremony on the Pakistan side. India will have no option but to follow suit. And this brings me to the current expulsions of Pakistani diplomats by India and Indian diplomats by Pakistan. It is pathetic that things should have come to a point where the two governments are unable to even tolerate each other's diplomats who, everyone knows, are like garden variety snakes, fearsome in appearance but quite harmless. A former American diplomat of my acquaintance who has served in the subcontinent for many years and speaks the language told me on his return from Islamabad and New Delhi a month ago that Indo-Pakistan relations have never been worse. The Indian position remains unchanged-unless Pakistan ends all cross-border activity into Kashmir, there can be no talks. Pakistan says it has done so when in reality it has not done so. Not quite. With satellites going over our skies every 90 minutes, don't we realise that those to whom we lie with a straight face have the capability of photographing objects as small as four inches in diameter from the stratosphere. India and Pakistan must abandon the step-by-step approach they have followed since 1947. It simply does not work. They must also take the conduct of mutual relations out of the hands of bureaucrats at their home ministries, intelligence agencies and foreign offices. What we need are quantum jumps that only politicians can order. It is time for them to act. Here is His Heaviness�s chance to leave his imprint on history by making friendship with India his only task. He should draw inspiration from the late Prime Minister Junejo who signed the Geneva peace accords that ended the war in Afghanistan despite General Zia-ul-Haq�s bitter opposition. As a first step, no Indian should need a visa to come to Pakistan and no Pakistani should need a visa to go to India. Were that to happen, the basic chemistry of India-Pakistan relations would undergo a change overnight. The people of the two countries want friendship. Why are the governments standing in their way? __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ From pnanpin at yahoo.co.in Sun Feb 23 04:29:28 2003 From: pnanpin at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?pratap=20pandey?=) Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 22:59:28 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Sth. of sth. on Iraq Message-ID: <20030222225928.18048.qmail@web8201.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear all, There is no paucity of debate on Iraq (I don't like the way this phrase ends with "Iraq"; doesn't this steer the conversation along putatively paranoiac neo-Orientalist lines?). The fact that there is a debate on the paucity of debate on Iraq in the Sarai reader-list is one simple little proof of this. You could scan other lists, or websites. You would find an immense, teeming, daily updated archive of disbelief, support, anger, resignation, protest, counter-protest. Postings, forwarded news updates, comments on forwarded news updates, requests to sign and send letters to this or that Senator or parliamentarian, summaries of what world leaders are saying (or not saying), parodies of what world leaders are saying, speeches, analyses ('little' and 'big', 'economic' and 'metaphysical' ) -- in short, a huge completely unmanageable discourse, a completely chaotically human discourse on an event that looms over the world today. Many, many individuals and organisations are ensuring that not a word of what is said or officially spoken (or even unspoken) on "the debate on Iraq (sic)" remains private, or hidden. Where is the "paucity"? Or is it the case that when we say "paucity" we actually mean "clarity"? Given the amount of words (bytes, column-centimeters) being used on this issue, is this debate a symptom of an understandable inability to separate an item of "critique" from an item of "incitement"? If so, then are we sure we are not collapsing "ethical bewilderment" into "moral confusion"? I am not sure about this, but I sniff in this debate the desire for "absolutely clarity". By their nature, humans are quick to desire this; by their calculations, fascists are quicker to use this propensity. Either ways, it is a trap: the terrible telos of the death-drive, or the entirely distasteful experience of being grist to a holocaustic mill. My worry is: this event -- this war that the US wants to wage on Iraq; this extremely "public" event where everybody's going public, especially Presidents and Prime Ministers; this extremely well stage-managed effort to create global instability -- is succeeding. It is creating more and more paranoia. It is pressurising (and is continuously pressurising) people to decide, one way or the other, and so become paranoiac for ever more. It invokes justice, promises violation, and gives you a deadline to choose. It demands the principles of both humanity and atavism, and then tells you: you know which you want to go, don't you? This war-drumming, it is seductive. It can simplify your existence. My worry is: this continuous seduction by State of civil society might just be the best attempt to end (or halt, or attempt to drastically transform) the ability of humans to become more fully human. This is the best attempt, so far as I know, to seduce human beings into creating walls and fences in the way in which they interact with humans. The "war" is not, I propose, about the short-term goal of ousting Saddam. This "war" looks like a constant prolongation of tension; it is about the long-term goal of ensuring that no human crosses any border (or any kind of border), ever. I salute Bush. He is at a different level, much much beyond the Freikorps or the Hindu Jagran Manch. He promises nothing less than the death of the innate ability of humans to be dialectical. pp Catch all the cricket action. Download Yahoo! Score tracker -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030222/9580daba/attachment.html From lushinkk at yahoo.com Sun Feb 23 16:40:33 2003 From: lushinkk at yahoo.com (lush inkk) Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 03:10:33 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] interesting film- screening Message-ID: <20030223111033.84358.qmail@web14502.mail.yahoo.com> a film i liked- a first film, i think well worth seeing..hansa A FEW THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER (Documentary/ 30 mins / 35mm/ Col / English Subtitles) Mirabai is a cultural icon and her images and stories swamp our popular culture. The conflicts expressed in her poetry however, do not always tally with popularly held beliefs. The film explores some of these contradictions. We discover some alternate traditions of Mira and form a personal connection with the 'rebel mystic', who lived some 500 years ago. We travel from the towns and villages of Rajasthan to the vast desert, in search of Mira. The people we meet have been living with Mira in different ways and in the telling of her story, they often tell us their own. Fragments of history, legend and memory permeate the film. And always there is Mira singing for us in various voices. Director :Anjali Panjabi Script :Paromita Vohra Camera :Mrinal Desai Editor: Jabeen Merchant Sound: Arun Nambiar Narration: Lovleen Mishra Producer Films Division --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030223/576ce723/attachment.html From avinash332 at rediffmail.com Mon Feb 24 01:22:16 2003 From: avinash332 at rediffmail.com (avinash kumar) Date: 23 Feb 2003 19:52:16 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20030223195216.29290.qmail@webmail10.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030223/eabd315c/attachment.pl From menso at r4k.net Mon Feb 24 03:33:17 2003 From: menso at r4k.net (Menso Heus) Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 23:03:17 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Iraq... it's the Euro, stupid Message-ID: <20030223220317.GJ31512@r4k.net> Hi all, A friend of mine pointed me towards several interesting articles that offer a different perspective on the entire Iraq situation. Iraq has recently switched from the dollar to the euro for all their oil transactions. Several other OPEC countries such as Iran and Venezuela are considering the move. This ofcourse has major implications for the US economy. Getting hold of the region and thus the trade in that region might enable the US to restore the dollar for Iraqi oil trade. http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html http://www.observer.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,900867,00.html Menso -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is only one style: freestyle -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From rmazumdar at vsnl.net Mon Feb 24 09:29:51 2003 From: rmazumdar at vsnl.net (Ranjani Mazumdar) Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:29:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Inside Iraq by John Pilger Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.2.20030224092805.02235e40@mail.vsnl.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030224/6f000d91/attachment.html From monica at sarai.net Mon Feb 24 12:45:01 2003 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 12:45:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] on a completely different note... Message-ID: i offer a forwarded piece of parody... To the tune of "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands". If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq. If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq. If the terrorists are frisky, Pakistan is looking shifty, North Korea is too risky, bomb Iraq. If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq. If we think someone has dissed us, bomb Iraq. So to hell with the inspections, let's look tough for the elections, close your mind and take directions, bomb Iraq. It's "pre-emptive non-aggression", bomb Iraq. Let's prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq. They've got weapons we can't see, and that's good enough for me cos it's all the proof I need, bomb Iraq. If you never were elected, bomb Iraq. If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq. If you think Saddam's gone mad, with the weapons that he had, (and he once p*ssed off your dad), bomb Iraq. If your corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq. If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq. If your politics are sleazy, and hiding that ain't easy, and your senates getting queasy, bomb Iraq. Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq. For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq. Disagree? We'll call it treason, let's make war not love this season, even if we have no reason, bomb Iraq. -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From shveta at sarai.net Mon Feb 24 01:00:51 2003 From: shveta at sarai.net (shveta) Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 01:00:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] thinking in a crowd Message-ID: <200302240100.51760.shveta@sarai.net> dear all, wanted to share a text by shamsher from the compughar (ghar - house). passionate about photography, shamsher (ali bhai, as he likes to be called :) is 17 years old. the compughar is a year and a half old cybermohalla media lab at JP basti (settlement) in Central Delhi. this text has been translated from hindi. best shveta ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sawalon ke kinare the edges of questions We keep walking in life. And in this duration, many passed by moments leave with us their memory. Many questions from these stay hovering in our mind. Which cause us delight, or pain. Sometimes we feel, 'that was a good thing that happened.' Sometimes, 'that was bad, but that is how it should have been'. How do we guage what is good, what is bad. When it is this 'assessment' of ours that causes us sadness, or happiness. Why are we so keen to have every story have a 'turn' (mod)! Seated on a boat of thought, why do we start waiting for a new 'question fish' (sawal machhli)? Sometimes thought becomes heavy, and questions slip out of our hands. That's when you don't get sleep at night. How quickly we start rummaging through, turning around and examining the days gone by, our today, and the days to come. When this happens with me, it's not like it doesn't feel good. When I run out of this, I turn to looking closely at my house. And start looking at the cracks in the walls, making all kinds of shapes with them. I laugh. And I also get frightened. A joker's face, then a dog. But when I make out of them a painful face, I feel a strange fear. Why are his eyes on me alone? What does he want from me? I turn into him and keep asking myself these questions and getting scared. And then, when this thought breaks, I laugh at him, and at myself. What was I doing? Why should I get frightened of this creation of my looking? I created him, with my thinking. Right now, I am sitting on the roof of my house. It's a very sunny morning today. I'm enjoying writing as well. Now I understand why ammi, my brothers and sisters sit here. Right now, many eagles are flying, over my head. Because a man is feeding them. He throws a piece of meat up, towards them. His eyes are on the eagles. Then how must the eagles feel? Is that a common look (aam nazar) for them? Every man on a roof gives them a peice of meat. And they sit on the roof of the hospital, enjoying their peice. What must the man feel about this? What must he make out of it, of what he is doing? If we stand in a crowd, look at one another, what will the eye of the crowd say to us? Get away, make way! How many looks there must be in our look. How many can we make out? Why do we ask questions, seek answers about these looks? Jump into the ocean of thinking, and tire ourselves out, swimming. And when we don't find the shore, why do we kill our thought? By saying we don't know it, what do we care about it? But once, my mother asked me to get milk. I refused. Don't know how ammi felt about my refusal. She didn't say anything to me and kept looking at me, silently. And I left. My mother's face and looks kept appearing before me and my thoughts. Thinking these thoughts, singing a song, I went to the [video] Game [parlour]. That look chased me even there. This kept going through my head and finally, I found the edge of these questions, and went straight home. And said to ammi, hurry, I'll get the milk. Handing me the money, ammi said, 'just now you'd refused and left?' I could have lied in reply. But I had no truth as response to give her. I put the question in the boat and set it to sail and lose itself in the ocean. Quickly, I packed my things and came back to my world. It's not like this always. Sometimes, time stands still. How much ever we want, time doesn't move ahead, and we remain troubled. About what will happen. Our one thought stays with us for not one, but even three to four days. During which we can't do anything properly, neither can we reach any conclusion/decision. Some thought travels a long distance in a brief time. But with these, we usually laugh, nothing else happens. (There is always one difficulty - do we know what it is that we think.) In our everyday life, we knit or make many dreams. But making these in a crowd is enjoyable in a completely different sense. Like this, we make it not only by thinking it, but also seeing it. Sometimes these imagined dreams save us from many wrongs. (Sometimes many questions betray us.) What do my friends think about me, of me? If I sit down with this question, it will seem very random, confused. Every friend has an expectation of a friend. Which is what probably keeps the friendship. I want for my friends to remain away from bad company, or doing things because of which their parents or people say hurtful things. Life goes on. And with that, so does thought. Everyday, there is a new thought, the story of which is related with, stuck to every other thought. We can do anything in life, but we make one mistake, and we become bad. In this world, on our way to searching our destination, we share or change our thoughts with co-travellers. And a new story starts in our head. A story that changes or turns over with the next traveller we chance by. What else do we need? What can we not do with thought, thinking. Where all can we not go. But to go into the depths of thinking, we need a pass, and the name of that is QUESTION... Shamsher compughar at sarai.net From avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in Mon Feb 24 13:18:10 2003 From: avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?Avishek=20Ganguly?=) Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 07:48:10 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] The Elgin Marbles and British Arrogance! Message-ID: <20030224074810.56347.qmail@web8006.mail.in.yahoo.com> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2791877.stm 'No return' for Elgin Marbles: The director of the British Museum has said that the Elgin Marbles should never be returned from Britain to Greece. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Neil MacGregor said the sculptures, which once adorned the Parthenon temple in Athens, should remain in London. He has also ended discussions with a British campaign group seeking their return to Greece. The 2,500-year-old sculptures depicting religious and mythological scenes have been held at the British Museum since 1816, despite ongoing Greek efforts to have them repatriated. It is a very happy result of history that half of these surviving fragments... are in London Neil MacGregor Mr MacGregor, who became museum director six months ago, has issued a firm ruling certain to dismay Greek authorities. He believes the sculptures can "do most good" in their current home, seen in what he describes as a broader historical context. He told the Sunday Telegraph: "I do not believe there is a case for returning the marbles. "It is a very happy result of history that half of these surviving fragments of these sculptures are in London. "They have a purpose here because this is where they can do most good. "The British Museum can situate the achievements of these Greek sculptures in the context of the wider world." 'Virtual' Parthenon: He wants the Greek Government to accept a computer-generated version of what the sculptures would look like back on the Parthenon. "The Parthenon can never be reconstructed so let's try and put together what's left of it virtually," he said. Late last year, Greece stepped up its campaign to have the marbles returned to their place of origin. Work has even started on the construction of a new museum at the Acropolis in Athens to house them in time for the summer Olympic Games in the city next year. That plan now looks unlikely. Asked if he thought the sculptures should never be returned, Mr MacGregor said: "Yes. The British Museum is one of the great cultural achievements of mankind: it is very important that there is a place where all the world can store its achievements. "Lots of people would agree that there should not be a special case for the Parthenon. "I personally don't see any difference between Greek visual culture and the visual culture of Italy and Holland, which is also spread around the world." Mr MacGregor's comments and decision to end discussions have also angered the British Committee for the Restitution of the Marbles. The group's chairman, Professor Anthony Snodgrass, said: "I would only be happy with a virtual reality version if they were put in the British Museum as a replacement for the originals." Diplomatic row: The controversy over the sculptures has a long history. They were first brought to London in the early 19th Century by British diplomat Lord Elgin. Athens first called for their return in 1829, after Greece won independence from Turkey. The issue has simmered ever since. In 1961, the then prime minister, Harold Macmillan, described it as complicated. Successive Greek Governments have exerted diplomatic pressure, but all efforts to repatriate the marbles have failed. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/2791877.stm ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From evan at protest.net Sun Feb 23 22:59:14 2003 From: evan at protest.net (evan) Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 12:29:14 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] saturday in new york In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <53E04134-4754-11D7-8B66-0003938CA038@protest.net> On Sunday, February 16, 2003, at 05:58 PM, zehra rizvi wrote: > it was an amazing tournout...woudl love to hear from people in > london...supposedly that was the biggest one anywhere....rome had a > singing and dancing festival like feel to it  (i was at the march with > a roman and his accounts of marches in rome were wonderful, nothing > like what we expect here in nyc)  anyone else on the reader list > around the world in any of the protests?  i know there was something > in iraq and something in amman as well ( 2000 people which is a lot > for there)....any news on protests in south asia?? I was at the protests in Quito, Ecuador. They were actually quite small, only a couple hundred people on two different days outside the US Embassy. Part of the protest was the clear linking the US war on terrorism in the middle east with Plan Colombia which is about growing US funding and involvement in the Colombian civil war. Leaders of the campasino and indigenous groups attended the protests and it was well covered by both the corporate television stations and newspapers. The reality is here in Ecuador people are more focused on their current government which took power last month. It seems that even though the people of ecuador thought they were electing a leftist president backed by a coalition of three left parties what they got was another right wing neoliberal government. The current president, Lucio, helped lead a brief coup and popular rebellion in 2001 which erupted out of protests against IMF reforms and dolarization campaigned on a progressive political platform. With that fame he launched a political party and running and winning the presidential elections in December. But in the last days of the campaign Lucio was not on the streets of Ecuador but on Wall Street selling his country out. Many of the very large indigenous and campasino organizations now have their leaders occupying the ministerial positions in the government. But Lucio and his military backed party has continued to court new IMF loans and expanded US military bases in the country. Last thursday the leftist groups who are officially part of the government relaunched their protest campaigns against the FTAA, plan colombia, and neoliberal structural adjustment which has been put on hold when they won the elections. in solidarity, evan From sougata_28 at rediffmail.com Mon Feb 24 23:25:31 2003 From: sougata_28 at rediffmail.com (sougata bhattacharya) Date: 24 Feb 2003 17:55:31 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Aurora-II Message-ID: <20030224175531.16382.qmail@webmail27.rediffmail.com> To the reader list : This is the second episode of my research work that I'm working under the Sarai independent Research Grant. Comments and suggestions are cordially welcome ....Sougata. Aurora in the Studio Era. From lachlan at london.com Tue Feb 25 06:46:26 2003 From: lachlan at london.com (Lachlan Brown) Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 01:16:26 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] The Elgin Marbles and British Arrogance! Message-ID: <20030225011627.14039.qmail@iname.com> Yes, the story of the theft by the honourable Lord Elgin of the statues of the Parthenon in the early 19th century is the story of cultural appropriation. The British Museum is a repository for plundered cultural artefacts from all over the world and it's in the interests of The British Museum to hang on to the statues and fragments as long as it can as there are many similar claims to the collection. The legal ownership is complicated only because the modern Greek state did not exist in 1816. We have all had to deal with a specific kind of English Establishment arrogance 'the most good - for whom? - and those of us in or from Britain have had to deal with it for centuries. I'm afraid all of our institutions produce remarkable characters in office who appear to represent best interests of all while performing the worst policies. One hopes the English cultural Establishment does not have the monopoly on arrogance, though they have it honed to the state of high art in cultural governance. The faculty of arrogance is distributed wherever there are uneven clusters or accumulations of power, wherever someone over-identifies with, or fetishises, the institution to which they belong, and it is most apparent where the basis of that power, identification or institution is challenged. Lachlan > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2791877.stm > > 'No return' for Elgin Marbles: > > The director of the British Museum has said that the > Elgin Marbles should never be returned from Britain to > Greece. > In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Neil > MacGregor said the sculptures, which once adorned the > Parthenon temple in Athens, should remain in London. > > He has also ended discussions with a British campaign > group seeking their return to Greece. > > The 2,500-year-old sculptures depicting religious and > mythological scenes have been held at the British > Museum since 1816, despite ongoing Greek efforts to > have them repatriated. > > > It is a very happy result of history that half of > these surviving fragments... are in London > Neil MacGregor > Mr MacGregor, who became museum director six months > ago, has issued a firm ruling certain to dismay Greek > authorities. > He believes the sculptures can "do most good" in their > current home, seen in what he describes as a broader > historical context. > > He told the Sunday Telegraph: "I do not believe there > is a case for returning the marbles. > > "It is a very happy result of history that half of > these surviving fragments of these sculptures are in > London. > > "They have a purpose here because this is where they > can do most good. > > "The British Museum can situate the achievements of > these Greek sculptures in the context of the wider > world." > > 'Virtual' Parthenon: > > He wants the Greek Government to accept a > computer-generated version of what the sculptures > would look like back on the Parthenon. > > "The Parthenon can never be reconstructed so let's try > and put together what's left of it virtually," he > said. > > Late last year, Greece stepped up its campaign to have > the marbles returned to their place of origin. > > Work has even started on the construction of a new > museum at the Acropolis in Athens to house them in > time for the summer Olympic Games in the city next > year. > > That plan now looks unlikely. > > > Asked if he thought the sculptures should never be > returned, Mr MacGregor said: "Yes. The British Museum > is one of the great cultural achievements of mankind: > it is very important that there is a place where all > the world can store its achievements. > "Lots of people would agree that there should not be a > special case for the Parthenon. > > "I personally don't see any difference between Greek > visual culture and the visual culture of Italy and > Holland, which is also spread around the world." > > Mr MacGregor's comments and decision to end > discussions have also angered the British Committee > for the Restitution of the Marbles. > > The group's chairman, Professor Anthony Snodgrass, > said: "I would only be happy with a virtual reality > version if they were put in the British Museum as a > replacement for the originals." > > Diplomatic row: > > The controversy over the sculptures has a long > history. > > They were first brought to London in the early 19th > Century by British diplomat Lord Elgin. > > Athens first called for their return in 1829, after > Greece won independence from Turkey. > > The issue has simmered ever since. In 1961, the then > prime minister, Harold Macmillan, described it as > complicated. > > Successive Greek Governments have exerted diplomatic > pressure, but all efforts to repatriate the marbles > have failed. > > Story from BBC NEWS: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/2791877.stm Lachlan Brown T+VM: +1 416 666 1452 eFax: +1 435 603 2156 -- __________________________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Feb 25 15:17:08 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (ravikant) Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 15:17:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Remembering Gujrat - I Message-ID: <200302251517.09013.ravikant@sarai.net> Dear list, Please bear with me. I am going to make a series of postings on Gujrat. The author of these reports is Ms Navaz Kotwal of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Delhi. I thank Bibhu Mohapatra for sending these. Please feel free to circulate. ravikant ---------------------------------------------- JUSTICE FOR ALL - RASOOLBHAI'S WIFE by Navaz Kotwal -navaz at humanrightsinitiative.org Pavagadh is a tiny little village of about 200 people in Panchmahals district of Gujarat. Muslims and Hindus here lived equally modest lives depending on pilgrims from across Gujarat, who come to visit a Kali temple and a Dargah that lie near the ruins of the old Champaner Palace. In the riots following Godhra, all the Muslims of the village, like those of the entire taluk, fled to the district headquarters in nearby Halol. Eleven months on, most have crept back to their villages or left the state, but the Pavagarh families are still in Halol struggling to find a way back home after the closure of refugee camps. They had tried to retrieve whatever was left and gathered courage to start afresh, but with little success. All of them, in one way or the other, had lost some relative, their loved ones, their belongings and above all their means of livelihood - small handcarts—selling flowers, water and other trinkets for the tourists, jeeps—which ferried the tourist and did brisk business in festive seasons, little shops selling sweets and food and the like. The Muslims were threatened and categorically told that there was no longer any place for them there. Shocked and helpless most families chose to stay back in Halol hoping to make a beginning there. But 13 families who had lived in Pavagadh for over 50 years were determined that come what may, they would return ‘home'. Mostly elderly men and women and few young people, they didn't think that anyone would want to harass their little band. They were wrong. Water connections were severed; mobs would gather to stop their handcarts reaching the market; at night stones would be pelted at their houses. But the families persisted. This is home. There is nowhere else. These people have shared their lives with us—they can't always be like this. On each occasion the families complained to the local police. Facile efforts were made towards conciliation, but the harassment continued. The people who kept it going were well known to the administrators and the people of the town. Monthly meetings were held to keep the memory of Godhra alive. Rallies were held, resolutions passed, Muslims were reviled – the poison was systematically being spread. The administration knew all this very well, but say they are helpless to do anything without an official complaint being ‘filed’. The families are very frightened and afraid of naming names and filing police complaints. Earlier efforts to file FIRs, just after the February-March carnage, have led to further threats and intimidation and not a single official action to restore their confidence in the machinery of justice. On 27th December 2002, Prahlad Shastri, a young man with a penchant for creating trouble and a group of young people held a meeting to pay homage to the victims of Godhra. After the meeting while passing through a Muslim locality in Halol along the Pavagadh Road, they shouted abusive slogans. Residents retaliated with stone pelting. The already tense atmosphere became more poisoned. Incensed and wounded the group left for Pavagadh, dragged the men out of the houses and severely beat them up. Rasoolbhai and his son Munnabhai, along with about 5 other men were beaten black and blue. Rasoolbhai was tied up, doused with petrol and then was simply left to himself. Another close look at death. The Police did not prevent any of this but shifted the families off to relative safety in Halol. The DSP visited them and increased patrolling in Pavagadh and Halol. All this proved too much for Rasoolbhai's 55-year-old wife. On the 1st of January - as the world wished each other peace and goodwill and Rasoolbhai lay in hospital with multiple injuries and broken bones - she died of a heart attack. Perhaps unable to take in any more. Perhaps a broken heart. Who knows and who cares! Rasoolbhai's wife who lived an unexceptional life in the seclusion of her family and perhaps knew little of the outside world has died from other peoples' politics and hatred, which would no doubt have bewildered her if she had comprehended it fully. For the law enforcers and medicos it was another death by heart attack. For those who helped her die, it was a satisfactory end. From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Feb 25 15:26:37 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (ravikant) Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 15:26:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Remembering Gujrat - II Message-ID: <200302251526.37580.ravikant@sarai.net> JUSTICE FOR ALL- SAFIYA'S POST MORTEM by Navaz Kotwal - navaz at humanrightsinitiative.org I met Safiya in a hospital. She lay in a corner, adjacent to the toilet. The stench was unbearable. She was in no condition to talk. She tried but her mouth wide open, was filled with blisters. She was on I.V drips unable to eat or drink anything because her intestines had been ruptured. Suddenly somebody removed the sheet covering her body. Her intestines were exposed, raw and infected. I felt faint. It took an effort to draw closer. As I stroked her head I saw the pus oozing from the wounds. There was no skin. I felt helpless--frozen. Her daughters and family were all beside her. They told her story. I had no words then but I write for Safiya now. Safiya lived in Jhalod, a town in Dahod district of Gujarat, seven hours drive from Ahmedabad. Hindus and Muslims - the majority of them landless agricultural labourers - had been living together for years sharing their poverty and small joys. Living under the same yoke of want had blurred any differences of religion. Occasionally there had been minor clashes between the two communities but none too serious. They went to the fields together, celebrated each others' festivals respectfully and pulled along as best they could. March 1st, the day after the Godhra carnage changed all this forever. Safiya's brother Mohammadbhai tells the story. Returning home from his daily namaaz in the afternoon he saw a well armed mob of about 500 people, in khaki shorts with saffron headbands attacking his modest home. On second thoughts, it was not a mob. Their faces were familiar. They all had names. Most of them were his neighbours. The door was being broken in. They entered his house – his sole possession after a long and struggling life. As most of the mob left after looting and burning, a few remained behind to perform more devious crimes. His mother, Bibiben, 80 years and too old to move, was beaten on the chest, kicked in the abdomen and then hacked to death. His wife Khairoon was also stabbed in the abdomen. She collapsed. They left her for dead. His eleven-year-old niece was also stabbed in the abdomen and upper arm. By some luck she was spared from further injury. A few men grabbed his widowed sister Safiya who had come home for Eid and beat her till she could no longer stand. Then raped her, stabbed her repeatedly in the abdomen and pelvis, and for good measure beat her with metal pipes till her abdomen tore open and her intestines spilled out. They left her for dead and moved on for more. Three long hours passed. Mohammadbhai hid near the masjid, frozen, his senses not responding to anything that he saw. He watched it all. Even today he asks himself why he did nothing as a son of 45, a husband, a brother and an uncle to protect his family? The police arrived. By then every one had left save Mohammadbhai, and a disturbing calm had settled down on his mohalla. He was taken away to another locality where he would be safe. But by some twisted official logic, or should we say divine irony, the injured women were left behind. Hours later some villagers gathered courage to take Safiya and her mother to hospital. Her mother was declared dead on arrival but Safiya was operated upon. Later the police came to record her statement. She could barely speak but she told her story. The FIR records “minor injuries“. Complications developed from Safiya's first operation and she was shifted to Baroda Civil Hospital and operated upon for a second time. Still there was no improvement. After a month Safiya was shifted to Dahod Anjuman Hospital, where I met her at the end of April 2002. How she had survived for 2 months amazed me. I knew that if she lay in that hospital she would never make it. I had to shift her to Ahmedabad. But it was not an easy task. We were up against a system, which was proud of its deliberate and prolonged incompetence. Hindu owned private hospitals refused to accept her. Others demanded impossible sums of money. A Muslim owned private hospital was the last resort. The seven-hour journey from Dahod to Ahmedabad was a gamble. There were chances of complications arising on the way. The ride was a nightmare. The two doctors, her daughters and I sat in silence as we all prayed that nothing would go wrong. Safiya was operated on for a third time the same day. For the first time in two months she thought she was going to live. When I was leaving she joined her hands. I thought she said ‘thank you' and ‘come again.' I promised I would. She died a week later on the 1st of May. But Safiya's story does not end with her life. The private hospital could not do a post mortem, so Safiya had to return to Dahod. That meant another seven-hour journey, this time with a rotting dead body. At Dahod District hospital the authorities refused to do the post mortem. The body had come from a private hospital in Ahmedabad; the history of the case was not clear; and there were no supporting papers – some reasons for refusing to do a post-mortem. No amount of pleading could change their minds. All the questions of the hapless family members drew no other answer. The public Servants are not answerable to the poor. So poor dead Safiya was taken to Jhalod hospital another hour’s journey away and finally after six more hours of haggling the doctors agreed to do the post mortem. The final report, which came two weeks later, said it all. Death was due to ‘Renal Failure and Septicemia'. The FIR with its record of ‘minor injuries' and the finishing touch of ‘death due to renal failure and septicemia' in the post-mortem made certain that there will be no official memory of the savagery that Safiya suffered; no recognition of the pain of those first hours; no punishment for her rapists and tormentors; no compensation for her family for all the neglect and agony of her months in hospitals and of course no investigation into the cause of death. Safiya was an Indian woman. She was raped, stabbed and beaten until she died of it. It took a long time to accomplish all this. In life the State could not protect her. But did it have to cheat her with so much deliberate and premeditated care in death? ------------------------------------ From VinitaNYC at aol.com Tue Feb 25 22:44:27 2003 From: VinitaNYC at aol.com (VinitaNYC at aol.com) Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 12:14:27 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Rush to Canada/front page of nytimes Message-ID: <3141DCE9.378E4256.029E54D5@aol.com> Hi, this morning's paper -- NYTimes seems to have caught up with the local Urdu Press in NY? this was on the front page. Vinita. U.S. Crackdown Sets Off Unusual Rush to Canada February 25, 2003 By SUSAN SACHS BURLINGTON, Vt., Feb. 21 - Once Jalil Mirza decided to leave the United States to avoid possible deportation, nothing happened quite as he expected, not even goodbye. As did hundreds of other Pakistanis fleeing a post-9/11 crackdown on illegal immigrants, Mr. Mirza quit his job, packed up his possessions and headed north rather than face a forced return to Pakistan. After a 16-hour bus ride from Virginia with his wife and seven children, he arrived at the Canadian border, hoping to take advantage of Canada's political asylum law. But besieged Canadian officials told him to come back in two weeks. And when he dragged their suitcases back to the American side, United States immigration agents promptly arrested him and his two teenage sons, leaving the rest of the family wailing in despair in the icy cold. The Mirzas are part of an unusual and chaotic exodus that has jammed land crossings from the United States into Canada over the past two weeks, overwhelming immigration officials and refugee aid groups on both sides of the border. It is an oddly reluctant migration toward a presumed safe haven by people who say they do not really want to go but feel compelled to for fear that they could be deported. Prompted by rumors of dragnets and by new federal deadlines that require male foreign visitors, principally those from Muslim and Arab countries, to register with the government, families that lived illegally but undisturbed in the United States for years are now rushing to Canada. They get across the border only to be bounced back into the hands and jails of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Asylum applications to Canada have increased sharply since the beginning of the year, according to aid workers and officials on both sides of the border. Most of the applicants are Pakistanis, who are required to register with the American immigration service by March 21. Other nationality groups also face various registration deadlines, but have not noticeably flooded the border. Many of the Pakistani asylum seekers said they decided to flee to Canada because they knew that Canada was already home to a large and growing population of Pakistani immigrants, especially in Montreal and Toronto. Even before the latest upswing this month and last month, Pakistanis accounted for the largest number of asylum applications to Canada, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Refugee aid workers also speculated that the registration requirement hit Pakistani immigrants harder than other groups because more of them lived illegally in the United States and had less time to legalize their status through family ties or employment. A result is that hundreds of would-be refugees, some from as far away as Texas, are now camped out in Salvation Army shelters, mosques and other lodgings along the border, waiting for appointments to apply for asylum and struggling to find money to pay the bond to get their male relatives out of immigration detention. Their common refrain, as was Mr. Mirza's, is that they love America and do not want to leave. A former restaurant manager in Virginia with four young children born in the United States, Mr. Mirza, 45, managed to scrape together the $4,500 he needed to get himself and his older sons out of jail on bond. His family stayed two weeks in a shelter in Burlington, until today when they had an 8 a.m. appointment with Canadian immigration officials. But Mr. Mirza wanted to show, one last time, that his heart was in the United States. "I'm going to turn and salute the American flag," he said as he approached the border. "I love America." Even that plan, though, went awry. In the most prosaic of farewells, after filling out forms for eight hours he and his family were driven straight to the Canadian post at St. Bernard Lacolle, Quebec, early in the morning under a milky overcast sky. No one bothered to stop him on the American side, where the nearest flag hung limply on a pole in the distance. "This is one of the most tragic events I've ever witnessed, seeing this exodus of good, hard-working families," said Patrick Giantonio, executive director of Vermont Refugee Assistance, which had found the shelter for the Mirzas and dozens of other Pakistani families trying to reach Canada. "It's a tragedy not just for their communities," Mr. Giantonio added, "but for the American community." Similar stories are playing out all along the northern border. At crossing points in British Columbia, some 70 people, most of them Pakistanis, asked for asylum in January. In all of 2002, officials said, only 36 Pakistanis made refugee claims. At land crossings into Ontario, 871 people applied for asylum in January, double the number just two months earlier. Last November, 5 percent of the asylum seekers were Pakistani. Last month, 49 percent were Pakistani, according to Canadian immigration officials in Toronto. Freedom House, an immigrant aid group in Detroit, said that since the beginning of the year it had registered 269 Muslim asylum seekers trying to reach Canada in advance of their registration deadlines. Seven out of 10 are Pakistanis, with the rest Arabs. Normally, the group handles about 30 cases a month. The surge of asylum seekers coincided with the start in December of a new registration program for men over the age of 15 who were in the United States on visitor, student or business visas. Within days, it became clear to foreigners that anyone registering who had overstayed a visa would be immediately put into deportation proceedings. Although the registration law, dating to 1996, applies to all foreign visitors, the Department of Justice has put it into effect only for men from 25 countries, all but one of them Arab or Muslim nations. Of the 32,000 men who have registered so far at immigration offices around the country, according to officials, more than 3,000 face deportation. The choices for illegal Muslim immigrants, then, were stark. If they had been in the United States for more than one year, they no longer had the right to apply for asylum here. So they could have ignored the registration and risked deportation, registered and faced deportation or gone back to Pakistan. Or they could try for asylum in Canada by claiming they would face political persecution if forced to return home. They are not only overwhelming service agencies, but have also proved an embarrassment for the Pakistani government, which has been criticized at home for not demanding better treatment for its expatriates in exchange for its cooperation with the United States on fighting terrorism. After the Pakistani foreign minister protested in Washington this month against the registration requirement, the deadline for Pakistanis was extended to March 21 from Feb. 21. The change also affected men from Saudi Arabia, who faced the same deadline. But the extension is unlikely to stem the tide of people to the Canadian border, which has always registered shifts in immigration policy on either side with surges of people seeking asylum in Canada. The widely held perception is that Canada treats applicants with more leniency, although its refugee approval rate of 57 percent is not much higher than that of the United States, which approves 54 percent of asylum cases. Asylum seekers in the United States are generally placed in detention while their claims are assessed, however, while those waiting for a decision in Canada are free to work. Still, the latest tide of Muslim men and their families took authorities on both sides by surprise. Three weeks ago, Canadian border officials at the crossings from northern New York and Vermont, said they did not have enough workers to handle the numbers of people asking for refugee status. They began giving applicants appointments for several weeks later and sending them back to the American side of the border. In the past when unable to process people on the spot, Canada asked for assurances from the immigration service that those applicants would not be arrested after returning to the United States to wait for their interviews. But last month, Canadian authorities did not bother. "We realized it was useless because whether or not we got assurances, we could not process these people," said Rene Mercier, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The United States, in turn, placed dozens of people in deportation proceedings even if they had documents showing an asylum appointment with Canada. Others, caught on their way to the border at counterterrorism checkpoints set up by the United States Customs Service, were arrested on immigration violations. The arrests split families and left many women and children to fend for themselves at isolated border posts in some of the coldest weather in years. At least 50 people remain in detention along the border, unable to post bond. The immigration service said its agents were simply following procedure. "Individuals who are illegally in the U.S. are processed the same way we would process them if we encountered them any other way," said Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for the agency. But it is a shock for those at the border. "I am crying, my wife is crying," said Samir Sheik, a Pakistani who had been working as a street vendor in New York City and was arrested at a checkpoint on his way to the Canadian border for having overstayed his visa. "It's not fair because I am leaving the country." Mr. Sheik said that he could not return to Pakistan because he and his wife married against the wishes of both their families - "a love marriage," as he tearfully described it - and that he feared his wife would be killed by her father. His wife, Erim Salim, shuffled silently around the crowded Salvation Army center in Burlington, where they had been reunited after she borrowed from friends and neighbors to pay his $5,000 bond. "She is sick now, mentally," said Mr. Sheik, nodding toward her sadly. "Millions of people live here and are overstays. Why is it only for Pakistanis and Muslim people that they do this?" Hiraj Zafer, a Pakistani cook from Salt Lake City who was also trying to enter Canada, gave an answer. "After 9/11, people hate us," Mr. Zafer said. Mr. Sheik said: "Yes, they hate us. But we love America. We feel free here." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/national/25DETA.html?ex=1047192140&ei=1&en=248c7e8d1d283574 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales at nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help at nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company From avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in Wed Feb 26 05:38:35 2003 From: avishek_ganguly at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?Avishek=20Ganguly?=) Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 00:08:35 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Harvard Law Students launch coalition supporting Iraq war Message-ID: <20030226000835.28247.qmail@web8005.mail.in.yahoo.com> Harvard Law Students launch coalition supporting disarmament of Iraq http://www.studentsprotectingamerica.com/ For Immediate Press Release Cambridge, MA. February 24, 2003. Today at Harvard Law School a group of students launched Students for Protecting America, a non-partisan coalition supporting the immediate disarmament of Iraq in the face of its continued non-compliance with UN resolutions. The group’s position is that in the aftermath of September 11th, Americans can no longer remain complacent in the face of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among rogue states. Students for Protecting America supports the Bush Administration’s efforts to fight terrorism and defend America, and it believes that Iraq poses a dire threat and should be disarmed immediately. Brett Joshpe, founder of Students for Protecting America, said, “We are all frustrated by the anti-war protests of recent weeks and believe that most Americans agree with us, but have been less visible than the opposition. Our group intends to add legitimacy to the administration’s position. We firmly believe that in the absence of alternatives, this war is right for America, Iraq, and the world. America has a duty to protect its citizenry, and the opposition has failed to present viable or persuasive alternatives. We hope to spark a grassroots movement and encourage students and Americans to join us in demonstrating their support for protecting America.” Avigael Cymrot, co-founder of Students for Protecting America, said, “This is a time for moral clarity. The anti-war protesters are supporting the continuation of a regime that gasses its ethnic minorities, sanctions the use of rape as a means of political enforcement, engages in every variety of brutal torture, and has the potential to share weapons of mass destruction with terrorists. Most of us are unlikely activists, but in the face of this threat, we cannot afford to be indifferent.” Anthony Gaughan, co-founder of Students for Protecting America, said, "We believe that the effort to disarm Iraq and achieve regime change in Baghdad represents a critical moment in history. The question before us is whether the international community will live up to its cornerstone ideals of democracy and human rights, or whether its ideals are merely rhetorical flourishes. We call on our fellow Americans of all partisan affiliations to rally behind the Bush administration in its effort to preserve our freedom, protect our security, and promote our ideals by confronting and defeating international renegades such as Saddam Hussein." In order to raise awareness, Students for Protecting America is posting fliers around the Harvard campus. It plans to disseminate educational fliers supporting the cause for war and addressing counter-arguments frequently made against it. The group plans to contact other schools around the country to encourage similar forms of mobilization, and it is considering organizing a rally in the near future. Its web-site is www.StudentsProtectingAmerica.com. Students for Protecting America has issued the following Statement on Iraq: 1) Saddam Hussein’s regime represents a grave threat to US and world security. In the absence of immediate and unconditional compliance with all UN resolutions, we support military action to remove this dangerous and totalitarian regime. 2) The American government and the international community have a responsibility to act swiftly and decisively to address this security threat, and the risks of delay are unacceptable. 3) The Bush administration has acted deliberately and cautiously by presenting numerous occasions for Iraq to disarm, which it has failed to do. 4) After twelve years of sanctions, Saddam Hussein still defies the international community, resulting in prolonged suffering for the Iraqi people. Sanctions no longer represent a viable option for disarming Iraq and ensuring US security. 5) France, Germany, Belgium and other members of the international community have irresponsibly obstructed our efforts to disarm Iraq. These governments have not only neglected their duties, but have seriously undermined the integrity of their alliances with the US. We should proceed to protect ourselves without their cooperation. 6) Those opposing the war have failed to present alternatives to military action that will guarantee the eradication of Iraqi ties to terrorist groups and attempts to obtain and develop weapons of mass destruction. 7) This war is moral and just and will benefit the Iraqi people and the international community. 8) We support the administration’s stance on this issue and its continued efforts to protect American security. ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From abirbazaz at rediffmail.com Wed Feb 26 13:13:29 2003 From: abirbazaz at rediffmail.com (abir bazaz) Date: 26 Feb 2003 07:43:29 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20030226074329.23645.qmail@webmail31.rediffmail.com> Liberation has reported that Maurice Blanchot died on 20th of February. Maurice Blanchot was probably the least-read yet most influential French writer of the postwar era. Reclusive to a degree, shunning all public appearances, refusing even to be photographed (though once snapped unawares), he nevertheless played a decisive part in the transformation of the literary and philosophical landscape of France in the second half of the 20th century. He had no disciples, his readers were invited to act as if he did not exist, yet no writer can have devoted himself more selflessly to the simple intimacy of friendship, from which much of his influence stemmed. He was born in 1907 in Quain, a village in the département of Saône-et-Loire. Obtaining his baccalauréat at a precocious age, he went to Strasbourg to study German and philosophy, before completing a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures at the Sorbonne. He then studied medicine for a while. In Strasbourg he met the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, and their friendship was to last until Levinas’s death in 1995. Maurice Blanchot political and philosophical writing informed the work of Derrida, Foucault and Barthes (Times Online) Maurice Blanchot: "Let us imagine the last remaining writer, upon whose death, without anyone realizing it, the minor mystery of writing would also be lost. To add something fantastical to the situation, let us suppose that this Rimbaud-like character, who is even more mythical than the real one, hears the speaking that dies with him fall silent too. And let us finally suppose that this irrevocable end is somehow noticed within the world and orbit of human civilizations. What would be the outcome? Apparently, there would be a massive silence." From ravikant at sarai.net Thu Feb 27 11:01:40 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (ravikant) Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 11:01:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Remembering Gujrat - III Message-ID: <200302271101.40044.ravikant@sarai.net> JUSTICE FOR ALL- A MOTHER'S QUEST FOR JUSTICE by Navaz Kotwal - navaz at humanrightsinitiative.org Medina wants justice. That's all. She lived for her children now they are dead. It is painful for her to tell her story again and again: to the police; to the court, to the good people who visited her, but she will do it. There is nothing else to live for. Two months ago, in November 2002, in court, Medina told her story again. "My daughter Shabana was only seventeen, we were to get her married next year. Those men -- all our neighbours and ‘friends -- caught hold of her and flung her around. I heard my daughters' screams begging them to get off her. But instead they continued raping her one after the other. They cut off her breasts. My niece Suhana and sister in law Rukaiyya were also raped. They hacked my old in laws to death. They killed seven members of my family. Taufique was only 18 months old. They sliced off his thumb. They gathered all the bodies -- piled wood and dry leaves on them and set them on fire. Then they left. Suddenly there was silence. It was all over. Right before my eyes I lost those very people who I lived for. The 2nd of March 2002. And life will never be the same again.“ An eerie silence prevailed as I heard a mother's account of her daughters' rape. I sat with her, weeping silently. I held her close to my body and felt the gasping, uneven, wheezing anguish of her heart. That was all I had to offer; what consolation could I give her. And how do I promise her justice? Medina lived all her life in Eral village in Panchmahals Gujarat. Eral is a tiny village surrounded by jungles and hills. A dirt road connects Eral to the outside world. Among the 4000 odd residents, about 250 were Muslims, who earned their living through farming and petty business. Medina's family was one such amongst the many. Bounded by a family of eleven, looking after the house and the needs of the family members was what she did all day. Medina knew nothing of Godhra and nothing of the arson of the train that killed Hindus. But if she had, she would have prayed for their souls and damned their killers to hell. Since March 2002 Medina has been a refugee in her own land. For months she's lived in relief camps. In all these months of pain, passing those long hours with pictures of her children in mind, thinking why death forgot her, Medina has at least won one small victory. Unlike most of her camp mates, she has managed to get her First Information Report registered. She identified all those who raped her children and murdered them. She named seven of them in her report to the police. The police have investigated the case and filed the charge sheet. The case is up for hearing. A few arrests have been made but most of those named are said to be ‘ absconding'. But Medina sees them roaming free in the village. They continue to threaten and intimidate the witnesses. According to the law the term ‘absconded' is not to be understood as implying necessarily that a person leaves the place in which he is. It is etymological and its ordinary sense is to hide or conceal oneself. But in this case the ‘absconding' are making no attempt to even hide. They are living in the village, free to do as they please and yet are treated as absconding. There are 32 other witnesses in the case. They were small farmers and shopkeepers. Most have lost everything and have themselves just returned from camps. As for Medina she cannot even return to what was once her home. The rapists and murderers demand that her return will be conditional. Intermediaries have contacted her to bargain. She will be allowed to return only if she drops all charges and withdraws her complaint. Medina is scared. The police refuse to help. There is no one to guarantee her safety. The case has come up for hearing thrice. Each time the judge insists that all 32 witnesses come to court. The prosecutor does not resist the order or seek to have just a few witnesses examined at a time. If every witness were to take only a half hour to be examined, cross-examined and reexamined it would take 16 hours of hearings and all in one day! Everyone knows that the cross-examination will not take place in one day but they have to obey the magistrate. All the witnesses come. The court is 60-70 kms away from the village. For safety the witnesses travel together in a bus. Most of them are men. The women, who are left behind, feel scared and vulnerable in the village and so, they have to be transported to the nearest camp to await the night journey home together with their menfolk. The Magistrate is aware of the situation. In our land extraordinary circumstances can only be invoked for extraordinary people and the rest must suffer. On the 12th of October 2002, the day of the first hearing, just 3 witnesses were heard. The courtroom was packed with villagers and cadres of a semi political outfit. The questioning of the witnesses bordered on the ridiculous – it was insensitive, crude, and patronising. All three witnesses broke down at having to relive the trauma of the 2nd of March. The issue was rape. People thumped each other's back in unashamed glee; stray words from the murmur of the audience reiterated my belief in the pathological nature of a fanatically patriarchal society. There were smirks and laughter in the courtroom. No one objected from the prosecution side. No one intervened from the bench. The audience was not warned, nor was the court cleared. Outside this sanctuary of justice, the other 29 witnesses waited nervously for their turn. It did not come. The exercise was to be repeated on the next hearing. All 32 have again been ordered to appear on the 25th of October-the day of next hearing. Once again they appeared obediently. The situation was not much different. This time only one witness was heard. The rest waited outside. The next date was given for the 12th of November, the presence of all the witnesses being mandatory. This time no one was heard. The case was adjourned. After a long journey witnesses returned home…some frustrated, some dejected and some without any hope. Written submissions have been made to the court to take notice of the ‘absconding accused' and the constant threats to the witnesses. Not much has happened in the case since then. No arrests have been made. The accused still roam fearlessly as the free citizens of Indian Republic and the witnesses lead unpredictable lives. Outside the court Medina and the witnesses live in fear. They are constantly approached by brokers of justice to withdraw their testimony. Medina has been offered money to give up the fight. She has been threatened that she will never be able to return home otherwise. Other witnesses are tempted by the money and the need to get on with their lives. This process of getting justice is sapping their resolve. They know that court proceeding will last for years on end. Unsure of the ability to survive each day, the courage to force the judicial system to respond seems too much to ask for. All Medina wants is justice. A mother wants justice. She wants the accused punished so that they are not free to go out and rape other girls and burn them alive. Her message is loud and clear-- you cannot kill and rape and maim and go unpunished. This is wrong according to every book of religion. She is willing to fight her children's killers, but she didn't know she would have to fight the system. She is learning. She says she will struggle. She will knock and knock till someone hears and some official conscience stirs into action. This is yet to happen. Gujarat has become a cold news item and has ceased to merit the attention of the vast newspaper reading classes. Medina's voice will soon have no listeners. Her story and struggle will soon be buried in the thousands of reports on the killings of that time. I hate to be pessimistic but impunity rules. The law just never seems to catch up. From ravikant at sarai.net Thu Feb 27 11:05:17 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (ravikant) Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 11:05:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Remembering Gujrat - IV Message-ID: <200302271105.17818.ravikant@sarai.net> JUSTICE FOR ALL- COMPENSATING DEATH by Navaz Kotwal - navaz at humanrightsinitiative.org The police station was true to every conceivable typecast: a bawdy, pot-bellied inspector, uniformed henchmen and hapless, pleading villagers waiting in vain for their complaints to be recorded. Yakubbhai sat there waiting to be heard. He forgets the number of times he has visited this place in the last month. It was end of April 2002 -- two months since his life had taken a turn for the worse. Every time he had to returned empty handed. His patience and determination fading. He wondered if he would be lucky today. Did he say lucky? The policeman called his name. He jumped up in surprise. He could not believe his chance had come so fast. His legs wobbled as he walked towards the desk. An ugly circus of intimidation unfolded. The officer was shouting at the villagers. He wanted them to go back as he had other work. He sipped his tea. Yakubbhai had come with the names of people who had murdered eight members of his family. He was witness to eighteen murders. They were all killed and burnt. But how could he prove that when evidence was meticulously obliterated and even ashes swept away. He asked the officer to at least record his complaint. He was asked to remove all names of accused. Yakubbhai refused. The police asked Yakubbhai to produce the remains. He said he could not find any. Arguing with the providers of law proved futile. Reason is a stranger in this part of the world. Yakubbhai tried hard. In an emotionally exhausted voice he repeated his story again. Terror broke loose in Yakubbhai's village Dehlol on 28th March- the day after the Godhra carnage. Muslims from the village fled. There was little they owned but had to leave all behind. Yakubbhai had probably lost a little more than others…his house, his source of livelihood, and eight members of his family. He had fled the village with his family and others hoping that somehow they would escape the mobs. They hid in the nearby fields. The standing crops provided some refuge but not for long. Armed mobs with saffron headbands scouted the area for any surviving Muslims. Some hid in the crops. Few of them ran but were overpowered in a few seconds. At Futewad Talaav eight of them were caught, slashed with swords, doused with petrol and set ablaze. The attackers seemed at ease with the killing as if it was something they did everyday. As for Yakubbhai he found a locale where the crops completely covered him. But his eyes performed their role. He watched as his father, his mother, his brother, his sister, his niece, his nephew all killed. Yakubbhai stood frozen. He could not move from where he was hiding. The mob left. No help came in. For two long hours the mayhem continued. The scene was nowhere short of a carnival. But the police were nowhere in sight. Considering the fact that the police station was less than 6 Km away their absence seemed strange. The odour was repulsive. The smoke rising from the burning bodies was choking. No one to attend to the bodies or perform the last rites. They departed in isolation. Those that survived came out of their hiding. Firdos, Sattar, Javed, Ezzaz, Yasmin, Ayyub, Hasina and others moved in search of a safe haven. What they had seen stunned them. Children failed to understand why their mothers and fathers were being killed. They remained silent. This was not the time to ask. Could there ever be one? They were walking for almost two hours now moving from one field to another each one praying for no more. But prayers went unanswered. They realized they were only moving in circles. As they reached Goma River they were tracked down by the mob. The act was repeated. Nine were killed. One by one each one was slashed with swords and sticks and every imaginable weapon. Yakubbhai, Firdosbhai, Ezzaz and Javed hid behind a tree and watched. Yasmin a young 13-year-old girl was stripped naked and gang raped. Then they tore her apart. They caught hold of Ezzaz's mother and slashed her neck. Ezzaz screamed and darted forward to save his mother. But the mob was ruthless. They caught him but spared him for a macabre ritual. They piled ten bodies, set them ablaze, made Ezzaz walk around the pyre and finally threw him in the fire as well. Benumbed all that the other children and Yakub, could do was hold on to each other and watch. Bereft and traumatised Yakubbhai walked for 2 days before he reached the nearest relief camp. It took him days before he got hold of his senses. He sent a written complaint to the district superintendent of police, by post two weeks later. His complaint was not recorded. When he asked for information he wasn't given any. They refused to say where the complaint was. Slowly Yakubbhai gathered enough courage to visit the police station to ask again. He has now been there at least 20 times, he has asked, pleaded, begged; he has wept and screamed for his dead family. The police say he is a liar. They ask him for evidence; for a site for the ashes; he asks them for his family. Why would he lie? He wiped his tears. The policeman had left. Yakubbhai does not know why the police won't record his complaint. He wants justice. Yakubbhai is eligible for ex gratia payments for the lives that have been lost. For himself and for the children who saw their parents murdered. The rules have fixed the price of murder as Rs. 1,50,000. But if the body or remains were not found then the State is freed from its responsibility of paying that sum. Unless proof positive can be produced for the charred and mutilated killed in fields no compensation is given. Yakubbhai's predicament is that he can't find the remains of his family. If he has the patience and energy to pursue the matter his family's names might just reach the ‘missing' list. Compensation is provided for missing family members. But not without a price. An already pauperized Yakubbhai has to produce Rs 4.5 lakhs in collateral for each dead member– just in case they turn up alive in the future. Today an ‘omnibus' FIR remains filed in relation to the incidents in Yakubbhai's village. This FIR talks of nameless and faceless mobs responsible for violence. It does not account for the eighteen murders that Yakubbhai was a witness to. Javed's eyewitness account has also been ignored. The remains have nowhere been found. There is no evidence strong enough to prove the murders. So in all probability the police have concluded that the murders did not take place. Yakubbhai, a tailor by profession, owned a tiny little shop. He earned enough to feed and clothe his family. Savings was a luxury. The little that he owned was also gone now. The State had paid him Rs 2500 as compensation. He is living in the camp. He has no business to support him. He is caught in a vicious cycle. To prove the deaths he has to produce the collateral. If he does not produce the collateral then maybe the deaths did not take place. In reality he wishes with all his heart that his loved ones would just reappear and he would be spared from the life long trauma he was to live with. Next morning Yakubbhai wakes up. Gets ready for his ritual. Leaves for the police station. The cops toss him around. But he refuses to give up. He has faith that the system has to work some day and justice will be done. Another report is released. The words capture the facts. Yakubbhai's pain goes unrecorded. I write my piece. I worry about the day when Yakubbhai's faith will be shattered. From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Thu Feb 27 12:38:51 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 23:08:51 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Excellent article on US and world orde Message-ID: <20030227070851.68962.qmail@web41114.mail.yahoo.com> Important piece. R Out of the wreckage By tearing up the global rulebook, the US is in fact undermining its own imperial rule http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,902365,00.html George Monbiot Tuesday February 25, 2003 The Guardian The men who run the world are democrats at home and dictators abroad. They came to power by means of national elections which possess, at least, the potential to represent the will of their people. Their citizens can dismiss them without bloodshed, and challenge their policies in the expectation that, if enough people join in, they will be obliged to listen. Internationally, they rule by brute force. They and the global institutions they run exercise greater economic and political control over the people of the poor world than its own governments do. But those people can no sooner challenge or replace them than the citizens of the Soviet Union could vote Stalin out of office. Their global governance is, by all the classic political definitions, tyrannical. But while citizens' means of overthrowing this tyranny are limited, it seems to be creating some of the conditions for its own destruction. Over the past week, the US government has threatened to dismantle two of the institutions which have, until recently, best served its global interests. On Saturday, President Bush warned the UN security council that accepting a new resolution authorising a war with Iraq was its "last chance" to prove "its relevance". Four days before, a leaked document from the Pentagon showed that this final opportunity might already have passed. The US is planning to build a new generation of nuclear weapons in order to enhance its ability to launch a pre-emptive attack. This policy threatens both the comprehensive test ban treaty and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty - two of the principal instruments of global security - while endangering the international compact that the UN exists to sustain. The security council, which, despite constant disruption, survived the cold war, is beginning to look brittle in its aftermath. On Wednesday, the US took a decisive step towards the destruction of the World Trade Organisation. The WTO's current trade round collapsed in Seattle in 1999 because the poor nations perceived that it offered them nothing, while granting new rights to the rich world's corporations. It was relaunched in Qatar in 2001 only because those nations were promised two concessions: they could override the patents on expensive drugs and import cheaper copies when public health was threatened, and they could expect a major reduction in the rich world's agricultural subsidies. At the WTO meeting in Geneva last week, the US flatly reneged on both promises. The Republicans' victory in the mid-term elections last November was secured with the help of $60m from America's big drug firms. This appears to have been a straightforward deal: we will buy the elections for you if you abandon the concession you made in Qatar. The agri-business lobbies in both the US and Europe appear to have been almost as successful: the poor nations have been forced to discuss a draft document which effectively permits the rich world to continue dumping its subsidised products in their markets. If the US does not back down, the world trade talks will collapse at the next ministerial meeting in Mexico in September, just as they did in Seattle. If so, then the WTO, as its former director-general has warned, will fall apart. Nations will instead resolve their trade disputes individually or through regional agreements. Already, by means of the free trade agreement of the Americas and the harsh concessions it is extracting from other nations as a condition of receiving aid, the US appears to be preparing for this possibility. The US, in other words, seems to be ripping up the global rulebook. As it does so, those of us who have campaigned against the grotesque injustices of the existing world order will quickly discover that a world with no institutions is even nastier than a world run by the wrong ones. Multilateralism, however inequitable it may be, requires certain concessions to other nations. Unilateralism means piracy: the armed robbery of the poor by the rich. The difference between today's world order and the one for which the US may be preparing is the difference between mediated and unmediated force. But the possible collapse of the current world order, dangerous as it will be, also provides us with the best opportunities we have ever encountered for replacing the world's unjust and coercive institutions with a fairer and more democratic means of global governance. By wrecking the multilateral system for the sake of a few short-term, corporate interests, the US is, paradoxically, threatening its own tyrannical control of other nations. The existing international agencies, fashioned by means of brutal power politics at the end of the second world war, have permitted the US to develop its international commercial and political interests more effectively than it could have done alone. The institutions through which it has worked - the security council, the WTO, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank - have provided a semblance of legitimacy for what has become, in all but name, the construction of empire. The end of multilateralism would force the US, as it is already beginning to do, to drop this pretence and frankly admit to its imperial designs on the rest of the world. This admission, in turn, forces other nations to seek to resist it. Effective resistance would create the political space in which their citizens could begin to press for a new, more equitable multilateralism. There are several means of contesting the unilateral power of the US, but perhaps the most immediate and effective one is to accelerate its economic crisis. Already, strategists in China are suggesting that the yuan should replace the dollar as east Asia's reserve currency. Over the past year, as the Observer revealed on Sunday, the euro has started to challenge the dollar's position as the international means of payment for oil. The dollar's dominance of world trade, particularly the oil market, is all that permits the US Treasury to sustain the nation's massive deficit, as it can print inflation-free money for global circulation. If the global demand for dollars falls, the value of the currency will fall with it, and speculators will shift their assets into euros or yen or even yuan, with the result that the US economy will begin to totter. Of course an economically weakened nation in possession of overwhelming military force remains a very dangerous one. Already, as I suggested last week, the US appears to be using its military machine to extend its economic life. But it is not clear that the American people would permit their government to threaten or attack other nations without even a semblance of an international political process, which is, of course, what the Bush administration is currently destroying. America's assertions of independence from the rest of the world force the rest of the world to assert its independence from America. They permit the people of the weaker nations to contemplate the global democratic revolution that is long overdue. � The Age of Consent, George Monbiot's proposals for global democratic governance, will be published in June www.monbiot.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ From bea at nungu.com Wed Feb 26 07:16:50 2003 From: bea at nungu.com (::bea:) Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 07:16:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Saddam and George show Message-ID: The sadam and georgw show Ignoring the fact that George Bush declined Saddam Hussein's challenge to a televised debate, Tim Dowling exclusively reveals what could have happened had they met >http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,902793,00.html > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030226/94777750/attachment.html From Beaufort9films at aol.com Thu Feb 27 05:25:33 2003 From: Beaufort9films at aol.com (Beaufort9films at aol.com) Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 18:55:33 EST Subject: [Reader-list] Documentary Filmmaker Needs Help Message-ID: <9d.3534e2a3.2b8eadf5@aol.com> Dear Friends, As a documentary filmmaker in New York and a strong advocate for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Iraq, I have felt frustrated and astonished that our president has ignored, not only the 400,000 people like myself who protested the war in my city, but the millions of others who did so around the globe. Having just finished a documentary about civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who introduced Gandhi's method of civil disobedience to Martin Luther King, I have wondered what I could do as a filmmaker to stop the war in the short time left. Most of my films are humanitarian portraits of communities outside mainstream society, honoring the dignity and beauty of their daily life. Since the American media rarely, if ever, shows this aspect of the Iraqi people, I thought perhaps I could do so in the two weeks leading up to March 15th, sending back to the mainstream networks and internet, a very different portrait of the Iraqi people than what gets reported. My hope is to live with one extended family in Baghdad and chronicle their fears, joys, and concerns about living in a city threatened by the machinery of war. As an American filmmaker I can't hope to ever capture the conscience of the Iraqi people, but I can remain a mindful and sensitive observer of the simplest aspects of daily life: a father who takes three busses to work, his wife who shops in the market for the family, their kids who kick a ball outside school. While capturing these details, I will ask them about their plans for the future, their aspirations for their children. It seems both a modest and ambitious goal, but one that could profoundly affect the harshest sentiments of the American people and its government. To bomb an Iraqi family who the world sees, puts a face on this potential atrocity, and its the one thing I can do as a filmmaker to practice civil disobedience. I can't, however, do it on my own. I'm asking journalists, friends, and acquaintances if they know any family in Iraq who might allow me to spend time with them. I would also need help navigating through Baghdad, and work with someone sympathetic to this cause. Please feel free to contact me as soon as possible at this e-mail address, and thank you all for your time and thoughtful consideration to help stop this senseless war. Warm regards, David Petersen ________________________ DAVID PETERSEN Biography David Petersen has had his films exhibited at numerous international museums and festivals, including The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Hirshhorn Museum, The National Callery of Art, the Museum of American History, and The Library of Congress. In addition, his work is in the permanent collection of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His recent ITVS documentary Let the Church Say Amen premiered at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, and will air on PBS this fall. He served as director, producer, and editor of the film Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9, which was nominated for an Academy Award and received first place prizes in the American, National Educational, Houston International, Aspen, and Athens film festivals; and won an Emmy and CINE Golden Eagle award. He directed and produced the award winning documentary If You Lived Here You Would Be Home Now, a Spirit Award nominee, which premiered at The National Gallery of Art, and had its acclaimed broadcast on PBS. His short dramatic film Scenes, won a Rosebud Festival Award; and he produced for the Emmy award-winning PBS series Egg: the Arts Show and City Life. David Petersen has also served as a guest lecturer and instructor at the New York University, Hunter College, American University, Carnegie-Melon University; and St. Lawrence University in New York. In the past, he has directed several films for the Smithsonian Institution and other agencies, and has served as editor on documentaries for public television and theatrical release including Michael Moore’s Roger and Me; the Sundance 2003 Selection Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin; City at Peace, the feature-length documentary, produced by Barbra Striesand; Family Man, a one hour PBS special on fatherhood which Mr. Petersen field directed; the internationally produced Minidragons series;The AIDS Quarterly, a WGBH series hosted by Peter Jennings; Loose Nukes and Back In the U.S.S.R, two documentaries for the PBS "Frontline" series; and on two films for the PBS "Smithsonian World" series, The Quantum Universe and The Doors of Perception. Mr. Petersen has been published in literary magazines in the United States and overseas, and has received numerous artist fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Mexican Cultural Institute, and The Ragdale Foundation. In addition to awards won in film festivals, he received grants from the D.C. Community Humanities Council, The Cafritz Foundation, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, and four Individual Artist Grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. From manjupannu at rediffmail.com Thu Feb 27 14:24:12 2003 From: manjupannu at rediffmail.com (manju singh bhati) Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 14:24:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] my last month report Message-ID: Last month I informed you about my planning to go the village to trace the old lady. To find out the location I had to go to her son in laws place in a small colony near Ghaziabad Hapur border. Although the house was locked , the land lady informed me that Mithilesh ,daughter of old lady, had passed away immediately after the delivery. Her grief struck husband had also gone back to his village , Ranauli Latifpur. I knew that the only hope of getting information about the lady was from Ranauli Latifpur. So, the very next day I set off for Rananli Latifpur next to Dadri. Even after reaching there it was not easy to meet the people. Most of them had gone to their fields early in the morning. This is harvesting time and they here very busy till the evening. I could talk to them only in the evening and for that I spent a week in Ranauli Latifpur. Apart from their busy schedule they were very cooperative and gave me all the information I needed. Kailash , the father in law of Mithilesh , told me the story of Mithilesh's troubled pregnancy and gave me the address of her mother who had taken away her daughter's baby boy . After six days I left for Chohadpur village 16 kilometers away from Surajpur in Gautam budh district. Chohadpur is 61 year old Shanti Devi's in Laws' place. She has been living here with her younger sister in law. Shanti conceived after 15 years of menopause. She already had 4 grownup children and the fifth one is 4 months old. In this old age destiny has given her responsibility of 2 children (one from her daughter). But she is happy about the fact that both are boys. The lady is very shy by nature . Her husband is very proud of his manhood. He gives all the credit to his libido even in this old age. Apart from talking to Shanti, I also talked to many other people around and close relatives . From bandshell at onebox.com Thu Feb 27 15:45:18 2003 From: bandshell at onebox.com (bandshell at onebox.com) Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 05:15:18 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] PUNE: CONSTRUCTION Message-ID: CALL FOR FEEDBACK, CONTACTS, STILL PHOTOS. PUNE: CONSTRUCTION New York artists Lex Bhagat and Thai Harnett seek feedback, contacts, and still photos for use in their upcoming project, PUNE: CONSTRUCTION. BACKGROUND: I fell into Pune. Thinking I would pass through on my way from Aurangabad to Mumbai, I soon found myself getting a flat. As days became weeks, one thing became dominant: construction. Everywhere you go, it is felt: at the margins, apartment blocks appear with startling speed, displacing fields. At every intersection, all four corners have signs advertising “Luxury flats.” And, the Pune inserts of Times and Express are full of heated stories about the controversial new Development Plan. –Lex FOR MORE INFO ABOUT PUNE DEVELOPMENT DEBATE, VISIT WWW.TEKDI.ORG. (Site in English and Marathi.) PROJECT: The artists would like to spend some time with several “actors” in the Development story. 1) A politician with a position on the Development Plan; 2) A construction or real estate mogul; 3) An architect or engineer, making site visits; 4) A simple mason or other construction worker; 5) An activist organizing against the DP; 6) Someone whose home has been relocated due to construction. Collected footage will be edited into a short, clear documentary, useful for activist purposes. As well, we would like to make a more artistic film about the process of frantic construction, which seems so clearly at work in Pune. WE NEED: 1) ADVICE on understanding the situation in Pune; 2) CONTACTS of possible “actors.” 3) Marathi-English translators. ALSO: We would greatly appreciate any still photos of construction in Pune, or sequences of stills which can be set to video. (Please send in .jpg format, 640x480.) WE WILL BE IN PUNE AFTER 10 MARCH. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT LEX BHAGAT BEFORE THEN VIA EMAIL. BANDSHELL at ONEBOX.COM From VinitaNYC at aol.com Thu Feb 27 22:53:38 2003 From: VinitaNYC at aol.com (VinitaNYC at aol.com) Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 12:23:38 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Race War: Why is the Peace Movement so White? Race War: Why is the Peace Movement so White? Race War: Why is the Peace Movement so White? Message-ID: <6AFC8AB7.72A2E3D5.029E54D5@aol.com> this article examines the 'new position' of black-americans since 9/11 (as the "new model minority?") vinita Race War: Why is the Peace Movement so White? By Farai Chideya It was hiding in plain sight, next to the black and white pictures of my aunts and uncles, three of the latter four posed in military uniform. I'd sat in my grandparents' den hundreds of times, eating barbecue and birthday cake, and never noticed the Bronze Star until a couple of years ago. It belonged to my oldest uncle. He had made the military a career, and received it for service in Vietnam about the time I was conceived, carried, and born. Military service twines through my family like a strand of our DNA. As little more than a child, one of my great-great grandfathers was a Civil War waterboy. Two great uncles, brothers, fought in World Wars I and II respectively. And then my own uncles risked their lives in war in South East Asia, and used the military as a path for advancement. My family's long military history makes us ordinary black folks. African Americans make up over twenty-five percent of the U.S. Armed Forces, and are the most likely to enroll of any racial or ethnic group. And in return, as so many have said so often, black veterans get the privilege of coming home to fight for their rights in America. Now, we're on the cusp of another war. Secretary of State Colin Powell, himself a paragon of black military success, has repeatedly tried to make the case that Iraq is a direct threat to the United States. But our European allies, who lie far closer to the admittedly dangerous regime, say there is no direct threat justifying war. Instead, our government has devised a new standard of "pre-emptive strikes," which most nations view as a violation of international law. The extraordinary service African Americans have rendered should embolden our community to speak up when democracy is threatened and military action unjustified. Instead most of us are silent. African Americans have a clear stake in Iraq's oil, and not just because Condoleeza Rice, a member of Chevron's board of directors, has an oil tanker named after her. The focus on the war has allowed the Bush Administration to cut anti-poverty programs and include anti-privacy provisions in the Patriot Act that mirror the 60s-era COINTELPRO. All this is occurring during the worst economy in a decade---and you know who hits the unemployment lines first. Says Angel Kyodo Williams, author of Being Black "September 11 gave black folks for the first time an opportunity to step into the `we are one, the we are united' [rhetoric]. To have to give that up is painful. There is this belief that, `Wow, we are being seen as Americans for the first time.' Who wants to resist, and be relegated to that ostracized place again? You saw what happened to [Georgia Congresswoman] Cynthia McKinney," who was defeated after making bold denunciations of the Bush administration. It's seductive to think that the black struggle for democracy and human rights is over, or that Iraq has nothing to do with it. Yet some African Americans--particularly from the faith, academic, and activist communities--are making the case that neither is true. "Usually black people are in the front of the war lines and the back of the peace lines," says the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who spoke at the massive October 26 peace rally in the nation's capitol. "It reflects a cultural split. We engage in high-risk activities to show our love for our country. But Dr. King opposed the war in Vietnam." Rev. Jackson says that people of color fare poorly in "the priorities of the Bush Administration. They did not sign Kyoto [the environmental accord], or send Colin Powell to the World Conference Against Racism." At New York City's installment of the global peace rally on September 15, Black luminaries and activists from Angela Davis, to Harry Belafonte, to Danny Glover were present, as was Archbishop Desmond Tutu. On the opposite side, two of the most strident voices calling for war belong to black folks. Jill Nelson, whose fourth book, the novel Sexual Healing, will be published in June, argues that the President is using Powell and Condoleezza Rice "to sell the war to people of color, and people in general." In response, she's organizing a group of black women against the proposed war. "You have to take a stand. It's not like only the people who are watching the news are going to be blown up. You can advocate your opinion via email on sites like Move On or Answer. You can hand out leaflets and go to demonstrations. From Vietnam to the Civil Rights Movement, this is how democracy works." My own conflicts about advocating for peace are closer to home. I've had to work to separate my disagreements with the President's policies from my pride in my family's military service, and my own relief and guilt that I have never had to serve. To center myself, I went to a meditation practice Williams organized for people of color. Gathered in a spare white room in Brooklyn, silent except for the faint sound of breathing, we followed a general zazen (sitting) with a meditation for peace. Williams, whose best friend was deployed to the Gulf War (he joined the Marines when he lacked the money for college), believes that spiritual practice enriches social justice."No matter what faith tradition we belong to, we have to create space for ourselves to retreat, to just be still, to have small pockets of peace. We are in a daily environment that is aggressive, that assaults us with negative information. The sense of what I can do [for justice] comes up out of that[peace]." From abirbazaz at rediffmail.com Thu Feb 27 23:44:53 2003 From: abirbazaz at rediffmail.com (abir bazaz) Date: 27 Feb 2003 18:14:53 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Perry Anderson on Casuistries of Peace and War Message-ID: <20030227181453.11660.qmail@webmail8.rediffmail.com> LRB Casuistries of Peace and War Perry Anderson The prospect of a second war on Iraq raises a large number of questions, analytic and political. What are the intentions behind the impending campaign? What are likely to be the consequences? What does the drive to war tell us about the long-term dynamics of American global power? These issues will remain on the table for some time to come, outliving any assault this spring. The front of the stage is currently occupied by a different set of arguments, over the legitimacy or wisdom of the military expedition now brewing. My purpose here will be to consider the current criticisms of the Bush Administration articulated within mainstream opinion, and the responses of the Administration to them: in effect, the structure of intellectual justification on each side of the argument, what divides them and what they have common. I will end with a few remarks on how this debate looks from a perspective with a different set of premises. Taking an overview of the range - one might say torrent - of objections to a second war in the Gulf, we can distinguish six principal criticisms, expressed in many different registers, distributed across a wide span of opinion. 1. The projected attack on Iraq is a naked display of American unilateralism. The Bush Administration has openly declared its intention of attacking Baghdad, whether or not the UN sanctions an assault. This is not only a grave blow to the unity of the Western alliance, but must lead to an unprecedented and perilous weakening of the authority of the Security Council, as the highest embodiment of international law. 2. Massive intervention on this scale in the Middle East can only foster anti-Western terrorism. Rather than helping to crush al-Qaida, it is likely to multiply recruits for it. America will be more endangered after a war with Iraq than before it. 3. The blitz in preparation is a pre-emptive strike, openly declared to be such, that undermines respect for international law, and risks plunging the world into a maelstrom of violence, as other states follow suit, taking the law into their own hands in turn. 4. War should in any case always be a last resort in settling an international conflict. In the case of Iraq, sufficient tightening of sanctions and surveillance is capable of de-fanging the Baath regime, while sparing innocent lives and preserving the unity of the international community. 5. Concentration on Iraq is a distraction from the more acute danger posed by North Korea, which has greater nuclear potential, a more powerful army, and an even deadlier leadership. The US should give top priority to dealing with Kim Jong Il, not Saddam Hussein. 6. Even if an invasion of Iraq went smoothly, an occupation of the country is too hazardous and costly an undertaking for the United States to pull off successfully. Allied participation is necessary for it to have any chance of succeeding, but the Administration's unilateralism compromises the chance of that. The Arab world is likely to view a foreign protectorate with resentment. Even with a Western coalition to run the country, Iraq is a deeply divided society, with no democratic tradition, which cannot easily be rebuilt along postwar German or Japanese lines. The potential costs of the whole venture outweigh any possible benefits the US could garner from it. Such is more or less the spectrum of criticism that can be found in the mainstream media and in respectable political circles, both in the United States itself, and - still more strongly - in Europe and beyond. They can be summarised under the headings: the vices of unilateralism, the risks of encouraging terrorism, the dangers of pre-emption, the human costs of war, the threat from North Korea, and the liabilities of over-reach. As such, they divide into two categories: objections of principle - the evils of unilateralism, pre-emption, war; and objections of prudence: the hazards of terrorism, North Korea, over-reach. What are the replies the Bush Administration can make to each of these? 1. Unilateralism. Historically, the United States has always reserved the right to act alone where necessary, while seeking allies wherever possible. In recent years it acted alone in Grenada, in Panama, in Nicaragua, and which of its allies now complains about current arrangements in any of these countries? As for the UN, Nato did not consult it when it launched its attack on Yugoslavia in 1999, in which every European ally that now talks of the need for authorisation from the Security Council fully participated, and which 90 per cent of the opinion that now complains about our plans for Iraq warmly supported. If it was right to remove Milosevic by force, who had no weapons of mass destruction and even tolerated an opposition that eventually beat him in an election, how can it be wrong to remove Saddam by force, a far more lethal tyrant, whose human rights record is worse, has invaded a neighbour, used chemical weapons and brooks no opposition of any kind? In any case, the UN has already passed a resolution, No. 1441, that in effect gives clear leeway to members of the Security Council to use force against Iraq, so the legality of an attack is not in question. 2. Terrorism. Al-Qaida is a network bonded by religious fanaticism, in a faith that calls for holy war by the Muslim world against the United States. The belief that Allah assures victory to the jihadi is basic to it. There is therefore no surer way of demoralising and breaking it up than by demonstrating the vanity of hopes from heaven and the absolute impossibility of resistance to superior American military force. Nazi and Japanese imperial fanaticism were snuffed out by the simple fact of crushing defeat. Al-Qaida is nowhere near their level of strength. Why should it be different? 3. Pre-emption. Far from being a novel doctrine, this is a traditional right of states. What, after all, is the most admired military victory of the postwar era but a lightning pre-emptive strike? Israel's Six-Day War of 1967, so far from being cause for condemnation, is actually the occasion of the modern doctrine of Just and Unjust Wars, as set out by a distinguished philosopher of the American Left, Michael Walzer, in a work glowingly evoked by the still more eminent liberal philosopher John Rawls, in his aptly entitled The Law of Peoples. Indeed in attacking Iraq, we will be doing no more than completing the vital preventive strike against the Osirak reactor of 1981. Who now complains about that? 4. The Human Costs of War. These are indeed tragic, and we will do everything in our power - now technically considerable - to minimise civilian casualties. But the reality is that a swift war will save lives, not lose them. Since 1991, sanctions against Iraq - which most objectors to war support - have caused 500,000 deaths from malnutrition and disease, according to Unicef. Let us accept a lower figure, say 300,000. It is very unlikely that the swift, surgical war of which we are capable will come anywhere near this destruction by peace. On the contrary, once Saddam is overthrown, oil will soon flow freely again, and Iraqi children will have enough to eat. You will see population growth rebound very quickly. 5. North Korea. This is a failed Communist state that certainly poses a great danger to North-East Asia. As we pointed out well before the current hue and cry, it forms the other extremity of an Axis of Evil. But it is a simple matter of good sense to concentrate our forces on the weaker, rather than stronger, link of the Axis first. It is not because Pyongyang may, or may not, have a few rudimentary nuclear weapons, which we could easily take out, but because it can shatter Seoul in a conventional attack that we have to proceed more cautiously in bringing it down. But do you seriously doubt that we intend to take care of the North Korean regime too in due course? 6. Over-reach. An occupation of Iraq does pose a challenge, which we don't underestimate. But it is a reasonable wager. Arab hostility is overrated. After all, there hasn't been a single demonstration of significance in the whole Middle East during the two years it has taken Israel to crush the second Intifada, in full view of television cameras, yet popular sympathy is far greater for the Palestinians than for Saddam. You also forget that we already have a very successful protectorate in the northern third of Iraq, where we have knocked Kurdish heads together pretty effectively. Do you ever hear dire talk about that? The Sunni centre of the country will certainly be trickier to manage, but the idea that stable regimes created or guided by foreign powers are impossible in the Middle East is absurd. Think of the long-term stability of the monarchy set up by the British in Jordan, or the very satisfactory little state they created in Kuwait. Indeed, think of our loyal friend Mubarak in Egypt, which has a much larger urban population than Iraq. Everyone said Afghanistan was a graveyard for foreigners - British, Russian and so on - but we liberated it quickly enough, and now the UN is doing excellent work bringing it back to life. Why not Iraq? If all goes well, we could reap great benefits - a strategic platform, an institutional model, and not inconsiderable oil supplies. Now, if one looks dispassionately at the two sets of arguments, there is little doubt that on questions of principle, the Administration's case against its critics is iron-clad. The reason for that is also fairly clear. The two sides share a set of common assumptions, whose logic makes an attack on Iraq an eminently defensible proposition. What are these assumptions? Roughly, they can be summed up like this. 1. The UN Security Council represents the supreme legal expression of the 'international community'; except where otherwise specified, its resolutions have binding moral and juridical force. 2. Where necessary, however, humanitarian or other interventions by the West do not require permission of the UN, although it is always preferable to have it. 3. Iraq committed an outrage against international law in seeking to annex Kuwait, and has had to be punished for this crime, against which the UN rallied as one, ever since. 4. Iraq has also sought to acquire nuclear weapons, whose proliferation is any case an urgent danger to the international community, not to speak of chemical or biological weapons. 5. Iraq is a dictatorship in a class of its own, or a very small set that includes North Korea, for violation of human rights. 6. In consequence, Iraq cannot be accorded the rights of a sovereign state, but must submit to blockade, bombing and loss of territorial integrity, until the international community decides otherwise. Equipped with these premises, it is not difficult to show that Iraq cannot be permitted possession of nuclear or other weapons, that it has defied successive UN resolutions, that the Security Council has tacitly authorised a second attack on it (as it did not the attack on Yugoslavia), and that the removal of Saddam Hussein is now long overdue. On the same premises, however, it is still open to critics of the Administration to take their stand, not on principle, but simply on grounds of prudence. Invading Iraq may well be morally acceptable, even desirable, but is it politically wise? Calculation of consequences is always more imponderable than deduction from principles, so the room for disagreement remains considerable. Anyone who believes that al-Qaida is a deadly bacillus waiting to become an epidemic, or that Kim Jong Il is a more demented despot even than Saddam Hussein, or that Iraq could become another Vietnam, is unlikely to be swayed by reminders of the letter of UN Resolution 1441, or Nato's lofty mission in protecting human rights in the Balkans. Structures of intellectual justification are one thing. Popular sentiment, although not unaffected by them, is another. The enormous demonstrations of 15 February in Western Europe, the United States and Australia, opposing an attack on Iraq, pose a different sort of question. It can be put simply like this. What explains this vast, passionate revolt against the prospect of a war whose principles differ little from preceding military interventions, that were accepted or even welcomed by so many of those now up in arms against this one? Why does war in the Middle East today arouse feelings that war in the Balkans did not, if logically there is little or nothing to choose between them? The disproportion in reactions is unlikely to have much to do with distinctions between Belgrade and Baghdad, and would in any case presumably speak for rather than against intervention. The explanation clearly lies elsewhere. Three factors appear to have been decisive. First, hostility to the Republican regime in the White House. Cultural dislike of the Bush Presidency is widespread in Western Europe, where its rough affirmations of American primacy, and undiplomatic tendency to match word to deed, have become intensely resented by public opinion accustomed to a more decorous veil being drawn over the realities of relative power. To see how important this ingredient in European anti-war sentiment must be, one need only look at the complaisance with which Clinton's successive aerial bombardments of Iraq were met. If a Gore or Lieberman Administration were preparing a second Gulf War, the resistance would be a moiety of what it is now. The current execration of Bush in wide swathes of West European media and public opinion bears no relation to the actual differences between the two parties in the United States. It is enough to note that both the leading practical exponent and the major intellectual theorist of a war on Iraq, Kenneth Pollack and Philip Bobbitt, are former ornaments of the Clinton regime. But as substantial policy contrasts tend to dwindle in Western political systems, symbolic differences of style and image can easily acquire, in compensation, a hysterical rigidity. The Kulturkampf between Democrats and Republicans within the United States is now being reproduced between the US and EU. Typically, in such disputes, the violence of partisan passions is in inverse proportion to the depth of real disagreements. But as in the conflicts between Blue and Green factions of the Byzantine hippodrome, minor affective preferences can have major political consequences. A Europe in mourning for Clinton - see any editorial in the Guardian, Le Monde, La Repubblica, El Pais - can unite in commination of Bush. Second, there is the role of the spectacle. Public opinion was well prepared for the Balkan War by massive television and press coverage of ethnic savageries in the region, real and - after Rambouillet, to a considerable extent - mythical. The incomparably greater killings in Rwanda, where the United States, fearing distraction from media focus on Bosnia, blocked intervention in the same period, were by contrast ignored. In full view of the cameras, the siege of Sarajevo appalled millions. The obliteration of Grozny, safely off-screen, drew scarcely a shrug. Clinton called it liberation, and Blair sped to congratulate Putin for the election he won on the back of it. In Iraq, the plight of the Kurds was widely televised in the aftermath of the Gulf War, mobilising public opinion behind the creation of an Anglo-American protectorate, without any warrant from the UN. But today, however much Washington or London declaim the atrocities of Saddam Hussein, not to speak of his weapons of mass destruction, they are for all practical purposes invisible to the European spectator. Powell's slide-shows in the Security Council are no substitute for Bernard-Henri Lévy or Michael Ignatieff vibrating at the microphone. For lack of visual aids, the deliverance of Baghdad leaves European imagination cold. Third, and perhaps most important, there is fear. Aerial retribution could be wreaked on Yugoslavia in 1996, and continuously on Iraq since 1991, without risk of reprisal. What could Milosevic or Saddam do? They were sitting ducks. The attentats of 11 September have altered this self-assurance. Here indeed was an unforgettable spectacle, designed to mesmerise the West. The target of the attacks was the US, not Europe. If the European states, Britain and France in the lead, joined in the counter-attack on Afghanistan, for their populations this was still a remote theatre of war, on which the curtain came down swiftly. The prospect of an invasion and occupation of Iraq, far larger and closer, in the heart of the Middle East, where European public opinion is uneasily aware - without stirring itself to do anything about it - that all is not well in the Land of Israel, is another matter. The spectre of retaliation by al-Qaida or kindred groups for a rerun of the Balkan War has frozen many an ardent combatant of the new 'military humanism' of the late 1990s. The Serbs were a bagatelle: fewer than eight million. The Arabs are 280 million, and they are much closer to Europe than to America - not a few of them indeed within it. Contemplating the expedition to Baghdad, even New Labour loyalists ask, as readers of this journal will have noticed: are we sure we can get away with it this time? Great mass movements are not to be judged by tight logical standards. Whatever their reasons, the multitudes who have protested against a war on Iraq are a whiplash to the governments bent on it. They include, in any case, many too young to have been compromised by its precedents. But if the movement is to have staying power, it will have to develop beyond the fixations of the fan club, the politics of the spectacle, the ethics of fright. For war, if it comes, will not be like Vietnam. It will be short and sharp; and there is no guarantee that poetic justice will follow. A merely prudential opposition to the war will not survive a triumph, any more than handwringing about its legality a UN figleaf. Assorted justices and lawyers who now cavil at the upcoming campaign, will make their peace with its commanders soon enough, once allied armies are ensconced on the Tigris, and Kofi Annan has pronounced an eirenic speech or two, courtesy of ghostwriters seconded from the Financial Times, on postwar relief. Resistance to the ruling dispensation that can last has to find another, principled basis. Since current debates so interminably invoke the 'international community' and the United Nations, as if these were a salve against the Bush Administration, it is as well to start from these. An alternative perspective can be suggested in a few telegraphic propositions. 1. No international community exists. The term is a euphemism for American hegemony. It is to the credit of the Administration that some of its officials have abandoned it. 2. The United Nations is not a seat of impartial authority. Its structure, giving overwhelming formal power to five victor nations of a war fought fifty years ago, is politically indefensible: comparable historically to the Holy Alliance of the early 19th century, which also proclaimed its mission to be the preservation of 'international peace' for the 'benefit of humanity'. So long as these powers were divided by the Cold War, they neutralised each other in the Security Council, and the organisation could do little harm. But since the Cold War came to an end, the UN has become essentially a screen for American will. Supposedly dedicated to the cause of international peace, the organisation has waged two major wars since 1945 and prevented none. Its resolutions are mostly exercises in ideological manipulation. Some of its secondary affiliates - Unesco, Unctad and the like - do good work, and the General Assembly does little harm. But there is no prospect of reforming the Security Council. The world would be better off - a more honest and equal arena of states - without it. 3. The nuclear oligopoly of the five victor powers of 1945 is equally indefensible. The Non-Proliferation Treaty is a mockery of any principles of equality or justice - those who possess weapons of mass destruction insisting that everyone except themselves give them up, in the interests of humanity. If any states had a claim to such weapons, it would be small not large ones, since that would counterbalance the overweening power of the latter. In practice, as one would expect, such weapons have already spread, and so long as the big powers refuse to abandon theirs, there is no principled reason to oppose their possession by others. Kenneth Waltz, doyen of American international relations theory, an impeccably respectable source, long ago published a calm and detailed essay, which has never been refuted, entitled 'The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Be Better'. It can be recommended. The idea that Iraq or North Korea should not be permitted such weapons, while those of Israel or white South Africa could be condoned, has no logical basis. 4. Annexations of territory - conquests, in more traditional language - whose punishment provides the nominal justification of the UN blockade of Iraq, have never resulted in UN retribution when the conquerors were allies of the United States, only when they were its adversaries. Israel's borders, in defiance of the UN resolutions of 1947, not to speak of 1967, are the product of conquest. Turkey seized two-fifths of Cyprus, Indonesia East Timor, and Morocco Western Sahara, without a tremor in the Security Council. Legal niceties matter only when the interests of enemies are at stake. So far as Iraq is concerned, the exceptional aggressions of the Baath regime are a myth, as John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt - hardly two incendiary radicals - have recently shown in some detail in their recent essay in Foreign Policy. 5. Terrorism, of the sort practised by al-Qaida, is not a serious threat to the status quo anywhere. The success of the spectacular attack of 11 September depended on surprise - even by the fourth plane, it was impossible to repeat. Had al-Qaida ever been a strong organisation, it would have aimed its blows at client states of America in the Middle East, where the overthrow of a regime would make a political difference, rather than at America itself, where it could not leave so much as a strategic pinprick. As Olivier Roy and Gilles Keppel, the two best authorities in the field of contemporary Islamism have argued, al-Qaida is the isolated remnant of a mass movement of Muslim fundamentalism, whose turn to terror is the symptom of a larger weakness and defeat - an Islamic equivalent of the Red Army Faction or Red Brigades that emerged in Germany and Italy after the great student uprisings of the late 1960s faded away, and were easily quelled by the state. The complete inability of al-Qaida to stage even a single attentat, while its base was being pounded to shreds and its leadership killed off in Afghanistan, speaks volumes about its weakness. In different ways, it suits both the Administration and the Democratic opposition to conjure up the spectre of a vast and deadly conspiracy, capable of striking at any moment, but this is a figment with little bearing one way or another on Iraq, which is neither connected to al-Qaida today, nor likely to give it much of a boost, if it falls tomorrow. 6. Domestic tyrannies, or the abuse of human rights, which are now held to justify military interventions - overriding national sovereignty in the name of humanitarian values - are treated no less selectively by the UN. The Iraqi regime is a brutal dictatorship, but until it attacked an American pawn in the Gulf, it was armed and funded by the West. Its record is less bloody than that of the Indonesian regime that for three decades was the West's main pillar in South-East Asia. Torture was legal in Israel till yesterday, openly sanctioned by the Supreme Court, and is unlikely to have disappeared today without an eyelash being batted by the assembled Western Governments that have befriended it. Turkey, freshly off the mark for entry into the EU, does not, unlike Iraq, even tolerate the language of its Kurds - and, as a member of Nato in good standing, likewise jails and tortures without hindrance. As for 'international justice', the farce of the Hague Tribunal on Yugoslavia, where Nato is prosecutor and judge, will be amplified in the International Criminal Court, in which the Security Council can forbid or suspend any actions it dislikes (i.e. which might ruffle its permanent members), and private firms or millionaires - Walmart or Dow Chemicals, Hinduja or Fayed, as the case might be - are cordially invited to fund investigations (Articles 16 and 116). Saddam, if captured, will certainly be arraigned before this august body. Who imagines that Sharon or Putin or Mubarak would ever be, any more than was once Tudjman before its predecessor? What conclusions follow? Simply this. Mewling about Blair's folly or Bush's crudity, is merely saving the furniture. Arguments about the impending war would do better to focus on the entire prior structure of the special treatment accorded to Iraq by the United Nations, rather than wrangle over the secondary issue of whether to continue strangling the country slowly or to put it out of its misery quickly. From fatimazehrarizvi at hotmail.com Fri Feb 28 03:44:29 2003 From: fatimazehrarizvi at hotmail.com (zehra rizvi) Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 17:14:29 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] march for peace, march 5th Message-ID: sorry for any cross posting :) zehra. ----------------------------------------------------- WHAT: CANDLELIGHT MARCH FOR PEACE WHEN: Wed., March 5, gather at 5:30PM WHERE: Assemble at Hillary Clinton's office, 780 Third Ave. (47th & 48th) BRING: Candles, signs and drums Sponsored by United for Peace and Justice NYC, NYC Forum of Concerned Religious Leaders, and Not in Our Name We rallied on February 15 -- and NOW WE WILL MARCH IN PEACE to prevent this war! Our march will be in conjunction with a national day of action, including student actions taking place on over 300 campuses around the country. Senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer voted "yes" on the resolution to send our country into war on Iraq. They must be held accountable! Let's show them that New Yorkers say NO to war! Join us for a legal candlelight march on the sidewalks of OUR city, led by community, religious, political and labor leaders. We will begin outside Hillary Clinton's office (780 Third Ave. @ 47th), proceed downtown past Chuck Schumer's office (757 Third Ave. @ 46th), and march peacefully from there to Washington Square Park for a candlelight vigil. For more information, contact plaarman at judson.org or Chomsky17 at aol.com For more information on the March 5 student strike, see http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=662 For more information on the March 5 national moratorium, contact religiousforum at hotmail.com or see http://www.notinourname.net/call_for_the_moratorium.html ============================== Plans are also underway for a big UFPJ NYC anti-war march in a few weeks. If you would like to work on either or both of these two mobilizations, come to an organizing meeting on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 6:30PM, 330 W. 42nd Street, 8th floor. To get involved with organizing this and other United for Peace and Justice events in New York City, join our new low-volume organizing announcements listserve by sending a blank email to: ufpjnyc-subscribe at yahoogroups.com To volunteer with United for Peace and Justice in NYC, send a blank email to nycvolunteers-subscribe at yahoogroups.com To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list, go to http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email.php United for Peace and Justice NYC (646) 473-8935 ============================== _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail From kanti.kumar at oneworld.net Mon Feb 24 16:50:34 2003 From: kanti.kumar at oneworld.net (Kanti Kumar) Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 16:50:34 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Vacancy at OneWorld South Asia Message-ID: Dear Friends, Please circulate the following vacancy announcement among your colleagues and friends. We are looking for an entrepreneurial Centre Director to provide leadership and direction to the OneWorld South Asia team based in Delhi. OneWorld is a dynamic, non-profit network using the Internet to promote human rights and sustainable development. Our award-winning initiatives have consistently broken fresh ground in showing how Civil Society can profit from new technology. The OneWorld South Asia team of 10 has already established itself as front-runners in South Asia in the use of ICTs for development, through a range of targeted activities: Partnership networking among 200+ regional partners. Syndicating news stories from South Asia to Yahoo, the web´s biggest news site, alongside Reuters and AP. Highlighting news and features from partners on the regional portal www.oneworld.net/southasia. Running training sessions and delivering technical services to partners. Publishing specialist global portals on Education (www.learningchannel.org) and ICTs (www.digitalopportunity.org). Other new initiatives such as the Open Knowledge Network (see www.openknowledge.net) are in the pipeline. The current budget of R1.5 crore is expected to grow substantially. OneWorld South Asia is currently registered as a representative office of OneWorld International, but the new Centre Director will lead the office to become an autonomous Centre within the OneWorld Network. The post will initially report to the OneWorld International Southern Programmes Manager, and later to a representative Regional Board. We are looking for someone who is both an idealist and a realist: idealist enough to project a vision of how the new information tools can be used for social goals, and realist enough to know that nothing gets achieved without tight management, effective planning, and a keen eye on the bottom line. Responsibilities: 1. Management To provide overall leadership to the OneWorld South Asia (OWSA) team. To line-manage senior OWSA staff. To ensure that OWSA meets its statutory legal and fiscal obligations. To ensure sound budget management. 2. Representational To represent OWSA within the OneWorld network. To build the reputation of OWSA with its partners, the regional media and other stakeholders. To develop relations with donors, corporates, Trusts and other potential income-sources for OWSA. 3. Centre Business Development To develop a diversified income-generating strategy including both grants and technical services delivered to partners. To incorporate this income-generating strategy in a Centre business plan to be put to the OneWorld International trustees as the basis for Centre autonomy. To develop and manage balanced annual budgets for OWSA. 4. Technical To coordinate the development of the Open Knowledge Syndication Centre under or within OWSA. To coordinate the development of ICT services to be provided to partners, including on a paying basis. Essential Skills and Experience Proven track record of leadership achievement - not necessarily within NGOs. Management of technical services such as programming, web development and hosting. Financial Management and budgetary control. Fund-raising. Line management of staff in inter-disciplinary teams. Strategic thinker, professional, entrepreneurial, committed to the use of ICTs for social purposes. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English. Passport-holder of a South Asian country willing to work in Delhi, with regular international travel. Commitment to OneWorld's values. Desirable Skills and Experience Knowledge of Web based ICT software applications. Experience of international working. Experience in the civil society sector. Experience of working within networks. Notes: This is a re-advertisement. Previous applicants need not re-apply. This is a paid position. Salary / Benefits : : Equivalent to c. 15,000 pounds sterling per year Type of work : Contract Location : New Delhi, India Closing Date : 5 Mar 2003 To apply : Please send for an application form to jobs at oneworld.net. In exceptional cases, a CV and covering letter will also be considered. Closing date for return of application forms: 5 March 2003. Interviews will take place in Delhi in the week beginning 24 March 2003. Agreed travel costs will be reimbursed. Short-listed candidates will be contacted no later than 14 March. Applicants who have not been contacted by this date should assume that their applications have not been successful. OneWorld is committed to equal opportunities. For more information about OneWorld see: http://www.oneworld.net/about For more information see : http://www.oneworld.net/southasia Kanti Kumar Editor, Digital Opportunity Channel www.digitalopportunity.org OneWorld South Asia New Delhi, India Email: kanti.kumar at oneworld.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030224/146c2853/attachment.html From pukar at bol.net.in Tue Feb 25 11:37:33 2003 From: pukar at bol.net.in (PUKAR) Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 11:37:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] "Bombay and Mumbai" Book Release Message-ID: Dear Friends: Oxford University Press India cordially invites you to the release of Bombay and Mumbai: The City in Transition Edited by Sujata Patel and Jim Masselos by Mr Krishna Raj, Editor, Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai who has kindly consented to chair the session at The Convention Hall Y.B. Chavan Centre, 4th Floor General Jagannath Bhosle Marg Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021 on TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2003 at 5.30 p.m. PROGRAMME Welcome Address: Oxford University Press Book Introduction: Sujata Patel, Professor, Department of Sociology, Pune University Book Release: Krishna Raj Presentation of First Copy to Alice Thorner BOOK DISCUSSION Panelists: Kalpana Sharma, Deputy Editor, The Hindu, Mumbai Arjun Appadurai, Professor of International Studies, Yale University Chairperson: Krishna Raj VOTE OF THANKS: Oxford University Press ABOUT THE BOOK This volume, third in the series on Bombay, or Mumbai, brings together essays that treat the renaming of the city as a point of departure in visiting enduring themes in Bombay's life. As Bombay explodes into the megapolis of Mumbai, the volume examines whether transition is merely in the name or it has larger implications for the city's growth—in terms of an enormous expansion in size, diversity, population and function. The essays collected here offer exhilarating and provocative insights on what Bombay has become, as it steps into the new millennium. Has living in Mumbai meant a better life for its inhabitants or are they still condemned to the continued struggle for existence, and consequently withdrawal? Among other themes, the volume inquires whether the city has managed to retain its identity or is it has lost it like any other large metropolis. More specifically, the essays focus on diverse aspects of the city's social, political and economic life including housing rent control, the participation of Dalits and minorities in the city's life and activity, health-care and life in the shanties, the twin evils of crime and communalism, and the world of films. This vivid but realistic volume on Mumbai will serve as an essential and contemporary urban social history of Mumbai and will be useful to sociologists, historians, urban theorists, political scientists, and culturalists. In addition, activists, scholars, journalists and academics concerned with everyday life, culture, history and urban spaces of cities and particularly Mumbai will also find the volume of interest. Editors: Sujata Patel is Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Pune. Jim Masselos is Reader in History at the University of Sydney, Australia. Contributors: P.K.Das, Lalit Deshpande, Sudha Deshpande, Mahesh Gavaskar, Amrit Gangar, Neha Madhiwala, Suhas Palshikar, Sandeep Pendse, Jyoti Punwani, Edward Rodrigues, Madhura Swaminathan, and Rajendra Vora. ISBN 0195663179 Rs.645/- _____ 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 mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From avinash332 at rediffmail.com Fri Feb 28 23:23:50 2003 From: avinash332 at rediffmail.com (avinash kumar) Date: 28 Feb 2003 17:53:50 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: murderous assault on Adivasis in Kerala Message-ID: <20030228175350.6854.qmail@webmail30.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030228/dd40bbc6/attachment.pl -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... 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