From abhaydube2001 at yahoo.com Wed Jan 1 15:29:21 2003 From: abhaydube2001 at yahoo.com (Abhay Dube) Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 01:59:21 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] research proposal Message-ID: <20030101095921.33206.qmail@web14406.mail.yahoo.com> Here is a proposal idea for independent research. Your comments, suggestions are welcome. �New� City: �New� Sexuality This research proposal is based on the assumption that a �new� city can be traced through the reconstruction of its �new sexuality. It has two obvious ingredients: metropolis of Delhi as a concrete entity and its changing representation in terms of sexuality as a complex social experience. I propose to see Delhi and sexuality and there interaction in following terms: Delhi: A mega city of politics, movements, business, law and order, consumerism, eateries, entertainment, immigrants, office goers, beauty and body culture, crowds, elites and subalterns. It has changed beyond recognition through geographical and demographic expansion in last twenty-five years. Earlier representations of Delhi�s sexuality were limited to the very few suggestive ad-campaigns, symbolic love scenes of mainstream Hindi cinema, truncated kissing and sex acts of foreign movies usually exhibited in posh localities, poorly printed underground porn with the notable exception of one or two �respected� girly magazines, ad-bills depicting the potency enhancing properties of sex drugs pasted appropriately in public toilets, and related discussion confined to the few liberated types. But today�s Delhi brooks no such limits. With enlargement of public domain and under the influence of globalised modernity every aforesaid trait has become unlimited and sexuality has become a thing of everydayness. A �new� city has already been come into being, whose boundaries are populated with a different and far more erotic representation of self, where eroticism can be seen as more dispersed, where romantic love gets open sexual expressions, and human relations get redefined not only by general socio-economic factors but also through the power of desire. Constantly expanding margins of this city can be seen as carrying its sexuality into the cities of future. Sexuality: This conceptual construct of late modernity is basically related to the individual identity which includes one�s entire being including one�s perceptions, sense of self, relationships, sexual practices, fantasies, concepts of love, romance and pleasure. It is also about fears, vulnerability and confusion. To use this concept as a tool to map the �new� city can easily run into trouble because city�s individuality might prove far more complex than the sexuality of a single human being. But history of this concept provides few openings and shows its intrinsic relationship with the city. In early twentieth century Europe literary and other intellectual discourses managed to pierce through the Victorian taboos and tried to discover a �new� city through the prism of sex. The partial success of this project resulted in a concept of sexuality which, although heavily overlaid by erotica and sex, went beyond the medical or psychological representations of mere sexual behaviour patterns. Imbricated with various knowledges, different representations of the self, varied attitude of elite and masses towards sex, morality, reproduction, law, crime, repression and liberation, sexuality became a potential arena where a �new� city can be seen emerging from the pre-existing one. Immigrant or native, both found in himself or herself a subject of this complex social experience. Obviously, city�s sexuality is too vast a project to be covered under this modest proposal. To be begin with, I choose to identify following areas: 1. Conversation with sexologists, properly trained and with some experience in clinical practice as well as with tantriks and other quacks. 2. Changing pattern of printed porn and a glance at increasing middle class participation in sex related trade. 3. Collecting the data through sex surveys already done by various NGOs and other institutions. 4. A representative survey of related creative literature generated in last twenty-five years. 5. Creating a profile of Delhi�s sexuality through the movement of its sexual minorities. ABHAY KUMAR DUBEY __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From jeebesh at sarai.net Wed Jan 1 21:40:52 2003 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 21:40:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The rise of the Media-As-Opposition Message-ID: <200301012140.52593.jeebesh@sarai.net> This article from Indian Express (Jan 01,03) is gesturing towards an interesting turn in dominant media's relationship to the formal poilitical space. best jeebesh -------------------------- http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=15824 ------------------------- From shuddha at sarai.net Fri Jan 3 14:06:12 2003 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 14:06:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A Day in Baghdad by Paul Chan Message-ID: <03010314061203.01098@sweety.sarai.kit> Dear Friends on the Reader List, A very happy new year to all of you. Although I am not entirely comfortable with the standard practice of forwarding material on to lists. I cant resist sharing the text below with you, which was forwarded today on to the Spectre list. It is a collection of brief entries from a journal kept by a New York based artist - Paul Chan, who has just been visiting Baghdad, a city waiting for war, as part of an organization called the Iraq Peace Team. For more information on Paul Chan, and the Iraq Peace Team, please scroll down to the bottom of the mail. I thought that the cheerfulness and festivity that he describes, would make for interesting reading as we begin to awaken into a year that promises to lead us on to another global conflagaration. Cheers Shuddha _________________________________________________________________ Portrait of a day in Baghdad By Paul Chan Dec 28 2AM My first drink of Arak, an Iraqi liquor that tastes like licorice and stings like rock candy. The poet Farouk Salloum told me he was drinking Arak at his house when the missiles hit Baghdad in the first gulf war. After his first glass he prayed the attack would end quickly. After the second he wished he had more Arak at his house because there was no way he was going to get more during an attack. After his third glass he screamed at the missiles to bring it on. 9AM I remember now the party last night at Farouk's house. Members of the Iraq Peace Team were invited to a private party of musicians, journalists, and poets. Farouk dressed in casual black. He had sleepy eyes. He was gracious and demanding, ordering drinks to be constantly filled, especially for the women. The Socialist Baath Party banned public drinking in 1995. Ever since, Iraqis have taken their drink underground and at each other's homes. Farouk's second daughter is named Reem, which means one who is as graceful as a deer running. She doesn't have her father's eyes. A droll pianist and a veteran of the Iran/Iraq war in the early 80's played Bach and a jazzy funeral march. Earlier in the evening the pianist told me he killed six men in the war and that the men and women of Iraq are all trained in combat, and will take to arms and stones if need be to stop the Americans from entering Baghdad. I ask him if his experience in killing shaped in any way his piano playing. No response NOON A word or two about Kubbe in soup. At the Al-Shadbandar Café, where the Iraqi literati come to drink tea and speculate about the war and who is the number one poet of the week, Almad, a young sculptor, invites me for Kubbe in soup. It is close and it is good, he says. Fair enough. I'm ready for it. Before I left the states, Aviv, a dear friend and member of New Kids On The Black Bloc, an artist political collective in Barcelona, asked me to seek out Kubbe in soup. "I know you're not going to Baghdad for a culinary tour, but promise me you will try it." It is a meat dumpling the size of my head swimming in greasy soup. The skin of the dumpling is thick and wheaty. Inside, a mixture of ground meat of unknown origins and cinnamon. Other spices too, but who can tell. The soup is hot water with onions. Sometimes with tomatoes. Almad wants me to come. But Haider, another sculptor, says it may not be such a good idea. It will be crowded, he says, and the water is not so good for foreigners. Okay I say to Almad, next time. I drink my lemon tea and dream of dumplings the size of my head. A cinema critic enters the café. He's the number one critic in Baghdad, Haider tells me, because he is the only one in the city. He jokes to Ellen, my travel companion for the day and a full time peace activist from Maryland, that he would like to do a cultural exchange with her; she can take his post as the number one critic in Baghdad if he could get a visa and go to the US. 3PM We wander around the booksellers row, a suk (open market) next to the Al-Shadbandar Café. Former engineers sell their collection of books on statistical analysis here and whatever else they can find in their house. Books are indiscriminately piled on the sidewalk for people to browse through. Iraq had, before the sanctions, one of the highest literacy rates in the Middle East and the largest number of PhD's. This is why you will find not only books on mathematics and structural mechanics, but also Hegelian philosphy, Pop Art, and Modern absurdist drama, in Arabic, English, French, German, and even Chinese. I find a nice copy of Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Also a beautiful book on Islamic Calligraphy. We have what's called a magic sheet. On one side of this piece of paper is an explanation of what the Iraq Peace Team is about and why we are in Iraq. On the other side, the same thing in Arabic. We pass this out and hope to enlarge our family. It does work like magic and a bookseller quickly becomes a friend (because not surprisingly everyone is against the war). It is only paper but has the weight of gold. I meet a poet named Suha Noman Rasheed. He is slowly selling his collection of poetry books on the row to live. He has published three books of Arabic poetry and promises me he will bring a copy of one next week. A writer friend in the US asked me to bring back some books in Arabic so they can be translated into English. This is our rescue mission, he tells me. 4:50PM Walking back to the hotel, Ellen and I noticed the pristine quality of the Iraqi police cars. Some of the plastic coverings haven't even been taken off the seats. Ellen, who served for four years in the US army, and I agreed that one can tell the health of any regime by the cleaniness of the police cars. 6PM An action planning meeting for the Peace Team. Productive. There will be an action on Dec 31st entitled "Resolutions and Celebrations". The goal is to throw a party and get Iraqi mothers, fathers, kids, poets, writers and peace activists together to make New Year's resolutions that would replace the UN resolutions now serving as the litmus test for war. I am in charge of the visuals. I imagine 10,000 Iraqi children dressed in white suits and dresses, singing and waving their hands up as if they were surrendering. Musical accompaniment: Aretha Franklin. Special Guest: subcommandante Marcos. I don't tell the other about the plan. Let's see what I can do in four days. 7:30PM Found out George is leaving the team because his father in Massachusetts is in serious condition after he broke his hip. I'm very fond of George. A Lebanese man who also stays at the Al-Fanar hotel who may or may not be a war profiteer said George has a heart of gold. I believe him. He's been to Iraq nine times and financially supports eight families here. On this trip he brought two suitcases of medicines and toys. Baghdad is the city of infinite need. 8PM Saddam is on television. He is sitting on a white leather couch. The reception is bad. Just now there was a cut-away shot to the crowd listening to him speak. It is immense. But there is never a shot of the crowd and Saddam together. Did you know the Russian KGB was the grandfather of Adobe Photoshop? Not only did they make people disappear, they made their appearance in photographs disappear as well. With a razor blade, pen and ink they would retouch photographs with such precision that it was as if the person never appeared in the original photograph. Now, the cut-away is the standard, whether it is used to subtract or add people. Reality has never been so elastic. Now a music video of children singing and images of Saddam at various state functions. 11PM Saf, a young student who I play dominos with sometimes, asks me if I have any asprin for him. I tell Saf tomorrow. 11:50PM Every night at 11:30 Iraq television plays a movie. Tonight it's "Mission to Mars" starring Val Kilmer. Kilmer, incidently, came to Iraq in 1998 as a part of a campaign called "America Cares". One of the board of directors on AC was Barbara Bush. The campaign was set up to take the media spotlight away from former attorney general Ramsey Clark's delegation called "The Sanctions Challenge", which was in Baghdad at the same time. It worked. No one paid attention to Clark and his crew, who were campaigning to stop the sanctions. All eyes were on Val and his vague promises to bring democracy and bad movies to the Middle East. 1AM Cannot sleep. The wild dogs of Baghdad are out, barking and laughing at the few cars that are still out on the street. I find the following quote in a book about Laozi, mystical chinese philisopher, that seems appropriate to the times: "Vulgar people are clear, I alone am drowsy. Vulgar people are alert, I alone am muddled." ------------------------------------------------ ABOUT PAUL CHAN AND THE IRAQ PEACE TEAM PROJECT ------------------------------------------------ Paul Chan is an artist living in New York City and a member of the Iraq Peace Team, a project of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the sanctions against Iraq. The goals of IPT are to rally support for resisting a war on Iraq and publicize the effects of a possible or ongoing US assault on Iraqi civilians. IPT members all firmly oppose another war against Iraq for moral, religious or humanitarian reasons and are thoroughly committed to nonviolence. Since September 2002, Iraq Peace Team members have traveled to Iraq and have taken up residence in major cities. They have sent back reports, digital still photos, open diary entries, digital video footage, press releases, opinion articles, recorded audio, letters to the editor, and more. Chan is a member of the December Iraq Peace team and will be in Iraq until mid Janurary 2003, creating media and art that tells the story of this unspeakable drive for war and the people caught in its path. Chan's video work is distributed by Video Data Bank (www.vdb.org) and his new media work is online at (www.nationalphilistine.com) ----------------------------- FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT ---------------------------- Voices in the Wilderness 1-773-784-8065 1460 West Carmen Ave Chicago, IL 60640 USA info at vitw.org --WEB Voices in the Wilderness http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw Iraq Peace Team http://iraqpeaceteam.org National Philistine http://www.nationalphilistine.com From khergupta at hotmail.com Fri Jan 3 10:45:18 2003 From: khergupta at hotmail.com (khergupta) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 10:45:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] bharti kher...matrimonial columns in the popular press Message-ID: REF: Sarai Independent Fellowship Video Work by bharti kher The title of my project " Love ....an absence of assignable cause" proposes to deal with a number of issues that relate to the 40 odd words that invite and initiate the realities of an Indian marriage.... obvious are the hierarchies: gender, caste and wealth seem to me to be 3 major factors. More subtle but equally important is the role of the pundit ...(its interesting to note that the role of the Hindu pundit has always been one of deep respect,fear and faith, a strange mixture of control and inextricable linking to the day to day lives of everyday people)...and hence the BHP (biodata, horoscope,photo) Do the matrimonials in different parts of India differ?...Delhi is prone to financial status selling...and yet the cosmopolitan sections are incredibly varied. Women's photos differ greatly to men's...the idea being...(we all know)... Do the words used in the matrimonials raise questions of fantasy or truth? (why are children "issues"..."early" means: i want to get married quickly: Fair,homely and convent educated...are polite and frightening ways to describe virgins. My research and questions will not necessarily lead to any concrete conclusions...but the art work that I make,(in most likelihood through the medium of sound and video) I hope will reflect a sense of the comic tragedy/happily ever after..ritualistic scenario and reality of boy meets girl....with all cliches and banality. Does anyone have any stories to tell?? any photos? comments? Thanks, Bharti kher -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030103/f26278c1/attachment.html From shikha_jhingan at yahoo.com Thu Jan 2 22:41:48 2003 From: shikha_jhingan at yahoo.com (shikha_jhingan at yahoo.com) Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 09:11:48 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] film screening Message-ID: <20030102171148.97603.qmail@web40909.mail.yahoo.com> Born to Sing a film by Shikha Jhingan Monday, January 6, 2003, at 6.30 p.m India International Centre, Main Auditorium Lodhi Estate New Delhi Documentary/44 min./video/English with subtitles Synopsis: Born to Sing is a musical journey with four Mirasans, who sing life-cycle songs for their patrons in Punjab. Through an encounter with the Mirasans and their songs, the film explores a rich musical tradition kept alive by these women. What is the nature of their relationship with their land-owning patrons? What happens when Punjabi pop music takes the entertainment industry by storm? How are the Mirasans dealing with dwindling patronage and pressures from the men of their community? Without trying to homogenize the four characters, the documentary tries to grapple with these concerns faced by women who find themselves shunted out of their expressive traditions. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From aiindex at mnet.fr Fri Jan 3 22:23:49 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 17:53:49 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Getting into gang war By Salman Rushdie Message-ID: Washington Post December 25 2002 Getting into gang war By Salman Rushdie As the world prepares for war, two extraordinary portraits of human conflict are offered at movie theaters this Christmas. Peter Jackson's "The Two Towers," the second installment of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" are superficially similar because of their mutual interest in battle; but they could not be more different beneath their bloodied surfaces, and the choice between their conflicting visions is one we may all shortly have to make. Both films have been eagerly anticipated. Neither has disappointed. I do not speak here of their performance at the box office but of their qualities as what one used to call "cinema," which is to say, as art. Like its precursor, "The Fellowship of the Ring," Jackson's picture is an improvement on its source material, if only because Jackson's film language is subtler, more sophisticated and certainly more contemporary than the stilted, deliberate archaisms of J.R.R. Tolkien's descriptive prose and, even more problematically, of his dialogue. (I am a big fan of the book version of "The Lord of the Rings," but nobody ever read Tolkien for the writing.) One might say something similar about Scorsese's use of sources. Herbert Asbury's 1928 classic "Gangs of New York" has been transmuted in the film version into a poetic, visionary epic, a "birth of the nation" saga that seeks nothing less, as the New York Times reviewer comes close to suggesting, than to supplant the grand narratives of national origins created by D.W. Griffith and John Ford. It may seem strange to compare Jackson's fabular Middle Earth wars among men, orcs, dwarfs, hobbits and elves with Scorsese's riots in the all-too-real Five Points district of 19th-century Manhattan, but both filmmakers share an interest in the cut and thrust of hand-to-hand fighting, of close conflict realistically depicted according to the "ancient laws of combat." Movie blood used to be known as "Kensington gore" after the upscale London street, but there's nothing posh or genteel about the gore offered here. So much for parallels and surface similarities. Where the two films differ radically is in what they have to say about men at arms and about the nature of war. "The Two Towers" -- how fortunate for all concerned that this title was not ready for release 12 months ago, in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the World Trade Center -- follows Tolkien in creating a universe of moral absolutes. Tolkien didn't like people calling his great work an allegory of the battle against Adolf Hitler, but the echoes of World War II, the last "just war," are everywhere. The Dark Lord Sauron is the incarnation of evil, and his most potent (and very Wagnerian) weapon, the One or Ruling Ring, is made of and perfects that evil. All who come under Sauron's baleful influence become as thoroughly, homogeneously evil as their lord. The forces of good that stand against him -- and this explains much of Tolkien's appeal -- are, by contrast, extremely various: from Gandalf the wizard (the powerful good guy), Aragorn the Ranger (the heroic good guy), Legolas the elf (the cool good guy), Gimli the grumpy dwarf (the uncool good guy), all the way down to the little people, the hobbits or halflings, who will in the end save the day. Scorsese's film offers no such extreme moral contrasts. As knife goes up against cleaver, club against skull, nativist against immigrant American, Protestant against Catholic, "good" and "evil" seem almost irrelevant. This is the amoral world of bare-knuckle power, a Darwinian cityscape in which only the fittest will survive. And out of that world, Scorsese reminds us, comes ours. This is a far braver, rarer vision than that of "The Two Towers," brilliant as the fantasy epic is. Gang war is neither holy nor just, Scorsese tells us, and, as one leaves the movie theater with his images dazzling the mind's eye, the thought occurs that maybe all wars are gang wars. The films have opened at a time when all of us are trying to come to grips with the fact of an impending, controversial war, and many people, on both sides of the argument, are taking the absolutist line. The Bush camp's interest in "evil" and "evildoers" needs no further emphasis. But the Bushies are finding support in some strange quarters. To take just one example, the crazy rage of the writer Oriana Fallaci, directed without discrimination against every Muslim in the world -- "every Muslim, without exception, is a fundamentalist"; "they multiply like protozoa to infinity" -- is one example of what one might call the New Evilism that is busily painting the world in black and white. Oddly, opponents of the proposed American attack on Iraq often look like mirror-images of what they hate. According to these opponents, Western as well as Islamic, the United States is the tyrant, the Dark Lord, and all its purposes are vile. The truth looks more confused, more amorally Scorsesean. Saddam Hussein is a murderous despot, but the present U.S. administration's assaults on fundamental freedoms call into question its right to be called freedom lovers. The overthrow of the present Iraqi leadership may be desirable, but many of the scenarios for the aftermath of that overthrow are undesirable, to say the least. America may be in less danger from Iraq than its leaders claim, and the war on Hussein may have more to do with breaking U.S. dependence on Saudi oil than anyone cares to discuss. Yet it is possible that this flawed war may end up creating a better Iraq for most Iraqis than could be achieved by any other means. In short, we may be in for a gang war on a gigantic scale, and yet, as in Scorsese's movie, that gang war, brutal, cynical, atavistic -- a war in which one man's hero is another's villain -- may paradoxically succeed in bringing a more modern world into being. Ambiguity is out of fashion, however. We will be given a war of heroes against villains at all costs. After all, "The Two Towers" is a vast popular success, and "Gangs of New York" is doing no better than modest business. Perhaps when the time for the Oscars comes round, the academy will see fit to reward the more profound complexities of the Scorsese movie. But by March we may all be preoccupied by a greater, darker contest than the one for the Academy Awards. Salman Rushdie is the author of "Fury" and other novels. From deepaligakhar at rediffmail.com Sat Jan 4 00:16:14 2003 From: deepaligakhar at rediffmail.com (deepali ) Date: 3 Jan 2003 18:46:14 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] seminar-dalits in education Message-ID: <20030103184614.16632.qmail@webmail31.rediffmail.com> The following is a copy of the seminar entitled “DALITS IN EDUCATION” presented by Deepali Gakhar, M.Sc. Previous Child Development, Lady Irwin College. DALITS IN EDUCATION INTRODUCTION The suffering and total marginalisation of a major portion of Indian society, dates back to the time immemorial. Though even the perpetrators of Dalits concede to the fact that they were the earlier inhabitants of this land, the heap of insult and untold story of their miseries on all fronts still goes on unabated. Realizing the vulnerability of religious mythology in Indian society, the dominating and villainous Brahmin society, left no stones unturned in cashing on it. The works assigned to the untouchables were much humiliating and menial. They were not to come in the view of an upper caste and they were not supposed to trend on the path, where an upper caste was supposed to traverse. The untouchables were not permitted into temples and institutions of learning. Hence, millennia long suffering at the hands of the upper caste Indian society created deep-rooted inferiority complex in them from which they are yet to be recovered. As it is widely known, inferiority complex retards one’s mental growth, it gives one away from expressing his or her talents. Advent of the British to a certain extent proved to be a blessing in disguise for the untouchables. The British made them understand that the education can play a major role in freeing them from the shackles of slavery. Education is means through which one inculcates knowledge, values, skills and attitudes. It is a major tool for socio-economic improvement of an individual and it also reduces social inequalities, political assertion and income distribution. The education has been instrumental in defining and mapping out the aims and objectives of an individual. It has the potentiality for creating awareness of the difficulties and obstacles that may hinder the path of development. Such awareness in a better way helped the deprived groups to go in search for alternative solutions of their problems for improving their lot and climbing the ladder of social hierarchy. In independent India the main objective of education is to look after the needs and development of Dalit children who have remained isolated from the ambit of education for centuries. After the independence the changing governments at least took some means to raise the educational standard of the Dalits despite the result of the some has not been so satisfactory in the terms of its implementation and outcome. It has been found that the growth of the educational standard among Dalits is not uniform and educational facilities among backward castes are being distributed unevenly. In almost all the states in India certain prominent castes among the Dalits are dominating the educational facilities meant for the whole Dalit society. Thus, since millennia back this stoic section of our society has been developing a deep-rooted inferiority complex which has also been preventing them in making use of their talents and caliber. UNTOUCHABILITY- A PROCESS OF DEHUMANIZATION The oppression of Dalits has been going on for over 3,000 years. They are segregated in all spheres of social life: places of worship, education, housing, land ownership, use of common wells, roads, buses, etc. They are the people who have been ritually assigned all manner of menial and degrading jobs such as manual scavenging, under the caste system. They are considered to be untouchable. In their daily lives untouchability results in, among others, the following consequences . · In a lot of the upper caste (rich) families the servants are Dalits. After the servant has cleaned the rooms, pots and pans, one of the family members will sprinkle 'holy' water to purify all that has been touched by the servant. · Dalits are not allowed to wear shoes; if they wear them, Dalits will have to take off their shoes at times they meet a higher caste person. · In rural areas, Dalits are not allowed to cycle through the village streets in which the higher caste people live. · The Dalits mainly live in separate communities, outside the actual village. · In general, Dalits are not allowed to sit at bus stops; they have to stand and wait until higher caste people have entered the bus. Dalits are also not allowed to sit on the seats, even if they are vacant. · After half a century of Independence, even the educated among the Dalits are not free to choose a house to rent, caste discrimination always cropping up to deny them equal rights to housing and other social services. · Most Hindus will avoid having a Dalit to prepare their food, because they fear becoming polluted from a Dalit's touch. · The Government has made reservations for Dalits, so that they can enter into jobs in the public sector, State Assemblies and universities. This reservation, however, makes them even more vulnerable in the society. And in many cases backlogs of vacancies are yet to be filled, making a mockery of the whole affirmative action system of reservations. · 'We may touch a cat, we may touch a dog, we may touch any other animal, but the touch of these human beings is pollution.' (G.K. Gokhale, in Jesus the Dalit by M.R. Arulraja, 1996. Volunteer Centre, 7-1-30/6, Ameerpet, Hyderabad - 16) ORIGIN OF UNTOUCHABILITY The word Dalit irrespective of all its inadequacies is being used to mean the people of Untouchable origin and victims of discrimination and oppression. Untouchability is a notion of defilement, contempt and hatred towards a section of people called untouchables. It was, however, imposed on them by all cunning and coercion. It survived because it formed part of practices of Hinduism. Nobody is aware of the origin of untouchability. All theories are based on conjectures. Like all invaders, the Aryans annihilated the vanquished in the beginning but as they settled down they thought the survivors could be put to better use. The vanquished were degraded to the level of slaves and serfs and were forced to do unpleasant jobs. The invaders married women from the original inhabitants owing to shortage of women in their tribes. As they settled down the invaders became colour conscious and status conscious and to preserve their racial purity kept themselves aloof from the indigenous people. Then there emerged the priestly class and divided the society into four Varnas and themselves became not only the priests but also the law makers and ‘Bhudev’-gods on earth. Since they belonged to a minority, in order to keep the adversaries divided, introduced the element of graded inequality. Inequality is bad enough, but graded inequality is the worst kind of division. Gradually status began to be determined on the basis of birth. Society got divided horizontally and vertically into several hundred castes. For the sake of preserving the purity and lineage endogamy was encouraged. Exogamy was condemned and ridiculed but exogamy within the caste was rigidly enforced. Mixed marriages could disrupt the system. In consequences of these free social intercourse was disrupted. To maintain and perpetuate the caste system based on birth, restrictions were put on free associations. A Brahmin marrying a Kshatriya woman was assigned a lower place but was not made an untouchable. However a Sudra marrying a Brahmin had to be severely punished. He was made a Chandala, an untouchable, the most despised of the out-castes. When Buddhism was declined those who continued to follow this religion were also treated as untouchables. The caste Hindus, especially Brahmins hated only Buddhists because Buddhism stands for an egalitarian model of society, and the followers of Buddhism discarded the supremacy of the Brahmins. Another reason for the origin of untouchability was the habit of beef eating by a certain section of the population. Brahmins made the cow a sacred animal. This made beef eating sacrilege. The section of population guilty of sacrilege necessarily became the out-castes. All Hindus in association with Muslims were also considered as outcastes and joined the rank of lower castes and untouchables. Wars, famines, epidemics, floods and other natural and man-made calamities added to the number of untouchables. Thus untouchability arose out of contempt and hatred towards those not living like civilians and violating the laws and customs of the Brahmins. They were outcaste and treated as untouchables and made to live outside the villages which were inhabited by ‘pure’ people. They were given different names, recognizing their disability and sometimes on the basis of their occupation or profession at different times by the rulers or priestly classes. Since all of them were treated as Untouchables and they had nothing in common with the Hindus or Muslims so far as the religious beliefs, customs and the dietic habits were concerned. Untouchables worshipped their own gods and goddesses, relished beef and pork besides the carrion and buried their dead. The Untouchables or Dalits, as we call them now, are found in all parts of India and are meted out the same kind of treatment by the Hindus. FROM UNTOUCHABLE TO DALIT In this section I would like to discuss the question of what to call Untouchables and how they refer to themselves. Of all the generic terms used to refer to ‘Untouchables’, none is entirely satisfying. In the Sanskrit literature, Untouchables are known as chandala, a term that designates those who were not allowed to dwell in a town or a village but had to live in special quarters outside the village or town limits. The term chandala was already somewhat obsolete by the sixteenth century, and today it has completely dropped out of everyday language and contemporary literature. In Tamil, the untouchables were referred to as theendajadhi (‘the castes which defile’). Another Tamil word has overtly militant echoes, since taazhttapattor means literally ‘those who are forced to be low’. It is commonly used by untouchables associations, but has not entered the everyday language. Madras presidency had comprised a large population of people treated as untouchables. Contemptuously they were called pariahs. A few of them became awakened by the exposure to new ideas, chose to call themselves adi-dravidas (‘first settlers of the Dravidian country’), adi-andhras , adi-hindus, adi-malayali, adi-oriya, adi-kannadga etc. The prefix ‘Adi’ denoted that they were the descendents of indigenous people who were vanquished by the Aryans nomads. The ‘Untouchables’ were also called avarna, pariah, and out-caste, because they had been kept out of chaturvarna scheme of social stratification and are below the line of pollution and considered inferior to the “twice born”. They were also given the name panchamas by the Brahmins because they supposedly came after the chaturvarna. Even Gandhiji used this term for a long time in his newspaper “Young India”. Enlightened, self-respecting people among the untouchables protested and government issued orders dated March 1922 forbidding the use of the term panchama and pariah. . Gandhiji in 1933 coined the word ‘Harijan’ to denote Untouchables. It means ‘people’ or, by extension, ‘children’ (jan) of God (Hari). Many of the “untouchable” leaders wondered as to why they had been singled out as ‘children of God’? Were not others also the children of God? If not, whose children are they after all? They saw through in this division another attempt of subtle segregation from the rest of the Hindus. And the term ‘Harijan’ could not win unanimous acceptation. The title or name ‘Dalit’ is being used these days instead of the word ‘untouchable’ or ‘Scheduled Castes’ as the official title, since it is not objectionable to the people belonging to ‘untouchable castes’. This is a word in the Marathi language of western India, and is apparently derived from Sanskrit. In the Molesworth ‘s Marati-English Dictionary published in 1831, the word ‘Dalit’ is defined as ‘ground’ or ‘broken or reduced to pieces generally’. It was seemingly first used in the context of caste oppression by the great nineteenth-century reformer Phule, but its modern history dates from the early 1970s among activists from the Untouchable Mahar caste. During the Census of 1810 Dalits were counted under the head “Vagrant, Menial and Artisan castes”. For hundred years in India word ‘Dalit’ has been in use, during the four decades, it has popularized more by the ‘Dalit Panthers’ and the Dalit writers of Maharashtra than any other group or individual. Another category of names is a cluster of terms devised mainly in British bureaucratic contexts-above all the census-from late in the nineteenth century to the 1930’s. These terms included ‘Outcastes’, ‘Depressed Classes’ and ‘Exterior Castes’. Depressed classes comprised a large number of castes, both touchable and untouchable. Many among these castes made representations to the Viceroy, that they belonged to higher caste of Hindus and should not be clubbed with the lowly chuhras, chamars, dusadhs, passi, doms, pariahs, mahars etc. A few of the caste leaders even served notices with intention to file suits under section 499, 500 of the Indian Penal Code. In effect Depressed Classes came to mean only the ‘Hindu Untouchables’. The endpoint of this line of verbal or conceptual development is the term ‘Scheduled Castes’. The so-called Schedule is a list of castes entitled to parliamentary seats, public employment and special education benefits. This Schedule was originally promulgated by the British Government in 1936, but the term ‘Scheduled Castes’ only became widely used after Independence. According to the manifesto of Dalit Panthers, members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Neo-Buddhists, the working people, the landless and poor peasants, women and all those who are being exploited politically, economically and in the name of religion are Dalits. Although the words “poor”, “oppressed” and “exploited” undoubtedly have a broad class connotation, the term ‘Dalit’ is considered applicable more or less exclusively to the ex-untouchables, viz.’ the Scheduled Castes. Indeed it is a term that the untouchables use themselves as against the terms such as Harijans (children of God), avarna (coloured), antyaja (low-born), humshudra (Scheduled Castes), etc. which were given by “others”. In the opinion of Dr. Gangadhar Pantawane, Dalit is not a caste, but is a symbol of change and revolution. The Dalit believes in humanism. He denied the existence of God, rebirth, a sacred book that teaches discrimination, fate and heaven, because these have made him a slave. He represents the exploited men in his country. A very determined Hindu social system was developed to destroy him as a human being. Human dignity was insulted and he fell prey to unavoidable circumstances. His lifeless body had to undergo excruciating pain but the burden of alienation as been the source of rebirth for thousands of people. Dalitness is essentially a means towards achieving a sense of cultural identity. The inferiority complex based on “to be a Dalit” has now started waning. Now Dalitness id a source of confrontation. This change has its essence in the desire for justice for all mankind. In this sense, Dalitness is a matter of appreciating the potential of one’s total being. Thus individual, culture, social burden and Dalitness cannot be isolated. ROLE OF EDUCATION Education is a means through which one inculcates knowledge, values, skills and attitudes. It is a major tool for socio-economic improvement of an individual and it also helps to bridge wide disparity in social status, political assertion and income distribution. The education has been instrumental in defining and mapping out the aims and objectives of an individual. It has the potentiality for creating awareness of the difficulties and obstacles that may hinder the path of development. Such awareness in a better way helps the deprived groups to go in search for alternative solutions of their problems for improving their lot and climbing the ladder of social hierarchy. The Dalits, most of which had been subjected to various social disabilities of extreme nature were exploited and kept subservient mainly because they were illiterates. Their mass illiteracy was, in turn, due to religious and social sanctions imposed on them by caste Hindus. Education can serve the following major functions for the Scheduled Castes: 1. Occupational Mobility- It is beyond doubt that education has the effect of keeping people away from their traditional occupations. Thus it is expected to serve the purposes, equipping the Dalits to overcome their caste-defined confinement to low status occupations through the promotion of occupational mobility among them and improving their standard of living. 2. Agent of social change- Education is a dynamic agent of social change. The term social change implies changes in attitude, behaviour, customs, habits, manners, relations and values of people. It also implies change in styles or ways of living. It may also imply changes in the structure of social institutions. The function of education in relation to social change is two fold: i. Adjustment to the changing situation. ii. Creation of a new order through change in knowledge, new idea and /or in other words, education for social progress. Education is both conservative and progressive. Education transmits the culture of one generation to another. The rising generation has to be conveyed the activities and experiences of the past generation. It has also to be asked to make necessary changes in these activities and experiences to meet the new situations which it will meet. An integration of the old must take place with the new ones. It must be remembered that the communities live in the present, on the past and for the future. This means that activities and experiences in the present have to be built on the past and the present will guide the activities of the future. Thus education is continuous, reorganization and integration of activities and experiences. Education is a constructive agency for improving our society. 3. Agent of social mobility- The significance of formal education in social mobility had been pointed out by M.S.A. Rao. “education helps in promoting values and achieving new goals. It is widely recognized that formal education plays a vital role in social mobility, both horizontal and vertical. If formal education is seen as a socializing agency preparing individual for a style of life associated with a stratum, it is at the same time an agency helping individuals to overcome prejudices, and promoting values and behaviour of a more universalistic nature”. EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF DALITS An official estimate made in 1993 shows that 80 percent of the Dalits are living below the poverty line. Of the total bonded labourers Dalits account for 66 percent, whereas nearly 55.27 percent Dalits are agricultural labourers and 23.62 percent cultivators. Besides 3.42 percent were occupied in household industry. Whereas around 17.59 percent of Dalits are engaged under the category “Other Workers”; which includes employment in governmental organizations, factory sector, mining, construction, service sector, and transport, trade and commerce etc. Approximately about 20% of the Dalits are ‘liberated’ from age old imposed occupations and it is this proportion of the Dalit community which has been capable of cashing in on any form of educational opportunity. According to 1991 Census, the population of India had reached to 84.63 crores. The Census data also reveals that in 1991 the member of Scheduled Caste groups notified was 1091. The majority of the population belonging to the Scheduled Castes is still illiterate even today. Dalit Shiksha Andolan (DSA), a voluntary educational action group working for the welfare of SCs prepared a report namely ‘Dalit Data Bank’. It reveals that inspite of Welfare Schemes, provisions of reservations in jobs and educational institutions, the country has not been able to achieve the constitutional directives of universal primary education. The report published in March 1998 by the Ministry of Welfare, Government of India, indicates the recent literacy figures of general communities as well as the Scheduled Caste. For the general castes the literacy rate among the males is 64.13% whereas it is only 49.91% in case of Scheduled Caste males. While the literacy rate of women belonging to general communities was 39.29% and that of SC female was 23.76%. If we total up the literacy rates of male and female, the literacy rate reaches 52.21% among the general castes whereas it is 37.41% among the SCs. Only 1.9% population belonging to SCs was literate in 1931 which increased to 10.27% in 1961. In other words, the literacy rate among the SCs increased by 8.37% in the first 30 years. In 60 years only 37.41% SC population were literate in 1991. The literacy rate among them increased by 27.24% in next 30 years in independent India. It is very disappointing to see that the measures adopted to develop education among Scheduled Castes failed at every level. The literacy rate among them did not increase even at the rate of 1% in a year. In other words, the literacy rate among SCs, came down in independent India as it was in pre-independent India. According to 1991 Census, India became more illiterate than it was in 1961. India had produced 54 million illiterates between 1961 to 1971; 34 million between 1971 to 1981 and 58 million between 1981 and 1991. In three decades 148 million additional illiterates are added to our total population. Whereas the literacy rate increased by 21.11% in 30 years which is very low in proportion to the growth of population. Besides, 38.9 million illiterate Scheduled Castes have been added in the actual illiterate population in the three decades. However, the growth in literacy rate in the same period was only 24.61%. The rapid growth of population has pushed up the country further with illiteracy. The literacy rates have been gong up from 31% in 1961 to 52.21% in 1991. EDUCATION OF DALITS IN INDIA: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Here I make an attempt to look into the position of Dalits and their access to education in colonial India and their educational development in the post independence period in the context of more than 55years of independence. DALITS IN PRE-BRITISH INDIAN SOCIETY: Education since times immemorial till the end of the nineteenth century was limited only to a few privileged classes. Brahmins had monopolized the entire educational sector in India. They were considered supreme and education became their property. The Sudras and untouchables were denied even the basic education. Instructions in formal education, were more or less limited only to the dwijas (“twice-born”) castes. The Brahmin, who engaged with the classical religious texts interpreted and communicated them to the illiterate masses in their local dialects. The Kshatriyas had to learn to rule and get acquainted with the weapons, state crafts and organizational matters and some schooling for this purpose was necessary. The Vaishyas required the knowledge of arithmetic for transacting business, keeping records and maintaining accounts. While some sort of skills necessary for carrying on the crafts at the domestic level could well be acquired within home, i.e., the artisan groups or the Shudras. So the “untouchables” were the only section of the society left out with no accessibility to education of any kind. Denial of education to the Dalits perpetuated their social humiliation, economic exploitation, political marginalisation and cultural subordination. EDUCATION IN COLONIAL INDIA: The British were silent for a long time on the question of promoting education among the native population. In 1813, it was laid down by the Parliament that “Out of the surplus revenues of India, sum of not less than one lakh of rupees each year shall be set apart and applied to the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of learned natives of India and for the introduction and promotion of knowledge of Sciences among the inhabitants of British territories in India”. In 1814, the court of directors suggested that the promotion of Sanskrit learning among the Hindus would fulfill the purpose which Parliament had in mind. But the depressed classes were crestfallen as British government ruled that education was to be a preserve for the higher classes. No schools were opened for depressed classes before 1855 in the Bombay presidency because of the deliberate policy of the British was to restrict the benefits of the higher education chiefly to the Brahmins and other Upper classes. The depressed classes were not allowed by the government to have their slice in education. Form 1854 onwards measures were taken to impart the education to masses of the country irrespective of caste and creed. But it was seen that although the policy of the government was mass education, the masses were out of the education as they were before 1854 and that the lowest classes of Hindus still remained lowest in domain of education. In 1881-82 there was no student from the low caste communities either in high schools or in any of the colleges of the presidency. The dismal performance of Dalits in education was due to the reason that there were some people who were agitating for the reversal of the policy of mass education. The fears of dire consequences to the British rule eminating from elevation of the backward classes from their low status still haunted people like Lord Ellen-borough, President of the Board of Control who wrote to the court of Directors on 28th april, 1858 that “education and may descend from the higher to the inferior classes, and so communicated may impart new vigour to the community, but they will never ascend from the lower classes to those above them; they can only, if imparted solely to the lower classes, lead too general convulsion, of which foreigners would be the first victims”. “if we desire to diffuse education let us give it to the higher classes first by founding the colleges to which the higher classes alone should be admitted and by giving the organization of the army, commissions at once to such sons of native gentlemen as may be competent to receive them”. However this antipathy of European officers towards untouchables was corrected by the Secretary of India in 1859 by reiterating the responsibility of government for mass education and the schools were opened for depressed classes. But the caste Hindus declined to sit with them in school. To find a way-out, government built up separate schools for depressed classes and sanctioned grants to the missionary bodies to undertake the education for them by relaxing rules of grants in aid. The year 1923, forms the next landmark after the year 1882 in the educational history of Bombay Presidency as that year marks the transfer of primary education from the control of provisional governments to the control of local bodies. The state of education of the backward classes was deplorable in this presidency. This can be attributed to the policy of biased treatment. It was due to the negligence on part of the government regarding education of the backward classes. DALITS AND EDUCATION IN POST-INDEPENDENCE PERIOD: Since independence, particularly from the First Five Year Plan onwards, various special developmental measures were initiated in addition to general development programmes for the social and economic development of Dalits. Special attention was paid for the educational development of Dalits by allocating 50 percent of the total welfare funds meant for socio-economic development of Dalits, for their education. The literacy rate is an important indicators of educational development. During 1961-1991, the literacy rate rose from 10.27 percent to 37.41 percent among the Scheduled Castes, while it increased from 37.41 to 57.40 percent in case of the rest of the population. Scheduled Caste children discontinue their studies prematurely before reaching the level for which they have enrolled. The drop-out rate in 1986-87 for classes I-V was 50.79 percent in the case of Scheduled Castes. In classes I-VIII the drop-out rates were as high as 69.15 percent and 80.19 percent respectively. 70 percent of the students in the age range of 6-14 years among the Scheduled Caste were studying in Government schools in rural India. Only 5 percent of the Scheduled Caste students are studying in private schools. In case of higher education also the share of Dalits is marginally improved but discrepancy between Scheduled Caste and general population has been widening over a period of time irrespective of the fact that there was substantial improvement in growth and expansion of higher education in the post-independence period in terms of universities, colleges, total number of teachers and enrolment of students. The total number of Scheduled Caste students increased from 1,05,518 in 1978-79 to 1,63,212 in 1988-89. Their proportion in professional courses decreased steadily from 32.63 percent in 1964-65 to 28.5 percent in 1970-71, 25.38 percent in 1975-76 and 17.08 percent in 1977-78. it also reveals that the proportion of Scheduled Caste students in professional courses is almost half in contrast to their corresponding proportion in undergraduate level courses. A fewer Scheduled Caste students make the transmission from the lower level courses to the professional subjects, which has a direct bearing in occupations, compared to non-Scheduled Caste students. Thus it is clear from the above analysis that there has been some improvement of Scheduled Castes with respect to education in the post-independence period, but there is a wide gulf in the educational levels of Dalits and others. Their low level of educational development is mostly because of poverty and also due to the social stigma attached to being an “untouchable”. GROWTH OF EDUCATION: CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS Untouchability was a cunningly created cage for confining the so-called untouchables to their low status. They had no right to admission in the schools, learn Sanskrit and acquire knowledge. The British government in India made no efforts till the end of the nineteenth century to make a provision for the education of the “untouchables”. Dalit consciousness originated from the acute discontent of the Dalits. This widespread feeling was manifested through several organizations and struggles for the emancipation of Dalits. Many social revolutionaries in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, directed their efforts primarily towards regaining the right to education for the total emancipation of Dalits. EVENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: 1. The Woods Despatch of 1854, threw open education to all classes and the Despatch of 1857, discouraged the idea of separate schools for the lower castes. 2. The opposition of the high castes to the admission of students from the depressed classes in public schools was very strong in the Madras presidency. The government considered its earlier decision and the Education Commission Report of 1883 recommended the establishment of separate schools wherever necessary. 3. Mahatma Phule, the great social revolutionary, opened the first school for the students of untouchable communities in Pune in the year 1852. In 1856 the number of such schools rose to three and the number of students became 300. in 1858, he opened a hostel for the poor untouchable students in Pune, wherein, 25-30 students were accommodated every year. 4. In 1858, the Bombay Government declared that all the schools receiving government grants should be open to all the students irrespective of their caste or creed. 5. In 1865, Shri Shashipad Bandhopadhyaya (Bengal), opened a school for the poor labourers and the untouchables at Barangar near Calcutta. 6. On 19th October 1882, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule submitted a memorandum to the Education Commission, Bombay headed by Mr. Hunter in which he requested the government to make primary education compulsory for the children of the untouchables. Further, he advocated separate schools for them as they were not allowed to sit along with the caste Hindus owing to caste prejudices. 7. Since 1883, separate schools were being opened for the students of the untouchables in the Baroda state. 8. In 1886, John Rathinam, an untouchable leader, started a Model School in Thousand Lights area of Madras for the untouchable students and in 1899, started one hostel for them. 9. Pandit C. Tyodhi Dass started several schools in Madras city in 1889, with the help of Colonel Olcott, Mary Balbare and Annie Besant. 10. In 1890, separate schools for the untouchables were opened in the Mysore Princely State at Mysore, Bangalore and Anekal. 11. In 1891, separate primary schools were established for the Pariahs. 12. Colonel Olcott opened his first school for the untouchable students in Madras in 1894; second school in 1899. In 1901, 384 boys and 150 girls were taking education. 13. In 1895, Shri Januji K. Khandare opened a free hostel for the students of the Depressed Classes at Akola in Maharashtra. 14. Raosaheb K. Rangarao, the Secretary of Brahmo Samaj, Mangalore started his first school for the untouchable students in Mangalore. EVENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: 1. In 1904, Shri Ayyan Kali started a school at Katakala in Kerala, for the students of the untouchables. 2. The Maharaja of Kolhapur promulgated an ordinance on 28th November 1906, to run night schools in Kolhapur for the untouchables students. 3. In 1906, Shri M.L. Audiah started a school at Secunderabad for the students of the Depressed Classes. It was named after Sir William Barton, the then Resident of Hyderabad. 4. Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur opened a school in Kolhapur for the girls belonging to Chambar and Dhor untouchables on 4th October 1907. 5. At the instance of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, a school for Mahar students was opened at Udagaon on 1st May 1909. 6. Ram Mohan Roy school for Dalits at Rajahmundry was started by Chilakamarti Laxminarasimhan in 1909, with English as well Telegu as the medium of instruction. He also offered free tuitions for the Dalit children. 7. In 1910, Shri Kalicharan Nandagavali built a school building at his own expense at Gondia in Bhandara district (Maharashtra) for the girl students of the untouchable community. 8. The Depressed Classes Mission of India founded by Maharishi V.R. Shinde undertook the task of starting schools for the untouchables from the year 1911. 9. Pandit Palaniswami started Dravid School in 1917 in Madras for the untouchable students. 10. Apart from the separate schools for Dalits, Board of Revenue recommended the appointment of a special agency for the promotion of the interests of those classes. The new special agency was termed as the Labour Department (1920) to work for the upliftment of the Depressed Classes. Promotion of elementary education was its primary concern and it started separate primary schools for the Depressed Classes called “Labour Schools”. The number of these schools increased with the general expansion of the activities of the department. 11. Mrs. Jaibai Choudhari, a staunch lady social worker at Nagpur, established a school named Chokhamela School, at Nayabasti, Nagpur in 1922. It was to impart education exclusively to girl students belonging to the untouchables. 12. The Arya Samaj opened a school for the benefit of Bhangi children in 1923 in Jodhpur. 13. Andhra Deena Sangham was founded at Machilipatnam in 1907 to attend to the social, economic and spiritual aspects of the ameliorative work. By 1924 they could open 12 night schools, day schools and one part-time school for the girls in and around Machilipatnam. Handicrafts such as tailoring, drawing, tape-weaving were taught in these schools to help “untouchables” to lead a normal life. 14. Kandukuri Vireslingam started a school and admitted ‘untouchable’ children and gave them free education with the help of his highness, the Maharaja of Pithampura. The Maharaja of Pithampura provided admission for Dalits in their high school at Kakinada and established two separate hostels for Dalit boys and girls, and the other hostel called ‘Ram Mohan Roy Hostel’ at Kakinada for Dalits who were pursuing college education. 15. M.R. Jaikar moved a resolution in the Legislative Assembly on 23rd February 1928 recommending to the government “to provide special facilities for the education of the untouchables and other depressed classes and also for opening all public services to them specially the police”. The resolution was adopted with minor amendment. 16. On 14th June 1928, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar started the Depressed Classes Education Society to spread education among the untouchables. 17. Under the Poona Pact, 1932, it was agreed to earmark an adequate sum for providing educational facilities to the members of the Scheduled Castes in every province. 18. The Harijan Sevak Sangh started giving scholarships to the students of the Depressed Classes since 1936-37. It gave scholarships to 94 students in that year. 19. By 1939, there was an institute called The Jatav Men’s Educational Institute at Agra, which was running five schools for boys and one for girls in Agra district. 20. In June 1941, the Harijan Sevak Sangh started Harijan Kanya Vidyalaya at Sabarmati. 21. A special provision was made for the first time in the central budget in 1944 for the grant for scholarships for the Scheduled Castes. This facility was extended to the Scheduled Tribes in 1948. 22. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar founded the People’s Education Society (PES) on 8th July 1945 at Bombay. The said Society started its first college named Siddharth College at Bombay on 20th June 1946. It started Milind Maha Vidayalaya at Aurangabad on 19th June 1950. 23. The Constitution which came into implementation on 26th January 1950 states under its Article 29 (2) that “No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of state funds on grounds, only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them”. Article 15 (4) states, “Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the state from making any special provision for advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes”. Article 46 of the Constitution states: “The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the society, and in particular of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation”. Ever since the Plan era separate sector called ‘Backward Classes Sector’ has been included in the Five Year Plans to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes. 24. National Policy on Education of 1968 : The policy marked a significant step in the history of education in post-independent India. It aimed to promote national progress, a sense of common citizenship and culture and to strengthen national integration. It laid stress on the need for a radical reconstruction of the education system to improve its quality at all stages, and gave much greater attention to science and technology, the cultivation of moral values and a closer relation between education and the life of the people. The policy lays special emphasis on the removal of disparities and to equalize educational opportunity by attending to the specific needs of those who have been denied equality so far-women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other educationally backward sections and areas. The central focus in the SCs educational development is their equalization with the non-SC population at all stages and levels of education, in all areas and in all the four dimensions- rural male, rural female, urben male and urban female. The measures contemplated for this purpose include: a) Incentives to indigent families to send their children to school regularly till they reach the age of 14. b) Pre-matric scholarship scheme for children of families engaged in occupations such as scavenging, flaying and tanning to be made applicable from class I onwards. All children of such families, regardless of incomes, will be covered by this scheme and time-bound programmes targeted on them will be undertaken. c) Constant micro-planning and verification to ensure that the enrolment, retention and successful completion of courses by SC students do not fall at any stage, and provision of remedial courses to improve their prospects for further education and employment. d) Recruitment of teachers from Scheduled Castes. e) Provision of facilities for SC students in students’ hostel at district headquarters, according to a phased programme. f) Location of school buildings, Balwadis and Adult Education Centers in such a way so as to facilitate full participation of the SCs. g) The utilization of Jawahar Rozgar Yojna resources so as to make substantial educational facilities available to the Scheduled Caste students. h) Constant innovation in finding new methods to increase participation of the SCs in the educational process. Role of missionaries: The missionaries took the initiative for imparting education and to prepare the “untouchables” for higher walks of life. The Christian missionaries believed that caste was the strongest obstacle to the spread of education to the untouchables. Hence they adopted a new strategy to change the way of life by establishing schools, bringing social reform etc. which helped the deprived communities. By the end of the nineteenth century nearly twenty mission societies were established and started their emancipation work in Telegu speaking areas of erstwhile Madras presidency. The missionary contribution had helped by providing literacy to illiterates, thus uplifting the Dalits and instituting western ideals and principles and cultivating a feeling of nationalism among Indians. THE ISSUE OF RESERVATION There have, no doubt, been various attempts to rid the Indian society of the blemish of untouchability and its concomitants. Religious and social reform movements have, off and on, highlighted the problem of untouchability and of the socio-economic conditions of the untouchables. However, all these movements have utterly failed in making even a minor dent in the obstreperous system. Coinciding with human rights movement elsewhere in the world, there was again a stir in the people’s conscience. Since the magnitude of the problem was such, that nothing tangible was achieved even up to the end of the British rule in India. Convinced of the limitations of social movements of any kind in tackling this problem, the conclusion seemed inescapable that without the intervention of the state and without a recourse to legislation, nothing tangible can be achieved in so far as the question of the untouchables is concerned. As such, constitutional measures were adopted to protect their interests in order to grant them equality with others. Because of centuries of persecution of the untouchables under Brahmin tyranny, when India attained independence, the father of Indian Constitution, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in 1950, made a provision for reservation in all Governmental positions and educational institutes to ensure that Untouchables and tribes (also known as Scheduled Castes /Scheduled Tribes) were adequately represented. As per the constitutional right of reservation, Dalits are entitled to obtain 22.5% of the vacancies in State postings & admissions to courses of study. THE PURPOSE OF RESERVATION: The rationale of reservation is to provide protection to those weaker sections of the community who have remained isolated from the ambit of education for centuries, and cannot compete in the world of higher education, because of weak educational grounding and low performance. Reservation aims at improving the economic status of the oppressed classes slowly and gradually. In India reservation given to Dalits has brought observable changes in their lives. Reservations appear to have done some good - there are many more dalits, tribals and people from other backward castes in the government, in bureaucratic positions, in governing bodies from the panchayat to the parliament. Such a presence would not have been possible without reservations. Because of the reservation system dalits are going into higher education, and this will result in their children being well-educated. Because of the reservation system dalits are placed in leadership positions, and are able to develop their leadership skills and help their communities. CRITICISMS AGAINST: The policy of reservation had been criticized on the ground that, the quota system is viewed as an encroachment on the rights of the ‘meritorious’ students drawn from other castes and communities. This generates a social atmosphere not favourable to the Scheduled Caste students in these institutions and they often get discouraged when admitted therein. Secondly, it can be disapproved as amounting to casteism. It is necessary to distinguish between recognition of the existence of the caste system and an approval of that system. That the caste system exists in Hindu society is an undeniable fact and nothing is gained by simply not recognizing it. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar argued that reservation is a movement for the establishment of social, economic and educational equality in the society, which is probably the most effective method of putting an end to the evils of the caste system. THE GROUND REALITY: The policy of reservation since the enactment of the Mandal Commission recommendations has been used more as a political stunt by the various political parties in India. Every time one or the other party demands the inclusion of a new caste into the pale of Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Classes. The chief motive behind this move is to get the votes of a particular caste. It is more a political bargain which should not be so-for the good of a healthy democracy. Many discrepancies have crept in this policy of reservation. Since there are no economic criteria defined to give reservation to a family, many well-to-do families also get the benefits which they should not be entitled to get. Thus, while the reservation aims to level the gap between poor and rich, it seems to create economic imbalance among the castes. The political significance of the reservation policy is also a point of concern. Dalits form a big pool in the population of our country, they are looked at by the politicians as the coveted voted bank. To accrue the benefits from this vote bank in the election, many political leaders tend to and, do, fall in dishonest commitments to the leaders of these communities. The real purpose of the policy is, now far from being the ‘prime’ concern. Thus the reservation has now become an imperfect policy with perfect politics. The present day reservation policy, however, cannot provide upward caste mobility to a jati. though it may provide economic prosperity to some individuals. The beneficiaries have now a greater interest in sticking to their "down-trodden" jati label to ensure further benefits. No advantage now in a tiller (bhumihaar) revealing himself as a kshatriya as did Shivaji at his coronation. Now, instead of claiming closeness to Manu, or the line Sun or Moon (surya or chandra vamsha), it is better to be their victim. (Reflected in an extreme case of a woman in Kerala claiming that her son was not born of her Brahmin husband but from a SC rapist). The "uplifted" person thus lives in a schizophrenic state, part of him wishes to move up into the higher Varna and yet another part preserves his caste certificate. Above all, not only the forward castes, but even the majority of OBC's and STSC's feel cheated as the benefits of reservation are gobbled by the creamy layer of each category. Yadavs make hay, while Telis sulk HOW IS THAT THE DALITS HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FILL UP THEIR QUOTA IN ALL DISCIPLINES IN SPITE OF RESERVATION? In J.N.U. only about 15% of the seats reserved have been filled in so far. In the year 2001, instead of 22.5% reservation eligible to Dalits only 6.3% is being filled up, in the B.Tech course in IIT Madras. Their less representation is caused by in-built social and structural constraints. These operate both at the levels of their family background including social and economic positions, their previous educational training, and above all a highly stimulating but challenging academic atmosphere which is prevalent in the university which also demands hard labour to cope with. Thus, keeping on the view of the course/School-wise strength of students particular year of admission, the representation of the Scheduled Caste students is not fully in accordance with the quota reserved for them. The educational institutions for higher education have been set up by middle castes or dominant caste groups. These colleges do display caste prejudices and discrimination in the supposedly secular and modern environment of learning. Students from dominant caste groups, having internalized caste beliefs prefer, avoid, ignore, pass sarcastic comments and exclude Dalit students form curricular and co-curricular activities. In the name of ragging, untouchable students are tortured in Delhi University hostels. In a case, reported in the Reports of the commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Dalit medical students were forced to pass urine on a burning electric-heater and swallow lumps of chilly powder. The major problem of the Dalits has always been poverty. It is becomes quite difficult for the students and their parents to meet the expenses of higher education. Eighty percent of the Dalits live in villages making it practically impossible for them to benefit from these institutions. Blocked access to and control over strategic societal resources has prevented most of them from taking due advantage of modern facilities and modes of status mobility. SCHOOLING SYSTEM AND DALIT CHILDREN It is generally perceived that the schooling system offers the Dalit children an opportunity, on equal terms with others, to gain knowledge and enable them to rise in socio-economic status. It allows them to learn and develop along with other caste children, to see and imbibe values of higher communities, the experience of and exposure to, which was possibly not available to their parents and grand-parents. In short, therefore, education can be defined as a great human experience in community interaction, a process of constant learning. Therefore, dropping out under scores an end of a potentially fruitful adventure. School drop-out indicates a withdrawal from a system which could eventually render the most valuable support to one’s development. Then why do Dalit children drop-out from the school if the latter has the potency to deliver them goods? CAUSES FOR DROPPING-OUT FROM SCHOOL- We will now look into the reasons underlying the school drop-out of Dalit children. The problem of school drop-out among Dalit children is a complex one, having multiple reasons behind it. We may, however, integrate the items which have some proximate relationship among themselves. The reasons have been classified into five broad categories. Poverty and associated handicaps are chiefly responsible for the drop-out incidence among the Dalit children. The next contributory element to reckon with is the existing inadequacies of the school system. Punitive, unhelpful and impersonal attitudes of school teachers as well as the aggressive and unfriendly acts of the school mates seem to have created a credibility vaccum between the Dalit students and the school system. The last three categories relate to family or personal issues like sickness and death, declining interest of the child in studies and superstitious beliefs and values against the continuity of school education. In general, the economic backwardness of the Dalit families and unreceptive and discourteous atmosphere in the school constitute two major barriers that lie at the root of the drop-out problem among Dalit children. I. Poverty and Economic Hardships 1. Lack of basic educational equipments: The most significant variable relating to school drop-out is the incapacity of parents to meet the educational needs of the child, such as expenses for books, exercise notebooks, slates and pencils. 2. Child’s gainful employment: Some of the families discontinue the education of their children in order to employ them in some gainful activity. These children get employed in minor jobs such as assistance to farm labourers in sowing, weeding operations, selling firewood or shepherding for others, etc. 3. Non-provision of physical needs: Another major aspect for drop-out relates to the inability of Dalit parents to comply with the physical needs and requirements of the child. The physical needs include, daily breakfast or meals depending upon the school timings, a pair of clothes and possibly a pair of shoes. 4. Engagement in domestic work: Dalit children seem to be handling very many aspects of the household routine. The responsibility of looking after infants and younger siblings does present a barrier in any child’s way of schooling. If both the parents go out for making a livelihood, it falls to the lot of the unfortunate schooling child to wind up his studies in order to take care of the younger ones. The case of Dalit girls is far more indefensible than that of the boys because they are the first ones to be asked to leave the school, should there arise any need or eventuality at home. The children are made to do the domestic chores at the expense of their school education. II. School and School Related Factors 1. Behaviour of the school teachers: The indifferent attitude of the teachers and ill- treatment meted out by them to the Dalit students, forces many of them to leave school. According to some of the parents, the children are ill-treated, harassed and discriminated against in the schools. There are incidences of beating by the teachers. Dalit students are sometimes asked to sit away from other students. At some places Dalit students have reported to have not permitted to touch the blackboard, chalk or a book handled by the teacher. It is paradoxical that teachers whose hands are supposed to shape the personality of the child in a constructive manner, practice subtle forms of exploitation and harassment. 2. Behaviour of school-mates: Combined with the discriminatory, debasing treatment meted out by the teachers, there have been reports of arrogant and aggressive attitudes of school mates, mostly belonging to the upper castes, towards the Dalit children. In some schools, the most pampered and arrogant caste-Hindu children harass the Dalit children, particularly the new entrants, by pinching, hitting or pulling their hair. At the height of mischief, they break the slates or tear their books to pieces. Could we, then, simply dismiss this as an insignificant features of the school system or consider it seriously as a breeding ground for caste-hatred and rivalries among children? 3. Unproductive school impact: Unproductive school experiences, is another reason attributed to the children’s drop-out, by their parents. The explanation given by Dalit parents is that, the child is learning bad habits and acquiring undesirable behaviour patterns such as telling lies, absconding from school, gambling and smoking. So to control their children’s movements, they are withdrawn from school. 4. Distance, location: Distance and location of schools have also caused drop-out incidence in a few cases. Besides the physical distance, their other obstacles like absence of walkable pathways, existence of drain or pits or similar obstacles which make the schoolward movement of a very young child extremely difficult and sometimes insecure. III. Domestic Existencies 1. Prolonged illness of the child: Prolonged illness of the school-going children also results in their drop-out. Unsound economic condition prevents many of the families from availing proper medical help and they rely on indigenous herbal medicines which often fail to bring relief. 2. Sickness or death in family: Prolonged illness of the bread-winner or any other family member puts out of gear the entire household economy. Schooling of boys as well as girls, is immediately stopped and they are required to attend to the ailing family member and compensate for the loss of earning through engagements in gainful economic activities. Death of the householder is a devastating mishap which has bearing on the schooling of the child. IV. Individual Deficiency 1. Lack of interest in studies: Another major reason for drop-out, is the lack of children’s interest in studies. The child may be less punctual in school attendance and home assignments and be careless about examinations. V. Cultural Factors 1. Beliefs, values, and community reactions: Cultural values and beliefs among the Dalit community sometimes come as hurdles for the proper growth of the children. There is a strong feeling that the girls should not be educated beyond junior basic level as higher education would leave their daughter astray. Some families, superstitions and beliefs of the elders can cause the stoppage of the boy’s education. AGE FACTOR IN DALIT CHILDREN DROP-OUT RATE- Information on the age at which the Dalit child drops-out from the school system is vital because it can enable us to formulate suitable preventive programmes for such cases. Data from various studies suggests that over 72 percent drop-out cases are below 10 years of age. The mean age stands at 9.3 years. This suggests that the moment the Dalit children reach the age of 8-9, or 10 years they withdraw from the schooling system. This stage onwards the usefulness of Dalit children for domestic help and outside activities becomes intensive. The Dalit families begin to view their children as working assets. WHOSE DECISION IN THE FAMILY- The decision about dropping the child from school, is generally the decision of the father, mother or other elderly person from the child’s family and in only 30 percent of the cases, the drop-out child himself is the sole arbiter. UNHAPPY AND DEJECTED- How did the child or the parents feel when the child was dropped out of school? According to the parents estimate, nearly 40 percent of children felt ‘happy’, over 10 percent ‘indifferent’ and around 50 percent ‘unhappy’ immediately after drop-out. As a matter of fact, quite a large number of drop-out cases had no sense of grief over the loss of school education. Were they too young and immature to evaluate their prospects? Did they consider dropping-out an opportunity to escape from frustrating and humiliating experiences in school and at home? We find no answers to these questions. A majority of parents and a fairly number of drop-outs themselves felt anguished and disheartened for the loss following the discontinuation of school studies. THE DROP-OUT IMPACT- It was perceived that withdrawal of a child from the school on a permanent basis might create at least in some cases, some behavioural changes among them. Studies have proved this assumption to be correct. Parents have reported that, after dropping-out from school, children who felt unhappy displayed specific changes in their behaviour and dealings with their parents and other family members, friends and neighbours. Their behaviour immediately after drop-out alternated between over aggressiveness and passive, negative withdrawal. More instances were quoted by a number of other parents as well: Weeping and crying; spoiling food and breaking dishes; abusing parents; avoiding friends and relatives; these and many other behavioural postures were adopted by those children who felt seriously jolted by their drop-out from school. Dropping out of a child is not an isolated instance and it may have repercussions on a wider front. For instance, in case the drop-out child happens to be a sociable person and had leadership qualities, other children in the family or in the neighbourhood might soon follow him. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the drop-out problem as consequential, often times capable of introducing many undesirable trends in the family or locality. DALITS IN HIGHER EDUCATION By its very nature, higher education is elite. Only 6 percent of the relevant age group enrolls in higher education. Most of these are children of politicians, bureaucrats, land-lords, businessmen and the professionals hailing from upper castes and classes. A few years ago a survey was done on the beneficiaries of higher education and it indicated that 80 percent of the students who attend universities came from the top 20 percent of the classes. Why is it so? Apart from the socio-economic aspect these youngsters have an academic history. An “individual” self-image is inculcated in the children of the higher castes right from birth. The values of competition are ingrained right from the cradle. Memory work is encouraged in the study of slokas and sacred texts, even prior to enrollment in schools. Can a child who has been brought up in poverty with low self-esteem, with feelings of inferiority and diffidence ever find it easy to get into the culture of individualism, competition, memory work and a totally alien culture of higher education? Owing to their internalized caste values in the universities and colleges, Dalit students feel inferior. The students from upper caste communities feel superior and treat dalit students in line with the internalized caste values. This is the reason behind many drop-outs among Scheduled Caste students for they find the environment not congenial. Those who survive either pass out with a feeling of inferiority or get co-opted by the higher castes and classes. Who determine the culture of the universities? The caste culture which is prevalent in higher education is the creation of the teachers and administrators in the centers of learning. Consciously or unconsciously they do perpetuate through their own interactions with Dalit students, their internalized caste values, thus posing a threat to the achievement of Dalit students. Thus a Dalit student, besides getting rid of his own internalized self-image of inferiority, pollution, self-rejection, impurity and fear had to encounter teachers and students who too have a hostile attitude towards him. Does one expect them to excel in studies with cast centered attitudes against them? In reality such attitudes sometimes even destroy the little self-image they have had. In India there is a dual system of higher education. Two forms of education namely, higher education with greater specialization and general education with elementary knowledge of as many subjects as possible has been emphasized on.- Higher education with specialization needs high aptitude, high I.Q. and hard labour along with more investment of money. The institutions such as the Birla Institute of Technology Pilani, Indian Institute of Technologies, Indian Institute of Management and others provide higher education with specialization in management, engineering etc. these institutions demand a very high standard of English. Those who have not had their education in English medium schools cannot be expected to compete for these institutions. Given their poor economic condition as a community, Dalits cannot afford sending their children to these schools. Most of these schools are located in the cities and urban centers. Eighty percent of the Dalits live in villages making it practically impossible for them to benefit from these institutions. Whereas general education requires average aptitude, I.Q. and less labour. Illiterate and uneducated Dalit parents are unable to introduce their children to the culture of the elite which the elite educational system represents. They are forced to send their children to village schools where teaching staff and the infrastructure are in poor shape. That is why the Dalit students who aspire for higher education are compelled to join liberal B.A., B.Sc. and B.Com. programmes, which require less hard work and provide less lucrative jobs in the market. A DATA BASED ANALYSIS - A case profile of Jawahar Lal University: The University Grants Commission (U.G.C.), New Delhi had asked all universities and institutes in the country to admit the Scheduled Caste students in tune to the quota of seats reserved for them ,without administering the test criterion of admission on them, so long as their quota of reservation is not filled in. The socio-economic background of the Scheduled Castes: It has been seen that the socio-economic background of the Scheduled Caste students, pursuing higher education varies in the individual cases contrary to a general impression that such education, being more expensive, draws students only from the families of upper class and higher income. However, the Scheduled Caste students hailing even from poor socio-economic background can afford higher education, owing to the strategy of educational development adopted by the government. Here, in the case of their socio-economic background I shall put my focus on their rural urban background, occupation and income of fathers and their previous educational background. Total number of Scheduled Caste students admitted at the graduation level and at the post-graduation level in the in the various schools of the university during 1978-82 were 104 and 100 respectively. Out of this 82 SC students hailed from rural and 22 from urban areas. In the same way majority of the SC students admitted to the M.Phil/Ph.D. programmes in the school came from rural areas. The Scheduled Caste students who were admitted in the University in the year 1978-82, 67 percent of them at the graduation level and 47.7 percent of them at the post-graduation level came from a moderate background and none of the Scheduled Caste students belonged to the business to the business family. 26 students from the Scheduled Castes belonged to labour class families. As for the income position, 60 percent of the Scheduled Caste students admitted at the graduation level hailed from families with a monthly income of less than Rs. 500. More than 50 percent of the Scheduled Caste students, admitted at the post-graduate level in the University belonged to the income group of those earning over Rs. 500 per month. Variation ranges from absolutely poor economic position to a ‘rich’ position as in quite a few cases their fathers or guardians have drawn their monthly emoluments over Rs. 2000 or so. The information on the family’s monthly income had been obtained from the application forms that were filled during the time of admission. As the admission policy of the University had provided in the past some benefits to the students coming from poor economic background, it may be possible that the students might have not revealed their father’s actual income. Thus, it is evident that there can’t be found uniform socio-economic background of the Scheduled Caste students admitted in institutions for higher education in general and in J.N.U. in particular. In the way variation also exists in the education of other members in their family. It has been recorded that in majority of the cases the SC students hail from the families where other members, especially the younger ones, are educated up to a certain level. Even structure of their families varies as in many cases number of dependents on parents or guardians is not more than five. In cases of the students hailing from illiterate families other members do realize the relevance of formal education imparted in an institution like J.N.U. which provides fairly good deal of material and other facilities to the students. The impact of Socio-cultural Variants in Educational Performance: Patterns of evaluation of performance of their students differ in different institutions of higher education. . The variants discussed above affect representation and latter educational performance of the SC students in the university. To be more precise, how and to what extent these affect them can be seen in terms of completed the programme of studies which they had joined and if yes, with what levels of performance. A way of measuring educational performance of the students is to see whether they complete the programme successfully. A portion of these students in the university had successfully completed in time the programmes of their study. In a few cases they had taken a little extra time in completing the programmes of their study but some were the cases among the general students also. The reasons for could not be ascertained but this obviously would have been caused by bath academic and non-academic factors. The university extents opportunity to the students to improve their performance (grades) in subsequent attempts available in the stretch of two extra semesters. It was seen that 71 of the SC students could complete the course and the rest 33 could not. Finally the levels of educational performance of the SC students have been measured on the basis of cumulative grade points average (CGPA) obtained by them towards the end of completing their programme of study. As students take a little more time to get adjusted in the new socio-educational set up and this certainly causes an adverse impact on their educational performance at least in the beginning of the programme, so it was thought to record their semester-wise performance to find out gradual improvement in that. Rise and decline in their performance in various semesters could also be witnessed. The CGPA of the graduate students was looked at and found that it ranged from B to B+(69 students) (50-59% of marks) and placed them in high second class in the merit. There were quite a few students who had obtained B-(18 students) (40-49% of marks) and some even A- to A (8 students) (above 60%). Their educational performance could not be compared at the exact and precise level with that of the general students because of the unavailability of data pertaining to students of the latter category. As it has been mentioned earlier that the Scheduled Caste students by and large, do not perform well in higher education owing to social cultural constraints they face with, both at the levels of their family and the educational institution they join. This is caused by their less orientation to study and apathetic sometimes prejudicial attitudes of the teachers and students. The question arises, as to how to resolve this problem. The answer to this question is relevant because this may help the SC students to improve their performance in higher education and to build a healthy educational system in the country. For this the students are required to work hard in their studies despite the various socio-structural constraints encountered by them. As for the teachers, they only find the SC students academically inferior but fail to appreciate their poor socio-economic status and their prior training deficiency. Therefore, instead of rejecting their problems completely, the teachers need to empathize with them and help them in removing their educational deficiency. This, of course, is a time consuming process and requires more patience on part of both the teachers and the students. A case profile of IITs. In this pamphlet, we bring out the plights of the Dalits and the various harassments they face in one of the premier educational institute in India- The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were established in 1959 for the purpose of providing higher technological education of world standards to the poor downtrodden students, who couldn't afford to study abroad. The institutes are in the cities of Bombay, Delhi, Guwhati, Kanpur, Kharaghpur, and Madras. Indian Institutes of Technology are declared under the Parliament of India (Act 59 of 1961) as Institutes of National Importance. These six institutes totally get an annual grant of Rs.9000 crores from the Indian Government (approx. US $ 2000 million), yet sadly these funds are not utilized for the benefit of the downtrodden. Even these top institutes have not been spared from the disaster of the caste system. The institute at present does not implement the reservation policy for the Dalits. The reason for this vindictive flouting of social justice norms is the Brahmin domination in the administration and teaching at the institute. Also, although Muslims form about 15% of the Indian population there is not a single Muslim faculty member in the Institute. There are only a handful of Christian faculty members. . The selection to the B.Tech degree is based on an All India Level Entrance test called the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination), which is held commonly for the 6 IITs. Discrimination against the Dalits begins at the stage of applying itself. The Dalit students are issued colored application forms whereas other students are always given white colored forms. This year the application forms given to Dalit students were pink in color and last year it was green. This is a shocking case of modern day apartheid, and a greater shock is that the answer sheets of Dalit students are also colored. This year (2001), 537 students were selected to join B.Tech in IIT Madras. Of these 503 students belong to the general category and only 34 students belong to the Dalit community. Instead of 22.5% reservation eligible to Dalits only 6.3% is being filled up. If reservation is properly implemented there should be 121 Dalit students in B.Tech course. Only a handful of the Dalit students who clear the Joint Entrance Exam are allowed to join the Institute and some of them are forced to take a one year training called Preparatory Course and they are taught school portions once more. The institute then conducts internal exams, and a few of them are selected to join the institute & are made a year junior to upper caste classmates Conducting of Preparatory Courses only to Dalit students is violative of Right to Equality and is a highly discriminatory practice. Dalit students selected for the B.Tech are continuously harassed & they are wantonly failed in courses by Brahmin faculty. This is facilitated because student's caste is mentioned in the roll call given to Faculty members. Very few Dalit students are allowed to complete their B.Tech degree and many discontinue. Dalit students are entirely denied admissions to other programs like M.Tech, M.S. & Ph.D. In the Department of Mathematics, IIT Madras, till 1998 no Dalit student had been selected for the Ph.D. program. Despite appearing twice for interview a Dalit student Mr.S.R.Kannan was not selected. For selecting him Dr. (Mrs.) Vasantha Kandasamy, an Associate Professor of the Department had to appeal to various social justice forums to see that he was selected. Till date he is yet to be allotted an office room in the Mathematics Department. Dr. Vasantha fought for the Dalit scholar, so she is harassed in all possible ways. She was selected as Associate Professor in 1996, but she is denied her right salary. Despite being a highly qualified mathematician having published over 350 research papers in journals & conferences, she is discriminated because she is espousing the cause of Dalit education. She has guided 11 students for their doctoral program - Ph.D. In an effort to put a stop-gap to the Dalit movement the IIT Madras administration is victimizing Dr. Vasantha. She has sent over 62 letters of appeal to the Indian Government to do justice but no action has been taken. So, Dr. Vasantha will be directly approaching the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Over 200 cases are pending in Honorable Courts in Madras against Director, IIT Madras, for the past five years & some of these cases are regarding denial of reservation for Dalits. CONCLUSION If Dalits have to succeed in education, it is essential that they must bring about a “counter-culture”. Concretely it would mean that the entire Dalit population should be made : § Aware of the Dalit status into which they were forced § Aware that their assigned inferior status was imposed on them by a humanly created system § Help them to reject the mythical Brahminical order which has perpetrated captivity. Finding a “counter-culture” is as important as discarding the existing one. It may be even necessary at the phase of transition to have exclusive centers of higher learning for Dalits where they could learn in a spirit of fellowship, exchange knowledge through cooperative learning, exhibit their folk culture and value it, thus establishing communities of solidarity for social exchange. SCs have not been benefited with reservation policies, especially in internalizing the egalitarian values of their culture. Exclusive schools of their own can provide a tremendous impetus for Dalit students to evolve an educational system of their own at least at the phase of transition. Let me conclude with the words of Ambedkar, the value of higher education for Dalits : “ Coming as I do from the lowest order of the Hindu society, I know that what is the value of education. The problem of raising the lower order is deemed to be economic. This is a great mistake, the problem of raising the lower prudery in India is not to feed them, to clothe them and make them serve the higher order as in the ancient ideal of this country. The problem of the lower order is to remove from them the inferiority complex which has stunted their growth and made them slaves to others, to create in them consciousness of the significance of their lives for themselves and for the country, of which they have been cruelly robbed by the existing social order. Nothing can achieve this except the spread of higher education. This is my opinion in the panacea of our social troubles”. LIST OF REFERENCES 1. Mendelsohn, O. and Vicziany, M. (2000). The Untouchables. New Delhi: Foundation Books. 2. Paswan, S. and Jaideva, P. (2002). Encyclopedia of Dalits in India. (vol.11) Delhi: Kalpaz Publications. 3. Paswan, S. and Jaideva, P. (2002). Encyclopedia of Dalits in India. (vol.1) Delhi: Kalpaz Publications. 4. Naik, J.P. and Nurullah, S. (1945). A Students’ History of Education in India 1800-1973. New Delhi: Macmillan India Limited. 5. Roy, R. and Singh, V.B. (1987). A Study of Harijan Elites. Delhi: Discovery Publishing House. 6. Viswanath, L. (1993). Social Mobility Among Scheduled Caste Women in India. New Delhi: Uppal Publishing House. 7. Agrawal, S.P. and Aggarwal, J.C. (1991). Educational and Social Uplift of Backward Classes. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. 8. Clarke, S. (1999). Dalits and Christianity. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 9. John, C.B. (1999). Religion and Dalit Liberation. New Delhi. 10. Gomango, G. Constitutional Provisions for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. New Delhi: Himalaya Publishing House. 11. Tripahty, R.B. Dalits: A Subhuman Society. New Delhi: Ashish Publishing House. 12. Internet- www.dalits.org 13. Internet- www.pucl.org/main.shtml 14. Internet- www.indiatogether.org/index.htm 15. Internet- www.washington-report.org 16. Internet- www.ambedkar.org 17. Internet- www.hinduonnet.com From monica at sarai.net Sat Jan 4 22:25:36 2003 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 22:25:36 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thanda matlab coca cola - part 2 Message-ID: Dear all This is from another list, but anjali, you did say pass it on! I couldnt resist. Moreover, this is a homage to Bhrigu;s posting many months ago of the same name! best Monica Water versus Coke! We all know that water is important but I've never seen it written down like this before. 1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half world population) 2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. 3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%. 4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study. 5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue. 6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers. 7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page. 8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. The Question: Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day? -COKE INFORMATION- 1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident. 2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days. 3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China. 4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminium foil dipped in Coca-Cola. 5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion. 6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes. 7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminium foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy. 8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield. For Your Information 1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis. 2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials 3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years! NOW THE QUESTION IS, WOULD YOU LIKE A GLASS OF WATER OR COKE? -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From shahiddatawala at yahoo.com Sun Jan 5 23:37:09 2003 From: shahiddatawala at yahoo.com (shahid datawala) Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 10:07:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] A Photographic Documentation of Cinema Halls and Cinema-Going Subcultures in Delhi Message-ID: <20030105180709.92550.qmail@web11004.mail.yahoo.com> Hello to all and a Happy New Year! "A Photographic Documentation of Cinema Halls and Cinema-Going Subcultures in Delhi" My study on this subject is inspired by the pure visual treat of cinema hall spaces and the changing culture which envelopes itself around it. Cinema halls have changed greatly in the past decade. This is largely due to new and improved development in the entertainment media. The newly developed ambience of the cinema complex has at the same time become rather more significant in the modern context. Developments such as the VCR, VCD and DVD have successively altered the popular view of visual entertainment. Due to this reason cinema halls find it increasingly difficult to attract viewers. Cinema hall owners have responded to this challenge by attempting to improve the ambience in which films are presented. Nowadays going out to see a film is more like a social event - in some ways comparable to attending an opera performance. People now often visit a movie complex as much in order to be seen as to actually see the film which attracts them. The purpose of this research project would be to document these developments through the photographic medium. For example documentation of existing cinema buildings and articles associated with the industry. Discovering spaces within spaces is something in which I am particularly interested. I would especially focus upon people's interaction with and within these spaces. This exploration would in many situations be an essentially intuitive process. Hoardings create an atmosphere. People interacting with hoardings create a story. It would be of particular interest to search out and document cinema halls where handpainted hoardings are as yet still in general use. Further to this, I would photographically compare examples of cinema hoardings produced by the two different techniques - i.e., handpainted and digitally printed. This project would also document cinema halls possessing an old-world charm which in some cases has an historical relevance in the modern developmental context. While this may not be immediately apparent to the average cinema-goer, it is to be hoped that such documentation would contribute to a wider appreciation of these architectural assets. Another significant objective would be to document cinema halls in and around Delhi, focusing on the quite considerable number as yet unknown to the great majority of viewers. Of further interest are the many cinema halls presently lying closed, and the underlying reasons for this situation so far as can be photographically documented. I would also like to include where possible details of when these cinema halls were built, and by whom. Eg., some cinemas were(and in some cases still are) owned by well-known figures in India's cinematography community. Quite a few of these early cinema halls have already been permanently closed down. Some struggle to survive by scextremelytrememly poor quality films of ostpornographicnograhic content. Supplementary to my personal documentation of these cinema halls, I would wherever possible try to locate early materials relating to them. Cinema halls are in many cases geographical definitive markers. For example 'Savitri' -- referring to the no longer extant Savitri cinema in South Delhi -- is a commonly recognized spacial reference. My work every month will focus on various aspects of cinema halls as I have stated above. Initially I will photograph most of the cinema halls in Delhi, maintaining a diary alongside. I will then choose certain specialities about them and further document it in much detail. My photographic study will largely be in the black and white medium. Thanks, Shahid Datawala __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From yazadjal at vsnl.net Mon Jan 6 11:54:49 2003 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 11:54:49 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thanda matlab coca cola - part 2 References: Message-ID: <014901c2b54d$12af9000$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> Very interesting, just a few questions. 1. What is the source of the data? "75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated" is a major statement to make. Is there research to back it up? Maybe a citation would help. 2. I hold no brief for the Coca-Cola Company. But why single out Coke? Do Pepsi / Thums Up etc not fall in the same category? Are they devoid of all the fantastic "benefits" Coke gives us? What about non-cola aerated drinks like Limca / Fanta / 7 Up etc? What about non-aerated soft drinks like Rasna? On a closer reading this sounds like a smear campaign against Coke. Maybe the focus should be on the generic category, or on _all_ brands within the category. If only Coke and not say Pepsi has all these harmful effects, then perhaps one should state that. These are very serious statements. I would like to know more about the research on which it is based. -yazad > Water versus Coke! > > We all know that water is important but I've never seen it written > down like this before. From menso at r4k.net Mon Jan 6 14:17:55 2003 From: menso at r4k.net (Menso Heus) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 09:47:55 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Thanda matlab coca cola - part 2 In-Reply-To: <014901c2b54d$12af9000$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> References: <014901c2b54d$12af9000$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> Message-ID: <20030106084755.GV31516@r4k.net> On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 11:54:49AM +0530, Yazad Jal wrote: > Very interesting, just a few questions. > > 1. What is the source of the data? "75% of Americans are chronically > dehydrated" is a major statement to make. Is there research to back it up? > Maybe a citation would help. > > 2. I hold no brief for the Coca-Cola Company. But why single out Coke? Do > Pepsi / Thums Up etc not fall in the same category? Are they devoid of all > the fantastic "benefits" Coke gives us? What about non-cola aerated drinks > like Limca / Fanta / 7 Up etc? What about non-aerated soft drinks like > Rasna? On a closer reading this sounds like a smear campaign against Coke. > Maybe the focus should be on the generic category, or on _all_ brands within > the category. If only Coke and not say Pepsi has all these harmful effects, > then perhaps one should state that. > > These are very serious statements. I would like to know more about the > research on which it is based. It isn't based on any research, but on urban legends. A simple query in Google pops up the following 'Coke Lore' page with these specific examples and the following explanation: That you can cook and clean with Coke is relatively meaningless from a safety standpoint -- you can use a wide array of common household substances (including water) for the same purposes; that doesn't necessarily make them dangerous. The fact is that all carbonated soft drinks contain carbonic acid, which is moderately useful for tasks such as removing stains and dissolving rust deposits (although plain soda water is much better for such purposes than Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, as it doesn't leave a sticky sugar residue behind). Carbonic acid is relatively weak, however, and people have been drinking carbonated water for many years with no detrimental effects. The rest of the claims offered here are, in a word, stupid. Coca-Cola does contain small amounts of citric acid (from the orange, lemon, and lime oils in its formula) and phosphoric acid. However, all the insinuations about the dangers these acids might pose to people who drink Coca-Cola ignore a simple concept familiar to any first-year chemistry student: concentration. Coca-Cola contains less citric acid than orange juice does, and the concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is far too small (a mere 11 to 13 grams per gallon of syrup, or about 0.20 to 0.30 per cent of the total formula) to cause harm. The only people who proffer the ridiculous statements that Coca-Cola will dissolve a steak, a tooth, or a nail in a day or two are people who have never actually tried any of these things, because they just don't happen. (Anyone who conducts these experiments will find himself at the end of two days with a whole tooth, a whole nail, and one very soggy t-bone.) The next time you're stopped by a highway patrolman, try asking him if he's ever cleaned blood stains off a highway with Coca-Cola. If you're lucky, by the time he stops laughing he'll have forgotten about the citation he was going to give you. This and other myths on Coke can be found here: http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/ bye, Menso -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "God is dead" - Nietzsche "Nietzsche is dead" - God -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From monica at sarai.net Mon Jan 6 14:26:12 2003 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 14:26:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thanda matlab coca cola - part 2 In-Reply-To: <014901c2b54d$12af9000$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> References: <014901c2b54d$12af9000$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> Message-ID: You ask very pertinent questions Yazad. I agree that its unfair to single out a certain commodity when everything else might work on similar principles, but i think that even if part of the facts in this email were true, its an interesting comment on a general situation where a) the normalizing of a commodity, and the moral economy that is deployed to make some other commodities (alcohol, soft drugs, etc) "wrong" and b) the parallels that can be imagined with other industries. Frankly I forwarded it for a laugh, but its interesting to think further. best M At 11:54 +0530 06/01/03, Yazad Jal wrote: >Very interesting, just a few questions. > >1. What is the source of the data? "75% of Americans are chronically >dehydrated" is a major statement to make. Is there research to back it up? >Maybe a citation would help. > >2. I hold no brief for the Coca-Cola Company. But why single out Coke? Do >Pepsi / Thums Up etc not fall in the same category? Are they devoid of all >the fantastic "benefits" Coke gives us? What about non-cola aerated drinks >like Limca / Fanta / 7 Up etc? What about non-aerated soft drinks like >Rasna? On a closer reading this sounds like a smear campaign against Coke. >Maybe the focus should be on the generic category, or on _all_ brands within >the category. If only Coke and not say Pepsi has all these harmful effects, >then perhaps one should state that. > >These are very serious statements. I would like to know more about the >research on which it is based. > >-yazad > >> Water versus Coke! >> >> We all know that water is important but I've never seen it written >> down like this before. > > > > >_________________________________________ >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: -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From yazadjal at vsnl.net Mon Jan 6 18:46:56 2003 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 18:46:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thanda matlab coca cola - part 2 References: <014901c2b54d$12af9000$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> <20030106084755.GV31516@r4k.net> Message-ID: <03c601c2b586$4ae10060$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> thanks a lot. the urba legends site is super! and they have done their homework. the research citations at the bottom of the articles are there for all to check up. so the original "joke" email turns out to be nothing more than coke-bashing. -yazad > > It isn't based on any research, but on urban legends. A simple query in > Google pops up the following 'Coke Lore' page with these specific examples > and the following explanation: > > That you can cook and clean with Coke is relatively meaningless from a safety standpoint -- > you can use a wide array of common household substances (including water) for the same > purposes; that doesn't necessarily make them dangerous. The fact is that all carbonated soft > drinks contain carbonic acid, which is moderately useful for tasks such as removing stains and > dissolving rust deposits (although plain soda water is much better for such purposes than > Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, as it doesn't leave a sticky sugar residue behind). Carbonic > acid is relatively weak, however, and people have been drinking carbonated water for many > years with no detrimental effects. > The rest of the claims offered here are, in a word, stupid. Coca-Cola does contain small > amounts of citric acid (from the orange, lemon, and lime oils in its formula) and phosphoric > acid. However, all the insinuations about the dangers these acids might pose to people who > drink Coca-Cola ignore a simple concept familiar to any first-year chemistry student: > concentration. Coca-Cola contains less citric acid than orange juice does, and the > concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is far too small (a mere 11 to 13 grams per gallon of > syrup, or about 0.20 to 0.30 per cent of the total formula) to cause harm. The only people who > proffer the ridiculous statements that Coca-Cola will dissolve a steak, a tooth, or a nail in > a day or two are people who have never actually tried any of these things, because they just > don't happen. (Anyone who conducts these experiments will find himself at the end of two days > with a whole tooth, a whole nail, and one very soggy t-bone.) > The next time you're stopped by a highway patrolman, try asking him if he's ever cleaned blood > stains off a highway with Coca-Cola. If you're lucky, by the time he stops laughing he'll have > forgotten about the citation he was going to give you. > > > This and other myths on Coke can be found here: > http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/ > > > bye, > > Menso > > -- > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > "God is dead" - Nietzsche > "Nietzsche is dead" - God > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > _________________________________________ > 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 supreet at sdf.lonestar.org Mon Jan 6 19:04:35 2003 From: supreet at sdf.lonestar.org (Supreet Sethi) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 13:34:35 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Thanda matlab coca cola - part 2 In-Reply-To: <20030106084755.GV31516@r4k.net> References: <014901c2b54d$12af9000$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> <20030106084755.GV31516@r4k.net> Message-ID: <20030106133435.GA19444@SDF.LONESTAR.ORG> As pointed by the first mail drinks containing carbonic acid effects bone formation. Calcium phosphate compound is the form in which we consume calcium required for formation and upkeep of bone structure. Reacting with phosphate form carbonic acid forms Calcium carbonate (hydrate) which AFAIK cannot be assimilated by enzymes. Thus regular consumption of soft drinks can be harmful. etc and supreet On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 09:47:55AM +0100, Menso Heus wrote: > On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 11:54:49AM +0530, Yazad Jal wrote: > > Very interesting, just a few questions. > > > > 1. What is the source of the data? "75% of Americans are chronically > > dehydrated" is a major statement to make. Is there research to back it up? > > Maybe a citation would help. > > > > 2. I hold no brief for the Coca-Cola Company. But why single out Coke? Do > > Pepsi / Thums Up etc not fall in the same category? Are they devoid of all > > the fantastic "benefits" Coke gives us? What about non-cola aerated drinks > > like Limca / Fanta / 7 Up etc? What about non-aerated soft drinks like > > Rasna? On a closer reading this sounds like a smear campaign against Coke. > > Maybe the focus should be on the generic category, or on _all_ brands within > > the category. If only Coke and not say Pepsi has all these harmful effects, > > then perhaps one should state that. > > > > These are very serious statements. I would like to know more about the > > research on which it is based. > > It isn't based on any research, but on urban legends. A simple query in > Google pops up the following 'Coke Lore' page with these specific examples > and the following explanation: > > That you can cook and clean with Coke is relatively meaningless from a safety standpoint -- > you can use a wide array of common household substances (including water) for the same > purposes; that doesn't necessarily make them dangerous. The fact is that all carbonated soft > drinks contain carbonic acid, which is moderately useful for tasks such as removing stains and > dissolving rust deposits (although plain soda water is much better for such purposes than > Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, as it doesn't leave a sticky sugar residue behind). Carbonic > acid is relatively weak, however, and people have been drinking carbonated water for many > years with no detrimental effects. > The rest of the claims offered here are, in a word, stupid. Coca-Cola does contain small > amounts of citric acid (from the orange, lemon, and lime oils in its formula) and phosphoric > acid. However, all the insinuations about the dangers these acids might pose to people who > drink Coca-Cola ignore a simple concept familiar to any first-year chemistry student: > concentration. Coca-Cola contains less citric acid than orange juice does, and the > concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is far too small (a mere 11 to 13 grams per gallon of > syrup, or about 0.20 to 0.30 per cent of the total formula) to cause harm. The only people who > proffer the ridiculous statements that Coca-Cola will dissolve a steak, a tooth, or a nail in > a day or two are people who have never actually tried any of these things, because they just > don't happen. (Anyone who conducts these experiments will find himself at the end of two days > with a whole tooth, a whole nail, and one very soggy t-bone.) > The next time you're stopped by a highway patrolman, try asking him if he's ever cleaned blood > stains off a highway with Coca-Cola. If you're lucky, by the time he stops laughing he'll have > forgotten about the citation he was going to give you. > > > This and other myths on Coke can be found here: > http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/ > > > bye, > > Menso > > -- > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > "God is dead" - Nietzsche > "Nietzsche is dead" - God > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > _________________________________________ > 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: -- supreet at sdf.lonestar.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org From sam at media.com.au Tue Jan 7 06:14:27 2003 From: sam at media.com.au (sam de silva) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 11:44:27 +1100 Subject: [Reader-list] the number 500 Message-ID: <1041900267.3e1a22ebcbf1d@webmail.myspinach.org> hey sorry to post this sort of thing but i wonder if anyone can assist with my query :) i am exploring the whole 'bhopal - rtmark - thing - money for thing - justice for bhopal victims - fight freedom of speach' thing and noticed on one of the 'infoparady' sites - http://www.mad-dow-disease.com/ at the bottom of the home page is this tag: "This parody web site is brought to you by Greenpeace and the letters B-H-O-P-A- L and the number 500 (plenty good for an Indian)." i am just wanting to know if the number 500 is infact 'plenty good for an indian' and if so, why is it so? many thanks, sam :) ps. also, i'd like to know - are there any big campaigns happening out of india about the situation with bhopal and the recent dow position... i seem to be able to find only references at the infoparady sites and greenpeace... From ravig at del6.vsnl.net.in Tue Jan 7 06:58:28 2003 From: ravig at del6.vsnl.net.in (Ravi Agarwal) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 06:58:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the number 500 References: <1041900267.3e1a22ebcbf1d@webmail.myspinach.org> Message-ID: <006b01c2b5ec$360a01d0$29ec41db@Ravicomputer> Dear Sam, The Bhopal campaign for Justice has been carried out for the past 18 years by local groups. Greenpeace has entered the scene only since 2000. I think the reason you see only them is since they are the most resourceful, they have the capacity to be more visible on website type of interfaces.The main leaders on the ground are Satinath Sarangi (Sathyu), Jabbar, and Rashida Bi. Sathyu has been running a holistic healing clinic since I think as early as 1986 in Bhopal for Bhopal survivors. Outside Bhopal there are some key Bhopal support groups including a Fact Finding Mission which was set up in 2000 for a multi discipline examination. I was involved in the Environmental study. The Mission was coordinated by Deendaylan of The Other Media. The past 18 years has been a history of struggle at local, national and international levels by the local groups. The current push is against DOW Chemicals which has taken over Union Carbide worldwide, but has refused to take on the liability for Bhopal cleanup at he heavily contaminated factory site. The campaign is not international and growing in strength. Sathyu's email is.... Deendayalan: The Other Media admin at del3.vsnl.net.in Ravi Agarwal ----- Original Message ----- From: "sam de silva" To: Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 6:14 AM Subject: [Reader-list] the number 500 hey sorry to post this sort of thing but i wonder if anyone can assist with my query :) i am exploring the whole 'bhopal - rtmark - thing - money for thing - justice for bhopal victims - fight freedom of speach' thing and noticed on one of the 'infoparady' sites - http://www.mad-dow-disease.com/ at the bottom of the home page is this tag: "This parody web site is brought to you by Greenpeace and the letters B-H-O-P-A- L and the number 500 (plenty good for an Indian)." i am just wanting to know if the number 500 is infact 'plenty good for an indian' and if so, why is it so? many thanks, sam :) ps. also, i'd like to know - are there any big campaigns happening out of india about the situation with bhopal and the recent dow position... i seem to be able to find only references at the infoparady sites and greenpeace... _________________________________________ 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 mir_taqi_mir at hotmail.com Tue Jan 7 00:09:18 2003 From: mir_taqi_mir at hotmail.com (mir_taqi_mir at hotmail.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 00:09:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Article from Outlookindia.com Message-ID: _____ Omportant essay _____ Going Home This account of my visit to my homeland last year is an attempt to express the pain, the bitterness and the anger I feel for being an Indian, a Kashmiri and a Kashmiri in exile at a time when the memory of another minority in another border state of India recently undergoing a more brutal, a more heinous 'pogrom' is still fresh. Ajay Raina "If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." Friedrich Nietzsche When I talk to my KP [Kashmiri Pandit] friends about reconciliation and hope in Kashmir or even about atrocities committed upon the innocents in Gujarat, I am mostly shaken by the response. After so many years their anger and bitterness and hatred towards Muslims remains: "Gujarat and Kashmir represent two faces of the same coin. When Pandits were killed and thrown out of Kashmir, no one in India gave a damn. Now Muslims were butchered in Gujarat, and no one in India gave a damn. Yet there are differences between the situation with Pandits and hapless Muslim victims in Gujarat - not in what happened, but in the manner how the social conscience in India reacted. "Very few humanists in India came to the aid of KPs. No one linked militant Islam to growing fundamentalism in the National Conference, and almost no one blamed the State government for its ineptitude or demanded the CM should be declared a criminal. "Gujarat, on the other hand, has become the hollowed ground for Indian humanists, who are eager to link berserk Hindus to the party in power, want the CM's head on a platter and see the "dubious hand" of the Center in the tragedy. "In the end, however, Indian traditions of fate, indifference, passivity and burdens of day-to-day living have again triumphed in keeping the silent majority silent, whereas Hindu and Muslim criminals and humanists keep busy dispensing justice by tools of their trades." A Kashmiri Pandit. For more than a year now, I have found myself unable to express in words the desolation, the desperation, the hopelessness and the living death of Kashmir which I was witness to when I was last there. This account of my visit to my homeland last year is an attempt to express the pain, the bitterness and the anger I feel for being an Indian, a Kashmiri and a Kashmiri in exile at a time when the memory of another minority in another border state of India recently undergoing a more brutal, a more heinous ‘pogrom’ is still fresh. Back In Srinagar At the top end corner of the famous Lal Chowk of Srinagar -- named after the Moscow’s famous Red Square -- stands Hotel Neelam, strategically placed in the heart of Srinagar at the tri-junction of its most active thoroughfare. Looking straight ahead through the shattered glass panes of the hotel you will see the clock tower that never ever showed the correct time right from the day it came to be installed there after a fanfare inauguration by the Sher-e-Kashmir himself. Beyond the clock tower is the Residency road of the British Imperial times. This road was later named Shahid Sherwani Road after the martyr who single-handedly stopped the Pakistani tribal raiders from reaching Srinagar in 1948 for which he paid by his life – a tortuous and agonizing death; he was nailed to a cross. The road was later, re-named its original name. After 1990, every other known and unknown landmark of Srinagar that even remotely suggested of Kashmir’s association with Independent India was re-named or not re-re-named at all. To the left of Hotel Neelam are the now completely gutted Palladium Cinema and Hotel Lalla Rukh and beyond to Maisuma, Gow Kadal to Haba Kadal to Fateh Kadal and the infamous Downtown. To its right is the road that leads to the Amira Kadal, the first of the seven bridges of the ancient Srinagar city. The Srinagar city, at all times of the day wears a look of desolation and permanent mourning. After dark it is frightening. To a poet who died before me A patrol is stationed on the bridge and a car hoots like a cuckoo. Agha Shahid Ali Inside Hotel Neelam, one sad evening on a cold December day, an old man in his mid seventies was warming himself beside a bukhari along with another young man. We were the only three guests in the restaurant of the hotel that late evening. The streets had already emptied out. There was no electricity, which is usual in Srinagar’s winters, because the waters freeze and there is not enough of it left to run the power plants. The locals, however, believe that most of the electricity generated in Kashmir is sold off to the neighbouring states in the plains of India, as part payment of unresolved debts of past. I was in Srinagar for the first time ever after the events of 1990. I was scared because, it was the first night of my stay in Srinagar and I was alone. The old man asked me for a cigarette which I helpfully proffered. Before long, the old man started getting interested in me -- he asked me where I was from, why I was in Srinagar and last of all he asked me my name I told him my name was Ajay Kumar and then I added Raina to it as a afterthought. I was not really sure than, if I could announce my identity to any unknown person in Srinagar so soon; an identity that did not matter to me elsewhere, but in Srinagar, could have been a matter of life and death to me at anytime in the past 12 years. He asked me my father's name and I told him I do not know if it was just the smoke of the Bukhari, but I saw a film of cloud come over his eyes, a mist of certain sadness, a tinge of remorse perhaps? He said he used to know my father well; they had been professional colleagues till the time he had to leave... we got talking and he told me of an incident more than 40 years old. "It was the Autumn of 1958 I was with a group of friends, having tea in this same restaurant, about the same hour as now, the hour of the evening news bulletins from Radio Kashmir -- as All India Radio is known in Kashmir. The news announced the release of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah from one of his numerous incarcerations. There was an instantaneous jubilation all around. "The shopkeepers downed their shutters and came out on the road and the people walking back home from office, old and young, all made up an impromptu procession that started from Lal Chowk and wended its euphoric way down the residency road, past hotel Lalla Rukh, past Biscoe school, past Partap Park towards Regal Chowk. "It was a huge procession of people carrying lit candles, with thanksgiving songs on their lips. It was a huge mass of euphoria that turned into a mass frenzy in no time. At the Regal Chowk, someone from among the crowd, pointing to a house, started uttering the choicest Kashmiri abuses "In no time; a man (one of the cabinet minister or the party official - I don’t clearly remember which it was - of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad’s then government) was dragged down from his apartment and roundly abused and beaten up by the mob. "With the light of the lit candles in their hands, the mob set that badly mauled and almost lifeless man to a blaze. Over his burning body, writhing in death throes, they danced and they sang songs of thanksgiving to the God for Sher-e-Kashmir’s release. "I was watching this gory celebration from the side pavement on Residency road near Regal Chowk. An old frightened man, a Kashmiri Pandit with his typical headdress and ‘tilak’ on his forehead, nudged me and asked me if I had a pen and some paper. I fished the same from my pocket and gave it to him He wrote something on the paper and returned it to me with an urging, that I must preserve the paper and remember this mad moment On the paper was written, "'I may not be there when the same sight will repeat before your eyes, sometime in the near future. These very people who are singing the praises of their Sher-e-Kashmir today, will one day burn his effigy on these very streets of Srinagar. The person they revile now will in turn be visited at his grave with flowers by the same men.' "In 1990, I saw the prediction of that Pandit come true. In the euphoria of ‘azadi’ and mass frenzy, the people of Kashmir, who so revered their Sher-e-Kashmir, actually wanted to dig up the very bones of their very dear leader from his mausoleum. "The grave of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, to this day remains guarded 24 hours of day and night by a posse of heavily armed security man. His son rules Kashmir now. [This conversation, you'd recall took place last year, before the October 2002 elections -- Ed] He will in his own time anoint his own son as heir-apparent of Kashmir, in the same imperial fashion of Indian Maharajas, the way Sheikh Abdullah did more than 20 years ago when there was wide spread jubilation on the streets of Srinagar. On the other hand, the memory of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the Chief Minister replacement of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953 remains unsullied " "At that time, in 1990, in the spirit of the Old Pandits prediction, I had made my very own prediction about the future of Kashmir: " 'These very people who have brought our land and the Pandits of Kashmir to their present misery will one day turn upon each other and tear each other apart.’ "This, my friend," he concluded, "is the entire story of what has happened to Kashmir in the last 12 years since Kashmiri Pandits left because of a forced exodus." I never met him again after that but subsequently, I have come to know, and read and hear that during those initial moments of euphoria in 1990, the same kinds of forebodings and apprehensions had occurred to many older generation Kashmiris about the future of Kashmir. The waters of the many sacred springs and revered religious shrines of Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims had turned dark or had begun to overflow. The forebodings of imminent catastrophe in Kashmir are too numerous to recall, but magnitude of death and destruction that has visited upon Kashmir in the past decade, has permanently scarred the landscape of the valley and the psyche of its people within Kashmir and of those in exile in the plains of India. In 1990, the Militants of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Hizbul Mujahideen dealt my sense of self and my identity as an Indian a humiliatingly serious blow. 12 years since, it is still hard for any of the people who belong to my community to consider going back home. When we cried for our people then - some shot in the head with a single bullet, some tortured to death, some hanged, some sawed off into a hundred body parts and some gang-raped to death, and when we cried for our homes, farms, orchards and a heritage of traditions and beliefs left behind - we were graciously enough provided ‘tents’ and a ‘migrant’ status within our own country, so we could be left on our own to wipe our tears and pick up the threads of life in exile. Nobody spoke up for us then, and not enough. The wounds of ‘forced exile’ of an entire community of Kashmiri Pandits have begun to fester and bleed again after the events of Godhra and Gujarat. My heart cries out for them but the tears have long dried up. How can I even defend what I have become? But yes, Gujarat affects me too. It affects me enough to remind me of my own secondary status as an ‘exile’ in my own country. When I saw the images of death and destruction and read about the horror tales from Gujarat, I only saw annihilation of my race in Kashmir re-re-revisited upon another hapless community of people who belong to a religion in whose name the hapless and non-violent minorities of Kashmir valley were forced into exile. Some wise man has said, "Rebellions are normally started by the hopeful not the abject poor." I am not sure if, when the people of Kashmir rose up in revolt against India, they were really hopeful of winning, or even if they were really sure about the real contours of the ‘azadi’ they were seeking. The success of the ‘popular’ revolt that lasted only a few years – till the slaying of Professor. Mushir-ul-Haq, I was told - was due partly because of the frightening power of the gun over the local populace, and mostly because of the collapse of every organ of local governance and the abject surrender of will by the then inept Chief Minister of J&K. If only, if only they had refused to release the JKLF militants in exchange of Rubia Sayeed. If only, if only they had not started the sudden night time searches on January 19-20, reportedly on nobody’s orders because that day Farooq Abdullah had already resigned. If only, if only the massacre at Gow Kadal had not taken place. If only, if only the procession carrying Moulvi Farooq’s Dead body had not been fired upon by panicking CRPF soldiers. perhaps the contours of the ‘militant-azadi’ movement that picked up as a consequence of these errors of judgment may have been different today and may have led us to the real reforms the people of Kashmir genuinely sought. But these are the big If’s of ‘our’ folly and Faroukh Abdullah’s ‘manipulative’ hold over the reigns of power. The failure of the ‘azadi’ movement is much more stark in the 12 years of continuing violence, destruction and robbing of every charm of Kashmir. The fact is, the vale of Kashmir is a deafening wail now, desperately looking for the bottom of the abyss into which it has sunk, into which all its blood flow pours. In the Kashmir of 1989-90, all the dissenting voices against the violent movement were silenced by death or by forced silent acquisition, so it had appeared that the entire population was with the revolt. Only now, when the local militancy has almost dissipated and been replaced by a dangerous variety of pan-Islamic militancy, are more and more Kashmiri people coming out to speak against the militants who started it all. A well-known senior journalist in Srinagar said to me. "Before 1989, were we ever prevented from offering prayers in our mosques?" This is a sentiment almost echoed by a successful doctor in Srinagar, my classmate at school, who I met again after 12 years, "Who did ever stop us from practicing our religion here?" A young journalist friend who I met in Srinagar, sounding bitter in retrospect about those ‘euphoric days of revolt’ said to me, "The people who used to lead the ‘azadi’ processions, wearing shrouds in defiance of death, are still alive today, while the people they led are long dead now." The Srinagar of today is a contrasting picture of destroyed old landmarks and burnt out structures and of new constructions in the downtown and newly sprung up suburbs. Comparing Srinagar and a city like Ahmedabad in terms of population density ratios, I was surprised to know that there are more Marutis on Srinagar’s roads than in Ahmedabad. Looking through my nostalgic eyes, I was certainly struck to note that Srinagar today is positively more affluent than it was in the days when militancy started. How has this phenomenon come about in a land devastated by violent instability? "Those who only had a grass mat to cover their mud floors are today living in palatial houses." This is a common bitter refrain by the affluent class of old, when they speak about Kashmir’s neo-rich, who started off as foot soldiers of the ‘militant’ movement. Of the many people I asked, "Why is militancy still continuing, when people are so fed up?" I was told again and again, "it is the people with the vested interests - the militants/politicians/surrendered militants/and neo-businessmen, 'the 5% of people' - who do not want the uncertainty to end, so that they can thrive." I recall a modern Kashmiri story, which to my knowledge best describes the ‘the present mind’ of the Kashmiri collective mass in these times. The story, An Infernal Creature by Amin Kamil, is about a village that used to be, but is no more. The village, called Zeegyapathir, had six mohallas and five graveyards on the borders between each mohalla. One day, the only son of an old woman, borne by her after several miscarriages, dies. The dead son is buried after the performance of all the sacred Muslim rituals, but the old woman, unable to bear the sudden loss of her only son, loses her mind. In the middle of the night at the graveyard of her son, she espies some dark mysterious figure up to some mischief The next day morning, her dead son’s grave is found dug up and the body is left without its shroud. The body is promptly covered in a fresh shroud and re-buried. The next night, the same deed is repeated and some other fresh graves are similarly found despoiled off their shroud. There is much hue and cry and commotion in the village. Every suspect is questioned. Every villager is suspected, but the shroud stealer is never found. The deed becomes a regular practice in the village. The villagers, at first curious and angry and perturbed, slowly reconcile with the mystery of the shroud stealer. ‘In this way, when all the dead bodies of the Zeegyapathir, men and women alike without exception, got robbed of the shrouds, it by and by became a custom with them. Nobody got agitated on this, nor did anybody show any kind of fear. They got used to speaking and hearing of this for two decades. "We were at the graveyard. Has he robbed it? It looks like that. Let the hell take him. "These four sentences were at the tip of the tongue of everyone at Zeegyapathir. You would be greeted by these words correct to a syllable for it had assumed the form of a ritual like giving the last bath to the dead, and burying the body." Twenty years had passed so. One day a villager by the name of Ghani Mokul dies. In his last statement before death he confesses to being that mysterious shroud stealer. He is roundly cursed, but the piety of the villagers ultimately rescues him from any idea of an after death revenge. "The truth, however was that the soft-hearted people of Zeegyapathir did not like to go so far." He is therefore properly buried. The villagers as a matter of habit continued to curse him but also felt relieved at having been rid at long last of a big calamity. However, the next day morning they find his grave not only despoiled of its shroud, but also "left exposed to the elements at the edge of the grave." Which the first man – Ghani Mokul had never infact dared to do ever to any dead body. Ghani Mokul is however, re-buried as had been the practice in the village. And the morning after the next, they find him, and a few other fresh dead bodies too, again exposed at the edge of the grave in stark nudity. "It now dawned on the people that it was not simply a case of wreaking vengeance on Ghani Mokul – the original shroud stealer, but a new monster was on the rampage Everybody at Zeegyapathir got scared and said to one another, "We can not find another man like Ghani Mokul. He no doubt divested the dead bodies of their shroud, but naked by no means did he leave them, this hellish creature is far worse than a brute." Then onwards, the people showered blessings on the original shroud stealer and cursed the new monster with all the abominations of the hell." The collective mind of the mass of Kashmir is today resigned to the death and destruction they see happening around them in a similar way as the people of the fictional Zeegyapathir were resigned to the ritualistic robbing of their graveyards. The people of Kashmir are not only hopelessly resigned but also totally powerless before the Frankenstein’s, they themselves helped create and breed among them. In TV discussions over our satellite news and entertainment channels, the experts opine that, "what’s going on in Kashmir is a war of attrition, which nobody seems like winning or losing." They say, "our sibling neighbour is ‘bleeding India by a thousand cuts’, but on the ground, there are people of flesh and blood - fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and friends, the people of Kashmir and the soldiers of India - actually being killed and robbed of their human dignity. As you will be reading this - the rioting and the killings will be continuing in Gujarat at the same time, in some remote hill village of Kashmir, a family of Hindus or Muslims will be yet again be massacred by a band of people fighting ‘jihad’ for the liberation of Muslim majority kashmir On an average about 10 -15 deaths are reported everyday. In the past 12 years of ‘militancy’ in Kashmir about 62,000 people have already died. In the past 12 years of ‘militancy’ in Kashmir about 62,000 people have already died. When is this killing ever going to stop? When is this killing ever going to stop?" I asked of some in Kashmir A friend said, "In Kashmir, the right to natural death does not exist." My driver said, "The only solution to Kashmir is an Atom Bomb." A young writer, who wants to work in Bombay films said, "Our ‘problem’ can only be settled by a war between India and Pakistan now. Whosoever wins, gets Kashmir." A human rights activist (he used to be a Launching Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in the young days of the revolt) said, "The killings will never stop, there will be a civil war here, as in Afghanistan." The waiter in my hotel said, "The gun is a source of money and power to those who wield it, how will they give it up easily." Over there in Kashmir, they call it ‘Gun Culture’. Over here in India, we prefer to cover our head in the sand, and we say, "It is cross-border terrorism." – but, when are the killings ever going to stop? In Srinagar, the job of a journalist these days is writing ‘obituaries’: The independent press of India (the one that lay prostrate before the forces of Emergency when it was only required to bend) championed the cause of the homegrown militants of Kashmir, because it felt the ‘revolt’ was an answer to the decay within Kashmir’s polity. True! Can’t be denied. But the 12 years of militancy have not at all affected any change in the decay that was; the decay in fact has decayed further. The political order remains the same. The ruling party is more hated now than it was before 1990, corruption has in fact become a way of life and unemployment has increased many folds. The rich have become richer by addition to their ranks of another class of the neo-rich. There are more beggar women on the streets of Srinagar when there were none earlier. There is still no electricity. The villages are still without roads and safe drinking water. The only thing that has shown any remarkably real progress in Kashmir is ‘the proliferation ‘ of local newspapers advocating human rights. I counted about 10 English and about 20 Urdu newspapers but still none in Kashmiri language. The Indian press has by now lost all interest in the happenings of Kashmir unless there is something really horrendous to report, but what is the Independent Press in Kashmir championing now? Developmental issues? Azadi? Almost 11 years to the day, when the Revolt erupted in Srinagar, there was a suicide bomber attack near the main entrance to Badami Bagh Army cantonment of Srinagar. I was visiting an acquaintance, from my college days, in his newspaper office. He was busy trying to get the details of the attack. First he called up his sources in the Army and the Police for their official ‘Death Figure’. They said one Army person and five ‘locals’ including the suicide bomber had died. He than called his local journalist friends one after the other, and about 10 of them - who must have similarly arrived at a consensual figure amongst ten others at their own end – collectively arrived at a figure, decidedly and purposely much higher than the official death toll. Their ostensible objective: to project – that the suicide mission was a ‘success’. A few days later, at the airport, I met a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) of the Madras regiment from the Indian Army. He was accompanying the coffin of a dead comrade to Chennai. It was the coffin of ‘The’ Jawan who had stopped the suicide bomber at the Badami Bagh cantonment gate. The Subedar told me "only one soldier died, the newspapers always exaggerate. The terrorists always attack us when we are having our lunch, change of guard or when we are about to wake up in the morning." He did not know, I may one day write about it, because I never thought I would. He also told me, "We burnt down the shopping complex opposite the gate. We thought there were terrorists there, but there were not any actually." The next day, based on the pictures of the bombed site taken by a stringer, and after making a few phone calls, my journalist friend wrote an ‘eye-witness’ report, which was published in some of the National English language papers at Delhi. In Kashmir, along with the dead, they also bury the truth everyday. They bury the truth in tomes of newsprint, poetry and propaganda. They announce its death at Human Rights Meets in Geneva and New York, where rival Human Rights activists, representing rival points of view, speak of deaths as ‘points’-- for and against -- on a score sheet of victory and defeat. Javed Ahmed Mir, the leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, the freedom fighter of Kashmir who pioneered the ‘selective killings’ of ‘pro-Indians’ (mostly Kashmiri Pandits and National Conference workers – the leaders were spared) said, "We started the killings only to draw the attention of the Western Press to our cause. CNN has come to visit us. BBC has come to visit us. Rabin Raphael also came and visited us here. Now we have announced unilateral ceasefire. We want to have a political dialogue. We want peace, but the martyrdom of our Freedom fighters cannot be forgotten. They call us terrorists, but they reward Nelson Mandela and Yasser Arafat with Nobel Peace Prize." The JKLF now limits itself to street fights and bandhs and to exhibiting the photographs of their dead. I remember Javed Mir pointing out to me a particular photograph – of a few months old dead child – and making me feel guilty as if it was my own daughter I had allowed to be killed. As I write this, I hear on TV of a yet another suicide attack on an Army camp at Jammu. 12 children have been killed, among them a 3 month old child. Javed Ahmed Mir is silent in Srinagar yet. They have mastered to speak eloquently about ‘their’ pain and ‘their sacrifices’ to seek rewards in return. About the pain of others they speak with forked tongues, they say ‘it was a mistake’. They condemn India of its ‘Human Rights Violations’ and they overlook the rapes and vengeance killings by the freedom fighters within their own ranks. They speak of their own dead and forget to mourn the deaths they themselves caused. Innocents all: Shakeela w/o Ali Mohammad Dar - abducted, gang raped and tortured to death. Mir Mustafa - A political leader, kidnapped, tortured and strangulated to death. Dolly Mohi-ud-Din - kidnapped, tortured, gang raped and shot dead. Sarla Bhatt, Staff Nurse at SKIMS - kidnapped, raped and shot dead. Prof.Mushir-ul-Haq - Kidnapped and shot dead. H.L. Khera - Kidnapped and shot dead. Sohan Lal Braro - Shot dead. Archana Braro - gang raped, tortured and shot dead. Bimla Braro - gang raped and shot dead. Mohammad Amin Cheentagar - beheaded. Tika Lal Taploo, Political leader - shot dead. M. K. Ganjoo, retired Judge - shot dead. Lassa Kaul, Station Director Doordarshan Srinagar - shot dead. Satish Bhan, social worker - shot dead. Ghulam Nabi Kullar, Communist - shot dead. Abdul Sattar Ranjoor, poet - shot dead. Maulana Masoodi, an intellectual &Freedom fighter - shot dead. Syed Ghulam Nabi, Government Official - shot dead. Moulvi Farooq, a religious leader - shot dead. The list is a long one, this is just of some who come to mind readily ... and there are many more who still continue to die not any of these died by police firing. and hundreds of pairs of shoes the mourners left behind, as they ran from the funeral, victims of the firing. From windows we hear grieving mothers, and snow begins to fall on us, like ash. Black on edges of flames, it cannot extinguish the neighborhoods, the homes set ablaze by midnight soldiers. Kashmir is burning. Agha Shahid Ali Who killed Mir Mustafa? Who killed Dr. Gooru? Who killed Moulvi Farouk? Who killed Qazi Nisar? Who killed Abdul Ghani Lone? Kashmir is burning still, who lit the fire? Who burnt the Chrar-e-Sharif? Whose midnight soldiers? In the Month of February in 1990, Kashmiris used to go in trucks and buses in processions to Chrar-e-Sharif shrine, to pray for ‘azadi’. They used to tie threads as promise in return for fulfillment of their dreams. In 1995, they stood silent as ‘Foreign Militants’ - representing a brand of Islam alien to the very ethos of Kashmir - lay siege to our prime shrine and let it be burnt down by a Must Gul, who escaped to a hero’s welcome in Pakistan. "All threads must be untied before springtime. Ask all – Muslim and Brahmin - if their wish came true? He appears beside me, cloaked in black: "Alas! Death has bent my back. It is too late for threads at Chrar-e-Sharif." Agha Shahid Ali The threads are there no more now. Along with the Shrine, the hopes for that ‘azadi’ also lie in ruins. Today they go to the burnt down shrine at Chrar and to their Sufi ‘Pirs’ not to pray for ‘azadi’ but for the return of sanity to Kashmir. "Rehman Sahib is one faith healer in whom thousands of locals, especially women, believe. He lives in a mud house at Aalistang in the outskirts of Srinagar, where his sitting room is always full of mureeds (devotees). One after another, they come close and whisper their problems in his ear. "Please pray and stop my son. He wants to be a militant," a mother from nearby Waheedpora village in Ganderbal requested the peer sahib (saint) one recent morning. Another woman sought help for an end to nocturnal raids by the security forces on her house. "I have two grown-up unmarried daughters. It is dangerous. Please help," she begged, and started crying." Muzamil Jaleel But why does the fire that lit Chrar-e-Sharif consume us still? Because they betrayed Nund Rishi by their silence and they allowed their temples to be desecrated and they lied about their betrayal of our Gods to the entire world. "Kashmir is burning: By that dazzling light we see men removing statues from temples. We beg them, "Who will protect us if you leave?" They don’t answer; they just disappear on the road to the plains, clutching the gods." Agha Shahid Ali An obvious reference to the Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir, the above lines of a poem, by its implication and compounded and by its extraordinary formal brilliance suggests that the Kashmiri Pandits left despite being stopped by their neighbours and that they came away carrying their temple gods along with them. In reality, nothing could be farther from the actual truth. In his poetic lament about the pain of Kashmir - often searing imagery his voice unerringly eloquent in response to Kashmir’s agony", as Edward Said writes in his praise on the back cover - Agha Shahid Ali can barely remember the agony faced by his Pandit friends in those euphoric days of near freedom, when it appeared as if the whole Muslim population of Srinagar had come out on the streets shouting "allah-o-akbar’, ‘hum kya chahite - azadi’ and ‘death to Indian dogs’. He can barely remember, ‘the call to all Muslims of Kashmir to revolt’ which was announced - from pre-recorded audiocassettes - through the loudspeakers of mosques all over Srinagar city. He can barely bring himself to imagine the panic of a miniscule community, faced with the impotence of an administration in Kashmir that had suddenly vanished He can barely remember, that this miniscule community was looking in the face of a yet another forced migration, the fourth in the span of a few hundred years Your memory gets in the way of my memory Shahid Twelve years later, when I came to Kashmir, I chanced upon a temple at Rainawari. I opened the door, but Shahid, there was no god inside, it’s true. It was all filth and ashes there, walls smeared with human refuse of many years: How could you not have seen them, stopped them - the kalashnikov people - from stealing my gods and burning your temples? I asked a Kashmiri Pandit friend, who is now settled in a far way land, to explain to me why Kashmiri Pandits chose to come away rather than stay back and fight. He wrote back to me, a long letter: "You have seen the sober faces of the population there (12 years after) but what I have experienced cannot be put into words. It was a feeling of uncertainty and isolation with doubts about the sincerity of your closest associates. It was almost being enslaved with the tyrannical smile of the victor haunting you. "It was the time to decide whether you would be able to accept the NIZAM-E-MUSTAFA (rule of the faithful), either willingly or after seeing your family dishonoured and massacred. Do remember that it was a well thought of plan to drive all kafirs away. "The area commander of any area never was native of the same area and thus would not relate to you. His only aim was subjugation in the name of Allah. Killing in his name was justified as was revealed by Javed Mir in your documentary. Previously (Before 1990), our differences could be settled by a word for word or at the most a fistfight. Now it was the kalishnikov. "Fathers would not dare to discuss the futility or viability of the actions. Brothers would not trust Brothers lest they would be killed. THE FEAR WAS TOTAL. The sane had no say and the insane were driven into frenzy by their masters. Chaos was total and administration had collapsed completely. "It is too simplistic when I put it into words but just close your eyes and imagine the plight. There can be no proper description of the events in words. Finally it was our worldly wisdom, which made all of us to flee the place. When I migrated, I had to fend for family and myself. The options were either to organize a resistance OR to start afresh. I chose the latter." If only somehow you could have been mine, what wouldn’t have happened in this world? I’m everything you lost. You won’t forgive me. My memory keeps getting in the way of your history. There is nothing to forgive. You won’t forgive me . Agha Shahid Ali But there is a lot to forgive and ask forgiveness for. The first thing that has to be answered about Kashmir is about Kashmiri Pandits forced abandonment of their motherland. Who orchestrated their deaths, their feeling of persecution, and their fear? Who sent them the anonymous letters asking them to leave forthwith? Who sponsored those ads, those notices in leading local Dailies of Kashmir, threatening the Pandits of dire consequences, if they did not leave? It surely was not because Jagmohan, the then administrative head of J&K, facilitated the exodus, as Indian Human Rights people would like us to believe. To Kashmiri pandits, Jagmohan in his person represents the abject failure of the ‘state’ in not protecting, nor ensuring the safety of its ‘non-violent’ citizens, who remained true in their loyalty to India. It's true, and I am ashamed to admit, as most Pandits now are, that when they came as refugees to Jammu and Delhi, they went straight into the arms of "the Hindu Parties". But tell me, what are a ‘traumatised’ people supposed to do, but hope for refuge in the camp of a party ‘supposedly their own’, when threatened by ‘Islamic forces’ and when betrayed by the secular forces of India? Which secular institution of India has spoken up for the trauma of Kashmiri Pandits yet? The irony here is that even the human rights activists who have so tirelessly tabulated all the atrocities inflicted upon a hapless minority in Gujarat still continue to silently acquiesce in the forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits quoting Governor Jagmohan as an alibi. And after forgiveness, There is a dispute to settle. The fact of the matter is, between Us and Them, Between India and Kashmir, between India and Pakistan there are many disputes to settle. Central to the resolution of all these disputes, is the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. The genesis of these disputes has forever been prone to myriad interpretations and conflicting points of view - of the experts as well as the layperson - which no amount of logic, good sense and wars seem to unravel or resolve. In the words of a Pakistani writer: "When India's Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel sent feelers about a possible give-and-take on Hyderabad and Kashmir, Ghulam Mohammed is said to have spurned this opportunity and carried on his lucrative dealings with Hyderabad Nizam. Pakistan also welcomed the accession of Junagadh and Manavadar, whereas an overwhelming majority in both states (as well as Hyderabad) was Hindu. "In effect, Pakistan held three divergent positions on the question of accession—in favour of the Hyderabad Nizam's right to independence, Junagadh's right to accede to Pakistan against the wish of the populace, and, in Kashmir, for the right to self determination. Double standard is a common enough practice in politics, but it invariably harms the actor who lacks the power to avert consequences. "The Nawab of Junagadh tried to deliver his Hindu-majority state to Pakistan, which set the precedence for the Maharaja of Muslim-dominated Kashmir choosing India. Pakistan did not have the power to defend either the Nawab or the Nizam, nor the will to punish the Maharaja. So India, practising double standards in its turn, took it all. Eqbal Ahmad That may well be the truth about J&K’s accession to India, to many Kashmiris, Pakistanis and even to some Indians, but there are also other truths. The truth about Sheikh Abdullah’s genuine liking for Indian secularism. The truth about his preferring to stay with India rather than with Pakistan. The truth about his not insisting on ‘azadi’ before or after 1953. The truth about Sheikh Abdullah being a genuine and great leader of Kashmiris. The truth about Faroukh Abdullah being an inept inheritor of Sheikh Abdullah’s legacy. The problem with truths is that it has not brought us, at any point of time, any closer to a resolution than it ever can, even 50 or 100 years from now. There is one another story by Amin Kamil, which expresses the nature of this dispute much plainly than any amount of explanation or writings have so far. The story What Matters Is The Head describes a dispute between two thanedaars of adjacent police stations over a murdered corpse found lying at the boundary of their respective area jurisdiction. Before the culprit can be found or the murdered person identified, it is necessary to determine in which thanedaar's jurisdiction the murdered person was found. The case is confounded by the fact that it is difficult to determine in which side of the boundary the head of the deceased lay, because the thanedaars have conflicting proofs. The respective thanedaars, in order to prove their claim about the jurisdictional right over the corpse, wrangle in colourful language over the finer details, the technicalities and the forensic procedure, thus in fact relegating the dead corpse and its case to oblivion. Finally, the bewildered bystander watching the entire drama is exasperated by this jurisdictional drama to ask for a final resolution. He is told, "What matters really is for us to find towards which side the head of the corpse lay. So long as this is not resolved, the matter will linger on as it is." "But what about the corpse, meanwhile?" "Let it rot." (Sadne do ji) "India's policies have been no less riddled with blunders than Pakistan's. Its moral isolation on Kashmir is nearly total, and unlikely to be overcome by military means or political manipulation. New Delhi commands not a shred of legitimacy among Kashmiri Muslims. Ironically, even as India's standing in Kashmir appears increasingly untenable, Kashmiris today appear farther from the goal of liberation than they were in the years 1989 to 1992." Eqbal Ahmad It is true; Kashmir’s problems are as a result of our country’s folly and blunders. Our follies and blunders in Kashmir are compounded by the fact of Partition and by the existence of a dispute, as our permanent neighbour enemy continues to insist. Kashmir has been used to bleed purportedly for a cause in which not many Kashmiris believe. The resolution of the historical dispute between India and Pakistan – through logic, diplomacy, wars, and terrorism or by time - has defied a sane answer for the last 55 years. Nor does it seem any likely that India and Pakistan can co-exist in peace by any stratagem invented or discovered so far. Meanwhile, the deaths and the killings of the innocents in Kashmir continues. We are as close to a war as at any time before. Kashmir is caught in the crossfire of History. Kashmir was happy and prosperous once, when it had chosen not to be in the crossfire. It’s more than a year since my last visit to Kashmir. The tumultuous events of the past year – September 11, December 13 Parliament Attack, The Fall of the Taliban in Afgahnistan, President of Pakistan’s famous January 12 speech denouncing Terrorism and Islamic Fundamentalism, and the most recent catastrophe of ‘state sponsored pogrom’ in Gujarat and the terrorist attack on children and women at a Army camp in Jammu, have completely altered my fundamental understanding of the nature of man and along with it, the perception about man’s sense of his morals which allow him to justify one violent cause at one place as ‘just’ and to condemn another equally violent cause as ‘unacceptable’ to civilization. I have never felt so powerless before the ‘insane’ insistence by men - of presumably immeasurable human values and inestimable intellectual capabilities - of their personal dogmas and points of view and the catastrophic consequences thereof. I therefore repudiate every ideology that leads to violence. And I want to ask my people in Kashmir: Isn’t it time that Kashmiri people resolved, once for and all, to give up the option of violence as a means to finding the solution to a historically vexed problem? ... The above is an account of my first journey to Kashmir in 12 years since I was there last. I still have a home there and I am looking forward to my permanent return as soon as I can determine for myself that my life and freedom will not be at any more risk there as it is here. _____ Ajay Raina is a film maker. His film about homecoming - "Tell them, the tree they had planted has now grown" - won the Golden Conch award at Mumbai Festival 2002 and the RAPA award. _____ # You may be missing other accompanying blurbs, related stories, graphics etc. Link to this story as it appears on the site :- Going Home www.outlookindia.com _____ Subscribe Online: Outlook Magazine -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030107/fdbf19a2/attachment.html From anjalisaga at blueyonder.co.uk Tue Jan 7 06:49:48 2003 From: anjalisaga at blueyonder.co.uk (Anjali Sagar) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 01:19:48 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: The rise and fall of Tehelka In-Reply-To: Message-ID: All the intelligence and courage it took for Tehelka to reveal the bribery and corruption of India's right wing government has been systematically destroyed . It is extremely sad but also very frightening. If any of you would like to gain further insight into how Tehelka managed to expose these crooks then Anand Patwardhan's film War and Peace will be screened again at the NFT this month. More information will follow. Anjali Sagar Website pays price for Indian bribery expose Luke Harding in New Delhi Monday January 6, 2003 The Guardian Tarun Tejpal is sitting amid the ruins of his office. There is not much left - a few dusty chairs, three computers and a forlorn air-conditioning unit. "We have sold virtually everything. I've even flogged the airconditioner," he says dolefully. Twenty months ago Tejpal, editor in chief of tehelka.com, an investigative website, was the most feted journalist in India. He had just broken one of the biggest stories in the country's history - an exposÀ of corruption at the highest levels of government. His reporters, posing as arms salesmen, had bribed their way into the home of the defence minister, George Fernandes, and handed over £3,000 to one of the minister's colleagues. The journalists found many other people prepared to take money - senior army officers, bureaucrats, even the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party, who was filmed shovelling the cash into his desk. The scandal was deeply embarrassing for the BJP prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Mr Vajpayee sacked Mr Fernandes and ordered a commission of inquiry. The scandal promoted a mood of national catharsis, and congratulations poured in from ordinary Indians tired of official corruption. Tehelka, which had only been launched in June 2000, was receiving 30 million hits a week. But the glory did not last. "I had expected a battle. But we had not anticipated its scale," Tejpal said yesterday. "The propaganda war started the next day." Nearly two years later, he has been forced to lay off all but four of his 120 staff. He has got deeply into debt, sold the office furniture and scrounged money from friends. "They drop by for dinner and leave a cheque behind." The website, which once boasted sites on news, literature, sport and erotica, is "virtually defunct". George Fernandes, meanwhile, is again the defence minister. The saga is a depressing example of how the Kafkaesque weight of government can be used to crush those who challenge its methods. In the aftermath of the scandal, the Hindu nationalist-led government "unleashed" the inland revenue, the enforcement directorate and the intelligence bureau, India's answer to MI5, on Tehelka's office in suburban south Delhi. They did not find anything. Frustrated, the officials started tearing apart the website's investors. Tehelka's financial backer, Shanker Sharma, was thrown in jail without charge. Detectives also held Aniruddha Bahal, the reporter who carried out the exposÀ, and a colleague, Kumar Badal. Badal is still in prison. "It got to the stage that I used to count the number of booze bottles in my house to make sure there wasn't one more than the legal quota," Tejpal recalls. The government commission set up to investigate Operation West-End, Tehelka's sting, meanwhile, started behaving very strangely. "The commission didn't cross-examine a single person found guilty of corruption. It was astonishing," said Tejpal. Instead, it spent its days rubbishing Tehelka's journalistic methods. The official campaign of vilification against the website has attracted protests from a few of India's prominent liberal commentators, such as the veteran diplomat Kuldip Nayar and the respected columnist Tavleen Singh. Tehelka's literary supporters, who include Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and VS Naipaul, have also expressed their outrage. But in general, India's civil society has reacted with awkwardness and embarrassment to the website's plight. "I read all of Franz Kafka when I was 19 and 20, but I only understand him now," Tejpal wrote in a recent essay in the magazine Seminar. "He accurately intuited that all power is essentially implacable and malign." The treatment of the website's investors has scared away anybody else from pumping money into Tehelka. The company owes £620,000. Mr Vajpayee's rightwing government has bounced back from the scandal and is expected to win the next general election in 2004. Last month, it won a landslide victory in elections in the riot-hit western state of Gujarat after campaigning on a virtually fascist anti-Muslim platform. The murky world of arms dealing goes on. Tony Blair and his ministers are still trying to persuade the Indian government to buy 66 Britishmade Hawk jet trainers, but the billion-pound deal remains mysteriously stuck over the price. Tehelka's exposÀ was not about "individuals", but about "systemic corruption", Tejpal insists. He admits that his sting operation would have gone down badly with any government, but says that the BJP's response was venomous. "The degree of pettiness has been extraordinary. They have a crude understanding of power and a lot of that stems from the fact they are in power for the first time. Our struggle is emblematic of a wider issue: can media organisations be killed off when they criticise governments?". The gloomy answer appears to be yes. Last night Balbir Punj, a leading BJP member of parliament, claimed the government had nothing to do with the website's collapse. "Just because you do a story exposing the government doesn't mean the gods make you immortal," he said. "Many other [internet] portals have closed down. The boom is over." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030107/6422a539/attachment.html From yazadjal at vsnl.net Tue Jan 7 12:20:23 2003 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 12:20:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It Message-ID: <01b701c2b619$87b7c300$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> Fred's an interesting columnist on American culture and society from a somewhat libertarian viewpoint. What he's saying here is that blacks and whites _do not_ want to live together. It's being forced by government. I have no idea of how true that is. Maybe those living in the US can help with their observations. I do agree with his conclusion to "let people live how they want and hire people on merit". -yazad --------------------- American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It - Fred Reed www.fredoneverything.net Today, news for people who are surprised by sunrise: The Associated Press reports* that Marie G. Davis Middle School, of Charlotte, North Carolina, when given the chance to segregate itself racially, did. Some federal court, in a fit of intelligence, said that you couldn't force parents to bus children to schools politically acceptable to Washington. The school, 44% white the summer before the court made its decision, was that fall 5% white. The whites went away. I'm all astonished, like I am when teenagers think about sex. Of course the school resegregated. Any fool could have told you it would. Fact is, the races just don't want to be around each other. It's plain as a sore toe in tight shoes. If you watch what the races do, instead of listen to what the talking heads say they ought to do, you can see that both sides would rather live with hung-over alligators. But you get fired if you notice it, so we all look the other way and act like we're thinking about something else. ("Naw, I didn't see the sun rise. What sun?") We talk about the American dream, but the country likes delusions better. We believe things are what we insist they are. If we think a pup-dog oughta be a backhoe, we figure all we gotta do is say he is, and act like we really really believe it, and lie, and make everybody pretend, and maybe put diesel oil in his dog bowl-and he'll sprout a scoop and start cutting underground telephone cables. It doesn't matter if everybody knows it's a lie-if you can make them pretend, and put them in jail if they don't. It's as American as tortillas. Think about it. Where do black and white get together on purpose? I mean, without the police, national guard, federal marshals, judges, seven thousand laws, and the entire federal government, to make them? Answer: They don't. Give people the slightest say about who they want to be with, and they're gone. That's what happened in Charlotte, isn't it? People like being with their own. Always have, always will. When you force them to be together instead of giving them the choice, then you get trouble. The less they have in common, the more trouble you get. Then you can holler about racism and squash folks together even more. It's like Prohibition, making people do what they don't want, because you think they ought to want it. When black kids come into a white college, the first thing they do is want black dorms and black fraternities, and the white kids don't seem in much of a hurry to catch them and bring them back. It's how it always is. When I was a military reporter, the blacks on base wanted soul music at the club, and the whites wanted country and western. The blacks got the club because the commander was afraid of them. The whites went to town to listen to Merle Haggard. Which may or may not have been a reasonable choice, but it's what they did. Go to a party of a hundred rich, white, unrelentingly good, racially correct people in Washington, and you will find three blacks to shuffle and look embarrassed and be credentials. The ninety-seven white people will make a point of talking awkwardly to them so everybody will know they are not prejudiced. Ask the whites in a loud voice where their kids go to school. Do you see more whites at black parties? I don't know. I've never been to one. It's a segregated country. How about at work? It's a snake pit, with the federal government making it hang together, barely. Best I can tell, blacks figure they're getting discriminated against, and oppressed, and enslaved. Whites-regularly, invariably, everywhere, every time-say most blacks don't work, have attitudes, advance entirely on pigmentation, and you have to do their work for them. You could argue about who is right, but that's just it: Neither side gets along well with the other, except when threatened. Now, the AP story carefully avoided the crucial question about the escape from Charlotte: Why did the white parents instantly withdraw their kids from a black school when given a whiff of freedom? The writer implied that Charlotte, being in the South, was prejudiced, and that racism was behind the flight, snore. Reporters everywhere understand what they are paid to say, but I don't think his heart was in it. Let me suggest another reason, which I have not verified. Should I be wrong, I will happily say so, and eat Jim Crow. But, knowing as I do the inveracity of the media, I will speculate. I suggest that the black students at the school were academically far below the whites-that the white parents were trying to do something, anything, to keep their children at an intellectual level consistent with their notions of civilization. I suspect that the black students had no interest in European history, in mathematics, languages, chemistry. I don't say they should be interested, just that they pretty regularly aren't. If I am wrong. I will happily retract. Show me. I'd love to be wrong. Maybe I am. It may be that academic performance of blacks at Marie G. Davis Middle School refutes the aggregate experience of centuries, of daily experience and common intuition. And Elvis may materialize in my room tonight and sing Heartbreak Hotel. I'd like that. Even stranger things could happen. The Redskins could win. But I'm not betting the Vette. Further, I will bet that the black kids ganged up and pushed the white kids around. It may not be universal, but an awful lot of white kids report it. Now, maybe all this shouldn't ought to be true. And maybe pup-dogs ought to grow exhaust stacks and glow plugs. Thing is, sooner or later "shouldn't ought" runs into "is." The reality it that if it weren't for unrelenting compulsion and intimidation, the races would separate like newly weds five years later. Without affirmative action and the EEO police, offices would barely be integrated. Schools, if parents were free, would do what Charlotte did. The whole lash-up is compulsory, artificial, contrived, and almost nobody wants it. If you don't think so, drop the compulsion and wait five minutes. No, I don't know what to do about it, except hide. My best guess is let people live how they want and hire people on merit. But that's not the American way. Gotta run. Elvis just showed up. ©Fred Reed 2002 From coolzanny at hotmail.com Tue Jan 7 15:16:31 2003 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 15:16:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Bhopal Message-ID: Dear Sam and all, You can get in touch with Shweta from Toxics Link in Mumbai (email id tlmumbai at vsnl.net) for information about the International Campaign for Justice with respect to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. You can also get in touch with Nitayanand, another activist engaged with Bhopeal who was recently beaten up in the cat of clean-up of the factory site i.e. nity68 at vsnl.com/nitya68 at vsnl.com Also, do visit www.bhopal.net for recent information. Regards, Zainab _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus From jhuns at vt.edu Tue Jan 7 21:11:26 2003 From: jhuns at vt.edu (jeremy hunsinger) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 10:41:26 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Call for Papers - Internet Research 4.0: Broadening the Band - 4th Annual AoIR Conference In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <7B4014CB-2256-11D7-A0A3-0003931A63CC@vt.edu> >> >> apologies for cross-posting >> >>> >>> [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 () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments From lachlan at london.com Tue Jan 7 23:44:37 2003 From: lachlan at london.com (Lachlan Brown) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 18:14:37 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] America Dreaming, Bhopal, Dow, TheyRule, YesMen, The Thing, Sarai, Broadband... and the precise nature of oppositional, resistant and alternative media and communications? Message-ID: <20030107181437.40029.qmail@iname.com> Suj line: Re: [Reader-list] America Dreaming, Bhopal, Dow, TheyRule, YesMen, The Thing, Sarai, Broadband... and the precise nature of oppositional, resistant and alternative media and communications? Hmm... I think a set of questions are beginning to cluster around the meanings of alternative media online, rights and responsibilities in (e)publishing(to what degree and where is anonymity and collectivity of identity appropriate in challenging undue accumulations of power), the reality of 'mass e-markets' internationally (whatever Geert Lovink thinks is politically expedient [the pragmatic Dutch...] to state in highlighting the mere technical difference between wired and wireless computer distributed media and communication) and some outstanding questions concerning environmental pollution, risk, and restitution left over from 'old Late Capital' - the Chemical Industry typified the heightened order and specialism of Imperial capital. What's particularly interesting is how 'old' Late Capital interests and 'new' Capital interests are at odds. Dow is asserting power over 'new media' Verio. The Directors of The Thing are cast into a position of heightened responsibility to assert (and defend) 'Liberty'. Quite a responsibility, they are buckling under the pressure (see Nettime). We all have an interest in this NYC turf battle. Its about how America Imagines indeed re-imagines itself. Let us therefore mobilise public opinion around these questions and bring to bear all the perspicuity we can muster. If some of us must sit on the sidelines and observe then perhaps we might do so noisily? Lachlan Brown BTW I am making 500 subscriptions available at $250 each for an undertaking of great benefit and advantage to all. A publishing company. Details available from l.brown at london.com. Lachlan Brown T (416) 666 1452 -- __________________________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Meet Singles http://corp.mail.com/lavalife From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Wed Jan 8 00:07:51 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 10:37:51 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Sanjhi Qalam is Online Message-ID: <20030107183751.77927.qmail@web20904.mail.yahoo.com> friends its at www.ektaramusic.com/sqalam Also the factsheet is at: SANJHI VIRASAT: KNOW INDIA, KNOW YOURSELF, KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOUR Had Dara Shikoh remained, on the Delhi throne, all would have been well with Hindustan - Shivaji, in letter to Jai Singh 1. DID YOU KNOW: Lord Ram blessed Prince Dara Shikoh in a dream (eldest son of Emperor Shahjahan and to-be King of India) to translate the Bhagavad Gita into Persian? (This Geeta reached the west and India�s Vedic history was rediscovered. Prince Dara was a great Sanskrit scholar and loved by the pundits of Kashi, the Sikh Gurus and the Sufis alike. He was murdered by his youngest brother Aurangzeb, for the throne) 2. That Goswami Tulsidas, the great devotee of Lord Ram, wrote the Ramayana under protection of the Mughal governor of Banaras, his best friend, Abdul Rahim Khankhana, (the great Krishna bhakt, famous for Rahim ke dohe)? Goswami Tulsidas was harassed by the powerful Brahmin priests, who did not want him to compose the Ramayana in the jan-bani, but Sanskrit. 3. Baba Bulleh Shah, the great Punjabi Sufi poet�s Guru was Madhavlal Hussain, neither a Hindu nor a Muslim? He said: Masjid dha de, mandir dha, dha de jo kucch dainda, Par kisi da Dil na dhain, Rab dilan which rehnda.. Break the temple, Break the mosque, Break what else besides, But break not a Human heart, Because that�s where God resides. 4. That the Suhagan Sufis of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, dressed like Hindu brides, with red sindoor and called themselves the dulhans of God/ Allah? Lal sindoor and chooris are offered at their dargahs. 5. That the slogan �Jai Hind� was coined by Capt. Abid Hasan of the Subhash Chandra Bose�s INA in 1942? (The official greeting of the Netaji�s Azad Hind Fauj and a mantra for all Indians) 6. That Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan organized the largest, 2 lakh non-violent army of sataygrahis for India�s freedom? (Under the British attacks, Frontier Gandhi said that: �My religion and my devotion to Bapu and India are one..�) 7. That Shivaji, the great Maratha leader, had both Hindus and Muslims as his generals and was equal to people of all faiths in his army. He ordered his followers to never attack women, children and holy books like the Quran. 8. That in the Great War of independence in 1857, Rani Lakhsmi Bai of Jhansi was protected by her Muslim Pathan generals, Ghulam Ghaus Khan and Khudaad Khan? (They guarded her Jhansi fort till they died, Their last words: For our queen we shall lay down our life, hack the firangis) 9. That Guru Gobind Singh�s best friend was a Sufi called Baba Badruddin, who sacrificed his life, all his sons, his brothers and 700 disciples in the Guru's battle against Aurangzeb? He called this the true path of Islam against injustice and was so loved by the Guru, that he offered his khalsa comb and sword to him, still at his dargah, Kange Shah, near Ambala. 10. That the Nawabs of Awadh, spent 13 days in celebrating Holi? Wajid Ali Shah�s court played Raslila, for Lord Krishna. The most famous Hindu dharmic play, Indra Sabha was composed in his court by a Muslim writer. 11. That the foundation of the Sikh�s Golden temple, was laid by a Muslim Sufi, Hazrat Mian Mir, the best friend of Guru Arjun Dev? (He was also the teacher of Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh, whose life the Sikh Guru, had saved as a child due to his great love for him) 12. That Guru Nanak�s lifelong companion was Mian Mardana, a Muslim rabab player? (He is the first singer of Sikh gurbani- and traveled with Guru Nanak from Hardwar to Mecca. Mian Mardana�s descendants played the rabab in the Golden temple for 500 years till 1947. 13. That the Sufis of India celebrate Basant panchmi by singing Saraswti vandanas since 800 years? (They revived Basant, by bringing sarson flowers and saffron chadars to the dargahs. The great poet, Amir Khusro has written hundreds of Holi geets to his Guru, whom he compares to Krishna: Mohe suhagan, rang basanti rang de Khwajaji/ Aao, Sufiion sang Hori khelo) 14. That Ras Khan was one of the many Muslim Krishna bhakts? (like Bhikan, Ras Khan and Malik Mohhammed Jayasi of Padmavat). He renounced everything to live in Vrindavan, upon seeing a baniya�s son, whom he worshipped as Krishna. Hundreds of Krishna bhajans have been written by Muslims like Amir Khusro, Rahim, Hazrat Sarmad, Dadu, Baba Farid, many of which are part of the Guru Granth sahib. 15. That Baz bahadur and Roopmati, the King and Queen of Mandu were a Rajput�s daughter and the son of Khilji. When Baz Bahadur was defeated by the Mughals in battle of Mandu, Rupmati poisoned herself than be separated. 16. That in Bengal, the women sing a devi bhajan that only when the Hindus and Muslims brothers live together in peace, will Ma Laxmi stay in their land? (Ma Laxmi came back when Akbar the Nyayi was King, but when the English made the two brothers fight, she will leave.. like now ) There are hundreds of other examples like Kabir Das, Mast Qalandar Sachal Sarmast, Ghalib, Ram Mohan Roy who lived according to our Sanjhi Virasat. For more information go to: http:// www.ektaramusic.com/sqalam Drop a postcard to: PO Box:�New Delhi. Email: sanjhiqalam at yahoo.co.in __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From zhan0127 at yahoo.com Wed Jan 8 02:24:30 2003 From: zhan0127 at yahoo.com (Xuefeng Zhang) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 12:54:30 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] America Dreaming, Bhopal, Dow, TheyRule, YesMen, The Thing, Sarai, Broadband... and the precise nature of oppositional, resistant and alternative media and communications? In-Reply-To: <20030107181437.40029.qmail@iname.com> Message-ID: <20030107205430.54205.qmail@web40805.mail.yahoo.com> Hi, there: Would you please remove my email address zhan0127 at yahoo.com from the mailing list? Or tell me how to remove it? Many Thanks, Xuefeng --- Lachlan Brown wrote: > Suj line: Re: [Reader-list] America Dreaming, > Bhopal, Dow, TheyRule, YesMen, The Thing, Sarai, > Broadband... and the precise nature of oppositional, > resistant and alternative media and communications? > > > Hmm... > > I think a set of questions are beginning to > cluster around the > meanings of alternative media online, rights and > responsibilities > in (e)publishing(to what degree and where is > anonymity and > collectivity of identity appropriate in challenging > undue accumulations > of power), the reality of 'mass e-markets' > internationally (whatever Geert > Lovink thinks is politically expedient [the > pragmatic Dutch...] to state > in highlighting the mere technical difference > between wired and wireless > computer distributed media and communication) and > some outstanding questions > concerning environmental pollution, risk, and > restitution left over from > 'old Late Capital' - the Chemical Industry typified > the heightened order > and specialism of Imperial capital. > > What's particularly interesting is how 'old' Late > Capital interests and > 'new' Capital interests are at odds. Dow is > asserting power over 'new media' > Verio. The Directors of The Thing are cast into a > position of heightened > responsibility to assert (and defend) 'Liberty'. > Quite a > responsibility, they are buckling under the pressure > (see Nettime). > > We all have an interest in this NYC turf battle. Its > about how America > Imagines indeed re-imagines itself. > > Let us therefore mobilise public opinion around > these questions > and bring to bear all the perspicuity we can muster. > If some of us must > sit on the sidelines and observe then perhaps we > might do so noisily? > > > > Lachlan Brown > > BTW I am making 500 subscriptions available at $250 > each for an undertaking of > great benefit and advantage to all. A publishing > company. Details available from > l.brown at london.com. > > > Lachlan Brown > > T (416) 666 1452 > > > > -- > __________________________________________________________ > Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at > Mail.com > http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup > > Meet Singles > http://corp.mail.com/lavalife > > _________________________________________ > 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: __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From amcgee at freeshell.org Wed Jan 8 03:42:11 2003 From: amcgee at freeshell.org (Art McGee) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 22:12:11 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It In-Reply-To: <20030107234202.23739.84139.Mailman@mail> Message-ID: > Fred's an interesting columnist on American culture and > society from a somewhat libertarian viewpoint. There's nothing Libertarian about Fred. He's a right-wing conservative and racist all the way. > What he's saying here is that blacks and whites _do not_ > want to live together. It's being forced by government. Nothing is that simple. What Black people want is justice. The failure to truly deliver on that is why they tend to still self-segregate themselves. If you had a truly just and righteous society, integration would come more naturally. The other problem is the way that integration tends to be defined. Blacks are always expected to adhere to what whites want, and not the other way around. RADICAL integration would require whites to give up power, and that is something that Blacks would welcome with open arms. The only way for American society to ever heal it's racial divide is through REPARATIONS. Once America truly atones for it's sins, then healing can begin. Until then, all talk of racial harmony is bullshit. Black people want results and actions, not words. Art McGee Communications & Technology Consultant amcgee at freeshell.org (510) 967-9381 Circuit Riders International NPO/NGO Media & Technology Calendar APC ActionApps Content Management System From tbyfield at panix.com Wed Jan 8 04:10:24 2003 From: tbyfield at panix.com (t byfield) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 17:40:24 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It In-Reply-To: <01b701c2b619$87b7c300$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> References: <01b701c2b619$87b7c300$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> Message-ID: <20030107224024.GA3931@panix.com> yazadjal at vsnl.net (Tue 01/07/03 at 12:20 PM +0530): > Fred's an interesting columnist on American culture and society from a > somewhat libertarian viewpoint. What he's saying here is that blacks and > whites _do not_ want to live together. It's being forced by government. I > have no idea of how true that is. Maybe those living in the US can help with > their observations. I do agree with his conclusion to "let people live how > they want and hire people on merit". the US has almost 300 million people in it, and is famously -- and truly -- fantastically diverse. anyone who makes a blanket general- ization like 'blacks and whites don't want to live together' about this population is either an idiot or an ideologue, and maybe even *both*. i must say, for all the justifiable criticisms of the US i see on this list, a lot of it comes with thinking that's as fuzzy as i'd expect from americans talking about 'other' parts of the world. cheers, t From kendall at monkeyfist.com Wed Jan 8 04:43:08 2003 From: kendall at monkeyfist.com (Kendall Clark) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 17:13:08 -0600 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It In-Reply-To: <20030107224024.GA3931@panix.com> References: <01b701c2b619$87b7c300$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> <20030107224024.GA3931@panix.com> Message-ID: <20030107231308.GB17669@monkeyfist.com> On Tue, Jan 07, 2003 at 05:40:24PM -0500, t byfield wrote: > the US has almost 300 million people in it, and is famously -- and > truly -- fantastically diverse. anyone who makes a blanket general- > ization like 'blacks and whites don't want to live together' about > this population is either an idiot or an ideologue, and maybe even > *both*. Since roughly the point at American apartheid *formally* ended for African Americans, with passage of the Civil Rights and Voting acts of the early and mid-60s, followed by spasms of civil unrest in successive summers in big cities across the country, white people have been falling all over themselves to leave big cities, as fast as humanly possible, to avoid living in close proximity to African Americans. White flight is about many things, and it isn't simply reducible to white racism, but white racism has played a key role in this migration which has literally reshaped by scaring the face of urban America. Among the many ill-effects, public transit budgets and federal highway spending are distorted in order to cater to workers (the super majority of whom are white) who live 30, 40, even 60+ miles from their workplace. After the predictable shifts in tax base, America has developed a thoroughly segregated school system, one part of which is white, suburban (or exoburban, if you prefer), and well-funded; the other which is non-white, urban, and tragically under funded. Lots of predictable social ills follow from that systematic pattern of attention and neglect. The waning political power of cities -- where suburbanites like to work, shop, and be entertained, but for which they want to pay no or as little tax as possible -- has meant that politicians can simultaneously pander to white suburban interests and play upon white suburban fears of the city, which both represents and is represented by the unconstrained, unconstrainable urban Other -- the black welfare queen, the looting Mexican illegal, the addled crack addict and gang banger, all of which play a crucial role in the racial subtext of American politics. Kendall Clark -- Jazz is only what you are. -- Louis Armstrong From mazzarel at uchicago.edu Tue Jan 7 20:55:21 2003 From: mazzarel at uchicago.edu (William Mazzarella) Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 09:25:21 -0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Tehelka Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20030107092001.04194b40@nsit-popmail.uchicago.edu> In the wake of the piece on Tehelka.com/Operation West End recently posted by Anjali Sagar, I'm sending a short essay that I wrote recently on the affair. This is a work in progress, and I hope to be generating a longer version over the next year or so. All comments welcome. best William Suitcase Men and Honey Traps: Tehelka.com and the New Economy of Information William Mazzarella Department of Anthropology University of Chicago [draft, November 2002; do not quote without permission] 1. I wrote this paper in order to begin exploring the notion that censorship and practices of cultural regulation are, on one level, contests over different economies of information. One of the effects of the information technology boom in India during the last ten years or so has been to reposition government as ‘governance,’ specifically, as I discuss here, ‘e-governance.’ What this means is a depoliticized mode of administration, facilitated by computerization, which takes its cues from corporate management theory, but which is at the same time able to appropriate the activist rhetorics of transparency and freedom of information. In effect, what emerges is a strange kind of censorship that comes disguised as full disclosure. On March 13, 2001 a scandalous spectacle splashed across the Indian mass media. One commentator succinctly outlined the substance of the event as follows: “Two journalists, Aniruddha Bahal and Mathew Samuel, posed as agents from a fictitious arms company called West End. They hawked a non-existent product hand-held thermal cameras to the Defence Ministry, and paid money to the president of the [ruling] BJP, bureaucrats and army men to push the deal through. They [ ] captured all transactions on a spycam and exhibited the footage at a press conference. They had almost sold a product they didn’t have to the Government of India” (N Singh 2002). The sting was carried out by an up and coming Indian news website called Tehelka.com. Tehelka, a word that denotes the kind of tumult that a sensation or scandal might produce, had already made waves the year before when it broke a story about match-fixing in that holiest of Indian holies, cricket. Its target this time, the defence establishment, was only marginally less sacred particularly in the wake of the patriotic frenzy that had swept the mainstream media during the Kargil border war of 1999. Operation West End, the name Tehelka gave its latest project, was quickly dismissed in some quarters. After an initial period when it looked like the entire edifice of the government might collapse the almost instant resignations of Defence Minister George Fernandes, BJP President Bangaru Laxman, and Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitley it was quickly back to business as usual. Fernandes was soon reinstated (he had in fact never been caught on tape), and the Commission instituted to investigate the sting dragged on and on to diminishing public interest. The impeccably gritty investigative credentials of the journalists at Tehelka who, for a while, received all kinds of adulatory plaudits and awards from the media industry were sullied when it emerged, in August 2001, that they had used prostitutes a.k.a. ‘honey traps’ to smooth their transactions with the ‘suitcase men’ that had taken their bribes. Was it allowable to “pimp in the public interest,” as one commentator put it (Swamy 2001)? And aside from the methods, were the revelations themselves particularly stunning? Operation West End had brought top-level corruption into full view, to be sure, but was anyone really surprised? My argument here is that Operation West End was scandalous, but not because it revealed what everybody in any case already knew. Although, as we shall see, the aesthetics of the revelation were important, the real obscenity of Operation West End was that it publicly disrupted the political dispensation that the Indian Government, in tandem with the transnational infotech business, had been constructing so laboriously for several years under rubrics like ‘the information society,’ ‘the information economy,’ and, most specifically ‘e-governance.’ Part consumerist technofetishism (known in Indian marketing circles as ‘silicone moksha’), and part IT-enabled social development, this dispensation had brought to prominence a new kind of leader, exemplified most paradigmatically by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, self-described “laptop politician.” Borrowing from the business world, Naidu ostentatiously dismissed ‘politics’ itself as a necessary evil, as nothing but vested interests and blockages, imperfections in the functioning of Bill Gates’ frictionless economy, now reborn as the frictionless state. The aim, according to one commentator, was “to create an era where online decisions replace the file culture of babudom” (Kumar 2000). The dream of e-governance thrived on a World Bank-approved language of ‘grass roots democracy’ and ‘transparency.’ But in practice it also constructed a two-pronged recipe for depoliticization: on the one hand, a mechanized set of ‘citizen services’ that would function as a demonstration of the ability of high technology to overcome corruption and vested interests driving licenses, land records, tax payments, all now to be computerized, down to the village level. On the other hand, a cult of personality powered by carefully managed (and carefully publicized) videoconferences between leaders and humble constituents, where the breath-stealing spectacle of direct access to the top drowned out any questions about the functioning and visibility of mediating political institutions. Breaking into Hindi for added emotive effect during an August 2002 press conference, national IT Minister Pramod Mahajan explained that the government’s program of village computerization was dil se rather than Dilli se from the heart rather than from Delhi. But in the midst of all the excitement about so-called ‘disintermediation’ the elimination of systemically undesirable middlemen the social, understood as a field of everyday contestation, was at risk of being swept away in the name of squashing corruption. The shock of Operation West End, then, was not so much the disclosure of corruption per se, but rather the reminder that all the talk of a new information age of ‘transparency’ and ‘efficiency’ could in fact serve as a cover for a whole informal economy of administration right at the very core of the state. For this act of ideological indecency, the Tehelka trio journalists Bahal and Samuel, along with editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal continues to this day to be punished. While the government has weathered the storm, the aftermath of the expose for Tehelka.com has moved from celebrity to a grim litany of death threats, intercepted assassins, income tax raids, and police harassment. 2. It was precisely the government’s claim to ‘transparency’ in administration that Tehelka seized on to support the aims and methods of the sting. There were, of course, a number of ironies here. First, the very term ‘transparency’ itself, as applied to politics, since ultimately it suggests invisibility. Second, the fact of a covert operation claiming to promote political transparency centered on the selling of a non-existent technology for night vision. According to Tehelka, it was in fact a matter of the public power of concrete images. Krishna Prasad, journalist at the portal, remarked: “If the corrupt and the criminal have been repeatedly voted back into power, it is because 60 per cent of this country is illiterate. They couldn’t read all the tomes we wrote. But now they can see what is being done to them by their leaders. That can result in a huge tectonic shift in perception” (quoted in N Singh 2002). The scandal gave rise to a fascinating series of arguments about the crucial importance, or alternatively the absolute irrelevance, of the event to the interests of the so-called ‘common man.’ I don’t have time to go into these here, but it does seem important, since I have raised the issue of the visibility of illicit transactions, briefly to address the aesthetics of the tapes. Certainly the sight of relatively prominent public figures casually trucking in bribes held a certain quasi-pornographic fascination when it flashed simultaneously across 14 cable channels operated by the Indian Zee TV network. But more shocking was, perhaps, the banality of the habitus of these transactions, how precisely it conformed to the dramaturgical requirements of Bollywood gangsterism. Some here might recall that in the wake of Watergate, one commentator memorably imagined Nixon’s conversations with his aides taking place in “the back room of a second-rate advertising agency in a suburb of hell” (quoted in Thompson 2000). Now, in the grand tradition of Bollywood adaptation, Tehelka.com brought it all back home masala style: pot-bellied chain-smoking powermongers, ‘paid ladies,’ and bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label. In The Guardian, Ian Buruma opined that the sight of party leaders, defence officials and fixers going for the cash, the scotch and the call girls was “hotter than any Hindi gangster picture” (Buruma 2002). But in fact it was not it was the precise correspondence that was so striking and, perhaps, so saddening. John Thompson, in his book Political Scandal, expands on Erving Goffman’s famous distinction between the ‘front’ and ‘back’ regions of social life in order to argue that mass mediated scandals often involve a shocking breach of the boundaries between the public and the private, the front and the back. In the case of Operation West End, however, the obscenity was not simply the broadcasting of that which had previously been secret; it was also the revelation that the most rarefied domains of national politics were conducted according to a surprisingly popular, indeed intimately familiar script. Against the common charge that Bollywood film purveys idle, socially regressive melodrama, Ashis Nandy (1998) has argued that it represents a ‘slum’s eye view of politics.’ But in the wake of Operation West End, one might have been forgiven for thinking that Bollywood had unexpectedly turned out to be a form of documentary realism. 3. Since the mid-1980s, as I have written elsewhere, consumerism had operated as a metaphor for citizenship in India. But now, the actual processes of civic participation were being reworked according to a consumerist script. In 2001, IBM published a document entitled ‘Rethinking Government,’ which stated: “In acting on the belief that ‘the customer is king,’ the private sector has, in effect, set the benchmark that citizens use to evaluate government services. Daily, people see examples in the commercial world of fast, accurate, courteous service. They know that better service is possible, and they wonder why the government can’t seem to deliver it” (quoted in Kurup 2001). As an executive of Cisco Systems India put it at a Delhi conference later the same year, e-governance was ‘citizen-centric’ rather than ‘agency-centric,’ driven by ‘citizen pull’ rather than ‘bureaucratic push,’ and motivated by ‘empowerment and accountability’ rather than ‘command and control.’ What the Tehelka tapes disclosed, however, was a rather different but nevertheless highly elaborated economy of information. This was not about citizen pull or bureaucratic push; rather, the tapes disclosed a highly concrete, but largely covert, calculus of movement, affect, mediation and exchange. Rigorously quantitative formulae applied: Deepak Gupta, a would-be arms deal fixer, can be seen giving the Tehelka team an on-the-fly estimate: “You see, [ ] if you want political interference politicians take four-five percent, bureaucracy takes two percent, user takes only one percent. Eight percent. Maybe one or two percent expenses.” One Major General Ahluwalia bluntly explains the going rates of exchange: “Saala, [bastard], if you come to my house to meet me on Diwali, you can’t talk without bringing Blue Label. If you are talking of bloody making a couple of crores of rupees, you can’t give me bloody Black Label, isn’t it?” And expanding on this transactional etiquette: “If you’re going to talk about a couple of crores, even to say ‘good evening,’ you have to present that bloody ‘good evening’ properly.” Operation West End documented a whole physics of information, one that implicitly mocked both the immaculate ideological space of the ‘network society,’ and the familiar binary of Freedom of Information versus Government Secrecy. Forget bitstreams and ‘flows,’ either local or global; bribery might rather establish more or less lasting “linkages,” across which files and papers might move. Files move “up” and “down,” as in “Yes, Mr. Jain, the file has come down.” At one point during the tapes a Lieutenant Colonel Sayal gestures with his hand in regular forward intervals to suggest how proper lubrication will ensure the reliable movement of files across desks. ‘Canalization fees’ open linkages, while payments to those with ‘nuisance value’ ensure that they are not blocked. At the same time, this covert, highly organic network turned out to be driven as much by affective surges as by attentive calibration, particularly when it came to the tactically deployed lubricants sex, scotch and glamorous television programming. Both the military officers accused of taking sexual favours and Tehelka’s journalists were depicted as helpless victims of the force of desire. Later, speaking in defence of the officers, a cabinet minister asked: “if a woman keeps offering sexual favours to a man and if a man finally succumbs then who is morally superior, the woman or the man?” (quoted in Sanghvi 2002). Meanwhile, Tehelka’s Bahal told a reporter: “When the demand came from the armymen to have prostitutes, we were foxed. We resisted it. We were baffled. But the demand was so forceful we could not proceed further without catering to their demand” (quoted in Bhatt 2001). The accoutrements of the new consumerism, so often used as indices of national progress, now also appeared as a treacherous medium of excitation and ethical instability. Giving testimony before the investigative commission that was set up in the wake of the scandal, one Brigadier Singh explained that “If I had any desire to enjoy the call girl, I could have gone ahead as a pretty and young girl had already been pre-positioned by Mathew Samuel as a bait and Fashion TV channel had been turned on to induce me” (quoted in John 2001). In one video segment, Kaun Banega Crorepati (the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) is shown revving up the atmosphere in the hotel room where the Tehelka team brought together the military men and the prostitutes. The host of this show, by the way, was none other than Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, who also at that time was a board member of Tehelka’s holding company, Buffalo Networks, alongside literary luminaries with long experience negotiating the rapids of public controversy, V S Naipaul and Khushwant Singh. The mortification of the military was a crucial element of Operation West End, since despite everything the military continues, in India, to function as a privileged semiotic locus for an ideal of national fortitude and austere resilience. This is one part nostalgic reference to a colonial model of wax-tipped stiff-lipped rectitude, and one part contemporary nuclear-era techno-masculinity. Certainly, the seedy light in which the tapes cast the agents of national security was embarrassing. But they also highlighted the complicity between the technophilia of the contemporary state, with its presumed rationality, and the treacherous erotics of consumerist desire. 4. I have deferred any discussion of the ‘sociology,’ as it were, of the circulation of the scandal. But I do want to relate a story that Tarun Tejpal, Tehelka.com editor-in-chief, told during the aftermath. Concluding one in a long series of television interview, Tejpal fell into conversation with a cameraman who had just returned from his natal village. In the village, Operation West End had evidently been a source of much conjecture. Tejpal relates: “There in the crevices of eastern UP [Uttar Pradesh], the denizens had no understanding of the medium the expose had taken place in. They had seen it on TV; they had read it up in the papers; [ ] they knew there was a new kind of entity that was responsible for the story. And they were clueless about it, clueless about the dot com and the world wide web. There was absolutely nothing in their experience or their imagination that could help them make any sense of a website or the Internet. So they had conjured up a construct. Tehelka, for them, was a device in which subka brashtachaar nanga ho jaata hai. A kind of x-ray machine, which exposed naked anyone’s corruption the moment they came in front of it. The talk there, said the cameraman from Jaunpur, was that this, the threat of the corruption-exposing machine, was the reason the Prime Minister had not appeared in public for the first few days after the scam broke” (Tejpal 2001). For the moment, I want to put aside the obviously self-serving dimensions of this variation on the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes: its re-affirmation of the heroism of investigative reporting vis-à-vis the public interest, particularly the interest of that portion of the public known to political actors as ‘the common man.’ Tejpal puts forward one motivated version of this common man’s naïveté. The government, for its part, put forward another. Following the scandal, the BJP brought truckloads of carefully tutored villagers to rallies in Delhi where they obediently told the press things like: “What is a web site? I don’t know any web site, we are here to protect our Vajpayee from foreign forces” (quoted in Sengupta 2001). Still, what I like about Tejpal’s vignette is the way, in spite of his agenda, it pushes the pious concept of ‘transparency’ to the point of parody. It also takes the Internet, this earnestly propounded (and in this case, dimly surmised) technology of progress and aims it, with a cackle of glee, at a naked premier, fleeing the nation’s television screens in fear of the Internet x-ray. To be sure, the assumptions of the story remain, in many ways, conventional: the technology itself is mechanical and automatic and the corruption it unveils is a state of being rather than a social process. The details of what the tapes showed get lost in the fascination with their disruptive potential. The Jaunpuri cameraman’s account operates, perhaps, as a kind of parodic counterpart to the self-satisfaction of governmental video propaganda. It is in the area between the earnest face of IT Minister Pramod Mahajan speaking dil se on national television and the imagined farce of Prime Minister Vajpayee’s anxious nakedness that Operation West End becomes important. This is the complex zone of de facto politics, of the ‘human factor’ that the ideology of e-governance would seek to eradicate in the name of banishing corruption as mere ‘human error.’ To repeat, then, a strange kind of censorship that comes disguised as full disclosure. William Mazzarella Assistant Professor University of Chicago Department of Anthropology 1126 E 59th St Chicago, IL 60637 tel: (773) 834-4873 fax: (773) 702-4503 From shohini at giasdl01.vsnl.net.in Tue Jan 7 10:44:43 2003 From: shohini at giasdl01.vsnl.net.in (shohini) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 10:44:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Report from WLUML - Please Circulate Message-ID: <000401c2b65d$da3c64c0$14f841db@shohini> Dear friends, The International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat is a response by national and international women's groups to the horrific violence unleashed against the Muslim community of Gujarat since February 27, 2002, in which women were a central target. As part of this initiative, members of women's groups from India accompanied nine women from Sri Lanka, Algeria/France, India, Israel/UK, Germany and the USA who visited areas in and around Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Panchmahals between 14 and 17 December 2002. During these visits, we met with survivors of the violence as well as with members of women's groups, human rights groups, and other citizens' groups from Gujarat. In solidarity, Women Living Under Muslim Laws international solidarity network ---------------------- December 2002 International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat As women's groups in India, we are horrified by the violence that was unleashed against Muslim communities and in particular on Muslim women in Gujarat from February 27, 2002, onward. We are appalled at the ways in which the instruments of a democratic state are working against the interests of its own citizens, and the ways in which women's bodies are being used as battlegrounds in the struggle over defining India as a Hindu State. For nine months, we have seen lack of national political will to apply existing laws and redressal mechanisms to ensure justice for the victims. This is further compounded by the fact of continuing violence in the state. An International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat (IIJ) was therefore constituted, comprising jurists, activists, lawyers, writers and academics from various parts of the world. Keeping in mind the many reports of independent agencies and statutory bodies, the Panel, which visited Gujarat between 14th and 17th December, investigated the violence - particularly the physical and sexual - inflicted upon women since 27th February 2002 specifically in light of existing international laws, conventions and norms. The Panel has also addressed the complicity of the State in the violence, the lack of effective redressal for the victims and the implications of the recent BJP victory in the state. This panel was not simply a 'fact-finding' mission, but rather to support efforts toward achieving justice for the survivors of these attacks, as well as to support the prevention of future attacks against minorities, particularly women. The panelists include Sunila Abeysekara, Director of Inform, Colombo, Sri Lanka, Rhonda Copelon, Professor of Law, City University of New York, Anissa Helie of Women Living Under Muslim Laws Algeria/France, Gabriela Mischkowski, Historian and co-founder, Medica Mondiale, Germany, Nira Yuval-Davis, Professor of Gender and Ethnic Studies at the University of Greenwich, UK, and several other prominent feminists. Members of the Panel visited Ahmedabad, Baroda, and Panchmahals District, and spoke with various affected people, support workers, lawyers, and held confidential meetings with affected women. The Panel's Interim Report on the situation in Gujarat voiced strong concern that "in spite of the totally inadequate legal and other responses to the violence in Gujarat, the government has continued to deny permission for international scrutiny of the situation.In a pluralist society such as India, ensuring the equal representation and participation of all communities and guaranteeing the rights of women and of minorities are among the most important tests of a genuine democracy. The propagation of fear and hatred among communities is anathema to these principles and is inconsistent with both national and international law." The Report also addressed the similarities and uniqueness of the ways in which sexual violence has been used in cases of religious, ethnic or communal violence in other parts of the world, and stated: "this violence, which reflects a longer and larger genocidal project, in our view constitutes a crime against humanity and satisfies the legal definition of genocide, both of which are crimes of the most serious dimension under international law." On the basis of their interviews and meetings, the panel has outlined Urgent Actions to Be Taken by the state, the national and international community. They have stressed on the restoration of the constitutional rights of the Muslims of India and asserted the need for ensuring the protection of their human rights in accordance with international norms. They have outlined recommendations for the immediate redressal for crimes of sexual violence in accordance with the provisions of the ICC and called for specific measures with regard to the issues of justice, continuing impact of the violence, and the continued marginalization of the Muslims of Gujarat. The International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat was organized by: Citizen's Initiative (Ahmedabad), People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) - Shanti Abhiyan (Vadodara), Communalism Combat, Awaaz-E-Niswaan Forum Against Oppression of Women (FAOW) and Stree Sangam (Mumbai), Saheli, Jagori, Sama, and Nirantar (Delhi), Organised Lesbian Alliance for Visibility and Action (OLAVA, Pune), and other women's organizations in India. IIJ c/o FAOW, 29 Bhatia Bhavan, Babrekar Marg, Off Gokhale Road, Dadar (W), Mumbai 400028 Ph: 9820833422, 9820850844, (022) 23705620 Email: iijg2002 at yahoo.com The complete report and urgent actions to be taken can be accessed at the Online Volunteers website -http://www.onlinevolunteers.org/gujarat/reports/iijg/ --- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030107/4f70392d/attachment.html From aiindex at mnet.fr Wed Jan 8 14:37:35 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 10:07:35 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Many tools of Big Brother are up and running Message-ID: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/23/technology/23PEEK.html New York Times December 23, 2002 Many tools of Big Brother are up and running By John Markoff and John Schwartz In the Pentagon research effort to detect terrorism by electronically monitoring the civilian population, the most remarkable detail may be this: Most of the pieces of the system are already in place. Because of the inroads the Internet and other digital network technologies have made into everyday life over the last decade, it is increasingly possible to amass Big Brother-like surveillance powers through Little Brother means. The basic components include everyday digital technologies like e-mail, online shopping and travel booking, A.T.M. systems, cellphone networks, electronic toll-collection systems and credit-card payment terminals. In essence, the Pentagon's main job would be to spin strands of software technology that would weave these sources of data into a vast electronic dragnet. Technologists say the types of computerized data sifting and pattern matching that might flag suspicious activities to government agencies and coordinate their surveillance are not much different from programs already in use by private companies. Such programs spot unusual credit card activity, for example, or let people at multiple locations collaborate on a project. The civilian population, in other words, has willingly embraced the technical prerequisites for a national surveillance system that Pentagon planners are calling Total Information Awareness. The development has a certain historical resonance because it was the Pentagon's research agency that in the 1960's financed the technology that led directly to the modern Internet. Now the same agency — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa — is relying on commercial technology that has evolved from the network it pioneered. The first generation of the Internet — called the Arpanet — consisted of electronic mail and file transfer software that connected people to people. The second generation connected people to databases and other information via the World Wide Web. Now a new generation of software connects computers directly to computers. And that is the key to the Total Information Awareness project, which is overseen by John M. Poindexter, the former national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan. Dr. Poindexter was convicted in 1990 of a felony for his role in the Iran-contra affair, but that conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court because he had been granted immunity for his testimony before Congress about the case. Although Dr. Poindexter's system has come under widespread criticism from Congress and civil liberties groups, a prototype is already in place and has been used in tests by military intelligence organizations. Total Information Awareness could link for the first time such different electronic sources as video feeds from airport surveillance cameras, credit card transactions, airline reservations and telephone calling records. The data would be filtered through software that would constantly look for suspicious patterns of behavior. The idea is for law enforcement or intelligence agencies to be alerted immediately to patterns in otherwise unremarkable sets of data that might indicate threats, allowing rapid reviews by human analysts. For example, a cluster of foreign visitors who all took flying lessons in separate parts of the country might not attract attention. Nor would it necessarily raise red flags if all those people reserved airline tickets for the same day. But a system that could detect both sets of actions might raise suspicions. Some computer scientists wonder whether the system can work. "This wouldn't have been possible without the modern Internet, and even now it's a daunting task," said Dorothy Denning, a professor in the Department of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. Part of the challenge, she said, is knowing what to look for. "Do we really know enough about the precursors to terrorist activity?" she said. "I don't think we're there yet." The early version of the Total Information Awareness system employs a commercial software collaboration program called Groove. It was developed in 2000 by Ray Ozzie, a well-known software designer who is the inventor of Lotus Notes. Groove makes it possible for analysts at many different government agencies to share intelligence data instantly, and it links specialized programs that are designed to look for patterns of suspicious behavior. Total Information Awareness also takes advantage of a simple and fundamental software technology called Extended Markup Language, or XML, that is at the heart of the third generation of Internet software. It was created by software designers at companies like Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and I.B.M., as well as independent Silicon Valley programmers. The markup language allows data that has long been locked in isolated databases, known in the industry as silos, to be translated into a kind of universal language that can be read and used by many different systems. Information made compatible in this way can be shared among thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of computers in ways that all of them can understand. It is XML, a refinement of the Internet's original World Wide Web scheme, that has made it possible to consider welding thousands of databases together without centralizing the information. Computer scientists said that without such new third-generation Web technologies, it would have never been possible to conceive of the Total Information Awareness system, which is intended to ferret out the suspicious intentions of a handful of potential terrorists from the humdrum everyday electronic comings and goings of millions of average Americans. Civil libertarians have questioned whether the government has the legal or constitutional grounds to conduct such electronic searches. And other critics have called it an outlandishly futuristic and ultimately unworkable scheme on technical grounds. But on the latter point, technologists disagree. "It's well grounded in the best current theory about scalable systems," said Ramano Rao, chief technology officer at Inxight, a Sunnyvale, Calif., company that develops text-searching software. "It uses all the right buzzwords." People close to the Pentagon's research program said Dr. Poindexter was acutely aware of the power and the invasiveness of his experimental surveillance system. In private conversations this summer, according to several Department of Defense contractors, he raised the possibility that the control of the Total Information Awareness system should be placed under the jurisdiction of an independent, nongovernmental organization like the Red Cross because of the potential for abuse. Dr. Poindexter declined to be interviewed for this article. A Darpa spokeswoman, Jan Walker, wrote in an e-mail reply to questions that "we don't recall ever talking about" having a nongovernmental organization operate the Total Information Awareness program and that "we've not held any discussions with" such an organization. The idea of using an independent organization to control a technology that has a high potential for abuse has been raised by previous administrations. An abortive plan to create a backdoor surveillance capability in encrypted communications, known as Clipper, was introduced by the Clinton administration in 1993. It called for keys to the code to be held by an organization independent of the F.B.I. and other law enforcement agencies. Speaking of Dr. Poindexter, John Arquilla, an expert at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey on unconventional warfare, said, "The admiral is very concerned about the tension between security and civil liberties." He added that because of the changing nature of warfare and the threat of terrorism, the United States would be forced to make trade-offs between individuals' privacy and national security. "In an age of terror wars, we have to learn the middle path to craft the security we need without incurring too great a cost on our civil liberties," he said. Computer scientists who work with Darpa said that Dr. Poindexter was an enthusiastic backer of a Darpa-sponsored advisory group that had been initiated by a Microsoft researcher, Eric Horvitz, in October 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The group, which was composed of 41 computer scientists, policy experts and government officials, met three times to explore whether it was possible to employ sophisticated data-mining technologies against potential terrorist attacks while protecting individuals' privacy. A number of the scientists proposed "black box" surveillance systems that would alert human intelligence analysts about suspicious patterns. Once the alerts were issued in such a system, they suggested, legal processes like those used for wiretapping could be employed. But a number of the scientists and policy experts who attended the meetings were skeptical that technical safeguards would be adequate to ensure that such a system would not be abused. The debate is a healthy one, said Don Upson, who is senior vice president of the government business unit of a software company in Fairfax, Va., webMethods, and the former secretary of technology for Virginia. "I'm glad Darpa is doing this because somebody has to start defining what the rules are going to be" about how and when to use data, he said. "I believe we're headed down the path of setting the parameters of how we're going to use information." From aiindex at mnet.fr Wed Jan 8 21:30:43 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 17:00:43 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] The Lies We Are Told About Iraq (Victor Marshall) Message-ID: LOS ANGELES TIMES January 5, 2003 OPINION The Lies We Are Told About Iraq Pentagon propaganda got us into the first Gulf War. Will we be fooled a second time? By Victor Marshall, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, a public policy group, is the author of "To Have and Have Not: Southeast Asian Raw Materials and the Origins of the Pacific War." OAKLAND - The Bush administration's confrontation with Iraq is as much a contest of credibility as it is of military force. Washington claims that Baghdad harbors ambitions of aggression, continues to develop and stockpile weapons of mass destruction and maintains ties to Al Qaeda. Lacking solid evidence, the public must weigh Saddam Hussein's penchant for lies against the administration's own record. Based on recent history, that's not an easy choice. The first Bush administration, which featured Dick Cheney, Paul D. Wolfowitz and Colin L. Powell at the Pentagon, systematically misrepresented the cause of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the nature of Iraq's conduct in Kuwait and the cost of the Persian Gulf War. Like the second Bush administration, it cynically used the confrontation to justify a more expansive and militaristic foreign policy in the post-Vietnam era. When Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, the first President Bush likened it to Nazi Germany's occupation of the Rhineland. "If history teaches us anything, it is that we must resist aggression or it will destroy our freedoms," he declared. The administration leaked reports that tens of thousands of Iraqi troops were massing on the border of Saudi Arabia in preparation for an invasion of the world's major oil fields. The globe's industrial economies would be held hostage if Iraq succeeded. The reality was different. Two Soviet satellite photos obtained by the St. Petersburg Times raised questions about such a buildup of Iraqi troops. Neither the CIA nor the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency viewed an Iraqi attack on Saudi Arabia as probable. The administration's estimate of Iraqi troop strength was also grossly exaggerated. After the war, Newsday's Susan Sachs called Iraq the "phantom enemy": "The bulk of the mighty Iraqi army, said to number more than 500,000 in Kuwait and southern Iraq, couldn't be found." Students of the Gulf War largely agree that Hussein's invasion of Kuwait was primarily motivated by specific historical grievances, not by Hitler-style ambitions. Like most Iraqi rulers before him, Hussein refused to accept borders drawn by Britain after World War I that virtually cut Iraq off from the Gulf. Iraq also chafed at Kuwait's demand that Iraq repay loans made to it during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Administration officials seemed to understand all this. In July 1990, U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad April Glaspie told Hussein that Washington had "no opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait," a statement she later regretted. The National Security Council's first meeting after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was equally low key. As one participant reportedly put it, the attitude was, "Hey, too bad about Kuwait, but it's just a gas station - and who cares whether the sign says Sinclair or Exxon?" But administration hawks, led by Cheney, saw a huge opportunity to capitalize on Iraq's move against Kuwait. The elder Bush publicly pronounced, "a line has been drawn in the sand," and he called for a "new world orderŠ free from the threat of terror." His unstated premise, as noted by National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, was that the United States "henceforth would be obligated to lead the world community to an unprecedented degree" as it attempted "to pursue our national interests." The administration realized that a peaceful solution to the crisis would undercut its grand ambitions. The White House torpedoed diplomatic initiatives to end the crisis, including a compromise, crafted by Arab leaders, to let Iraq annex a small slice of Kuwait and withdraw. To justify war with Hussein, the Bush administration condoned a propaganda campaign on Iraqi atrocities in Kuwait. Americans were riveted by a 15-year-old Kuwaiti so-called refugee's eyewitness accounts of Iraqi soldiers yanking newborn babies out of hospital incubators in Kuwait, leaving them on a cold floor to die. The public didn't know that the eyewitness was the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, and that her congressional testimony was reportedly arranged by public relations firm Hill & Knowlton and paid for by Kuwait as part of its campaign to bring the United States into war. To this day, most people regard Operation Desert Storm as remarkably clean, marked by the expert use of precision weapons to minimize "collateral damage." While American TV repeatedly broadcast pictures of cruise missiles homing in on their targets, the Pentagon quietly went about a campaign of carpet bombing. Of the 142,000 tons of bombs dropped on Iraq and Kuwait in 43 days, only about 8% were of the "smart" variety. The indiscriminate targeting of Iraq's civilian infrastructure left the country in ruins. A United Nations mission in March 1991 described the allied bombing of Iraq as "near apocalyptic" and said it threatened to reduce "a rather highly urbanized and mechanized societyŠ to a preindustrial age." Officially, the U.S. military listed only 79 American soldiers killed in action, plus 59 members of allied forces. A subsequent demographic study by the U.S. Census Bureau concluded that Iraq probably suffered 145,000 dead - 40,000 military and 5,000 civilian deaths during the war and 100,000 postwar deaths because of violence and health conditions. The war also produced more than 5 million refugees. Subsequent sanctions were estimated to have killed more than half a million Iraqi children, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and other international bodies. The Gulf War amply demonstrated the merit of two adages: "War is hell" and "Truth is the first casualty." To date, nothing suggests that a second Gulf War would prove any less costly to truth or humans. From areflagan at artpanorama.com Thu Jan 9 00:47:21 2003 From: areflagan at artpanorama.com (Are Flagan) Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 14:17:21 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It In-Reply-To: <20030107224024.GA3931@panix.com> Message-ID: > i must say, for all the justifiable criticisms of the US i see on > this list, a lot of it comes with thinking that's as fuzzy as i'd > expect from americans talking about 'other' parts of the world. The reader-list, in its defense, seems to engage in a similar, and similarly justified, criticism of its own, if locality is at all applicable, government. The "fuzzy" parallels of thinking in geographical circles, if we question that loop, may of course be attributed to and actually broken by the development that has governments across the world look to the US and adopts its rhetoric and agendas as reasonable and desirable, under duress or through incentives, or not. I am thinking particularly here of the posts referring to the BJP platform that won in Gujarat and the influx of "terrorism" in India. Throw in that report on the web site tehelka that exposed widespread, high level corruption and was effectively closed down through harassment and you have your two cents about money and power and the media, a la the US, too. And so on. As for black and white and whatever cohabitation; I contend that it's our governments and their "democracies" and "freedoms" that we increasingly can't live with. (Reparation can not make amends for history, as it often implies through atonement and excuses that are as useless as senator Lott's apologetic diarrhea, but it can prepare the future in a manner that balances the injustices of the past, over time, and now. It is sometimes pursued and presented as a retrograde paycheck, offered in one lump sum as final settlement, while it should actually be considered a radical and ongoing politics for progress, at least IMO. ) -af From yazadjal at vsnl.net Thu Jan 9 10:53:17 2003 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 10:53:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Does Oil Require Blood? Message-ID: <051701c2b7c3$40c5b640$651241db@vsnl.net.in> http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=1134 Does Oil Require Blood? By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [Posted January 8, 2003] It's obvious Iraq doesn't want war and the Bush administration does. The administration claims war would be a preemptive strike, but more honest commentators freely admit, as does Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, that oil plays a huge role in the continuing drama, even the decisive role/ "Any war we launch in Iraq will certainly be-in part-about oil. To deny that is laughable." What's more, he says in a twise on a predictable left-liberal trope, "I have no problem with a war for oil-if we accompany it with a real program for energy conservation." It was the New York Times that recently carried two large articles on Iraq's oil resources in its prominent "Week in Review" section, one of which contained a map of reserves. The reporter noted, "112 billion barrels of proven reserves is also something nobody can overlook..Iraq's 'ability to generate oil' is always somewhere on the table, even if not in so many words." Or consider the MSNBC story, "Iraqi Oil, American Bonanza?" which says, "Iraq's vast oil reserves remain a powerful prize for global oil companies.. Such a massive rebuilding effort represents a huge opportunity for the companies chosen to tackle it.. It's unlikely that American firms will be left empty-handed if the U.S. follows through on threats of military action." What does oil have to do with the Bush administration? The MSNBC reporter gives the reader that information too: "American oil companies are also hoping to benefit from the industry's unusually strong ties to the White House. President Bush, himself the former head of a Texas oil company, has pursued a national energy policy that relies on aggressively expanding new sources of oil. Vice President Cheney is the former CEO of oil services giant Halliburton. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice is a former director of Chevron." War and Economics The connection between the war on Iraq and the desire for oil raises an important ideological consideration. Millions of college students are taught the Leninist idea that capitalist economies are inherently imperialistic. This is supposedly because exploitation exhausts capital values in the domestic economy, and hence capital owners must relentlessly seek to replenish their funds through grabbing foreign resources. In this view, war avoids the final crisis of capitalism. College students might be forgiven for thinking there is some basis for this in the real world. In American history up to the present day, the onset of war tends to track the onset of economic doldrums. Recall that it was then-Secretary of State James Baker who said the first Iraqi war was all about "jobs, jobs, jobs." The line between the owners of capital and the warfare state has never been that clean in American history, and it has arguably never been as conspicuously blurred as it is today. The view that sustaining capitalism requires aggressive war is usually said to originate with V.I. Lenin as a way of rescuing Marxism from a serious problem: capitalism was not collapsing in the 19th century. It was growing more robust, and workers were getting richer-facts that weighed heavily against the Marxist historical trajectory. The Leninist answer to the puzzle was that capitalism was surviving only thanks to its military aggression. The prosperity of the West originated in blood. But Lenin was not the originator of the theory. The capitalists beat him to it. As Murray N. Rothbard explains in his History of Money and Banking in the United States, the idea began with a group of Republican Party theoreticians during the late Gilded Age, who were concerned that the falling rate of profits would cripple capitalism and that the only salvation was a forced opening of foreign markets to U.S. exports. These were the brain-trusters of Theodore Roosevelt, who heralded U.S. aggression against Spain in 1898. The same year, economist Charles Conant published "The Economic Basis of Imperialism" in the North American Review in 1898. He argued that there is too much savings in advanced countries, too much production, and not enough consumption, and this was crowding out profitable investment opportunities for the largest corporations. The best way to find new consumers and resources, he said, is to go abroad, using force, if necessary, to open up markets. Further, the U.S. industrial trusts then dominant on the landscape could be useful in promoting and waging war. This would cartelize American industry and increase profits. Hence, said Conant, "concentration of power, in order to permit prompt and efficient action, will be an almost essential factor in the struggle for world empire." While Lenin found imperialism for profit morally wrong, Conant found it praiseworthy, an inspiring plan of action. Indeed, many of his contemporaries also did. Boston's U.S. Investor argued that war is necessary to keep capital at work. An "enlarged field for its product must be discovered," and the best source "is to be found among the semi-civilized and barbarian races." By the turn of the century, this view had largely caught on in the economics profession, with even the eminent theorist John Bates Clark of Columbia praising imperialism for providing American business "with an even larger and more permanent profit." Today the same creed is captured in the pithy if chilling mantra of Friedman: "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist." Lenin couldn't have said it better. Joseph Nye of Harvard fleshes out the point: "To ignore the role of military security in an era of economic and information growth is like forgetting the importance of oxygen to our breathing." Historian Robert Kagan is even more brutally clear: "Good ideas and technologies also need a strong power that promotes those ideas by example and protects those ideas by winning on the battlefield." So there you have it: if you want to use a cell phone, you have to be willing to send your son to die for the U.S. imperium in a war against Iraq. And if you lose your son in battle, know that this was necessary in order to shore up U.S. domination of the world economy. This is the creed of the global social democrats who champion both military and economic globalization. With the communists and capitalists agreeing that war and prosperity are mutually dependent, how is a believer in peace and freedom to respond? While war can result in profit for a few, it is not the case that the entire system of a free economy depends on such wartime profiteering. Indeed, war comes at the expense of alternative uses of resources. To the extent that people are taxed to pay for armaments, property is diverted from its most valuable uses to purposes of destruction. Commerce Is Peaceful Indeed, the idea that commerce and war are allies is a complete perversion of the old liberal tradition. The first theorists of commerce from the 16th through the 18th centuries saw that a most meritorious aspect of commerce is its link to freedom and peace, that commerce made it possible for people to co-operate rather than fight. It made armaments and war less necessary, not more. What about the need to open foreign markets? The expansion of markets and the division of labor is always a wonderful thing. The more people involved in the overarching business of economic life, the greater the prospects for wealth creation. But force is hardly the best means to promote the co-operative and peaceful activity of trade, anymore than it is a good idea to steal your neighbor's mower to improve lawncare on your block. Bitterness and acrimony are never good business, to say nothing of death and destruction. In any case, the problem in Iraq is not that Iraq is somehow withholding its oil from the market. For ten years, and even before the first war on Iraq, its oil supplies have been available to the world. In one of the great ironies of modern war history, the first Bush administration waged war, it said, to keep Iraq from withholding its oil resources from world markets. The U.S. then proceeded to enforce a decade of sanctions that withheld most of Iraq's oil reserves from the market. The Solution We are not permitted to say this, but the solution to Iraq is at hand. Repeal sanctions and resume trade with Iraq. Oil prices would fall dramatically. Hatred of the U.S. would abate. The plight of Iraq could no longer be Exhibit A for terrorist recruitment drives. The only downside is that U.S. companies connected to the Bush administration would not be the owners of the oil fields but instead would have to compete with other producers. The idea of free enterprise is that everyone gets a chance, and no single industry or group of producers enjoys special privileges. Through competition and co-operation, but never violence, the living standards of everyone rise, and we all enjoy more of the life we want to live. It is not hard to understand, except in the corridors of the Bush administration, where theorists have linked arms with Leninists in the belief that war is always good, and always necessary, for business. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is president of the Mises Institute and editor of LewRockwell.com. Send him MAIL, and see his Mises.org Daily Articles Archive. A version of this article ran in the American Conservative. [Print Friendly Page] Subscribe to Mises Email List Services Join the Mises Institute Mises.org Store Home | About | Email List | Search | Contact Us | Periodicals | Articles | Games & Fun News | Resources | Catalog | Contributions | Freedom Calendar -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030109/71e521ac/attachment.html From aiindex at mnet.fr Fri Jan 10 06:17:37 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 01:47:37 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] The List by Geov Parrish Message-ID: http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0252/news-parrish.shtml Seattle Weekly December 25 - 31, 2002 The List by Geov Parrish I want a list. I want a full accounting of every weapon in the country. Not Iraq. I could give a fig about Iraq. It's dirt-poor, halfway around the world, almost completely disarmed, has no way to attack us, and knows that any move to threaten anyone would be instantly suicidal. America faces many threats. Iraq is not one. Among all the American-trained dictators plaguing the planet, Saddam is the least of our problems. I want a list of our weapons. After all, we pay for them--and pay and pay. And that was even before 9/11 and the giant sucking wound where the federal surplus once was. That money, yours and mine, went almost entirely for yet more weapons and the capacity to use them. I want an accounting. It's the United States, after all, that poses a threat, not just to its neighbors but countries anywhere in the world. Ask Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Serbia, Pakistan, Sudan, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Panama, Libya, or Grenada--all countries we've bombed or bullied in the past 20 years. It's the United States whose foreign policy now officially reserves the right to invade any place in the world for any reason or none at all. It's the United States that sells weapons to one or more sides of virtually every one of the five dozen or so wars now raging. It's America, with the oldest and biggest nuclear weapons program in the world, the U.S. alone, that has proudly used them. It's the United States that has shredded the world's arms-control structure, the U.S. that breaks international treaties the way other countries fund health care. Routinely. OURS ARE THE WEAPONS of choice for everyone from psychotic serial killers to jungle guerrillas to kleptocratic dictators the world round. Every American embassy makes it a priority to pay for the marketing, credit underwriting, and purchase of those weapons, and closes the deal. It's the U.S. that underwrites and trains intelligence agencies and secret police the world over, including any number of countries where state torture and murder are the norm. We pay for it all. I want a list. I want it in three weeks. I want to know every single weapon or potential weapon possessed by the United States. Not just the Pentagon. Every single agency, down to the Mint and the Library of Congress. If the Library of Congress' assistant medical archivist carries mace in her purse when she goes to the parking garage, I want to know. I also want every potential weapon government employees possess. Every firearm John Ashcroft and his NRA-loving appointees own, and everyone else down to the grade C-3 summer interns. That includes dual-use weapons, like nail files, or certain kitchen spices which, when mixed with a nasal decongestant, can produce a splotchy red rash. I want the list. All of it. No typos, please. But that's not all. It's not just our government that poses a threat to the world; corporate America does, too. If Coca-Cola doesn't constitute an invading army, I don't know what does. Therefore, I also want all of the weapons or potential weapons possessed by any entity that does business in the United States. Whether or not Americans own it. Air Botswana, this means you. That includes all employees and all subcontracting employees and agencies. Like Coke's Ouagadougou bottling plant. Can't be too careful. You've got three weeks. And it had better be complete. And indexed. OF COURSE, I DOUBT you'll cooperate. The Pentagon alone doesn't know what happened to billions of dollars. Accounting individually for every paper clip--after all, they're pointy--seems unlikely. I expect many companies won't fully cooperate, either. They'll claim proprietary information or some other lame excuse. Weasels. We'll have to do inspections, of course. Unannounced, accompanied by a battalion or two. When they object, we'll call it part of their sustained pattern of noncooperation. Have I mentioned that I retain the right to shoot down any aircraft that appear over the skies of Kentucky, Ohio, or Indiana? They'll probably pitch a fit about that, too. But then, that's what you'd expect from people whose love of power is so fierce that they'd willingly endanger their own people, right? After all, by inspiring billions of people to loathe America, it's you and I who are put at risk. We're the ones who'll walk past exploding hotels or work in collapsing office towers. We're the collateral damage. And we're paying for it, out of every paycheck. We pay for the carnage. Now and later. The least we can get is a list. Three weeks. gparrish at seattleweekly.com From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Fri Jan 10 14:58:45 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 01:28:45 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Film and dreams Message-ID: <20030110092845.11040.qmail@web41101.mail.yahoo.com> Dreams are often thought of as an archetypal process of the mind to which cultural production can be compared. Film theory has been particularly influenced by the possibility of comparing the image on the screen to the imagined drama of dreamlife. This article in Nature magazine shows that the process works the other way round too. People's accounts of their dreams are very much influenced by the way that they think the imaginary universe is "supposed" to look. Dreams used to look like tapestries or black and white film; now they are in colour. Perhaps slightly pixellated? R http://www.nature.com/nsu/021223/021223-4.html Electric dreams infect waking memories Black and white imagery makes dreams monochrome. 23 December 2002 JOHN WHITFIELD Spend too long watching old movies this holiday season, and your nightlife might seem a lot less colourful. When we are surrounded by black and white imagery, we think our dreams are monochrome, says a US philosopher. In surveys from the 1950s - the golden age of black and white - most said that their dreams were never or rarely in colour, found Eric Schwitzgebel of the University of California, Riverside1. Before and since, most have reported colourful dreams. The finding shows how little we know our own senses, says Schwitzgebel. "This is one piece of a general picture - our knowledge of our stream of experience is very poor." American dreaming in the Eisenhower era was no different to that in any other period, Schwitzgebel thinks. People were just more likely to believe that they dreamed in black and white, because that reflected the artificial dreams around them. Before the twentieth century, dreams were often compared to paintings or tapestries. We know little about what a dreaming brain is up to, comments neuroscientist Daniel Glaser of University College London. Brain scans of sleepers might show whether the brain regions that process colour vision are active during vivid dreams, he says. Another possibility is that dream colours are indeterminate, in the same way that a novelist can describe something without naming its colour. They would only become coloured, or not, in our waking reconstruction of them. When people say that they dream in black and white, they probably mean that they haven't noticed any colours, says psychologist Mark Blagrove of the University of Wales at Swansea, UK. Black and white dreaming is a concept borrowed from technology, he agrees. "The idea that things in dreams are in shades of grey has no meaning." Our waking perceptions of colour are just as fluid. Only the central patch of the retina can see in colour, yet we perceive the whole world as coloured. Our eyes jump around, and the brain fills in the gaps with memory or guesswork. "Our feeling that we see in colour could be akin to our perception of dreaming in colour," Glaser says. The media probably influence our dreaming lives as much now as they did in the 1950s. Few people mention touch in dreams, Schwitzgebel points out - that's why people pinch themselves to see if they're awake. But as entertainment becomes more immersive - with virtual reality providing tactile, as well as visual, stimulation - our dreams may come to seem more touchy-feely. "We might start thinking our dreams are really great," he says. References Schwitzgebel, E.Why did we think we dreamed in black and white? Studies in History and Philosophy of Science part A, 33, 649 - 660, (2002). |Article| __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Sat Jan 11 22:21:54 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 08:51:54 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Visas for Nirvana Message-ID: <20030111165154.52355.qmail@web20904.mail.yahoo.com> dear friends a piece on the meaning of our present world.. and the Great Nation State.. love..peace Lehar. Visas for Nirvana/Moksha By Lehar Name: Sanghamitra Profession: wanderer Purpose of visit: living the Dhamma Father�s name: Ashoka priyadarshi Goods to declare: None You are hereby given permission to stay for 3 weeks following which you�ll be asked to renew your visa. Imagine, this would be the scenario if Ashoka�s daughter Sanghamitra, who went to Sri Lanka to preach Buddhism were around. For this is one caste, One identity, which even The Enlightened One cannot free you from. Dalits can move caste by embracing Buddhism or Sikhism or whatever 'ism'..Persians traveled and settled in Jhumritalayya and caste Hindus crossed seas and settled in Singh pur (singapore) But this is one tag which never leaves you.. The tag of the nation state. Defy it and you�ll be punished for treason. You may not be a murderer. But you�ll get fate worse than.. The Gurus spoke of the One Truth .. casteless..Boundary less..Ek Omkar..They would never thought of the nation state. In the name of the nation state poor Kashmiris are being turned into guinea pigs while Two Nations test their Theory. And what�s Mr. Roshan Lal Sethi of Rawalpindi and �assi te Hindu pathan hegge� doing in Paschim Vihar? The nation state drove out him from his home. And what�s Lallan mian of Moradabad got to do with Karachi? He�d rather starve than live in the midst of those fiery punjabis/pathans and no tarbuz (water melons)..why do you think he cultivates his �Do bigha zameen� and gets called a minority (a muhajir on the other side) on top of that? It�s the Mother of all identities/ insertions..into ones identity. Of course everyone their loves their mother. And the land of one birth is one�s mother. But never has one�s mother been used for such laughable and ulterior motives.. We leave our mother behind when we enter the monastry..and don�t carry her on our head to the temple or the mosque..We don�t need to do that to show that we love her.. But in the nation state's case we do. The sense of identification.. which all seers/ Spiritual have been trying to break . for aeons.. Detach. Detach. break the caste thread..Do not identify..with this body..this name..this caste.. this self.. all goes to naught..when one is confronted with the Big I. Wars are fought in its name and millions slaughtered with clinical precision, in its glory. Countries enslave others and ravage their soil.. to enrich it. Dwarfs become enslavers to protect its boundaries..of with us or against us.. From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Sun Jan 12 17:37:32 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 04:07:32 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] OUTLOOK article: No Jehad in the Indian Faithful Message-ID: <20030112120732.47563.qmail@web20903.mail.yahoo.com> dear friends this message did not get through the first time..( apologies if its the second time) Subject: Outlook Article: No Jehad in the Indian Faithful Qoute: ..Indeed, KPS Gill believes that Indian Muslims could well lead the way in showing how a composite culture can be used to counter "hate ideology" in the years to come.. Despite having the second largest Muslim population in the world, the very diversity of India prevents the spread of such ideology," says K.P.S.Gill, former Punjab DGP and an acknowledged anti-terrorism expert. more on: this is very important in today's times..the myths need to be exposed to maintain India's democracy. From Outlook's New year issue( available online ) in the words of terrorism experts, KPS Gill and others. Best ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - 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: Fw: No Virus in the Faithful Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 >21:08:23 -0800 (PST) > > >Why don't such news items ever become the headlines? > >------------ > >No Virus In The Faithful Belying the Sangh's claims, experts say Indian >Muslims hold no jehadi sentiments > >RANJIT BHUSHAN (Outlook magazine) New Yr issue, Jan 2003 > >The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the rest of its parivar may still be on >a relentless hate campaign against the 'minorities', but it's now being >proffered that there are no jehadis in India. That is, if you leave >aberrant elements in Kashmir. At the end of a year when US investigators >and their allies have left no stone unturned in their hunt for Al Qaeda >terrorists, experts have reached an interesting conclusion: while the >Islamic terror network has been found to exist in Africa, Europe and Asia, >Indian Muslims have not been attracted by the jehad ideology. This, despite >the country having the world's second largest Muslim population (140-150 >million). > >Various other nationalities involved with Jehadi International Inc have >been identified, but Indians don't figure on the list. "Jehad here is >exported from Pakistan. There are no internal jehadis around. Despite >having the second largest Muslim population in the world, the very >diversity of India prevents the spread of such ideology," says K.P.S.Gill, >former Punjab DGP and an acknowledged anti-terrorism expert. Indeed, Gill >believes that Indian Muslims could well lead the way in showing how a >composite culture can be used to counter "hate ideology" in the years to >come. According to Gill, subversive activities tending to the jehadi kind, >if any, remain localised and can be contained. > >Points out Ajai Sahni of the New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict >Management: "The (absence of) jehadi culture here is best illustrated >vis-a-vis Kashmir. In the over 10 years of terrorism in the state, there >hasn't been a single non-Kashmiri (Muslim) from any other part of India >involved in the so-called jehad or militancy." > >India's list of 'Islamic' terrorists begins and ends with the Dawood >Ibrahims and Aftab Ansaris of the world�basically criminal mafia >unconnected to any ideology of any kind, but quite acive in urban areas. >The closest to jehadis here have been organisations like the Students >Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) linked to Saudi-based bodies, the World >Assembly of Muslim Youth and the now-banned Rabita. Outfits with similar >inclinations can be found in the South too. Despite a lot of sound and >fury, particularly with the arrest of its activists in UP, SIMI remains on >the margins, unable to attract the kind of talent needed to achieve their >objectives. "Organisations like SIMI are aberrations," points out Sahni. > >Security analyst Kulbir Krishan explains: "Unlike other parts of the world, >the average Muslim here knows the power of his vote, and despite the >alienation in some pockets, there is no state-sponsored discrimination. >That's a very big difference." According to him, due to lower levels of >education, an overwhelming majority of Muslims do not opt for jobs with the >government or private companies, mainly sticking to the unorganised sector. >Also, their customers are largely Hindu. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims >interact and do business with the Hindus on a daily basis, so despite the >general impression of a gulf, there is an open line of communication at >most times. > >Not that there hasn't been any provocation for the Muslim community. >Experts say that a delicate moment in India's history came in the aftermath >of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. There was then a sense of >insecurity amongst the minority community with groups of youngsters mainly >from western UP contemplating taking to violence. But soon the UP elections >came in which the bjp was routed and emotions cooled down. The Gujarat >story is part of this kind of provocation. But the remarkable fact is that >despite the violence in Gujarat, the rest of the country remained calm. > >Even though the CIA releases periodic lists of possible Al Qaeda-style >jehadis, an Indian is yet to be named, even though they can be found in the >neighbourhood, ie Pakistan and Bangladesh. > >In the light of all this, the VHP's attempts to raise the spectre of >Indian-born jehadis just does not wash. "The VHP is basically attempting to >garner votes and divide society for their cause. It has very little to do >with jehadis of any kind," says a Union home ministry official, who deals >with militancy. > >In the days to come, with crucial assembly elections ahead in nine states >(till 2004), the jehadi factor will undoubtedly get closer attention, both >from the Sangh fraternity and the anti-Sangh activists still smarting from >the bjp victory in Gujarat. Now, what the average Indian must realise is >that there is little truth in the verbal pyrotechnics that the Sangh >parivar periodically indulges in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - 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 benjamin_lists at typedown.com Tue Jan 14 01:11:06 2003 From: benjamin_lists at typedown.com (Benjamin Fischer) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 19:41:06 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Erweitere Dein Bewusstsein - Stuttgarter Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media Message-ID: English version see below Erweitere Dein Bewusstsein - Stuttgarter Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media Festival: 16.-19. Januar 2003 Warm Up: 9.-15. Januar 2003 http://www.filmwinter.de Entdecke die Moeglichkeiten! Der Stuttgarter Filmwinter findet vom 16.-19. Januar statt. Bereits am 14. Januar eroeffnet das Ex-IKEA in der Kronenstr. 36 mit einer Auswahl an Medieninstallationen seine Pforten. Die Vernissage beginnt um 20 Uhr. Im Anschluss legt das monoton-Team auf. Das Festival mit den diversen Kurzfilmprogrammen beginnt dann am Donnerstag, den 16. Januar um 20 Uhr, im Stuttgarter Filmhaus, Friedrichstr. 23 A. Neben dem internationalen Kurzfilmwettbewerb gibt es zahlreiche Medienkunst-Veranstaltungen. Beim DASDING-Publikumspreis Internet kannst Du selbst abstimmen unter http://www.dasding.de/community/events/archiv/filmwinter/ und die beste Website auszeichnen. Die Abstimmung laeuft bis zum 19. Januar um 12 Uhr. Das Themenprogramm *Erdung - Neue Heimatgefuehle in der Medienkunst* beschaeftigt sich im weitesten Sinne mit Globalisierung und Identitaet. Welche Role spielen in der heutigen Gesellschaft geographische und emotionale Orte? *Gegenspieler - Narrative Subversion in Computerspielen* beschaeftigt sich mit der Verbindung Film und Computerspielen und spuert dem Trend der *Machinimas* nach. Ausserdem gibt es zum Ausklang der Filmwinter-Abende noch ein wunderschoenes Musikprogramm, u.a. mit Vert (Koeln), DJ Bleed (Berlin), DJ ARJ Snoek (Koeln), Institut fuer Feinmotorik (Freiburg), DJ Werner (Stuttgart), 3 Normal Bealtes (Hamburg) und DJ Stanley Ipkiss (Hamburg). Alle Programminfos findet Ihr unter http://www.filmwinter.de. Ausserdem gibt es einen 160-seitigen zweisprachigen Festivalkatalog. Herzlichst, Wanda ***** Expand your mind - Stuttgart Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media Festival: January 16-19, 2003 Warm Up: January 9-15, 2003 http://www.filmwinter.de Explore the possibilities! The Stuttgart Filmwinter takes place from January 16-19. Already on the 14th the venue Ex-IKEA (Kronenstreet 36) opens the doors for the exhibition of selected media installations. The opening starts at 8 p.m. - followed by a DJ set of the monoton-team. The festival with its various shortfilm programmes starts at January 16 at 8 p.m. in the Stuttgart Filmhaus, Friedrichstreet 23 A. Besides the International short film competition various media presentations and special programmes take place. At the DASDING-Audience Award for Internet you can vote for the best websites. Please visit: http://www.dasding.de/community/events/archiv/filmwinter/ The voting ends on Sunday, January 19 at 12 a.m. Under this year*s headword *Grounding*, Wand 5 traces trends in film and media art as well as technological and social developments. Which roles inhere geographical and emotional places in today*s media society? How do digital technologies change identity models, attached to real spaces? Is there a corrective to the trends of mobilization and globalization? *Counterplots - Narrative Subversion in Computer Games* deals with the relation between film and computer games and highlights the *Machinima*-trend. Besides every evening there will be the legendary Filmwinter-parties. This time we have invited: Vert (Cologne), DJ Bleed (Berlin), DJ ARJ Snoek (Cologne), Institut fuer Feinmotorik (Freiburg), DJ Werner (Stuttgart), 3 Normal Bealtes (Hamburg), and DJ Stanley Ipkiss (Hamburg). All programme information and facts you find on our website http://www.filmwinter.de. A 160-page, bilingual festival catalogue with detailled information is available, too. Greetings, Wanda From yazadjal at vsnl.net Tue Jan 14 11:12:52 2003 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 11:12:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The President Is Insane Message-ID: <008d01c2bb90$3efdcb60$450741db@vsnl.net.in> Very interesting rationale of why Bush & other US Presidents are so pro-surveillance. -yazad > > The President Is Insane > by William Stone, III > > At one time or another, you've stared at someone and wondered, "What in > the heck are they THINKING?" More and more often, this happens when I see > government functionaries: Presidents, Congressmen, Senators, their staffs > and sycophants. "What are they thinking?" is not a frivolous question: > in a very real way, no human being can ever truly see the perspective of > another, simply because it is impossible to actually step into another > person's shoes. We can IMAGINE what the other person's life is like, but we > can never truly KNOW. > > This is, of course, exactly why libertarianism and the Zero Aggression > Principle works as spectacularly as it does. The ZAP as a personal > philosophy recognizes that we cannot truly know what the other guy is > thinking: all that matters is that he doesn't harm others in the process of > pursuing his goals. Libertarianism as a political philosophy works because > it is derived from the ZAP and applies it on a political level. > > Nevertheless, the Statist mind refuses to accept the rather obvious fact that > one person can never really get inside the mind of another. They believe > that the complex problems, motivations, and goals of every individual are > easy to understand, therefore it is the province of government to assist the > individual in any way possible. > > Statists simply cannot understand that individual lives are far too complex > for anyone but the person living it to understand. For this reason, it is > impossible for someone else's life to be as important as your own. > > This is an important distinction between the Statist and the libertarian. > Failure to understand this concept is indicative of a serious disconnection > from reality. > > Indeed, this marks Statists as INSANE. > > To justify this idea, let's look at the leading Statist in the United States, > King George III. > > (By way of explanation: > > (King George I was America's first autocrat. In 1787, a Constitutional > Convention was called to make some specific revisions to the Articles of > Confederation. Via backdoor maneuvering, the Articles were abolished > entirely and the Constitution adopted, creating the strong Federal government > that is now the bane of every American's existence. Chief among the powers > of the new Federal government was taxation, which King George I tried out > only six years later and which resulted in the Whiskey Rebellion. > > (We've been suffering the consequences of George's successful quelling of > that uprising ever since. > > (Similarly, King George II ruled America from 1988-1992. His son George III > currently sits on the throne.) > > The individual in the office is largely irrelevant. The chief executive has > been insane since the ink was wet on the Constitution, though it's clear > that in the last century they've become increasingly paranoid and psychotic. > Nor is insanity specific to the United States: every President, Prime > Minister, and King since the dawn of time has shared the delusion. > > On the subject of the President, consider this: for the power afforded him > by the office, George III is willing to become a prisoner for the duration of > his term of office -- and for most of the rest of his LIFE. > > This is no exaggeration. Do you think that the President can hop in the Ford > and run down to the local Seven-Eleven to pick up a six-pack at 2:00 in the > morning if the mood strikes? Never mind that there are servants to perform > this kind of task -- the fact is that the President CANNOT do it. Case in > point: > > During George II's reign, I worked as an international courier. As was > often the case, one evening found me at Pierson International Airport in > Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was about midnight, and I was lounging around > the deserted cargo docks of the airport, awaiting my deliveries to clear > customs. Bush had been in Toronto that day and was leaving at about the > same time I was lounging around the outer customs door. > > There was a helicopter circling overhead, which I knew was part of the > Presidential security. > > Ordinarily, a major airport like Pierson International has a constant > background hum of jet engines, either idling, taking off, or landing. > Suddenly, every jet on the ground cut its engines and the airport went > eerily silent. I glanced up and around, wondering what had happened. I > reflexively looked off toward the horizon and up into the distance, > scanning for the line of aircraft lights that would be planes on final > approach. There were none -- traffic was orbiting well away from Pierson. > Neither were any aircraft taking off. > > I took several steps out into the parking lot. The helicopter circling over > me instantly halted and trained a floodlight on me. I had the good sense to > freeze and keep my hand by my sides. > > The noise of a single aircraft engine powering up, taxiing, and then finally > taking off became audible. I watched Air Force One leave the ground. Within > seconds of takeoff, the floodlight winked out, the helicopter sped away, > and every aircraft on the ground powered up its engines. I glanced into > the distance and could see aircraft lining up for landing again. > > All of this was deemed necessary by the President's guards simply so that he > could fly from Toronto to Washington. Hundreds of thousands of dollars lost > due to the procedure, and force was initiated against literally thousands of > individuals. > > Clearly, the President is a prisoner of his office. > > Further, in order for the Secret Service to adequately guard the President, > they must know his whereabouts and activities twenty-four hours a day, > seven days a week, for four to eight YEARS. > > Do you want to know why Bill Clinton was so keen to keep the Secret Service > from testifying before the Grand Jury? Because they knew exactly what he > was up to. They had to, in order to protect him. > > Think of it: the President is watched and monitored -- for security reasons > -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. No wonder King George > III has absolutely no qualms about subjecting the rest of us to the kind of > constant surveillance that he endures: he's so inured to it himself that he > doesn't understand that it's totally immoral. > > It goes far beyond that, however: if you're the President, your guards know > when you and your wife went to bed, how long you had sex, and -- in all > likelihood -- if you were both satisfied. This is not an exaggeration. In > my relatively small household of myself, my wife, and two daughters, it's > difficult to keep the generalities of my sex life from the children. They > don't even WANT to know what we're up to, yet they have inadvertently > interrupted our activities on occasion. By comparison, the White House is > FILLED with Secret Service agents whose sole job is to know where the > President is and what he's doing 24x7x365. > > These represent restrictions on freedom and intrusions of privacy that any > normal, sane individual would find impossible to live with. > > Anyone who wants the power of the Presidency so badly that they don't care who > knows the details of their sex life is either power-mad or a potential guest > on the Jerry Springer Show. > > Why would anyone put up with such intrusions of privacy? Certainly sheer, > raw, naked power is an important factor. If you derive pleasure from making > life-or-death decisions that impact hundreds of millions of individuals > around the world, then the Presidency might look attractive. Unrestricted > access to sex with anyone at any time also drives them, something that > Clinton so aptly demonstrated. He was hardly the first: a sizable percentage > of elected representatives keep mistresses and/or have sex with their > subordinates. > > However, it's clear that some individuals aren't power-mad or sex-crazed -- at > least not when they first arrive in Washington. What motivates them? > > Insanity. They believe that human beings function best when they are given a > list of rules and regulations to be followed. They believe that humans need > to be ruled, either by individuals in the local town hall, the state Capital, > or Washington. Their minds are so twisted that they block out a thousand > years' worth of evidence to the contrary. > > Politicians -- with only a tiny handful of exceptions -- overlook the > evidence of reality in favor of a clever fantasy that they've devised. > > They are INSANE. > > What other word is there for individuals who block out and ignore reality, > engaging in activities that are actively harmful to themselves and others? > The fact that their fantasy is widely-accepted is irrelevant. Imagine for a > moment that a sizable portion of the population believed that the Earth was > flat, in abject denial of several hundred years' evidence to the contrary. > Such individuals are clearly insane, since they reject reality in favor of > fantasy. > > Politicians are no different. They reject reality in favor of a > self-indulgent fantasy. They are insane. > > Remember this the next time some Statist gives you a list of how they will > make your life better by all the laws they'll pass if only they're elected: > > Laws don't make your life better: they make it WORSE. Any politician who > promises to make your life better by making more laws is insane. > > ----- > > William Stone, III is a computer nerd (RHCE, CCNP, CISSP) and philosopher of > the Zero Aggression Principle from McCook Lake, South Dakota. He seeks the > Libertarian Party's nomination for the 2004 Senate race in South Dakota. From amc at autonomous.org Tue Jan 14 14:01:27 2003 From: amc at autonomous.org (Amanda McDonald Crowley) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 14:01:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: [oldboys] Geography and the Politics of Mobility In-Reply-To: Message-ID: ------ Forwarded Message From: Cornelia Sollfrank Reply-To: oldboys at lists.ccc.de Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 16:51:22 +0100 To: oldboys at lists.ccc.de Subject: [oldboys] Geography and the Politics of Mobility Geography and the Politics of Mobility Bureau d’études | Frontera Sur RRVT | Makrolab | multiplicity | Raqs Media Collective January 17 trough April 27, 2003 Generali Foundation Wiedner Hauptstrasse 15 1040 Vienna Phone (+43 1) 504 98 80 Fax (+43 1 ) 504 98 83 found.office at generali.at http://foundation.generali.at Image: Bangkok Skytrain, Ursula Biemann, 2001 Geography and the Politics of Mobility Bureau d’études | Frontera Sur RRVT | Makrolab | multiplicity | Raqs Media Collective The exhibition presents five collective and recently produced art projects to examine the concept of “geography” in a way that goes beyond its geo-scientific definition. The increasing circulation of people, goods, and data is creating new cultural, social, and virtual landscapes that inscribe themselves materially in the terrain. Here, geography is seen as a model of thought for concepts of boundaries, connectivity and transgression within society. The exhibition takes a critical look at an increasingly consolidated Europe as well as its borders and at the same time presents emerging formations of artistic and activist “geographies”. Makrolab is a temporary, autonomous art-science laboratory initiated by the Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan. It provides changing participants with means to listen into data from around the world under isolated conditions. So far this nomadic research and residential unit has been stationed at Documenta X in Kassel, in Slovenia, on Rottnest Island in Australia, and in the Scottish highlands. The project group Frontera Sur RRVT examines the Spanish-Moroccan border as an area for mobility motivated by various causes. A complex system of forces has emerged there that raises questions of gender, ethnic filters and debates about migration and labor. The multi-video work A/S/L (Age/Sex/Location) by Raqs Media Collective from Delhi maps the “time geography” of shifting identities in the New Economy. It addresses the gendered conditions of the new data outsourcing agent: the online working woman, who is the quintessential “digital proletarian” of the 21st century. The artist duo Bureau d'études from Paris conceives gigantic maps that disclose an increasingly interconnected network of data-gathering systems involving the military, energy and biochemical sectors as well as the entertainment, information and social surveillance systems. Their pictographic installation World Monitoring Atlas transfers the “politics of space” to an abstract level. The Milan based collective multiplicity proposes Case 01 and 02 of their ongoing Solid Sea project on the nature of the Mediterranean and the fluxes that cross it. While Europe reformulates its borders, multiplicity presents the Mediterranean as a solid space that is traversed by vessels and individuals holding different statuses. A publication in German and English will accompany the exhibition. It will contain a foreword by Dieter Karner, an editorial by Sabine Breitwieser, and texts by Ursula Biemann, Brian Holmes, Lisa Parks, Irit Rogoff, and the artists. For further information please go to: http://foundation.generali.at/ind ex_e.htm Press office: Susanne Buder (+43 1) 504 98 80 ext. 24, found.presse at generali.at Artistic and Managing Director: Dr. Sabine Breitwieser -- ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ___ ___ ___ www. ||a |||r |||t |||w |||a |||r |||e |||z || .org ||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|| |/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\| the ultimate sanity in art! --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: oldboys-unsubscribe at lists.ccc.de For additional commands, e-mail: oldboys-help at lists.ccc.de ------ End of Forwarded Message From narender224 at rediffmail.com Sat Jan 11 20:49:57 2003 From: narender224 at rediffmail.com (narender kumar thakur) Date: 11 Jan 2003 15:19:57 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20030111151957.3747.qmail@webmail17.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030111/fc7f5dce/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- Dear friends, > The copy of research proposal has been given here. Please > comment on it, this will help and enrich my study, and efficient > and optimal use my and CSDS/Sarai resources.Basically ,I am > working on Daily Labour Market(Labour Chowck) in Delhi.I want to > explore my research to find out the correlation between > communication,information and daily labour market in mega city, > Delhi. > With Regards > Narender Thakur > #224, Sutlej Hostel > JNU,ND-67 > Ph.011-26185393 Daily Labour Market (Labour Chowk) in Delhi Introduction In all urban centers there are several squares where daily-wage job seekers gather in the morning and eagerly wait for prospective buyers of their labor power. The buyers may be petty contractors or direct employers. The laborers compete among themselves to offer the lowest supply price of their labor power. They are hired for day’s work or few days of work. Those who fail to get a job offer at the squares on a particular day even resort to hawking around in the vicinity of the square in the hope of being spotted by prospective hirers. At times, while hawking, the laborers shout out aloud their occupations and the offer of their labor power. The entire process of job search, from squatting to hawking closely resembles the buying and selling that takes place in any commodity market. The scene is akin to a ‘haat’ (weekly market) or, say, the hawkers at railway platforms announcing the sale of groundnuts or tea. Such labor markets have existed and do exist at different stages of capitalist development. In 19th century England it was the stage of relative surplus value extraction when similar markets appeared. As noted by Marx (1887): In the notorious district of Benthal Green, a public market is held every Monday and Tuesday morning, where children of both sexes from nine years of age upwards, hire themselves out to the milk manufacturers. The contract is binding only for a week. He quotes the Children Employment Commission: The scene and language while this market is going on are quite disgraceful. In Delhi: There are a lot of numbers of migrants working in Delhi. There are different pull and push factors of this internal migration Most of the migrants are coming from North India especially from Bihar, U.P. These migrants are throw either by the unemployment conditions in the country-side or attracted by the information received about employment opportunities in the urban area (mega city of India; Delhi) In Delhi like other mega cities the process of globalization has been introduced in 1991.The procedure of divestment of industries most of the workers are influenced. They are losing their jobs from the public enterprises. And it is not easy access for new-comer to getting job. Similarly, most of the migrants are looking/searching for work. I can frame the research questions to explore my proposed study in Daily Labor Market’ “Labor Chowk” in Delhi. Research Questions 1. What was the source of information about work/square opportunities in Delhi, when laborers were living in their native place? 2. How they are communicating to their families in their native villages, what is the source of communication? How they are managing their relationship among those who are working in Delhi? 3. What type of media they used for getting regular information about their native place? 4. How they got information about work and square (Labor Chowk) after coming in Delhi? Which media they prefer? Radio, Television, newspapers, etc? 5. Is there any mediator (Thekadar) who is controlling their labor supply? (What is the role of Thekadar between laborers and employer?) 6. What is the source of information of derived demand for labor, to Thekadar (mediator)? 7. Are they changing their squares from one place to another in Delhi (according to high probability of getting work/wages at particular Square, how they are getting information about probability of getting work and wages?) (It is a question of mobility) 8. How they are communicating with their employer and mediator? 9. How they enjoy? How they celebrate their festivals? 10. How the mediator and employer are communicating? 11. How much money they spent for their livelihood? And how much money they save for remittance? Are they save their money in bank, or they keep with their relatives? And how they remit their money which channel they used? And for what purposes? (Investment), Period, on monthly basis or annual? 12. What is the estimated earning per week/month and working hours per day? 13. What is the nature of skill of laborers at present and in past? 14. How they are going to their “Labor-Chowk (Means of transport). 15. How they will manage their earnings to remit in their countryside? 16. Is there significant correlation between information and work opportunities? 17. What is the level of educational background and informal training of migrants? What is the gender and caste distribution/composition 18. How they are coming in Delhi (means of transport) 19. Are they organized politically and socially? (Member of Trade Union etc.) We can frame the objectives and hypotheses with the help of research questions that have been explained above. But it is matter of word limit that is why we are limiting ourselves here. Methodology The methodological exercise for the study may be begun with a census of all such squares in Delhi that represent the Daily Labor Market; “Labor Chowk”, which showed that there are 99 squares of this kind in the entire urban area. However, the selection may be made on account of location advantage. Nevertheless, the sample must be randomly selected to represent population/universe We can apply the pre-tested questionnaire in the specific study. We can also interviewed to the workers/laborers and mediator (thekadar) I have personally visited three “Labor Chowk” in Delhi. Those are located; i) Kingsway Camp “Labor Chowk” near Delhi University, North Delhi ii) Munrika “Labor Chowk” near Jawaharlal Nehru University, South Delhi iii) Mayur Vihar “Labor Chowk” near Maharaja Agersain College of Delhi University in Trans- Yamuna Area of East Delhi ___________________________________ From rajarambhadu at yahoo.co.in Sun Jan 12 14:39:28 2003 From: rajarambhadu at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?rajaram=20bhadu?=) Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 09:09:28 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] research proposal for suggestions : Cultural study of urban slums in Jaipur city Message-ID: <20030112090928.36076.qmail@web8204.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear All Here my sarai independent research proposal for your suggestions. I look forward your views and reactions. Cultural study of urban slums in Jaipur city This study will focus on cultural changingtransitions in urban slums of Jaipur city. In this study, I want to explore some cultural aspects of selected slum communities. In this context, I will try to identify the changing cultural forms of the communities residing in the slums. The cultural interactives and impressions among the different communities will be investigates. The major factors and processes of deculturization and acculturization will be covered in the study. To explore new culture forms and innovation generates through interactions within communities and among the communities will be the part of this study. To search out alternative cultural strategies and programmes for active intervention between slum communities also is the part of my assignment. In my consideration this type of study about slums still is not available. These families/communities are migrated and displaced. These are marginalized and disjointed groups of the people. Here any social control and value structure is not effective. In this study, I will document the struggle of recognition and identify crisis of these communities. The role of religion, rationality, language and caste-its confect and harmony-will be covered with various dimension. There are many questions which many be addressed in this reference. What sort of change takes place the sexual behavior of women after the erosion of social control and tabbu? How far this cultural vacuum is responsible for addiction to gambling and having drupes in the people? What type of power structure and gangsterings are developing in them? How far education, media and NGO's have been able to decrease their mentalities of parasite living? Are some new cultural procedures or cultural forms emerging in these slums? These and other such question necessitate to answer and to have a profound insight of this cultural phenomena. In reference of social quarries about Jaipur slums, there are some notable studies also. One of these Shail Mayaram, study in which she unveils the increasing tension of communal bias and ghettoization among Hindu and Muslim habitation. (communal violence in Jaipur, IDS, 1993). Recently a study done by Jean Draize covered the hardships of rural poor who are rushing toward this metropolitan city from frequently famine-ridden areas. Beyond this type of empirical studies, the increasing trend of family suicide among urban poor still awaited as burning issue to be studied. During past few years several studies and surreys on urban slums have been conduct in Jaipur. Most of them focused on educational requirements and to have upto date knowledge of health programme by govt. and Non Govt. agencies. But these have limited to the extent of preparing a base line. Department of education Rajasthan, Unicef (Rajasthan) and Bodh Shiksha Samiti conducted a baseline study of slums in Jaipur 1998 for govt. of India and United Nations, education programme. This study reveals the facts that the total population of Jaipur i.e. 22,02,645 consists of those 30% population i.e. 6,60943 who lived invariably in slums. Where the urban population growth rate is in between 4 to 6 %, the population of slums is growing at the rate of 30 percent. According to the study there are 279 slums at present in Jaipur city. The study indicates lack of essential civil amenities in these slums. The existence of Govt. Schools only in 74 slums out of 279 clearly shows their poor civil conditions. An over all exodus of rural population towards the city in search of livelihood seems to be the only authentic cause behind this speedily expansion of slums. Apparently they come from different socio-cultural and religious backgrounds. They have struggle hard here to work and earn livelihood. These slums can be seen by dividing them in four types according to the stages of development. 1. First type of such slums basically, consists of depressed casts such as – Harijan Bastis, marginalised from the city and other families which have also settled in them. These are comparatively older habitations. 2. Second type of slums have acquired stability after a specific period of time. They have got themselves regularized by forming a vote-bank and then putting a hard pressure on the government. A particular type of social order has begun to gain a ground here. 3. Third type of slums is those which are passing through a temporary phase and have no clear communitarian image. 4. This type has come into existence after the declaration of Jaipur as a"Heritage City". Some of the slums under this scheme have been displaced from their original site and established at a new place for the sake of beautifying the city. Later three types of slums will be taken up for study. Second type of regular slums have mainly one community in majority such as Nepalis, Muslims, Paharis or Bengalis etc. One such slum will be selected. One each from third and fourth type of slums will be taken up which have more than one community. One of the reasons of leaving aside the first type of colony is that here generally the process of saskritization taking place which is familiar. The nature of the study will be interdisciplinary and action reach mode. The study will be inspired by approach of sabaltern studies, gender studies and methodology of anthropogical studies as well as other knowledge bases. For framing socio-economic perspective of the three selected slums secondary date and material available already will be studies and analyzed. Interviews and focus group discussions with adult men, women and adolescents will be major device of the methodology. Some family history will be traced to know the detailed about past and present cultured practices. The content and formalistic study will be part of the research for analyze different cultural forms and narratives comparatively i.e. past and present life of concerning community. Participatory observation of cultural actions, performances and practices of slum communities will be essential for the research. Raja Ram Bhadu 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/20030112/e463377a/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Proposal.doc Type: application/msword Size: 29696 bytes Desc: Proposal.doc Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030112/e463377a/attachment.doc From aiindex at mnet.fr Tue Jan 14 22:29:15 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 17:59:15 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] NY Times: Steal This Book? A Publisher Is Making It Easy Message-ID: The New York Times January 13, 2003 Steal This Book? A Publisher Is Making It Easy By STEVE LOHR he counterculture rules of the open-source software community are edging into mainstream book publishing, thanks to Bruce Perens. Prentice Hall is publishing a line of computer books, the "Bruce Perens' Open Source Series." The first titles have already arrived for sale in bookstores like Barnes & Noble, and the electronic versions are expected to be available online soon afterward - and to be free. All the books - a total of six are planned for this year - will be published not under a traditional copyright but under the Open Publication License, which was created in 1999 by David Wiley, an assistant professor at Utah State University. The license allows people to copy, modify and redistribute works. It is modeled after the General Public License for software, which sets the rules for information-sharing and reuse of code for the GNU Linux operating system (www.opencontent.org). Advertisement "If you want to take one these books, put it on a photocopy machine and make copies, that's cool," said Mr. Perens, a leading open-source advocate. Such practices make most publishers cringe and call their lawyers. But Prentice Hall, acknowledging the risk of lost sales, says the experiment is a worthwhile attempt to earn good will and gain readers among the growing ranks of programmers who work with open-source software like Linux and the Apache Web server. The front-runner among publishers of books for open-source programmers is O'Reilly & Associates, which publishes most of its books under traditional copyright. In open-source projects, groups of programmers voluntarily develop, debug and modify the code. The software is free. But Linux companies like Red Hat and SuSE Linux charge their customers, who buy the software in boxes that include the code on CD-ROM's along with explanatory manuals. Similarly, Prentice Hall, a unit of Pearson, is charging for the books, printed on paper with CD's attached. The first two titles, "The Linux Development Platform" and "Embedded Software Development with eCos," are priced at $49.99 each. (ECos is an open-source operating system developed for wireless devices like cellphones and remote controls.) The free electronic versions of the books will be available in a couple of months - a delay intended to ensure that another publisher does not just make copies and beat Prentice Hall to stores at, say, half the price. For Mr. Perens, the book series is a way to encourage the spread of open-source software by supplying better written instruction for programmers - who generally do not get their kicks from documenting their labors. "We've been saying we've got great software, but we don't actually have very good documentation," he said. The electronic versions of the books, Mr. Perens added, can be frequently updated, and the authors can edit readers' contributions. He considers the series - in which his role is mainly selecting books and setting policy - to be a step toward broadening the application of open-source principles. "We are expanding the scope of collaborative works beyond software," Mr. Perens said. In the past, individual books have been published under the Open Publication License at the insistence of individual authors like Mr. Perens. But Mark L. Taub, an editor in Prentice Hall's professional and technical book division, termed the Perens series a "strategic commitment" to a continuing line of books with the open license. There is nothing to prevent programmers from waiting a couple of months to download copies of the books free rather than buying them. But Mr. Perens, a member of the digital avant-garde, predicts that serious programmers will buy the books for $50 each. Why? "People like paper," he said. Even though photocopying the entire book or making a printout of the electronic version would violate no copyright law, Prentice Hall is betting that most people will not bother, preferring to pay for the convenience of the book itself. Anthony J. Massa, a programmer and author of "Embedded Software Development with eCos," agrees. "I personally like having the printed version of a bound book in front of me," he said. -- From tbyfield at panix.com Tue Jan 14 23:05:46 2003 From: tbyfield at panix.com (t byfield) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 12:35:46 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It In-Reply-To: <20030107231308.GB17669@monkeyfist.com> References: <01b701c2b619$87b7c300$c51241db@vsnl.net.in> <20030107224024.GA3931@panix.com> <20030107231308.GB17669@monkeyfist.com> Message-ID: <20030114173546.GB17695@panix.com> kendall at monkeyfist.com (Tue 01/07/03 at 05:13 PM -0600): > > the US has almost 300 million people in it, and is famously -- and > > truly -- fantastically diverse. anyone who makes a blanket general- > > ization like 'blacks and whites don't want to live together' about > > this population is either an idiot or an ideologue, and maybe even > > *both*. > > Since roughly the point at American apartheid *formally* ended for African > Americans, with passage of the Civil Rights and Voting acts of the early and > mid-60s, followed by spasms of civil unrest in successive summers in big <...> i agree very much with your analysis, but i don't think it's an adequate explanation -- by which i mean that it's the truth, just not (as they say the courts say here) the *whole* truth. nor is what follows. more specifically, your explanation of white 'flight' is couched mainly in negative terms, as whites escaping from a perceived inundation of non- whites in cities. but the cultural evaluations of the urban and rural poles of america have a much more complex history; and central to that history is a much more *positive* evaluation of ex-urban areas. one need only think of the glorification of america's 'west,' of thoreau, etc, etc, to realize that the idealization of non-urban areas pre-dates the enfran- chisement of blacks in the 60s. i don't mean to present or accept these 'positive' or 'negative' evalu- ations as simplistic, because they're not -- at all. in fact (or at least imo), much of american cultural history is informed, even defined in part, by anti-cosmopolitanism, anti-urbanism, anti-intellectualism, and so on (when was the last time you met an american who'd admit to being an 'in- tellectual' in, say, the way a french person might?). of course, these values don't merely express themselves as negations of the things they condemn; instead, they vaunt 'positive' objects and ideals as what ani- mates them. so, while it's patently true that an awful lot of whites did everything within their power to avoid -- gasp! -- actually having to peaceably co- exist with non-whites in cities, that trend had a very well-established cultural vocabulary with which to express itself. and the fact that we can find precursors and non-obvious aspects in some of these phenomena shouldn't be taken as proving that there wasn't at least a bit of honesty in the naive explanations that were proferred. america's west is a myth, to be sure, but it's also stunningly beautiful. cheers, t From areflagan at artpanorama.com Wed Jan 15 00:50:00 2003 From: areflagan at artpanorama.com (Are Flagan) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 14:20:00 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It In-Reply-To: <20030114173546.GB17695@panix.com> Message-ID: Re: 1/14/03 12:35, "t byfield" : > america's west is a myth, to be sure, but it's also stunningly beautiful. Which goes a long way to explain why the fastest growing city in America is Las Vegas...and why the Hoover dam now looks like LANDmark on both sides (when we passed in Jan.) thanks to the drought and all those pretty lights on the strip...and why paths in Yosemite are busier with fully equipped summer camp white kids than the zebra crossings in uptown NY...and why it costs $50 for a season pass to nature's ranger policed and managed finest...and why every gas guzzling 4WD SUV ad is set in a crimson sunset...and why the Native American rez is a study in despair, even with casino money to play with and fast food for winter...and why so much beautiful terrain is great for "n-u-k-l-e-a-r" (Bushy phonetics) testing, unless you live downwind...and you get the other postcard... American cultural history is not primarily informed or defined by anti-urbanism and anti-cosmopolitanism; it is informed by imperial expropriation of the frontier and exploitative progress to and beyond breaking points. (Same thing, different words.) But let's not twist our tongues into nonsense the way many Americans do to profess their anti-intellectualism, which, even in less subtle terms that I agree with, is the mounting character of this nation. (The anti- prefix t employs throughout, however, has seen much widespread use lately, as anyone who questions the justifying nonsense of this upcoming war, even those who fundamentally asks what problem it is actually supposed to solve and how, is hit with the blanket label of being anti-American (with "us" or against "us"). How, and not necessarily in which terms, America chooses to define itself these days says something about its current substance, and this finger pointing back and forth to an increasingly vacant core (inhabited by struggling or bust yet powerful corporations and balding eagles with highly flammable flags behind them) is an insult to the knowledge and skills and beauty etc. that the US of A possesses. It is overdue time to ditch and dismiss the anti- fix for nothing and reclaim some other defining terms...) All IMO, -af From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Wed Jan 15 14:52:07 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 01:22:07 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Screenings of Destiny Message-ID: <20030115092207.41982.qmail@web20910.mail.yahoo.com> friends help/ ideas and recomnedations are welcome on the screening of the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by Egypt's greatest director, Yousuf Chahine: La destine/ Destiny/ Al Masir winner of the Golden Palm at Cannes. (if anyone has an extra copy, that will also be helpful) screenings planned in Delhi and other cities. In lieu of the resonating message..wide popularity and contemporary relevance of the film.. lookgin fwd to your fdback.. best Review: A bold, radiant and intelligent film from Egypt's master director, Youssef Chahine. After the Christian disciple of a great 12th century Arab philosopher is burned at the stake for heresy, his young son decides that he will study under his father's mentor. Soon he is caught up in a battle between the philosopher's students and religious fundamentalists who object to their enlightenment. "...a rollicking intellectual adventure...a colorful, dynamic celebration of the joy of knowledge" (Sean Axmaker, Seattle Weekly). In Arabic with English subtitles. The IMDB review: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0119629 Summary: Brave, exuberant filmmaking Americans and Europeans should treat themselves to the courageous joy of this infectious film, if you can find it. If you're looking for Latcho Drom with a great story, this is it! Destiny is singularly beautiful in that it celebrates humanist passions and ideas as they were once allowed to be expressed in the Islamic culture of 12th century Spain. The Egyptian director Youssef Chahine ventures this anti-fundamentalist statement in a contemporary cultural climate where fundamentalism is on the rise. It exposes the street fascism and subtle eroticism that seduces young men into such sects. Destiny is exuberant. It has humor, music, dancing, free thinking dialogue, intriguing sets and architecture and, most of all, the ensemble portrayal of a joyful philosophic community whose members you can really grow to love. All the earthly things fundamentalists detest! Chahine deserves a larger world audience, by virtue of his bravery and outspoken-ness. He argues at risk of his own life in this film. If Akira Kurosawa could be embraced so wholeheartedly by the international community, so should Chahine. This film is a landmark. I hope financing from our part of the world will find its way to him. He has guts and passion. The film itself is like nothing else you will see made on these shores. It is emotionally unabashed. Our western ideals of coolness and hipness restrict many of our directors and actors. Passion is too often reserved for climactic moments, and commonly those moments are angry intimidation or vengeance scenes sparked by the Pacino clones of the world. Much of the actor's job is running and posing. In Destiny, the actors are not posing - they are joyfully uninhibited and alive! Recommended highly!! Vigorous entertainment. Brave ideas. Exotic sets. Bold, hand-hewn directorial craftsmanship. Great true story. And your only chance to see 12th century Andalusian culture come alive! __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Wed Jan 15 15:33:13 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 02:03:13 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: negative image of Islam In-Reply-To: <20030115092207.41982.qmail@web20910.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20030115100313.47044.qmail@web20910.mail.yahoo.com> friends do send ur fdbk/suggestions on this critical issue.. (fwded by a peace and democracy group in south asia) peace ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - 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: peace_initiative at yahoogroup >Subject: Negative image of Muslims >Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 21:47:29 -0800 (PST) > > >Negative image of Muslims today � the problem and the panacea > > > >If the casual bystander were to routinely browse through the day�s headlines splashed over any form of the Media, the one common thread discernible immediately would be the caricature of a world ranged against a common foe - the Muslim. Regardless of the date or the type of Media the bystander has access to � Electronic, print or any other - the overriding image that would stare him in the face is one where the vast bulk of the world�s evils are attributed to the actions of the followers of Islam. > > > >And with media portrayal being largely representative of the perceptions at the ground level, it is fair to conclude that the image of Muslims the world over, is at its lowest possible level. For all practitioners of the noble faith of Islam, this negative and stereotypical portrayal and perception of Muslims is a huge concern and a major roadblock to our quest for peaceful coexistence with people of other faiths all over the world. The time has come when all of us need to address this critical issue up front, rather than allow it to linger and devour all of us eventually. > > > >I think a good starting point would be a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that there is a genuine image problem we are confronted with today; much in the manner that any de-addiction program always starts with a clear statement from the participants- �I have a drinking problem�. The facts that stare back at us are harsh, stark and irrefutable. Be it the gory images of terror attacks in Bali, Kashmir, Pakistan or Nigeria, or the messages of hate that routinely flow from the self styled �custodians� of Islam, the overriding impression created in the minds of a vast majority of people is that of a religion (as embodied by it�s followers) which is intolerant, preaches hatred and violence, is backward and incompatible with modern thinking and progress. > > > >Anyone with even a modicum of true knowledge and understanding of Islam would know that the above image couldn�t be further divorced from the truth; that the eternal Islamic message is humane and based upon the concept of brotherhood and oneness of all people, and entirely in sync with the progress of all humanity. But therein lies the problem. The huge gulf between perception and reality simply underscores the extent of the challenge that confronts all Muslims today. The self righteous and indignant amongst us will proclaim � with some justification � that there are perfectly good reasons behind every negative act committed by our co religionists the world over. > > > >But any such justification from us � covert or overt � besides being self defeating and leading to the endless spiral of violence that the world is caught in, also strengthens the sense of outrage that exists in the rest of the world towards the actions of Muslims. Importantly, it also strengthens our worst detractors, who then go around proclaiming loudly that Muslims simply cannot live in peace with the rest of the world. The end result then, is that the negative image simply gets reinforced; the fringe elements amongst the community come to the fore, and the voice of sanity belonging to the vast majority of Muslims gets drowned in the cacophony of hate and distrust. > > > >If one were to then list out the factors that cause Muslims to be viewed with suspicion the world over, the list would be fairly long. It may cause a lot of consternation amongst us, but importantly will help us work towards evolving a framework and strategy to counter the negative image, and portray Islam and its followers for what it truly stands for � universal brotherhood, justice and progress for all regardless of faith, creed, sex, national origin, economic status etc. The most important of these factors leading to negative perceptions, are: > > > >- Association of Muslims with acts of terror across the world. Though any sane person realizes that an entire community cannot be held responsible or accountable for the misguided acts of a few, yet the subconscious process of association invariably comes to the fore. > > > >- The feeling that Muslims are intolerant and incapable of peaceful coexistence with members of other faiths, communities. > > > >- The scant understanding of the true meanings of �Jihad� and �Kafir�. The words are taken to denote that every Muslim sees as it as his religious duty to wage war on all �infidels� and/or non-believers. This image repeatedly gets reinforced because of the lunatic ranting of the fringe elements. > > > >- The feeling that women are discriminated against and do not enjoy the rights and privileges that men do under Islam. > > > >- The feeling that the ruling elite under Islam is confined to a few despots who have scant regard for liberty, freedom and democracy � concepts and practices which are dear to the vast majority of the world�s population > > > >- The idea that medieval beliefs, practices and justice system are still held dear by most Muslims. In a nutshell, the common Muslim is held to be a supporter of the �Taliban� doctrine and way of life. > > > >The above list is by no means exhaustive. Yet it amply brings out the causes behind the myriad image- related problems that Islam and its followers are confronted with today. As I stated earlier in this article, the vast bulk of these are mere perceptions, with little or no basis in reality. A true understanding of the teachings of Islam would immediately negate these perceptions. But, alas, the media portrayal of Muslims relies almost exclusively on the utterances of those who project the above image, rather than the vast silent majority that completely disagree with it. > > > >And, of course, the forces that are inimical to Islam � be it the Zionists, or nearer home the members and sympathisers of the Sangh Parivar � latch on to this image with glee and propagate it with gay abandon, in an effort to further their own interests. Thus, not withstanding the fact that the huge bulk of the world�s Muslims are peace loving and desirous of living in harmony with all others, a very contrary image comes to the fore. > > > >Friends, this image will have to be countered by all of us working collectively. And believe me, this cannot be done through a PR effort alone, even if we had the resources for that. For, at the end of the day all of us do realize that there is no smoke without a fire. In other words, there are real life events on a daily basis that help build and reinforce this negative image. > > > >Hence, our approach shall have to be two-pronged. On the one hand, work shall have to be done within the community to ensure that the true meaning of the Islamic message comes through, rather than the warped meaning that the self-serving �leaders� of the community (including a section of the clergy) wish to propagate. This is easier said than done, because the voice of sanity unfortunately tends to remain confined with people preferring to discuss amongst themselves rather than go out and talk to the masses. > > > >The second part of the strategy is equally important for us. This involves working outside the community, talking to and influencing key people and the media. At the end of the day, the success of the efforts will be measured by the number of common people outside the community who understand the true message of brotherhood that Islam offers, and do not subscribe to the negative stereotype of Islam and Muslims. We have, luckily, several allies that can help us in this task, at least in this country. Not the least of these is the highly tolerant, peace loving average Hindu, who believes in the plurality of India and shall strive to defend it against all forms of vile attack that he is being currently exposed to. Therein lies hope for all of us. > > > >I do hope that this sets in motion a concerted effort on the part of all of us to correctly portray our religion for the great, enduring message that it represents, rather than the distorted one that is conveyed to the people today. With all of us realizing the dangers inherent in allowing the status quo to continue, the work and challenge is truly cut out for us. At the end of the day, the Islamic message is too humane, powerful and enduring to be held hostage by the misguided acts of a select few. By enabling this message to percolate through in its true colors, we shall be doing a huge service to this religion, our nation India and indeed the entire humanity. > > > >(Amirullah Khan - akhan at vsnl.com ) __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From lachlan at london.com Thu Jan 16 02:25:23 2003 From: lachlan at london.com (Lachlan Brown) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 20:55:23 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] NY Times: Steal This Book? A Publisher Is Making It Easy Message-ID: <20030115205523.47146.qmail@iname.com> Yes, it is a good marketing campaign to advertise Prentice Hall products among a new market. We are making sure that the brand 'Prentice Hall' is circulating and doing the service for PH for free. There's quite a tradition of 'stealing books' to ensure that both the title of the book and the name of the distributor circulates, after all, 'notoriety is what passes for publicity in the new media' (all quotes are trade marks of Thirdnet, or otherwise remain the personal property of Lachlan Brown). The idea of free online versions of books is a good one and it can only help sell the printed version. Of course the same is true payment for an online version and providing the printed book for free. There are a number of models to be explored in the coming 'dotnet boom' TM . Get in touch l.brown at london.com if you would like to know more. Luv, Lachlan > The New York Times > January 13, 2003 > > Steal This Book? A Publisher Is Making It Easy > By STEVE LOHR > > he counterculture rules of the open-source software community are > edging into mainstream book publishing, thanks to Bruce Perens. > > Prentice Hall is publishing a line of computer books, the "Bruce > Perens' Open Source Series." The first titles have already arrived > for sale in bookstores like Barnes & Noble, and the electronic > versions are expected to be available online soon afterward - and to > be free. > > All the books - a total of six are planned for this year - will be > published not under a traditional copyright but under the Open > Publication License, which was created in 1999 by David Wiley, an > assistant professor at Utah State University. The license allows > people to copy, modify and redistribute works. It is modeled after > the General Public License for software, which sets the rules for > information-sharing and reuse of code for the GNU Linux operating > system (www.opencontent.org). > Advertisement > > "If you want to take one these books, put it on a photocopy machine > and make copies, that's cool," said Mr. Perens, a leading open-source > advocate. > > Such practices make most publishers cringe and call their lawyers. > But Prentice Hall, acknowledging the risk of lost sales, says the > experiment is a worthwhile attempt to earn good will and gain readers > among the growing ranks of programmers who work with open-source > software like Linux and the Apache Web server. The front-runner among > publishers of books for open-source programmers is O'Reilly & > Associates, which publishes most of its books under traditional > copyright. > > In open-source projects, groups of programmers voluntarily develop, > debug and modify the code. The software is free. But Linux companies > like Red Hat and SuSE Linux charge their customers, who buy the > software in boxes that include the code on CD-ROM's along with > explanatory manuals. > > Similarly, Prentice Hall, a unit of Pearson, is charging for the > books, printed on paper with CD's attached. The first two titles, > "The Linux Development Platform" and "Embedded Software Development > with eCos," are priced at $49.99 each. (ECos is an open-source > operating system developed for wireless devices like cellphones and > remote controls.) > > The free electronic versions of the books will be available in a > couple of months - a delay intended to ensure that another publisher > does not just make copies and beat Prentice Hall to stores at, say, > half the price. > > For Mr. Perens, the book series is a way to encourage the spread of > open-source software by supplying better written instruction for > programmers - who generally do not get their kicks from documenting > their labors. "We've been saying we've got great software, but we > don't actually have very good documentation," he said. > > The electronic versions of the books, Mr. Perens added, can be > frequently updated, and the authors can edit readers' contributions. > He considers the series - in which his role is mainly selecting books > and setting policy - to be a step toward broadening the application > of open-source principles. "We are expanding the scope of > collaborative works beyond software," Mr. Perens said. > > In the past, individual books have been published under the Open > Publication License at the insistence of individual authors like Mr. > Perens. But Mark L. Taub, an editor in Prentice Hall's professional > and technical book division, termed the Perens series a "strategic > commitment" to a continuing line of books with the open license. > > There is nothing to prevent programmers from waiting a couple of > months to download copies of the books free rather than buying them. > But Mr. Perens, a member of the digital avant-garde, predicts that > serious programmers will buy the books for $50 each. Why? "People > like paper," he said. > > Even though photocopying the entire book or making a printout of the > electronic version would violate no copyright law, Prentice Hall is > betting that most people will not bother, preferring to pay for the > convenience of the book itself. > > Anthony J. Massa, a programmer and author of "Embedded Software > Development with eCos," agrees. "I personally like having the printed > version of a bound book in front of me," he said. > > > -- > _________________________________________ > 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: > Lachlan Brown T (416) 666 1452 -- __________________________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Meet Singles http://corp.mail.com/lavalife From lachlan at london.com Thu Jan 16 02:34:32 2003 From: lachlan at london.com (Lachlan Brown) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 21:04:32 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] NY Times: Steal This Book? A Publisher Is Making It Easy Message-ID: <20030115210432.55183.qmail@iname.com> Of course I'd hate to suggest the idea of radically shifting the distribution and hence mediation of knowledge production by applying an Amazon.com distribution model combined with ebook exemplar publishing to a list comprised of poor unfortunate South Asians that many Europeans feel are in need of 'development aid' in Information technology. Perish the thought. Lachlan lbrown at london.com -- __________________________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Meet Singles http://corp.mail.com/lavalife From tbyfield at panix.com Thu Jan 16 03:17:04 2003 From: tbyfield at panix.com (t byfield) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 16:47:04 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It In-Reply-To: References: <20030114173546.GB17695@panix.com> Message-ID: <20030115214704.GA10279@panix.com> areflagan at artpanorama.com (Tue 01/14/03 at 02:20 PM -0500): > Re: 1/14/03 12:35, "t byfield" : > > > america's west is a myth, to be sure, but it's also stunningly beautiful. > > Which goes a long way to explain why the fastest growing city in America is > Las Vegas...and why the Hoover dam now looks like LANDmark on both sides <...> no offense, are, but this kind of caffeinated dystopian rant is (imo) maybe not quite as useful as, say, a well-though-out book like jackson lears's _no place of grace_, which puts this question a rather calmer historical perspective. i don't need to be happy with the way the US is headed on a macro or micro scale to point that out. yeah, what you talk about goes on adn is true. but it's not the whole story: for example, only a slender and not even very high mountain range separates silicon valley from an awfully beautiful and secluded coastline. somehow, the umpity billions 'created' by 'new paradigms' and 'revolution' wasn't enough to put an end to that anomaly. there are lots of other examples on both sides; it's a complicated place. anyway. cheers, t From areflagan at artpanorama.com Thu Jan 16 04:51:20 2003 From: areflagan at artpanorama.com (Are Flagan) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 18:21:20 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It In-Reply-To: <20030115214704.GA10279@panix.com> Message-ID: Re: 1/15/03 16:47, "t byfield" : > no offense, are, but this kind of caffeinated dystopian rant Wow, and I don't even drink coffee (can you imagine, if I did). The point is not whether America the beautiful, as it is sung, holds true, or if the country has preserved its pockets of natural innocence. Ever since Ansel Adams lobbied congress with his idealized photographic views of Yosemite valley, and "won," the ideological machine has realized the power of nature to reproduce its myths, hence the afterglow of the sun in the industrial body of every SUV ad. (Re: to drill or not to drill in Alaska.) I can calmly say that the reason Silicon Valley did not go surfing across the hill (but inflated the real estate market in SF to above mere mortal levels instead), is due to made in china, made in mexico, made in malaysia and made in india and so on. The environmental cost and human sacrifice that goes with capitalist industrialization expanded abroad long ago and the "frontier" is now global, as far as the US etc. is concerned. They recycle your toxic circuit boards in China to avoid a landfill where surfer dudes carve their turns, across the hill from Silicon Valley. Rebecca Solnit also wrote a book that looked at a geographical watershed -- the idealized Yosemite and the nuclear testing grounds across the Sierras in Nevada. Bigger mountains, bigger perspective. -af From kendall at monkeyfist.com Thu Jan 16 11:21:01 2003 From: kendall at monkeyfist.com (Kendall Grant Clark) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 23:51:01 -0600 Subject: [Reader-list] American Builds A Dream World -- And Moves Into It Message-ID: <15910.18501.46506.674549@rosa.monkeyfist.com> [resent; this didn't go through the first time, for some reason...] t> more specifically, your explanation of white 'flight' is couched t> mainly in negative terms, as whites escaping from a perceived t> inundation of non- whites in cities. but the cultural evaluations of t> the urban and rural poles of america have a much more complex t> history; and central to that history is a much more *positive* t> evaluation of ex-urban areas. one need only think of the t> glorification of america's 'west,' of thoreau, etc, etc, to realize t> that the idealization of non-urban areas pre-dates the enfran- t> chisement of blacks in the 60s. T, Your comments are interesting and I agree with them (well, I think I do, I'm not entirely sure I get their full import, but still)...At least, I find more of use in them than your earlier claim about idiots and ideologues. The city-country dialectic is part of the American imagination (and it goes back to at least Plato's _Phaedrus_, by the way, so it's not just an American antipodes) -- however, white flight didn't rush from the city to the country by and large. It rushed to the border of the city, just outside the municipal and tax-assessment boundaries of the city, close enough to continue to consume the city's charms (and jobs), but far enough away that alternative (i.e., *white*) institutions could be established, including most importantly schools, churches, social clubs, and so on. The peculiar hell of suburban life is that it's neither fully city nor country, neither fully urban nor rural, lacking the most distinct charms of each, possessing most of the ills of both. While the country lacks the urban jazz of American cities, you can grow and then pluck from the ground just before dinner your own new potatoes -- that is, you can have a fairly organic relationship to nature, which isn't really possible in suburbia or the city. And while the city lacks (despite the wondrous beauty of rooftop gardens and other greenspaces) the freedom and expansiveness of nature in the country, it has all the frenetic energy, the cultural richness, the lovely density of people living closely together. The suburbs have...the mall. Further, as white people are only know really discovering, fleeing to the suburbs is no guarantee that their kids won't smoke crack, shoot junk, listen to rap music, play at gang-banging, and the like. I tend to hate Dallas, where I live, and I'd love to move to a real city (Dallas feels like one big suburb now...), but Dallas is an interesting place to live if you're interested in these questions; one of the original "edge cities", Plano, sits about 20 miles north of where I live. Even further north of downtown Dallas, Frisco (apparently one of the fastest growing places in the US) is amazingly white, full of new corporate investment, chain restaurants, shopping malls. Both Frisco and Plano were rural or near-rural areas before the hordes of white people, desperate to flee the nonwhite encroachment, changed the nature and character of those semiwild spaces forever. Part of the American imagination has always been a kind of valorization of wildspaces -- one which has been deeply political insofar as it served the ideological function of making Indians and other indigenous peoples invisible to the white, acquisitive gaze. The romanticism of the wildspace is inseparable from its character as an *empty*, unpossessed space. Americans were fond of saying that Indians "roamed" the land but did not "possess" it, that this valorized West was an *empty* land, ripe for the taking. As for the romantic West being physically beautiful, I couldn't agree more, but apparently it took Ansel Adams to teach us to see it that way. Mike Davis's new book includes an essay which is entirely on point in this regard, and if I remember it correctly, some early white visitors to the American West found its starkness alienating and (at times) alien. Thanks for your comments. Mine were largely meant to counter your claim that only an "idiot or ideologue or both" would suggest that white people might want to avoid living with African Americans, which I obviously found rather coarse and unhelpful, at best. Kendall Clark -- Jazz is only what you are. -- Louis Armstrong From ravikant at sarai.net Thu Jan 16 11:02:27 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 11:02:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] article on technical neologisms Message-ID: <200301161102.27807.ravikant@sarai.net> I liked the following article, written by an expat computer engineer, for its refreshingly commonsensical approach to technospeak in a new language. I received it in my mail, so there is no url. Enjoy! ravikant ----------------- How a Language grows Agastya Kohli I am no linguist. I have not studied the growth and development of a language. I am not an expert in the field. But I use languages. I grew up in an environment, where a language wasn't merely a subject you took in school. When you studied a language, you studied it well. So along with learning a couple of languages, I also learned the nature of languages. How they interact with each other, how they interact with the society, how they change over years, grow, develop, flourish, or alternatively, shrink, loose their shine, diminish, and eventually disappear. No, I didn't have a course in college on the topic, but one makes observations, and takes notes. For example, I decided to study a little Spanish. Of course, the letter "j" is used extensively in Spanish, but is pronounced almost like an "h". 'Jesus' is "hay-soos", and Juan is "hu-aan". So when my teacher told me that the Spanish word for "a young man" is "haw-ven", it sounded like another foreign word to me. But then she wrote it on the board - Joven. When you grow up in India, speaking Hindi all your life, it doesn't take much to make a Yamuna-Jamuna connection, and all of a sudden, Joven looked a lot like "yauvan" - Sanskrit for youth. Sure, a young man was called "haw-ven". I don't remember much else from that Spanish class, but I do remember joven. It didn't take a class in linguistics to make the Yamuna-Jamuna connection, or to make a Joven-Yauvan connection. When you study a language, you study the nature of languages simultaneously. Many languages, both Indian and otherwise interchangeably use the sounds "ya" and "ja" (letters I, Y and J), "ra" and "la", "ka" and "ga". I have a German friend named Katja (pronounced Katya), and a Chinese friend who spells the word "are" as "ay - al - ee". No wonder "badariya" is just a derivative of "badaliya" in Hindi, and "bekaar" and "begaar" mean the same thing. And in my opinion, that's how languages grow. Whatever is easier to say is what becomes the norm. The concept of "mukh-sukh" (mouth-comfort) makes a language add words as variants of themselves. Its not just with sounds - its also with word meanings. A language has a word for a concept. Something similar rolls around, and the same word expands its meaning. They had these things called coaches - pulled around by horses. People could sit in them and go places. A number of years later, the horses have now been replaced by internal combustion engines. So what do they call a car in Spanish? A "coche". In English, the word "car" really comes from "carriage" - which is something that gets carried. So a word has a meaning, a related concept attaches itself to it, and the word adapts to accommodate the related concept. That's how languages grow. Sure some people called them automobiles, but a car is still a car in English - one horsepower, or two hundred. Of course, my favorite - sticks of wood with cloth soaked in oil tied at one end. They would light the cloth on fire, hold the stick on the other end, and walk around with it in dark places. It worked as a source of light - they called it a "torch". Fast-forward a few hundred years, technology changes, now they have plastic tubes with batteries on one side and a bulb on the other. It's a source of light - and yes you're right - they called it a "torch". Of course, in America, they call them "flash lights". A different society saw a product, was inspired by a different way of looking at it, and added another word to the language. They tell me, that a language that doesn't grow - that doesn't change with time will eventually die. And I completely agree with them. But I am not sure I understand the definition of "grow" and "change with time". The way I see it, a language grows by innovation. When a people use a language, they come across something new that needs to be communicated; a word gets altered, adapted, changed, to communicate the new concept. We - the community that works and plays with Hindi seems to work differently. We don't want the language to innovate. We want the language to borrow. A new concept comes along, usually with a word in English, and without thinking twice about how Hindi would express the same concept, we borrow the word. There are examples all over the place. When Xerox first developed a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to use on a computer, they also developed a pointing device. It was an instrument connected to the computer that controlled an arrow like cursor on the screen. You moved the device, it moved the arrow, and by clicking the buttons you could provide input to the computer. The device was an oblong shaped half sphere, about 4 inches long, with a cable that ran to the back of the computer. To some creative mind, it looked like a small mouse with a long tail, so they called it a mouse. In Spanish, they call it a "ratos" (think rat). In Hindi, we can easily call it a "moosa" (Sanskrit for mouse). But its so much easier to just call it a "mouse" even in Hindi. Do we not have a word for the concept? Why do we need to borrow a completely foreign word for something that we already have a word for? One afternoon, my two-year-old nephew was sitting in front of a computer, looking at the cursor - a solid block on the screen - blinking. On, off. On, off. He pointed at it, and said "titlee" (butterfly). And I thought to myself, if a cursor looks like a butterfly to a two year old, that is what we should call it in Hindi. Titlee. After all, why is a mouse acceptable, but not a much prettier butterfly. I've always referred to my TV's remote control as "bandook" (gun). Sure, its not exactly the same thing - but its an expansion of a concept. If you can "aim-and-shoot" with a camera and a gun, how different is a remote control really? Lets stick with computers and technology for a little while longer. Why is a window (as in Microsoft Windows) not called a "patt" in Hindi? Most of the time that's what it is - an information board, a "pop up screen". Why do we seem to use "website" as a word in Hindi? To me, it's a "parav/padav" (stopping point). Why is an Internet portal called a portal? Because it's a launching point from where a surfer can go in many different directions. May be we should call it a "chauraahaa" in Hindi. Lets go outside the world of hi-tech. Hindi newspapers always talk about which party has how many "seats" in the parliament. How come we don't use the word "baithak" for it? Since when is "metro" a Hindi word for a local train system in a city? It's not even a word in English! Doordarshan and Aakashvani of course have been abandoned as Hindi words for television and radio - they have simply become proper nouns - names of corporations, leaving us with nothing better than "Teevee" as a Hindi word. How come we call the burning cloth version of a torch a "mashaal", but we call the battery-bulb version a "torch" in Hindi? We have a "gaari/gaadi" - as a moving vehicle. But for some reason, a car is just as much a Hindi word. Was this because Hindi needed to "change with the times"? Or is this something else? Yes, a language must grow. If it doesn't, it perishes. But does a language grow because people who use it are creative and innovative with it? They think it, they speak it, they write it, and they use it? Or does it grow because they're too lazy to try to explain things to their readers in their own words, and find it much easier to simply borrow and replace? By simply borrowing words from another language, is Hindi growing? Or is it loosing its identity as the soul of over half of the population of the country, and becoming a language incapable of being the national communication channel of India? If most of the words in Hindi are not native, would it still remain and independent language? Would people read any literature written in it? Would there be any Nobel prizes for Hindi scholars? Or would they simply be ignored and described as a "mish-mash language that came about after the British invaded India"? They might call me a purist, who doesn't want to see the language modernize itself. But I'll let them know - I coined the Hindi word for a remote control. It doesn't get any more modern than wirelessly influencing an electrical appliance. And, I coined the Hindi word for a cursor - sure I needed help from a two year old kid to come up with that one - but he did better than most professional Hindi journalists out there. About the Author Agastya Kohli, born Jan 31, 1975, and brought up in Delhi, moved to Chicago, IL for his Bachelors in Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, roughly ten years ago. After a stay of four years in Chicago, and completion of the degree program, he moved to Dallas, TX and worked as a Network and Unix System Administrator for a little under 2 years. He then moved again to the greater Seattle, WA metro area, and has been working in the wireless telecom industry for the last 4 years in various capacities. From bea at nungu.com Thu Jan 16 19:26:38 2003 From: bea at nungu.com (::bea:) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 19:26:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] article on technical neologisms Message-ID: >Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 19:24:54 +0530 >To: Ravikant >From: "::bea:" >Subject: Re: [Reader-list] article on technical neologisms >Cc: >Bcc: >X-Attachments: > >I really like this article too. It made me think of a great project >people on the list might like to see in relation. Its a project on >cdrom by victoria de rijke and adrian ward but there is a website >too. limited in comparison but you still get the basic idea. Its >basically a survey of animal sounds made by children from different >ethnic minorities in east london. you can hear the sound of a frog >in bengali, hindi, tamil, arabic, cantonese, hebrew and so on. apart >from being incredibly cute it also points toward language // sound >as as having the potential for enormous heterogeneity culturally >speaking . in the context of the article posted it seems almost a >subversive project, pointing to the problematic of a global // >homogenizing linguistic growth. i think i be using butterfly for >now on! : ] > >ps note that there arent any sounds for pig apart from in cantonese >and italian. !!! > >http://www.quack-project.com/ >http://www.quack-project.com/ >http://www.quack-project.com/ >http://www.quack-project.com/ > > >>I liked the following article, written by an expat computer engineer, for its >>refreshingly commonsensical approach to technospeak in a new language. I >>received it in my mail, so there is no url. Enjoy! >> >>ravikant >>----------------- >>How a Language grows >>Agastya Kohli >> >> >>I am no linguist. I have not studied the growth and development of >>a language. >>I am not an expert in the field. But I use languages. I grew up in an >>environment, where a language wasn't merely a subject you took in school. >>When you studied a language, you studied it well. So along with learning a >>couple of languages, I also learned the nature of languages. How they >>interact with each other, how they interact with the society, how they change >>over years, grow, develop, flourish, or alternatively, shrink, loose their >>shine, diminish, and eventually disappear. No, I didn't have a course in >>college on the topic, but one makes observations, and takes notes. >> >> >>For example, I decided to study a little Spanish. Of course, the >>letter "j" is >>used extensively in Spanish, but is pronounced almost like an "h". 'Jesus' is >>"hay-soos", and Juan is "hu-aan". So when my teacher told me that the Spanish >>word for "a young man" is "haw-ven", it sounded like another foreign word to >>me. But then she wrote it on the board - Joven. >> >> >>When you grow up in India, speaking Hindi all your life, it doesn't take much >>to make a Yamuna-Jamuna connection, and all of a sudden, Joven looked a lot >>like "yauvan" - Sanskrit for youth. Sure, a young man was called "haw-ven". I >>don't remember much else from that Spanish class, but I do remember joven. >> >> >>It didn't take a class in linguistics to make the Yamuna-Jamuna >>connection, or >>to make a Joven-Yauvan connection. When you study a language, you study the >>nature of languages simultaneously. Many languages, both Indian and otherwise >>interchangeably use the sounds "ya" and "ja" (letters I, Y and J), "ra" and >>"la", "ka" and "ga". I have a German friend named Katja (pronounced Katya), >>and a Chinese friend who spells the word "are" as "ay - al - ee". No wonder >>"badariya" is just a derivative of "badaliya" in Hindi, and "bekaar" and >>"begaar" mean the same thing. >> >> >>And in my opinion, that's how languages grow. Whatever is easier to say is >>what becomes the norm. The concept of "mukh-sukh" (mouth-comfort) makes a >>language add words as variants of themselves. >> >> >>Its not just with sounds - its also with word meanings. A language has a word >>for a concept. Something similar rolls around, and the same word expands its >>meaning. >> >> >>They had these things called coaches - pulled around by horses. People could >>sit in them and go places. A number of years later, the horses have now been >>replaced by internal combustion engines. So what do they call a car in >>Spanish? A "coche". In English, the word "car" really comes from "carriage" - >>which is something that gets carried. So a word has a meaning, a related >>concept attaches itself to it, and the word adapts to accommodate the related >>concept. That's how languages grow. Sure some people called them automobiles, >>but a car is still a car in English - one horsepower, or two hundred. >> >> >>Of course, my favorite - sticks of wood with cloth soaked in oil tied at one >>end. They would light the cloth on fire, hold the stick on the other end, and >>walk around with it in dark places. It worked as a source of light - they >>called it a "torch". Fast-forward a few hundred years, technology changes, >>now they have plastic tubes with batteries on one side and a bulb on the >>other. It's a source of light - and yes you're right - they called it a >>"torch". Of course, in America, they call them "flash lights". A different >>society saw a product, was inspired by a different way of looking at it, and >>added another word to the language. >> >> >>They tell me, that a language that doesn't grow - that doesn't change with >>time will eventually die. And I completely agree with them. But I am not sure >>I understand the definition of "grow" and "change with time". The way I see >>it, a language grows by innovation. When a people use a language, they come >>across something new that needs to be communicated; a word gets altered, >>adapted, changed, to communicate the new concept. >>We - the community that works and plays with Hindi seems to work >>differently. >>We don't want the language to innovate. We want the language to borrow. A new >>concept comes along, usually with a word in English, and without thinking >>twice about how Hindi would express the same concept, we borrow the word. >>There are examples all over the place. >> >> >>When Xerox first developed a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to use on a >>computer, they also developed a pointing device. It was an instrument >>connected to the computer that controlled an arrow like cursor on the screen. >>You moved the device, it moved the arrow, and by clicking the buttons you >>could provide input to the computer. The device was an oblong shaped half >>sphere, about 4 inches long, with a cable that ran to the back of the >>computer. To some creative mind, it looked like a small mouse with a long >>tail, so they called it a mouse. In Spanish, they call it a "ratos" (think >>rat). In Hindi, we can easily call it a "moosa" (Sanskrit for mouse). But its >>so much easier to just call it a "mouse" even in Hindi. Do we not have a word >>for the concept? Why do we need to borrow a completely foreign word for >>something that we already have a word for? >> >> >>One afternoon, my two-year-old nephew was sitting in front of a computer, >>looking at the cursor - a solid block on the screen - blinking. On, off. On, >>off. He pointed at it, and said "titlee" (butterfly). And I thought to >>myself, if a cursor looks like a butterfly to a two year old, that is what we >>should call it in Hindi. Titlee. After all, why is a mouse acceptable, but >>not a much prettier butterfly. >> >> >>I've always referred to my TV's remote control as "bandook" (gun). Sure, its >>not exactly the same thing - but its an expansion of a concept. If you can >>"aim-and-shoot" with a camera and a gun, how different is a remote control >>really? >> >> >>Lets stick with computers and technology for a little while longer. Why is a >>window (as in Microsoft Windows) not called a "patt" in Hindi? Most of the >>time that's what it is - an information board, a "pop up screen". Why do we >>seem to use "website" as a word in Hindi? To me, it's a "parav/padav" >>(stopping point). Why is an Internet portal called a portal? Because it's a >>launching point from where a surfer can go in many different directions. May >>be we should call it a "chauraahaa" in Hindi. >> >> >>Lets go outside the world of hi-tech. Hindi newspapers always talk >>about which >>party has how many "seats" in the parliament. How come we don't use the word >>"baithak" for it? Since when is "metro" a Hindi word for a local train system >>in a city? It's not even a word in English! >> >> >>Doordarshan and Aakashvani of course have been abandoned as Hindi words for >>television and radio - they have simply become proper nouns - names of >>corporations, leaving us with nothing better than "Teevee" as a Hindi word. >> >> >>How come we call the burning cloth version of a torch a "mashaal", >>but we call >>the battery-bulb version a "torch" in Hindi? We have a "gaari/gaadi" - as a >>moving vehicle. But for some reason, a car is just as much a Hindi word. Was >>this because Hindi needed to "change with the times"? Or is this something >>else? >> >> >>Yes, a language must grow. If it doesn't, it perishes. But does a language >>grow because people who use it are creative and innovative with it? They >>think it, they speak it, they write it, and they use it? Or does it grow >>because they're too lazy to try to explain things to their readers in their >>own words, and find it much easier to simply borrow and replace? >> >> >>By simply borrowing words from another language, is Hindi growing? Or is it >>loosing its identity as the soul of over half of the population of the >>country, and becoming a language incapable of being the national >>communication channel of India? If most of the words in Hindi are not native, >>would it still remain and independent language? Would people read any >>literature written in it? Would there be any Nobel prizes for Hindi scholars? >>Or would they simply be ignored and described as a "mish-mash language that >>came about after the British invaded India"? >> >> >>They might call me a purist, who doesn't want to see the language modernize >>itself. But I'll let them know - I coined the Hindi word for a remote >>control. It doesn't get any more modern than wirelessly influencing an >>electrical appliance. And, I coined the Hindi word for a cursor - sure I >>needed help from a two year old kid to come up with that one - but he did >>better than most professional Hindi journalists out there. >> >> >> >>About the Author >> >> >>Agastya Kohli, born Jan 31, 1975, and brought up in Delhi, moved to Chicago, >>IL for his Bachelors in Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of >>Technology, roughly ten years ago. After a stay of four years in Chicago, and >>completion of the degree program, he moved to Dallas, TX and worked as a >>Network and Unix System Administrator for a little under 2 years. He then >>moved again to the greater Seattle, WA metro area, and has been working in >>the wireless telecom industry for the last 4 years in various capacities. >> >>_________________________________________ >>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 ghoshvishwajyoti at rediffmail.com Thu Jan 16 23:47:28 2003 From: ghoshvishwajyoti at rediffmail.com (vishwajyoti ghosh) Date: 16 Jan 2003 18:17:28 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] article on technical neologisms Message-ID: <20030116181728.18315.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030116/38316914/attachment.pl From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Fri Jan 17 12:11:14 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 22:41:14 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Urban desperation in the movies Message-ID: <20030117064114.81308.qmail@web41104.mail.yahoo.com> This is a NYT review of a new film "City of God" just released, about gangs in poor communities in Rio. You may have seen reviews also of the just-released Gangs of New York, about urban violence among poor immigrant in NYC in the 20s. Don't know if these two films make a "trend" but think this interest in the raw, violent urban experience is rather different from the glamour of mafia movies. somehow the city is entering cinema in a different fashion. R Gangs of Rio de Janeiro By STEPHEN HOLDEN In "City of God," Fernando Meirelles's scorching anecdotal history of violence in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, a fretful boy with the cute nickname Steak & Fries (Darlan Cunha), begs for a gun that would certify his membership in one of two rival gangs. "I smoke, I snort, I've killed and robbed," he pleads none too convincingly. "I'm a man." Handed a weapon he doesn't know how to use, this eager new recruit, whose voice has barely begun to change, rushes to join one of the clashing posses of armed children swarming through Cidade de Deus (City of God). A sprawling housing project built in the 1960's on the outskirts of Rio and left to fester in a poisonous stew of poverty, drugs and crime, it has degenerated into a war zone so dangerous that visitors from outside risk being shot to death. The movie traces the neighborhood's decline over a decade and a half, from a sun-baked shantytown of earth-colored bungalows where the children while away the days in soccer games and petty thievery into a shadowy slum teeming with armed adolescent warriors. The portrait of a boy soldier enlisting in a volunteer criminal army with an astronomical mortality rate is one of many profoundly unsettling images that jostle through the film. Another is a scene in which a gangster coerces a frightened boy, who has been poaching on his territory, to choose between being shot in the hand or the foot. As the victim, who chooses the foot, hobbles away in agony, he is ordered not to limp. "City of God," which opens today in New York and Los Angeles, is the latest and one of the most powerful in a recent spate of movies that remind us that the civilized society we take for granted is actually a luxury. Although the police pop up now and again in Cidade de Deus, law and order are as scarce on these mean streets (just minutes away from one of the world's most glorious beaches) as they are in the slums of 1860's Manhattan depicted in Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York." Anyone who once dressed up as a cowboy and played shoot-'em-up games with the neighborhood kids will wince with sadness as these packs of children cavort through the streets, flourishing real guns as though they were toys and chattering excitedly about murder. "City of God," which has already created a sensation in Brazil, was adapted from a best-selling novel by Paulo Lins, who grew up in Cidade de Deus. Its narrator, Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), is a young photographer from the same neighborhood whose loose-jointed yarns follow the fates of a number of his childhood acquaintances. What saves Rocket from being consumed by the thug life around him is his passion for photography, along with his own comic ineptitude at crime. The movie is divided into three chapters, each bleaker and more appalling than the one before; they parallel the intertwining destinies of Rocket and one of his childhood playmates, Li'l Dice (Douglas Silva). After growing up and changing his nickname to Li'l Z�Leandro Firmino da Hora takes over the role), he ascends into a trigger-happy drug dealer and local kingpin. "City of God" can be grimly amusing, as in the opening scene, in which Li'l Z�nd his juvenile army amuse themselves by chasing a flustered chicken down the street. That ridiculous image introduces a note of absurdist humor that is carried forward by Rocket's dispassionately chatty storytelling. From here the movie immediately flashes back to the 1960's and Rocket's recollections of a clique of adolescent outlaws called the Tender Trio, whose big-time criminal career begins with their robbery of a brothel. As the story lurches ahead, the drugs become harder (cocaine supplants marijuana) and the weaponry more deadly. The second chapter, set in the 1970's, focuses on Li'l Z�now a grinning sociopath with an appetite for murder, and his reign of terror. The only thing keeping his crazier impulses in check is his lieutenant Benny (Phellipe Haagensen), a smart, good-hearted gangster with a hippie sensibility who eventually decides to abandon the criminal life. The farewell party Benny arranges for himself at which the merriment turns tragically violent (to the strains of "Kung Fu Fighting") is one of the film's most spectacular set pieces. The final third, set in the early 1980's, finds Li'l Z� empire threatened by an even younger crew of pre-teenage gangsters called the Runts (some of them only 9 and 10), who disregard his authority. It all builds to a showdown between Li'l Z�nd a rival band led by Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge), a peaceable bus-fare collector who turns into avenging fury after Li'l Z�apes his girlfriend and shoots his brother. Rocket, meanwhile, cinches his escape from the criminal life when his sensational photo of Li'l Z�nd his posse winds up on the front page of a newspaper. Resigned to being killed for exposing the gangster, Rocket instead finds himself hired by the publicity-hungry thug as a kind of court photographer. Most of the movie's final bloodbath is observed through his camera's lens. If its panoramic scenes of street fighting recall "Gangs of New York," the tone and structure of "City of God" are closer to Mr. Scorsese's "Goodfellas," with which it shares the same attitude of brash nonchalance and fondness for tall-sounding tales. Underscored by samba music, much of the treachery and violence unfold in what could be described only as a party atmosphere. Because it was filmed with hand-held cameras on the streets of Rio (but not in Cidade de Deus) with a cast that includes some 200 nonprofessional actors, "City of God" conveys the authenticity of a cin� v�t�crapbook. Cesar Charlone's restless cinematography is a flashy potpourri of effects that include slow and accelerated motion, the use of split screens and a dramatically varied expressionistic palette. As the movie's frenetic visual rhythms and mood swings synchronize with the zany, adrenaline-fueled impulsiveness of its lost youth on the rampage, you may find yourself getting lost in this teeming netherworld. To experience this devastating movie is a little like attending a children's birthday party that goes wildly out of control. You watch in helpless disbelief as the apple-cheeked revelers turn into little devils gleefully smashing everything in sight. "City of God" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has scenes of violence and graphic sex talk. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From joy at sarai.net Fri Jan 17 13:13:26 2003 From: joy at sarai.net (Joy Chatterjee) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 13:13:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] article on technical neologisms In-Reply-To: <20030116181728.18315.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20030117130419.00a7cd30@mail.sarai.net> As I have repeatedly mentioned that translation of computer terms from English to vernacular languages doesn't help anyone till it makes usage of computer easier. If I translate the terms in Sanskritised Hindi [emphasis on use of matter of Sanskrit], it is very much possible for a section of people that they hear the words used for the terms for the first time. Then they need dictionary to understand the meaning of the word for his/her own comfort. In such case translation of term is mere assertion on rigidity of linguistic identity [rigidity of linguistic identity is absolutely baseless as languages are formed through mixing of many other languages] but of no help. I would not use the language of growth, borrow etc, as they are not applicable in the context of language. Languages exists and changes laterally with time and space. Hindi is there because of such lateral movement, it didn't evolve out of space that it needs to be preserved in its present form. But the problem is, if we use, for example, Urduised Hindi [or emphasis on use of matter of Arabic or Persian] in that case I think there is equally large number of population who cannot understand those words. Then again they need dictionary. What I am trying to prove that there is no one Hindi or one Urdu or one Bangla which can be emphasized on while working on translation of terms. Presently we are only looking at academically recognised languages, forget about other dialects and sub languages or similar languages. I am not sure, all the desktops and programmes and their every new versions will ever be translated in Hariyanwi, Bhojpuri or Rajbangshi. In such situation, if we have to do terrorism of academically accepted language I think it is better to do with English. Even if we forget the positive implication of a global language like English in the era of internet, still, by using English, user might need to look at the dictionary only. But they need not to wait for translated software and a dictionary both. Thus we need to think about the Indic-Computing itself. And at last let us stop thinking Engilsh as a foreign or external language. There are people who just waiting for such segregation. Best Joy From menso at r4k.net Fri Jan 17 15:56:57 2003 From: menso at r4k.net (Menso Heus) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 11:26:57 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban desperation in the movies In-Reply-To: <20030117064114.81308.qmail@web41104.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20030117064114.81308.qmail@web41104.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20030117102657.GL14033@r4k.net> On Thu, Jan 16, 2003 at 10:41:14PM -0800, Rana Dasgupta wrote: > This is a NYT review of a new film "City of God" just > released, about gangs in poor communities in Rio. You > may have seen reviews also of the just-released Gangs > of New York, about urban violence among poor immigrant > in NYC in the 20s. Don't know if these two films make > a "trend" but think this interest in the raw, violent > urban experience is rather different from the glamour > of mafia movies. somehow the city is entering cinema > in a different fashion. Hi Rana, I think this "trend" is not new, there's 1991's Boyz N the Hood, 1993's Menace II Society, 1998's American History X, etc. All these movies are about being in gangs, poor, and racial tensions... and of wanting to get out, ofcourse. So, maybe it's a slight revival, but I certainly wouldn't want to call it a new trend :) Menso > R > > Gangs of Rio de Janeiro > > By STEPHEN HOLDEN > > > In "City of God," Fernando Meirelles's scorching > anecdotal history of violence in the slums of Rio de > Janeiro, a fretful boy with the cute nickname Steak & > Fries (Darlan Cunha), begs for a gun that would > certify his membership in one of two rival gangs. "I > smoke, I snort, I've killed and robbed," he pleads > none too convincingly. "I'm a man." > > Handed a weapon he doesn't know how to use, this eager > new recruit, whose voice has barely begun to change, > rushes to join one of the clashing posses of armed > children swarming through Cidade de Deus (City of > God). A sprawling housing project built in the 1960's > on the outskirts of Rio and left to fester in a > poisonous stew of poverty, drugs and crime, it has > degenerated into a war zone so dangerous that visitors > from outside risk being shot to death. > > The movie traces the neighborhood's decline over a > decade and a half, from a sun-baked shantytown of > earth-colored bungalows where the children while away > the days in soccer games and petty thievery into a > shadowy slum teeming with armed adolescent warriors. > > The portrait of a boy soldier enlisting in a volunteer > criminal army with an astronomical mortality rate is > one of many profoundly unsettling images that jostle > through the film. Another is a scene in which a > gangster coerces a frightened boy, who has been > poaching on his territory, to choose between being > shot in the hand or the foot. > > As the victim, who chooses the foot, hobbles away in > agony, he is ordered not to limp. > > "City of God," which opens today in New York and Los > Angeles, is the latest and one of the most powerful in > a recent spate of movies that remind us that the > civilized society we take for granted is actually a > luxury. Although the police pop up now and again in > Cidade de Deus, law and order are as scarce on these > mean streets (just minutes away from one of the > world's most glorious beaches) as they are in the > slums of 1860's Manhattan depicted in Martin > Scorsese's "Gangs of New York." > > Anyone who once dressed up as a cowboy and played > shoot-'em-up games with the neighborhood kids will > wince with sadness as these packs of children cavort > through the streets, flourishing real guns as though > they were toys and chattering excitedly about murder. > > "City of God," which has already created a sensation > in Brazil, was adapted from a best-selling novel by > Paulo Lins, who grew up in Cidade de Deus. Its > narrator, Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), is a young > photographer from the same neighborhood whose > loose-jointed yarns follow the fates of a number of > his childhood acquaintances. What saves Rocket from > being consumed by the thug life around him is his > passion for photography, along with his own comic > ineptitude at crime. > > The movie is divided into three chapters, each bleaker > and more appalling than the one before; they parallel > the intertwining destinies of Rocket and one of his > childhood playmates, Li'l Dice (Douglas Silva). After > growing up and changing his nickname to Li'l Z? > (Leandro Firmino da Hora takes over the role), he > ascends into a trigger-happy drug dealer and local > kingpin. > > "City of God" can be grimly amusing, as in the opening > scene, in which Li'l Z? and his juvenile army amuse > themselves by chasing a flustered chicken down the > street. That ridiculous image introduces a note of > absurdist humor that is carried forward by Rocket's > dispassionately chatty storytelling. From here the > movie immediately flashes back to the 1960's and > Rocket's recollections of a clique of adolescent > outlaws called the Tender Trio, whose big-time > criminal career begins with their robbery of a > brothel. > > As the story lurches ahead, the drugs become harder > (cocaine supplants marijuana) and the weaponry more > deadly. The second chapter, set in the 1970's, focuses > on Li'l Z?, now a grinning sociopath with an appetite > for murder, and his reign of terror. The only thing > keeping his crazier impulses in check is his > lieutenant Benny (Phellipe Haagensen), a smart, > good-hearted gangster with a hippie sensibility who > eventually decides to abandon the criminal life. The > farewell party Benny arranges for himself at which the > merriment turns tragically violent (to the strains of > "Kung Fu Fighting") is one of the film's most > spectacular set pieces. > > The final third, set in the early 1980's, finds Li'l > Z?'s empire threatened by an even younger crew of > pre-teenage gangsters called the Runts (some of them > only 9 and 10), who disregard his authority. It all > builds to a showdown between Li'l Z? and a rival band > led by Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge), a peaceable bus-fare > collector who turns into avenging fury after Li'l Z? > rapes his girlfriend and shoots his brother. > > Rocket, meanwhile, cinches his escape from the > criminal life when his sensational photo of Li'l Z? > and his posse winds up on the front page of a > newspaper. Resigned to being killed for exposing the > gangster, Rocket instead finds himself hired by the > publicity-hungry thug as a kind of court photographer. > Most of the movie's final bloodbath is observed > through his camera's lens. > > If its panoramic scenes of street fighting recall > "Gangs of New York," the tone and structure of "City > of God" are closer to Mr. Scorsese's "Goodfellas," > with which it shares the same attitude of brash > nonchalance and fondness for tall-sounding tales. > > Underscored by samba music, much of the treachery and > violence unfold in what could be described only as a > party atmosphere. > > Because it was filmed with hand-held cameras on the > streets of Rio (but not in Cidade de Deus) with a cast > that includes some 200 nonprofessional actors, "City > of God" conveys the authenticity of a cin?ma v?rit? > scrapbook. Cesar Charlone's restless cinematography is > a flashy potpourri of effects that include slow and > accelerated motion, the use of split screens and a > dramatically varied expressionistic palette. > > As the movie's frenetic visual rhythms and mood swings > synchronize with the zany, adrenaline-fueled > impulsiveness of its lost youth on the rampage, you > may find yourself getting lost in this teeming > netherworld. To experience this devastating movie is a > little like attending a children's birthday party that > goes wildly out of control. You watch in helpless > disbelief as the apple-cheeked revelers turn into > little devils gleefully smashing everything in sight. > > "City of God" is rated R (Under 17 requires > accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has scenes > of violence and graphic sex talk. > > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. > http://mailplus.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: -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- And the price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life--we went soft, we lost our edge. - "Muad'Dib: Conversations" by the Princess Irulan -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From info at highresolutionindia.com Fri Jan 17 08:06:29 2003 From: info at highresolutionindia.com (HighResolution) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 08:06:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] boipara.com Message-ID: <001601c2bdd1$412937b0$5f8241db@highres> Dear Reader, www.boipara.com, a site showcasing bangla literature with a difference, has been launched. Primarily a site that features little magazines and the range of bangla writing that survives on the fringes of a huge publishing industry, boipara provides you with a unique interactive experience. You can not only access little magazines, but post your own writing, comment on and critique what you read, and discuss and debate about bangla literature. Since we will be updating the site regularly, do keep coming back for more. We would be grateful if you forward this mail to people you think might be interested. Wishing you a very happy new year. Boipara Team -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030117/121881db/attachment.html From list at subroutine.de Fri Jan 17 18:05:21 2003 From: list at subroutine.de (staun) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 13:35:21 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] is bhangra pop taking over? Message-ID: <3E27F889.8B844E3D@subroutine.de> 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 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. "The empire strikes back" was Pico Iyer's thesis on the gaining relevance of post-colonial or second generation immigrants on british literature. Will Panjabi MC be the Salman Rushdie of pop? Best, Harald Staun From amitbasu55 at hotmail.com Fri Jan 17 18:07:06 2003 From: amitbasu55 at hotmail.com (Amit R Basu) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 12:37:06 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Calcutta Panel at City One Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030117/3ed070fd/attachment.html From so5 at nyu.edu Fri Jan 17 18:23:23 2003 From: so5 at nyu.edu (saul ostrow) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 07:53:23 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban desperation in the movies References: <20030117064114.81308.qmail@web41104.mail.yahoo.com> <20030117102657.GL14033@r4k.net> Message-ID: <3E27FCC2.2D12AB42@nyu.edu> > the just-released Gangs > > of New York, is about urban violence among poor immigrant > > in NYC in the 1830-60s. From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Fri Jan 17 19:09:54 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 05:39:54 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Urban desperation in the movies In-Reply-To: <20030117102657.GL14033@r4k.net> Message-ID: <20030117133954.23954.qmail@web41108.mail.yahoo.com> point taken, menso (that we have already seen films like Boyz in the Hood); but i don't think these phenomena are the same. "inner city blacks" have long been part of the self-definition-by-contrast of mainstream american society. "gangs of new york" is about the violent history of that same mainstream. compare and contrast scorsese's own "age of innocence" set at the same time as his new one, in which the origins of the city he has spent most of his career making violent films about are extremely genteel. in this sense i don't know if i can link it to the rio film. maybe someone else can. R __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From menso at r4k.net Fri Jan 17 19:25:03 2003 From: menso at r4k.net (Menso Heus) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 14:55:03 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban desperation in the movies In-Reply-To: <20030117133954.23954.qmail@web41108.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20030117102657.GL14033@r4k.net> <20030117133954.23954.qmail@web41108.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20030117135503.GO14033@r4k.net> On Fri, Jan 17, 2003 at 05:39:54AM -0800, Rana Dasgupta wrote: > point taken, menso (that we have already seen films > like Boyz in the Hood); but i don't think these > phenomena are the same. "inner city blacks" have long > been part of the self-definition-by-contrast of > mainstream american society. "gangs of new york" is > about the violent history of that same mainstream. > compare and contrast scorsese's own "age of innocence" > set at the same time as his new one, in which the > origins of the city he has spent most of his career > making violent films about are extremely genteel. Well, I haven't seen Gangs of New York yet, so I guess now I'll just have to :) > in this sense i don't know if i can link it to the rio > film. maybe someone else can. Well, this is why I replied stating that movies showing urban violence linked with gang activity and poverty are not something new, since I didn't see this link either :) bye, Menso -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If Barbie's so popular, how come you have to buy her friends? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From supreet at sdf.lonestar.org Fri Jan 17 20:48:02 2003 From: supreet at sdf.lonestar.org (Supreet Sethi) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 15:18:02 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Calcutta Panel at City One In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20030117151802.GA22481@SDF.LONESTAR.ORG> It would be great if you include the plain text version so that lowely beings like myself and also read it. etc and supreet On Fri, Jan 17, 2003 at 12:37:06PM +0000, Amit R Basu wrote: -- supreet at sdf.lonestar.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org From Greg.Wise at asu.edu Fri Jan 17 22:12:30 2003 From: Greg.Wise at asu.edu (Greg Wise) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 09:42:30 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] is bhangra pop taking over? Message-ID: <8354ADA06B00C645A60E8EE1D16448DA0D5935@westex1.west.asu.edu> There are a number of sources out there on the bhangra scene in the UK. A key text in this regard is Sanjay Sharma, John Hutnyk, and Ashwani Sharma (eds) (1996) Dis-Orienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New Asian Dance Music. Zed Books. See also Les Back's chapter on Apache Indian in his "New Ethnicities and Urban Culture" (1996, University of College London Press), George Lipsitz's chapter on Apache Indian in "Dangerous Crossroads" (1994, Verso), and Andy Bennett's chapter on Bhangra and Asian Identity in "Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity, Place" (2000, Macmillan). Some of the connections between the bhangra and hip hop scenes in the UK are made in David Hesmondhalgh & Caspar Melville's chapter "Urban Breakbeat Culture" in Tony Mitchell's Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA (2001, Wesleyan University Press). On the bhangra scene in New York, see Sunaina Marr Maira's "Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City" (2002, Temple University Press). I don't have anything about its perception in India, just anecdotal evidence about (for example) the reception of Apache Indian. I would be interested if anyone had studies on this. Cheers, Greg J. Macgregor Wise Associate Professor Communication Studies Arizona State University West > -----Original Message----- > From: staun [mailto:list at subroutine.de] > Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 5:35 AM > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Subject: [Reader-list] is bhangra pop taking over? > > > > 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 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. > > "The empire strikes back" was Pico Iyer's thesis on the > gaining relevance of post-colonial or second generation > immigrants on british literature. Will Panjabi MC be the > Salman Rushdie of pop? > > Best, > Harald Staun > > _________________________________________ > 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 tbyfield at panix.com Fri Jan 17 22:44:13 2003 From: tbyfield at panix.com (t byfield) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 12:14:13 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban desperation in the movies In-Reply-To: <20030117135503.GO14033@r4k.net> References: <20030117102657.GL14033@r4k.net> <20030117133954.23954.qmail@web41108.mail.yahoo.com> <20030117135503.GO14033@r4k.net> Message-ID: <20030117171413.GB4131@panix.com> menso at r4k.net (Fri 01/17/03 at 02:55 PM +0100): > Well, this is why I replied stating that movies showing > urban violence linked with gang activity and poverty are > not something new, since I didn't see this link either :) _financial times_ also ran a rave review of 'city of god,' last week some time; iirc, the same review dealt with 'gangs of new york,' but trashed it. sol yurick, who wrote the book that the cult classic 'the warriors' was based on, told me a few weeks ago that a remake of that film is in the works. i doubt that would have been the case ~5 years ago in the dotcom heyday, for the same reason that zeitgeist-antennas like spielberg make dystopian movies like 'minority report' when high- tech is (a) attracting negative cultural evaluations, and (b) is turning from movelty to normalcy. movie-making trends in the US are an abiding mystery, in the same way that, say, 'the fashionable colors next season' are a mysteri- ous operation. in part, it's a production/reception problem: the studios try to anticipate what the Next Big Thing is, and of course to capitalize on it, so in that sense it's surely a 'top-down' pro- cess. but they also hedge their bets -- and the box office is some- thing of a wild card in deciding where tastes are going. clearly, 'quality' in a parochial kultural sense doesn't play a big part; but just as clearly, plain-old 'culture' does. my guess -- as someone who spent a decade and a half watching the posters go by, instead of the movies themselves -- is that there's a very dystopian trend brewing, and that there is indeed a growing interest in the issues at play in gang films. fwiw. cheers, t From fatimazehrarizvi at hotmail.com Sat Jan 18 01:48:49 2003 From: fatimazehrarizvi at hotmail.com (zehra rizvi) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 15:18:49 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] is bhangra pop taking over? Message-ID: see also this months vybe magazine (probably online in some version..)...whole article on bhangra/hip hop/desi style music...its an american magazine but they make some references to the music scene in the UK. has anyone on the list read that piece in vybe? if so, any comments? zehra. ps. i dont think MC Panjabi will be the salman rushdie of pop. i think in terms of music, theres still some (not much though!) time left for that to happen. and i think its going to be a rapper, not mc panjabi. :) >From: Greg Wise >To: "'staun'" >CC: reader-list at sarai.net >Subject: RE: [Reader-list] is bhangra pop taking over? >Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 09:42:30 -0700 > >There are a number of sources out there on the bhangra scene in the UK. A >key text in this regard is Sanjay Sharma, John Hutnyk, and Ashwani Sharma >(eds) (1996) Dis-Orienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New Asian Dance >Music. Zed Books. > >See also Les Back's chapter on Apache Indian in his "New Ethnicities and >Urban Culture" (1996, University of College London Press), George Lipsitz's >chapter on Apache Indian in "Dangerous Crossroads" (1994, Verso), and Andy >Bennett's chapter on Bhangra and Asian Identity in "Popular Music and Youth >Culture: Music, Identity, Place" (2000, Macmillan). > >Some of the connections between the bhangra and hip hop scenes in the UK >are >made in David Hesmondhalgh & Caspar Melville's chapter "Urban Breakbeat >Culture" in Tony Mitchell's Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA >(2001, Wesleyan University Press). > >On the bhangra scene in New York, see Sunaina Marr Maira's "Desis in the >House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City" (2002, Temple >University Press). > >I don't have anything about its perception in India, just anecdotal >evidence >about (for example) the reception of Apache Indian. I would be interested >if >anyone had studies on this. > >Cheers, > >Greg > >J. Macgregor Wise >Associate Professor >Communication Studies >Arizona State University West > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: staun [mailto:list at subroutine.de] > > Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 5:35 AM > > To: reader-list at sarai.net > > Subject: [Reader-list] is bhangra pop taking over? > > > > > > > > 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 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. > > > > "The empire strikes back" was Pico Iyer's thesis on the > > gaining relevance of post-colonial or second generation > > immigrants on british literature. Will Panjabi MC be the > > Salman Rushdie of pop? > > > > Best, > > Harald Staun > > > > _________________________________________ > > 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: > > > >_________________________________________ >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: _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Sat Jan 18 15:01:52 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 01:31:52 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Trojan Horse/ The Bazaar for sale Message-ID: <20030118093152.41009.qmail@web20905.mail.yahoo.com> friends a post script to the Surkh Kukkads/Spicy Subcondiment piece..( HT, Sept, 28, 2002) --- Trojan Horse/ The Bazaar for Sale by Lehar Bazaar rumours.. Mango rain.. surkh kukkads in deghchees..pistachio Kulfis and betel red paans..itr sellers.. and afeemchees..kabuliwallahs selling dried grapes.. old panditjee walking past the old maulana..�Ram ram panditjee�- as he smokes his hookah.. Hookah coals.. smouldering in the winter chill..red glows in the still winter evening.. blending with the smell of kababs.. and old cows walking past.. sniveling at the dirt on the ground.. An evening in India..or for that matter any old bazaar of Asia.. from Kabul to Baghdad to Peshawar, to Chittagong.. Replace the cuisine with one or the other.. roadside dhabas..selling pakoras, garam chai or goats liver.. Men.. Lounging around.. waylaying past.. Nonchalant and smoking as if the world is forever..bankes ..handsome men.. ugly men.. wizened old men with hands craggy as their beards..sikh beards blending with the maulana goatie.. dervishy beards growing like the matted locks of Mahadev shambhu..mast qalandar. Poor ones selling parrots and talismans.. reciting a sher or two.. with Ram and Allah inscribed on them..Everything from Arabic to Sanskrit to ward off the bad eyes..parrots flying past roofs with kites flown by screeching boys.. and an occasional woman..in ghunghat or head carrying fish and wares, proud backed..or in black naqabs..smouldering with kohl..Inviting awed stares.. and nothing more.. Could be the scene now.. or a 100 years ago.. or a 1000 years ago.. The city..the urban bazaar..where castes and cuisines and fragrances mingle.. Ghalib wrote his poetry..in the bazaars and bylanes of dilli..and Kabirdas wove his tales of the Beloved Banaras�s galees..interestingly.. the Islamic world ..now filled with taliban covered women and US navy ships.. Was responsible in a major way for the rise of the bazaar..wites an eminent scholar � the rise of the urban bazaar in the medieval age did away with much of caste differences and contributed to the rise of trade.where communities and crafts mingled in unique ways.� Where men fell in love with men.. and more..pick any Arabian nights text.. sold in the bazaar of the booksellers..or to arab spain..where the world�s largest library lay.. with books from 40 different countries.. Jahez the poet dies in one such bazaar.. when a shelfload of books falls on him..the most intellectual grave in history. In Peshawar they had the bazaar of storytellers.. where you could buy a story for a rupiya..before partition closed shop. Persecuted poets, eunuchs, Christian heretics, Jews, Sufis, seers and traders flocked to the bazaars.. As a spanish poet sings. � for any man of learning, ambition, or a Jew or a homosexual or a persecuted heretic.. the best place was the south of spain where the moors ruled or the bazaars of the East.. From morocco to madras..you could also get some exquisite kahwah/ coffee..� Even Roger Bacon, father of the European renaissance learnt most of his science in one such bazaar of Moorish Spain.. sip it up..as the pigeons fly up the Red fort�s walls.. Its in one such bazaar that Sarmad the Sufi (born a Jew) saw his dearest Abhay Chand..and Ras Khan his bania�s son.. and both became jogis.. Wrote a Dilli poet: Majnu was mad that he went to the jungle.. Where the kabuliwallah hawked his wares before partition fenced it off..and made him an Afghan refugee. The whole subcontinent was a bazaar.. with castes and creeds and tongues mingling.. in midst of poetry and hookahs ..creating language of its own urdu.. the language of the bazaar.. neither Persian nor Sanskrit.. yet all.. Not for nothing was the Indian subcontinent the trading metropolis of the world.. accounting for a quarter of all manufactured goods in the world! Till the infamous launch of the Trojan horse.. the East India company (traders who became their Majesties) in Plassey, 1757. Fast fwd 150 yrs.. you have an impoverished nation of half naked fakirs.. struggling to ward off famines and sending indentured labour to the pravasi islands .. on rat infested ships. And the bazaar grows more and more famished..as the Trojan horse continues it rampage.. The bazaar has seen many things through the centuries.. from the Aryans to Mongol invasion of central Asia and Iran. As teeming Sufis and parrot sellers fled from samarkand and bukhara..to the plain of ganga jamuna and created a unique civilisation..a blending going on for centuries.. from the times of the first Aryans.. The most recent Trojan horse invasion.. has turned the bazaar on its head ..its nothing like a run of the mill one of the past..then you could garner armies and hold off..at most people just went indoors and came out when the war over.. restricted to the battlefield anyway.. civil society had yet to be invented and obviously there was no civl war..no one entered their homes and their meals and their food and the air they breathed.. life went on its leisurely pace.. centuries ..rolling.. in a drifting haze.. as the chutnies blended and diversified..an endless cooking/blending..always on the kadhai. This time the bazar has been invaded by a force which is like no other and its not here to blend. It is here to bleed. For the first time.. the bazaar, now called the market, is not another home..or another manzil... but a hostile territory full of dispensable half barbaric races..to be taken over..and amalgamated .. into the Empire..no more chutnies.. We�ll take it over.. chutney, chilies and all.. The Trojan horse.. has planted itself in the midst of the bazaar and is now sapping it soul..and turning its bankes into Levis wearing goondas.. Of television and the empire..the bazaar has been replaced by the One market..and the market is free to Do what it wills.. if you do not comply . you will either be bombed or be �sanctioned�.. So accept now of forever hold your stomachs.. The Trojan horse is the fool proof strategy..unless there is an annoying Cassandra around.. (the original was a soothayer princess.. she was the only one who predicted the Trojan horse.. a ruse by enemies to enter her father�s kingdom..by placing a wooden horse hiding soldiers..unsuspecting, the people carried it inside.. because she was cursed that no one would believe her) Yes there are many.. a native American chief once said: The red Indians cannot revolt. It is such a cunning strategy . pay them a salary. They think �revolt; for what? We are getting enough money, no work, enjoy..take drugs.. no problems of poverty.. goodies on the market.. why bother about revolution??..they are all lotus eaters, addicted.They are not in a position to fight. Their revolution has been killed with their spirit.. by money.� By the Trojan Horse. A war won even before its begun.. Looking at the bazaar with Orientalist eyes.. riding past in sola topees.. the Trojan horse arrives..heathen.. is what the panditjee and old maulana and the deghchee maker are called.. They resist and the first non violent revolution in the history of the world happens. They throw out the Trojan horse..or so they think.. It is cleverer. It wont attack by the front but enter thru the backdoor.. sneak in and lie before them.. till they don�t know what hit them..and by then it will be too late. Remember Plassey? The Trojan horse will turn the panwallah into Nike wearing hawker selling Wrigley�s chewing gum on traffic lights.. and the old hookah will be a Smithsonian musuem artifice.. looked at by ladies with designer/Prada bags.. The old maulana will fade away in a cloud of smoke..as rifles rattle with the clash of civilizations....the b52 rise in the sky.. and smoke em all out.. Make way..for the Trojan horse.. He makes way for The Kingdom. The kites are part of the smoke filled sky and the sounds of the courtesans ghungroos drown in the sleaze of the nightclub.. Disrespectable thumri singers.. the nautch girls deserved what they got.. now women are freer than ever before..you can pick them up in the disco.. without being called a kotha goer.. Hark..the herald angels sing..watch them on TV.. selling their wares.. what will you like? Spring or autumn..the tawaifs were a disrespectable lot.. manners and name counted..they turned you away if you were not �appropriate�..now.. it�s the age of MFN.. money for Nothin.. and chicks for free.. For 5000 yrs the bazaar has survived and amalgamated.. all.. into its all encompassing embrace. Mughals and Pathans and Aryans and deghchees and Turks and tribals and Mongoloid women selling handmade shawls.. Now..all( but a few raving lunatics).. from chittagong to china want to belong to the Market.. and wear only Revlon nail colour..diversity be hanged..who wants to bind feet when you can be Britney spears..and bind your whole body..it�s only then you�ll be free.. the Trojan horse says.. you have been oppressed and britney spears is the only free woman on earth.. they listen.. as Britney goes in and out of hospitals..under pressures of the good life..called nervous breakdowns.. Britney is already part of the Trojan horse..but he is avaricious.. Greed is Good is the official creed...so the chinese girl picking tearoses..and the burqa clad beauty from bagdad..opressed by dirty old arabs. Marriage is a useless institution if you can get it all on the free market.. you aint seen the market man complaining. The Trojan horse has put beauties online for him..from Beijing to Baghdad..bomb em if they don�t comply.. Hookahs go flying out of the window .. as do diyas for diwali..pick them at walmarts. Diwali is now hip unlike the old grouchy days when Hinduism existed. Before its takeover as a Trojan horse brand..used for riots and suchlike. Hinduism was so nice.. with tulsi leaves in cool water.... and the kindly old panditjee in his wooden kharouas� Tulsi is not longer property of panditjee.. only registered mandirs � preferably foreign ones/pravaasi need apply.. the puja material is at mandir.com- pay by credit card..foreign exchange preferred..donations maybe used for genocide and such purification ceremonies. Where are the dervishes who wandered down the bazaar.. singing of the Ek Omkar and the One Saaeiin.. twanging ek taras of Raidas and other �crafts people�? I am neither in kailash or the kabaa sings the weaver kabir..who will buy his saris now? Meri bukkal wich chor..there is a thief in my sleeve..sings Baba Bulleh Shah of Lahore..about the Divine Thief..makhan chor. Lahories don�t know the chor is in their land. On their soil..selling them opium, like lotus eaters( remember China�s Opium wars!)..and handing them ak47s..Get the commies.. the yanks..Its jehad for the market. They think its for the Faith. An easy catch, laughs the Trojan horse. Next please. Now it�s the turn of the betel leaf and the neem tree.. and steaming hot biryani. Smells of it wafting in the twilight air..will soon float away.. for biryani is only possible if there is rice. So, we take the rice and hoard it in calcutta godowns..the Bengal famine..tut tut.. poor dispensable natives..and now hoarding ain�t working..those annoying inquilabi Bengali babus.. But, the Trojan horse ready.. Brand it. And patent it.. USPTO: 1239874..hurray..! he flies out of the window..no mai ka laal one will ever be able to grow rice again without raising his head..he will beg and crawl before the USPTO to �please grant permission to grow my own food�.. on Do bigha zameen.. while the earth he calls Mother.. Dharti Kahe pukar ke..Mausam beeta jaye..the season is flying.. son.. So, the trojan horse says, pay the lagaan..or forever hold your stomach. And if you have any shame..buy it at the convenience store..a dollar a handful. You gotta think of the forex reserves, man he says..as he decimates another economy..from argentine to brazil..he runs out with the bounty and head the way of another mai ka lal..I got your rice buddy..what next..? Charpoys .. lounging by the footpaths..children running past.. after scared dogs..tincan tied to tail.. The old men.. look on with crinkled eyes ..hookahs gurgle..�haan bhaiya.. what a time has come..� Old Maulana passes hookah to Panditjee and they both sigh.. --- January, 2003 __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From staun at subroutine.de Fri Jan 17 17:57:03 2003 From: staun at subroutine.de (staun) Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 13:27:03 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] is bhangra taking over? Message-ID: <3E27F697.77974D7E@subroutine.de> 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 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. "The empire strikes back" was Pico Iyer's thesis on the gaining relevance of post-colonial or second generation immigrants on british literature. Will Panjabi MC be the Salman Rushdie of pop? Best, Harald Staun From lachlan at london.com Sun Jan 19 00:31:06 2003 From: lachlan at london.com (Lachlan Brown) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 19:01:06 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] [The Metaversity: doing cultural studies, images of america] Re: America Builds a Dream World and Moves into it Message-ID: <20030118190107.85532.qmail@iname.com> On the subject of commodities and colonial and imperial exploitation (which is what this discussion about the American Dream and The West (and the Internet) is really about) as well as dystopia in 4th world rural/urban life, I am scripting a couple of courses for The Metaversity: 'Open to Sources, Access, Ideas and Learning.' from Images of America. week 1. for 'the Metaversity'. Lachlan Brown l.brown at london.com A New England? America as a moral exemplar. Text: Winthrop's City upon a Hill. (Week Two: Salem and the Witchtrials). 'make it like that of New England: for we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us' 'if wee shall deal falsely .... in this work we have undertaken ... we shall be made a story and a byword through the world...' Winthrop, 1630 Governor Winthrop's 'City upon a Hill' sermon, delivered to the Puritan settlers of Massachussett's Bay aboard ship Arabella prior to landing provides the earliest template of the American dream world, Internet is one of its more recent manifestations. Reading around the Biblical references (it was impossible at the time because all public utterance was illustrated by Biblical references that were far more familiar to readers than they are to us today) the idea was to build a society through a Covenant (contractual agreement) with God, and of course also a moral contract with one another as equals as an example to the world (not only Old England), and to acheive life and prosperity through shared wealth, labour and shared fidelity to this Covenant made between each man and their God. There are no tremendous tensions in this text despite the stresses of a sea passage and the uncertainties of the landing, but little is said about the corporate nature of the enterprise - chartered as The Massachussetts Bay Company by the Crown of England to plant settlers and to trade - nor about the aboriginal people the Massachusset http://www.tolatsga.org/Compacts.html#Massachusett http://www.dickshovel.com/massa.html (reduced in the area of the Bay by successive waves of European diseases including smallpox making the abandoned clearings open to settlement by Europeans) nor competing colonising powers, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/exploration_before_1675.jpg except in the reference to the warning not to break Covenant by following other gods and presumably foreign ideas. Although obviously the intention for the Company and plantations or settlements to survive and prosper was catered to with respect to the experience of the near disasters of both Viginia and Plymouth Plantations which were already established to the south, there were no guarantees that individual colonists of the Massachussetts Company would survive. Of course the community and the ideas of the community would. The reference 'City upon a Hill' is from the Gospel of Matthew; "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid." (5:14) It sought moral superiority, hoping to be instruments of God in authoring the final chapter of divine history. The idea that a society Christ might like to live in should be formed was a fairly commonplace Puritan aspiration. The Puritans thought they were scripting the final chapter of divine history, while contributing to the early chapters of modern human history. Failure to meet this exacting moral contract is not catered to by an exit clause. There is no middle ground of doubt in this American Image. The venture will succeed, no imagery is provided of what the situation will look like if it doesn't. American history has filled the lack. 'All the eyes of the world shall be upon us' is a curious combination of the recognition of the equality of God's omniscience over an individual's self and conscience and also a sort of 'total surveillance' by peers and, strangely for the time, the rest of the world of historical human affairs. As if the rest of the world cared or would care about the landing of a few dozen English religious refugees in America. Indeed, the text is very much an example of the idea of historical human affairs emerging in a new post rennaissance world, the modern world. Built in to this phrase, which has been repeatedly employed throughout American history (John Quincy Adams's employed it in his evocation of America as bearing the "standard of freedom and Independence." in the early 19th century; Ronald Reagan employed it towards 'rolling back' Communism and the 'Empire of Evil') there is also the imperative to undertake ones own publicity for one's own sake and the sake of ones community. Freedom of speech and witness, freedom of assembly, The American Press, Hollywood, CNN, and Internet are implied in the sermon. It is significant to see that the West, the frontier, when Massachussett's Bay was the frontier, was already 'the good land' in the English/American imaginary, the 'new England' to replace the old. While later the West (west of the Appalachians) was dangerous country occupied by Indians and French and soon Dutch trading colonists,(Americans were timid in settling the frontier for 200 years and were protected by hardy Celtic soldiers of the British Army) and also, west of the Mississippi in the early 1800s, the West was 'the Great American Desert' http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/exploration_1800.jpg to be crossed but not to be settled - prior to improvement in agricultural methods and the arrival of the railway, to reach under the imperative of 'Manifest Destiny' yet more promised lands in Oregon, Utah, or California. The idea that The West, the frontier, was beautiful is an idea that has come and gone, been reformed and reworked in art and literature and is today used by many different people in different ways for different intentions and agendas, from the Firearms Lobby to Native Americans. To most Americans The West is simply beautiful, the promised land, the promise fulfilled, the promised land, over-exploited, abused, lost, to be remade and reimagined. Winthrop in his sermon epitomises the beginning of a tradition in which America is always promising the impossible and fulfilling the promise. From the founding of Massachussetts to Landing a Man on the Moon. When it fails to do so, or when forces it hadn't accounted for - frontier wars, market downturns, ideas that contradict the myth that the Puritans carried with them to New England as one of America's most potent memes, that America has a special contract with divine grace, America provides other negative images. 'a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours...' However, the strength of the text and this early American idea lies in the surity of common good through solidarity, care of others, ability to forgo material superfluity and thoughts of the other before oneself in community during a crisis as in everyday life: 'wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities' The context of the Salem Witch Trials (coming soon) was very different. The accusers were refugees from frontier wars with French and Natives in Maine, a generation that did not know Old England had grown up and had children of its own, classes (indentured servants) and slavery (of Indians and Blacks) had emerged, and publicity and privacy, independence and interdependence of business and household, had appeared in as yet undefined patterns to define the ideas, beliefs, policies and politics, legalities and government of this New England shortly to be known as America. The Patriarchy of equality and fraternity merely among men was challenged by women who had experienced frontier life at first hand. As well as early attempts to govern the community internally without necessarily involving the governmental expertise of the colonial power or the Merchant Company. Winthrop's Sermon, Massachussett's Bay, aboard The Arabella, 1630. Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is ... to walke humbly with our God, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, wee must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekenes, gentlenes, patience and liberallity, wee must delight in eache other, make others Condicions our owne rejoyce together, mourne together, labour, and suffer together, allwayes haveing before our eyes our Commission and Community in the worke, our Community as members of the same body, soe shall wee keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as his owne people and will commaund a blessing upon us in all our wayes, soe that wee shall see much more of his wisdome power goodnes and truthe then formerly wee have beene acquainted with, wee shall finde that the God of Israell is among us, when tenn of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when hee shall make us a prayse and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like that of New England: for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for Gods sake; wee shall shame the faces of many of gods worthy servants, and cause theire prayers to be turned into Cursses upon us till wee be consumed out of the good land whether wee are going: And to shutt upp this discourse with that exhortacion of Moses that faithfull servant of the Lord in his last farewell to Israell Deut. 30. Beloved there is now sett before us life, and good, deathe and evill in that wee are Commaunded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Commaundements and his Ordinance, and his lawes, and the Articles of our Covenant with him that wee may live and be multiplyed, and that the Lord our God may blesse us in the land whether wee goe to possesse it: But if our heartes shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, ... wee shall surely perishe out of the good Land whether wee passe over this vast Sea to possesse it; Therefore lett us choose life, that wee, and our Seede, may live; by obeyeing his voyce, and cleaveing to him, for hee is our life, and our prosperity. Scripted for the Metaversity - open to sources, open to access by Lachlan Brown January 2003. l.brown at london.com Meet Singles at The Metaversity Lachlan Brown Toronto (416) 666 1452 -- __________________________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Meet Singles http://corp.mail.com/lavalife From kalakamra at vsnl.net Sun Jan 19 22:28:13 2003 From: kalakamra at vsnl.net (shaina) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 22:28:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Your message to reader-list awaits moderator approval Message-ID: <001801c2bfdb$f4816920$f98544ca@susheelanand> ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 6:25 AM Subject: Your message to reader-list awaits moderator approval > Your mail to 'reader-list' with the subject > > THE BOMBAY 'SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL', > 2003. > > Is being held until the list moderator can review it for approval. > > The reason it is being held: > > Message has a suspicious header > > Either the message will get posted to the list, or you will receive > notification of the moderator's decision. From geert at desk.nl Mon Jan 20 04:35:32 2003 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 10:05:32 +1100 Subject: [Reader-list] Charles Kenny: Development's False Divide References: <001801c2bfdb$f4816920$f98544ca@susheelanand> Message-ID: <03db01c2c025$80d59880$31af9bca@geert> Original from: "Michael Gurstein" To: "community informatics" ; "Ciresearchers Net" Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 5:18 AM Development's False Divide By Charles Kenny Giving Internet access to the world's poorest will cost a lot and accomplish little. Politicians, business people, donors, and the press have all proclaimed the digital divide between the developing-world poor and the wealthy West as one of the century's most significant development challenges. In fact, 99.6 percent of the populations of Africa and South Asia did not use the Internet in 2000. "The digital divide threatens to further marginalize the economies and peoples of many developing countries," concluded the U.N. General Assembly in June 2002. The Group of Eight declared at Okinawa in 2000 that "everyone should be able to enjoy access to information and communications networks." The best of motives may drive a concern to equalize global Internet access, but not the strongest of logic. True, tools of communication are important to the world's poorest, and one can also find many examples of effective Internet use in developing countries. For instance, the Internet has been used to inform farmers of crop prices in Argentina, to register deeds in India, to educate children in rural Uganda, and to sell woodcarvings and sandals in Kenya. But it is a large leap to conclude that global Internet access is a sensible goal. Uplifting anecdotes are not enough to justify the high costs of universal Internet access, costs that would be at their highest in the least developed countries. One reason for the high cost of providing widespread Internet access to low-income countries is that about 69 percent of their population is rural. Providing networked services like electricity and telephony to rural areas is expensive-and because rural people are largely poor, it is hard to justify that cost in terms of potential revenues. Solar power and satellite connections are a potential alternative, but such technology further increases the cost of Internet access. In Costa Rica, for example, one off-grid telecenter carried an annualized cost per Internet-enabled computer of about $10,000. By way of comparison, the average person living on $1 a day (and there are 1.5 billion such people worldwide) spends about $10 per year on communications when he has access to it. Subsidized public access is one answer. The subsidies would have to be large, however. Ensuring one hour a week of access at a telecenter such as the one in Costa Rica might cost as much as $50 per year per capita-or about 10 times public spending per capita on health in low-income countries and 10 times discretionary spending per primary student. On this basis, the worldwide subsidy for everyone living on $1 a day to get one hour of access a week might reach $75 billion-considerably more than the global total of aid flows each year. Given that providing widespread Internet access will be complex and expensive, attempting to provide ubiquitous service will be a costly mistake. Some argue that access could be provided more cheaply-perhaps at levels that only equal average health expenditures in low-income countries. Nonetheless, costs of access would probably still outweigh benefits because the digital divide encompasses far more than a physical lack of access; it also relates to deficits in skills and the broader economic environment. Lack of education is a major barrier to productive Internet use, for example. In Ethiopia, 98 percent of Internet users in 1998 had a university degree, yet 64.5 percent of the overall population is illiterate. Worldwide, most people living on $1 a day are illiterate. Further, they usually speak a minority language in their own country-few speak a major global language. For example, about 17 million people in Nigeria speak Igbo. My search for Web pages in Igbo turned up only five sites: a translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a translation of a document called "The Four Spiritual Laws" (theological provenance undetermined), a translation of the food pyramid, a two-page Igbo phrase book, and a prayer manual. There isn't an Igbo translation service on the Web, so an Igbo speaker would be limited to these five. None involved sound or video, so the illiterate Igbo speaker would gain nothing. Bridging the gaps in language and technical skills as well as basic literacy will be difficult, considering the small per-student spending available in the poorest countries' primary schools, where the discretionary budget per student is as little as $5 a year. Even if poor people are lucky enough to be literate and conversant in a major world language, their use of the Web for activities such as e-commerce is likely to be limited by their lack of credit cards, not to mention the challenge of persuading FedEx and UPS to start delivery services in their neighborhoods. Limitations in relevant content and ability to use that content perhaps best explain why only 2.2 percent of India's Internet users have ever engaged in buying or selling over the Web. Similarly, a survey of Tanzanian firms found that among the 30 percent of companies with access to the Internet, less than half use it frequently and only 9 percent rated it as a very effective tool for promoting products. Communications matter to the poor. A system of well-regulated, competitive communications services will reduce costs and extend access. In many cases, it may well be worth extending access to telephony with limited, targeted, carefully designed subsidy programs. But pursuing universal access to the Internet would be a misallocation of considerable resources. To draw an analogy, another technology boasts a 70-fold difference in access rates between the United States and India, and economists link that technology to increased productivity as well. But no one is setting up a U.N. task force to overcome the Air Conditioner Divide. Poor countries face many serious divides, including those in education, healthcare, and transportation. The relevant question for the poorest is, does the lack of access to a particular good provide a significant barrier to becoming more wealthy? The answer is yes for the tools of communication in general but no for the Internet in particular. Charles Kenny is an economist at the World Bank. This article was adapted from "Should We Try to Bridge the Global Digital Divide?" (Info, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2002). The views expressed are his own. From siddharthaluther at rediffmail.com Mon Jan 20 10:17:33 2003 From: siddharthaluther at rediffmail.com (sid luther) Date: 20 Jan 2003 04:47:33 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Your message to reader-list awaits moderator approval Message-ID: <20030120044733.9308.qmail@webmail28.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030120/6d8601aa/attachment.pl From kalakamra at vsnl.net Mon Jan 20 11:19:26 2003 From: kalakamra at vsnl.net (shaina) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 11:19:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] failure notice Message-ID: <000b01c2c047$b178cc10$8d8444ca@susheelanand> > --- Below this line is a copy of the message. > THE BOMBAY 'SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL', 2003. > > > > CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS > Submission deadline: 20th February 2003. > > There is no entry fee. > > > > About Us > 'Humjnsi' is part of India center for Human Rights and Law. It's a support > group and a Helpline for women who love women. As part of our campaign work > to raise issues of gender and sexuality we have decided to organize a film > festival. > > > > Humjinsi- an Urdu word in contemporary usage means, "relationships between > people of the same sex"- i.e., for homosexuals. The word is gender neutral, > non-pejorative - and quite significantly, does not constrict the definition > of the relationship to the sexual. > > > > India center for Human Rights and Law is a comprehensive resource center > specializing in documentation, education, publication, investigations and > campaigns related to human rights and law. The center includes civil, > political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights of women, children, > tribals, rural poor, dalits, lesbian and gays, slum and pavement, dwellers, > unorganized labour, prisoners, consumers and those affected by environmental > degradation and retrogressive development policies. > > > Outline > We in Bombay (India) are curating a package of films and videos around the > theme of sexual and gender minorities. > > Our agenda is to primarily create a forum for showcasing works emerging from > South-East Asia, Middle East, Africa, Latin America as well as other parts > of the world. This festival is an attempt to compliment already existing and > on going work within the sexuality and gender minority movement at the > grass-root level. Relevant discussion forums and readings will support the > screenings. Various collectives and groups working locally in Bombay will be > invited to put up information stalls at the venue. > > This festival will be open to public and we look at it as a political tool > to generate more visibility, facilitate a public discourse and celebrate our > various existences. > > The films and videos we are looking for should primarily address minority > sexuality and gender issues. They could be made in any genre, i.e. feature > length fiction, shorts, experimental, documentary, animation or mixed media > presentations. > > This festival is a not for profit event. Our funds enable us to manage only > the infrastructure and administrative costs for conducting the festival. > Unfortunately we cannot pay postage fees for works from outside India. > Within India, we can propose to arrange pick-ups of the films in various > cities. For the same reasons we are unable to pay any screening fees to the > filmmakers. > > > > REQUIREMENTS: > > 1. Only 1/2" VHS ( PAL) videotapes will be accepted for preview. DO NOT send > master tapes or film prints for preview screening. On selection we will > request you to send the work on its original format. > > 2. Preview tapes must be labeled with the title, running time and contact > info (including name, address and phone number). > > 3. Works submitted in languages other than English must be subtitled in > English. > > 4. The Festival reserves the right to excerpt programmed works (up to 3 > minutes) for television and other promotional purposes. > > 6. Do not send submissions in fiber-filled envelopes. The dust damages > videotapes and VCRs. > > 7. All submissions must be received by20th February 2003. You will be > notified of the programming committee's final decision by 15th June 2003. > > 8. All preview tapes will be added to the Festival's archives unless > accompanied by a self-addressed stamped and a request for return. > > 9. To submit more than one tape, please make a copy of this submission form > for each entry. > > 10. If you are sending work from outside India, please indicate on the > outside of the package, FOR FESTIVAL PREVIEW ONLY, NO COMMERCIAL VALUE or > you may be required to pay customs duties. > > 11. Please include the following information and documents with each > submission: Check List > > b. Preview tape (VHS PAL). > > c. Completed and signed submission form. > > d. B&W and/ or colour stills (Images on disk and emailed stills are > acceptable as well. If emailing, please send to festival_humjinsi at yahoo.com > in the following format: tiff or minimally compressed jpg files with a dpi > of 200 or higher. Good stills can make a difference in press coverage and > festival prominence.) > > e. Synopsis of the work for the press kit. (This is not mandatory, include > if possible) > > > > > > > > ENTRY FORM > PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING FORM: > > PRINT OR TYPE CLEARLY. COMPLETE AND SEND WITH TAPE: > > > > English title:.. > > Original title:.......................... > > Director(s):....................... > > Producer(s):....................... > > Distributor(s):...................... > > Country of origin:........................... > > Year of completion::....................... > > Original Language: ......... Subtitled ..... Dubbed ...... > > Original Format:......................... > > Exhibition format:.......................... > > Running time: ............... > > Category (check all that apply): > > 1. Fiction- Feature/Short > > 2. Documentary > > 3. Experimental > > 4. Animation > > 5. Mixed Media > > 6. Student Category > > Film specifications: > > Sound: Mono___ Stereo___ Dolby A___ Dolby SR____ > > Aspect ratio: 1.33___ 1.66___ 1.85___ Scope___ > > > > Previous screenings:...................... > > > > Synopsis:....................... > > > CONTACT INFORMATION > Name:......................... > > Address:....................... > > City:................ Province/State:.......... > > Country: .............Postal/zip code: > > Telephone:............. > > Fax: ............... > > Email: .............. > > Website: .................... > > > > Yes, You can include my contact information in the festival catalogue... Y/N > > > > > > > > AUTHORIZATION TO THE FESTIVAL: > > __ Yes, I authorize ..... to keep my submission tape for use in their > Viewing Library with the understanding that the Library is for in-house > viewing; no tapes are lent out nor are the tapes used for any additional > public screenings without the written consent of the director and/or > distributor. > > The Festival reserves the right to excerpt programmed works (up to 3 > minutes) for television and other promotional purposes. > > > > I have read and agree to the festival submission and participation > guidelines and certify that I am authorised to submit this work to The > Bombay Sexual and Gender Minority Film and Video Festival and that all the > above information is correct. > > > > > > Signed:_______________________________ Date:_______________ > > > > > > > > > > SEND TO: > > Postal address: Humjinsi, > > C/O India Centre for Human Rights and Law > > CVOD Jain High School > > 4th Floor, 84 Samuel Street (Hazrat Abbas St.) > > Dongri, Bombay-9 > > India > > > > Tel: +91-22-2371 6690 > > > > Fax:+91-22-2379 1099 > > > > Email: festival_humjinsi at yahoo.com > > > > > > . > From jeebesh at sarai.net Mon Jan 20 14:04:37 2003 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:04:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Your message to reader-list awaits moderator approval Message-ID: <200301201404.37287.jeebesh@sarai.net> dear Sid, Reader-list is not a moderated list. It is a subscriber based list. i.e only subscribed email addresses can post. Posting are held if they are from email accounts that are not subscribed to the list. In the period of this `wait` Mailman (our list manager) sends in a machine generated response to the list-admin and the `poster`. Mailman also provides for some keywords based spam filters. All lists get a very high number of spams from a diverse sources. Thus the need for spam protecting filters. Regarding this specific wording of the response from Mailman, we will need to look into the database of the possible responces and see how it is structured and worded. best Jeebesh On Monday 20 January 2003 10:17 am, sid luther wrote: > I can't believe that expression is being 'moderated' like this. > What does 'suspicious header' mean? Is the term 'sexual' what > seems suspicious? much as i agree that a moderated list needs to > protect interests and sensibilities and prevent unnecessary spam, > are there no other paramneters to define 'suspicious' or moderate > spam?. > excuse me for over-reacting like this, but i just couldnt believe > it. > s > > On Sun, 19 Jan 2003 shaina wrote : > >----- Original Message ----- > > From: > >To: > >Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 6:25 AM > >Subject: Your message to reader-list awaits moderator approval > > > > > Your mail to 'reader-list' with the subject > > > > > > THE BOMBAY 'SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY FILM AND VIDEO > > > >FESTIVAL', > > > > > 2003. > > > > > > Is being held until the list moderator can review it for > > > >approval. > > > > > The reason it is being held: > > > > > > Message has a suspicious header > > > > > > Either the message will get posted to the list, or you will > > > >receive > > > > > notification of the moderator's decision. > > > >_________________________________________ > >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: > > _________________________________________ > 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 lehar_hind at yahoo.com Mon Jan 20 14:10:48 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 00:40:48 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Its the Oil..Stupid Message-ID: <20030120084048.88175.qmail@web20909.mail.yahoo.com> intresting..wel put.. > >Subject: Terrorism !!! > > > > > > > > > > > > It is the Oil, Stupid!" > > > > > > by Joseph Clifford > > > > > Mr.. Joseph Clifford contributed this article to Media > > > > > Monitors Network (MMN) from James Town, Rhode Island. > > > > > > > > > > * The Russians got into their Vietnam (Afghanistan) > > > > > right after US got out of theirs? Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * US supported Bin Laden and the Talibans for years, > > > > > and viewed them as freedom fighters against the Russians? > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * As late as 1998 the US was paying the salary of > > > > > every single Taliban's official in Afghanistan? > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * There is more oil and gas in the Caspian Sea area > > > > > than in Saudi Arabia, but you need a pipeline through > > > > > Afghanistan to get the oil out. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * UNOCAL, a giant American Oil conglomerate, wanted to > > > > > build a 1,000 mile long pipeline from the Caspian Sea through > > > > > Afghanistan to the Arabian Sea. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * UNOCAL spent $10,000,000,000 on geological surveys > > > > > for pipeline construction, and very nicely courted the Talibans > > > > > for their support in allowing the construction to begin. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * All of the leading Taliban officials were in Texas > > > > > negotiating with UNOCAL in 1998. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * 1998-1999 the Talibans changed its mind and threw > > > > > UNOCAL out of the country and awarded the pipeline > > > > > project to a company from Argentina. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * John Maresca, VP of UNOCAL testified before Congress > > > > > and said no pipeline until the Talibans was gone and a more > > > > > friendly government was established. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * 1999-2000 The Talibans became the most evil people > > > > > in the world. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was > > > > > told by senior American officials in mid-July (2000) that > > > > > military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by > > > > > the middle of October (2000). > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * 9/11 WTC disaster. > > > > > * > > > > > * Bush goes to war against Afghanistan even though > > > > > none of the hijackers came from Afghanistan. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Bush blamed Bin Laden but has never offered any > > > > > proof saying it's a "secret". > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Talibans offered to negotiate to turn over Bin Laden > > > > > if we showed them some proof. We refused; we bombed. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Bush said: "This is not about nation building. It's > > > > > about getting the terrorists." > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * We have a new government in Afghanistan. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * The leader of that government formerly worked for > > > > > UNOCAL (Hamid Karrzai). > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Bush appoints a special envoy to represent the US to > > > > > deal with that new government, who formerly was the > > > > > "chief consultant to UNOCAL" (LakhdarIbrahimi). > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * The Bush family acquired their wealth through oil? > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Bush's Secretary of Interior was the President of an > > > > > oil company before going to Washington. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * George Bush Sr. (Father) now works with the > > > > > "Carlysle Group" specializing in huge oil investments > > > > > around the world. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Condoleezza Rice worked for Chevron before gong to > > > > > Washington. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Chevron named one of its newest "supertankers" after > > > > > Condoleezza.Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Dick Cheney worked for the giant oil conglomerate > > > > > Haliburton before becoming VP of USA. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Haliburton gave Cheney $34,000,000,000 as a farewell > > > > > gift when he left Haliburton. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * Haliburton is in the pipeline construction business. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * There is $6 Trillion dollars worth of oil in the > > > > > Caspian Sea area. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * The US government quietly announces Jan 31, 2002 we > > > > > will support the construction of the Trans-Afghanistan > > > > > pipeline. > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > * > > > > > * President Musharref (Pakistan), and Karrzai, > > > > > (Afghanistan - Unocal) announce agreement to build > > > > > proposed gas pipeline from Central Asia to Pakistan via > > > > > Afghanistan. (Irish Times 02/10/02) > > > > > Isn't that strange? > > > > > > > > > > "It's the Oil, Stupid!" > > > > > (And all the while we were told it was about terrorism > > > > > and freedom) > > > > > Mr. Joseph Clifford contributed above article to Media > > > > > Monitors Network (MMN) from James Town, Rhode Island. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From hari_roka at hotmail.com Mon Jan 20 15:14:07 2003 From: hari_roka at hotmail.com (Hari Roka) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 09:44:07 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] research proposal Message-ID: Dear friends I am sending copy of my research proposal.Iam hoping that,Iwill get your valuable suggestions, views and comments. hari.Nepali Migrants in Delhi Nepali Migrants in Delhi 1: The Present scenarios: The countryside is burning by civil war. The Maoist guerrillas and Royal Nepal Army both are severely fighting between each other. Seven years before, when Nepali Maoist commenced their insurgency was affected only in small area of western middle hill region. But today it spreads all over the nation as like the fire of the jungle. But for outsider it is not possible to visualize the situation of �civil war� because of refugee problem still not have been apparent externally outburst. So it is not looking so serious because of two reasons: First, the Nepal -India border is open for citizens of both countries. The huge migration of Nepali people in India does not seem bad impact because of later country has huge population of more than one billion. Nepali migrants easily accommodate themselves within India finding labor-intensive job for livelihood which does not impact on overall unemployment problem is another reason where no sounds come out side. Secondly, the local elites and political activists are still getting shelters, security and small amount of money for livelihood in district head-quarters with the help of government thus rumors is not broaden outside. Basically, there are two types of migrant tendencies in India; one is for long term migration and second for seasonal works. The first type migrations are employed in public sector, state police, and in Indian Army employment as well as security guards in urban area. The seasonal migrants basically works on constructions site especially in physical infrastructure such as road, building, cannel constructions etc, and in agricultural field as a manual workers. In the prior period later type migration was as usual. But today the nature of migration has changed while the insurgency spread all major part of the periphery has been badly affecting in rural Nepal, and the migration from Nepal to India became exceptional. It is not easier position like earning money and sending remittances to the needy villages. Today, the migrated people has two objectives one for safe of lives from terror such as killings, detain in custody, high jacking, missing, from the side of government�s army and as well as Maoist side, and the second objective is to earn something for livelihood and save a little for uncertain future. Still Nepali migrants have a link with agriculture. Their families are living in the remote and terrorize villages. In 1998 the World Bank pointed out that 86 percent of its household cultivates some land, 80 percent have some livestock and agriculture constitutes the main sector of employment for 83 percent of all individual in the labor force. The remittances from outside is very much helpful to their families for overall livelihood. Because the available land is not sufficient to produce food according to their family needs. And even for their basic needs such as clothes for family, school fees and stationary for children, kerosene for light, and other essentials goods which would be mange through remittances. The number figure of Nepali migrants in India is unidentified. Only official�s workers and those who are working in Indian Army and police and in public sectors employee have official records. According to one estimation of 1997 there were 250,000 workers were working in public sector enterprises. But it is only a conservative estimate. In India by all accounts hundred of thousands of Nepalese are working. In one rough estimate in 1997 there were more than 1.3 millions Nepali workers working in India. That period was a very normal period. Within the past seven years the volume might be double because of flow of exodus but how many? There are no official records available. 2: In Delhi An unofficial estimation of 1997 there were fifty to sixty thousands Nepali migrants working in Delhi. Now it is imagine that the numbers of migrants has tripled within these five years. The majority of Nepali migrants are from mid west and far western regions (these regions are highly affected by insurgency) in which 25 percents were employed in civilian occupations. Others are working in several fields such as in restaurants, and dhabas as waiters and cleaners, cook for merchant�s house, some are working in private industries, night watchman ship in town area. Women are working as house maid. But most of the women migrants are working in brothels and other types of sex industries. But after insurgency hundred of thousands people are searching jobs of any type as like other trans- national migrants from the third world which found usually in mega cities �janitors, security guards, or domestic workers. Delhi the capital city of India is providing such jobs for Nepali people who are staying here. Most of the jobs in which Nepali migrants are employed fall in to the categories much cited by migrants themselves of three �D�s (difficulties, dirty and dangerous). There is considerable anecdotal evidence of workers being repatriated without compensation after suffering from ill health or accidents, or after simply being dismissed. But the information of their losses would not reach in proper place in proper time, because nobodies are responsible for any kind of casualties. 3: Problem Identification: In Delhi like other mega cities the process of globalization has been introduced in 1991. The procedure of divestment of industries has been badly influencing the workers. They are losing jobs from the divested industries and other public enterprises. That is why; there is no easy excess for new Nepali migrants to get entrance in public sector enterprises. Similarly, most of the Nepali peoples those who are working in several institutions as security guards in private as well as in Government�s forms comes from the individual linkages. In stead of it, another process has begun in organized way like �Group-4� security groups and others. But, Nepali people are not customary for such organized work. They have weakest linkages on personal basis. Nepali migrants those who were involved in India since more than two centuries is really in difficulties this time because of tough internal and external competition. In this respect there are lot problems which Nepali migrants are facing and also should face in near future. They should search answers of the following questions: 1, How they are affecting by the country�s situations which are creating tough competition from inside? 2, how they can manage extra burden from exodus- flow like a flood from the native villages those who are their relative too? 3, how they will manage their earnings to remit in their home in such circumstance of insurgencies? 4, how they are managing to communicate with their families when most of the means of communication are destroyed? 5, how they are managing their relationship among the Nepalese those who are employing in Delhi? 6, Are they organized politically and socially? If they organized politically then how they think about the resolution of the present national crisis? 7, Have they any knowledge about the changing situation in India and abroad? Have they any idea about the words such as �new culture�, �globalization�, �WTO� and etc? Which are badly affecting their job in near future? 8, if the Government of India implements the policy of work permit violating old treaty then what they will do? Shall they trying to request their own government to resolve the problem or they want to use other means? 9, what type of media they used for getting regular information about the country? What they felt when they heard the news of killed of own family member in civil war? And how they shared the grief of their relatives killing, missing, or wounding? To whom they blame? Want them peaceful settlement of the conflict and at what cost? 10, has there any trouble or have an effect on their job by insurgency? If so, how they settle down the problem? Are they getting any help from outside from local police, or any kind of society, or local administration and others? 11, which media they prefers in Delhi? (Radio, television, news papers etc), they have any knowledge about the internet and email system of communication? Have they any knowledge about extradition treaty between Nepal and India which recently activated? 12, how much portion of their earnings they spent here for their livelihood and how much save for remittance? Have they any habit of deposit in bank? Or they deposit their earnings in the hands of their relatives? Or send directly of their saving through money order or bank draft to their family? Which channel they used to prefer for sending money at home? Have they any information that their remittances used properly? Is that safely reached? Or looted outside? 4: Methodology Primary survey will be taken for the fact findings; direct conversation will be preferred among selected persons on different occupational. For this near about hundreds of people will be selected from different income level, and from different places. Different places will be chosen for different stratum of people for example industrial workers will be chosen from Okhala north Delhi area, house maid from Canaught place, central Delhi, security guards from JNU, public service personnel from Palam area and boys from several Dhaba and restaurants in old and New-Delhi. 5: Objective From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Mon Jan 20 18:31:21 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 05:01:21 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Invite to Sanjha Basant Festival, Delhi Message-ID: <20030120130121.16316.qmail@web20902.mail.yahoo.com> >Dear Friends >You are invited to share our Sanjhi Virasat..please >come if you can.. and spread the word.. among Delhiites and all those who >love and believe in India. Please get back to us if you have any ideas and would like to volunteer or help out in any other way. >Peace >Lehar. > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >- >Organised religion is the prop of a man who has not found his Self/ God >within. >- Shaheed Bhagat Singh > > > > > > > > >From: "Yousuf " Subject: Basant festival in February > >(Delhi) > >Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 17:21:18 -0000 > > > >Basant Utsav 2003 > >A Festival of Spring, Colours, Music, and Festivity > >6-9 February 2003, New Delhi > > > >Dear friends > > > >The end of a chilly winter. The beginning of spring. And a festival > >called Basant celebrating the fragrance of flowers and the explosion > >of colours. As we venture out of the city, a lush carpet of yellow > >mustard flowers spreads for miles through the verdant Indian > >farmland. There is singing and dancing, laughter and joy, welcoming > >this beautiful season. A joy which courses through every vein. A > >laughter which does not know differences of religion, caste or creed. > >It should not come as a great surprise to anyone that a large number > >of North Indian Muslims also celebrate Basant Panchami, like their > >Hindu brethren. A tradition initiated eight hundred years ago by the > >famous poet Amir Khusrau. A celebration kept alive uninterrupted, > >unmarred by the vagaries of time. > > > >Buoyed by the success of Basant Utsav 2002, we seek to continue the > >celebration on a grander scale beginning February 6, 2003. From a > >one day programme limited to one venue the Utsav proposes to be a > >Four Day Long Event spread across the twin repositories of Delhi's > >culture - Nizamuddin and Mehrauli. > > > >We intend to mobilize and create awareness among people, not only > >about these great poets but also their message of hope in > >togetherness. Heritage Walks, Painting Competition for the > >differently abled, Film Shows, Exhibition, Quawwali and Mushaira have > >been planned to mark this event and to give back this Utsav its old > >world charm and glory. We also intend to bring out a souvenir on this > >occasion. > > > >We intend to achieve it through a sustained publicity campaign > >involving all media which shall culminate with the Basant Utsav > >beginning Thursday, February 6, 2003. > > > >We are not only looking orward to your participation in the festival, > >but also help us find some sponsors for the various activities > >planned. Kindly see the details below and send in your feedback. > > > >Thanking You, > > > >Yousuf Saeed, Vagish Jha, Ajai Chawla, and other friends > >For Communicators Cooperative > > > >Some details about our last year's Basant fest can be found on the > >folowing sites: > >http://www.cc-india.org/basant.html > >http://www.alif-india.com > >------- > > > >Basant Utsav > >A Celebration of the unique cultural legacy of Sufi Basant > > > >Unique is the festival of Basant. Celebrating the fragrant and > >colourful charms of spring, the Hindu festival of Basant Panchami, > >also marks the invocation of the Goddess of Learning and Knowledge, > >Saraswati. Inspired and enlivened by the local tradition Amir Khusru > >wrapped himself in a yellow attire, plucked a bunch of sparkling > >yellow flower of 'Sarson' (mustard) and presented them to Hazrat > >Nizamuddin who was in deep melancholy due to a personal grief. He > >broke into laughter by the dress and gesture of Amir Khusru. And thus > >began the celebration of > >Basant Utsav. Eight hundred years later, the tradition continues > >uninterrupted. Even today, Qawwali resonates in the precinct amidst > >serene gaiety and collective bliss on this day. > >Communicators' Cooperative (Cc) invites you to be a part of this > >living tradition where centuries merge in an eclectic and ecstatic > >celebration of blissful acceptance & seamless fusion. We have planned > >a four day long Programme to mark the occasion this year. > >As a multi-state cooperative of creative professionals Cc seeks your > >association to turn it into an unforgettable event. Given your > >commitment towards strengthening the great multi-cultural > >heritage of Hindustan we feel assured of your support and > >participation. A blue print of proposed programme follows. > > > >That this event will garner support from all walks of the society is > >by now a given. Aspiring to be a platform where the privileged and > >not so privileged can meet, communicate, articulate and understand, > >the event we are sure would become the platform for sharing. Sharing > >of hopes and aspirations, love and joy, resources and privileges. > >This is the hope with which this festival is being launched and this > >is what we are set to achieve. > >With you all coming together with us of course. > > > >The Basant Blueprint > > > >Day I Thursday, February 6, 2003 > >Basanti Walk > >10.30 a.m. Venue: Humayun's Tomb > >THE NIZAMMUDDIN AREA in Delhi is the proud bearer of its history and > >unbroken traditions. All that is harmonious and magnificent has found > >space over here and then lived on in great splendour. Art, Culture, > >Cuisine and the Spiritual. Sufi Saints, Emperors, Poets and > >Intellectuals. They have all gained and grown under the munificent > >and peaceful glow of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia. > >For over eight hundred years Sufi Basant is being celebrated here > >with great gusto and camaraderie, so unique to the abode of the > >Hazrat Sahib. On the Basant Panchami day, Sufis in their yellow robe > >and turban/cap carrying yellow mustard flowers sing songs written by > >poets of the eminence of Amir Khusru and Rahim. > >The Basanti Walk will wind its way from the Humayun's Tomb and the > >wide treelined avenues in its immediate vicinity to the narrow > >fragrant alleys leading upto the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia on > >the other side of the road. An unbroken tradition from the days of > >Amir Khusru we will walk through these lanes, bye-lanes and monuments > >that shaped our history and learn more about them. The walk will > >culminate at the Rahim's Tomb. > > > >Saraswati Vandana > >12.30 p.m. Venue: Rahim's Tomb > >BASANT PANCHAMI MARKS the day of celebration of learning and > >knowledge. In a large part of the country, children are initiated > >into education on this day. But all children are not so fortunate. > >Run away kids and orphans are certainly not. We aim to run a unique > >musical workshop where a select group of these not so privileged kids > >will gather and learn. Saraswati Vandana written by the great poet > >Suryakant Tripathi Nirala which will be set to music by a giant of > >Indian Classical Music. This choir trained by Cc will perform at the > >Rahim's tomb on this very auspicious day. > > > >We will have audiences from nearby areas who would participate in the > >formal Saraswati Vandana by these children. Young people from > >schools, colleges and other institutions would be invited to > >participate. We aim to target 20 schools and 10 colleges which can be > >asked specifically to come and join and bear witness to this splendid > >gathering. This function will be concluded with setting free 200 > >yellow air balloons with messages of peace and harmony on them. > > > >Basanti Udaan > >History tells us that Basant in Mughal era was characterized by a > >bold spread of yellow colours in all forms. Kites being the most > >important manifestation of this festival of freedom, gaiety, colours > >and harmony. Amritsar or Lahore. Kite flying is also the one feature > >of Basant which unites people living on both sides of Wagah. A kite- > >flying contest shall be held on the Rahim's Tomb lawns to mark this > >feeling of unity. > >Enthusiasts of kite flying from Delhi and other places shall be > >invited to participate. Makers of kites may be invited from Old > >Delhi, Rampur, Rajasthan and other towns. > >Mustard yellow will be the theme of the kites. Some kite makers would > >be able to set up temporary shops in the area - selling and giving > >lecture-demonstrations on how to fly a kite and how to make the > >manjha (thread) etc. Some kites would carry message of universal > >brotherhood so that when they fall off in far away places, they carry > >messages across the city. > >Approximately 200-250 people are likely to participate actively in > >this event. Guidelines, precautions for kite-flyers, posters and > >banners shall be printed for the occasion. > > > >Kavi Sammelan/Mushaira > > > >2.30 p.m. Venue: Ghalib Tomb/Ghalib Academy Hall > > > >BASANT UTSAV DOES not belong to any one religion. Instead it is a > >celebration of the glorious nature, its splendid hues, fragrance and > >vibrations > >and hence belongs to every one. It is symbolic of the joy and gaiety > >that courses through our veins. Nizamuddin is also the area which > >produced literary giants like Amir Khusru, Rahim Khankhana and Mirza > >Ghalib. To celebrate these great sons of Saraswati, this poetry > >session would be a unique amalgamation of the talents of seasoned > >and young kavi and shayars wrting in Hindi and Urdu. Giving all of us > >an opportunity to invoke our muse and grant us our wish to create a > >world of collective bliss and harmony. > > > >Sufi Basant > > > >5.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. > >ON THE DAY of Basant Panchami, inspired and enlivened by the local > >tradition, Amir Khusru wrapped in a yellow attire, plucked a bunch of > >sparkling yellow flowers and presented them to Hazrat Nizamuddin who > >was in deep melancholy due to a personal grief. He broke into > >laughter by the dress and gestures of Amir Khusru. And thus began the > >celebration. Eight Hundred years later, the tradition continues > >uninterrupted. > >People join the traditional procession of Sufis singing the praise of > >Basant, heading towards the Dargah of Hazrat Nizammuddin Aulia for > >paying obeisance to the great Saint and listening to the quawwals. > >300-500 people are expected to accompany us to the Dargah wearing > >yellow T-shirts and scarves. > >6.30 p.m.- 7.30 p.m. > >Traditional paper lamps would be flown near the Dargah. About 50 such > >lamps shall be flown that shall be visible in the night sky from a > >distance. > > > >Day II Friday, 7th February 2003 > > > >Basanti Sanskriti > >10.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m Venue: Rahim's Tomb > >IN THE TIMES gone by, kings and rulers organized literary seminars > >and get-togethers on Basant Panchami day. Poets, dramatists and > >writers were felicitated and rewarded on this occasion. Great dramas > >written of Kalidasa and other dramatists were played before the > >audience during this festival. This year's Basant focuses on the > >education of differently abled and special children. > >Thematic painting competitions will be organised for young children > >from juvenile homes and schools which are engaged in the education > >for the physically challenged. The idea is also to have children > >studying in regular schools to come, interact and understand their > >differently abled soulmates through this special event. Eminent > >painters would be invited as judges for this show. Schools from the > >National Capital Region will be approached to participate in this > >event. We intend to put up posters specific to this competition at > >institutions and would also print over 5000 forms/ brochures which > >can be supported by publicity in newspapers and the electronic media. > >We expect approximately 300 young children to participate in this > >event. > >Basanti Bioscope > >2.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. Venue : Ghalib Academy > >BASANT HAS CAUGHT the imagination of filmmakers and audiences alike > >for several generations now. To celebrate the flowering of such > >imaginations a day long screening of popular films on the theme of > >Basant shall be organised. This will not only feature documentaries > >but also Hindi film scenes and song vignettes. > >Brochures, posters and banners related to the event shall be printed > >and put up at academic institutions and popular places to ensure > >greater participation. Direct mail and invitations shall be sent to > >eminent individuals and institutions for participation and viewing of > >the films. > > > >Day III Saturday, 8th February, 2003 > >Basanti Prabhat Pheri & Sair-e-Virasat > >The Heritage Walk > >9.00 a.m. to 12.30 a.m > >From Hauz e shamshi (venue of Phool Walon Ki Sair) > >to the Mehrauli Complex > >The rich cultural heritage of Mehrauli has contributed immensely to > >the Sufi tradition and has been an active site for Basant > >celebration. A landmark event in Delhi's cultural calendar is Phool > >Waalon Ki Sair which is steeped and grounded in the lanes of > >Mehrauli. The site where the foundations of Delhi were laid has > >historical monuments spread all around it - overshadowed by the > >towering Qutub Minar. In order to bring awareness about the cultural > >heritage of the city that was Mehrauli, this day of Basant would > >begin with a Heritage walk. > >People from all walks of life - intellectuals, academician, > >filmmakers, students and common people - shall take a Prabhat Pheri > >around the great historic monuments of Mehrauli area with historians > >and eminent residents of this area guiding them. This aims at > >promoting an appreciation of our great heritage and to foster > >solidarity and harmony among the communities. > >A heritage map of the area is proposed to be brought out for the > >occasion for wide distribution. The people shall be wearing yellow T- > >shirts and scarves. Apart from 10-15 banners at important places in > >the area at least 5000 leaflets shall be distributed in the > >surrounding areas through newspapers and direct mail for mobilising > >maximum participation. > > > >Basanti Haat > > > >12.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.Venue: Mehrauli Complex > >To be formally inaugurated by a celebrity Basanti Haat would be a two > >day itinerant bazaar to be based in Mehrauli. Stalls shall be set up > >selling all kinds of stuffs related to the theme of Basant - > >handicrafts, clothes, flowers, food, drinks, posters, photographs, > >greeting cards, calendars, books, music cassettes, CD-ROMs, kites, > >and other material. A speciality of this day is Kheer, sweet rice > >(yellow) with almonds, raisins and cashew nuts added to it Karhi > >chawal (rice with a yellow curry) is a must in the afternoon. Vendors > >and booksellers shall be invited to take up these stalls on hire. All > >materials would carry messages of peace and equality and would be > >sold at nominal rates. > >The publicity for the event shall be supported through distribution > >of 5000 brochures, 300 posters and 10-15 banners. > > > >Basanti Jhoom/Nritya The Spring Dance > > > >3.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. Venue: Mehrauli Complex > >FOLK DANCE AND Song troupes would be invited to perform through the > >day at selected places in Mehrauli. The theme of the dress and > >music/dance would be Basant. The dance stage, the choreography and > >the presentation would be immaculate and evocative of the spirit of > >Basant. The dances would be participatory in nature that implies that > >the audience would be encouraged to join in. > > > > > >Day IV Sunday, 9th February,2003 > > > >Basanti Prabhat Pheri & Sair-e-Virasat > >The Heritage Walk > >10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. > >From Qutub Minar, Mehrauli to Mehrauli Complex > >A walk conducted by eminent historians, archaeologist, and other > >personalities shall be undertaken around the Mehrauli area. The walk > >shall culminate at Mehrauli Complex, the venue for the Haat. The walk > >shall serve as an opportunity for scholars and people interested in > >knowing about India's cultural heritage to have a close interaction > >with the walkers. A map of the walk along with a brief history of the > >monuments shall be printed as a brochure. > >At least 800 people are expected to participate in these Heritage > >Walks. Wearing yellow T-shirts and scarves these people shall be > >conducted through the Mehrauli area by experts. The publicity for > >this walk would be ensured through distribution of maps, handouts and > >direct mail. Posters and banners shall also be displayed at vantage > >points.. > > > >Basanti Haat > >12.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. Venue: Mehrauli Complex > >THE HAAT INAUGURATED the previous day shall continue on this day. > >Basanti Samaa > >3.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.Venue: Mehrauli Complex > >AN EVENING OF qawwalis, folk and classical music concert by eminent > >qawwals and classical singers. The culminating event we aim to end > >the celebrations on a real grand note. For this a highly evolved > >stage and sound technology must be put in place. > >We propose to have artists of the eminence of the Wadali Brothers, > >Iqbal Ahmed Khan, Madan Gopal Singh, Manjit Bawa, Shubha Mudgal, Bhai > >Baljeet Singh to come and grace the occasion and share that is the > >most endearing to them all. Music written and composed by the great > >Sufi and Bhakti Saints. > > > >THE BASANTI BINDING FACTORS > > > >BASANTI POCKET FLAGS > >Small yellow coloured flags symbolizing peace and harmony shall be > >sold all over Delhi throughout the campaign. Stickers for cars would > >also be printed. > > > >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. > > > >BASANTI BOOKMARKS > >Bookmarks related to Basant shall be printed and distributed. > > > >BASANTI RAFFLE > >A raffle will be conducted on the penultimate day with the prize > >distribution during Basanti Samaa, the musical concert at the end of > >celebrations. > > > >OTHER MEMORABILIA > >Other memorabilia associated with the 4 day Basanti festival will 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. > > > >VIDEO COVERAGE > >Video coverage of the entire festival: Digital video shooting and > >editing would be done so that a feature programme can be mounted to > >be shown by various TV channels. > > > >DIGITAL AUDIO COVERAGE > >Digital audio coverage of the shows would be done which can be > >packaged as CD-ROMs and audio tapes which can be sold to commemorate > >the event later. > > > >PUBLICITY > >Publicity for the event shall be managed through invitations, > >handouts, Print and Electronic Media Publicity apart from > >advertisements in the newspapers. > > > >Basant 2003 > > > >Aims and Objectives > > > >People cutting across religions, communities and nationalities would > >be involved to turn the Basant 2003 celebration as a unique vibrant > >and truly People's Festival. > > > >The locations would be such that they not only represent > >the 'traditionality' of the event but would be easily accessible to > >people of all communities. > > > >The events would consciously invoke and canvas for inter religious > >solidarity and harmony and must be perceived by people as the > >harbinger of peace and prosperity through amity and affection. > > > >Events involving different target groups but not mutually exclusive > >groups would encourage participation of people belonging to different > >age and income groups. > > > >By highlighting a forgotten festival and several historical monuments > >this event would aim at providing a tremendous fillip to Delhi's > >Tourism. > > > >(Sponsors for most of the above activities/products are required. > >Kindly contact us at basant at cc-india.org or yousufsaeed at india.com ) > > > > > > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From areflagan at artpanorama.com Mon Jan 20 22:59:21 2003 From: areflagan at artpanorama.com (Are Flagan) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 12:29:21 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Its the Oil..Stupid In-Reply-To: <20030120084048.88175.qmail@web20909.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: [Some people on the reader list may see this as a useful follow-up to Lehar's post -af] Not being an economist, but intrigued by the buried news that Iraq linked its oil trade to the euro at the expense of the dollar in late 2000, I looked around for some truth to this story. Sure enough, in October of 2000 the UN opened an Iraq account in euro, after Iraq had indicated that it would cut its oil supply if this was not done. (The mere threat resulted in soaring oil prices, as Iraq accounts for 5% of the world's supply.) At the time, the euro was weak in relation to the dollar, and the move cost Iraq an estimated $270 million. Hussein, however, had proclaimed the dollar an enemy currency, and switched all trade to the euro through the UN escrow account. Jordan quickly joined Iraq and announced that its non-UN sanctioned trade with Iraq would be in euro, or another european currency. Iran has mumbled about the same move. On January 15 this year, upon the announcement that 11 empty warheads had been found by the UN inspectors, oil prices rose to a two-year high, with the fear of war looming. At the same time, the dollar hit a three-year low against the euro, weighing in at $1.06 (versus $0.82 back in 2000). If more countries decided to fix their oil price against the euro and accept payments in euro, the dollar's role as the world reserve currency would be seriously threatened, there would be a flight from the dollar, long-term asset portfolios would move toward the euro, the cost of the US trade deficit would loom, and the stock market would seriously deflate along with the dollar -- together they would most likely collapse. There are many complex angles to report on this, and nowhere did I find an article that covered it in detail, but suffice to say that the US imports 59% of its oil, that a dollar crash in the current climate would effectively be the end of the US as we know it, and that a long-term rise in oil prices would quickly wipe out reserves, with roughly the same effect. I think the euro link, even if it is somewhat misconstrued from my non-economist point of view, brings home a useful perspective on "Showdown Iraq." -af + + + + + http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/30/iraq.un.euro.reut/ U.N. to let Iraq sell oil for euros, not dollars October 30, 2000 Web posted at: 8:45 PM EST (0145 GMT) UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- A U.N. panel on Monday approved Iraq's plan to receive oil-export payments in Europe's single currency after Baghdad decided to move the start date back a week. Members of the Security Council's Iraqi sanctions committee said the panel's chairman, Dutch Ambassador Peter van Walsum, would inform U.N. officials on Tuesday of the decision to allow Iraq to receive payments in euros, rather than dollars. + + + + + http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/background/chron.html 31 October 2000:   The Security Council's 661 Committee authorises the UN Treasury to open an UN Iraq account in euro . It also requests an in-depth report within three months on the costs and benefits for the Programme and other financial and administrative implications of the payment for Iraqi oil in euro . + + + + + http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/11/01112000160846.asp But he says Saddam may feel the strategy is worth the price because it allows him to draw a clear line between what Iraq sees as two camps in world opinion regarding the UN sanctions. One camp, led by the U.S. and Britain -- a country also outside the euro zone -- wants to maintain strict trade sanctions on Iraq until Baghdad proves it has no more weapons of mass destruction. The other camp, led by euro-user France -- along with Russia and China -- favors easing the sanctions on humanitarian grounds while still pursuing disarmament. + + + + + http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_00/hickel092900.html Iraq decided to no longer accept dollars for oil... what do you think will be the effect on the greenback and on the Euro?" The burning question in cyber-space today is "Will this policy be limited to just Iraq?" + + + + + http://www.millennium-money.com/pmupdate_3oct_00.htm Jordan to switch from dollar in trade with Iraq - a move is in response to an earlier Iraqi decision to stop trading with the US currency - October 25, 2000, 02:25 PM BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Jordan has decided to stop using the US dollar in trade dealings with Iraq and replace it with the euro or another European currency, the state news agency INA reported on Wednesday. From sunil at mahiti.org Tue Jan 21 20:41:42 2003 From: sunil at mahiti.org (Sunil Abraham) Date: 21 Jan 2003 20:41:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Its the Oil..Stupid Message-ID: <1043161903.11990.1317.camel@sunil> http://www.democracymeansyou.com/satire/explainified.htm Warning: Some parts of democracymeansyou.com has explicit text and graphics. I guess democracy is a 'bad word' now ;-) Sunil -- Sunil Abraham, CEO MAHITI Infotech Pvt. Ltd. 'Reducing the cost and complexity of ICTs' 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA Ph/Fax: +91 80 4150580. Mobile: 98441 01150 sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org From kalakamra at vsnl.net Sun Jan 19 22:25:24 2003 From: kalakamra at vsnl.net (shaina) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 22:25:24 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] THE BOMBAY 'SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL', 2003. Message-ID: <001201c2bfdb$8fe8b1d0$f98544ca@susheelanand> Subject: THE BOMBAY 'SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL', 2003. THE BOMBAY 'SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL', 2003. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Submission deadline: 20th February 2003. There is no entry fee. About Us 'Humjnsi' is part of India center for Human Rights and Law. It's a support group and a Helpline for women who love women. As part of our campaign work to raise issues of gender and sexuality we have decided to organize a film festival. Humjinsi- an Urdu word in contemporary usage means, "relationships between people of the same sex"- i.e., for homosexuals. The word is gender neutral, non-pejorative - and quite significantly, does not constrict the definition of the relationship to the sexual. India center for Human Rights and Law is a comprehensive resource center specializing in documentation, education, publication, investigations and campaigns related to human rights and law. The center includes civil, political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights of women, children, tribals, rural poor, dalits, lesbian and gays, slum and pavement, dwellers, unorganized labour, prisoners, consumers and those affected by environmental degradation and retrogressive development policies. Outline We in Bombay (India) are curating a package of films and videos around the theme of sexual and gender minorities. Our agenda is to primarily create a forum for showcasing works emerging from South-East Asia, Middle East, Africa, Latin America as well as other parts of the world. This festival is an attempt to compliment already existing and on going work within the sexuality and gender minority movement at the grass-root level. Relevant discussion forums and readings will support the screenings. Various collectives and groups working locally in Bombay will be invited to put up information stalls at the venue. This festival will be open to public and we look at it as a political tool to generate more visibility, facilitate a public discourse and celebrate our various existences. The films and videos we are looking for should primarily address minority sexuality and gender issues. They could be made in any genre, i.e. feature length fiction, shorts, experimental, documentary, animation or mixed media presentations. This festival is a not for profit event. Our funds enable us to manage only the infrastructure and administrative costs for conducting the festival. Unfortunately we cannot pay postage fees for works from outside India. Within India, we can propose to arrange pick-ups of the films in various cities. For the same reasons we are unable to pay any screening fees to the filmmakers. REQUIREMENTS: 1. Only 1/2" VHS ( PAL) videotapes will be accepted for preview. DO NOT send master tapes or film prints for preview screening. On selection we will request you to send the work on its original format. 2. Preview tapes must be labeled with the title, running time and contact info (including name, address and phone number). 3. Works submitted in languages other than English must be subtitled in English. 4. The Festival reserves the right to excerpt programmed works (up to 3 minutes) for television and other promotional purposes. 6. Do not send submissions in fiber-filled envelopes. The dust damages videotapes and VCRs. 7. All submissions must be received by20th February 2003. You will be notified of the programming committee's final decision by 15th June 2003. 8. All preview tapes will be added to the Festival's archives unless accompanied by a self-addressed stamped and a request for return. 9. To submit more than one tape, please make a copy of this submission form for each entry. 10. If you are sending work from outside India, please indicate on the outside of the package, FOR FESTIVAL PREVIEW ONLY, NO COMMERCIAL VALUE or you may be required to pay customs duties. 11. Please include the following information and documents with each submission: Check List b. Preview tape (VHS PAL). c. Completed and signed submission form. d. B&W and/ or colour stills (Images on disk and emailed stills are acceptable as well. If emailing, please send to festival_humjinsi at yahoo.com in the following format: tiff or minimally compressed jpg files with a dpi of 200 or higher. Good stills can make a difference in press coverage and festival prominence.) e. Synopsis of the work for the press kit. (This is not mandatory, include if possible) ENTRY FORM PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING FORM: PRINT OR TYPE CLEARLY. COMPLETE AND SEND WITH TAPE: English title:.. Original title:.......................... Director(s):....................... Producer(s):....................... Distributor(s):...................... Country of origin:........................... Year of completion::....................... Original Language: ......... Subtitled ..... Dubbed ...... Original Format:......................... Exhibition format:.......................... Running time: ............... Category (check all that apply): 1. Fiction- Feature/Short 2. Documentary 3. Experimental 4. Animation 5. Mixed Media 6. Student Category Film specifications: Sound: Mono___ Stereo___ Dolby A___ Dolby SR____ Aspect ratio: 1.33___ 1.66___ 1.85___ Scope___ Previous screenings:...................... Synopsis:....................... CONTACT INFORMATION Name:......................... Address:....................... City:................ Province/State:.......... Country: .............Postal/zip code: Telephone:............. Fax: ............... Email: .............. Website: .................... Yes, You can include my contact information in the festival catalogue... Y/N AUTHORIZATION TO THE FESTIVAL: __ Yes, I authorize ..... to keep my submission tape for use in their Viewing Library with the understanding that the Library is for in-house viewing; no tapes are lent out nor are the tapes used for any additional public screenings without the written consent of the director and/or distributor. The Festival reserves the right to excerpt programmed works (up to 3 minutes) for television and other promotional purposes. I have read and agree to the festival submission and participation guidelines and certify that I am authorised to submit this work to The Bombay Sexual and Gender Minority Film and Video Festival and that all the above information is correct. Signed:_______________________________ Date:_______________ SEND TO: Postal address: Humjinsi, C/O India Centre for Human Rights and Law CVOD Jain High School 4th Floor, 84 Samuel Street (Hazrat Abbas St.) Dongri, Bombay-9 India Tel: +91-22-2371 6690 Fax:+91-22-2379 1099 Email: festival_humjinsi at yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030119/5036f96a/attachment.html From chaiyah at mountain.net Wed Jan 22 07:07:36 2003 From: chaiyah at mountain.net (q24046) Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 17:37:36 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] It's gotten too far ahead of us. The system can't be fixed, by John Kaminski Message-ID: <001301c2c1b6$f22f7400$12f5923f@chaiyah> The system can't be fixed. Our future is a dark age of vicious guards and powerless prisoners, unless ... By John Kaminski, skylax at comcast.net ********** Our president is a criminal, if not surely guilty, at least chargeable for the following offenses: Military desertion, cocaine smuggling, conspiracy to destroy Aerican landmarks, conspiracy to commit mass murder in New York, Washington, Pennsylvania and Afghanistan. And treason, for sure. Willful and deliberate destruction of the U.S. Constitution. Accessory to the theft of billions of dollars in the savings and loan debacle engineered and/or condoned by his father. Corruption for making repeated and continuing governmental decisions to enrich his relatives and friends. Obstruction of justice, innumerable counts, for blocking investigations into crimes that cost the lives of thousands of American citizens. Kidnapping and torture, for putting thousands of innocent people in jail without trial and denying them their Constitutional rights, as well as killing some. Illegal persecution of racial and ethnic minorities. Accessory to obstruction of justice for allowing the U.S. vote system to be commandeered by criminals who can rig the vote without being detected. Complicity in the assassination of a political rival. If we had a real attorney general who represented all Americans rather than only the rights of the wealthy, he would investigate these charges, and convene a legitimate invesitigation into the suspicious atrocities of 9/11/2001. But as he was appointed by the same man who is charged with committing all these crimes, no investigation is likely. In fact, the attorney general himself is probably guilty of many of the same charges as the president, as he is conspicuously involved in so many of the instances of obstruction of justice. So there is no chance that the sitting government is going to act on these obvious crimes, since the entire government is polluted by conspirators of the same political party who are beholden to the criminals who gave them their jobs. This deadlock also applies to virtually all of the judges in America, since most of them have been appointed by the same manipulators and their like-minded predecessors, who must promise to condone this corruption before they are ever appointed to the bench in the first place. And even the legislative branch is subject to the same polluting influences, since it costs millions to achieve these posts and once elected, collusion in the secret and criminal activities of the power elite is essential to advancing one's career. As preposterous as it sounds, the entire Congress (excepting a dozen or so idealists) needs to be dismissed and indicted for its corrupt actions. That says something about the direction our future must take if we are to actually be free. We are supposed to have a two-party system in America, but it has been apparent for some time that the differences between the two parties are wholly cosmetic. An analysis of the recent vote on making war against Iraq is instructive, as only eight senators opposed it, despite the complete absence of hard evidence that Iraq should be invaded at all (something the rest of the world knows well, but that the American people choose not to know). The opposition included seven Democrats and one Independent, but the vast majority of Democrats supported the Republican president's position, even though it was clearly a lie. The situation is identical when it comes to the Israelis' continuing theft of the Palestinians' homeland. Similar outcomes were recorded in the votes for the Patriot Act and Homeland Security bill, two legislative monstrosities which effectively curtailed most of the privileges recorded in our Constitutional Bill of Rights, which had remained essentially unmolested for two centuries. These votes clearly indicate there is no genuine opposition party in the United States, only a false opposition whose differences with the party in permanent power are pretty much meaningless. This is evident in the opposition party candidates who speak not of changing the current criminal system but only of modifying procedures in trivial ways that would give no relief to the beleaguered citizenry but only enrich their corrupt friends instead of the other guy's. Look hard at the principal candidates for the 2004 opposition presidential nomination: a member of the same college fraternity as the current president, and two partisan advocates of immoral support for a foreign power that is a principal abettor of tyranny in the world. This is no opposition, only another flavor of the same oppression. Thus, there is no reason to expect any kind of change after the next election. To put it more clearly, there is no reason to vote at all. In short, there is no place for the average American citizen to turn for relief. This terminal disease of political corruption extends downward through the states, counties and muncipalities, where all elective offices are occupied by people able to pay their way into the ruling system, through alliances with corrupt judges and party bosses, with all machinations based on bribery and deception. Perhaps this is what America has always been--that's a long argument--but there is no argument that this is what America is now: a perverted cesspool of political payola. Members of both parties were involved in the pivotal decisions of the past half-century that allowed the destruction of America's manufacturing base and the widespread practice of financial deception to cheat legitimate investors out of their hard-earned money. The coming impoverishment of the United States is a bipartisan achievement, but only insofar as the policies of both parties have been consistently to take the short-term profit and feed it quickly to elite investors and their political minions rather than to invest it prudently in the continuing well-being of the American economy. The flight of industry beyond our borders is chief testament to this policy, and the reason why, when this country goes broke beyond any solution the fast-talkers can fabricate, there will be no fixing the problem, and no ready solution to a chaotic poverty that will sweep the land. This is the real reason why Ashcroft is talking internment camps, why people are fearful of boxcars with seats in them, and new, barbed-wire enclosures that are supposedly springing up all across the land. The current president is trying to blackmail us into war by insisting the economy needs the boost of a military extravaganza to replenish its treasury with the varied industrial activity that wars always bring. Since World War I, this is a tried-and-true method of reinvigorating the economy. But once we realize the principle means trading millions of foreign lives simply to resuscitate our bank accounts, the true cost of this political principle will surely be our souls. And, judging by America's stances in the world today, this is a price that we--willingly or unconsciously--have already paid. America has lost its soul. Once a beacon of freedom, justice and equality, it is now a blinking neon sign on Skid Row advertising high-interest loans to Third World countries that can never finish repaying them. We traded our soul when we bribed all those other countries to let us obliterate Afghanistan. There was no real reason to do it, other than to add another layer of deception to the 9/11 caper, to improve political conditions for an oil pipeline, and to put us in better position for when we decide to invade Iran, or Russia, or Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan, or all of the above. There was no real reason to kill all those people except to facilitate additional revenues for military support companies owned by Bush's friends. That's how he's improving our economy, by improving HIS economy and letting a few pennies trickle down here and there. By allowing this criminal president to get away with his antisocial behavior, the American people don't realize that they are only bringing on for themselves what they are now approving for inhabitants of less fortunate countries like Iraq. Sooner or later, the petronazis are going to run out of foreign patsies to bomb, and are going to turn their guns inward. It's inevitable, and to some extent, it has already happened, in terms of the abolition of the most of the civil rights we have been accustomed to all our lives. By acquiescing in the criminal bullying of the rest of the world by the mega-might of the American military machine, we are sending a clear signal to the tyrants in Washington and Tel Aviv that we will tolerate any atrocity as long as our gas prices stay low and our TV schedules are not interrupted. Any day now, you'll begin to notice that the criminal atrocities of the power elite are creeping closer and closer to home. But don't worry. There'll be TV in the camps, I'm told. But only one channel. And guess who'll be on. The current system absolutely cannot be fixed. No amount of petitioning, protesting, having meaningful conversations with the few remaining compassionate members of Congress (an endangered species if there ever was one), or writing letters to newspapers that don't care will have any effect. They have no effect now, other than to massage the egos of the deluded activists making the effort. No amount of maverick candidacies, third party movements or political-issue crusades is going going to stop this military juggernaut from turning the world into an armed camp (it is already, in case you haven't noticed) where citizens will be herded into "debtors" camps. Many will be eliminated by vaccination programs, although as the insurance industry collapses, medical care will no longer be available to anyone but the super rich. Already, our schools are assuming the appearance of military indoctrination centers that preach that the poor are evil. Drugs and electronic conditioning will make it easier to turn these elite students against their fellow human beings. The world is devolving into a universal system of guards and prisoners, and you get to choose which one you will be on the basis of how steadfastly you adhere to the party line. Already, there is nowhere to escape as satellites can access every square inch of the planet, and gun-toting politicians in every single country are ready and willing to turn you in to the thought police because the bounties for such apprehensions are already very lucrative. This is what will happen if the current system is allowed to remain in place. The alternatives are almost as scary. Whatever happens is going to involve massive dislocation and death, because people in all the industrialized countries are simply not equipped to survive when their support systems break down. People who live in underdeveloped countries are actually better equipped to survive, because they live closer to nature and are less likely to lose their livelihoods in the event of worldwide economic collapse, which, by the way, is imminent. Yet, breaking down the support systems is exactly what must happen if legitimate freedom is ever to be regained. It is the support systems that enslave us and keep us dependent on our corporate keepers. We need to eat food we grow in our backyards, not buy from supermarket chains. We need to be able to complain to our government face-to-face, not have to write a letter to Washington, or some other capital that doesn't care. We need to be able to teach our children what we think is important, not what some overpaid consultant in a big city deems is necessary to turn our kids into the next generation of corporate slaves. We have, over the last century, traded our freedom for that illusory curtain of security that we thought would allow us to live our lives in peace and freedom. Little did we know that this curtain was wholly predicated on the ability and willingness to make war. And now we are beginning to learn that our freedom, all this time, was really a kind of slavery. Now we find ourselves in a situation that is little better politically than landless serfs were in the Middle Ages at the mercy of their whimsical lords. We have our own lords, and they don't mind killing us and anybody else if we interfere with their moneymaking operations. If we keep the system, we keep our chains, we keep our right, if we're lucky, to have lucrative job as long as we say the right thing, and ignore it when our government decides it must slaughter a large bloc of hapless peasants because they are interfering with access to a valuable natural resource. We can't keep the system and remain free. The price of either path will be painful. Assuming you ever get the chance, which will you choose? In regard to the charges against George W. Bush listed at the top of this article: Military desertion? See http://www.awolbush.com/ or http://www.wearepower.org/pipermail/natlpower/2002-October/000556.html Cocaine smuggling? See http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma/offline9.htm Conspiracy to destroy landmarks and commit mass murder? How about http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-1.htm to pick the best of many stories like this. Treason: http://bush-treason.blogspot.com/ Accessory to the theft of billions of dollars in the savings and loan debacle: See http://www.thetip.org/art_146_icle.html and http://www.campaignwatch.org/more1.htm Enriching his friends: http://www.bushnews.com/bushmoney.htm , http://www.bushwatch.net/bushmillions.html and http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/other_more.asp Obstruction of justice: http://members.tripod.com/~RedRobin2/index-93.html Illegal jailings: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/may2002/pows-m31.shtml and http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bin2/thoughts/comment020128.asp Computerized election vote fraud: http://www.talion.com/vote-rigging.html Assassinating a political rival: http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID43/5351.html and http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/oct2002/well-o29.shtml John Kaminski is a writer who lives in the coast of Florida and is waiting for the water to start rising. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030121/f44b273f/attachment.html From chseitz at voicenet.com Wed Jan 22 04:53:11 2003 From: chseitz at voicenet.com (Charles Seitz) Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 18:23:11 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: It's gotten too far ahead of us. The system can't be fixed, by John Kaminski References: <001301c2c1b6$f22f7400$12f5923f@chaiyah> Message-ID: <3E2DD65F.316B0CC5@voicenet.com> I agree. Lets impeach GWB--Chas Now check out my economic solution: Hi, This is a synopsis of a book that I would like to wriite and have published. A PLAN FOR ECONOMIC STIMULUS The Demise of Capitalism and the Rise of American Corporate Statism After leaving Germany and coming to America in 1939 Peter F. Drucker wrote his book, “The End of Economic Man.,” in which he says the rise of Hitler’s Nazi fascism in Germany destroyed the free market capitalsm and the free enterprise economic system and instituted a state run industrial economy. He said all our freedoms were gone. In America today in the year 2003 that rise of centralized totalitarian power in the forrm of fasccism is happening here as history repeats itself with the election into offiice as president of George W. Bush and company. Now that the Enron scandle is upon us we are witnessing the self-destruction of all the institutions of the free enterprise system and the free trade mercantile economic system as they explode in our face. The first step was the creation of the office of CEO, making it independent of the board of director’s control so that they could rob the company; the second step was dissolution of the separation of stocks, insurance and banking activities and third was the release of audits from fiscl responsibility. There also were irregularities in the bond market. This marks the complete collapse of capitalism as we know it. So Peter F. Drucker iis right: First Germany and now here in America. What has arisen to take ts place is the industrial society. He deals with this in the book he wrote the following year, “The Future of Industrial Man.” The Industrial Society Were the Industrial Society to come into its own it would need institutions of its own that better serve its needs. Since the Industrial Revolution industry has grown up inside the economic man’s mercantile society and its growth restricted by it by having to use the institutions of the mercantile economic system: central banks, insurance companies and the stock matket---all mercantile insttitutions of capitalism. In his two books Peter F. Drucker only stated the premise of the two economic systems but did not complete the analysis but went on to spend the rest of his life defining “management” based on his concept of the “corporate community” which we will use as a basis for our third section on the knowwwledge society in the information age. In the meantime, I have completed his work, actually in 1944, and I will herewith give you the results and benefits off my scholarship. you are familiar with the econmics of trade and mercantilism: that is classic economic theory. The economic theory of the industrial society is quite different and unknown and unsuspected. While economic man and his mercantile sociiety grew out of seaport cities and guilds that made hand crafted items from natural products and sailing ships that traded with foreign countries, the industrial revolution grew out of the lords of the castles inland and their agricultural economy. The farmers were serfs or slaves bound to the land while the lord of the manor had complete jurisdiction over his landed estate. Therefore the industrial society is more conducive to fascism than democracy. There was no money. The farmers had to give a tithe of their crop to the lord and what amounted to record keeping is the basis for industrial money which is nothing more than a claim check and not legal tender. All farms had to make things especially machinery to keep the agricultural operation going. When they hooked this up to the power generated by the waterwheel at the local grist mill industrialism was born and when the steamengine was invented it broke its tie to location and then the industrial revolution moved to the city or created cities. Today, the Lords of the Castles based on agriculture are the CEO’s of multinational corporations based on manufacturing and their army of white knights are now their lawyers who do battle for them. Here are the basic differences between a trade economy and a manufacturing economy. Merchants trade in a limited supply of natural or hand made products. Money is backed by tangible products, namely gold. Goods are exchanged. Money iis saved and becomes capital which is used for investmeent in new enterprises. Manufacturing, on the other hand, iis based on the unlimted production oof synthetic goods which are distributed. Money is a claim check for goods produced. All money must be cashed in and none saved, no capital amassed, no no capitalists, no capitalism. The purpose oof the mercantile system is to monopolize trade and to restrict production. the capabilty of the industrial system is unlimited production such that if carried out to fulfillment every one would be a millionaire and work would be reduced to an hour and a half in the morning as a chore. Ever since the industrial revolution 150-200 years go it has been under the control of the mercantile system and restricted and held back and prevented from showing what it could do. It has not been allowed toshow its full potential. President George W. Bush has put out his economic stimulus package of tax cuts and other incentives and proposals to reduce unemployment and increase consumer spending. There is a national public debate on its effectiveness. I am lost in the arguments while some punditss say it is ill advised. What I think is that the averagee Joe,i.e., the average american, one who is a citizen, who can vote or who is registered to vote and, say, speaks English, I mean speaks American, should have equity in corporate America, i.e., own stockks and bonds and treasury notes and bank CD’s, such that unemployment is not a financial crisis as it is and employment becomes a mere pasttime. This uniiversal public ownership of stocks and bonds need not necessarily be by capital purchase but possibly by assignment or tax write-off. This would be a great boon to america since it would remove the average American citizen from the patronage system and allow a more rational public dialogue of national issues. According to Gordon S. Wood in his book, “Radicalism in the American Revolution, Vintage Books, NY 1993, he says that the thirteen colonies could fight and win a revolution against the British because they were free at the time of the patronage system. We were back on it soon after. The basis of a free nation which we are supposed too be is to be free of the patronage system. Equity in corporate america would do it, it would make the average american free and equal and self reliant, all necessary conditions for members of a free society. In the mercantile system, which is the one we have, when a bank loans money or extends credit, it is based on tangible assets that the bank has or deposits the bank has. Of course the client puts up collateral but that does not enter into our argument here. Were the Industrial System to exist in its own right, then when an industrial bank, were one to exist, the bank would have no caaptal assets of its own but loan monney or issue credit based on the intangible assets of the client such as being unemployed but ready and willing to work with plenty of know how. No tangible collateral required.Just the potential for making money. Were South America and other Third World Coutries to learn this lesson, it would free them from the IMF and the World Bank. This is the best kept secret. This means that you can issue credit or print money based on the existence of the unemployed who are ready and willing to work.If Roosevelt had known that in 1930 there would have been no great depression. We have two money systems in operation in our economy at the same time, using but one currency. The purpose of the mercantile money system is to accumulate capital by savings and reinvestment. The caveat of the industrial money system iis that it all be spent and none saved. Mercantile money removed from the system at half cycle by being put into savings creates a void and plays havoc with the the industrial system and produces the business cycle of boom and bust. To compensate for the void and to prevent the business cycle it would be legitimate to just print money equal to the void and to introduce it back into the system which would come to tens of trillions of dollars per year. What we need to do to stimulate the slowed economy is to create some industrial banks to be in addition to the banking sysytem we now have. But before that we need to restore the people’s bank that we have lost such as thrift banks of savings and loans, create more Crediit Unions and extend their services beyond the unions and Land Banks that print greenbacks and to develope the ideas started up in Ithica NY called Ithica Hours or Community Money. But in adittion to all that we shouldd institute the new concept of Industrial Banks that issue credit to people ready and willing to work and start newbusinesses. This would be investment money and not contribute to inflation but would only increase business. Inflation could be controlled by busting up monopolies and creating more competition. New businesses should be sheltered, protected and coddled until they can walk on their own feet as full fledged enterprises just as we do with children or flowers and young plants in flower beds in nurserys and green houses. We raise our children in school and colleges for twent-one years before we turn them out into the world. We should do the same for new and fledgling businesses. Our economy and esssspecially if you want to stimulate it depends on a plethora oof new healthy businesses. That is where all new growth to the economy comes from. Large established multi-national companies do not provide this growth but rather act like old dinosaurs. OK. New busisness enterprises should be given special dissssspensation and they could be funded by the new Industrial Banks. This way we can create new jobs and add to consumer spending. Well, just as the Industriall Society is coming into its own, we are exporting it overseas which I approve of. Let the Third World countries move into the Modern Age the hard way, the way we did, one step at a time. Send them our down and diirty jobs We have had them long enough. Let them get their hands dirty wwwhile we move onto nice clean Office Complex Campuses in the coming Information Age. The Information Age As we move into the information age where knowledge is paramount and we work in business office campuses we will need a whole new reordering of the structure of society. the form of which I can only guess. But there are some things abbbout which i can speculate. First, Corporate industry in the totalitarian state will have to become more democratic.Divisions and departments will have to become more independent and self-sustaining, maybe even proprietorships under the umbrella and aegis oof the general corporation. Several departments could be the same and compete with each other and also with outside firms. These corporate community departments then could becme social entittes of good management as envisioned by Drucker. Maybe even everyone in the same department live in a gated commnity or even work at home??? For the knowledge age people will be paid to go to school as if it were a job. and it will be education for life. People oor employees will be paid to learn and to work. There will be a blurring of the line of demarkation between work and learning. It will be more like a think tank. Information is very important and there is a market for it. There will be no secrets, infformation will be freely availablee, no classified information, Government seccurity or no! While traditional think tanks are political with hidden agendas these will be aove board and straight, information fonts of knowledge. We willl then have full employment and total consumer spending. And the world will be a peace because countries who trade with one another and do business do not wage war with each other. and all our technical problems will be solved by our think tanks. For instance, a think tank will reorganize the structure of ploitics and congress and make them work like a well oiled machine. Kabitz, kapeech? Wel, this is my view of of the new economics. I would like this to be debated publically and nationally. Send copies to all your contacts and spread the word and Email me your comments. Charles H. Seitz 628 Topsfield road Hatboro, Pa 19040 (215) 675-5524 chseitz at voicenet.com From monica at sarai.net Wed Jan 22 15:02:40 2003 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 15:02:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Your message to reader-list awaits moderator approval In-Reply-To: <200301201404.37287.jeebesh@sarai.net> References: <200301201404.37287.jeebesh@sarai.net> Message-ID: Dear All This confusion has happened before, and maybe i should add a caveat in the welcome email that people get when they join the list: "This is not a moderated list, but the software mailman checks for certain kinds of email and holds on to some until the list admin can get to them. These include email that have too many cc and bcc (to stop spam), email that are abour subscription and unsubsription (so that all the list members do not have to get bored by that kind of thing) as well as those which it considers (in my experience till now) "explicit". however, since this is an 'off the shelf' software, we have no idea why it picks on the some it does." and the fact that i have been stuck in transit due to delhi fog has made sure that i couldnt get to this before. however, happy reading all. (FYI, just finished admin and saw that of 11 mails, 4 were spam for assistance, and 5 were virus emails...) best Monica List admin At 14:04 +0530 20/01/03, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: >dear Sid, > >Reader-list is not a moderated list. It is a subscriber based list. i.e only >subscribed email addresses can post. > >Posting are held if they are from email accounts that are not subscribed to >the list. In the period of this `wait` Mailman (our list manager) sends in a >machine generated response to the list-admin and the `poster`. Mailman also >provides for some keywords based spam filters. > >All lists get a very high number of spams from a diverse sources. Thus the >need for spam protecting filters. > >Regarding this specific wording of the response from Mailman, we will need to >look into the database of the possible responces and see how it is structured >and worded. > >best >Jeebesh > >On Monday 20 January 2003 10:17 am, sid luther wrote: >> I can't believe that expression is being 'moderated' like this. >> What does 'suspicious header' mean? Is the term 'sexual' what >> seems suspicious? much as i agree that a moderated list needs to >> protect interests and sensibilities and prevent unnecessary spam, >> are there no other paramneters to define 'suspicious' or moderate >> spam?. >> excuse me for over-reacting like this, but i just couldnt believe >> it. >> s >> >> On Sun, 19 Jan 2003 shaina wrote : >> >----- Original Message ----- >> > From: >> >To: >> >Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 6:25 AM >> >Subject: Your message to reader-list awaits moderator approval >> > >> > > Your mail to 'reader-list' with the subject >> > > >> > > THE BOMBAY 'SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY FILM AND VIDEO >> > >> >FESTIVAL', >> > >> > > 2003. >> > > >> > > Is being held until the list moderator can review it for >> > >> >approval. >> > >> > > The reason it is being held: >> > > >> > > Message has a suspicious header >> > > >> > > Either the message will get posted to the list, or you will >> > >> >receive >> > >> > > notification of the moderator's decision. >> > >> >_________________________________________ >> >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: >> >> _________________________________________ >> 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: >> > >------------------------------------------------------- > >_________________________________________ >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: -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From sougata_28 at rediffmail.com Wed Jan 22 23:46:37 2003 From: sougata_28 at rediffmail.com (sougata bhattacharya) Date: 22 Jan 2003 18:16:37 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Aurora Message-ID: <20030122181637.13704.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030122/459a99a7/attachment.pl From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Thu Jan 23 00:13:25 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 10:43:25 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Dharmaputra, son of Bano and Savitri Message-ID: <20030122184325.53545.qmail@web20902.mail.yahoo.com> Friends You inputs are welcome if you have seen this amazing film, fresh and relevant as ever to contemporary India, based upon Tagore's classic, GOra. About a Nawab's son brought up by his best friend as a HIndu, who grows up to be a HInduvta type.. to find at the end that he is a born as a Muslim.. addresses the whole issue of identity in a profound and yet simple idiom..in the classic dialogues by Sahir: Pehele to ham INquilab aur HIndu Muslim bhai bhi naare lagate the.. ab 47 mein, 'HIndi, HIndu, HIndustan' aur 'Leke rahenge Pakistan' kaise ban gaye? http://www.yashrajfilms.com/homeent/dharmputra.htm When Nawab Badruddin's dearest friend Gulshan Rai dies, it is but natural for him to take his son Amrit under his wing and for his daughter Husn Banu to consider Amrit her brother. Amrit grows up to become a doctor and is happily married to Savitri. One day the Nawab Sahib comes to Amrit for help. Husn Banu is pregnant with the child of her teacher Hamid who is absconding. After discussing the matter with Savitri, Amrit comes up with a plan. Husn Banu is taken to Simla where the child is born and handed over to Savitri. Amrit and Savitri adopt the baby boy whom they name Dilip. A grateful Nawab bequeaths half his property to Dilip. Nobody in the two households gives a thought to the fact that Dilip is a Hindu boy of Muslim parentage, till the country is torn apart by communal hatred of the partition. Dilip, influenced by this, takes his religion to be his national identity, hating all Muslims, even Husn Banu who has now married Hamid and staying next door. As the fire of communalism rages everywhere and in Dilip's heart, he goes to Husn Banu and Hamid's house to kill them. Will Dilip learn of his true parentage? Will his hatred for Muslims allow him to reconcile the religion of his birth and his upbringing? Dharmputra is another courageous film from the B.R. Chopra stable. The story is based on a novel by Acharya Vinoba Bhave,as by Tagore, getting the film National Award for Best Hindi film and Akhtar-ul-Iman the Filmfare award for the Best Dialogues. The film was Shashi Kapoor's first movie as an adult actor and has a special appearance by Rajendra Kumar for just one song. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From mithi at silchar.com Thu Jan 23 00:20:16 2003 From: mithi at silchar.com (SAGNIK CHAKRAVARTTY) Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 10:50:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] REVIEW OF BASANT BHARATI - A Programme to Celebrate the Completion of One Year of DD-Bharati Message-ID: <20030122185017.D97983BAC@sitemail.everyone.net> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030122/0e3e1c17/attachment.pl From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Thu Jan 23 00:48:50 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 11:18:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] War on Islam? Oil..Stupid, Pt 2 Message-ID: <20030122191850.4972.qmail@web20908.mail.yahoo.com> friends, this interesting article from chowk.com. >how USAID funded books on 'getting atheist commies' were used for the >Taliban madarsa syllabus. and a letter to Editor on the same issue. ---- Dear Editor, Why are India, the world's largest democracy and Saudi Arabia, the world's most fundamentalist state, the only places on the planet( from Seoul to London, Moscow to Washington DC) to have NO antiwar protests?? (To date, more than 5 million people have demonstrated peacefully across the world opposing Bush's bombing of Iraq. A majority in The US itself) We know the reasons for Saudi Arabia.. but the leader of the world's freedom movement and the voice of the colonies..stays in a sinister silence.. India.. Speak. --- Is It A War On Islam? >by Pervez Hoodbhoy > >Street opinion in Pakistan, and probably most Muslim countries, holds >that >Islam is the sole target of America`s new wars. Even moderate Muslims >are >worried. The profiling of Muslims by the INS, the placing of Muslim >states >on the US register of rogues, and the blanket approval given to Israeli >bulldozers as they level Palestinian neighborhoods appear dangerous >indicators of a religious war. But Muslims undeservedly award >themselves >special status and imagine what is not true. America`s goal goes much >beyond >subjugating inconsequential Muslim states. Instead it seeks to remake >the >world according to its needs, preference, and convenience. The war on >Iraq >is but the first step. > >Aggressive militarism has been openly endorsed by America`s corporate >and >political establishment. Mainstream commentators in the US press now >argue >that, given its awesome military might, American ambition has been >insufficient. Max Boot, editor of the Wall Street Journal, writes that >"Afghanistan and other troubled lands today cry out for the sort of >enlightened foreign administration once provided by self-confident >Englishmen in jodhpurs and pith helmets". The Washington Post calls for >an >"imperialist revival" and the need for Americans to "impose their own >institutions on disorderly ones". The Atlantic Monthly remarks that >American policy makers should learn from the Greek, Roman, and British >empires for tips on how to run American foreign policy. > >Although many Americans still cling to the belief that their country`s >new >unilateralism is no more than "injured innocence", and a natural >response >of any victim of terror, the Establishment does not suffer from such >naivety. Empire has been part of the American way of life for a long >time. > >The difference after 911 - and it is a significant one - is that >America no >longer sees need to battle for the hearts and minds of those it would >dominate; there is no other superpower to whom the weak can turn. In >today`s > Washington, a US-based diplomat recently confided to me, the United >Nations has become a dirty word. International law is on the way to >irrelevancy, except when it can be used to further US goals. > >Still, none of this amounts to a war on Islam. Some will disagree. The >fanatical hordes spilling out of Pakistan`s madrassas imagine seeing >Richard the Lion Hearted bearing down upon them. Sword in hand they >pray to >Allah to grant war and send the modern Saladin, one who can >miraculously dodge cruise missiles and hurl them back to their >launchers. > >On the other side, Christian-Jewish extremists, extending from the >Jerry >Falwells and Pat Robertsons to the leaders of Israel`s Likud, yearn for >yet >another crusade. They too are convinced that inter-civilizational >religious >war is not only inevitable but also desirable. Belief in final victory >is, >of course, never doubted by the faithful. > >But the counter-evidence to a civilizational war is much stronger. >Between >1945 and 2000 the US has fought 28 major, and countless minor, wars. >Korea, >Guatemala, Congo, Laos, Peru, Vietnam, Cambodia, El Salvador, >Nicaragua, >Yugoslavia, and Iraq are only some of the countries which the US has >bombed >or invaded. The Vietnam War alone claimed a million lives. > >By comparison, America`s wars on Muslim states have been far less >bloody. >Iraqi deaths during the Gulf War, and the recent victims of bombing in >Afghanistan, amount to fewer than 70 thousand. Even if one throws in >casualties from the Israeli-Arab wars of 1967 and 1971 and attributes >them >to the US, Muslim deaths are only a few percent of the Vietnam War >total. > >Material self-interest, and not antipathy to Islam, has been the >driving >force behind US foreign policy. A list of America`s Muslim foes and >friends >makes this crystal clear. America`s foes during the 1950`s and 1960`s >were >secular nationalist leaders. Mohammed Mossadeq of Iran, who opposed >Standard Oil`s grab at Iran`s oil resources, was removed by a CIA coup. >Ahmed Sukarno of Indonesia, accused of being a communist, was removed >by US > intervention and a resulting bloodbath that consumed about eight >hundred >thousand lives. Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, who had Islamic >fundamentalists > like Saiyyid Qutb publicly executed, fell foul of the US and Britain >after >the Suez Crisis. On the other hand, until very recently, America`s >friends >were the sheikhs of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, all of whom >practiced >highly conservative forms of Islam but were the darlings of Western oil > >companies. > >Nevertheless, Washington has occasionally misunderstood American >self-interests - sometimes fatally so. "Mission myopia", as the CIA now >wanly admits, led to the network of global jihad in the early 1980`s. >With >William Casey as CIA director, the largest covert operation in history >was >launched after Reagan signed the "National Security Decision Directive >166", > calling for American efforts to drive Soviet forces from Afghanistan >"by >all means available". US counter-insurgency experts worked closely with >the > Pakistani ISI in bringing men and material from around the Arab world >and >beyond. All this is well known. Less known is the ideological help >provided >by US institutions, including universities. > >Readers browsing through book bazaars in Rawalpindi and Peshawar can, >even >today, find textbooks written as part of the series underwritten by a >USAID >$50 million grant to the University of Nebraska in the 1980`s. These >textbooks sought to counterbalance Marxism through creating enthusiasm >in >Islamic militancy. They exhorted Afghan children to "pluck out the eyes >of >the Soviet enemy and cut off his legs". Years after the books were >first >printed they were approved by the Taliban for use in madrassas - a >stamp of >their ideological correctness. > >The cost of America`s mission myopia has been a staggering one. The >network of Islamic militant organizations created primarily out of the >need to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan did not disappear after the >immediate goal was achieved but, instead, like any good >military-industrial >complex, grew from strength to strength. Nevertheless, >until 11 September, US policy makers were unrepentant, even proud of >their >winning strategy. It took a cataclysm to bring them down to earth. > >But militant organizations have done far greater harm to Muslims, whose >causes they claim to promote, than to those who they battle against. >Killing tourists and bombing churches is the work of moral cretins and >is >not just cowardly and inhumane, but also a strategic disaster. Indeed, >fanatical acts can sting the American colossus but never seriously hurt >it. >Though perfectly planned and executed, the 911 operation was a >strategic >blunder of colossal proportions. It vastly strengthened American >militarism, gave Ariel Sharon the license to ethnically cleanse >Palestine, >and allowed state-sponsored pogroms of Muslims in Gujarat to get by >with >only a squeak of international condemnation. > >The absence of a modern political culture and the weakness of Muslim >civil >society have long rendered Muslim states inconsequential players on the > >world stage. An encircled, enfeebled dictator is scarcely a threat to >his >neighbors as he struggles to save his skin. Tragically, Muslim leaders, >out >of fear and greed, publicly wring their hands but collude with the US >and >offer their territory for bases as it now bears down on Iraq. >Significantly, no Muslim country has proposed an oil embargo or a >serious >boycott of American companies. > >What, then, should be the strategy for all those who believe in a just >world and are appalled by America`s war on the weak? > >Vietnam, to my mind, offers the only viable model of resistance. A >stern >regard for morality, said their strategists, is the best defense of the > >weak. Even though B-52s were carpet-bombing his country, Ho Chi Minh >did >not call for hijacking airliners or blowing up buses. On the contrary >the >Vietnamese reached out to the American people, making a clear >distinction >between them and their government. By inviting media celebrities like >Jane >Fonda and Joan Baez, Vietnam generated enormous goodwill. On the other >hand, can you imagine the consequences of Vietnam`s leadership being >with >Osama bin Laden rather than Ho Chi Minh? That country would surely have > >been a radioactive wasteland, rather than the unique victor against >imperialism. > >Only a global peace movement that explicitly condemns terrorism against >non-combatants can slow, and perhaps halt, George Bush`s madly speeding >chariot of war. Massive anti-war demonstrations in Washington, New >York, >London, Florence, and other western cities have brought out hundreds of > >thousands at a time. A sense of commitment to human principles and >peace - >not fear or fanaticism - impelled these demonstrators. But why are the > >streets of Islamabad, Cairo, Riyadh, Damascus, and Jakarta empty? Why do > >only fanatics demonstrate in our cities? Let us hang __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From cyberravisri at yahoo.co.in Thu Jan 23 09:29:02 2003 From: cyberravisri at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?ravi=20sri?=) Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 03:59:02 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] congrats Message-ID: <20030123035902.23985.qmail@web8205.mail.in.yahoo.com> Congrats Sarai is in the list and you know what i mean :) ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com From ravikant at sarai.net Thu Jan 23 12:17:40 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 12:17:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Dharmaputra, son of Bano and Savitri In-Reply-To: <20030122184325.53545.qmail@web20902.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20030122184325.53545.qmail@web20902.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <200301231217.40702.ravikant@sarai.net> On Thursday 23 Jan 2003 12:13 am, Lehar .. wrote: > Friends > You inputs are welcome if you have seen this amazing > film, fresh and relevant as ever to contemporary > India, based upon Tagore's classic, GOra. I have seen the film. It is not so well known as the other films on the Partition genre such as 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' and 'Gram Hawa'. I quite liked it. However, to piont a minor inaccuracy in the posting, BR Chopra's 'Dharmputa' is based on the eponymous novel written by Acharya Chatursen and not on Tagore's 'Gora'. Cheers ravikant From yazadjal at vsnl.net Thu Jan 23 11:03:00 2003 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 11:03:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Private education in Africa and India Message-ID: <002601c2c2a0$eead83e0$681241db@vsnl.net.in> http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old§ion=current&issue=2003 -01-18&id=2705 A LESSON FROM THE THIRD WORLD James Tooley on the extraordinary success of private education in Africa and India By James Tooley Schoolboy Worlanyo leaves his crowded home in the townships of Accra, Ghana, early in the morning, smartly dressed in brown shorts and a bright but frayed yellow shirt. He makes his way down filthy streets, but walks past the run-down exterior of the government school, where a few children forlornly wait for the doors to be unlocked. The government school teachers won't be there for a few hours, some not at all today, or any day. Worlanyo walks on past, turns off down the next alleyway and enters by the brightly hand-painted signboard the crowded playground of 'De Youngster's International School'. The elderly Mr A.K. De Youngster looks on with pride as the children begin their assembly with a hearty rendition of 'How Great Thou Art' at the school he started from scratch in 1980. Then there were 36 children in a downstairs room in his house, and he, an experienced headmaster, had opened his doors after pleas from township folk, unhappy even then that government schools 'were not doing their level best' for their children. Now, 22 years later, his chain of private schools has four branches, with 3,400 pupils. The fees are £30 per term - affordable for many of the poor - and to the many who can't afford that he offers free scholarships. Seated in his office beneath a rickety fan that blows the sweat across his forehead, he chuckles as he tells me that, at the age of seven, he wrote to President Eisenhower from his village in West Ghana asking for help with his studies. 'The Americans wouldn't help me,' he smiles, 'so I learnt to help myself.' And now 45 per cent of Ghanaian children go to private school in Accra, many of these from poor families like the ones he serves, also 'helping themselves'. In the Horn of Africa, the same story is repeated. Professor Suleyman, the vice-chancellor of Amoud University, the first private university in Somaliland, drives me up impossible roads to a hill overlooking Boroma, a city of 100,000 souls on the road to Ethiopia, and points out the location of each private school, some only half built. Boroma has no water supply (donkey carts deliver water in leaking jerricans), no paved roads, no street lights and plenty of burnt-out tanks, remnants of its recent civil war. But it has two private schools for every government school. 'The governor asked me,' says Suleyman, '"Why are you putting your energies into building schools? - leave it to the Ministry of Education." But if we waited for government, it would take 20 years. We need schools now. Anyway,' he shakes his head, 'in government schools teacher absenteeism is rife; in our private schools we have commitment.' We visit one at the foot of the hill. Ubaya-binu-Kalab school, with 1,! 057 students, charges monthly fees of 12,000 Somali shillings for primary and 20,000 for secondary - that's about £3 to £6 per month. Again, 165 of the students attend for free, the poor subsiding the poorest. Across the Indian Ocean, one sees the same phenomenon. In the slums of Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, India, Zarina is packing away her books into her satchel at lunchtime. She leaves Peace High School and walks on to noisy Edi Bazaar, effortlessly dodging autorickshaws and ox-carts. As she makes her way home with her sisters, they practise their English together, the eldest coaching the youngest, who in turn teaches their mother. The journey takes her past St John's High School on one corner, Modern High School on another; past New Convent School newly opened in the home of the proprietor, and past St Angel's Public School in a converted chicken farm - all private schools in the slums. There is a government school nearby, where the children can get free rice at lunchtime, free books, and, of course, free tuition. But parents who care would not dream of sending their children there. 'We want teachers who teach, not who get our children to do domestic chores,' one veiled mother tells me. 'And we want our children to learn English, but that's not allowed in the government primary schools.' So parents pay their £1.50 per month, scrimping and saving to find the rupees. Such parents now make up the majority in Hyderabad. Official figures show that 61 per cent of all students are enrolled in the private unaided sector, and these figures are likely to overestimate the numbers in government schools (because of corrupt over-reporting) and underestimate the numbers in the private sector (because many such schools are unrecognised, therefore not noticed). In Africa and Asia the poor know that government schools won't serve their needs. But they do not sit idly by, dispossessed and disfranchised - adjectives used by the liberal elite to describe the poor - acquiescent in their government's failure. Instead they vote with their feet, desert the state schools and move their children to private schools set up by educational entrepreneurs to cater for their needs. The startling thing is that these schools are commercially driven and not dependent on handouts from state or philanthropy. There is a spirit of dedication within the schools. The comments of Mr Mohamed Wajid, director of the Peace High School, are typical. When his mother was about to retire, she took him to one side. 'She showed me pictures of the less blessed people living here and reminded me that life must not be lived for oneself; life must be lived for others. So I took over the running of her school.' Even charging very low fees, the schools can make a healthy profit, which, as in any good business, is ploughed back into the school. Part of the reason they can afford to do this is that they pay teachers perhaps a quarter of what they could get in the government schools, but the jobs are not available because the teaching unions have pushed up wages beyond any reasonable level. The failure of state schools in parts of Africa and Asia is an open secret. For instance, the Indian government sponsored the Probe Report, which gives a disturbing picture of the 'malfunctioning' of government schools for low-income families. When researchers called unannounced on their random sample, there was 'teaching activity' in only 53 per cent of the schools. In 33 per cent the head teacher was absent. Significantly, there was a low level of teaching activity even in those schools with relatively good infrastructure, teaching aids and pupil-teacher ratios. Indeed, says the report, 'it has become a way of life in the profession'. The Probe Report concedes that the problems found in government schools were not apparent in private schools serving the poor. In the great majority - visited unannounced and at random - there was 'feverish classroom activity'. And what's true for India is increasingly true for countries across Asia and Africa. What is the problem in state schools? The Probe Report put it succinctly: accountability. Private schools, the report said, were successful because they were more accountable. 'The teachers are accountable to the manager (who can fire them) and, through him or her, to the parents (who can withdraw their children).' There is no such accountability in government schools, and 'this contrast is perceived with crystal clarity by the vast majority of parents'. In government schools teachers have jobs for life, and the security of this has made them complacent rather than making them better teachers, as was the intention. I talked to two veterans of private education, Mr Ranga Setty and Mr D.A. Pandu, who run a chain of schools and colleges under the auspices of the Rashtreeya Sikshana Samishi Trust in Bangalore. Mr Ranga Setty told me, 'In India we have a saying, "You can hire him, God only can fire him."' To which Mr Pandu adds that, in fact, not even God can fire him. Does any of this have relevance outside the development debate? I believe it does. Stories of educational entrepreneurs in the slums and townships of Africa and Asia battling against hostile government and poverty are not just a source of inspiration for the school-choice movement in Britain and America; perhaps, using evidence from developing countries, we can do for the school-choice debate what E.G. West did for the same debate using evidence from history. In his pioneering study, Education and the State, West argued that before major state involvement in education in England and Wales in 1870 school-attendance and literacy levels were more than 90 per cent. Far from ensuring universal attendance and literacy, state intervention merely reinforced a process that had been going on for some time. The press-cuttings from the time of the first publication of West's work show how this historical evidence began to transform the school-choice debate in the UK and elsewhere, influ! encing people such as the late Lord Joseph here and Milton Friedman in the US. As the Times Educational Supplement put it then, 'If working-class parents were prepared to back the choice they then possessed with money, why should they be presumed unfit to choose today when they are so much richer?' The evidence from India and Africa can do for today's school-choice debate what West did for the same debate in the 1960s and 1970s. If the evidence reveals that the poorest worldwide are achieving better educational outcomes without the state, then this should inspire and buttress appeals for increased school choice in rich countries. It also raises anew the question: what on earth is government doing in education at all? ------------ James Tooley is directing a research and development project on private schools for the poor in Africa and Asia. (c)2001 The Spectator.co.uk From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Thu Jan 23 23:37:36 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 10:07:36 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] NYTimes Edit: Global Anti-war sentiment: A stirring in the Nation Message-ID: <20030123180736.47826.qmail@web20903.mail.yahoo.com> friends, stirring. while we sit silent in the Land of Swaraj. ---- NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL ON JANUARY 18 DEMONSTRATION > > > > > > The political impact of Saturday's massive anti-war > > > demonstrations organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R. can > > > already be seen. Today's New York Times editorial, "A > > > Stirring in the Nation," (see below) reflects that the > > > anti-war movement represents millions of people in the > > > United States and cannot be discounted. The movement has > > > shattered the myth -- conjured by politicians; by the > > > media, who have dutifully echoed Bush's calls for war; and > > > by those who profit from war -- that there is a consensus > > > of support in the United States for Bush's war of > > > aggression against Iraq. > > > > > > Now, even the New York Times, which has an editorial > > > policy of support for the Bush Administration's goals in > > > Iraq, cannot deny the breadth and strength of the movement > > > that you and so many thousands have built. > > > > > > Today's NYT editorial signifies that a growing section of > > > the political establishment fears the dynamic rise of the > > > U.S. anti-war movement, and is deeply concerned that > > > Bush's rush towards war will have a destabilizing impact > > > on the political system as a whole. > > > > > > The editorial also reflects what we have said all along: > > > it is the opposition of the people of the United States > > > and the world that constitutes the single biggest obstacle > > > to the Bush Administration as it rushes towards war. > > > > > > The rising tide of the anti-war movement cannot be > > > ignored. Half a million people braved the coldest weather > > > of the year in a march in Washington, D.C. Over 200,000 > > > demonstrated at the A.N.S.W.E.R. demonstration in San > > > Francisco, and large crowds gathered in local January 18 > > > actions in cities including more than 20,000 in Portland, > > > 5,000 in Tucson, 4,000 in Albuquerque, and in many other > > > cities. Hundreds of thousands more joined demonstrations > > > in over 30 countries. > > > > > > Now is the time for the movement to intensify activity at > > > the local and regional level as part of worldwide anti-war > > > movement. On January 18, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition called > > > for a nationally coordinated day of local protests on > > > Wednesday, January 29, the day following Bush's > > > state-of-the-union address, which is likely to be a 'war > > > speech.' > > > > > > On January 18, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition called for the > > > U.S. movement to support the call issued from the European > > > movement for mass anti-war demonstrations on February 15. > > > There will be demonstrations in thousands of cities across > > > the country and around the world on February 15. > > > A.N.S.W.E.R. joins with UFPJ and hundreds of other > > > organizations who will be mobilizing for the NYC action. > > > The February 15 protest will be part of the Week of > > > Anti-War Resistance from February 13 to February 21 (go to > > > http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/f15/index.html > > > ). > > > > > > We need your help to keep this movement strong as we build > > > on the accomplishments of January 18. The A.N.S.W.E.R. > > > coalition relies on the generous donations of individuals > > > like you to sustain its campaigns. At this critical > > > moment, we ask that you contribute what you can to keep > > > the momentum that we have all build together. We are > > > making a difference. You can make tax-deductible online > > > donations to International A.N.S.W.E.R. at > > > http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html and to > > > A.N.S.W.E.R.'s VoteNoWar Campaign at > > > http://www.votenowar.org/donate.html. If you prefer to > > > contribute by check, our address is available at the same > > > web pages. > > > > > > > > > ******************** > > > > > > > > > TODAY'S NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL > > > January 20, 2003 > > > A Stirring in the Nation > > > > > > A largely missing ingredient in the nascent debate about > > > invading Iraq showed up on the streets of major cities > > > over the weekend as crowds of peaceable protesters marched > > > in a demand to be heard. They represented what appears to > > > be a large segment of the American public that remains > > > unconvinced that the Iraqi threat warrants the use of > > > military force at this juncture. > > > > > > Denouncing the war plan as an administration id�fixe > > > that will undermine America's standing in the world, stir > > > unrest in the Mideast and damage the American economy, the > > > protesters in Washington massed on Saturday for what > > > police described as the largest antiwar rally at the > > > Capitol since the Vietnam era. It was impressive for the > > > obvious mainstream roots of the marchers -- from young > > > college students to grayheads with vivid protest memories > > > of the 60's. They gathered from near and far by the tens > > > of thousands, galvanized by the possibility that President > > > Bush will soon order American forces to attack Iraq even > > > without the approval of the United Nations Security > > > Council. > > > > > > Mr. Bush and his war cabinet would be wise to see the > > > demonstrators as a clear sign that noticeable numbers of > > > Americans no longer feel obliged to salute the > > > administration's plans because of the shock of Sept. 11 > > > and that many harbor serious doubts about his march toward > > > war. The protesters are raising some nuanced questions in > > > the name of patriotism about the premises, cost and > > > aftermath of the war the president is contemplating. > > > Millions of Americans who did not march share the concerns > > > and have yet to hear Mr. Bush make a persuasive case that > > > combat operations are the only way to respond to Saddam > > > Hussein. > > > > > > Other protests will be emphasizing civil disobedience in > > > the name of Martin Luther King Jr. But any graphic moments > > > to come of confrontation and arrest should be seen in the > > > far broader context of the Capitol scene: peaceable > > > throngs of mainstream Americans came forward demanding > > > more of a dialogue from political leaders. Mr. Bush and > > > his aides, to their credit, welcomed the demonstrations as > > > a healthy manifestation of American democracy at work. We > > > hope that spirit will endure in the weeks ahead if > > > differences deepen and a noisier antiwar movement > > > develops. These protests are the tip of a far broader > > > sense of concern and lack of confidence in the path to war > > > that seems to lie ahead. > > > > > > > > > ********************* > > > > > > JANUARY 18 COVERAGE AND EXCERPTS > > > > > > From The Washington Post > > > EXCERPT - Thousands Oppose a Rush to War > > > Chill Doesn't Cool Fury Over U.S. Stand on Iraq > > > > > > By Manny Fernandez and Justin Blum > > > Washington Post Staff Writers > > > Sunday, January 19, 2003; Page A01 > > > See full article at > > > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12152-2003Jan18?language=printer > > > > > > Tens of thousands of antiwar demonstrators converged on > > > Washington yesterday, making a thunderous presence in the > > > bitter cold and assembling in the shadow of the Capitol > > > dome to oppose a U.S. military strike against Iraq. > > > > > > Throughout a morning rally on the Mall and an afternoon > > > march to the Washington Navy Yard in Southeast, activists > > > criticized the Bush administration for rushing into a war > > > that they claimed would kill thousands of Iraqi civilians, > > > spell disaster for the national economy and set a > > > dangerous and unjustified first-strike precedent for U.S. > > > foreign policy. > > > > > > They delivered that message on a day when being outdoors > > > tested everyone's endurance. Men, women and children > > > fought off temperatures no higher than 24 degrees in ski > > > masks and goggles, stashes of hot soup in containers in > > > their backpacks. Many sneaked away momentarily to warm up > > > on an idling bus or to grab a cup of coffee. > > > > > > "The world is cold, but our hearts are warm," Jesse > > > Jackson told the crowd to applause. He was one of many > > > speakers, who included civil rights leader Al Sharpton > > > from New York, actress Jessica Lange and Rep. John Conyers > > > Jr. (D-Mich.). > > > > > > Organizers of the demonstration, the activist coalition > > > International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), > > > said the protest was larger than one they sponsored in > > > Washington in October. District police officials suggested > > > then that about 100,000 attended, and although some > > > organizers agreed, they have since put the number closer > > > to 200,000. This time, they said, the turnout was 500,000. > > > Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey would not provide an > > > estimate but said it was bigger than October's. "It's one > > > of the biggest ones we've had, certainly in recent times," > > > he said. > > > > > > Local and federal police presence was light, and Ramsey > > > said there were only a couple of minor incidents. A U.S. > > > Capitol Police spokeswoman reported two arrests, one for > > > disorderly conduct and one for writing graffiti on a > > > Library of Congress building. > > > > > > D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department > > > officials said three people were taken to hospitals, > > > including a woman who had a seizure. The health problems > > > were not believed serious and were not weather-related, > > > officials said. > > > > > > Thousands attended similar rallies in cities including San > > > Francisco and Tampa as well as in other countries. > > > Organizers selected yesterday for protests partly because > > > of the approaching Jan. 27 deadline for the first major > > > report by weapons inspectors in Iraq, a date many > > > activists said could trigger war. The events were also > > > meant to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and many > > > speakers invoked his legacy. > > > > > > Regardless of the exact number, the crowd yesterday on the > > > Mall was the largest antiwar demonstration here since the > > > Vietnam era. For the 11 a.m. rally, much of four long > > > blocks of the Mall was packed, shoulder-to-shoulder in > > > many sections from Third to Seventh streets SW between > > > Madison and Jefferson drives. The first marchers stepped > > > off about 1:30 p.m., and when many had begun reaching the > > > Navy Yard more than two dozen blocks away about an hour > > > later, others were still leaving the rally site. > > > > > > Those who hoped that President Bush and much of Congress > > > would witness the thousands in the streets of Washington > > > were out of luck; the president was at Camp David, and > > > most members of Congress were away for the weekend. > > > > > > It hardly mattered to some. Marchers spoke of a surging > > > grass-roots political power. > > > > > > "The antiwar movement is now at a whole new level," said > > > Tony Murphy, a spokesman for International ANSWER, which > > > was formed three days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist > > > attacks as a response to the Bush administration's war on > > > terrorism at home and abroad. "Now we're talking about a > > > force that can really stop the war. It's not just a > > > hopeful attitude. It's a real sense that it's possible," > > > he said. > > > > > > > > > > > > From The Los Angeles Times > > > EXCERPT - Antiwar Activists Join Forces > > > See full article at > > > > > > http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2Dna%2Ddemos19j > > an19001523§ion=%2F > > > > > > WASHINGTON -- Tens of thousands of protesters gathered > > > peacefully Saturday in bitterly cold weather here to > > > denounce President Bush's preparations for a war against > > > Iraq. The demonstrations were replicated in San Francisco > > > and on a smaller scale across the nation and in Europe, > > > the Middle East and Asia in what antiwar activists hoped > > > would mark a turning point in rallying public opinion > > > against a possible war. > > > > > > The coordinated protests came as the Bush administration > > > continued a military buildup in the Persian Gulf and > > > expressed confidence it can make a "persuasive" case by > > > the end of January that Saddam Hussein is not cooperating > > > with United Nations weapon inspections. > > > > > > The largest turnout was in Washington, where the rally and > > > march attracted a wide spectrum of demonstrators, from > > > sign-toting grandmothers to college students to gay > > > activists to parents with babies in strollers. Organizers > > > estimated that more than 200,000 people converged on the > > > Mall. Authorities would not confirm that number but said > > > the crowds were larger than last fall's antiwar protest > > > here. > > > > > > Regardless of the exact numbers, the scale and the passion > > > -- given the 20-degree conditions -- evoked strong > > > emotions and memories of the anti-Vietnam War movement. > > > > > > Many of the demonstrators and most of the speakers -- > > > including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Vietnam > > > War veteran Ron Kovic and former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey > > > Clark -- were united in questioning Bush's motives for > > > threatening a new war. "This is a great day for America," > > > said Kovic, who was carried to the open-air stage. "I lost > > > three-fourths of my body [in Vietnam]. You will find > > > strength. You were born to take this country back! ... No > > > blood for oil." > > > ... > > > One of the day's loudest crowd reactions came when a > > > figure from the Vietnam era, former Atty. Gen. Clark, > > > called for articles of impeachment to be brought against > > > Bush. The president was at Camp David for the weekend. > > > > > > "Let's impeach him!" shouted the 75-year-old Clark, who > > > served under President Lyndon B. Johnson and who more > > > recently has represented a string of high-profile criminal > > > defendants. Afterward, Clark said "the evidence is there" > > > for articles of impeachment but that he would not > > > "prejudge" whether it merited Bush's conviction by the > > > Senate and removal from office. > > > > > > The San Francisco crowd rivaled the Washington showing, > > > with throngs of noisy but peaceful protesters converging > > > on the Civic Center. Police estimated the crowd size at > > > more than 40,000, but Richard Becker, a march organizer > > > with Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, said the number > > > was closer to 200,000. > > > > > > Becker attributed the turnout to "a growing disenchantment > > > with the Bush administration [and] an urgent situation, > > > because Jan. 27 could be a deadline for war." > > > > > > A preliminary report by U.N. arms inspectors in Iraq is > > > due on that date. > > > > > > > > > From the San Francisco Chronicle > > > EXCERPT - Huge protests for peace > > > Tens of thousands in S.F. demand Bush abandon war plans > > > Suzanne Herel, Zachary Coile, Chronicle Staff Writer > > > > > > See full article at > > > > > > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/01/19/MN196663.DTL > > > > > > From San Francisco to Washington, D.C., from Paris to > > > Tokyo, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the > > > world's streets Saturday to protest potential military > > > action against Iraq by the Bush administration and its > > > allies. > > > > > > In Washington, where temperatures hovered in the mid-20s, > > > as many as 500, 000 protesters rallied outside the > > > Capitol, while in San Francisco tens of thousands of peace > > > activists marched up Market Street from the Ferry Building > > > to City Hall. > > > > > > With the Pentagon stepping up military preparations, > > > including ordering more aircraft carriers to the Persian > > > Gulf, thousands of demonstrators in cities from Moscow to > > > London to Cairo called on the Bush administration to find > > > a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis. > > > > > > The rallies drew people of all ages, races, religious > > > denominations and political persuasions -- many of them > > > saying that this was their first protest. > > > > > > In San Francisco, peace activists started their march up > > > Market Street at 11 a.m. and started arriving at City Hall > > > at noon to listen to speeches by local and national Among > > > them was Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who has gained > > > allies and admirers since her vote on Sept. 14, 2001, as > > > the lone dissenting voice in Congress against giving > > > President Bush open-ended authority to wage war against > > > terrorists. > > > > > > She took the stage to chants of "Barbara! Barbara!" > > > > > > "The silent minority has become the vocal majority because > > > of you," she told the cheering crowd. Lee invoked the > > > memory of King, whose birthday is being celebrated Monday, > > > urging the crowd to help eradicate the "axis of evil -- > > > poverty, racism and war. " > > > > > > "It's not too late for the administration to heed our > > > call," she said. "It takes leadership to resolve conflicts > > > peacefully. It does not take leadership to drop bombs." > > > > > > ********* > > > > > > If you want to help organize for the January 29 > > > demonstration, the day after Bush's state-of-the-union > > > speech, or join the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition's > > > mobilization for February 15, go to > > > http://www.internationalanswer.org. > > > > > > Participate in the anti-war referendum! Go to > > > http://www.VoteNoWar.org > > > > > > Donate by clicking on > > > http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html > > > > > > ********** > > > FOR MORE INFORMATION: > > > http://www.InternationalANSWER.org > > > http://www.VoteNoWar.org > > > dc at internationalanswer.org > > > New York 212-633-6646 > > > Washington 202-544-3389 > > > Los Angeles 213-487-2368 > > > San Francisco 415-821-6545 > > > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From sunil at mahiti.org Fri Jan 24 00:00:07 2003 From: sunil at mahiti.org (Sunil Abraham) Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 18:30:07 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Key to Microsoft's high profit margins... Message-ID: <1043346607.3e3034afc60d5@imeme.net> Microsoft loses showdown in Houston: Please see chart titled 'Software Power' By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-21-simdesk-cover_x.htm Year percentage growth 1992 50% 1993 36% 1994 25% 1995 29% 1996 49% 1997 32% 1998 28% 1999 29% 2000 16% 2001 10% 2002 12% SimDesk vs. MS Office Houston has begun using software from SimDesk Technologies instead of Microsoft's Office on some city-owned computers. How they compare http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-01-21-cover-side_x.htm Thanks, Sunil -- Sunil Abraham, CEO MAHITI Infotech Pvt. Ltd. 'Reducing the cost and complexity of ICTs' 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA Ph/Fax: +91 80 4150580. Mobile: 98441 01150 sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org From aiindex at mnet.fr Fri Jan 24 00:31:24 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 20:01:24 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Call to Conscience from Vets to Active Duty Troops and Reservists Message-ID: Subj: Call to Conscience from Vets to Active Duty Troops and Reservists Date: 1/14/2003 10:49:12 PM http://www.calltoconscience.net/ We are veterans of the United States armed forces. We stand with the majority of humanity, including millions in our own country, in opposition to the United States' all out war on Iraq. We span many wars and eras, have many political views and we all agree that this war is wrong. Many of us believed serving in the military was our duty, and our job was to defend this country. Our experiences in the military caused us to question much of what we were taught. Now we see our REAL duty is to encourage you as members of the U.S. armed forces to find out what you are being sent to fight and die for and what the consequences of your actions will be for humanity. We call upon you, the active duty and reservists, to follow your conscience and do the right thing. In the last Gulf War, as troops, we were ordered to murder from a safe distance. We destroyed much of Iraq from the air, killing hundreds of thousands, including civilians. We remember the road to Basraa - the Highway of Death - where we were ordered to kill fleeing Iraqis. We bulldozed trenches, burying people alive. The use of depleted uranium weapons left the battlefields radioactive. Massive use of pesticides, experimental drugs, burning chemical weapons depots and oil fires combined to create a toxic cocktail affecting both the Iraqi people and Gulf War veterans today. One in four Gulf War veterans is disabled. During the Vietnam War we were ordered to destroy Vietnam from the air and on the ground. At My Lai we massacred over 500 women, children and old men. This was not an aberration, it's how we fought the war. We used Agent Orange on the enemy and then experienced first hand its effects. We know what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder looks, feels and tastes like because the ghosts of over two million men, women and children still haunt our dreams. More of us took our own lives after returning home than died in battle. If you choose to participate in the invasion of Iraq you will be part of an occupying army. Do you know what it is like to look into the eyes of a people that hate you to your core? You should think about what your mission really is. You are being sent to invade and occupy a people who, like you and me, are only trying to live their lives and raise their kids. They pose no threat to the United States even though they have a brutal dictator as their leader. Who is the U.S. to tell the Iraqi people how to run their country when many in the U.S. don't even believe their own President was legally elected? Saddam is being vilified for gassing his own people and trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. However, when Saddam committed his worst crimes the U.S. was supporting him. This support included providing the means to produce chemical and biological weapons. Contrast this with the horrendous results of the U.S. led economic sanctions. More than a million Iraqis, mainly children and infants, have died because of these sanctions. After having destroyed the entire infrastructure of their country including hospitals, electricity generators, and water treatment plants, the U.S. then, with the sanctions, stopped the import of goods, medicines, parts, and chemicals necessary to restore even the most basic necessities of life. There is no honor in murder. This war is murder by another name. When, in an unjust war, an errant bomb dropped kills a mother and her child it is not "collateral damage," it is murder. When, in an unjust war, a child dies of dysentery because a bomb damaged a sewage treatment plant, it is not "destroying enemy infrastructure," it is murder. When, in an unjust war, a father dies of a heart attack because a bomb disrupted the phone lines so he could not call an ambulance, it is not "neutralizing command and control facilities," it is murder. When, in an unjust war, a thousand poor farmer conscripts die in a trench defending a town they have lived in their whole lives, it is not victory, it is murder. There will be veterans leading protests against this war on Iraq and your participation in it. During the Vietnam War thousands in Vietnam and in the U.S. refused to follow orders. Many resisted and rebelled. Many became conscientious objectors and others went to prison rather than bear arms against the so-called enemy. During the last Gulf War many GIs resisted in various ways and for many different reasons. Many of us came out of these wars and joined with the anti-war movement. If the people of the world are ever to be free, there must come a time when being a citizen of the world takes precedence over being the soldier of a nation. Now is that time. When orders come to ship out, your response will profoundly impact the lives of millions of people in the Middle East and here at home. Your response will help set the course of our future. You will have choices all along the way. Your commanders want you to obey. We urge you to think. We urge you to make your choices based on your conscience. If you choose to resist, we will support you and stand with you because we have come to understand that our REAL duty is to the people of the world and to our common future. Veteran signers as of January 31, 2003: Ed Armas, Army, 1962-1965 Peter B. AShaw, Marine Corps, 1951-1954 Tarik Aziz, Army, 1970-1975 Niall Aslen, Royal Air Force, 1962-1986 Aram Attarian II, Air Force, 1965-1966 Collin Baber, Air Force, 1994-1998 David E Baker, Army, 1988-1991 Philip L. Bereano, USPHS, 1966-1970 Anton Black, Navy, 1977-1984 Dave Blalock, Army 1968-1971 Michael Blankschen, Army, 1972-1973 David Bledsoe, Air Force, 1987-1997 Louis Block, Army, 1966-1972 Blase Bonpane, Marine Corps Reserve, 1948-1950 Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ, Air Force, 1955-1959 Don Broadwell, Marine Corps, 1960-1966 Roger W Brown, Marine Corps, 1957-1960 Greg Busby, Air Force, 1980-2000 Rick Campos, Air Force, 1969-1971 William J. Cavanaugh, Army, 1951-1953; Army Reserve, 1953-1982 Fredy Champagne, Army, 1965-1966 Elwood A. Chirrick, Navy, 1970-1972 Debra J. Clark, Army, 1976-1984 Rockney Compton, Army, 1967-1974 James M. Craven, Army, 1963-1966 Charlotte Critcher, Army, 1964-1971 Carl Dix, Army, 1968-1972 Barry Donnan, British Army, 1987-1993 Pat Driscoll, Navy, 1972-1975 Kenneth Dugan, Navy, 1984-1988 Jake Elkins, Marine Corps, 1965-1969 Marcus Eriksen, Marine Corps, 1985-1991 T. Patrick Foley, Navy, 1997-2000 Dr. Ray Foster, Army, 1972-1975 Lou Fox, Army, 1965 Dean Friend, Marine Corps, 1981-1985 India Mahdi Gamboa, Air Force, 1985-1987 Ernest Goitein, Army, 1943-1945 Jay R Goodman, Army, 1969-1970 Todd Greenwood, Marine Corps, 1993-2001 James F. Harrington, Air Force, 1966-1967 Rev. Richard K. Heacock, Jr., Navy, 1944-1946 Glenn Helkenn, Army, 7 yrs Dud Hendrick, Air Force, 1963-1967 Rodger Herbst, Army, 1969-1971 Andres Hernandez, Navy Reserve, 1979-1985 John Hockman, Army, 1963-1965 Walter Hrozenchik, Navy, 1951-1955 Eric Edward Johansson, Army, 1989-1992 James Michael Kearney, Army, 1963-1965 Keith Keller, Air Force, 1966-1972 Ron Kovic, Marine Corps, 1964-1968 Robert Krezewinski, Navy, 1973-1977 Marty Kunz, Navy, 1970-1976 Krystal Kyer, Navy, 1993-1997 Neal Liden, Navy, 1965-1969 Mark McCleary, Navy, 1996-2002 Teresa Media, Navy, 1972-1977 Jack Minassian, Army, 1943-1945 Michael Moore, Army, 1975-1979 Paul S. Moorhead, Navy, 1943-1946 Catherine Morris, Marine Corps, 1981-85 & Army Nat Guard, 1989-96 Paul Pat Morse, Air Force, 1965-1968 Bryan Morrison, Air Force, 1994-1998 Stan Nishimura, Army, 1964-1967 Bruce McFarland, Navy, 1982-1986 Rob Moitoza, Navy, 1965-1971 Dale L. Morgan, Air Force, 1956-1960 David Rees Morgan, British Royal Air Force, 1948-1950 John J. Pagoda, Air Force, 1965-1968 and 1985-1998 Todd A. Papasadero, Army, 1983-1989 John Pappademos, Naval Reserves, 1943-1946 Jeff Paterson, Marine Corps, 1986-1990 Wilson M. Powell, Air Force, 1950-1954 Erwin Rommel, Army, 22 yrs Randy Rowland, Army, 1967-1970 Rodney A Rylander, Air Force, 1962-1967 Lee Santa, Army, 1965-1968 Nikko Schoch, Army, 1968-1970 Betty R. Scott, Navy, 1943-1945 Charles T. Smith, Army, 1969-1971 John Steinbach, Coast Guard, 1965-1969 Darnell S. Summers, Army, 1966-1970 Thomas Swift, Army, 1953-1955 Harold Taggart, Air Force, 1959-1964 Toby Tahja-Syrett, Army, 1992-1996 Tom Trigg, Army, 1967-1975 Joe Urgo, Air Force, 1967-1968 Gerald Waite, Army, 1967-1982 William H. Warrick III MD, Army Security Agency, 1968-1971 Joel Wendland, Army, 1991-1993 David Wiggins MD, Army, Gulf War John P. Wirtz, Army, 1943-1946 Mike Wong, Army, 1969-1975 Howard Zinn, Air Force, 1943-1945 Please reprint and forward to other veterans. From broadcaster at syhlleti.org Thu Jan 23 18:02:03 2003 From: broadcaster at syhlleti.org (broadcaster at syhlleti.org) Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 18:02:03 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Appeal for Help from Jyotsna Deb Message-ID: <3165.203.122.18.98.1043325123.squirrel@smtp.spectrum.in> APPEAL-I My younger son Sri Bikash Deb is a kidney Transplantation Patient and he requires huge amount of expenditure immediately to the tune of Rs 9 to 10 lakhs to maintain the cost of operation and post operative treatments. We had approached Govt of India, Ministry of Health and the state Govt for financial assistance, but none acceded to our request as we do not belong to below poverty line.However, being members of the lower-middle-class family, it is practically impossible on our part to bear such huge amount of expenditure and save my son's life. Hence, being a mother of ill-fated son, who requires immediate financial assistance for his treatment, I earnestly request to your kind selves to extend your kind-hearted hands with financial assistance and thus save my son's life and oblige me to be ever gratefull to you. With regards to you all Smt Jyotsna Deb C/o Bibhas Deb Asha Kutir,Hospital Road Silchar-788005 Cachar,Assam,India PH-03842-237543 email - broadcaster at syhlleti.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From amc at autonomous.org Fri Jan 24 14:21:23 2003 From: amc at autonomous.org (Amanda McDonald Crowley) Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 14:21:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] ISEA2004 CALL for PROPOSALS #1: sub themes and large projects In-Reply-To: <10508931.1043296427@kinross-ipa9e8aa5e.host.ucla.edu> Message-ID: Stockholm - Tallinn - Helsinki August 14th - 22nd, 2004 ISEA2004: The 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art CALL FOR PROPOSALS #1: sub themes and large projects Deadline: February 28th 2003. (Please note: If you want to submit a paper, a work to an exhibition, or any other project that does not require long-term arrangements and can manage with commonly available technologies, please submit by the August 15th, 2003 deadline.) http://www.isea2004.net new media art - media culture research - electronic music - art and science - cultural and social applications for new media - New media meets art, science, research, and popular culture at ISEA2004 in Stockholm - Tallinn - Helsinki. For the first time an event of this scale is being organised between three cities and on the ferry travelling between these three Baltic countries. International participants and local audiences attend thematic conferences, exhibitions, live performances, screenings, satellite events, concerts and clubs. Many events are also interfaced via television, radio, broadband Internet, and mobile networks making them available to the widest possible audience. We are encouraging: Socially, critically and ecologically engaging work; Networked projects that connect several sites; Projects that bring the creative media to the streets; Projects that are worn on or inside people; Context sensitive work in the museums; Projects that float, dock or sail; Screen based media as it appears in 2004; Sea Fair: technological gizmos for ferry travellers and future media archaeologists to discover; Bridges between club scenes and art venues; Most engaging works from performing arts that engage new media, users, and audiences; Networks to network Key themes for the event include: Networked experience (Stockholm) Wearable experience (Tallinn) Wireless experience (Helsinki) Histories of the new: media arts, media cultures, media technologies - all cities Additional themes include: Interfacing sound (in collaboration with Koneisto) Open source and software as culture (Helsinki) Critical interaction design (Helsinki) Geopolitics of media (Tallinn) We are currently inviting proposals for additional conference and exhibition sub themes, large projects, technically or logistically complicated projects, projects that require work on site, projects or research which require collaboration with a local community, company, or a research institute, ideas which transform the event itself, tools for interaction and interfacing the event to urban spaces, etc. We are envisaging that large projects may include, but not be limited to: theoretical or practical workshops, technically complicated installations, live acts that demand a lot of staging - thematic or technically unusually interfaced screenings - games or shared environments that influence the event structure - pre-events or post-events in relation to the above dates - remote participation - etc. Our over all aim for ISEA2004 is to create an event which is thematically and critically coherent and provides new insight. You can suggest themes that link to those already suggested on the web site - http://www.isea2004.net/themes.html - or you can suggest an entirely new area which you feel is important to address in August 2004. Please note that ISEA2004 is a forum for artistic, academic, and culturally or socially relevant work that has not previously been presented in international forums (you may have showed/presented it in your local context). All submissions are done via our website using a web form and stored into a database. This procedure allows us to have the proposals reviewed by International Programme Committee (IPC) members. When you make a submission, it is recommended to that you choose a theme/city/genre - though especially in this first call we are also encouraging additional themes which you believe will be timely and relevant in late 2004. Are you an individual, or do you represent a group, organisation, research unit, a network, or a company? One of our aims is to provide various ways in which organisations and individuals will be introduced to one another before and during the event. The networking and social aspects of ISEA2004 are very important to us - so please suggest concepts, technologies or themes with this objective in mind. - - Why are we making the first call 16 months before the event? We want to enable you to propose challenging new work that requires time to produce and where our letter of acceptance may still assist you to secure partners or resources. We also want to be able to appropriately resource the presentation technology and network you with local collaborators if necessary. Ultimately we are interested in ensuring that ISEA2004 is a challenging and rewarding experience for its professional participants and multiple audiences! To this end we are keen to work with you to ensure that projects are appropriately resourced and supported. E-mail responses: when you submit your proposal, you will receive an email providing you with a code, which will identify your proposal. You may login to your submission via a URL sent to you to modify the submission until the end of February. After that, you can only modify your personal or organisation data. If you need to talk to us about the proposal, please include this code in the subject line of your e- mail. We very much look forward to hearing your ideas! Very best, Tapio Makela and Amanda McDonald Crowley e-mail: info at isea2004.net http://www.isea2004.net MAIN ORGANISER m-cult, centre for media culture in finland HELSINKI MAIN PARTNERS Exhibition: The Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Conference: Media Centre Lume (University of Art and Design) Electronic music: Koneisto (Festival for electronic music and arts) MAIN ORGANISER, STOCKHOLM Coordinator: CRAC, Creativ ------ End of Forwarded Message From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Sat Jan 25 19:37:26 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 06:07:26 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] check out this alternative news site Message-ID: <20030125140726.64897.qmail@web41103.mail.yahoo.com> http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ R __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From geert at desk.nl Sun Jan 26 04:45:34 2003 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 10:15:34 +1100 Subject: [Reader-list] for those who wanna go to geneva, wsis/prepcom2 References: <20030125140726.64897.qmail@web41103.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <001301c2c4ce$cc209670$34af9bca@geert> From: WSIS Geneva 2003 [mailto:wsis.csd at ties.itu.ch] Civil Society Facilitation Fund Request for Fellowship - Civil Society Entities Conference: PrepCom2 Dates: 17-28 February 2003 Location: Geneva, Switzerland To facilitate the participation of developing countries at PrepCom2, we are pleased to announce that a limited number of fellowships will be available to participants from developing countries, with priority being given to participants from Least Developed Countries. I. Candidates may apply from the following categories: The academic and professional environment The scientific and technological community The media The creators and active promoters of culture Cities and local authorities Trade Unions Parliamentarians NGOs including social groups with special needs: Youth, Women, Indigenous people, Disabled people, etc. Social movements Multi-stakeholder partnerships II. Selection Criteria: 2.1. Applicants must register to the conference on http://www.geneva2003.org . Please find the fellowship's application form on the website. http://www.geneva2003.org/home/info/Fellowship.doc http://www.geneva2003.org/home/info/Fellowship.pdf 2.2 Their recommendation will be made to ensure the balance between: a) Participants of developing countries, especially Least Developed Countries b) Role of the participant (they must bring an active contribution to the conference) c) Candidates must have requested accreditation d) Gender e) The Diversity of the stakeholders f) The thematic perspectives g) Country representation 23. Your role in your home country must fall into the following categories: Decision-makers, opinion leader, researchers, practitioners, content developers that promote action in the field of Information Society at a national and regional level. III. Selection Process A selection panel composed of members of the Civil Society will review the nominations forms and will make the final choice of candidates to receive fellowships Successful candidates will be informed by email. VI. Entitlements of selected participants - Round trip international air travel to Geneva via the most direct and economical route; - Accommodation facilitated by the Civil Society Division for the duration of the meeting; - Daily allowance for meals, hotel and miscellaneous expenses; V. Obligations of fellowship participants - To participate in WSIS PrepCom2 in accordance with instructions issued by Fellowships Service. - To conduct themselves at all times in a manner compatible with their responsibility as holders of WSIS fellowship holders - To refrain from engaging in political, commercial and any other activities incompatible with the WSIS PrepCom2 during the period of award. - It is essential that participants awarded a fellowship be present from the first day and participate the entire duration of the PrepCom2. From sam at media.com.au Sun Jan 26 07:04:00 2003 From: sam at media.com.au (sam de silva) Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 12:34:00 +1100 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: ACTIVATING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY CONFERENCE (1-4 July 2003 in Byron Bay) Message-ID: <1043544840.3e333b0845548@webmail.myspinach.org> B Y E M A I L : ----------------- ACTIVATING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY CONFERENCE BYRON BAY, AUSTRALIA 1-4 July 2003 Hosted by the Centre for Law, Politics and Culture Southern Cross University Confirmed Keynotes: Professor Monica McWilliams (Ireland), Professor Raimon Gaita (Aust), Chee Soon Juan (Singapore) Professor Yash Ghai, (Hong Kong), Dita Indah Sari (Indonesia), Professor Costas Douzinas (UK), Dr Sev Ozdowsky (Aust), Charlene Smith (South Africa), Melinda Jones (Aust), Professor Carl Stychin (UK), Dr Lillian Holt and Dr Irene Watson (Aust). Planned opening with the Governor, Professor Marie Bashir and The Honourable John Dowd. Planned Endnote Speech by Peter Garrett. Other invited speakers include: - Basil Fernando, Executive Director, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong. - Natasha Stott-Despoja, Australian Democrats Senator. - Kerry Nettle, NSW Greens Senator. Rodney Croome, sexuality activist. CALL FOR PAPERS: ACTIVATING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY CONFERENCE http://www.scu.edu.au/research/clpc/human_rights/index.html Local and Global Voices This international conference is for everyone who cares passionately about human rights, and who wishes to activate/re-activate human rights and their importance in the twenty-first century. We hope the conference will provide a crucial and critical learning space for activating human rights and diversity in relation to the fields of law, culture, politics and health. A major focus of the conference is to invite participants to exchange ideas and experiences about human rights, questions of diversity and their implications across these fields. The conference is interdisciplinary as well as activist in approach. We especially welcome papers that engage with significant and often disregarded and unregarded areas of human rights activism. We also invite papers which address relevant contemporary issues that have a significant human rights dimension. CALL FOR PAPERS* Please send proposals for 20-25 minute papers, with a 200-word abstract by 3rd February 2003 to: Dr Baden Offord, Centre for Law, Politics and Culture, ROfford at scu.edu.au The conference will have a mix of plenary sessions with invited papers, and panel sessions. The conference organisers welcome papers from academics, researchers, activists, community groups and policy makers. Draft Panel Sessions So far include: Refugees and Human Rights Indigenous Rights - Culture and Human Rights Romany peoples and human rights - Women and Human Rights Disability Rights Buddhism and Human Rights New Media and Human Rights Journalism and Human Rights Amnesty International high school students presentation Sexuality and Human Rights Children's Rights Health and Human Rights Asian Human Rights POSSIBLE CONFERENCE TOPICS The Conference welcomes contributions that are interdisciplinary in nature and which are informed by the confluence of theory and practice. In general, conference thematic matrix might include: 1. Gender & sexuality 2. East Timor 3. Disability and rights 4. Refugees and diaspora 5. Indigenous approaches 6. Rights and globalisation 7. Culture and representation 8. Citizenships of belonging and participation 9. Asia/Pacific issues 10. Sexual slavery 11. Torture and exploitation 12. Human rights methodologies 13. Exclusion/inclusion 14. New technologies & citizenship 15. Health care and human rights 16. Diversity & legal discourse 17. Rethinking human rights activism 18. The politics of human rights 19. Monocultural/multicultural realities 20. Religion & social activism 21. Music & human rights 22. Reproductive rights 23. Moving beyond anguish & trauma 24. Reconciliation & Healing 25. Stories of breaking the silence 26. Activate/Re-activate -- Dr Baden Offord Senior Lecturer: Cultural Studies Researcher: Centre for Law, Politics & Culture Convenor: Activating Human Rights & Diversity:local & global voices International Conference, Byron Bay, 2003. http://www.scu.edu.au/research/clpc/ School of Arts Southern Cross University PO Box 157 Lismore 2480 Australia Telephone: + 61 2 66203 162 Fax: + 61 2 66 221 683 email: ROfford at scu.edu.au http://hmcs.scu.edu.au/ Paulo Friere: "studying is above all thinking about experience, and thinking about experience is the best way to think accurately." http://movies.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Movies - What's on at your local cinema? ----- End forwarded message ----- From aiindex at mnet.fr Sun Jan 26 08:00:23 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 03:30:23 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] India : The Business of Phone Taps... Message-ID: The Hindu Sunday, Jan 26, 2003 Opinion - News Analysis Time to ring in changes Incidents of invasion of privacy and complaints from customers about the service point to the need for a debate on the working of private telephone companies, writes Sandeep Dikshit. AS PRIVATISATION gathers momentum in the telecom sector, there are growing doubts over several key issues relating to the rights of consumers. Despite assertions by successive Governments regarding introduction of new age legislation and the setting up of an organisation to referee over telecom companies, we do not appear to have travelled very far towards ensuring privacy and a fair deal for telecom subscribers. Recent incidents of invasion of privacy and numerous complaints from subscribers about the service point to the need for a debate on the working of private phone companies. Rarely addressed by political parties and civil society, the two subjects have to be brought into the public domain as soon as possible for restitution. As more and more people turn to higher technology-based phones of all varieties due to falling rates, privacy and grievance redress will become more and more contentious. Grievance redress, especially when more and more individuals opt for corporate-operated phone services, is a major issue. But more emotive is the right to privacy. There is no definite indication that privacy is being respected as per the Supreme Court's guidelines issued in 1996. As India's cream shifts to cellular phones as the preferred mode of communication, more and more instances come to light of not just security agencies but even cellular company employees selling telephone records of rival companies for a consideration or just listening in on conversations. In one celebrated case, that is still talked about in hushed tones because of the people involved, a top notch political fixer persuaded his friend, who owned a cellular company, to furnish him with transcripts of the conversations his female acquaintance had with a top IT company executive. The woman came to know of the snooping and it required the combined efforts of several worthies to douse the fires. Reliable sources also affirm that the recent attempt to overthrow the BSP-BJP coalition Government in Uttar Pradesh was incapacitated because of `informal' cell phone tapping. The phone records of a hotelier-turned-politician, who was among those financing the rebels, were turned over to politicians interested in keeping Mayawati in power. From then on it was not too difficult to choke the flow of funds. In due course, the scandal and the revolt were forgotten. But there have been occasions when the issue of privacy while using cellular phones has threatened to burst into the public domain. The first time, when the late South African cricket captain, Hansie Cronje's cellular phone was tapped and later when a cellular phone company allegedly gave the police cell phone records of a person who claimed that the Delhi police had in cold blood gunned down two unarmed persons in the basement of Ansal Plaza. On the basis of the records of the cell phone which also gave away its carrier's movements, the police claimed that the alleged eyewitness was not at the site of the encounter with the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists. On both occasions, statist and right-wing mentality prevailed over the voices of dissent raised by civil rights activists. Since the police were proved right in the Cronje case, the merit of tapping the phone was not investigated further. In the shoot-out case too, perhaps the whistle-blower could not stand the might of the state. He did serve notice to the cellular company accusing it of breaching his right to privacy but little was heard after that. Had the person persisted with his query - "under what authority of law has your company divulged the private information and details of the mobile phone?" - who knows, the lid may have been blown of a shadowy practice that appears to be increasingly used by some companies. Against these examples, security agencies can cite several instances to prove that tapping of cellular phones has yielded rich dividends in the form of nabbing elusive criminals. But that is hardly of comfort to citizens who suspect that their right to privacy may be getting violated, not just in the national interest but by other vested interests. To set the record straight, many companies have carried forward their culture of corporate uprightness to cellular operations as well. But there are several others who, to put it mildly, would never qualify for a corporate uprightness award. And it is they who are cause for concern because India's cream relies predominantly on mobile phones for honing business strategies, striking political alliances or simply indulging in intimate conversation. The need to bring the issue under the public spotlight has become more pressing because global trends show that fixed-line phones will be replaced in urban areas by mobile phones and India may be no exception to the trend. But being privately owned, cell companies are more vulnerable to the dictates of security agencies which have extracted 180 lines from each of them for tapping. The Supreme Court, while upholding tapping, had set out the guidelines in 1996 when cell phones were just making their appearance. With more subscribers forecast to graduate to cell phones, this would be an appropriate time to not only bring new technology into the ambit of judicial guidelines but also examine whether previous ones were effective. According to Rajeev Dhavan, lawyer, "the system of review set up by the Supreme Court enabling those who authorise taps to review their own orders with a conclave of colleagues is arbitrary, secretive, shabby and an insult to the protection of privacy and civil liberties. There was a time when many who rule the country today were convinced that India's apparatus of phone tapping was invidious. But now they are in-charge of this form of state surveillance." As compared to fixed phones, tapping of cellular phones can lead to greater invasion of privacy. Cellular phone company computers can record millions of movements going back to more than a year and therefore the location of a user at any given time or date can be traced to within a few hundred meters of the exact spot. Security agencies are understood to be actively making what are called "plotter's charts" in their terminology. The cell phone of a person visiting the national capital can be locked in their beams by sleuths and even if he does not discuss confidential issues, the signals can track his movements. National security was an overriding concern that forced previous victims of phone tapping including Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani to go slow on installing safety mechanisms when they took over the reins of the Government. However, sophistication in tapping will ensure that in spite of procedures to protect the average citizen from indiscriminate tapping, intelligence agencies can carry on with tapping that would help them avert threats from anti-national elements. For instance, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is known to possess computers that can catch a key word in a conversation and then record the entire conversation. The computer is fed with the name of the wanted person and any conversation where that person's name is used will be recorded. The Supreme Court in its 1996 review did not suggest periodic reviews or independent panels that could look into the malaise of indiscriminate tapping. With tens of thousands of circuits having already been allocated to intelligence agencies, and more to be provided by new phone companies entering the market, this could be the right time to prevent India from becoming an eavesdroppers' paradise. The review must also ensure that owners and employees of cellular companies are denied the pleasure of delving in their backyards for details of persons called by a particular subscriber. There is an urgent need to shore up public confidence by prescribing guidelines because several of the entrants are known to have taken questionable short-cuts on their way to becoming mega corporations. As is the case with tapping, the issue of a satisfactory subscriber grievance redress machinery has also not been the subject of public discourse. Even trenchant critics of liberalisation of telecom services and parliamentary committees have not applied themselves to suggesting a suitable framework. Though state-run companies have earned the reputation of being sluggish, the years of liberalisation have seen a remarkable improvement in their complaints machinery. The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and, to a lesser extent, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited have used computerisation to ensure that the fault reporting system became more streamlined. Even otherwise, the complaints mechanism of these companies has matured over time and is much broader since the two companies are answerable to Parliament. But that is not the case with private firms. The increase in complaints against billing is directly proportionate to the rise in the customer base. A little while ago, consumers were bewildered by the large number of tariff packages offered by the companies but that was set right by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). However, consumers still complain about unexplained charges for roaming. The TRAI and greater competition do keep the companies alert. However, grievance redress panels on a countrywide basis are required. Instead of opting for bureaucrats and judicial authorities, easily accessible consumer forums are required. The entry of new companies should serve to accelerate the thought process in this regard because many of them have asked subscribers to pay with post-dated cheques. As a result there are bound to be more disputes. The TRAI has covered some ground in this matter. Due to budgetary constraints it has largely opted for indirect monitoring of broad customer satisfaction criteria such as network performance from the point of view of call success rate, service access delays, call drop rate and percentage of connections with good voice quality. It is expected that periodic rating of companies on the basis of this criteria will force them to provide efficient service. The TRAI itself admits that this is not a complete exercise since the vital component of customer feedback is missing. It has proposed empanelling independent agencies that could carry out surveys of customers of each company. But even this is incomplete since individual subscribers are left unattended. Due to extra costs involved, private companies are bound to resist setting up easily accessible complaints cells on the lines of those being run by BSNL and MTNL all over the country. A public debate on enabling a subscriber with even the smallest compliant to get a hearing is of vital importance. A common refrain is of existing help line numbers of cellular companies turning hostile when subscribers report unexplained debiting from cash cards or seek urgent refund of security deposits. The TRAI has addressed itself to this aspect also. It has prescribed strict billing complaint resolution norms such as asking cell companies to resolve 99 per cent of all complaints within four weeks and cent per cent within a year. The billing complaints too must be less than 2 per 1,000 bills issued. But as is the case with network management criteria, the TRAI would have to process a mass of data to arrive at national or operator-specific figures. The individual subscriber has been left in the cold. There is an urgent need to correct this situation especially when there are one crore cellular subscribers already and, if experts are to be believed, the number will double by next year. From monica at sarai.net Sun Jan 26 13:26:23 2003 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 13:26:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Said on Iraq Message-ID: Edward Said: The US is preparing to attack the Arab world, while the Arabs whimper in submission Saturday January 25, 2003 The Guardian One opens the New York Times on a daily basis to read the most recent article about the preparations for war that are taking place in the United States. Another battalion, one more set of aircraft carriers and cruisers, an ever-increasing number of aircraft, new contingents of officers are being moved to the Persian Gulf area. An enormous, deliberately intimidating force is being built up by America overseas, while inside the country, economic and social bad news multiply with a joint relentlessness. The huge capitalist machine seems to be faltering, even as it grinds down the vast majority of citizens. None the less, George Bush proposes another large tax cut for the 1% of the population that is comparatively rich. The public education system is in crisis and health insurance for 50 million Americans simply does not exist. Israel asks for $15bn in additional loan guarantees and military aid. And the unemployment rates in the US mount inexorably, as more jobs are lost every day. Nevertheless, preparations for an unimaginably costly war continue without either public approval or, at least until very recently, dramatically noticeable disapproval. A generalised indifference among the majority of the population (which may conceal great overall fear, ignorance and apprehension) has greeted the administration's warmongering and its strangely ineffective response to the challenge forced on it recently by North Korea. In the case of Iraq, with no weapons of mass destruction to speak of, the US plans a war; in the case of North Korea, it offers economic and energy aid. What a humiliating difference between contempt for the Arabs and respect for North Korea, an equally grim and cruel dictatorship. In the Arab and Muslim worlds, the situation appears more peculiar. For almost a year American politicians, regional experts, administration officials and journalists have repeated the charges that have become standard fare so far as Islam and the Arabs are concerned. Most of this predates September 11. To today's practically unanimous chorus has been added the authority of the UN human development report on the Arab world, which certified that Arabs dramatically lag behind the rest of the world in democracy, knowledge and women's rights. Everyone says (with some justification, of course) that Islam needs reform and that the Arab educational system is a disaster - in effect, a school for religious fanatics and suicide bombers funded not just by crazy imams and their wealthy followers (such as Osama bin Laden) but also by governments who are the supposed allies of the US. The only "good" Arabs are those who appear in the media decrying modern Arab culture and society without reservation. I recall the lifeless cadences of their sentences for, with nothing positive to say about themselves or their people and language, they simply regurgitate the tired American formulas already flooding the airwaves and pages of print. We lack democracy, they say, we haven't challenged Islam enough, we need to do more about driving away the spectre of Arab nationalism and the credo of Arab unity. That is all discredited, ideological rubbish. Only what we and our American instructors say about the Arabs and Islam - vague, recycled Orientalist clichŽs repeated by tireless mediocrities such as Bernard Lewis - are true, they insist. The rest isn't realistic or pragmatic enough. "We" need to join modernity - modernity in effect being western, globalised, free marketed, democratic, whatever those words might be taken to mean. There would be an essay to be written about the prose style of licensed academics like Fuad Ajami, Fawwaz Gerges, Kanan Makiya, Shibli Talhami, Mamoon Fandy, whose very language reeks of subservience, inauthenticity and the hopelessly stilted mimicry that has been thrust upon them. The clash of civilisations that George Bush and his minions are trying to fabricate as a cover for a pre-emptive oil and hegemony war against Iraq is supposed to result in a triumph of democratic nation-building, regime change and forcible modernisation ˆ l'AmŽricaine. Never mind the bombs and the ravages of the sanctions, which are unmentioned. This will be a purifying war whose goal is to throw out Saddam and his men and replace them with a redrawn map of the whole region. New Sykes Picot. New Balfour. New Wilsonian 14 points. New world altogether. Iraqis, we are told by the Iraqi dissidents, will welcome their liberation, and perhaps forget entirely about their past sufferings. Perhaps. Meanwhile, the soul-and-body destroying situation in Palestine worsens all the time. There seems no force capable of stopping Ariel Sharon and his defence minister Shaul Mofaz, who bellow their defiance to the whole world. We forbid, we punish, we ban, we break, we destroy. The torrent of unbroken violence against an entire people continues. As I write these lines, I am sent an announcement that the village of Al-Daba' in the Qalqilya area of the West Bank is about to be wiped out by 60-tonne American-made Israeli bulldozers: 250 Palestinians will lose their 42 houses, 700 dunums of agricultural land, a mosque and an elementary school for 132 children. The UN stands by, looking on as its resolutions are flouted on an hourly basis. Alas, George Bush identifies with Sharon, not with the 16-year-old Palestinian kid who is used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority offers a return to peacemaking and, presumably, to Oslo. Having been burned for 10 years, Arafat seems inexplicably to want to have another go at it. His faithful lieutenants make declarations and write opinion pieces for the press, suggesting their willingness to accept anything, more or less. Remarkably, though, the great mass of this heroic people seems willing to go on, without peace and without respite, bleeding, going hungry, dying day by day. They have too much dignity and confidence in the justice of their cause to submit shamefully to Israel, as their leaders have done. What could be more discouraging for the average Gazan who goes on resisting Israeli occupation than to see his or her leaders kneel as supplicants before the Americans? In this entire panorama of desolation, what catches the eye is the utter passivity and helplessness of the Arab world as a whole. The American government and its servants issue statement after statement of purpose, they move troops and material, they transport tanks and destroyers, but the Arabs individually and collectively can barely muster a bland refusal. At most they say no, you cannot use military bases in our territory, only to reverse themselves a few days later. Why is there such silence and such astounding helplessness? The largest power in history is about to launch a war against a sovereign Arab country now ruled by a dreadful regime, the clear purpose of which is not only to destroy the Ba'ath regime but to redesign the entire region. The Pentagon has made no secret that its plans are to redraw the map of the whole Arab world, perhaps changing other regimes and borders in the process. No one can be shielded from the cataclysm if and when it comes. And yet, there is only long silence followed by a few vague bleats of polite demurral in response. Millions of people will be affected, yet America contemptuously plans for their future without consulting them. Do we deserve such racist derision? This is not only unacceptable: it is impossible to believe. How can a region of almost 300 million Arabs wait passively for the blows to fall without attempting a collective roar of resistance? Has the Arab will completely dissolved? Even a prisoner about to be executed usually has some last words to pronounce. Why is there now no last testimonial to an era of history, to a civilisation about to be crushed and transformed utterly, to a society that, despite its drawbacks and weaknesses, nevertheless goes on functioning? Arab babies are born every hour, children go to school, men and women marry and work and have children, they play and laugh and eat, they are sad, they suffer illness and death. There is love and companionship, friendship and excitement. Yes, Arabs are repressed and misruled, terribly misruled, but they manage to go on with the business of living despite everything. This is the reality that both the Arab leaders and the US ignore when they fling empty gestures at the so-called "Arab street" invented by banal Orientalists. Who is now asking the existential questions about our future as a people? The task cannot be left to a cacophony of religious fanatics and submissive, fatalistic sheep. But that seems to be the case. The Arab governments - no, most of the Arab countries from top to bottom - sit back in their seats and just wait as America postures, lines up, threatens and ships out more soldiers and F-16s to deliver the punch. The silence is deafening. Years of sacrifice and struggle, of bones broken in hundreds of prisons and torture chambers from the Atlantic to the Gulf, families destroyed, endless poverty and suffering. Huge, expensive armies. For what? This is not a matter of party or ideology or faction: it's a matter of what the great theologian Paul Tillich used to call ultimate seriousness. Technology, modernisation and certainly globalisation are not the answer for what threatens us as a people now. We have in our tradition an entire body of secular and religious discourse that treats of beginnings and endings, of life and death, of love and anger, of society and history. This is there, but no voice, no individual with great vision and moral authority seems able now to tap into that and bring it to attention. We are on the eve of a catastrophe that our political, moral and religious leaders can only just denounce a little bit while, behind whispers and winks and closed doors, they make plans somehow to ride out the storm. They think of survival, and perhaps of heaven. But who is in charge of the present, the worldly, the land, the water, the air and the lives dependent on each other for existence? No one seems to be in charge. There is a wonderful expression that very precisely and ironically catches our unacceptable helplessness, our passivity and inability to help ourselves now when our strength is most needed. The expression is: will the last person to leave please turn out the lights? We are that close to a kind of upheaval that will leave very little standing and perilously little left even to record, except for the last injunction that begs for extinction. Hasn't the time come for us collectively to demand and formulate a genuinely Arab alternative to the wreckage about to engulf our world? This is not only a trivial matter of regime change, although God knows that we can do with quite a bit of that. Surely it can't be a return to Oslo, another offer to Israel to please accept our existence and let us live in peace, another cringing, crawling, inaudible plea for mercy? Will no one come out into the light of day to express a vision for our future that isn't based on a script written by Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, those two symbols of vacant power and overweening arrogance? I hope someone is listening. á Edward Said is professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, New York. His books include Orientalism and Covering Islam. His latest work, Parallels and Paradoxes, cowritten with Daniel Barenboim, will be published by Bloomsbury in March. -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From ravik_rk at hotmail.com Sat Jan 25 00:38:52 2003 From: ravik_rk at hotmail.com (Ravi Kumar) Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 00:38:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Response to Article on Privatization Message-ID: There was an article titled 'A LESSON FROM THE THIRD WORLD - James Tooley on the extraordinary success of private education in Africa and India' sent by Yazad Jal. It is not at all detrimental to dispatch materials for better of dissemination of knowledge and information but on must also think of the consequences that it produces. The point here is not at all to dismiss the validity of private enterprise as solely profit making venture but what one needs to analyze is that what are the larger bearings of such projects and why do they emerge? Again, one option will be to rest on variety of reports, shun one's own critical faculty and then formulate an argument on that basis but then where does it lead. The other option is to critically evaluate the causes and consequences of such works and then reflect upon it. This is not happening when we just dispatch reports in favor of 'privatization' as the only option for the decadent education system. When we talk of education we get concerned with a variety of objects - the aim of education (literacy of eudcation), information versus knowledge debate, pedagogical concerns, child -community interface etc. This is not happening here. And I fear that it adds another piece to the current trend of mustering support for privatization and withdrawal of State (to the whims and fancies of Capital). And the paragraph quoted below from the article is a pointer towards this. "What is the problem in state schools? The Probe Report put it succinctly: accountability. Private schools, the report said, were successful because they were more accountable. 'The teachers are accountable to the manager (who can fire them) and, through him or her, to the parents (who can withdraw their children).' There is no such accountability in government schools, and 'this contrast is perceived with crystal clarity by the vast majority of parents'" Effeciency and accountability is one thing and corporatization of work place and services is another, which has much wider and immediate ramifications for the masses and we the internet using at least middle segment experience quite late and perhaps such thoughts emerge out of that background as well. Ravi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030125/6a62f85e/attachment.html From ambarien at yahoo.co.uk Sat Jan 25 10:14:33 2003 From: ambarien at yahoo.co.uk (=?iso-8859-1?q?ambarien=20qadar?=) Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 04:44:33 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Second posting for Sarai Independent Fellowships. Message-ID: <20030125044433.73285.qmail@web20109.mail.yahoo.com> Title: Women and Zakir Nagar. Dear Readers, This update of our study carries an account of the interaction with one of our characters, Jameela Begum popularly known as Dilli Wali Amma. Many of the interrelations that we draw upon, happened during our interaction. The study took considerable shape while it was being conducted. We are eagerly looking forward to extensive feedback. Ambarien/ Khadeeja. " Interrelations between objects occur in space and time; it is these relationships themselves which create/ define space and time." (Massey 1992: 79) Zakir Nagar is a resettlement colony that is only defined by its absence in the mainstream mapping of Delhi. But, as a community of Muslims coming together in the wake of innumerable and specific anxieties; it negotiates with the conflict arising out of the constant interaction between the 'outside' world and the 'inside'. History of Zakir Nagar as recalled by one of our characters, Kehkashan Siddiqui, is of dislocation, urbanization and a constant movement of people in search of 'security' and 'identity'. Zakir Nagar is seen as a 'cohesive inner space', secure from the communal culture of the city/country. At the same time it is a space that necessarily exists both in relation to its internal dynamics as well as the city of Delhi at large. The movement from the 'inner' to the 'outer' and back has led to the emergence of a fascinating space of tension, contradiction, and cultural identity. By focusing on the gendered nature of this contradictory space, we draw attention to the complexities of women's existence in urban/city spaces. "Burqua Ne mujeh bhuat azadi di hai" "Lakin jab mein East of kailash jati hoon tab to Byrqua nahin Pahenti hun kunki waahn sab hindu hain aur hum alag Dikehnge bahar Jao to burque walio ko Band gobhi kehtein hein " "Aaj Zakir Nagar mein Light mere dam Se hai' (Dilliwali Amma) Jameela Begum, popularly known as DilliWali Amma in her neighborhood, came to Zakir Nagar in 1975. This movement was a result of the communal anxieties inBaradari- Kuche Chilan area behind Daryaganj. As recalled by her, there were constant fights between the people of her community and her neighbors' -the Safai karamcharis. As a divorcee, responsible for her six children, she felt that a place like Zakir Nagar was most secure. Amma took up sewing jobs. Her work involved moving in the neighborhood frequently. Amma had to (and still does) interact with men ranging from the local plumber to the DESU. It is within this that she found the 'anonymity' within the burqa extremely liberating. At that point of time Amma's Zakir Nagar was only a collection of four houses with the Yamuna canal running past. The work of filling up the Canal (Patai as it was locally called) for large scale urbanization had already begun. But Zakir Nagar was an 'unauthorized' colony (parts of it are still so) and so there were no legal electricity and water connections. Amma mobilized her neighborhood. Collected money and sat on a Dharna outside the DESU premises. Finally, when the first legal routeline was laid, the DESU men asked Amma to pose for a photograph with the electricity pole. The photograph is with the authorities as proof. Amma claims, " doosri bar Indira Gandhi ko election maine jitvaya tha" She has a photograph of herself with Indira Gandhi in Baradari. For her, the notion of the private and the public is inextricable. Thus, the private space of her home is also the public space of appeal. On Sundays, Amma sits at her home and people (both men and women) come to her with their problems. On the day we were interviewing her, a woman came to her for help in the construction of a shop and her home. The Metro project had resulted in large scale demolition in the Old Delhi area. Jahanara Begum had lost four shops in Daryaganj with no hope of compensation in the near future. She desperately wanted to shift to Zakir Nagar with the help of Amma. Now she owns around four flats and ten rooms that she hires out on rent. Amma has her own criterion for selecting the tenents. Through this she has been in close association with people ranging from Kashmiri migrants to Sardars. Amma has a tailoring shop in Vasant Vihar. Back in 1984 she had a Sikh working there. While there was an organized attempt to wipe out the Sikh community in the country, Amma got the Sikh worker transported to Zakir Nagar hidden in a van used to deliver butchered meat. The worker stayed with her for a long time after that. Amma's political motivation should be situated within the web of relationships within the macrocosmic and the microcosmic 'histories' and how the 'grand narrative' gets ruptured by individual cases. The idea of 'representation' in the mainstream functions around a 'type'. Thus the necessity of the muslim socials as a genre. Much of the television programming of the day builds up heavily around the idea. As the movement of muslims in huddled up communities is taking its course, it is becoming more of an 'imagined' community for those who are becoming outsiders to it. The 'represented' of the mainstream is becoming 'real' for them. The burqa in Amma's case becomes liberating in the sense that she can negotiate the public space with much more fluidity clearly veering off the masculine 'gaze'. It is the space that defines her relationship with her body and how she negotiates with it. Thus, when she moves in places like East of Kailash , she does not cover herself. She feels that this makes her more comfortable in that space. . --------------------------------- With Yahoo! Mail you can get a bigger mailbox -- choose a size that fits your needs -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030125/417105de/attachment.html From monica at sarai.net Sun Jan 26 13:20:21 2003 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 13:20:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Tales of the Night Fairies Message-ID: TALES OF THE NIGHT FAIRIES will have its first public screening at the INDIA HABITAT CENTRE (MAIN AUDITORIUM) at 7PM on Tuesday, January 28, 2003. The film is 74 mins long. Synopsis: Five sexworkers - four women and one man - along with the filmmaker/narrator embark on a journey of storytelling. The stories explore the power of collective organizing and resistance. The journey through the labyrinthine inner cities of Calcutta is both personal and musical. Script & Direction: Shohini Ghosh /Camera: Sabeena Gadihoke/ Editing: Shohini Ghosh & Shikha Sen / Sound: Sunder Prasad Singh -- Monica Narula Sarai:The New Media Initiative 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From dgw at MIT.EDU Sun Jan 26 13:21:54 2003 From: dgw at MIT.EDU (David Weininger) Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 13:21:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] book announcement--Lovink Message-ID: I thought readers of the Reader-List might be interested in this book. For more information please visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262122510 Uncanny Networks Dialogues with the Virtual Intelligentsia Geert Lovink For Lovink, interviews are imaginative texts that can help to create global, networked discourses not only among different professions but also among different cultures and social groups. Conducting interviews online, over a period of weeks or months, allows the participants to compose documents of depth and breadth, rather than simply snapshots of timely references. The interviews collected in this book are with artists, critics, and theorists who are intimately involved in building the content, interfaces, and architectures of new media. The topics discussed include digital aesthetics, sound art, navigating deep audio space, European media philosophy, the Internet in Eastern Europe, the mixing of old and new in India, critical media studies in the Asia-Pacific region, Japanese techno tribes, hybrid identities, the storage of social movements, theory of the virtual class, virtual and urban spaces, corporate takeover of the Internet, and the role of cyberspace in the rise of nongovernmental organizations. Geert Lovink is an independent media theorist and net critic. He is the founder of nettime mailing lists, a member of Adilkno, and a cofounder of the online community server Digital City. Interviewees Norbert Bolz, Paulina Borsook, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Kuan-Hsing Chen, Cãlin Dan, Mike Davis, Mark Dery, Kodwo Eshun, Susan George, Boris Groys, Frank Hartmann, Michael Heim, Dietmar Kamper, Zina Kaye, Tom Keenan, Arthur Kroker, Bruno Latour, Marita Liulia, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Peter Lunenfeld, Lev Manovich, Mongrel, Edi Muka, Jonathan Peizer, Saskia Sassen, Herbert Schiller, Gayatri Spivak, János Sugár, Ravi Sundaram, Toshiya Ueno, Tjebbe van Tijen, McKenzie Wark, Hartmut Winkler, Slavoj Zizek. "More than a mere collection of interviews, Uncanny Networks is a book of dialogues. ovink has as much knowledge of and experience with alternative media as any of his subjects. Rather than approach them as a journalist or outsider might, he engages them as equals, eliciting deep and thoughtful responses." --Manuel de Landa, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University 7 x 9, 392 pp., cloth, ISBN 0-262-12251-0 ______________________ David Weininger Associate Publicist The MIT Press 5 Cambridge Center, 4th Floor Cambridge, MA 02142 617 253 2079 617 253 1709 fax http://mitpress.mit.edu _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From manjupannu at rediffmail.com Sun Jan 26 13:29:04 2003 From: manjupannu at rediffmail.com (manju singh bhati) Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 13:29:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] My experiences in the hospital Message-ID: POSTING 2 In the beginning, I wasted some days struggling to get access to hospitals and finding relevant wards. After getting past that hurdle, I found most of the women are not willing to talk. Even after a lot of cajoling they did not reveal even the most obvious details. I have decided to neither write nor record in front of them as these things make them more hesitant. It takes time to make friends with them and by the time they become friendly with me, they are discharged and do not show up the next day. I had to run after them to their homes, which is of no use. So I have changed the strategy again that I had changed a few times before also. Now I choose only few exclusive cases to follow for case study. Although I go to wards and sit and observe quietly, without missing the chance to chat and let them get discharged without following them to their homes as Shuddha suggested to me in the discussion which took place last week. Luckily, I have got two cases for further scrutiny. One is a 61 years old lady who got pregnant after 15 years of her menopause. She had come from a village to see her pregnant daughter. This woman had a complaint of swollen stomach. After investigations, the fact of her being pregnant shocked her and startled everyone. I had met her only once. This lady is so ashamed of her pregnancy that she does no want to spill the beans and hates to talk about it. But at the same time the case is so exclusive and interesting that I have decided to follow it even if it takes months to get to know everything. Second case is of a young lady who has post graduated in philosophy and has an inclination towards poetry. She is now in Meerut for couple of days. Right now my arena of research is Narender Mohan Hospital and Sanjivani Nursing Home. Narender Mohan Hospital is one of the biggest private hospitals of Ghaziabad district, enjoying reputation like a government hospital. Notorious for bribes taken by every other worker, this hospital is a relief for serious cases. Here patients come from remote villages, and suburbs of western U.P. Sanjivani Nurshng Home is in Sahibabad and attracts urban pregnant women. Here conventional delivery is still the method which includes enhancement of labour by drugs and small cut called episiotomy at vaginal outlet at the time of birth to facilitate delivery. But here women feel free to ask the doctor for few more stiches, which makes the vagina tight and can help them to lead happy sexual life after pregnancy. From ravis at sarai.net Sun Jan 26 16:31:55 2003 From: ravis at sarai.net (Ravi Sundaram) Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 16:31:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Network Surveillance in India Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.2.20030126162630.01fe8d20@mail.sarai.net> For many years journalism in India has kept away from privacy issues, telephone tapping is almost naturalised under the name of national security. Check out this piece by the Hindu's Sandip Dikshit, which is rare and probably the first of its kind in looking at these issues, within the context of the whole intra-mobile company war that has erupted recently. Ravi.S ------------------------------------ Time to ring in changes Sandeep Dikshit The Hindu 26thJjanuary 2003 AS PRIVATISATION gathers momentum in the telecom sector, there are growing doubts over several key issues relating to the rights of consumers. Despite assertions by successive Governments regarding introduction of new age legislation and the setting up of an organisation to referee over telecom companies, we do not appear to have travelled very far towards ensuring privacy and a fair deal for telecom subscribers. Recent incidents of invasion of privacy and numerous complaints from subscribers about the service point to the need for a debate on the working of private phone companies. Rarely addressed by political parties and civil society, the two subjects have to be brought into the public domain as soon as possible for restitution. As more and more people turn to higher technology-based phones of all varieties due to falling rates, privacy and grievance redress will become more and more contentious. Grievance redress, especially when more and more individuals opt for corporate-operated phone services, is a major issue. But more emotive is the right to privacy. There is no definite indication that privacy is being respected as per the Supreme Court's guidelines issued in 1996. As India's cream shifts to cellular phones as the preferred mode of communication, more and more instances come to light of not just security agencies but even cellular company employees selling telephone records of rival companies for a consideration or just listening in on conversations. In one celebrated case, that is still talked about in hushed tones because of the people involved, a top notch political fixer persuaded his friend, who owned a cellular company, to furnish him with transcripts of the conversations his female acquaintance had with a top IT company executive. The woman came to know of the snooping and it required the combined efforts of several worthies to douse the fires. Reliable sources also affirm that the recent attempt to overthrow the BSP-BJP coalition Government in Uttar Pradesh was incapacitated because of `informal' cell phone tapping. The phone records of a hotelier-turned-politician, who was among those financing the rebels, were turned over to politicians interested in keeping Mayawati in power. From then on it was not too difficult to choke the flow of funds. In due course, the scandal and the revolt were forgotten. But there have been occasions when the issue of privacy while using cellular phones has threatened to burst into the public domain. The first time, when the late South African cricket captain, Hansie Cronje's cellular phone was tapped and later when a cellular phone company allegedly gave the police cell phone records of a person who claimed that the Delhi police had in cold blood gunned down two unarmed persons in the basement of Ansal Plaza. On the basis of the records of the cell phone which also gave away its carrier's movements, the police claimed that the alleged eyewitness was not at the site of the encounter with the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists. On both occasions, statist and right-wing mentality prevailed over the voices of dissent raised by civil rights activists. Since the police were proved right in the Cronje case, the merit of tapping the phone was not investigated further. In the shoot-out case too, perhaps the whistle-blower could not stand the might of the state. He did serve notice to the cellular company accusing it of breaching his right to privacy but little was heard after that. Had the person persisted with his query "under what authority of law has your company divulged the private information and details of the mobile phone?" who knows, the lid may have been blown of a shadowy practice that appears to be increasingly used by some companies. Against these examples, security agencies can cite several instances to prove that tapping of cellular phones has yielded rich dividends in the form of nabbing elusive criminals. But that is hardly of comfort to citizens who suspect that their right to privacy may be getting violated, not just in the national interest but by other vested interests. To set the record straight, many companies have carried forward their culture of corporate uprightness to cellular operations as well. But there are several others who, to put it mildly, would never qualify for a corporate uprightness award. And it is they who are cause for concern because India's cream relies predominantly on mobile phones for honing business strategies, striking political alliances or simply indulging in intimate conversation. The need to bring the issue under the public spotlight has become more pressing because global trends show that fixed-line phones will be replaced in urban areas by mobile phones and India may be no exception to the trend. But being privately owned, cell companies are more vulnerable to the dictates of security agencies which have extracted 180 lines from each of them for tapping. The Supreme Court, while upholding tapping, had set out the guidelines in 1996 when cell phones were just making their appearance. With more subscribers forecast to graduate to cell phones, this would be an appropriate time to not only bring new technology into the ambit of judicial guidelines but also examine whether previous ones were effective. According to Rajeev Dhavan, lawyer, "the system of review set up by the Supreme Court enabling those who authorise taps to review their own orders with a conclave of colleagues is arbitrary, secretive, shabby and an insult to the protection of privacy and civil liberties. There was a time when many who rule the country today were convinced that India's apparatus of phone tapping was invidious. But now they are in-charge of this form of state surveillance." As compared to fixed phones, tapping of cellular phones can lead to greater invasion of privacy. Cellular phone company computers can record millions of movements going back to more than a year and therefore the location of a user at any given time or date can be traced to within a few hundred meters of the exact spot. Security agencies are understood to be actively making what are called "plotter's charts" in their terminology. The cell phone of a person visiting the national capital can be locked in their beams by sleuths and even if he does not discuss confidential issues, the signals can track his movements. National security was an overriding concern that forced previous victims of phone tapping including Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani to go slow on installing safety mechanisms when they took over the reins of the Government. However, sophistication in tapping will ensure that in spite of procedures to protect the average citizen from indiscriminate tapping, intelligence agencies can carry on with tapping that would help them avert threats from anti-national elements. For instance, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is known to possess computers that can catch a key word in a conversation and then record the entire conversation. The computer is fed with the name of the wanted person and any conversation where that person's name is used will be recorded. The Supreme Court in its 1996 review did not suggest periodic reviews or independent panels that could look into the malaise of indiscriminate tapping. With tens of thousands of circuits having already been allocated to intelligence agencies, and more to be provided by new phone companies entering the market, this could be the right time to prevent India from becoming an eavesdroppers' paradise. The review must also ensure that owners and employees of cellular companies are denied the pleasure of delving in their backyards for details of persons called by a particular subscriber. There is an urgent need to shore up public confidence by prescribing guidelines because several of the entrants are known to have taken questionable short-cuts on their way to becoming mega corporations. As is the case with tapping, the issue of a satisfactory subscriber grievance redress machinery has also not been the subject of public discourse. Even trenchant critics of liberalisation of telecom services and parliamentary committees have not applied themselves to suggesting a suitable framework. Though state-run companies have earned the reputation of being sluggish, the years of liberalisation have seen a remarkable improvement in their complaints machinery. The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and, to a lesser extent, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited have used computerisation to ensure that the fault reporting system became more streamlined. Even otherwise, the complaints mechanism of these companies has matured over time and is much broader since the two companies are answerable to Parliament. But that is not the case with private firms. The increase in complaints against billing is directly proportionate to the rise in the customer base. A little while ago, consumers were bewildered by the large number of tariff packages offered by the companies but that was set right by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). However, consumers still complain about unexplained charges for roaming. The TRAI and greater competition do keep the companies alert. However, grievance redress panels on a countrywide basis are required. Instead of opting for bureaucrats and judicial authorities, easily accessible consumer forums are required. The entry of new companies should serve to accelerate the thought process in this regard because many of them have asked subscribers to pay with post-dated cheques. As a result there are bound to be more disputes. The TRAI has covered some ground in this matter. Due to budgetary constraints it has largely opted for indirect monitoring of broad customer satisfaction criteria such as network performance from the point of view of call success rate, service access delays, call drop rate and percentage of connections with good voice quality. It is expected that periodic rating of companies on the basis of this criteria will force them to provide efficient service. The TRAI itself admits that this is not a complete exercise since the vital component of customer feedback is missing. It has proposed empanelling independent agencies that could carry out surveys of customers of each company. But even this is incomplete since individual subscribers are left unattended. Due to extra costs involved, private companies are bound to resist setting up easily accessible complaints cells on the lines of those being run by BSNL and MTNL all over the country. A public debate on enabling a subscriber with even the smallest compliant to get a hearing is of vital importance. A common refrain is of existing help line numbers of cellular companies turning hostile when subscribers report unexplained debiting from cash cards or seek urgent refund of security deposits. The TRAI has addressed itself to this aspect also. It has prescribed strict billing complaint resolution norms such as asking cell companies to resolve 99 per cent of all complaints within four weeks and cent per cent within a year. The billing complaints too must be less than 2 per 1,000 bills issued. But as is the case with network management criteria, the TRAI would have to process a mass of data to arrive at national or operator-specific figures. The individual subscriber has been left in the cold. There is an urgent need to correct this situation especially when there are one crore cellular subscribers already and, if experts are to be believed, the number will double by next year. From yazadjal at vsnl.net Mon Jan 27 17:54:58 2003 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 17:54:58 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Response to Article on Privatization References: Message-ID: <000201c2c600$19b3ab20$cd0641db@vsnl.net.in> Dear Ravi Your email is full of "buzz words" but I can't discern what you want to say. A few quick comments. > It is not at all detrimental to dispatch materials for better of > dissemination of knowledge and information but on must also think of the > consequences that it produces. Sure. And what are these consequences? > one needs to analyze is that what > are the larger bearings of such projects and why do they emerge? > The other option is to critically evaluate the causes andconsequences > of such works and then reflect upon it. tell us your analysis, do the critical evaluation, let us know your reflections.... > When we talk of education we get concerned with a variety of objects - the > aim of education (literacy of eudcation), information versus knowledge > debate, pedagogical concerns, child -community interface etc. This is not > happening here. The article talks about _one_ aspect of primary education. Do you actually expect every article to talk about all issues on a particular topic? > And I fear that it adds another piece to the current trend > of mustering support for privatization and withdrawal of State (to the whims > and fancies of Capital). It does state that private education may be better than state provided education. If you disagree, critique it. Let us know why. And what are the whims and fancies of capital? I thought making profit was the only objective ;-) > Effeciency and accountability is one thing and corporatization of work place > and services is another, which has much wider and immediate ramifications > for the masses and we the internet using at least middle segment experience > quite late and perhaps such thoughts emerge out of that background as well. what are the ramifications? Sorry, but your response is full of fancy terms. Reminds me of Shakespeare who talked about "Sound and fury, signifying ...." I welcome criticism, but substance please, and leave the style for the Eng Lit class. -yazad From rummanhameed at yahoo.com Mon Jan 27 15:28:15 2003 From: rummanhameed at yahoo.com (Rumman Hameed) Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 01:58:15 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] 2nd posting: An Exploration of Connected Spaces Message-ID: <20030127095815.31166.qmail@web21103.mail.yahoo.com> Over the past month, I travelled through Old Delhi and identified the mohallas, galis and the families, which I will be studying over the next few months. I have short-listed Ahata Kaley Sahab, Kucha Rehman, Gali Shaban and Gali Nagina Wali in mohalla Rodgaran, Bazaar Lal Kuan, Baara Hindu Rao, Ahata Kidara, Kucha Pati Ram and Lal Darwaza in Sita Ram Bazaar and Gali Chandi Wali in Turkman Gate. The families I have chosen comprise a fairly good mix of those who have been living in Delhi for approximately a hundred years as well as those who have migrated from other North Indian cities or from Pakistan during or soon after Partition. A few of these families have women who have come from Pakistan through marriage over the past 15-30 years. This would help in understanding the insider-outsider phenomenon in Old Delhi. My study is located at two levels: streets (the public domain) and homes (the private domain) woven together through architecture. However, there is a sharp distinction between the two. I am exploring primarily the unique forms of communication and different levels of interactions among these structures. My focus is on the vertical as well as horizontal interactions within a mohalla and also between mohallas. I have approached the private domain first. The reason behind this is that in Old Delhi, people do not approve of women spending time/ hanging out in streets and getting friendly or even talking with strange men. In case I had chosen to study the public domain first, access inside the homes would have become impossible. Therefore, I have been spending a lot of time with women in their houses, mostly in and around their kitchens, as they spend most part of the day in kitchen. Till now I have been mainly observing and trying to be as invisible as possible. I help out in the household chores if required so that I am not looked upon as an inconvenience/ obstruction/ disturbance in their work. At the same time, I also try to assure them, through my actions, that the information or knowledge that i gain about their family would not be misused. It is interesting to note that women, while cooking a meal for the family, take care not only of the dinner/ lunch time in their own homes but also about the time their neighbours have their dinner/ lunch. There is a tradition of sharing food in Old Delhi, whether a special delicacy like 'korma' or ordinary like 'dal'. An extra effort is made to finish cooking and send it to the neighbours before their mealtime so that they can eat on time. Often a word is passed to the neighbours not to cook too much because they would be sending something for lunch. At other times, the 'smell' of food (for houses that are right across the gali or just a floor up) 'tells' them to wait for that food, in case they have not been informed, because they 'know' it would be sent surely. This custom of sharing food with the neighbours also makes me think about what 'neighbour' actually means and what are the boundaries of a 'neighbourhood'; is it a physical/ geographical space or an emotional/ mental state? I have noticed a family in Baara Hindu Rao spending a whole night in cooking 'nahari' in a big 'degh' (a large spherical pot used for cooking, made of tin plated copper) sharing it with a family in Gali Qasimjan or Rodgaran, which are at least 30 minutes away by a cycle-rickshaw! The same is shared not only within Old Delhi but also with the families, their neighbours, who have shifted to other areas in New Delhi such as Vasant Vihar or Okhla. I intend to take the same work forward for most part of the next month before moving on to the streets. I must mention that going to people's houses and seeking their permission to spend time in their houses was initially not a very pleasant experience. Some refused politely while others were outright rude. Many of those who allowed me in their personal space, took me as a baby-sitter to take care of their howling babies. A few were more interested in my family background and my own culinary expertise as they looked at me as a prospective daughter-in-law! Rumman --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030127/039cb528/attachment.html From lehar_hind at yahoo.com Mon Jan 27 23:47:03 2003 From: lehar_hind at yahoo.com (Lehar ..) Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 10:17:03 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Indian media manufacturing consent on Iraq invasion?? Message-ID: <20030127181703.32304.qmail@web20907.mail.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, ONe wonders why,not only is there any major coverage of the global and millions strong anti-war protests in the India media (the country of freedom and Satyagraha- which gave non violent protest to the world.), but none ofthe channels seemed to carry, this basic web news.(see below) Aaj Tak showed Iraqis ready to die - ( not much hope left for them anyway)...and Turks/Japs..second flash..no comments.. a lil bit of LA- do hazzar log aaye(!!) and 15 secs of ed kennedy's speech.ONe line of old english men protesting in rain..BAck to Iraqis..time out. Thats it. No mention ofthe global opinion, no mention of the half a million in the US..DC Vietnam like level- no mention of the sheer numbers..scale.from London to Seoul.. They blanked the news anyway- and when they did show it, it seemed like some lunatic fringe level thing.like 'some pagal log are protesting the Justified plan of MR. George Bush to attack the illegal arms making Iraqis.'( clothing it in jargon about how many tanks(!!) Saddam has.) What do you think an India viewer in the hindi beltis gonna make of it??!! HOw much consent can they manufacture? Or is the India media trying to give a religious colour to this humanitarian crises..?? if so, then it is a sad day for the country which supported struggles of oppressed peoples from the Khilafat movement to the pan-African freedom movements. Please do express your views..in the print and elctronic media.( feedback at ndtv.com, feedback at hindustantimes.com).. (For more ids etc, please do let us know.) Peace ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - 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 aiindex at mnet.fr Tue Jan 28 06:12:34 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 01:42:34 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] A STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE Message-ID: [This was run as an ad in New York Times,27 January 2003, pages 16 & 17] A STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE Not In Our Name Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression. The signers of this statement call on the people of the U.S. to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world. We believe that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers. We believe that all persons detained or prosecuted by the United States government should have the same rights of due process. We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are always contested and must be fought for. We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do -- we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world. We too watched with shock the horrific events of September 11, 2001. We too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible scenes of carnage -- even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation ago, Vietnam. We too joined the anguished questioning of millions of Americans who asked why such a thing could happen. But the mourning had barely begun, when the highest leaders of the land unleashed a spirit of revenge. They put out a simplistic script of “good vs. evil” that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media. They told us that asking why these terrible events had happened verged on treason. There was to be no debate. There were by definition no valid political or moral questions. The only possible answer was to be war abroad and repression at home. In our name, the Bush administration, with near unanimity from Congress, not only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated to itself and its allies the right to rain down military force anywhere and anytime. The brutal repercussions have been felt from the Philippines to Palestine, where Israeli tanks and bulldozers have left a terrible trail of death and destruction. The government now openly prepares to wage all-out war on Iraq -- a country which has no connection to the horror of September 11. What kind of world will this become if the U.S. government has a blank check to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants? In our name, within the U.S., the government has created two classes of people: those to whom the basic rights of the U.S. legal system are at least promised, and those who now seem to have no rights at all. The government rounded up over 1,000 immigrants and detained them in secret and indefinitely. Hundreds have been deported and hundreds of others still languish today in prison. This smacks of the infamous concentration camps for Japanese-Americans in World War 2. For the first time in decades, immigration procedures single out certain nationalities for unequal treatment. In our name, the government has brought down a pall of repression over society. The President’s spokesperson warns people to “watch what they say.” Dissident artists, intellectuals, and professors find their views distorted, attacked, and suppressed. The so-called Patriot Act -- along with a host of similar measures on the state level -- gives police sweeping new powers of search and seizure, supervised if at all by secret proceedings before secret courts. In our name, the executive has steadily usurped the roles and functions of the other branches of government. Military tribunals with lax rules of evidence and no right to appeal to the regular courts are put in place by executive order. Groups are declared “terrorist” at the stroke of a presidential pen. We must take the highest officers of the land seriously when they talk of a war that will last a generation and when they speak of a new domestic order. We are confronting a new openly imperial policy towards the world and a domestic policy that manufactures and manipulates fear to curtail rights. There is a deadly trajectory to the events of the past months that must be seen for what it is and resisted. Too many times in history people have waited until it was too late to resist. President Bush has declared: “you’re either with us or against us.” Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say NOT IN OUR NAME. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our solidarity in word and deed. We who sign this statement call on all Americans to join together to rise to this challenge. We applaud and support the questioning and protest now going on, even as we recognize the need for much, much more to actually stop this juggernaut. We draw inspiration from the Israeli reservists who, at great personal risk, declare “there IS a limit” and refuse to serve in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. We also draw on the many examples of resistance and conscience from the past of the United States: from those who fought slavery with rebellions and the underground railroad, to those who defied the Vietnam war by refusing orders, resisting the draft, and standing in solidarity with resisters. Let us not allow the watching world today to despair of our silence and our failure to act. Instead, let the world hear our pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and repression and rally others to do everything possible to stop it. The over 40,000 signers include... 53 Maryknoll priests and brothers James Abourezk As`ad AbuKhalil, Professor, Cal State Univ, Stanislaus Dr. Patch Adams Michael Albert Jace Alexander Robert Altman Aris Anagnos Laurie Anderson John Ashbery, poet Edward Asner, actor Jon Robin Baitz Russell Banks, writer John Perry Barlow, co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation Rosalyn Baxandall, historian Joel Beinen Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project Jessica Blank, actor/playwright William Blum, author Theresa & Blase Bonpane, Office of the Americas Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ Oscar Brown, Jr. Judith Bulter Leslie Cagan, chair, Interim Pacifica Foundation Board Kisha Imani Cameron, producer Henry Chalfant, author/filmmaker Kathleen Chalfant Bell Chevigny, writer Paul Chevigny, professor of law, NYU Noam Chomsky Ramsey Clark Ben Cohen, cofounder, Ben and Jerry's David Cole, professor of law, Georgetown University Robbie Conal Stephanie Coontz, historian, Evergreen State College Paula Cooper Kia Corthron, playwright Robert Creeley Kimberly Crenshaw, professor of law, Columbia and UCLA Culture Clash Joan Cusack John Cusack Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange Barbara Dane Rev. Herbert Daughtry Angela Davis Ossie Davis Zack de la Rocha Mos Def Ani Di Franco Diane DiPrima Mark Di Suvero Julie Dorf, International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission Carol Downer, board of directors, Chico (CA) Feminist Women's Health Center Roma Downey Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, professor, California State University, Hayward Bill Dyson, state representative, Connecticut Michael Eric Dyson Steve Earle, singer/songwriter Barbara Ehrenreich Deborah Eisenberg, writer Hector Elizondo Daniel Ellsberg Brian Eno Eve Ensler Leo Estrada, UCLA professor, Urban Planning Nina Felshin, author of But Is It Art? The Spirit of Art as Activism Frances D. Fergusson, president, Vassar College Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights Bookstore Laura Flanders, radio host and journalist Jane Fonda Richard Foreman Thomas C. Fox, publisher, National Catholic Reporter Elizabeth Frank Michael Franti, SpearHead Glen E. Friedman Bill Frisell Terry Gilliam, film director Milton Glaser Charles Glass, journalist Jeremy Matthew Glick, co-editor of Another World Is Possible Corey Glover Danny Glover Danny Goldberg Leon Golub, artist Juan Gómez Quiñones, historian, UCLA Vivian Gornick Jorie Graham André Gregory John Guare, playwright Allan Gurganus Jessica Hagedorn Sondra Hale, professor, anthropology and women's studies, UCLA Suheir Hammad, writer Nathalie Handal, poet and playwright Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) Michael Hardt, author of Empire Christine B. Harrington, Professor of Politics, NYU David Harvey, distinguished professor of anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center Stanley Hauerwas, theologian Tom Hayden Geoffrey Hendricks Edward S. Herman, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Susannah Heschel, professor, Dartmouth College Fred Hirsch, vice president, Plumbers and Fitters Local 393 bell hooks Doug Ireland, contributing editor, In These Times Rakaa Iriscience, hip hop artist Abdeen Jabara, attorney, past president, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Rev. Jesse Jackson Mumia Abu-Jamal Fredric Jameson, chair, literature program, Duke University Harold B. Jamison, major (ret.), USAF Jim Jarmusch Erik Jensen, actor/playwright Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback Bill T. Jones Casey Kasem Evelyn Fox Keller, history of science, MIT Robin D.G. Kelly, history and Africana studies, NYU Martin Luther King III, president, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Barbara Kingsolver Arthur Kinoy, board co-chair, Center for Constitutional Rights Sally Kirkland C. Clark Kissinger, Refuse & Resist! Yuri Kochiyama, activist Annisette & Thomas Koppel, singers/composers Barbara Kopple David Korten, author Ron Kovic Barbara Kruger Tony Kushner James Lafferty, executive director, National Lawyers Guild/L.A. Ray Laforest, Haiti Support Network Beth K. Lamont, Corliss-Lamont.org Jesse Lemisch, professor of history emeritus, John Jay College of Justice, CUNY Harriet Lerner Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, TIKKUN magazine Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead Richard Lewontin, Professor Emeritus of Biology, Harvard Lucy R. Lippard James Longley, Filmmaker Barbara Lubin, Middle East Childrens Alliance Janet L. Abu-Lughod Staughton Lynd Arturo Madrid, professor of humanities, Trinity University Dave Marsh Rabbi Robert Marx Rep. Jim McDermott Aaron McGruder Rep. Cynthia McKinney W.S. Merwin Susan Minot Anuradha Mittal, co-director, Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First Malaquias Montoya, visual artist Tom Morello Robin Morgan Viggo Mortensen Minister Benjamín Muhammed, Hip-Hop Summit Action Network Jill Nelson Robert Nichols, writer Linda Nochlin Kate Noonan Claes Oldenburg Pauline Oliveros Yoko Ono Rev. E. Randall Osburn, exec. v.p., Southern Christian Leadership Conference Ozomatli Grace Paley Michael Parenti Jeremy Pikser, screenwriter Frances Fox Piven, Graduate Center of the City University of New York Katha Pollitt James Stewart Polshek Harold Prince Jerry Quickley, poet John T. Racanelli, Presiding Justice (Ret), California Court of Appeal Bonnie Raitt Margaret Randall Marcus Raskin Michael Ratner, president, Center for Constitutional Rights Amy Ray, Indigo Girls Rev. George Regas, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace Adrienne Rich David Riker, filmmaker Boots Riley, hip hop artist, The Coup Kate Robin James Rosenquist Judith Rossner Matthew Rothschild Ed Sadlowski Edward Said Angelica Salas, director, Campaign for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles Luc Sante Susan Sarandon Saskia Sassen, professor, University of Chicago John Sayles Jonathan Schell, author and fellow of the Nation Institute Carolee Schneemann, artist Ralph Schoenman & Mya Shone, Council on Human Needs Juliet Schor, director of women’s studies, Harvard Annabella Sciorra Pete and Toshi Seeger Mark Selden, historian Peter A. Serkin Frank Serpico Richard Serra James Schamus Rev. Al Sharpton Wallace Shawn, playwright & actor Martin Sheen Ron Shelton, filmmaker Alex Shoumatoff Russell Simmons John J. Simon, writer, editor Kevin Smith Kiki Smith, artist Jack Steinberger, Nobel Laureate Michael Steven Smith, National Lawyers Guild/NY Norman Solomon, syndicated columnist and author Scott Spenser Nancy Spero, artist Art Spiegelman Starhawk Bob Stein, publisher Jack Steinberger, Nobel Laureate Gloria Steinem Oliver Stone Mark Strand William & Rose Styron Peter Syben, major, US Army, retired Ron Takaki, ethnic studies, Berkeley Jonathan Tasini, president, National Writers Union, NYC Michael Taussig, anthropology, Columbia Tony Taccone, director Studs Terkel Marisa Tomei Marcia Tucker, founding director emerita, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY Lief Utne Nina Utne Kinan Valdez, El Teatro Campesino Coosje van Bruggen Gore Vidal Anton Vodvarka, Lt., FDNY (ret.) Kurt Vonnegut Alice Walker Rebecca Walker Naomi Wallace, playwright Immanuel Wallerstein, sociologist, Yale University Rev. George Webber, president emeritus, NY Theological Seminary Leonard Weinglass, attorney Cornel West Haskell Wexler John Edgar Wideman Cora Weiss C.K. Williams Saul Williams, spoken word artist S. Brian Willson, activist/writer Jeffrey Wright, actor Mary A. Zimmerman Howard Zinn, historian Organizations for identification only (partial list as of early December) For more complete listing of signers, or to add your name to the statement, see: http://www.nion.us/NION.HTM From dfontaine at fondation-langlois.org Tue Jan 28 00:47:07 2003 From: dfontaine at fondation-langlois.org (Dominique Fontaine) Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 14:17:07 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Press Release Message-ID: Pour la version française: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/f/informations/nouvelles/index.html [ Apologies for cross-posting / veuillez excuser les envois multiples ] **************************************************************************** *** ** Press Release ** THE DANIEL LANGLOIS FOUNDATION CREATES A NEW PROGRAM: STRATEGIC GRANTS FOR ORGANIZATIONS Montreal, January 27, 2003 - The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology is proud to announce the creation of the Strategic Grants Program, a new undertaking to assist organizations. This program replaces the Exhibition, Distribution and Performance Program for Organizations and the Program for Organizations from Emerging Regions, two Foundation initiatives first set up in 1998 that nurtured many important projects worldwide. The Foundation reviewed the projects it had received and selected during the four years these two programs were running so as to answer a basic question for any private foundation: How can we improve our activities and assistance while favouring developments with a substantial and lasting impact? Our reflection and review eventually gave rise to our STRATEGIC GRANTS PROGRAM FOR ORGANIZATIONS. Foundation president Daniel Langlois says "the new program is designed to improve and better target our support for organizations so we can fulfill our mandate more effectively and meet the goals we've set." The Foundation has a great degree of flexibility and substantial, though limited, resources to address important concerns and issues under its *thematic focus*. To make the best use of its flexibility, the Foundation generally believes that it should address significant problems over a limited period of years rather than provide indefinite support. In funding research, the program gives priority to work with significant implications for effecting change and development in the practice of artists and others in a milieu or community. To nurture practical interventions, the program gives priority to projects that are likely to yield lasting improvements after a period of Foundation support. The Foundation defines the term *strategic* as projects, activities and programs that have a demonstrated potential to better position an organization to fulfill its mandate and to enhance its capacity to act on issues and concerns either in its milieu or community or in the Foundation's fields of interest. THE PROGRAM'S THEMATIC FOCUS *Art, Science and Technology* The Foundation is interested in contemporary artistic practices that use digital technologies to express aesthetic and critical forms of discourse. The Foundation also encourages interdisciplinary research and, in general, sustains the development of projects calling for co-operation between people from a variety of fields, such as artists, scientists, technologists and engineers. It also renders public the results of research supported by its programs. *Emerging Region* The Foundation encourages projects from organizations active in its priority regions outside Europe and North America. In general, the Foundation supports projects allowing artists, scientists or scholars who are not European or North American to develop their skills and expertise locally in their region. The aim is to promote the integration of knowledge and practices specific to different cultures. The Foundation may also support research projects that combine the traditional artistic practices of certain cultures with advanced technology or that explore methods and processes based on the unique aesthetic principles of certain cultures. *For 2003, the Foundation is giving priority to Western Africa and South America.* *Environment* The Foundation is interested in artistic projects that heighten public awareness about ecological and environmental issues. Projects must be based on ecological concepts relevant to the notion of interdependent dynamic systems. They must present an original synthesis between art, science and technology, and ecological and environmental action. They must address ecological and environmental problems and present solutions that favour the public's participation. *Digital Heritage* Preserving new media, or more accurately digital media, is a new challenge for those hoping to keep today's digital "artifacts" alive to educate and enlighten future generations. The Foundation is therefore greatly interested in digital preservation, the preservation of digital artworks, and all related research. Projects must be of direct interest and use within the programs, activities and objectives of the Foundation's Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D). For more details on the CR+D, consult: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/CRD/index.html *Options for Financial Support* The new program provides several options for financial support. Like the support offered in the past, the Strategic Grants Program for Organizations favours funding used to launch or develop programs, start up organizations, or assist programs for visiting professors. Funding may also be used to acquire propriety, buildings, land or equipment provided the project is backed by a solid strategic plan and has potential for fostering an organization's development and autonomy. The program places great importance on an organization's ongoing development. *Deadline* Our next deadline for sending in proposals is June 30, 2003. We strongly suggest you consult our program guide to find out about program details, application procedures, evaluation criteria and procedures, and response time. To refer to these guidelines on-line, visit: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/programmes/program_org.html - 30 - SOURCE: Jean Gagnon; Director of Program Dominique Fontaine; Program Officer The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology Phone : (514) 987-7177, Fax : (514) 987-7492 email : info at fondation-langlois.org. Internet: http://www.fondation-langlois.org **************************************************************************** *** We've sent you this press release to keep you abreast of activities at the Daniel Langlois Foundation. If you wish to be taken off our mailing list, simply reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject line. Thank you. **************************************************************************** *** From lonequest_2k at yahoo.com Tue Jan 28 14:31:13 2003 From: lonequest_2k at yahoo.com (Rahaab Allana) Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 01:01:13 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Of Urban localities and Bazzar(s) photography Message-ID: <20030128090113.9791.qmail@web40909.mail.yahoo.com> Dear all, I have tried to keep the following...short and clear. Please feel free to remark and suggest. In the interim period I have been trying to analyze the growth of Bazaars in India, mainly north India from the 18th Century. It appears that the movement of people in the north was conditioned by politics ofcourse, as well as the mobility acquired by religious institutions. For instance, in the 19th Century, donations made to Hindu priests was considered good for business, and temples, whether Shaivite or Vaishnavite, considered as hub centres for commercial enterprises. Once Delhi became a buffer state, the trade within it increased leading to the migration of craftsman and traders from the North West. Even farmers started to settle (Bhattis) on the periferies of Delhi, that is the Haryana region. Due to the dwindling control exercised by the Mughal State and the proliferation of Qusbah's lets say, there was piracy (of handicrafts mainly) as well as a rise in the number of illegal ganjs (small market localities). Since profits and capital were not being effectively injected into the economy, that is, to promote modes of production, the rising taxation created a problem for those within the state, leading to a number of revolts in bazaars, I think 18 in all from around 1820-1857. The 1840's is also the time at which photography was introduced in India, as an art form and mode of reportage. The practise of photography, first by, the English who could afford it and later, Indian kings and communities, creates an interesting narrative of the development of the city (Delhi) which soon became the capital in 1911. Apart from those photos that show us views of Delhi, there are images that link photography to art history, such as hand tinting and cut-and-paste work (against false backgrounds) that can be related to dated cinematic methods. Though my project deals with the contemporary form and functions of Bazaars laced with the practise of photography within them, I think a clear reading of transformations (structural and stylistic) is needed in order to see, how habits (even the idea of pilgrimage) and tastes are changing as well as what they might lead to in the future. I look forward to responses. Rahaab. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From sanjayb at hotpop.com Tue Jan 28 15:56:07 2003 From: sanjayb at hotpop.com (Sanjay Bhangar) Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 15:56:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] What Really Happened and other stuffs (?) Message-ID: <002601c2c6b7$ac6d6340$870e0a0a@IDLI> heya, Its always a strange moment ending your period of lurking on a list, and I tend to always have to deal with a sense of apprehension, but what the hell, the time has come, and this is one of the better lists... To reply to a small posting mentioning the site www.whatreallyhappened.com - I must admit, I'm an addict to this site and some sites like this - the site has been running for around 9 years, and I think pre-Sept. 11th dealt with volumes of information on the standard milleu of conspiracy theory, though the stuff in there was extremely interesting - after Sept. 11th, its just become a beauty - the guy updates the site every day (or twice a day) with 15-20 links to articles from all over the web (maintream to alternative to conspiracy) - he does over-emphasize and sometimes jumps the gun perhaps on the ever-controversial topic of Israel, Jewish Control, bla bla, but if theres a site thats bloody well researched, categorizes, updated, etc. its this - if, like me, you guys have daily surf cycles, add this site to it NOW - and especially NOW, it has perhaps the most timely news about the war on Iraq and protests against it... Since I'm on the topic of daily surf cycles and such-like, and rather enjoying my decision to quit lurking... www.unknownnews.net - similar to whatreallyhappened in that it updates frequently, and links to articles from all over the web - has an interesting discussion board, and tends to be a lot more "fun" than other alternative sites with lots of links to quirky/strange sites and news articles - esp. check out the mystery links section, sometimes an insight to the truly ridiculous underbelly of the internet... www.gnn.tv - Guerrila News Network - just extremely extremely sweet if you have a nice fast internet connection and can watch some of their fabulous movie (?) clips - reelly, they are a MUST see. some other random stuff: www.unansweredquestions.org - perhaps the nicest organization of unanswered questions regarding Sept. 11th, should any of you'll be into things like this : ), formed by a wide citizens coalition, including some families of victims and such-like.. www.whitehouse.org - one of the best parody sites in existence, i think, you must go here - i'd like to define this as "tactical media" tho I dont know wether it disrespects them more or the term "tactical media" - do check out the "War on Masturbation", hell, if we're gonna get blown up, it might as well happen while we're laughing our asses off. www.crimethinc.com - i must inject little anarchist manifestoes into all emails that I send. absolutely fabulous writings up here, as well as tips on vandalism and other forms of "tactical media". And my other little duty thing is trying to get people to read this particular article which I tend to like, its called "Your Politics Are Boring As Fuck" - http://www.crimethinc.com/library/yourpoli.html ooo almost forgot - www.iraqjournal.org - regular reports and info coming out of independent journalists in Iraq and not... great, great base for Iraq and will probably get more and more pertinent as we lead up to the war (?)(*1). www.humourisdead.com - another humour/parody site which sometimes has good and cutting political humour - working on the premise that reality has gotten more absurd than any parody - is a site thats worth looking at because again, it deals with politics extremely well, being strongly political and informative, while being absurdly humorous, all at the same time too... Since I've put in so many sites, a little self-advertising couldn't hurt - http://holychao.diaryland.com - just some crap i sometimes write, mostly bad poetry and teenage angst - eiww. oh, if theres anyone out there who'd be interested in trying to work on some crazy parody/humour site about Indian politics and hindutva and such-like, drop me a line, it might be fun, I do tend to get pretty absurd tho. take care people, Sanjay footnote: *1=A war is when two sides fight. Anything else is a massacre. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030128/f77afb36/attachment.html From sougata_28 at rediffmail.com Wed Jan 29 00:21:57 2003 From: sougata_28 at rediffmail.com (sougata bhattacharya) Date: 28 Jan 2003 18:51:57 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] aurora Message-ID: <20030128185157.25363.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030128/8b0d1ff9/attachment.pl From gchat at vsnl.net Wed Jan 29 07:17:03 2003 From: gchat at vsnl.net (Gayatri Chatterjee) Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 07:17:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fw: Instant Global Anthology: 100 poets enlisted in protest against war Message-ID: <000901c2c738$532ab900$bf5a41db@vsnl.net.in> ----- Original Message ----- From: Ethan Gilsdorf To: Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 8:23 PM Subject: Instant Global Anthology: 100 poets enlisted in protest against war > Dear friends: > > Please excuse this impersonal e-mail. > > I was asked to be part of a remarkable poetry > anthology that was edited by Todd Swift in only one > week and released yesterday to coincide with the > United Nations Blix report and U.S. President Bush's > State of the Union address. Called "100 Poets Against > the War", the anthology is available on the Internet, > where it can be downloaded for free. > > Already this anthology has received press in one of > Canada's major newspapers, the Globe and Mail, which > reported, "In one day, the book (available at > http://www.nthposition.com) spread like wildfire on > the Internet, with people around the world reading the > works of these poets, who congregated in one place to > beat the antiwar drum." > > I encourage you to go to www.nthposition.com to read > and download the PDF file, print it out, give it > away, share it with friends, host it on your own > websites, write about it, and send this message along > to your local and national papers in America, Canada, > the UK, Ireland, Australia and wherever else you may > be, so that the media will get a sense of how > exciting, inspiring and vital this ongoing story of > the power of poetic protest can be. > > I've included a copy of the news story and the press > release, below. > > Peaceful wishes, > > ethan > Paris Coordinator > United Poets Coalition /Poets for Peace > > > > > > From globeandmail.com, Tuesday, January 28, 2003 > > 100 poets enlisted in protest against war > Montreal-born Todd Swift has organized > an e-mail demonstration of antiwar verse > GAYLE MacDONALD > > > > One week ago, the Montreal-born poet Todd Swift was > sitting in a Paris > cafe, > reading The Guardian, fuming about the hard-line > American stance on war > with > Iraq. > > > He decided to organize a protest -- of powerful words > and haunting > images. > And yesterday, to coincide with the release of the UN > weapons > inspectors' > report, Swift e-mailed an anthology called 100 Poets > Against the War to > friends, family and far-flung acquaintances. > > > In one day, the book (available at > http://www.nthposition.com) spread > like > wildfire on the Internet, with people around the world > reading the > works of > these poets, who congregated in one place to beat the > antiwar drum. > > > "What I was hoping to do with this book is contribute > to a growing > sense > that we're not a minority in opposing this war any > more," said Swift, > 36, > who was reached by phone yesterday in the French > capital where he is > currently living with his fiancee. "In fact, we're > becoming a cultural > majority. > > > "Most Europeans are quite upset by what looks like an > aggressive, > unilateral > push by the United States for war, at a time when > everyone else wants > time > for further discussion and more reflection," added > Swift. > > > "I thought, let's move quickly and get something out > that inspires and > contains a powerful message. I wanted to let people > who are opposed to > the > war know they're not alone." > > > Canadian contributors include Robert Priest, bill > bissett, Maggie > Helwig, Di > Brandt and George Murray. > > > The Toronto-born Murray, who now lives in New York, > said the 100 Poets > Against the War initiative is important for what it > awakens and also > for the > values it attempts to instill. "So many people seem to > think that the > poet > or poetry doesn't have a useful place in society," > said Murray, who > contributed his poem The Field. > > > "But poetry is the oldest form of the evening news, > and it used to play > a > very critical role politically. First, by > disseminating information and > second, by commenting on it. > > > "This kind of effort, regardless of how valuable each > poem is on its > own, as > a collection represents a step forward for the kind of > activism that > poets > need to be part of, that the arts community needs to > be part of." > > > Murray says he just received an e-mail from the > American poet Sam > Hamill, > who is trying to organize a project similar to Swift's > 100 Poets > Against the > War. > > > Hamill was inspired by a letter he received from the > White House, which > requested his company at an afternoon reception and > symposium on > "Poetry and > the American Voice" on Feb. 12. In his e-mail, Hamill > told literary > colleagues: "When I picked up my mail and saw the > letter marked 'The > White > House,' I felt no joy. Rather I was overcome by a kind > of nausea." > > > In his note, Hamill said, "Only the day before I had > read a lengthy > report > on President Bush's proposed 'Shock and Awe' attack on > Iraq, calling > for > saturation bombing that would be like the firebombing > of Dresden or > Tokyo, > killing countless innocent civilians. > > > "I believe the only legitimate response to such a > morally bankrupt and > unconscionable idea is to reconstitute a Poets Against > the War movement > like > the one organized to speak out against the war in > Vietnam." (Hamill is > referring to the 1967 antiwar demonstration that > featured leading > literary > lights such as Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg and > Norman Mailer, who > attempted to "levitate" the Pentagon. Mailer later > celebrated the march > in > his work The Armies of the Night.) > > > Hamill then asked every poet "to speak up for the > conscience of our > country > and lend his or her name to our petitition against > this war," which he > plans > to present to first lady Laura Bush on Feb. 12, a day > he hopes will > become > dedicated to poetry against the war. > > > The field > > > > > > By George Murray > > > > > > The sky has been aged, is ancient enough now > > > to have lost its teeth, clamping one smooth gum > > > > > > down on the other in a wry horizon's bite. > > > That the violence we have witnessed > > > > > > was not random while the kindness was, > > > how insulting to our attempts at existentialism! > > > > > > Can we not even frighten ourselves > > > with philosophy anymore? That intent > > > > > > could replace randomness as our greatest fear > > > speaks of how far we've come; > > > > > > from there to here, from right to just left of > right, > > > from fallen to the lower part of down. The corn > > > > > > that stretches into the distance, > > > once an orderly army, has grown slack, wild, > > > > > > and hoary, each stalk standing at ease > > > instead of attention, and in a place of its > choosing, > > > > > > bearing those heavy yellow arms in a silence > > > similar to hushed anticipation. Listen to the > wind, > > > > > > the brewing rain, the field of fire, the flight > > > of distant machinery, the coded plan of attack. > > > > > > -- From 100 Poets Against the War, published on > http://www.nthposition.com > > Visit the globeandmail.com Web Centre, your > competitive edge for > breaking > news stories as they happen. > > News: http://www.globeandmail.com > Copyright 2003 | Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. > > ******************* > > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 27, 2003 > > RECORD-BREAKING GLOBAL COLLECTION OF POETRY TIMED TO > COINCIDE WITH BLIX UN REPORT > > In a remarkable show of global protest against a > possible war with Iraq, over 100 of the world's > leading, mid-career and emerging poets who work in the > English language, have gathered their work together in > a book of new peace poems. > > 100 Poets Against The War is perhaps the > fastest-assembled world anthology ever. Editor Todd > Swift, working with Val Stevenson of Nthposition.com, > announced the first call for poems last Monday, > January 20, 2003. Within hours, poems from dozens of > countries were pouring in. > > "Poets usually take weeks, if not months, to submit > poems for an anthology," says editor Swift, "so I was > astonished when they sent me poems within hours and > days of my call for new work." > > Over the week, Swift and Stevenson selected, edited > and arranged the collection of powerful poems, into a > format designed for maximum impact. The anthology of > poems will be presented on the website > http://www.nthposition.com as a PDF file. > > As all contributors have donated their poems, any and > all interested readers, writers and peace activists > are encouraged to download the file, share it, host it > on their own sites, and ultimately print it up and > make it into a book of poetry. > > "It would have been impossible to complete the project > within this time-scale without the Internet," added > Stevenson. "The poems come from all over the world, > they were commissioned and edited in Paris, page > lay-out was in London, and file conversion was done in > the States." > > "The plan is to make a book of poems against the > attack on Iraq instantly available to anyone who wants > it, anywhere in the world," says editor and poet Todd > Swift. > > The collection features many widely-published and > award-winning poets across a broad spectrum, from > performance to new formalism, and seeks to fuse a > political, inspiring message with well-written verse. > > It is available as of Monday, January 27, 2003 from > www.nthposition.com > > For further information, please contact the editor, > Todd Swift: > todd at toddswift.com > > or Val Stevenson, of nthposition.com: > val at nthposition.com > tel: (London) (0)20 7485 5002 > > > ===== > Ethan Gilsdorf, 9 rue Gossec, 75012 Paris France, tel: 33 (0)1 46 28 35 58 > --------- > "(I am) anxious, agitated, unable to enjoy anything that I have finished, and never content except when undertaking something new and doing three things at the same time."-- Alexander von Humboldt, scientist-explorer, "My Confessions," 1806 > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. > http://mailplus.yahoo.com From aiindex at mnet.fr Thu Jan 30 04:05:54 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 23:35:54 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Is the US Turning Into a Surveillance Society? Message-ID: Is the US Turning Into a Surveillance Society? ACLU Online 27 January 2003 The United States is at risk of turning into a full-fledged surveillance society. A new ACLU report, Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society provides an overview of the many ways in which we are drifting toward a surveillance society, and what we need to do about it. There are two simultaneous developments behind this trend: * The tremendous explosion in surveillance-enabling technologies, including databases, computers, cameras, sensors, wireless networks, implantable microchips, GPS, and biometrics. The fact is, Orwell's vision of "Big Brother"is now, for the first time, technologically possible. * Even as this technological surveillance monster grows in our midst, we are weaking the chains that keep it from trampling our privacy ñ loosening regulations on government surveillance, watching passively as private surveillance grows unchecked, and contemplating the introduction of tremendously powerful new surveillance infrastructures that will tie all this information together. The good news is that the drift toward a surveillance society can be stopped. As the American people realize that each new development is part of this bigger picture, they will give more and more weight to protecting privacy, and support the measures we need to preserve our freedom. Unfortunately, right now the big picture is grim. There are numerous disturbing developments: Video Surveillance Surveillance video cameras are rapidly spreading throughout the public arena, with new cameras being placed not only in some of our most sacred public spaces, but on ordinary public streets all over America. And video surveillance may be on the verge of an even greater revolution due to advances in technology like Face Recognition Technology and new attempts to build centralized monitoring facilities. Data Surveillance An insidious new type of surveillance is becoming possible that is just as intrusive as video surveillance ñ what we might call "data surveillance." As more and more of our activities leave behind "data trails," it will soon be possible to combine information from different sources to recreate an individual's activities with such detail that it becomes no different from being followed around all day by a detective with a video camera. * The Commodification of Information. Today, any consumer activity that is not being tracked and recorded is increasingly being viewed by businesses as money left on the table. * Internet Privacy. On the Internet, our activities can be recorded down to the last mouse click. * Financial privacy. The once-firm tradition of privacy and discretion by financial institutions has collapsed, and financial companies today routinely put the details of their customers' financial lives up for sale. * New Data-Gathering Technologies. In the near future, new technologies will continue to fill out the mosaic of information it is possible to collect on every individual; examples include cell phone location data, biometrics, computer "black boxes" in cars that "tattle" on their owners, and location-tracking computer chips. * Medical & Genetic Privacy. Medical privacy has collapsed, and genetic information is about to become a central part of health care. Unlike other medical information, genetic data is a unique combination: both difficult to keep confidential and extremely revealing about us. Government Surveillance The biggest threat to privacy comes from the government. Many Americans are naturally concerned about corporate surveillance, but only the government has the power to take away liberty. * Government Databases. The government's access to personal information begins with the thousands of databases it maintains on the lives of Americans and others. * Communications Surveillance. The government performs an increasing amount of eavesdropping on electronic communications. Examples of the new type of surveillance include the FBI's controversial "Carnivore" program and the international eavesdropping program codenamed Echelon. * The "Patriot" Act. Just six weeks after the September 11 attacks, a panicked Congress passed the "USA PATRIOT Act, an overnight revision of the nation's surveillance laws that vastly expanded the government's authority to spy on its own citizens and reduced checks and balances on those powers such as judicial oversight. * Loosened Domestic Spying Regulations. In May 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued new guidelines that significantly increase the freedom of federal agents to conduct surveillance on American individuals and organizations. The Synergies of Surveillance Multiple surveillance techniques added together are greater than the sum of their parts. The growing piles of data being collected on Americans represent an enormous invasion of privacy, but our privacy has actually been protected by the fact that all this information still remains scattered across many different databases. The real threat to privacy will come when the government, landlords, employers, or other powerful forces gain the ability to draw together all this information. Several programs now being discussed or implemented would advance this goal: * "Total Information Awareness." This Pentagon program aims at giving officials easy, one-stop access to every possible government and commercial database in the world. * CAPS II. A close cousin of TIA is also being created in the context of airline security: Computer Assisted Passenger Screening, or CAPS, which involves collecting a variety of personal information on airline travelers in order to flag those deemed suspicious for special screening. * National ID Cards. Combinging new technologies such as biometrics with an enormously powerful database, national ID Cards would become an overarching means of facilitating the tracking and surveillance of Americans. What We Must Do If we do not take steps to control and regulate surveillance to bring it into conformity with our values, we will find ourselves being tracked, analyzed, profiled, and flagged in our daily lives to a degree we can scarcely imagine today. We will be forced into an impossible struggle to conform to the letter of every rule, law, and guideline, lest we create ammunition for enemies in the government or elsewhere. Our transgressions will become permanent Scarlet Letters that follow us throughout our lives, visible to all and used by the government, landlords, employers, insurance companies and other powerful parties to increase their leverage over average people. Four main goals need to be attained to prevent this dark potential from being realized: Change the Terms of the Debate. We are being confronted with fundamental choices about what sort of society we want to live in, but unless the terms of the debate are changed to focus on the big picture instead of individual privacy stories, too many Americans will never even recognize the choice we face, and a decision against preserving privacy will be made by default. Enact Comprehensive Privacy Laws. The US has an inconsistent, patchwork approach to privacy regulation, and we need to develop a baseline of simple and clear privacy protections that crosses all sectors of our lives and give it the force of law. Pass New Laws For New Technologies. Laws must also be developed to rein in particular new technologies such as surveillance cameras, location-tracking devices, and biometrics. Surveillance cameras, for example, must be subject to force-of-law rules covering important details like when they will be used, how long images will be stored, and when and with whom they will be shared. Revive the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment, the primary Constitutional bulwark against Government invasion of our privacy, is in desperate need of a revival. The Fourth Amendment must be adapted to new technologies; the Framers never expected the Constitution to be read exclusively in terms of the circumstances of 1791. Links: ACLU Report: Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society [http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11573&c=39] "Big Brother" is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in New Report (1/15/03) [http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11612] Feature on Total Information Awareness program [http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacylist.cfm?c=130] What's Wrong With Public Video Surveillance? [http://archive.aclu.org/issues/privacy/CCTV_Feature.html] Feature on USA PATRIOT Act [http://archive.aclu.org/issues/privacy/USAPA_feature.html] 5 Reasons Not to Create A National ID Card [http://archive.aclu.org/issues/privacy/FaceRec_Feature.html] Feature on Face Recognition Technology Protecting Financial Privacy [http://archive.aclu.org/issues/privacy/Financial_privacy_feature.html] URL: http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacylist.cfm?c=39 From geert at desk.nl Thu Jan 30 05:34:32 2003 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 11:04:32 +1100 Subject: [Reader-list] Lindows.com Released Sub-$350 Media Computer References: <20030128185157.25363.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <01e901c2c7f3$32bbbd20$29af9bca@geert> Lindows.com Released Sub-$350 Media Computer San Diego -- Lindows.com, the Linux-based PC maker started by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, announced on Wednesday the release of the Lindows Media Computer, intended to compete with Microsoft's XP Media Center PC. The sub-$350 computer offers playback of DVDs, music CDs, MP3 CDs and VCD format video. San Diego-based Lindows.com still faces a trademark infringement lawsuit from Microsoft, which owns the "Windows" trademark; that case is due to go to trial in April. http://www.lindows.com/lindows_news_pressreleases.php http://www.idot.com/TheStore/Desktop/770Spec.asp?Product.id=770&Cate.id=19 From jeebesh at sarai.net Thu Jan 30 13:27:10 2003 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 13:27:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] http://open-content.net/ Message-ID: <200301301327.10934.jeebesh@sarai.net> Thanks Mary for locating this exciting network. Lets think of actively participating in these areas of distributed networks. best Jeebesh ---------------------------------- http://open-content.net/ The Open Content Network is a collaborative effort to help deliver large, freely-downloadable content using peer-to-peer technology. The network is essentially a huge "virtual web server" that links together thousands of computers for the purpose of helping out over-burdened web sites. Using various web browser plug-ins, users can download open source and public domain software, movies, and music at incredibly fast speeds from this global, distributed network. Using a new Peer-to-Peer technology, called the "Content-Addressable Web", indviduals will be able to help distribute free content by donating their spare bandwidth and disk space to the network. Note: Contrary to what some articles may say, the OCN is not a file sharing network like Kazaa. Rather, it is a controlled content delivery network for legitimate freely-distributable content. -- ------------ Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes.) - Walt Whitman From info at nmartproject.net Thu Jan 30 16:35:19 2003 From: info at nmartproject.net (NewMediaArtProjectNetwork) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 12:05:19 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Press release - MasterPlan Message-ID: <068f01c2c84f$8fe4bfe0$0600a8c0@NMARTPROJECTNET> Press Release "Le Musee di-visioniste" www.le-musee-divisioniste.org is happy to launch its latest online showcase within the 'Featured artists' series, entitled "MasterPlan" net-based art works ****************************************** The exhibition is open from 30 January 2003 and will run until May/June 2003, but will be available online for permanent afterwards ****************************************** "Edition 06 of Featured Artists series, entitled "MasterPlan" is featuring following artists: 1. Daniel Young, USA 2. Patrick Simons/Kate Southworth, UK 3. jimpunk, France 4. Dan Norton, Scotland 5. Nicolas Clauss, France ******************************************** "MasterPlan" represents an exhibition reporting about five most individual artists' personalities each one following a strong individual conception: a "MasterPlan" determining the course of events. Daniel Young, collects in his generative project "NewZoid" continously daily news, chops them up and endlessly reassembles the pieces into absurd, funny, shocking and thought-provoking headlines, resulting a kind of "infotherapy". The artists Patrick Simons and Kate Southworth investigate in their collaborative project "Glorious Ninth" the material world and communicate their findings using many different approaches to 'knowing'. jimpunk explores in his >www.nowar.nogame.or-project< controlling and the hypnotic feeling of being contolled and helpless. Dan Norton opens in his generative project "ablab" interactive fields and lets the users search for the limits of 2D-interactivity. Nicolas Claus collects in his "Flying Puppet" project examples of human entaglements. The selection of the four works shows the artist/user as the "Creator" holding the human individual (like a puppet on string) who remains unable to escape from the "MasterPlan". ****************************************** The exhibition "MasterPlan" is curated and created by Agricola de Cologne. ****************************************** Le Musee di-visioniste www.le-musee-divisioniste.org is an online museum based on a philosophical idea, currently partially under reconstruction, and corporative member of NewMediaArtProjectNetwork, the experimental platform for art in Internet. Agricola de Cologne, multi-disciplinary media artist from Germany is the creator, founder, editor, producer of NewMediaArtProjectNetwork and its seven corporate sites. ***************************************** www.le-musee-divisioniste.org www.a-virtual-memorial.org PRESS NewMediaArtProjectNetwork contact: press at nmartproject.net ******************************* Minimum technical requirements: 1024x768 VGA resolution, soundCard Pentium III 800 Mhz or comparable MAC Flash 6, MS Internet Explorer 5.0+ or Netscape 6.0+ minimum 56K or 64K ISDN modem, recommended DSL highspeed modem From rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com Thu Jan 30 22:03:42 2003 From: rana_dasgupta at yahoo.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 08:33:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Radio conference, University of Wisconsin Message-ID: <20030130163342.26410.qmail@web41105.mail.yahoo.com> Alerting everyone on this list to an international radio conference at the University of Wisconsin in July this year. I think deadline for proposals has actually just passed but maybe they're flexible - and maybe anyone in the vicinity would like to attend. All details given at URL below. R http://commarts.wisc.edu/radioconference/ Radio is one of the most widespread and accessible media in the world today, yet it remains an understudied site of cultural production. This conference joins a growing handful of others held over the last few years to bring together scholars, practitioners, and students of radio to share ideas and perspectives on radio's cultural role in an increasingly global media context. We welcome proposals for papers, panels, and symposia on all aspects of radio - historical, cultural, critical, and institutional - including but not limited to the range of topics below: Broadcasting versus narrowcasting Radio's invisible public(s) Radio and nation Radio activism and grassroots radio National and transnational radio histories New audio technologies: web radio, digital broadcasting, satellite radio Radio and music Audio forms, styles and genres Centers and margins in broadcasting Radio archives and preservation of the audio past Negotiations of identity: race, gender, class Transnational audio flows and influences Cultural policy and radio Industry consolidation, fragmentation, and innovation Radio and national cultures You may submit proposals for individual papers, pre-constituted panels, or symposia. Information on these formats and instructions on how to submit your proposal is available through the link on this page. Information about keynote speakers, accommodations, travel, helpful links, and the conference schedule will be posted when available. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS JANUARY 15, 2003, but we encourage earlier proposals. Acceptance will be made on a rolling basis. Besides proposing an individual paper, you may also refer to our Panel Proposal page to see if there is a panel being organized for which your work would be appropriate. Then, contact the panel organizer directly. If you are thinking of organzing a panel and wish to solicit participants, send a brief (250 word or less) proposal with contact info to mhilmes at wisc.edu, and it can be posted on the website. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Radio Studies Network of Great Britain and the University of Wisconsin- Madison, USA. The conference planning board consists of Tim Wall (University of Central England, Birmingham) and Michele Hilmes (Unversity of Wisconsin-Madison), co-chairs; James Baughman (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Kathy Newman (Carnegie Mellon University), Jason Loviglio (University of Maryland - Baltimore County), David Goodman (University of Melbourne), Mary Vipond (Concordia University, Canada), and Jody Berland (York University). Contact Michele Hilmes (mhilmes at wisc.edu) for more information or Tim Wall (radioconference at wallnet.co.uk). __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com From ravik_rk at hotmail.com Thu Jan 30 20:38:12 2003 From: ravik_rk at hotmail.com (Ravi Kumar) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 20:38:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Response to my response from Yazad Jal Message-ID: Sorry Friend, Perhaps, you mistakenly consider words incorporating meanings to be solely literary pieces.ANd even literary pieces, their symbols and style, whether Baroque or romanticism or modern day works have meanings behind the words. The words expressed also reveal understanding and one understand it at least when we are dealing with debates at such a plane. Otherwise such forums cannot be places of classroom like explanatory sessions on each word and their different connotations and contextualizations. Thanks Ravi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030130/d4f7c7b5/attachment.html From shefalijha at hotmail.com Fri Jan 31 11:09:18 2003 From: shefalijha at hotmail.com (shefali jha) Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 11:09:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Women's hostels- 2nd posting Message-ID: Hello. As part of our project on Women's hostels as urban spaces in Hyderabad,we have spent the past month doing research into the history of the Women's hostel at Osmania University,which is one of our case-studies,the other being the CIEFL (Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages)women's hostel.We have been looking at general histories of Hyderabad and documents relating to the hostels,dealing with their establishment,architecture,rules etc.Most of this has happened through spending long hors in the University Library. The other aspect of our work has been talking to people,and this is in keeping with the general approach we intend to adopt,combining research with interviews,personal narratives etc.We have spoken to a few 'old-timers' at CIEFL and hope to get discussions and exhaustive interview sessions going.We have also met some of the faculty at Osmania University,who have been of great help in leading us to possible candidates for interaction,that is,their students. The next month will be spent building on these slender leads and basically talking to different women in an effort to achieve some sort of a grounding in their experience of hostel-life and how it relates to their experience of the city.These women come from diverse backgrounds and it will be interesting to see how they locate themselves in relation to the hostel-space,and how this space changes with their interaction. Shefali & Navaneetha, Hyderabad. _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail From marnoldm at du.edu Thu Jan 30 22:53:44 2003 From: marnoldm at du.edu (MICHAEL ARNOLD-MAGES) Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 10:23:44 -0700 (MST) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] -empyre- + open source to open art + Message-ID: -empyre- takes pleasure in introducing +open source to open art+ : Felix Sattler and the artists of backup.lounge]lab - http://www.backup-festival.com. How is open source theory possible in collaborative artistic practice? What are the implications, limitations and choices in an open source approach? These questions are explored in February on -empyre- by the artists and curators of backup.lounge]lab which served as the experimental playground for the backup_festival/new media in film Nov 7-11th, 2002 in Weimar, Germany. 19 artists including 'Artificial paradises' 'Luna Nera' and 'D-Fuse' (London); 'Dijital Riot' (Weimar); Laura Kavanaugh & Ian Birse, (Montreal), Sebastian Hundertmark, Stephan Jacobs, Tobias Finauer (Weimar), Catherine Moriwaki, and Pearl Gluck (USA); Helena Jonsdottir (IS, Reykjavik), Jon Fawcett (GB, Cardiff), and Micz Flor (CZ, Praha), created a network of open accessible ideas, tools, media, molecules and pieces that would eventually melange in the display at the festival. The artists of backup along with curators Carine Linge, Alexander Klosch and Felix Sattler will have a look at the process and results of backup's theory that "open source" might be translated into a working model for a conception of "open art". -- -empyre- regularly invites practicioners, curators and theorists in the media arts field to discuss specific projects, publications, and issues. Subscribe to -empyre- at: http://www.subtle.net/empyrean/empyre/ -- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sadan at sarai.net Fri Jan 31 21:34:07 2003 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan) Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 11:04:07 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] on the space of women's hostel In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <200301311104.07079.sadan@sarai.net> Responding Shefali's posting, shefali the psoting sounds interesting. would you kindly write a more on the nature of sources that you are looking for the construction of the history of this space of women's hostel. What kinds of documents are you looking at? I hope you are not exploring the historical construction of this space not merely in terms of positivist understandings of the history. I also hope that you would be analysing the question of locality and neighbourhood while doing field work. But tell me are you also looking at how different people who have been part of this space visualise this space. Issues of male gaze, sexuality and the fear/pleasure that this gaze generates make this space of women's hostel as a site of contestation too. I hope you are keeping an eye over some of the issues of various scopic regimes that this urban space enjoys/resists... If you are interested in hindi literature I suggest you to kindly read a recent story of Sitakshi Singh on the universe of a girls hostel. It came in Hans few months ago. If you are interested i can send you the exact reference. cheers sadan. 3 12:39 am, shefali jha wrote: > Hello. > > As part of our project on Women's hostels as urban spaces in Hyderabad,we > have spent the past month doing research into the history of the Women's > hostel at Osmania University,which is one of our case-studies,the other > being the CIEFL (Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages)women's > hostel.We have been looking at general histories of Hyderabad and documents > relating to the hostels,dealing with their establishment,architecture,rules > etc.Most of this has happened through spending long hors in the University > Library. > The other aspect of our work has been talking to people,and this is in > keeping with the general approach we intend to adopt,combining research > with interviews,personal narratives etc.We have spoken to a few > 'old-timers' at CIEFL and hope to get discussions and exhaustive interview > sessions going.We have also met some of the faculty at Osmania > University,who have been of great help in leading us to possible candidates > for interaction,that is,their students. > The next month will be spent building on these slender leads and basically > talking to different women in an effort to achieve some sort of a grounding > in their experience of hostel-life and how it relates to their experience > of the city.These women come from diverse backgrounds and it will be > interesting to see how they locate themselves in relation to the > hostel-space,and how this space changes with their interaction. > > Shefali & Navaneetha, Hyderabad. > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > > _________________________________________ > 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 yazadjal at vsnl.net Fri Jan 31 15:28:14 2003 From: yazadjal at vsnl.net (Yazad Jal) Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 15:28:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Response to my response from Yazad Jal Message-ID: <00d501c2c90f$47621d60$720841db@vsnl.net.in> My point is that I have no idea of finding out the meanings incorporated into your words (do others?). I am not interested in literary gobbledegook but plain clarity. -yazad From: Ravi Kumar To: reader-list at sarai.net Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 8:38 PM Subject: [Reader-list] Response to my response from Yazad Jal Sorry Friend, Perhaps, you mistakenly consider words incorporating meanings to be solely literary pieces.ANd even literary pieces, their symbols and style, whether Baroque or romanticism or modern day works have meanings behind the words. The words expressed also reveal understanding and one understand it at least when we are dealing with debates at such a plane. Otherwise such forums cannot be places of classroom like explanatory sessions on each word and their different connotations and contextualizations. Thanks Ravi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030131/2b736e88/attachment.html From aiindex at mnet.fr Fri Jan 31 20:50:45 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 16:20:45 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Surveillance & Society | News January 2003 Message-ID: Surveillance & Society | News January 2003 the international journal of surveillance studies http://www.surveillance-and-society.org Managing Editor: Dr David Wood, mailto:d.f.j.wood at ncl.ac.uk 1. New Issue Out Now 2. Calls for Papers for future issues 3. Submitting to Surveillance & Society 4. Resource Base 5. Provisional announcement of Surveillance & Society's first major conference 1. New Issue Out Now! Issue 1(2) of Surveillance & Society is out now! Themed around 'Work', it features new work by Paul Thompson, Jeff Stanton and Kathryn Stam, Benjamin Goold, Kirstie Ball and more. http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/journalv1i2.htm 2. Calls for Papers Issue 1(3) - Foucault and Panopticism There is still time to get your submissions in for our third issue on any aspect of the legacy of Michel Foucault for surveillance studies, the concept of 'panopticism' or Bentham's iconic 'Panopticon' . We welcome critiques, reviews, art and studies of surveillance which explicitly make use of or undermine Foucault's theories and approach, or which reconsider the legacy of the Panopticon. Deadline for submissions: March 31st 2003, publication date: end June 2003. NEW CALL! Issue 1(4) - Mobilities Mobility has become a key theme across academic disciplines, and enabling, controlling and preventing mobility is one of the most important aspects of surveillance in the 21st Century. Surveillance & Society is calling for submissions on all aspects of surveillance and mobilities, for example: mobile communications technologies and global positioning systems; migration, borders and border control; transport; automated urban infrastructures; virtual mobility; and so on. Deadline for submissions: June 30th 2003, publication date: end September 2003. 3. Submitting to Surveillance & Society Surveillance & Society will always consider pieces on any aspect of surveillance for all issues, regardless of the main theme of the issue. We welcome both conventional academic papers and artistic submissions (photographs, video, poetry, code-poetry, fiction, multi-media etc.), political and technical reviews, opinion pieces and more. We encourage innovative approaches and can discuss any proposed submission. For more details, see: http://www.surveillance-and-society/call.htm 4. Resource Base. The long-awaited Surveillance & Society Resource Base for Surveillance Studies should start to be operational within the next few weeks, a bit at a time. Keep an eye out... 5. Provisional Announcement of Surveillance & Society's first major conference. CCTV and Social control: the politics and practice of videosurveillance - European and Global perspectives A of a two day conference to be held at the Centre For Criminological Research, University of Sheffield in conjucntion with the Journal - Surveillance & Society Thursday January 8th and Friday January 9th 2004 Although the UK has clearly the most developed public infrastructure of surveillance cameras in the world, in the wake of September 11th other countries are increasingly deploying cameras in a range of settings, including city centre streets, sporting venues, transport systems, schools, hospitals, to name but a few. The aim of this conference is to explore the extent and diversity of CCTV deployment in different countries and institutional settings and to consider the social, political and legal issues that arise from the expansion of surveillance. Although the conference will have a particular European focus we would especially welcome contributions from researchers in North and South America, Australia, Africa and Asia. The conference aims to be truly inter-disciplinary and welcomes contributions from sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, criminologists, socio-legal scholars, historians, economists and social scientists researching video-surveillance It is planned that all papers given at theconference will be considered for publication in a special edition of the web journal - Surveillance and Society. However, acceptance of a paper for the conference is not a guarantee of publication as all submissions will be subject to normal peer review procedures. The special edition will be jointly edited by Professor Clive Norris (University of Sheffield) and Dr Mike McCahill (University of Hull). We particularly welcome papers on the following topics Theorising CCTV surveillance National trends in the growth of video-surveillance - national/international perspectives Case studies of the impact of CCTV surveillance in different institutional settings/countries The effectiveness of CCTV as a crime prevention measure Video surveillance and social exclusion CCTV and the media CCTV and legal regulation The history of video surveillance The politics of resistance The contours of public acceptability of CCTV The new technologies of video surveillance CCTV and Civil liberties. Ethical issues in CCTV surveillance The Conference Fee will be £110 (¤165) for the two days and £60 (¤90) for one day attendance. The fee will include refreshments and lunch, but not overnight accommodation and evening meals. Information about the University of Sheffield can be found at http://www.shef.ac.uk/ Details of how to get to the University can be found at http://www.shef.ac.uk/travel/ Maps of the university can be found at http://www.shef.ac.uk/travel/maps.html Details about the city and hotels can be found at http://www.shef.ac.uk/city/ The most convenient airport is located at Manchester. Sheffield is one hour away by train. Details can be found at http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/ Flights to and from Manchester can be found at http://timetables.oag.com/man/ A conference web page will be up and running in April. 2003 and this will give further details of accommodation, travel arrangements and the conference. The Conference fee is payable by 1st June 2003. Register of interest. For those who are interested in attending the conference please register your interest by sending an email to c.norris at sheffield.ac.uk. By the 14th of March 2003 - with the following information Name Country of residence Institutional affiliation Institutional address Telephone number Email address Proposed title/subject of paper If you merely are thinking of attending but do not want to give a paper - please state this clearly Conference Preparation Timetable March 14th Return of Register of Interest April 14th Submission of 200-300 word abstract April 30th Conference web page up and running June 1st Payment of Conference Fee October 1st Submission of papers 2003 - November 1st Final conference programme published on web. November 31st Papers available to delegates on members section of conference web page January 8/9th 2004 Conference. April 2004 - Publication of Special Issue of Surveillance and Society - CCTV and Social Control - European and Global Perspectives. From blue_shingle at myrealbox.com Fri Jan 24 13:16:18 2003 From: blue_shingle at myrealbox.com (blue) Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 13:16:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] symbolic protest in montreal Message-ID: <002801c2c37c$b193a700$1ced41db@baby> From: Christopher Pavsek Subject: Silent Protest against War This was posted in an online community to which I belong: A spontaneous war protest has started in Montreal after a popular radio host here announced that Mrs. George W Bush had cancelled a meeting with a group of women at the White House because several of them planned to attend the meeting with a white scarf round their necks as a silent symbol of their desire for peace. This symbol had power as it disturbed Mrs Bush. This story has triggered a grassroots email campaign asking those commited to peace in the world to wear a white scarf. If everyone who disagreed with the war were to wear a white scarf around their neck, tie a white hankerchief to their back-packs, their attache case, their school bags, white pennants from car anternnas, white flags on balconies and hanging in front of houses the world over, would this not be a powerful message to send to our leaders? Sometimes images and symbols are more powerful than words. If you feel that this idea has any validity, please join the email campaign and pass this on to your network. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20030124/0fb254f0/attachment.html