From vivek at sarai.net Mon Nov 1 12:08:15 2004 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 12:08:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Eminem video Message-ID: <4185D9D7.7010608@sarai.net> Dear all, The Eminem video is really very good, as is the song-- sent a chill down my spine. It's so great to see that Em finally amounted to something. Another link than the one below, to the Guerrilla News Network website where the video premiered, which has the video in Quicktime: http://www.guerrillanews.com/content/eminem_mosh.html V. http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/timespoll/la-na-mosh28oct28,1,4102645.story has a link to the Eminem video "Mosh" Los Angeles Times October 28, 2004 Eminem Swipes at Bush He recruits an army to oust the president at the polls in the video for his new single, 'Mosh.' By Geoff Boucher Slim Shady is becoming Citizen Eminem. Rapper Eminem, who made headlines with the gleefully profane alias Slim Shady, has taken his deepest plunge yet into the political world with "Mosh," a new song that, along with its music video, slams President Bush and calls on young America to mobilize against the administration. In the animated video, which had its debut on the Internet this week, Eminem leads an army of young people in hooded sweatshirts who march through the streets of a police-state America. As the ominous, martial cadence of the song builds, the hooded legion gains new members — a single mom who receives an eviction notice, a soldier who returns home from war only to be ordered back to Iraq, and rapper Lloyd Bankschafes under the harsh authority of police. The disaffected army makes it past police and soldiers to storm a government building, but inside they don't riot — the video climaxes with the mob in an orderly line at a table with a placard that reads, "Sign in to vote." The fade shot at the end reads simply: "Vote Tuesday, November 2." In the lyrics, Eminem savages the president as a liar and a thief of American honor. "Strap him with an AK-47 / Let him go fight his own war / Let him impress daddy that way," the song chides. "Mosh" implores young America to unite for the election. "Let us beg to differ / As we set aside our differences / And assemble our own army / To disarm this weapon of mass destruction / That we call our president / For the present." Eminem's rhymes have veered to the political before — notably in the song "White America" — but "Mosh" has the usually antisocial firebrand calling for activism instead of anarchy. There are still plenty of hot-button moments, among them a combat knife driven through a portrait of Bush and a sequence that suggests that some of Osama bin Laden's messages have been faked on federal soundstages. The video also opens with children reciting the pledge of allegiance while a jetliner crashes near their school — and in that scene Eminem is at the front of the class with a children's book, a reference to the president's whereabouts during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The video premiered Monday on the Guerrilla News Network website and was directed by Ian Inaba, a Berkeley-based contributor to the website. It hit MTV on Tuesday, and as of Wednesday afternoon the channel's website listed it as No. 1 on its chart of hot videos. "Mosh" is Eminem's second single for his upcoming album, "Encore," and follows "Lose It," another music video that grabbed attention with its shots at Michael Jackson. "Encore" arrives in stores Nov. 16. From avinash at sarai.net Tue Nov 2 12:25:41 2004 From: avinash at sarai.net (avinash kumar) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 12:25:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fukuyama's moment: a neocon schism opens Message-ID: <41872F6D.7000101@sarai.net> Fukuyama's moment: a neocon schism opens Danny Postel 28 - 10 - 2004 (The full html version of this report is available at http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-117-2190.jsp ) The Iraq war opened a fratricidal split among United States neo–conservatives. Danny Postel examines the bitter dispute between two leading neocons, Francis Fukuyama and Charles Krauthammer, and suggests that Fukuyama's critique of the Iraq war and decision not to vote for George W Bush is a significant political as well as intellectual moment. =========================================== =========================================== Over the last two years, the term "neo–conservative" has come into sharper focus than at any other point in its roughly thirty–year history. The neo–conservative movement has exerted greater influence on United States foreign policy since 9/11 than it was ever previously able to do, the Iraq war being its crowning achievement. Coinciding with this ascendancy has been an unrelenting stream of criticism directed at neo–conservatism, from virtually every square on the ideological chessboard. Such sorties have become something of a rallying–cry among much of the left. Neo–conservatives either ignore left–wing criticism (a luxury they can well afford) or else chew it up and spit it out: the more vitriolic it is, the more emboldened it makes them. Some of the most savage reprisals against the neocons, however, have come from the right. I have written elsewhere of the ensemble of realists, libertarians, and "paleoconservatives" who opposed the Iraq adventure and the doctrines that justified it, and of other conservatives who fear that the neocons and their war will sink Bush's presidency. Neo–conservatives are no less sanguine about attacks from this political direction: as if to say "bring it on", neocons are armed with counterattacks about the variously amoral, isolationist, nativist, unpatriotic, even anti–Semitic nature of the conservative cases against them. But the latest salvo against the war and its neocon architects has stung its targets like none other has done. That's because the critique Francis Fukuyama has advanced is an inside job: not only is its author among the most celebrated members of the neo–conservative intelligentsia, but his dissection of the conceptual problems at the core of the Iraq undertaking appeared on the neocons' home ground. "The Neoconservative Moment," his twelve–page intervention into the Iraq debate, was published in the Summer 2004 issue of The National Interest, a flagship conservative foreign–policy journal. This, in short, is different. Fukuyama is – to use a phrase patented by Margaret Thatcher – one of us. He's part of the club. Indeed, he's played as prominent a role as any of his co–thinkers in fostering the life of the neo-conservative mind since helping define the post–cold war moment fifteen years ago with his famous "end of history" thesis. That's why the neocon world is abuzz about Fukuyama's jab, and about his decision not to support Bush for re–election. "I just think that if you're responsible for this kind of a big policy failure," he tells openDemocracy, "you ought to be held accountable for it." Breaking ranks In "The Neoconservative Moment," Fukuyama turns a heat lamp on the cogitations of one thinker in particular, Charles Krauthammer, whose "strategic thinking has become emblematic" of the neo-conservative camp that envisaged the Iraq invasion. Krauthammer, one of the war's most vociferous advocates, had somewhat famously fancied the end of the cold war as a "unipolar moment" in geopolitics – which, by 2002, he was calling a "unipolar era." In February 2004 Krauthammer delivered an address at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington in which he offered a strident defense of the Iraq war in terms of his concept of unipolarity, or what he now calls "democratic realism." Fukuyama was in the audience that evening and did not like what he heard. Krauthammer's speech was "strangely disconnected from reality," Fukuyama wrote in "The Neoconservative Moment." "Reading Krauthammer, one gets the impression that the Iraq War – the archetypical application of American unipolarity – had been an unqualified success, with all of the assumptions and expectations on which the war had been based fully vindicated." "There is not the slightest nod" in Krauthammer's exposition "towards the new empirical facts" that have come to light over the course of the occupation. Fukuyama's case against Krauthammer's – and thus the dominant neo–conservative – position on Iraq is manifold. Social engineering Krauthammer's logic, Fukuyama argues, is "utterly unrealistic in its overestimation of U.S. power and our ability to control events around the world." "Of all of the different views that have now come to be associated with neoconservatives, the strangest one to me was the confidence that the United States could transform Iraq into a Western–style democracy," he wrote, "and to go on from there to democratize the broader Middle East." This struck Fukuyama as strange, he explained, "precisely because these same neoconservatives had spent much of the past generation warning...about the dangers of ambitious social engineering, and how social planners could never control behavior or deal with unanticipated consequences." If the US can't eradicate poverty at home or improve its own education system, he asked, "how does it expect to bring democracy to a part of the world that has stubbornly resisted it and is virulently anti–American to boot?" He didn't rule out the possibility of the endeavour succeeding, but saw its chances of doing so as weak. Wise policy, he wrote, "is not made by staking everything on a throw of the dice." "Culture is not destiny," but, he argued in tones echoing his former professor Samuel Huntington, it "plays an important role in making possible certain kinds of institutions – something that is usually taken to be a conservative insight." Nation–building The only way for such an "unbelievably ambitious effort to politically transform one of the world's most troubled and hostile regions" to have an outside chance of working, Fukuyama maintained, was a huge, long–term commitment to postwar reconstruction. "America has been involved in approximately 18 nation–building projects between its conquest of the Philippines in 1899 and the current occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq," he wrote, "and the overall record is not a pretty one." The signs thus far in Iraq? "Lurking like an unbidden guest at a dinner party is the reality of what has happened in Iraq since the U.S. invasion: We have been our usual inept and disorganized selves in planning for and carrying out the reconstruction, something that was predictable in advance and should not have surprised anyone familiar with American history." (There are, it should be noted, serious doubts about whether democratisation is the real agenda of the regime–changers. Click here and here for two skeptical views.) But unlike many conservative critics of nation–building – the aforementioned realists, libertarians, and paleocons, for example – Fukuyama believes there are cases when it is necessary, indeed vital. While he argues that America "needs to be more realistic about its nation–building abilities, and cautious in taking on large social–engineering projects in parts of the world it does not understand very well," he sees it as inevitable that the US will get "sucked into similar projects in the future," and America must be "much better prepared," he warns, for a scenario such as the "sudden collapse of the North Korean regime." Legitimacy Krauthammer and other neocon advocates of the war – Robert Kagan most famously – have turned anti–Europeanism into a sport, arguing that Europe's doubts about Iraq reflect a plate–tectonic shift in consciousness and signal a cleft in transatlantic relations of epochal significance. Fukuyama doesn't dismiss this argument entirely, but sees a sleight of hand at work in its rhetorical deployment in the Iraq debate. If Krauthammer, rather than summarily spurning continental arguments as just so much bad faith and responsibility–shirking, had instead "listened carefully to what many Europeans were actually saying (something that Americans are not very good at doing these days), he would have discovered that much of their objection to the war was not a normative one having to do with procedural issues and the UN, but rather a prudential one having to do with the overall wisdom of attacking Iraq." Krauthammer's almost principled disdain for European sensibilities is particularly problematic, Fukuyama argued, when one considers that "the European bottom line proved to be closer to the truth than the administration's far more alarmist position" vis–à–vis weapons of mass destruction (WMD). "On the question of the manageability of postwar Iraq, the more skeptical European position was almost certainly right." Despite this, Krauthammer proceeds "as if the Bush administration's judgment had been vindicated at every turn, and that any questioning of it can only be the result of base or dishonest motives." Fukuyama, in contrast, exhorts the US to confront these errors head–on, realising that they have "created an enormous legitimacy problem for us," one that will damage American interests "for a long time to come." "This should matter to us," he inveighs, "not just for realist reasons of state (our ability to attract allies to share the burden), but for idealist ones as well (our ability to lead and inspire based on the attractiveness of who we are)." The US must "spend much more time and energy" cultivating "like–minded allies" to accomplish "both the realist and idealist portions" of its agenda. Israelpolitik Finally, Fukuyama argues, Krauthammer and other neo–conservatives misconstrue the nature of the threat facing the US today, in part because they view American foreign policy through the prism of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Krauthammer's hard line, Likudnik position on Israel "colors his views on how the United States should deal with the Arabs more broadly." Krauthammer once quipped in a radio interview that the only way to earn respect in the Arab world is to reach down and squeeze between the legs. (His exact wording was slightly less delicate.) Fukuyama questions the logic of transposing this Ariel Sharon style of thought to US strategy: "Are we like Israel, locked in a remorseless struggle with a large part of the Arab and Muslim world, with few avenues open to us for dealing with them other than an iron fist?" In an argument echoed by Anatol Lieven in his book America Right or Wrong, Fukuyama asks: "does a strategic doctrine developed by a small, vulnerable country surrounded by implacable enemies make sense when applied to the situation of the world's sole superpower…?" Calling for a "more complex strategy" that "recalibrates the proportion of sticks and carrots," Fukuyama argues that "an American policy toward the Muslim world that, like Sharon's, is largely stick will be a disaster: we do not have enough sticks in our closet to 'make them respect us'. The Islamists for sure hated us from the beginning, but Krauthammerian unipolarity has increased hatred for the United States in the broader fight for hearts and minds." In his response to Fukuyama, published in the current (Fall 2004) issue of The National Interest, Krauthammer polemically dismisses Fukuyama's arguments with words like "bizarre," "ridiculous," "absurd," "silly," and "odd in the extreme." Fukuyama, he writes, has "enthusiastically joined the crowd seizing upon the difficulties in Iraq as a refutation of any forward–looking policy that might have gotten us there…" As for Fukuyama's claim that the fecklessness of the reconstruction effort was "predictable in advance," Krauthammer writes: "Curiously, however, Fukuyama never predicted it in advance. He waited a year to ascertain wind direction, then predicted what had already occurred." On Fukuyama's argument about the role of Israel, Krauthammer accuses his interlocutor of "Judaizing" neo–conservatism. "His is not the crude kind, advanced by Pat Buchanan and Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad, among others, that American neoconservatives (read: Jews) are simply doing Israel's bidding, hijacking American foreign policy in the service of Israel and the greater Jewish conspiracy." "Fukuyama's take," he writes, "is more subtle and implicit." What makes Fukuyama's argument "quite ridiculous," Krauthammer contends, is that at the vanguard of the policies in question are Bush, Blair, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. "How," he asks, "did they come to their delusional identification with Israel?" "Are they Marranos, or have they been hypnotized by 'neoconservatives' into sharing the tribal bond?" Inside or out? Just how deep into the body of neo-conservatism did Fukuyama's knife go? Is he himself still a neocon? Fukuyama is ambiguous on this point. Others are less so. On the one hand, Fukuyama claims he's starting from faithful neo–conservative axioms and simply drawing different conclusions about their application in the specific case of the Iraq war. "One can start with premises identical to Krauthammer's…and yet come up with a foreign policy that is very different from the one he lays out," he writes. "I still consider myself to be a dyed–in–the–wool neoconservative," he told an audience in August. In the same stroke of the pen, however, he writes (in "The Neoconservative Moment") that "it is probably too late to reclaim the label 'neoconservative' for any but the policies undertaken by the Bush administration" and doubts whether the vision he proposes as an alternative to Krauthammer's "will ever be seen as neoconservative." Then again, he concludes, "there is no reason why it should not have this title." In his National Interest response, Krauthammer (who declined openDemocracy's request for an interview) writes that Fukuyama's "intent is to take down the entire neoconservative edifice." Indeed, Krauthammer's counterpunch is shot through with the conviction that, notwithstanding his interlocutor's pronouncements to the contrary, this is anything but a family quarrel: Fukuyama's train, he believes, has pulled out of the neoconservative station. Why Fukuyama Matters John Mearsheimer thinks Krauthammer is on to something. "Fukuyama understands, quite correctly, that the Bush doctrine has washed up on the rocks," the University of Chicago political scientist and author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics tells openDemocracy. Fukuyama's essay provides a "great service," he says, in making plain that the neo-conservative strategy for dealing with Iraq has "crashed and burned." Fukuyama is "to be admired for his honesty here. He is confronting reality." The significance of Fukuyama's intervention, says Mearsheimer, goes beyond its being the first in–house, intra–neocon dispute over Iraq. "It's not only that he's a member of the [neoconservative] tribe going after another member of the tribe; [Fukuyama] is one of the tribe's most important members." Indeed, he says, Fukuyama and Krauthammer are without a doubt "the two heavyweights" of the neoconservative intelligentsia, and their debate is about "terribly important issues, issues of central importance to American foreign policy." Mearsheimer agrees with Krauthammer that Fukuyama's critique threatens to dismantle the neo-conservative project. First, he says, Fukuyama is challenging "the unilateralist impulse that's hard wired into the neoconservative worldview." Second, Fukuyama disputes the argument that the Iraq war would create a democratic domino effect in the Arab–Islamic world. These, says Mearsheimer, are "two of the most important planks" in the Bush doctrine and in the neo-conservative Weltanschauung. Fukuyama also possesses what Mearsheimer calls a "very healthy respect for the limits of military force." "I think you cannot bring about democracy through the use of military force," he told the Cairo–based weekly Al–Ahram. Then there is Fukuyama's point about the limits of social engineering and his argument regarding the neocon tendency to conflate Israel's security threats with those of the United States. Taken together, says Mearsheimer, this band of criticisms makes Fukuyama's case nothing less than devastating. "This is not just a minor spat within the camp. This is consequential." High stakes, hard words The Fukuyama–Krauthammer exchange has generated considerable buzz within Washington. "The foreign policy establishment are paying attention," National Interest editor John O'Sullivan tells openDemocracy. The exchange, he says, is "generating debate and discussion more generally" as well. "It was about time somebody out of this circle broke out and dealt with reality," says Gary Dorrien, author of The Neoconservative Mind and Imperial Designs: Neoconservatism and the New Pax Americana, of this "first crack in the dyke." "I'm not surprised that he's the one who did," Dorrien tells openDemocracy. "He was never the hard–line ideologue that most of them are." David Frum, a daily National Review Online columnist for and former Bush speechwriter currently at work on a history of foreign–policy decision–making in the Bush administration, thinks l'affaire Fukuyama will take on greater significance in the event of a Bush defeat. "If Bush loses and Republicans turn against the war and decide to blame somebody for [it]," he tells openDemocracy, "then intellectually they're going to end up unraveling the chain of reasoning that led them to Iraq. At that point, they're going to start looking for some kind of alternative. I don't think right now you can point to Fukuyama and say, 'it'll take them here'," but Fukuyama's arguments "may become more attractive," he says. Frum, who continues to support the war and thinks Krauthammer makes "intellectual mincemeat" of Fukuyama in their exchange, says he "would find it hard to believe" if the two men were still friends. (Fukuyama tells openDemocracy that he and Krauthammer have not spoken since the shootout began.) Frum attributes the rather rancorous tone of the debate – particularly, one must say, in Krauthammer's reply – to the magnitude of the issues. "We're fighting right now over who's going to control the fate of the [Republican] party. There are large stakes." Fallout Fukuyama does plan to respond to Krauthammer's essay, in a forthcoming issue of The National Interest. "There's a little bit of an implication that I'm being anti–Semitic and I really do think I need to talk about that," he tells openDemocracy. He admits to being "a little bit disappointed" that Krauthammer didn't employ "a more neutral tone," he says of his old friend. "On the other hand," he says, "that's his style. He does this to everybody. I don't know why I would be exempted." What does Fukuyama make of Krauthammer's claim that "The Neoconservative Moment" amounts to an attempt to raze the Neocon Palace? "The zealousness of many people who wear the neoconservative label for the war in Iraq has done more to undermine neoconservatism than anything I possibly could have said," he rejoins, adding that a dose of introspection might do them well. "That's the thing that strikes me – it's the same thing that strikes me about President Bush, as well," he says. "I would forgive a lot if any of these people who were very strong advocates of the war showed any reflectiveness about what's happened or any acknowledgement that maybe there was something problematic in what they were recommending. Krauthammer doesn't do that, and President Bush doesn't do that. I take that as a big flaw. It seems to me it's not going to help their case to keep insisting that they were right about everything." Absent from Krauthammer's reply, says Fukuyama, "was any acknowledgement that any of my points had any validity, or that the way the war developed led to any rethinking of anything." Neo–conservatism faces a test, says Fukuyama. Either it will adapt in the face of changing realities on the ground or "stick to a rigid set of principles." The outcome, he says, will "mean either the death or the survival of this movement." A paradigm shift? Why didn't Fukuyama voice the doubts he says he had about the war in the months leading up to it, when the debate was in full stride? "I didn't think it would do any good for me to come out against it because everybody was so determined to do it," he says. And so I thought, 'well, let them have their chance.' I was not certain about the outcome. I thought the probabilities of it working out were not sufficient to justify taking that kind of a risk." For Fukuyama, the prospects of a Bush victory in the presidential election are troubling. In the Financial Times (14 September 2004) he wrote: "The Republican convention outrageously lumped the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq war into a single, seamless war on terrorism – as if the soldiers fighting [militant Iraqi Shi'a cleric Muqtada al–Sadr] were avenging the destroyers of the twin towers. This has, in fact, become true, but only because mismanagement of the war has created a new Afghanistan inside Iraq." He concluded: "if Mr Bush is returned with a large mandate in November, the administration will have got away with a Big Lie about the war on terrorism and will have little incentive to engage in serious review." Though Fukuyama says he will not be voting for Bush, he refuses to affirm whether he'll cast his ballot for Kerry. "There are things I really don't like about Kerry, either," he says. While the Bush people "have been much too willing to use force and to use it recklessly," the Democrats, he says, "still have this big problem about using it at all. I wish there were someone who had a better balance between the two positions. " And yet, Fukuyama told the Jerusalem Post in March 2004 that electing a Democrat to the White House "will make a difference." "[S]ince it is not the Democrats' war," he said, "if they have to face a really stressful situation a few years from now, it would be easier for them to walk away than it would be for a second Bush administration." In April 2005, Fukuyama will give a series of lectures in which he intends to address "more systematically" his criticisms of the Iraq adventure and its neo–conservative architects. Does Fukuyama regard the recent turn of events – his critique of the war, his debate with Krauthammer, his opposition to Bush's reelection – as signaling something of a paradigm shift in his self–understanding? "I don't know whether it's going to prompt the shift so much as reflect the shift," he explains. "I've been moving towards an interest in development questions over the last few years," he says. Indeed, he explores the politics and economics of international institutions at some length in his recent State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century and will continue to do so in 2005 when he takes over as head of the International Development Program at SAIS (Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies), where he is currently a professor of international political economy. "I think one of the big divides in the world is between people who primarily do security studies and people who do development. And I think one of the reasons the Bush people got into so much trouble is they put people who knew security in charge of what was really a big development project. These are people who had not spent a lot of time in East Timor or Somalia or Bosnia, watching how these things are done," he says. "I think that was one of the big problems." === ============ ============ === Copyright ©Danny Postel 2004. Published by openDemocracy Ltd. You may download and print extracts from this article for your own personal and non-commercial use only. If you are a library, university, teaching institution, business or media organisation, you must acquire an Academic License or Organisational License from openDemocracy, or seek permission directly from the author, before making copies, circulating or reproducing this article for teaching or commercial. From tbdinesh at servelots.com Mon Nov 1 13:06:03 2004 From: tbdinesh at servelots.com (dinesh t b) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 13:06:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Richard M. Stallman on the Free Software References: <20041101063004.3061528EDFB@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <00e001c4bfe5$73754de0$b164a8c0@servelots.int> Sunil, I cannot be there.. but do send us the highlights. What might be of interest is how the IPR issues pan outside of software movement. I was at an IPR workshop organized by Voices a few months ago. A lot of time was spent on how to protect the community IP of a group of Rajastani singers whose IP was used in a Bollywood film. Even if these singers' community can at all be identified so as to develop a license agreement or compensatory mechanism, I wonder what would be a way to identify what can be recognized as their IP. The implications of introducing the idea of IP and its ramifications can only disturb the singer community activity, while enabling a chaotic influence on these people from the developed elite. The whole idea of IP here rests on a common understanding that anyone can use, adapt, learn and sing the songs of this community and there by also identify and become connected to them as an extended community BUT if one makes money from these they need to respect the IP and ensure that these creators are protected (by financially compensating for their creation). The process is an implicit GPL. This would defeat itself by any process that attempts to make it explicit, like that of the GPL of Stallman. I have a feeling he would not have the time and the will to listen to this(*), but if there is any way he and you all can reflect on the GPL implications for WIPO in a general sense.. update us. (*) possibly because he feels that this is a done to death discussion? -d ps: the event is today! And you are missing out on all the Kannada Rajyotsava celebrations! :) > From: Sunil Abraham > Subject: [Reader-list] Richard M. Stallman on the Free Software > Movement and Patents > http://www.iosn.net/country/singapore/events/rms-singapore-2004/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Richard M. Stallman on the Free Software Movement and Patents > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > The Free Software movement highlights the issues regarding patents and > the generalization and use of the term Intellectual Property Rights. For > countries that are entering into global agreements such as WIPO, it is > now crucial to assess the implications and impacts of international > patent practises and policies, and to examine and assess the arguments > introduced by the Free Software movement. > > UNDP-APDIP International Open Source Network in collaboration with the > School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University cordially > invites you to attend an open session featuring Richard M. Stallman, > founder of the Free Software movement. > > Topic > Free Software Movement and Patents > Date > Monday, 1st November 2004 > Time > 4:00pm > Venue > Singapore Management University, SMU Auditorium, Bukit Timah > Campus, 469 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259756 > Registration > On-line registration is required as there are limited seats > available. Please register as early as possible and take note > that registration closes on 28 October 2004. Click here to > register. > If you have any queries, please write to SISseminar at smu.edu.sg. > > Agenda > Open Session > > Time: 4:00pm - 5:30pm > > * Welcome Address > * Shum Kam Hong, Practice Associate Professor, School of > Information Systems, Singapore Management University > * Sunil Abraham, Manager, International Open Source > Network > * Talk by Richard M. Stallman > * Discussant > * Harish Pillay, Business Development Manager,Red Hat Asia > Pacific > * Arvind Verma, Consultant, Enabler Technologies, > Technology Office, Infocomm Development Authority of > Singapore (IDA) > * Question and Answer Session > * Tea Break > From coolzanny at hotmail.com Mon Nov 1 16:36:49 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 16:36:49 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Public Space and Hawkers Message-ID: November Diary 1st November 2004 Public Space??? These days, hawkers are the main targets. They are now being pushed away from the railway stations as well. (Earlier they were being thrown away from the seafront and were under surveillance from the police.) In a news snippet in today’s Times of India (‘Anti-hawker drive intensified’), it was reported that the civic staff had evicted nearly 200 hawkers in the previous week from Mulund railway station. Last December, the apex court had ordered no-hawking zones within 150 metres of railway stations and 100 metres of religious places and educational institutions. In keeping with the Supreme Court directive, the BMC has also started lodging police cases against the hawkers. (Yet civic activists of the South Mumbai type are not convinced with the BMC’s action.) While I write about the hawkers, my mind is filled with questions concerning the concept and practice of public space. Who has claims to public space? Do hawkers get targeted because they are not ‘registered citizens’? Or are hawkers being targeted with growing population and decreasing space? Perhaps tomorrow some other group might be on target! If hawkers are being targeted because they are ‘illegal’, then I wonder what constitutes legality and what of illegality? Is the hawker himself/herself an illegal entity or is it about his/her establishment (which might be a problem for the shopping malls)? One of the other thoughts that comes to my mind is that removing hawkers / relegating them to margins seems to me as removing us everyday people from the experience of our immediate environment and locality (though I am very unsure at this point as to whether there are any ‘us and them’ camps here). As hawkers are being removed, we are increasingly entering the domains of the ‘shopping malls’, the idea of the global market, though I don’t make this statement as pointing guns towards consumption. It is simply about removing ourselves from locality, furthering ourselves from our immediate environment and issues. _________________________________________________________________ Yantras for power and success. Yantras for peace and joy. http://www.astroyogi.com/NewMsn/astroshopping/yantra/ Yantras that change your life. From vivek at sarai.net Tue Nov 2 12:11:05 2004 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 12:11:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Message from people of Fallujah Message-ID: <41872C01.1050601@sarai.net> More to be depressed about, if you haven't seen it yet. V. Message from the people of Fallujah Yahoo News Groups Bristol Stop The War News - U.K 31st October 2004 This letter was sent by representatives of the people of Fallujah to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan "IT IS more than evident that US forces are committing daily acts of genocide in Iraq. As we write, these crimes are being perpetrated against the city of Fallujah. US war planes are launching their most powerful bombs against the civilian population, killing and wounding hundreds of innocent people. Their tanks are pounding the city with heavy artillery. As you know, there is no military presence in the city. There have been no actions by the resistance in Fallujah in the last few weeks because negotiations are in progress between representatives of the city and the Allawi government. The new bombardment by the US has begun while the people are fasting during the celebration of Ramadan. Now many of them are trapped in the ruins of their homes and cut off from any outside assistance. On the night of 13 October a single US bombardment destroyed 50 houses and their inhabitants. Is this a crime of genocide or a lesson about US democracy? The US is committing acts of terror against the people of Fallujah for only one reason to force them to accept the occupation. Your excellency and the whole world know that the US and their allies have destroyed our country on the pretext of the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Now, after their own mass destruction and the killing of thousands of civilians, they have admitted that they have not found any. But they have said nothing about the crimes they have committed. The whole world is silent, and even the killing of Iraqi civilians is not condemned. Will the US be paying compensation, as it made Iraq do after the 1991 Gulf War? We know that we live in a world of double standards. In Fallujah the US has created a new and shadowy target "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi is a new excuse to justify the USAs criminal actions. A year has passed since this new excuse was dreamed up, and every time they attack homes, mosques and restaurants, killing women and children, they say. We have launched a successful operation against al-Zarqawi. They will never say they have killed him, because he does not exist. The people of Fallujah assure you that this person is not in the city, nor probably anywhere else in Iraq. Many times the people of Fallujah have asked that if anyone sees al-Zarqawi they should kill him. We know now that he is nothing but a phantom created by the US. Our representatives have repeatedly denounced kidnapping and killing of civilians. We have nothing to do with any group that acts in an inhumane manner. We call on you and the leaders of the world to exert the greatest pressure on the Bush administration to end its crimes against Fallujah and pull its army back from the city. When they left a while ago, the city had peace and tranquillity. There was no disorder in the city. The civil administration here functioned well, despite the lack of resources. Our offence is simply that we did not welcome the forces of occupation. This is our right according to UN Charter, according to international law and according to the norms of humanity. It is very urgent that you, along with other world leaders, intervene immediately to prevent another massacre. We have tried to contact UN representatives in Iraq to ask them to do this but, as you know, they are sealed off in the maximum security Green Zone in Baghdad and we are not allowed access to them. We want the UN to take a stand on the situation in Fallujah. Best wishes, in the name of the people of Fallujah, the shura council of Fallujah, the trade union association, the teachers union, and the council of tribal leaders " Kassim Abdullsattar al-Jumaily: President The Study Center of Human Rights & Democracy On behalf of the people of Fallujah and for: Al-Fallujah Shura Council The Bar Association The Teacher Union Council of Tribes Leaders The House of Fatwa and Religious Education ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE From impulse at bol.net.in Tue Nov 2 13:34:07 2004 From: impulse at bol.net.in (Kavita Joshi) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 13:34:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] This is Radio People's Republic Message-ID: <013701c4c0b3$3aa223c0$afc09fca@kavita> "This is Radio People's Republic." The Maoists are taking the revolution to the airwaves with their own FM radio RAMESWOR BOHARA in NEPALGANJ SOURCE: The Nepali Times, No. 215, 24-30 September, 2004 An increasing number of antennas are popping up on rooftops all over midwestern Nepal. They aren't for tv, but radio aerials to help people in the western tarai catch the FM broadcasts of the Maoists' clandestine Radio Janabadi Ganatantra. The broadcasts are feeble and not regular since the mobile transmitters are always on the move to avoid detection. But people listen anyway, more to find out the Maoist partyline than out of a desire to get information. "We don't really believe what they say on the radio, it's mostly political slogans, but it is interesting to find out what they are saying and planning," says one Gulariya resident, who did not want to be named. A year ago, the rebels launched the broadcasts without much fanfare. The Maoists are currently broadcasting on 100 mhz and say they have a transmitter mast with a capacity of up to 500 kilowatt. This would make the station as powerful as Radio Sagarmatha in Kathmandu. Locals need to hook their battery radio to an aerial to be able to catch the signal properly. The broadcasts began last year from the Maoist heartland of Thawang in Rolpa. The Bheri-Karnali Broadcasting Service followed, and now they have also begun the Seti-Mahakali Broadcasting Service. A typical news broadcast this week went as follows: "Because of a courageous ambush laid by the brave people's liberation army, 22 Royal American Army soldiers have been killed and a huge quantity of arms and ammunition have been recovered." The rest of the news contained excerpts of speeches by various leaders of the autonomous regional 'people's governments', information on those on whom a sentence of 'safaya' has been declared as well as announcements on forthcoming bandas and blockades. Locals are not very surprised by the propaganda-laden style and language of the Maoists broadcast, and tell us it is not so different from what state-owned Radio Nepal broadcasts in its news about "so many terrorists killed and a large amount of explosives, detonators and documents captured". But the rebel radio is one notch ahead in the use of jargon and derogatory labels like "killer king" or "Royal American Army". Lately, there is also a lot of abuse hurled at the "reactionary Indian government for supporting the fascist regime" in Kathmandu. For programs that are supposed to create awareness and win over public opinion, the language is crude and provocative, but it does seem to work in some places. One recent evening, the radio announcer repeated in a shrill voice: "We must uproot any state power responsible for discrimination." Some dalit listeners nodded their heads in agreement. Rebel leaders told us they have been trying to improve their radio presentation skills by being less propagandistic and more persuasive. "We have already begun giving journalism training to our correspondents and program producers," says Maoist Banke-Bardia in-charge, Anal. The Bheri-Karnali service broadcasts three times a day on 100 mhz. From 6-7AM there are discussions, current affairs and liberation songs with a news bulletin at the end. The afternoon transmission airs 'people's songs' and a news bulletin. In the evening, transmission begins at approximately 6PM and usually goes on for three hours with the day's news in Nepali and local languages. Agriculture, health, education, communist philosophy and rousing liberation songs are also aired. The radio targets minorities and ethnic communities, and exhorts them to rise up against oppression. A rebel journalist told us their studio equipment is still rudimentary, and none of the programs are aired live. The broadcasts are irregular, and sometimes the transmissions stop for weeks without explanation. The Maoists' regional communication in-charge, Biswajit, explains that this is because their transmitter has to be moved often to avoid detection. The stations have their own correspondents across the midwest. One of the senior Maoists looking after the broadcasts, Hari Das 'Prakhar', was killed in action three months ago, an event covered in detail by Radio Ganatantra. Ironically, the first people to notice the Maoist's Bheri-Karnali broadcasts were the security forces. Sentries guarding the television tower in Surkhet intercepted the signals but were not able to pinpoint the location of the transmitter accurately. The most dedicated listeners in fact seem to be the security forces, who say they tune in to find out what the enemy has to say. *** From coolzanny at hotmail.com Tue Nov 2 15:57:16 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 15:57:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Local Trains Revisited Message-ID: 2nd November 2004 Byculla to Dombivali and back Local Trains Revisited TIME: This morning I had promised to meet Supriya at Dombivali station by 8:00 AM. I was to board the 8:13 Ladies Special with her to be with her train group and talk to them. I woke up late. At Byculla Station, I was left only with the option of boarding the 7:14 Kasara local to make it in time to Dombivali. Yet, I was very unsure whether I would be able to make it on time. This morning, I was struggling with time. My appointment with Supriya could not be postponed or delayed because after all, it was about the 8:13 Local Train which would not make any exceptions for me unless it was itself delayed. I calmed myself and decided that in the worst case, I would get off at some station in between and board the train from there. Along the way, I was imagining Supriya�s train group. For the last few months, I have been this �outsider� researcher who would watch life unfolding and being played out in the compartments. Now, I am stepping �inside�. I am a bit nervous while I step inside because it brings along with it too many elements. I am also beginning to imagine that once �inside� with this group, perhaps news about me will spread along the Central Railway Train Networks and I might soon become a visible personality. I am a bit frightened with this prospect � do I wish to become visible? Or am I playing it safe by being this �outside watcher�? Though I have desired to be this �Everyday Heroine�, I find it might cost me too much in terms of my privacy and private world. Even though I take the position of a �researcher�, I become a representative because I am telling stories. Can I be a representative? Am I willing to be bold? Supriya has been very excited about introducing me to her group. In fact, she has been waiting for me with her group since the last twenty days. I don�t know exactly why she is excited. Earlier, when I used to interview people for the research, I distinctly remember Shanta Nayak who had said to me, �My daughters insisted that I give you an interview. They said to me, �mummy, tomorrow if she writes a book you will become famous!�� Perhaps that�s exactly it � I am giving a face to the everyday person who goes unnoticed. Maybe my writings will influence Laloo to do something about the condition of the local trains here. But frankly, I am not intending anything of these sorts � I am just attempting to understand my locality and on a more surreptitious agenda, I am trying to get inside people�s minds to understand them better because as Theodre Zeldin says in his book, �Toleration is not enough � you have to get inside people�s minds to understand them!� TIME: - Through all these thoughts, anxieties and excitement, I made it to Dombivali railway station exactly at 8:11 AM, two precious minutes before the train arrived! Supriya�s Train Group: There is a lot to say about them. But I am going to be very, very brief here. So briefly, there are about ten of them and now with Diwali around, some are on leave and vacation. It is a lively group, consisting of the young and the old. Yeshu mausi who is the oldest member of the group tells me that the group is ten years old! It is a Ladies Special group. I don�t remember everybody�s names today but I am going to be with them for a week or fortnight. Already, Supriya has spoken about me to another woman who in turn has invited me to be with �their� group as well. Train groups have their fixed territory. Supriya tells me that two groups are there in that segment of the compartment. Yet, the other group members will not come and sit in the area of Supriya�s group even if there is a vacant seat. They always prefer to sit around their group. Thus train groups change the character of the compartment which I believe is a transitory space. Perhaps these train groups introduce an element of regularity in the compartment space. One of the members who is ill yet most talkative begins a discussion, �Western Railway is posh. In my lifetime, I wish that once I get to live in a Western Railway suburb.� Mrs. Kulkarni, the other elderly member of the group retorts, �It is just your fanciful desire, that�s it. The other day, I heard some Western railway commuter say in the train that Central Railway commuters are not civilized.� The talkative woman affirmed, �Of course,� she said, one hand towards the earth and the other towards the sky, �We central people are here (in the morass) while the Western crowd is up there.� There were disagreements flying around. A younger member of the group said that the talkative woman has her maiden home in the Western suburbs and hence the view that she holds! Later, another member joined in the group and she said to me, �We don�t like Western Railway people. They don�t accept us among themselves!� Her words struck me �they don�t accept us!� Talkative woman then began telling me openly, �You see, there is lots of politics in the group. Eh Supriya,� she said turning towards Supriya, �she is your friend nah? You must tell all our codes and signs so she will understand! This Yeshu Mausi and Kulkarni are the biggest politicians around here. If I say something and there is a discussion, Yeshu Mausi will always nod her head in affirmation saying haan haan.� Yeshu Mausi laughed and said, �Well, if you have already got affirmations then why ask me. I am always going to yes everything.� In the meanwhile, there is another political discussion going around. Kulkarni is telling the talkative lady, �Eh you, you should not twist my words, you should not �maniculate� my words. When I said that Nanda is a surekh (cultured and decent) girl, I meant it. She may have negative points, but to me, everyone is surekh. Does not mean that I am siding with her or being political by saying nice things about her.� Kulkarni went on using the word �maniculate� to everyone. It is her Marathi pronunciation for �manipulate�. Supriya tells me that Avantika serial, a popular Marathi soap is frequently discussed in their group, especially when someone misses an episode on some day. Each one of them is curious and asking me what I do. Each one wants a clear understanding of my �job�. One of them wonders whether all I do is commute by trains each day and idle around the rest of the day! I have been facing this �problem� of explaining my work to people, trying to de-link my personal identity from my �job�. One by one, each member comes and talks to me, pointing out different facets of life in the compartment. �See, this lady sells Avon cosmetics everyday in the morning,� Supriya tells me. Kulkarni talks to me about Sujata who sells clothes in the train apart from her regular job, �We each support her by buying dresses from her. She has to pay off her dues on her flat, so she does this extra side income thing. Like that there are several women who this, belonging to the middle class, lower middle class. We don�t view them as inferior. Rather, we support them.� I take out my digital camera to click photos. Everyone is excited. Kulkarni talks to me of her daughter who has a digital video camera worth 35,000 rupees. �From Dubai,� she tells me. Supriya tells me that Kulkarni�s daughter lives in Dubai. I am curious. I asked Kulkarni if she has ever been to Dubai. �I have two daughters, one in Bahrain and one in Dubai. I have been to both places. To put it simply, Dubai is like Cuffe Parade, posh ekdum while Bahrain is like Badlapur, ekdum backward. Dubai you have all the facilities. A person born in Dubai is not going to be able to like living anywhere else. In Dubai, even when you have to go out to buy fruits and vegetables, you have to weak posh clothes and move out. It�s like that over there!� Earlier in the journey, the women were discussing about their Diwali shopping trips. One was showing her saree purchases to the others. Another brought out an imitation jewellery set which she had purchased for the festivities. �Aree, these days the shop owners don�t bargain because it is festival time and everybody is on the shopping spree. But, you must go to Crawford market at 10 AM in the morning, just when the market is opening up. Then you can get good bargains.� Yeshu mausi added, �What dramas. The other day, a friend asked me to give her a missed call on her cell phone while she was bargaining with the shopkeeper. She wanted to get him to reduce the prices further by this tactic!� Talkative woman said to others, �We should at least a house of our own in Mumbai city. That is when you feel secure.� There were discussions about vacation plans and how frequent outstation trips are an expense. Then there was a debate on spending versus saving, the usual present versus future debates. Each of these conversations was very valuable to me. I am coming to believe that the conversations that people have on the local train have a very important impact on the city�s organization � where to shop, what to buy, housing, etc. I believe these local trains are like Jane Jacobs� sidewalks where people meet, interact and ultimately, this has a bearing on the city as a whole! _________________________________________________________________ Strike the perfect match on BharatMatrimony.com. http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/cgi-bin/bmclicks1.cgi?74 Join FREE From coolzanny at hotmail.com Tue Nov 2 15:59:00 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 15:59:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Bua Message-ID: 25th October 2004 Nirala Residential Area Khulna, Bangladesh Bua While I write and muse about the hawkers in this city, I remember Bua and her baari (home) which lie right in the middle of the houses in the Nirala Neighbourhood. This is dui number shesh madha Nirala (i.e. fag end of the second cross in Nirala). Water bodies abound everywhere in Khulna and dui number also has a vast stretch of a pond. Bua resides with her family on a plot of land in the middle, built houses surrounding her on all sides. You can also get the river view from her home and with a little two-minute walk, the river is right before you. (Talk of prime property and estates to a Mumbaitte!) But Bua�s setup is not the claustrophobic slum or chawl kinds, the likes of which you would frequently encounter in Mumbai. Bua has a comfortable abode with ample open and breathing space on all sides. Yet she says she is poor. Probably her poverty emerges from her mind, especially when she looks at her straw built house as against the concrete structures surrounding her eye and mind�s vision on all sides. Then of course, Bua has problems with electricity and perhaps some water problems too. But the main issue is that of privacy which she skillfully maintains much to a professional architect�s chagrin! Before I proceed, let me tell you who is Bua. I don�t know her �real� name. The neighbours used to call her Hafeeza�s Ma (i.e. Hafeeza�s mother) because Hafeeza works in their home. I have always known her as Bua. She used to do the cooking and a little bit of cleaning in the home where I was living in Khulna. She is a fantastic cook, somebody who can dish out a five-star affair even with bleak ingredients at hand. She could also be a TV star, fitting into the roles of the high society women in the Ekta Kapoor and current genre of Hindi serials. She has these bluish grey eyes, is tall, fairly well built and has a smart personality. Her gait and her sing song voice could reach her to the top of charts if only someone casts the look on her (I mean a producer or a casting director or something). But until such time, she is Bua, mother of five girls and grandmother to a boy. She belongs to the economic category of the poor in Bangladesh, though there are segments worse off than her. Her asset is a cycle rickshaw which her husband pulls throughout the day. And of course her skills which fetch her employment! We will take a brief journey into Bua�s home, pictures of which I promise to load on a nice site soon (and I am holding my ears while making this promise!). As an individual who is perpetually thinking in terms of words, I entered with my digital camera into her house (and here is where I become a schizophrenic, ferociously anxious between the border of the visual and the verbal). The plan of the house is simple. From the outside, it is a straw structure with an amazing view (open land, like I had mentioned earlier). My eyes immediately darted towards Bua�s kitchen. After all, that�s the association I primarily draw with her. It was a simple space made of four bamboo sticks and weak straw wall. There was a mud cooking hearth and some vessels there. Her kitchen is simple, really a space rather than a structure made to look full with clutter. The kitchen lies immediately outside the house. We then step inside Bua�s house. Each room has a long wooden bed because each room functions simultaneously as a bedroom and a living room. There are three rooms in all, each leading to the other. Bua has made an attempt to define the boundaries for each room, boundaries which are assertive as well as fluid. The boundary which is most assertive is that of Bua�s own bedroom which we must take at face value. As I entered her house, I noticed that she decorates her home with perfume and talcum powder bottles which we normally throw away after use. She even goes to the extent of preserving the cardboard boxes in which these bottles are packaged. There is a little wooden rack where she displays her other assets including some utensils. There are a couple of cupboards, the contents of which are a mystery to me. While I navigate between the two rooms, I enter Bua�s bedroom at which point I couldn�t resist my temptation and I asked, �Eta aapnar room na Bua, mane bedroom? (Isn�t this your own room, I mean bedroom?)� Bua smiled and nodded. She has secured the privacy of this room very carefully. There is a cloth which serves as the door. The window is a metallic jaali which she has adorned with curtains. The view from this bedroom is super, lush green. The other open end is also secured with a thick blanket. It is a squashed room with only enough space for the bed to fit in. Below the bed are some ducks, again Bua�s assets. The bedroom looks like an appendage to the house depending on which perspective you see it from. While on the bedroom, I began to imagine Bua�s private life, the processes of procreation preceded by lovemaking, privacy guarded by thin and thick veils of cloth! I walk out to notice a little fenced area which Bua explains to me as �bagh� (garden). It is a fairly well kept garden with defined boundaries. I was so taken up that I have named the photo of her garden as Baghbaan (is it too tacky a name???)! The bagh then leads into the bath which is also a toilet. The door of the bath is secured with a jute cloth-like curtain which can be drawn when the person is inside. It is no elaborate bath/toilet. There is a deep hole dug into the earth which I believe serves as the toilet and there are two mud pots which serve as buckets. That�s it! Bua�s is not the only home space like this on a prime plot amidst houses in Nirala. There are other Buas with their houses in the middle of other concrete structures at regular intervals. Thus far, neither of them is under threat or surveillance from the government or the city�s elite to be thrown out as illegal migrants or �encroachers� (which seems like the most despised term among the cityzens). There is a mutual dependence between Bua and the surrounding residents. They need her for their household chores and she needs them for her sustenance and livelihood. And in my logical understanding, those who need her must take care of her and protect her. It appears that the hawkers who sit with their wares on the roadside at the Nirala mod market are also under eviction (is this becoming some kind of a regional phenomenon?). You must note that these hawkers belong to the very poor bracket of economic class. Some of them have a simple plastic sheet on which they spread out their wares. Apparently, the police are at them too, with their lathis and authority. I am not sure whether to associate this move against hawkers with the rise in shopping malls but my suspicions are in this direction, coupled with increasingly narrow claims on public space by the �public� and the �state�. I wonder what the hawker is in the imagination of the city �resident� � is he just the bastard encroacher? During Masters classes in Political Theory, our professor would often state how the hawkers are critical because they provide cheap goods and at timely hours too and that their eviction would cost a lot to the neighbourhoods. I am confused � _________________________________________________________________ Strike the perfect match on BharatMatrimony.com. http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/cgi-bin/bmclicks1.cgi?74 Join FREE From definetime at rediffmail.com Mon Nov 1 18:34:53 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 1 Nov 2004 13:04:53 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) The colonial precedent Message-ID: <20041101130453.3808.qmail@webmail17.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041101/b430dcea/attachment.html -------------- next part --------------   The colonial precedent The growing brutality and deception of the Iraq war mirrors Britain's recent imperial history Mark Curtis Tuesday October 26, 2004 The Guardian The redeployment of British forces in Iraq to support a US assault on Falluja marks another stage in a creeping return to the colonial era, when popular revolts against occupation were routinely suppressed by overwhelming force. These past episodes, revealed in declassified British government files, provide numerous parallels with Iraq, and suggest a pattern of future blunders and atrocities. Those in Britain who like to regard more recent military interventions as humanitarian might dwell on those parallels as the latest phase of the Iraq war unfolds. British ministers' claim to be defending civilisation against barbarity in Iraq finds a powerful echo in 1950s Kenya, when Britain sought to smash an uprising against colonial rule. Yet, while the British media and political class expressed horror at the tactics of the Mau Mau, the worst abuses were committed by the occupiers. The colonial police used methods like slicing off ears, flogging until death and pouring paraffin over suspects who were then set alight. British forces killed around 10,000 Kenyans during the Mau Mau campaign, compared with the 600 deaths among the colonial forces and European civilians. Some British battalions kept scoreboards recording kills, and gave £5 rewards for the first sub-unit to kill an insurgent, whose hands were often chopped off to make fingerprinting easier. "Free fire zones" were set up, where any African could be shot on sight. As opposition to British rule intensified, brutal "resettlement" operations, which led to the deaths of tens of thousands, forced around 90,000 into detention camps. In this 1950s version of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, forced labour and beatings were systematic and disease rampant. Former camp officers described "short rations, overwork, brutality and flogging" and "Japanese methods of torture". Guerrillas resisting British rule were routinely designated "terrorists", as now in Iraq. Britain never admitted that it was opposing a popular, nationalist rebellion in Kenya. Similarly, leftwing Malayan insurgents fighting British rule in the 1950s had strong popular support among the Chinese community but were officially called "terrorists". In secret, however, Foreign Office correspondence described the war as being fought "in defence of [the] rubber industry", then controlled by British and European companies. But under the banner of fighting communism, British forces were given free rein in Malaya. Collective punishments were inflicted on villages for aiding insurgents. A shoot-to-kill policy was promoted, tens of thousands of people were removed into "new villages" and used as cheap labour, and British soldiers had themselves photographed holding guerrillas' decapitated heads. The idea that the revolt was ended through "winning hearts and minds" is a myth; it was crushed by overwhelming force, such as massive aerial bombing. The brutality needed to be kept secret, a key theme in suppressing revolts. After Britain intervened to crush a rebellion in Oman in 1957, an internal Foreign Office minute stated that "we want to avoid the RAF killing Arabs if possible, especially as there will be newspaper correspondents on the spot". The British army commander in Oman later noted that "great pains were taken throughout the Command to keep all operational actions out of the press". The reason for this was that Britain committed numerous war crimes in Oman, including the systematic bombing of civilian targets such as water supplies and farms. These attacks "would deter dissident villages from gathering their crops" and ensure "denial of water", officials stated in private. Bombing was intended to "show the population the power of weapons at our disposal" and to convince them that "resistance will be fruitless and lead only to hardship". Britain was defending an extremely repressive regime where smoking in public, playing football and talking to anyone for more than 15 minutes were banned. Yet Harold Macmillan told President Kennedy in a 1957 telegram that "we believe that the sultan is a true friend to the west and is doing his best for his people". As Blair and Bush claim to support democracy in Iraq, it is as well to remember that London and Washington have almost always opposed popular, democratic forces in the Middle East, preferring strong regimes capable of bringing "order". Britain's stance on the US war in Vietnam offers other useful lessons. Just as Tony Blair poses as providing a brake on US tactics in Iraq, Harold Wilson claimed to do the same over Vietnam. Yet Britain secretly backed the US in every stage of military escalation. In July 1965, when the US doubled its ground troop numbers in Vietnam, Wilson privately reassured President Johnson of his support for US policies "in the interests of peace and stability". The Wilson-Johnson correspondence highlights a shocking level of connivance between No 10 and the White House to deceive the public. When the US first bombed Hanoi and Haiphong in June 1966, Wilson issued a statement disassociating the government from the bombing. Yet this statement had been passed to the US for approval while Wilson assured Johnson that "I cannot see that there is any change in your basic position that I could urge on you." The myth in Iraq that Britain is not complicit in US brutalities has its precedent in Vietnam. Declassified files show that, in 1962, Britain covertly sent an SAS team to south Vietnam under "temporary civilian status", to help train soldiers of the dictatorial regime of President Diem. Britain secretly provided arms and intelligence support to the US to improve US bombing. Moreover, brutal US "counter-insurgency" programmes were based on prototypes developed by British advisers. Britain's "Delta Plan" for the south Vietnamese regime, described by the Foreign Office as intended "to dominate, control and win over the population" in rural areas, became the US "strategic hamlets" programme, which forced millions of Vietnamese peasants into fortified villages that resembled concentration camps. As in Iraq, the publicly proclaimed search for peace was largely a charade. A senior Foreign Office official wrote in 1965: "The government are fighting a continuous rearguard action to preserve British diplomatic support for American policy in Vietnam. They can only get away with this by constantly emphasising that our objective, and that of the Americans, is a negotiated settlement". These episodes highlight the gulf between what ministers have told the public and what they have understood to be the case in private. The declassified secret files point to some harsh truths about current policy in Iraq: that the war is not about what our leaders say it is (democracy), is not primarily against who they say it is (terrorists) and is not being conducted for whom they say it is (Iraqis). Iraqis are in practice regarded as "unpeople" whose deaths matter little in the pursuit of western power; the major block on committing atrocities is the fear of being exposed and ministers will do all they can to cover them up. The public is the major threat to their strategy, which explains why they resort to public deception campaigns. If, as must be expected, atrocities now multiply in Iraq - with Britain complicit - we cannot claim we were not warned. · Mark Curtis' new book, Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses, is published next month by Vintage. From ksvenkat at ee.iitm.ernet.in Tue Nov 2 13:06:29 2004 From: ksvenkat at ee.iitm.ernet.in (K.S.Venkataraghavan) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 13:06:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gandhi and Gujarat Message-ID: <418738FD.8020807@ee.iitm.ernet.in> Hi Could you provide Me the originals about the reference you made in this about gandhi's stance about ayodhya in Faizabad.?? A few years later, Gandhi expresses himself on the then almost un-known dispute about the so-called "Ram Janmabhoomi" at Ayodhya in Faizabad. On 15 May 1937, Ramgopal Pandey "Shaarad" writes a letter to Gandhi about the Ram Janmabhoomi question, expressing a desire to know his opinion. Gandhi replies to this in the Navjeevan of 27-7-1937. This letter and the reply are given in entirety below -- "Shaarad"'s letter to Gandhi : "Shri Ayodhyaji 15-5-1937 etc etc ************************************** It seems Navjivan and Young India have stopped publishing in 1932 itself. regards Venkat > Shuddhabrata Sengupta shuddha at sarai.net > > Sat Apr 27 16:11:14 CEST 2002 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041102/459a03a3/attachment.html From jeebesh at sarai.net Thu Nov 4 19:52:32 2004 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:52:32 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Road to Abu Ghraib - Jon Ronson Message-ID: <418A3B28.40601@sarai.net> http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,1339464,00.html *[· *This is an edited extract from The Men Who Stare At Goats, by Jon Ronson, published by Picador on November 19 at £16.99. To order a copy for £16.14, with free UK p&p, call 0870 836 0875. Jon Ronson's three-part television series, The Crazy Rulers Of The World, starts on Channel 4 on November 7.] *The road to Abu Ghraib* In the wake of Vietnam, the US military were demoralised and prey to some fairly crazy ideas. They thought they could train 'super soldiers' with psychic powers. In this first extract from his revealing new book, Jon Ronson describes how their aspirations were perverted in the prisons of Iraq *Saturday October 30, 2004 The Guardian * It is the summer of 1983. Major General Albert Stubblebine III is sitting behind his desk in Arlington, Virginia, and he is staring at his wall, upon which hang his numerous military awards. They detail a long and distinguished career. He is the US army's chief of intelligence, with 16,000 soldiers under his command. He controls numerous covert counter-intelligence and spying units, scattered throughout the world. He would be in charge of the prisoner-of-war interrogations, too, except this is 1983, and the war is cold, not hot. He looks past his awards to the wall itself. There is something he feels he needs to do even though the thought of it frightens him. He thinks about the choice he has to make. He can stay in his office or he can go into the next office. He has made his decision. He is going into the next office. He stands up, moves out from behind his desk and begins to walk. He thinks to himself, what is the atom mostly made up of anyway? Space! He quickens his pace. What am I mostly made up of? Atoms! He is almost at a jog now. What is the wall mostly made up of, he thinks. Atoms! All I have to do is merge the spaces. The wall is an illusion. Then General Stubblebine bangs his nose hard on the wall of his office. He is confounded by his continual failure to walk through his wall. There is no doubt in his mind that the ability to pass through objects will one day be a common tool in the intelligence-gathering arsenal. And when that happens, well, is it too naive to believe it would herald the dawning of a world without war? Who would want to screw around with an army that could do that? These powers are attainable, so the only question is, by whom? Who in the military is already geared towards this kind of thing? And then the answer comes to him. Special Forces! This is why, in the late summer of 1983, General Stubblebine flies down to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Fort Bragg is vast - a town guarded by armed soldiers, with a mall, a cinema, restaurants, golf courses, and accommodation for 45,000 soldiers and their families. The general's meeting is in the Special Forces Command Centre. "I'm coming down here with an idea," he begins. The commanders nod. "If you have a unit operating outside the protection of mainline units, what happens if somebody gets wounded?" He surveys the blank faces around the room. "Psychic healing!" he says. "If you use your mind to heal, you can probably come out with your whole team alive and intact." The Special Forces commanders don't look particularly interested in psychic healing. "OK," says General Stubblebine. The reception he's getting is really quite chilly. "Wouldn't it be a neat idea if you could teach somebody to do this?" General Stubblebine rifles through his bag and produces, with a flourish, bent cutlery. Silence. He tries again. "Animals!" says General Stubblebine. The Special Forces commanders glance at one another. "Stopping the hearts of animals," he continues. "Bursting the hearts of animals. This is the idea I'm coming in with. You have access to animals, right?" "Uh," say Special Forces. "Not really ... " General Stubblebine's trip to Fort Bragg was a disaster. It still makes him blush to recall it. He ended up taking early retirement in 1984. His doomed attempt to walk through his wall and his seemingly futile journey to Fort Bragg have remained undisclosed until the moment he told me about them in the Tarrytown Hilton in upstate New York on a cold winter's day two years into the war on terror. "You know," he said, "I really thought they were great ideas. I still do." What the general didn't know, as he proposed his clandestine animal heart-bursting programme, was that Special Forces were concealing the fact that they did have access to animals, there were a hundred goats in a shed just a few yards down the road. General Stubblebine, I discovered, had commanded a secret military psychic spying unit between 1981 and 1984. The unit wasn't quite as glamorous as it might sound, he said. It was basically half a dozen soldiers sitting inside a heavily guarded, condemned clapboard building in Fort Meade, Maryland, trying to be psychic. Officially the unit did not exist. The psychics were what is known in military jargon as Black Op. When one of them got a vision - of a Russian warship, or a future event - he would sketch it, and pass the sketches up the chain of command. And then, in 1995, the CIA closed them down. I tracked down a former Special Forces psychic spy to Hawaii. Glenn Wheaton, retired sergeant first class, was a big man with a tight crop of red hair and a Vietnam-vet-style handlebar moustache. He told me how in the mid-1980s Special Forces undertook a secret initiative, codenamed Project Jedi, to create super soldiers - soldiers with super powers. One such power was the ability to walk into a room and instantly be aware of every detail; that was level one. Level two, he said, was intuition - making correct decisions. "Somebody runs up to you and says, 'There's a fork in the road. Do we turn left or do we turn right?' And you go" - Glenn snapped his fingers - "We go right!" "What was the level above that?" I asked. "Invisibility," said Glenn. "After a while we adapted it to just finding a way of not being seen." "What was the level above invisibility?" I asked. "Uh," said Glenn. He paused for a moment. "We had a master sergeant who could stop the heart of a goat ... just by wanting the goat's heart to stop. He did it at least once." "Where did this happen?" I asked. "Down in Fort Bragg," he said, "at a place called Goat Lab." Goat Lab, which exists to this day, is secret. Most of the soldiers who live and work within Fort Bragg don't even know of its existence. Those military personnel not in the loop, said Glenn, assume that the rickety clapboard hospital buildings dating from the second world war, are derelict. In fact, they are filled with one hundred de-bleated goats. Goat Lab was originally created as a clandestine laboratory to provide surgical training for Special Forces soldiers. During this more conventional phase of the goats' lives, each one was taken through a soundproofed door into a bunker and shot in the leg using a bolt gun. Then the Special Forces trainees would rush the goat into an operating theatre, anaesthetise it, dress the wound and nurse it back to health. Goat Lab used to be called Dog Lab, but it turned out that nobody wanted to do all that to dogs, so they switched to goats. It was apparently determined within Special Forces that it was just about impossible to form an emotional bond with a goat. I pressed Glenn: "Whose original idea was the goat staring?" Glenn sighed. He said a name. Over the next few months, others gave me the same name. It kept coming up. It is a name few people outside the military have ever heard. But this one man, armed with a passion for the occult and a belief in superhuman powers, has had a profound and hitherto unchronicled impact on almost every aspect of US army life. General Stubblebine's doomed attempt to pass through his wall was inspired by this man, as was - at the other end of the scale of secrecy - the US army's famous TV recruitment slogan, "Be All You Can Be". The man was named Jim Channon, and he, too, lives in Hawaii. Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon (retired) remembers exactly how it all began, the one precise moment that sparked the whole thing off. It was his first day in combat in Vietnam, and he found himself flying in one of 400 helicopters, thundering above the Song Dong Nai river, towards a place known to him as War Zone D. They landed among the bodies of the Americans who had failed to capture War Zone D four days earlier. "The soldiers," said Jim, "had been cooked in the sun and laid out like a wall." An American soldier to Jim's right jumped out of his helicopter and began firing wildly. Jim shouted at him to stop but the soldier couldn't hear him. So Jim leapt on him and wrestled him to the ground. And then a sniper fired a single shot at Jim's platoon. Everyone just stood there. The sniper fired again, and the Americans started running towards the one and only palm tree in sight. Jim was running so fast that he skidded face first into it. He heard someone behind him shout: "VC in black pyjamas one hundred metres." About 20 seconds later, Jim thought to himself, Why is nobody shooting? What are they waiting for? They can't be waiting for me to instruct them to shoot, can they? "TAKE HIM OUT!" screamed Jim. And so the soldiers started shooting, and when it was over a small team walked forward to find the body. But, for all the gunfire, they had failed to hit the sniper. Moments later, the sniper killed one of Jim's soldiers with a bullet through his lungs. His name was Private First Class Shaw. When he returned to the US, it was Jim's job to drive around the country to meet parents and give them citations and the personal belongings of their dead children. It was during these long drives that Jim replayed in his mind the moments that had led to the death of Private First Class Shaw. Jim had yelled for his soldiers to kill the sniper, and they had all, as one, and with every shot, fired high. "This came to be understood as a common reaction when fresh soldiers fire on humans," Jim said. "It is not a natural thing to shoot people." (What Jim had seen tallied with studies conducted after the second world war by the military historian, General SLA Marshall. He interviewed thousands of American infantrymen and concluded that only 15-20% of them had actually shot to kill. The rest had fired high or not fired at all, busying themselves however else they could.) It was heartbreaking for Jim to realise that Private First Class Shaw had died because his fellow soldiers were impulsively guileless and kind-hearted, and not the killing machines the army wanted them to be. "The kind of person attracted to military service has a great deal of difficulty being ... cunning. We suffered in Vietnam from not being cunning. We just presented ourselves in our righteousness and we got our butts shot off." And so, in 1977, Jim wrote to the vice chief of staff for the army in the Pentagon, saying he wanted the army to learn how to be more cunning. He wanted to go on a fact-finding mission. The Pentagon agreed to pay Jim's salary and expenses. It was early in Steven Halpern's career as a composer of a series of meditation and subliminal CDs (titles include Achieving Your Ideal Weight and Nurturing Your Inner Child) that he met Jim Channon in 1978 at a New Age conference in California. Jim said he wanted somehow to use Steven's music to make the American soldier more peaceful, and he also hoped to deploy Steven's music in the battlefield to make the enemy feel more peaceful too. "He said he needed to convince the higher-up military brass; the top ranks," said Steven. "These are people who had never known a meditative state. I think he wanted to get them into it without naming it." Or maybe hypnotise them with subliminal sounds? Steven told me a little about the power of subliminal sounds. One time, he said, an American evangelical church blasted the congregation with silent sounds during the hymns. At the end of the service, they found their donations had tripled. Almost all the people Jim visited during his two-year journey were, like Steven Halpern, Californians. Jim went through Reichian rebirthing, primal arm-wrestling, and naked hot-tub encounter sessions at the Esalen Institute. He saw it as America's role "to lead the world to paradise". He returned from his journey in 1979 and produced what he called First Earth Battalion Operations Manual. The manual was a 125-page mixture of drawings and graphs and maps and polemical essays and point by point redesigns of every aspect of military life. The new battlefield uniform would include pouches for ginseng regulators, divining tools, foodstuffs to enhance night vision and a loudspeaker that would automatically emit "indigenous music and words of peace". Soldiers would carry with them into hostile countries "symbolic animals" such as lambs. The soldiers would learn to give the enemy "an automatic hug". There was, Jim accepted, a possibility that these measures might not be enough to pacify an enemy. In that eventuality, the loudspeakers attached to the uniforms would be switched to broadcast "discordant sounds". Bigger loudspeakers would be mounted on military vehicles, each playing acid rock music out of synch with the other to confuse the enemy. Back on base, robes and hoods would be worn for the mandatory First Earth Battalion rituals. The misogynistic and aggressive old chants ("I don't know but I've been told, Eskimo pussy is mighty cold ...") would be phased out and replaced by a new one: "Om." First Earth Battalion trainees would "attain the power to pass through objects such as walls, bend metal with their minds, walk on fire, calculate faster than a computer, stop their own hearts with no ill effects, see into the future, be able to hear and see other people's thoughts". Now all Jim had to do was sell these ideas to the military. He presented his great plan to his commanders at the officers' club in Fort Knox in the spring of 1979 - four-star generals and major generals and brigadier generals and colonels - and he had them captivated. Word spread. General Stubblebine was a West Point man with a master's degree in chemical engineering from Columbia. He learned about the First Earth Battalion when he was stationed at the army's Intelligence School in Arizona. Stubblebine's tenure as commander of Military Intelligence coincided with huge slashes in his budget. These were the post-Vietnam "draw down" days, and the Pentagon wanted their soldiers to achieve more with less money. Learning how to walk through walls and the like was an ambitious but inexpensive enterprise. And so it was that Jim Channon's madcap vision, triggered by his post-combat depression, found its way into the highest levels of the US military. In May 2003, shortly after President Bush had announced "the end of major hostilities" in the war in Iraq, a little piece of the First Earth Battalion philosophy was put into practice by PsyOps (US army Psychological Operations) behind a disused railway station in the tiny Iraqi town of al-Qa'im, on the Syrian border. The people of al-Qa'im did not know that Baghdad had fallen to coalition troops, so Sergeant Mark Hadsell and his PsyOps unit were there to distribute leaflets bearing the news. Adam Piore, a Newsweek journalist, was tagging along, covering the "end of major hostilities" from the PsyOps perspective. At that time it was pretty calm in al-Qa'im. By the end of the year, US forces would be under frequent guerrilla bombardment in the town. In November 2003, one of Saddam Hussein's air defence commanders - Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush - would die under interrogation right there at the disused train station. ("Natural causes," said the official US military statement. "Mowhoush's head was not hooded during questioning.") One night, Adam was hanging out in the squadron command centre when Sergeant Hadsell wandered over to him. He winked conspiratorially and said, "Go look out by where the prisoners are." Adam knew that the prisoners were housed in a yard behind the train station. The army had parked a convoy of shipping containers back there, and as Adam wandered towards them he could see a bright flashing light. He could hear music too. It was Metallica's Enter Sandman. From a distance it looked as though some weird and slightly sinister disco was taking place. A young American soldier was holding a really bright light and he was flashing it on and off, on and off, into the shipping container. Enter Sandman was echoing violently around the steel walls. Adam stood there for a moment and watched. The song ended and then, immediately, it began again. The young soldier holding the light glanced over at Adam. He carried on flashing it and said, "You need to go away now." "Did you look inside the container?" I asked Adam when he was telling me this story two months later, back in the Newsweek offices in New York. "No," said Adam. "When the guy told me that I had to go away, I went away." He paused. "But it was kind of obvious what was going on in there." Adam called Newsweek from his cellphone and pitched them a number of stories. Their favourite was the Metallica one. "I was told to write it as a humorous thing," said Adam. "They wanted a complete play-list." So Adam asked around. It turned out that songs blasted at prisoners included the soundtrack to the movie XXX; a song that went "Burn Motherfucker Burn"; and, rather more surprisingly, the I Love You song from Barney the Purple Dinosaur's show, along with songs from Sesame Street. I first learned about the Barney torture story on May 19, 2003, when it ran as a funny, "And finally"-type item on NBC's Today show: Ann Curry (news anchor): US forces in Iraq are using what some are calling a cruel and unusual tool to break the resistance of Iraqi POWs, and trust me, a lot of parents would agree! Some prisoners are being forced to listen to Barney the Purple Dinosaur sing the I Love You song for 24 straight hours ... NBC cut to a clip from Barney, in which the purple dinosaur flopped around amid his gang of ever-smiling stage-school kids. Everyone in the studio laughed. Ann Curry put on a funny kind of "poor-little-prisoners"-type voice to report the story. It's the First Earth Battalion, I thought. I had no doubt that the notion of using music as a form of mental torture had been popularised and perfected within the military as a distortion of Jim's manual. Before he came along, military music was confined to the marching-band-type and other rousing music to fire up the troops. It was Jim who came up with the idea of using loudspeakers in the battlefield to broadcast "discordant sounds" such as "acid-rock music out of synch" to confuse the enemy, and the use of similar sounds in the interrogation arena. I called Jim right away. "They're rounding people up in Iraq, taking them to a shipping container, and blasting them repeatedly with children's music while repeatedly flashing a bright light at them," I said. "Is that one of your legacies?" "Yes!" Jim said. He sounded thrilled. "I'm so pleased to hear that!" Why? "They're obviously trying to lighten the environment," he said, "and give these people some comfort, instead of beating them to death!" I think Jim was imagining something more like a crèche than a steel container at the back of a disused railway station. "I guess if they play them Barney and Sesame Street once or twice," I said, "that's lightening and comforting, but if they play it, say, 50,000 times into a steel box in the desert heat, that's more ... uh ... torturous?" "I'm no psychologist," said Jim, a little sharply. "But the use of music ..." I said. "That's what the First Earth Battalion did," said Jim. "It opened the military mind to how to use music." Barney had become the funniest joke of the war. Within hours of Adam Piore's Newsweek article appearing, the internet was aflame with Barney torture-related wisecracks such as "An endless loop of the theme song from Titanic by Celine Dion would be infinitely worse! They'd confess everything within 10 minutes!" Adam himself had told me that he was finding the impact of his Barney story quite baffling. It was picked up everywhere, and was invariably treated as a humorous story. "It was sort of outrageous to be in this shit hole up on the border in an abandoned train station, totally uncomfortable, unable to take showers, sleeping on cots, and when we finally got cable a couple of days later, scrolling across the screen is this ... Barney story." Kenneth Roth, of Human Rights Watch, was clearly sick of talking about Barney by the time I caught up with him. "They have," said Kenneth, "been very savvy in that respect." "Savvy?" I said. He seemed to be implying that the Barney story had been deliberately disseminated just so all the human rights violations being committed in post-war Iraq could be reduced to this one joke. When I returned to the UK, I found I had been sent seven photographs. They were taken by a Newsweek photographer, Patrick Andrade, in May 2003, and captioned, "An escaped detainee is returned to a holding area in al-Qa'im, Iraq." There is no sign of loudspeakers, but the pictures do show the interior of one of the shipping containers behind the disused railway station. In the first of the photographs, two powerfully built American soldiers are pushing the detainee through a landscape of corrugated iron and barbed wire. He doesn't look hard to push. He is as skinny as a rake. A rag covers his face. One of the soldiers has a handgun pressed to the back of his neck. In all the other photographs, the detainee is inside the shipping container. He is barefoot, a thin plastic strap binds his ankles and he's crouched against the silver corrugated wall. The metal floor is covered with brown dust and pools of liquid. Right at the back of the shipping container, deep in the shadows, you can just make out the figure of another detainee huddled on the floor, his face masked by a hood. Now the rag only covers the first man's eyes, so you can see his face, which is lined, like an old man's, but his wispy moustache reveals that he's probably about 17. There's an open wound on one of his skinny arms. He might have done terrible things. I know nothing about him other than these seven fragments of his life. But I can say this. In the last photograph he is screaming so hard it almost looks as if he's laughing. * * A week or two passed. And then the other photographs appeared. They were of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib jail on the outskirts of Baghdad. A 21-year-old US reservist called Private Lynndie England had been snapped leading a naked man across the floor on a leash. She featured in many of the photographs. It was she who knelt laughing behind a pile of naked prisoners. They had been forced to build themselves into some kind of human pyramid. The pictures could hardly have been more repulsive. Here were young Muslim men - captives - being humiliated and overwhelmed by what looked like grotesque US sexual decadence. It struck me as an unhappy coincidence that Lynndie England and her friends had created a tableau that was the epitome of what would most disgust and repel the Iraqi people, those people whose hearts and minds were the great prize for the coalition forces - and also for the Islamic fundamentalists. The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, flew to the jail. He told the assembled troops that the events shown in the pictures were the work of "a few who have betrayed our values and sullied the reputation of our country. It was a body blow to me. Those who committed crimes will be dealt with, and the American people will be proud of it, and the Iraqi people will be proud." Lynndie England was arrested. By then she was back in the US, five months pregnant, performing desk duties at Fort Bragg. Then word got out through Lynndie England's lawyers that her defence was that she had been acting under orders, softening up the prisoners for interrogation, and that the people giving the orders were none other than Military Intelligence, the unit once commanded by Major General Albert Stubblebine III. It was sad to remember all that nose-banging and cutlery-bending, and see how General Stubblebine's good intentions had come to this. I called the general and asked him, "What was your first thought when you saw the photographs?" "My first thought," he said, "was 'Oh shit!'" "What was your second thought?" "Thank God that's not me at the bottom of that pyramid." "What was your third thought?" "My third thought," said the general, "was 'This was not started by some youngsters down in the trenches. This had to have been driven by the intelligence community.' Yep. Someone much higher in intelligence deliberately designed this, advocated it, directed it, trained people to do it. No doubt about it. And whoever that is, he's in deep hiding right now." "Military Intelligence?" I asked. "Your old people?" "It's a possibility," he said. "My guess is no." "Who then?" "The Agency," he said (meaning the CIA). "In conjunction with PsyOps?" I asked. "I'm sure they had a hand in it," said the general. "Sure. No doubt about it. You know, if they'd just stuck to Jim Channon's ideas ... " "By Jim Channon's ideas, do you mean the loud music?" I asked. "Yeah," said the general. "So the idea of blasting prisoners with loud music," I said, "definitely originated with the First Earth Battalion?" "Definitely," said the general. "No question. So did the frequencies." Frequencies, he said, dis-equilibrate people. "There's all kinds of things you can do with the frequencies. Jesus, you can take a frequency and make a guy have diarrhoea, make a guy sick to the stomach. I don't understand why they even had to do this crap you saw in the photographs. They should have just blasted them with frequencies!" On May 12, 2004, Lynndie England gave an interview to the Denver-based TV reporter Brian Maas: Maas : There's a photograph that was taken of you holding an Iraqi prisoner on a leash. How did that come about? England : I was instructed by persons in higher rank to "stand there, hold this leash and look at the camera". And they took a picture for PsyOps and that's all I know ... I was told to stand there, give the thumbs-up, smile, stand behind all of the naked Iraqis in the pyramid [have my picture taken]. Maas : Who told you to do that? England : Persons in my higher chain of command ... They were for PsyOps reasons and the reasons worked. So to us, we were doing our job, which meant we were doing what we were told, and the outcome was what they wanted. They'd come back and they'd look at the pictures and they'd state, "Oh, that's a good tactic, keep it up. That's working. This is working. Keep doing it, it's getting what we need." I was beginning to wonder whether the scenarios had, in fact, been carefully calculated by a PsyOps cultural specialist to present a vision that would most repel young Iraqi men. Could it be that the acts captured in the photographs were not the point, and that the photographs themselves were the thing? Were the photographs intended to be shown only to individual Iraqi prisoners to scare them into cooperating, rather than getting out and scaring the whole world? Joseph Curtis (not his real name) worked the night shift at the Abu Ghraib prison in the autumn of 2003. When I talked to him he had been exiled by the army to a town in Germany. The threat of a court martial hung over him. He had previously given an interview about what he had seen to an international press agency, thus incurring the wrath of his superiors. Even so, against his own better judgement, and against his lawyers' advice, he agreed to meet me, secretly, at an Italian restaurant in June 2004. We sat on the balcony of the restaurant and he pushed his food around his plate. "You ever see The Shining?" he said. "Yes," I said. "Abu Ghraib was like the Overlook Hotel," he said. "It was haunted." I assumed Joseph meant the place was full of spooks: intelligence officers - but the look on his face made me realise he didn't. "It was haunted," he said. "It got so dark at night. So dark. Under Saddam, people were dissolved in acid there. Women raped by dogs. Brains splattered all over the walls. This was worse than the Overlook Hotel because it was real. "It was like the building wanted to be back in business," he said. Joseph remarked that he couldn't believe how much money was floating around the army these days. These were the golden days, in budgetary terms. This was not a side issue. In January 2004, the influential think tank and lobbying group, GlobalSecurity, revealed that George W Bush's government had filtered more money into their Black Budget than any other administration in American history. Black Budgets often just fund Black Ops - highly sensitive and deeply shady projects such as assassination squads, and so on. But Black Budgets also fund schemes so bizarre that their disclosure might lead voters to believe their leaders have taken leave of their senses. Bush's administration had, by January 2004, channelled approximately $30bn into the Black Budget - to be spent on God knows what. "Abu Ghraib," Joseph was telling me, "was a tourist attraction. I remember one time I was woken up by two captains. 'Where's the death chamber?' They wanted to see the rope and the lever. When Rumsfeld came to visit, he didn't want to talk to the soldiers. All he wanted to see was the death chamber." Joseph took a bite of his food. "Yeah, the beast in man really came out at Abu Ghraib," he said. "You mean in the photographs?" I asked. "Everywhere," he said. "The senior leadership were screwing around with the lower ranks ... " I told Joseph I didn't understand what he meant. He said, "The senior leaders were having sex with the lower ranks. The detainees were raping each other." "Did you ever see any ghosts?" I asked him. "There was a darkness about the place," he replied. Joseph was in charge of the super-classified computer network at Abu Ghraib. His job didn't take him into the isolation block, even though it was just down the corridor, but on one occasion he was invited to see the model planes someone had made - and also to take a look at the "high values". (The "high values" were what the US army called the suspected terrorists, insurgent leaders, rapists or child-molesters.) He accepted the invitation. The isolation block was where all the photographs were taken - the human pyramid, and so on. Joseph turned the corner into the block. "There were two MPs there," he told me. "And they were constantly screaming. 'SHUT THE FUCK UP!' They were screaming at some old guy, making him repeat a number over and over. "'156403. 156403. 156403.' "The guy couldn't speak English. He couldn't pronounce the numbers. "'I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR YOU.' "'156403. 156403.' "'LOUDER. FUCKING LOUDER.' "Then they saw me. 'Hey, Joseph! How are you? I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR YOU. LOUDER.' " Joseph said that the MPs had basically gone straight from McDonald's to Abu Ghraib. They knew nothing. And now they were getting scapegoated because they happened to be identifiable in the photographs. They just did what the Military Intelligence people, Joseph's people, told them to do. PsyOps were just a phone call away, Joseph said. And the Military Intelligence people all had PsyOps training anyway. The thing I had to remember about Military Intelligence was that they were the "nerdy-type guys at school. You know. The outcasts. Couple all that with ego, and a poster on the wall saying 'By CG Approval' - Commanding General Approval - and suddenly you have guys who think they govern the world. That's what one of them said to me. 'We govern the world.' " An aide to Condoleezza Rice, the White House national security adviser, visited the prison, to inform the interrogators sternly that they weren't getting useful enough information from the detainees. "Then," Joseph said, "a whole platoon of Guantánamo people arrived. The word got around. 'Oh God, the Gitmo guys are here.' Bam! There they were. They took the place over." Perhaps Guantánamo Bay was Experimental Lab Mark 1, and whatever esoteric techniques worked there were exported to Abu Ghraib. Perhaps this is the way it happened: in the late 1970s Jim Channon, traumatised from Vietnam, sought solace in the emerging human potential movement of California. He took his ideas back into the army and they struck a chord with the top brass who had never before seen themselves as New Age, but in their post-Vietnam funk it all made sense to them. Then, over the decades that followed, the army, being what it is, recovered its strength and saw that some of the ideas contained within Jim's manual could be used to shatter people rather than heal them. Those are the ideas that live on in the war on terror © Jon Ronson, 2004. From budhey at rediffmail.com Wed Nov 3 20:57:40 2004 From: budhey at rediffmail.com (sunil sahasrabudhe) Date: 3 Nov 2004 15:27:40 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Politics of American Un-civilization Message-ID: <20041103152740.8539.qmail@webmail6.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041103/9f7d3a9a/attachment.html -------------- next part --------------  Dear Avinash, We have not read your English rendering of the Lokavidya Samvad piece on Abu Gharib but we have read your reply to Vivek and Shudha and Shudha's long comment on the original piece. This is not an attempt at any comprehensive response but this is to focus on some connected issues apparently not covered in this debate so far. There is a concept of ' political significance' which acts as a major source of criteria for making a choice from the set of available options whether for development of a practical program or for making an abstract philosophical point, including the entire space in between. American strategy for rule over the world is a matter of great political significance , much more so than the terror of the Indian State in Manipur or Iranian State's blood thirstiness against any dissent. This is obviously not to underestimate the significance of the latter two but to emphasise that all these are not autonomous or parallel events but constitute parts of a structured whole. One can argue that it is the war- mongering America's (popularisation of the ) strategy of terror which enables the Modis to do what they did in Gujrat. The justification that America is constructing and popularising for a tactics of terror by the 'democratic ' states globally creates political spaces for smaller states to act in the same way. Indain state and the rise of BJP are a case in point. I am not suggesting that there are any linear causal relationships but I am surely suggesting a logic in which cause and effect have an important place. The case of Iran is different. It will take us into a discussion of revolution and counter- revolution, state- repression and people's violent resistance , aggresive violence and that in self-defense and so on . Refering to vivid pictures and descriptions may not exactly be the fair way to make a point in a discussion. It only simulates the linguistic rhetoric.Violence by the Iranian State and by Baathist regime in Iraq are no doubt condemnable, but when and with what purpose? It makes no sense to compare American violence the world over for building a new Empire with any other kind of contemporary violence that I am aware of. Further should I say that the concept of 'political significance' is not a political concept. It only tells us that human sensitivities are not amorphous, they are not completely unstructured. Even when we wish that they be not determined by any authority or criteria, political or otherwise, leave alone any supreme principle of governance, we could also not wish that they be 'thoughtless'. Human feelings are worthy of being called so when they are inseperable from a yearning to act and this is the bed from where the idea of significance rises. We could call it social significance but it still remains far too amorphous. I am against politics, for it necessarily involves a central authority. But names , words and their meanings belong to the public domain. I can not have 'my' idiom and I cannot have 'my' language. So the use of 'political significance'. I do not think personally that the strategy of terror is any new American strategy. American state embodies terror in its purest form. American society is a political society, much more so than any other.If the students on Berkeley Campus called America a police state in 1968 , they were underlininig a reality which the distant had seen as a propensity. Terror as propensity to terror as reality is a transition under 'compulsions' of times, the strategy remains a terror strategy.May be that the Chinese state is also building a purely political society in China and may be this will lead too to a long term strategy of terror on their part. I know people who feel very strongly about it. However it is surely not necessary to talk about it today in the same breath while discussing the present day strategy of terror of the American stat The challenge , I think , lies in imagining a way of life-a society which is not governed by the modern Euro-American values , beliefs and epistemic imperatives and which is not imaginary, utopian. How do we construct the path to such an imagination? Discussions on lokavidya and from a lokavidya standpoint are a starting point that we are pursuing.Our political backgrounds do interfere and I think heavily both for good and for bad but has neutrality ever been a virtue ? Sunil Sahasrabudhey From shivamvij at gmail.com Thu Nov 4 17:04:44 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 17:04:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Finally, an Alternative In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: And now, an Alternative http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTAlternative Edited by Jogesh Motwani The ZEST Community Free, with Yahoo! Groups' silly ads What do Mohandas Gandhi's spectacular asceticism, Masanobu Fukuoka's natural farming, Ivan Illich's appropriate technologies, Noam Chomsky's political pacifism, Vandana Shiva's eco-feminism, Black Elk's visionary shamanism, Chinua Achebe's novels and Isaac Newton's occultism have in common? They can all be understood as attempts to provide alternatives to a reductionist, scientific world-view, one that is so dominant today that it is inconceivable that there could be alternative ways of being. We all have misgivings about the modern age. And we have been made to believe that science, and only science, has the answer to the problems it creates. Members of ZESTAlternative hope to give voice to such misgivings by exposing each other to important critiques of the modern world, and providing alternatives to the existing systems - systems of education, medicine, technology, agriculture, language, media, art, culture, history, and, why not, even dissent. Lets regain our diversity - start with one Alternative article every day. Members respond to articles but don't initiate new discussions, because ZESTAlternative is like a study circle which spends more time listening than talking. The list is run by Jogesh Motwani from Mumbai. jogeshmotwani at hathway.com To join send a blank email to ZESTAlternative-subscribe at yahoogroups.com, or if you have a Yahoo! ID, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTAlternative/join Issued by Shivam Vij for the ZEST Groups | shivamvij [at] gmail [dot] com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From trudy.lane at inet.hr Wed Nov 3 18:42:59 2004 From: trudy.lane at inet.hr (Trudy Lane) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 02:12:59 +1300 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] / / T E C H N O M Y T H O L O G I E S // A R T - e - F A C T / 03 + 04 Message-ID: <1572E763-2D9A-11D9-BB30-000D933589E4@inet.hr> / Apologies for cross-posting // / / A n n o u n c e m e n t / / / A R T - e - F A C T : STRATEGIES OF RESISTANCE / ISSUE 03 / / T E C H N O M Y T H O L O G I E S / / / http://artefact.mi2.hr/ / In our third issue of ART-e-FACT, the main point of investigation focuses on the ways in which technology and especially new media technologies (from digital gadgets, to the Internet and virtual reality technology, etc.) change our artistic and cultural paradigms. In which ways are artists transformed by technology, and technology reshaped by artists and activists? The differences can also be seen as a result of the ways in which activists and artists try to break into particles the myth of art-culture-technology's happy liaisons. The TECHNOMYTHOLOGIES are divided into several areas of investigation and try to raise controversial positions taken by artists, theoreticians, performers, film and video makers, attacking the myths about technology and the technology of the myths from a consistently political point of view. Various contributions include: 1. Theoretical texts and critical reflection. 2. Presentation of art works from videos and films, photography, Internet or web projects. 3. Displaying political, cultural, forensic manifestos along with links to interesting projects. Marina Grzinic, Guest Editor, issue 03 Antonia Majaca, Editor-in-Chief, ART-e-FACT contact us at: info at artefact.mi2.hr / / G L O C A L / O G U E / ISSUE 04 / / Guest Editor, Zoran Eric / / / Call for contributions / The field of interest of ART-e-FACT's fourth issue is the amalgam of the global and the local. We wish to focus on the mutation of the globalization process, modes of surpassing local confinements of cultural and artistic fields, investigation and articulation of glocal/borderline topics and practices which do not necessarily generate new narratives, but place the already existing/local ones into a global context. What is it that determines successful models of integration of the local into the global, as well as strategies used in a struggle for universal recognition and visibility? Are there really new localisms being made before globalization can destroy them, as according to Bruno Latour? How do we distinguish legitimate from illegitimate glocal annexes? What is 'big' and what is 'small' and are these categories defined exclusively by the criteria of integration with the rest of the world? How do such phenomena, including a universal nomadization of all who participate in these new cultural dynamics (artists, curators, architects,...), reflect on design, architecture, urban iconography, and a generic appearance of cities? What defines the new glocalities and what are the cohesive factors in shaping the complex glocal/transnational configuration? Finally, we are interested in the possibility of creating a dynamic glocal forum and a regional network based on dialogue (glocalogue), intercity network of cultural nomads, leading to a new balance of the local and the global. The call for contributions is open to various modes of articulating the topic of the glocal/ogue: 1. theoretical texts and critical reflections 2. short statements by artists, activists, critics 3. artworks‚ e.g. short video and film inserts, photography, internet or web projects 4. political and economic manifestos, or simply a list of suggested links to interesting projects on the internet, dedicated to this subject. Application deadline is February 1st, 2005. Zoran Eric, Guest Editor, issue 04 Antonia Majaca, Editor-in-Chief, ART-e-FACT contact us at: info at artefact.mi2.hr - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - / / / _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From avinash at sarai.net Sat Nov 6 12:59:43 2004 From: avinash at sarai.net (avinash kumar) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 12:59:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] No Time to be Defeatist Message-ID: <418C7D67.5020307@sarai.net> These are couple of responses to the election results from the U.S., one representing an organisation and the other is an individual response, both from the same side but make interesting reads. avinash Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 13:52:03 GMT From: Greenpeace Subject: [ISO-8859-1] No Time to be Defeatist It's hard to know what to say. To see Bush re-elected with the first electoral majority since his father's first election is an emotional blow. He seems to have secured a mandate based on his policies of pre-emptive war, war on the environment, crony capitalism, veiled racism, homophobia and a fundamentalism that would make the Taliban proud. This despite the largest "Get out the Vote" effort in the history of progressive causes in the United States. I can't tell you what went wrong. The political analysts will be coming forth with their thoughts over the next several weeks. What I can tell you is that our country is split down the middle creating a cultural civil war that is not going away any time soon. It is a fight over values in which there is very little middle ground remaining. The stakes are extremely high for all we hold dear. I do not write to offer answers. I know that we must find ways to inspire ourselves and our allies to strive for a greener and more peaceful world. I also know that in the history of social movements there have been setbacks and sacrifices far higher than we have yet paid. There have been causes that have taken generations. When you listen to President Bush and feel disenfranchised, when you feel like your government doesn't represent you, when you feel like it is no longer your country, savor that feeling. Before Gandhi, King, Lewis, Parks, Muir and Thoreau went on to do great things, they all felt that way. They felt it, it made them angry, and then it motivated them. Now it's our turn. Feel pissed off. Then together we will turn it into something. I know that yesterday's setback will weed the summer soldiers from the ranks of the movement. But I also know that the sweetness of a victory is in direct proportion to the enormity of the struggle. I know that our Greenpeace mission is the struggle of our generation and that George Bush is symbolic of all that we oppose. And I know that this struggle is going to be long and bitter, that we will have to work harder and smarter, we will have to make greater sacrifices, and ultimately, the cause for which we fight will be the envy of future generations. We all need to spend some time being pissed off. Feeling shock. Mourning. Then we have to act. Our cause is just. We can not afford to be defeated, or to be defeatist. Too much is at stake: our planet, our future and the legacy we leave to our children. John Passacantando, Executive Director ~~~~~ Greenpeace 702 H Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20001 (800) 326-0959 ~~~~~ Please support us. Go to: http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/3688.1186280.739965 >Date: Wed, 03 Nov 2004 12:13:26 -0500 > >To: "Deines, Lara" > >From: Fred True > >Subject: alas, don't despair > > > > > >Well babe, we won the battle (NJ/PA) but lost the > war. Nobody but nobody can say we didn't do our > part or that we let this asshole slide to an easy > victory. > > > >Don't despair, though. Even though we invested > heavily in this struggle, and I certainly felt my > heart sink and blood pressure rise when I heard that > Kerry had conceded, one good thing is going to come > of all this: more people than EVER before are going > to be galvanized against this administration and > what it really stands for. They may have connived > their way into the seats of power for another 4 > years, but they're going to find it increasingly > difficult to press on with their secrecy, lies, and > reckless deception without being questioned, > confronted, badgered, and resisted at every step. > > > >I also believe that many of the scandals that have > been bubbling up behind the scenes (like the ones > mentioned in John Dean's book "Worse than > Watergate") are going to be accelerated into the > open. We're now the cornered rats, and we all know > what cornered rats do. It's going to be a messy 4 > years, and I wouldn't be surprised if GWB will be > forced to retire early despite his apparent victory > today. With good chances of continued failures in > Iraq, another terrorist attack on home soil, or any > number of scandals waiting to burst forth, it's not > hard to see how this administration could fall like > a house of cards. > > > >And if you're trying to figure out why the majority > of people out there voted for GWB (a depressing > thought, to be sure), just think of the media for a > moment. Think of what your mom has been influenced > by. Think of how the "emotional" issues like gay > marriage or abortion have risen in the national > consciousness thanks to the "Infotainment Industry" > and the Bush administration, and how the meaty > issues like America's foreign policy hegemony, or > the failures in the Middle East, or the erosion of > the middle class at home have gone almost > undiscussed. Is it any wonder the sheep have been > brainwashed? Baaaaa! Deep down, I'm actually kind > of surprised Kerry did as well as he did, given the > vast tide of misinformation and blatant omission > that has dogged these last four years. > > > >We'll shake off this setback, as utterly > distasteful as it is, and when all is said and done > this anger is going to help us. I know I can > already feel my anger petrifying into resolve (some > might say... a "steely resolve" :-) > > > >Let's remember the defiant response of > Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones, asked if he > would surrender as his ship "Bon Homme Richard" was > sinking into the Atlantic under the guns of the HMS > Serapis: "We have not yet begun to fight!" > > > >xo > >me From nmajumda+ at pitt.edu Sat Nov 6 10:00:50 2004 From: nmajumda+ at pitt.edu (Neepa Majumdar) Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 23:30:50 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Reader-list] [G-csacont] Kerry Won (fwd) Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 10:45:51 -0800 From: Leerom Medovoi To: g-csacont at mcmaster.ca Subject: [G-csacont] Kerry Won Please read this article and forward it to others. http://www.tompaine.com/print/kerry_won_.php Best, Reshmi _______________________________________________ G-csacont mailing list G-csacont at McMaster.CA http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-csacont From sunil at mahiti.org Sat Nov 6 20:07:17 2004 From: sunil at mahiti.org (Sunil Abraham) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 14:37:17 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Asia Source: Tech camp for the voluntary sector [Details and Form] Message-ID: <1099751837.675.187.camel@box> Dear Friends, Please apply if you are interested in Free/Open Source Software and Development. AND/OR Please forward to your colleagues from the voluntary sector in South Asia / South East Asia. Thanks, Sunil -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Source: Tech camp for the voluntary sector [Details and Form] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangalore, India. January 28th to February 4th 2005. Asia Source hopes to bring together over 100 people from 20 countries to increase the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) amongst the voluntary sector in South and South East Asia. This week long event will bring together NGOs and NGO technology support professionals working at the grassroots level across the region to learn new skills, exchange tips, and share experiences. Together with regionally and globally renowned experts and specialists they will look at the use of FOSS within the non-profit sector from both an access and a content perspective. Offering participants the opportunity to explore the practical technical side of FOSS whilst providing a conceptual backdrop. Asia Source will be the first event of its kind in the region, bringing together regional non-profit professionals with a rights based focus, it will invite those from both the technical and content end of the spectrum to focus on the practical elements of FOSS deployment. Participants with a range of expertise will be provided with a space for intensive peer learning. They will be given the opportunity to develop their understanding of FOSS, learn how to select and apply alternative technologies, and be provided with the skills and tools to utilise this within the context of their daily work. They will also be encouraged to explore the challenges and the future potential of FOSS adoption within the social context. During this 'camp' style event, participants will take part in a range of sessions. From planning and helping an NGO to migrate to FOSS, to sharing tips and techniques on using FOSS tools for content development, advocacy and campaigning. In parallel to this they will look beneath user-level scenarios, and break-down tricky issues such as localisation techniques and how to develop total cost of ownership models. Four themes will flow throughout the event 1. 'FLOSSophy' for NGOs 2. Migration and Access 3. Tools for content and communication 4. Localisation Asia Source will be held in a small artists community on the outskirts of Bangalore. Its aim is to become a community building event, with the potential to seed connections and future partnerships across borders and between skillsets. The event is co-organised by Mahiti.org (Bangalore) and the Tactical Technology Collective (Amsterdam). The event is guided by an advisory board of established non-profit and FOSS professionals from across the South and South East Asian region. Asia Source belongs to a larger family of Source Events that seek to increase the viability of FOSS use by the non-profit sector. Other source events have taken place in South East Europe, Southern Africa and are planned in 2005 in Western Africa. For more information please visit http://www.tacticaltech.org/asiasource or http://www.mahiti.org/asiasource Participants will be selected by the advisory board based on their interest and experiences. There will be a small registration fee for the event. A limited number of travel and registration fee scholarships will be available and may be applied for on application. If you have any questions please write to asiasource at tacticaltech.org. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Source: Application Form -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please send the application to asiasource at tacticaltech.org. The deadline for sending applications is 19th of November 2004. We will confirm receipt of the application immediately and will ask you to check and reserve (if you do not have to pay for this) your flight to Bangalore, India. We will also ask people who need visas to check how they can apply for it. As we have limited space and funds, we cannot accept all participant applications and cannot reimburse the expenses for all of them. Between the 19th of November and 3rd of December 2004 we will personally inform each applicant by email if we are able to invite him/her and in some cases reimburse expenses. Dates:- Asia Source is a week-long meeting, to be held January 28th - February 4th 2005 in Bangalore, India. If you would like to participate, you will need to attend the entire event, which means arriving in Bangalore on or before January 27th and leaving on or after February 5th. Fees and subsidies:- Participants will arrange for their own travel to Bangalore, India. Once there, transport to the venue from the airport in Bangalore will be provided. All meals and accommodation during the meeting will be provided, for the modest participation fee of US$ 75. There are a limited number of participation fee subsidies available to cover this US$ 75 for those who are not able to raise the funds. Travel subsidies are also available for participants who would not otherwise be able to attend the meeting. Please apply as soon as possible for subsidies as there availability is limited. Who should attend? This is an event for experienced professionals actively working with the non-profit sector in South and South East Asian countries. To be eligible to attend, you will need to answer the questions below, providing detailed information about projects you have worked on. The application deadline is November 19th, 2004. We are interested in all kinds of non-profit and technical experience, but areas of particular focus will include the following: 1. Localisation and multi-language projects 2. The use of technology within monitoring or campaigning projects 3. The use of technology for organising and collaborating 4. Audio/video, streaming media and/or radio 5. Innovative use of technology within non-profit projects 6. Experience deploying FOSS operating systems or applications Demonstrating that you have worked on projects in one or more of the above areas will make your application stronger. All participants at Asia Source are required to be proficient desktop users of computers, have been involved in at least one NGO/technology project before and to have an existing awareness of the concept of Free and Open Source Software. Applications from women are highly encouraged by the event organisers. Application Questions:- Please answer the following questions. You do not need to write long responses, but please provide us with enough information to understand your skills and interests, and to have a sense of why you want to attend Asia Source and what you can contribute to the event. Please provide answers to all the following questions. 1) Basic personal information: a. Name: b. Gender: c. Nationality: d. Country where you live and work now: e. E-mail address: f. Telephone and emergency contact number(s): g. Anything else we should know about you (allergies, diet, medical condition, special needs): h. Do you need a visa to come to India? 2) What is your experience of working with non-profit organisations/the voluntary sector. What kinds of projects and initiatives have you worked on? 3) Have you been involved with any technology projects for non-profit or civil society organizations? If so please briefly explain them. 4) Where are you from, where do you live now, and what is your current professional affiliation (organization you work for, mission of the organization, position you have in the organization, is your organization a non-profit, etc.)? 5) Please describe your current technical expertise and ability. 6) Why are you interested in attending Asia Source; what do you hope to learn? 7) Asia Source participants are encouraged to teach as well as to learn. What tutorials, development sessions or discussions would you like to lead (or help lead)? 8) Will you need to receive a participation fee subsidy in order to attend Asia Source? If so, please explain why. 9) Will you need to receive a travel subsidy in order to attend Asia Source? If so, please explain why and estimate how much your round-trip travel to Bangalore will cost. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ್ ್ ್ ್ ್ Thanks, ಸುನೀಲ್ -- Sunil Abraham, sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (60) 1-6311-1330 Currently on sabbatical with APDIP/UNDP Manager - International Open Source Network Wisma UN, Block C Komplex Pejabat Damansara. Jalan Dungun, Damansara Heights. 50490 Kuala Lumpur. P. O. Box 12544, 50782, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: (60) 3-2091-5167, Fax: (60) 3-2095-2087 sunil at apdip.net http://www.iosn.net http://www.apdip.net "A world opened up by communications cannot remain closed up in a feudal vision of property" - Gilberto Gil, Minister of Culture, Brazil From souweine at hawaii.edu Sat Nov 6 19:29:47 2004 From: souweine at hawaii.edu (Isaac D W Souweine) Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 14:59:47 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] NEWS FLASH: The Peoples Republic of Brooklyn Secedes from the Union Message-ID: The results of the recent U.S. elections have led Jesus-free-thinking North Americans to the conclusion that in order to resolve internal disputes and put an end to what our country's religious right wing has dubbed as a "cultural war" we must redraw the political boundaries of the North American continent. Proposed plans are now being put on the table. Be a responsible comrade and keep yourself informed by visiting these web sites: http://www.ishouldhavebeenanastronaut.com/tw/canada20.gif http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/rnc/9573/ http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg734q/unknown.jpg http://www.harpers.org/ElectingToLeave.html http://www.ephemeroi.com/unsleeping/ From definetime at rediffmail.com Sat Nov 6 23:23:56 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 6 Nov 2004 17:53:56 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) A new minority Message-ID: <20041106175356.22419.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041106/9b1e2e60/attachment.html -------------- next part --------------   A new minority: liberals all at sea in a divided America Kerry called for unity, but living with the enemy is not easy for his followers Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday November 6, 2004 The Guardian In the coming days, millions of Democrats across the US, who wrote cheques, manned phone lines, knocked on doors, or merely voted in the most intense election season since the Vietnam generation, will struggle to come to terms with defeat. >From the liberal bastions on America's two coasts, to the cities of the heartland, Mr Bush's re-election victory confronts Democrats with two harsh facts: they are fundamentally different from their fellow Americans, and they are in the minority. Dealing with that reality, as Democrats move through the layers of grief from denial and anger to acceptance, is proving to be a painful, self-lacerating process. For some, the implications of Mr Bush's victory are only now beginning to sink in. "First, I'm numb. It is like a weight of reality crashing down on me, that I'm in a minority and that the rest of the country is uncritical, fooled by hype, fooled by righteousness," said Joan Bechtold, who works in orthopedics research at the University of Minnesota. "I am most disappointed, I guess, in what seems like a total change in the direction of our country." Others lashed out in fury, not only at George Bush, but at their party's failed standard bearer, John Kerry, who conceded the election - too early in their view - and then compounded the insult with a call for national unity. "This is a symbol of my disunity," said Mitch Hampton, a jazz pianist from Boston, tapping on the badge at his lapel, which showed a picture of President Bush with a red line through it. "If we want to work together, we have to work with the enemy, and the enemy is in the White House." To Mr Hampton's mind, reconciliation with the right would destroy an entire way of life. "Americans need to embrace their inner warrior, to become competitive," he said. "I'm going to try to fight a cultural war." Seasoned political operatives, such as Ann Lewis, a former adviser to Bill Clinton and current chair of the Women's Vote Centre of the Democratic National Committee, consoled themselves by taking the long view of history. On Wednesday night, she went home and re-read a book on the struggle for women's suffrage. By Thursday she emerged with a crisp analysis of what went wrong: the Republicans outdid the Democrats in expanding their existing base, they maximised Mr Bush's strengths despite a dismal administrative record, and they dominated the conversation about values. "We defaulted to wonks. We need to make of an effort to remember that most people don't think of policy in those terms. They need to know what we stand for based on shared cultural values," she said. But political newcomers are much less hardened to defeat. Tanya Erzen, a recent transplant to Columbus, Ohio, from New York, plunged herself into the drive to register new voters as a way of meeting people in her new home. Now she finds it difficult to even look at her neighbours, knowing that they voted for George Bush, and for a ballot measure to ban gay marriage that is credited with driving up the Republican vote. "I am completely discouraged. It is completely devastating for me to have to live here knowing that 62% of people voted against gay marriage and that we lost Ohio to Bush by 100,000 votes," she said. Like many Democrats, Ms Erzen's immediate impulse was flight - in her case it would mean sacrificing a job at Ohio State University to return to a big city - but she has now moved on to thinking of remedies. An expert on religion and rightwing politics, she argues that the left must recapture the territory of "moral values" from the right, making issues of war, poverty and healthcare. "We have to take back that language," she said. "Otherwise, we are going to live in a theocracy in the US, and that's terrifying." More frightening perhaps is the window that opened on the American psyche. For four years of this Republican administration, Jim Goodman, a fourth generation dairy farmer in south-central Wisconsin, had consoled himself with a single fact: that Mr Bush was never really elected by the American people, he was appointed by the supreme court. Black Wednesday forced Mr Goodman to face up to an unpalatable truth. "It shows, I guess, that people really do believe in what he is doing," he said. "Obviously, the American people really do support the current administration so we have to be responsible for what it is doing. We can't go on saying we didn't elect him, so it's not our fault." From shekhar at crit.org.in Sun Nov 7 02:11:43 2004 From: shekhar at crit.org.in (Shekhar Krishnan) Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 02:11:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Call for Placements at COSMOS Mumbai Message-ID: <45162812-3034-11D9-B19B-000A95A05D12@crit.org.in> Dear All: Please circulate this to interested friends and colleagues. Respond to Comet Media Foundation at comet_media at vsnl.com, marking the subject line COSMOS placement. All applicants are expected to be resident in Mumbai full-time. Best Shekhar _____ CALL for PLACEMENTS for COSMOS: A Space for New Media Practices, Mumbai Comet Media Foundation (Comet) is an organisation formed in 1985. Our activities involve creating knowledge artefacts in film and print, distributing ready knowledge materials, conducting workshops and conducting resource festivals. Comet’s work has won a number of awards, including the Jules Verne Prize of the European Union, an international award given for outstanding efforts in science communication. At present we are working towards setting up a media practice space called COSMOS. This we hope will be a part of a movement to get people to think more critically about the place of science and technology, particularly the role of media, in their lives and to give expression to this thinking in the form of new media. In this age when all media formats are merging into a common digital language, we see a need for media workers who can combine skills hitherto seen as separate disciplines, in a creative way. What will be the education of such media creators, activists and researchers, and what will be Comet’s agenda, the concerns we wish to imbue these learners with? Apart from being equipped to understand the technologies and the environment through which these new forms of expression work, their education has to be a process of building perspectives that will enable them to think in a cross-disciplinary way and to aspire to goals of social equity and justice. The focus of the COSMOS activity is threefold: • training of media designers, makers and researchers with an emphasis on science communication, material culture, issues of social change and related activism. • a media production facility oriented to increasing awareness of science engineering and technology (SET) issues. • pursuing of linked activities with associate autonomous local units of media makers (ALUMs), run by independent film makers, alumni and practitioners emerging from the training and production activities of this centre and many other centres all over the country. These three are not sequential but parallel activities, with each activity boosting the others as it moves along, involving a somewhat uncertain gestation period at the outset. The uncertainty is tied to availability of funding, a crucial enabling factor at the start of the process. CALL for PLACEMENTS at COSMOS: 1. Principal Project Manager at COSMOS To implement this project we need a person initially to be the Principal Project Manager. S/he would own all aspects of the project including, but not limited to: • surveying the current scene in education regarding new media • ascertaining the knowledge needs of different groups of potential learners • guiding the development of courses of differing durations accordingly • locating suitable resource persons and resource agencies • documenting the process of arriving at different concepts • popularising the concept of COSMOS in different fora • detailing a project report, time plan and budget for implementation • identifying appropriate funding agencies and raising funds • liaising with governments (state and central) to obtain support, material or otherwise • leading a small team to achieve the above We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a year. We are looking for a mid career manager who would take this up as a challenge. The person could join us on a sabbatical and if all works out, can join full-time. We would expect this person to play a leading role in COSMOS, once it is operational – either as the Director, leading COSMOS or as a Trustee, guiding the professionals leading COSMOS. 2. Proposal Developer at COSMOS To implement the academic aspect of the project, we need a person who would initially be termed as a Proposal Developer working alongside the Coordinator. The task of this person would be to understand the objectives and interests of potential funders vis-à-vis the COSMOS proposal in order to design components which would enable the implementation of the plans of COSMOS. S/he would work on all aspects of the project including, but not limited to: • ascertaining the knowledge needs of different groups of potential learners • developing the proposals for funding accordingly • identifying appropriate funding agencies • liaising with state and central governments and other funding bodies to obtain support • raising funds • documenting the process of seeking and raising funds • detailing a project report, time plan and budget for implementation • functioning as part of a team to achieve the above A person with 5-7 years of work experience would be suitable for this position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in COSMOS, once it is operational. 3. Course Content Developer at COSMOS To implement the academic aspect of the project, we need a person who would initially be the Course Content Developer. S/he would work on all aspects of the project including, but not limited to: • surveying the current scene in education regarding new media • ascertaining the knowledge needs of different groups of potential learners • developing the course contents of various courses of differing durations accordingly • locating suitable resource persons and resource agencies • building relationships with them to create new courses with their expertise • documenting the process of arriving at different concepts • identifying appropriate funding agencies • detailing a project report, time plan and budget for implementation • liaising with governments (state and central) and other bodies to obtain support, material or otherwise • functioning as part of a team to achieve the above A person with 5-7 years of work experience would be suitable for this position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in COSMOS, once it is operational. 4. Researcher-Documentationist at COSMOS To implement the project, we need a person who would initially be termed a Researcher-Documentationist, to work alongside the Principal Project Manager. S/he would work on all aspects of the project including, but not limited to: • conducting correspondence • developing and building databases of potential learners, institutions, resource persons, funders and others • tracking progress of developments outside and within the team to see that deadlines and targets are met as planned • documenting the process of seeking and raising funds • detailing components which would enable the implementation of the plans of COSMOS • working on the project report, time plan and budget for implementation • functioning as part of a team to achieve the above A person with 2-3 years of work experience would be suitable for this position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in COSMOS, once it is operational. Please respond with CVs, queries and recommendations at comet_media at vsnl.com, marking the subject line COSMOS placement. The deadline is tomorrow morning! Sincerely, COMET MEDIA FOUNDATION Topiwala Lane School Lamington Road Mumbai 400 007, India +91.22.2386.9052, +91.22.2382.6674 http://www.cometmedia.org _____ Shekhar Krishnan 9, Supriya, 2nd Floor Plot 709, Parsee Colony Road no.4 Dadar, Mumbai 400014 India http://crit.org.in/members/shekhar From db at dannybutt.net Sun Nov 7 12:33:57 2004 From: db at dannybutt.net (Danny Butt) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 2004 20:03:57 +1300 Subject: [Reader-list] Historian Ramachandra Guha denied entry to US Message-ID: via Armadeep Singh http://outlookindia.com/diary.asp?fodname=20041115 Mac The Knife I had planned to spend the day of the US presidential election in the town of Berkeley, California. I was quite looking forward to the experience. What would the streets look like, I wondered? Would those lining up to vote be neither for Kerry nor Bush but (this being the original centre of counterculture) for Ralph Nader? My plans were brutally torn to shreds at Toronto airport by an American immigration official named (as I recall) McCullough. I had spent a week lecturing in Vancouver, at the University of British Columbia, and was now on my way to Oberlin College, Ohio, and, from there, to the University of California at Berkeley. I'd been an itinerant migrant worker for the past decade. It was a way of life I was used to and so, I believed, were the Americans. It was thus with a certain casualness that I placed my papers on the counter. My cool did not please McCullough, my papers still less. "What visa are you on?" he barked. "A B1/B2," I answered. "But you can't earn money on this," he said. "I can indeed, and have done so a dozen times," I shot back. "Don't raise your voice," said the big fellow, "I don't allow even my father to talk to me like that." Keeping my passport, he directed me to a room to await a meeting with his supervisor. Mohammad And Tagore The waiting room I was sent to was no more welcoming. In this American piece of Canadian soil, the heater had been turned off. In its corners huddled various travellers who had, like me, been pulled out of line to be given the once-over. The room was cold anyway, but the loss of our passports had left us all feeling naked. I looked around for comfort. It came from a male face coloured a reassuring brown. I sat next to him, and asked where he was from. "Now a Canadian, but before that from Bangladesh," he answered, casting a nervous eye at the sign in front of us. This warned that closed-circuit TVs were watching us, and videotaping every snatch of conversation. Judging that the TVs were monolingual, I switched to bad Bangla, picked up in four years doing a PhD in Calcutta. He answered in worse Hindi, learnt, he said, by osmosis from his wife, who loved Bollywood films. His problem on the day was that his father had named him Mohammad. A software engineer in Toronto, he was on his way to meet his principals in New Jersey, if the Americans would let him. "Don¹t argue with them," he counselled me, "otherwise they will put a black mark against your name." The minutes ticked by. The room got colder. McCullough strolled in, looked menacingly around, and went out again. After an hour-and-a-half, Mohammad was called in. He came out with a shy smile of victory. As he picked up his bags, he complimented me on mine: "Tomaar Shantiniketan jhola khub bhalo." Now I too was called in. The supervisor‹as it happened a lady, and African-American‹was more polite than her colleague. But her decision was as unhelpful. She/they could not let me in as I did not have a regular teaching, or J-1, visa. She handed over my passport, which I grabbed and ran out of the door. Into the warm wide world beyond. Bangalored! Why was I stopped? One reason might have been my jhola, a patch of mirrorwork on red which must have been as dangerously exotic to McCullough as it was appealing to my friend Mohammad. Another, certainly, was the letter of invitation from Oberlin, which specified a fee for my lectures which greatly angered McCullough. "How can they pay you so much," he said more than once, adding, "And for teaching history." (Also relevant perhaps was my place of residence, a city much demonised in the presidential campaign for "stealing American jobs"). Finally, there was a general paranoia in the week before the elections, fuelled in this particular instance by a daily target of suspects to be detained. Reign Of The Cretins On my return to India, I checked the rules again. Under a B1/B2 visa one can do paid work for up to nine days at a time and in as many as five different universities. Berkeley and Oberlin are now planning a joint letter of protest. Meanwhile, they¹ve written me handsome letters of apology, expressing shock at "such discriminatory and unjustified exclusion", and anger at the "terrible injustice you had to endure... [from] these cretins". My host at Berkeley pleads: "Don¹t give up on us. Hopefully, there will be a new president elected on Tuesday." I write this on Monday, but I fear that even if John Kerry wins, the paranoia towards the foreigner shall persist. Paranoia Timeline In 1960, the biologist J.B.S. Haldane, by then an Indian citizen, was invited to lecture by Columbia University. When he went to the consulate in Calcutta to get a visa, he was asked to "name all the organisations of which I am or have been a member of affiliate since my 16th birthday (with inclusive dates)". He refused, writing to his American host that he did not know when he joined the Association of Scientific Workers or the anti-fascist front, or whatever. The visa form, he noted, was "unworthy of the land of the free and the brave". A year later, when Senator Hubert Humphrey wrote asking for reprints of his scientific papers, Haldane complained to him about the visa form in these chillingly prescient words: "If I wished to blow up the Empire State Building or subvert the Republican Party I should doubtless be willing to sign false statements. But I happen to have a professional prejudice in favour of the truth.... It seems to be ridiculous that a great country like yours (or rather its government) should be so frightened of what I can do as to make such demands." From coolzanny at hotmail.com Sun Nov 7 13:07:54 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 2004 13:07:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Andar-Bahaar Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041107/b0675a2a/attachment.html From ab2303 at columbia.edu Mon Nov 8 08:14:46 2004 From: ab2303 at columbia.edu (ab2303 at columbia.edu) Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 21:44:46 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Now, Ganesha too from China In-Reply-To: <1099879342.418ed3ae5c955@cubmail.cc.columbia.edu> References: <1099879342.418ed3ae5c955@cubmail.cc.columbia.edu> Message-ID: <1099881886.418edd9ec956c@cubmail.cc.columbia.edu> Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/11/08/stories/2004110802742200.htm) National Now, Ganesha too from China > > > LUCKNOW, > > > NOV. 7. > > As if fancy lights and decorations were not enough to pep up > Diwali > celebrations, Chinese Ganeshas have flooded the markets to > provide > you with a wider choice to select festive gifts. > > After literally invading the Indian markets with fancy lights and > decorative lamps during Diwali festivities about four years ago, > the Chinese have taken a step further by launching statues of > Lord > Ganesha — in all shapes, colour and sizes to catch the fancy > of the Indian market. > > But the Chinese have committed a mistake — instead of > placing > Lord Ganesha on his `mouse,' he has been mounted on a horse. > Though > such idols are rare. > > > >From dashboard to puja room > > > > The variety of Ganeshas available are small enough to fit the > dashboard of your car and big enough to acquire a space in the > `puja room.' Most of the idols are made of plastic or synthetic > and > cost anything between Rs. 40 and Rs. 2,500. > > Made of radium, which glows at night, some idols are available > for > Rs. 400. ``This is quite similar to the radium peppered posters > available a few years ago. But a glowing idol looks more > impressive,'' said Sandip Bansal, a wholesaler. > > But if the idea is to go for a fancy gift, then there are statues > with a built-in chip of pre-recorded `bhajans'. The `bhajans' > recorded in the chip include `Ganesh Aarti' and the famous > `Vakratunda Mahakaya' sloka. If you want to be a little more > indulgent, you can buy idols made of marble dust with a fountain > attached to it. The fountain, which runs on electricity, showers > water on Lord Ganesha's feet. ``But it comes at a cost. For such > idols people have to shell out anything between Rs. 1,500 and Rs > 2,000,'' says another retailer. > > > `As per specifications' > > > > Shopkeepers procure these idols from Sarrafa Bazaar in Mumbai. > ``Chinese businessmen meet the bulk buyers there and collect > specifications. They manufacture the idols as per the > specifications only in Maharashtra it is considered auspicious to > buy Ganesha idols with its trunk curved on the left. The Chinese > ensure that the trunk in most idols is curved to the left,'' he > added. > > > `Mongoloid' > > > > But some shoppers lamented that the Chinese Ganeshas lack the > `Indian look'. ``The features are Mongoloid if you pay attention > to > the details,'' said Kamal Kapoor. > > Anything Chinese sells today. Shopkeepers warn that fake Chinese > Ganesha idols have also flooded the markets. ``Manufacturers in > Meerut have been producing such idols. But if you know well about > the original Chinese stuff you can easily find flaws in the > finish > and the texture of the colour,'' warned Dharmesh Singh, who runs > a > shop in Badshah Nagar area. — UNI > > > > > From shivamvij at gmail.com Mon Nov 8 12:36:35 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 12:36:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] When did you start hating Bush? Message-ID: When did you start hating Bush? http://www.zearle.com/fuck_bush.html From diya at sarai.net Mon Nov 8 20:27:02 2004 From: diya at sarai.net (Diya Mehra) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 15:57:02 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] Politics of American Un-civilization In-Reply-To: <20041103152740.8539.qmail@webmail6.rediffmail.com> References: <20041103152740.8539.qmail@webmail6.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <62810.68.161.132.159.1099925822.squirrel@68.161.132.159> Dear Sunil: I thought I would put my two bits in, sitting here as I am in the American heartland of Texas. I just wanted to point out that there is a 48% minority here in America who are as deeply disturbed by the election result, and the war on terror, as anybody else on the planet. There is a danger here in conflating the picture - indeed the conservative victory has been plotted on just such a conflation. It would be perhaps more productive to think about some similarities and some differences. Like you mentioned, what has happened here is not very different to the rise of the BJP in India - where an emotive/religious issue was taken by a political party who rode it out to power. In this case, the emotive langauge is a mix of the terrorist, the aborted fetus and the homosexual, with a reaction to the 'high culture' of the coasts thrown in. People in the town where I live are deeply concerned with what they see as an alien culture invading their lives. The aliens could be Mexican or Arab but they are also the yuppies who have come with the dotcom boom. Mr Bush has used the fright of a complicated and often opaque world very effectively. Media simplifications have only aided him. On the other, now that the elections have been won, as the New York Times reported yesterday, 'antiwar conservatives' are ready to rumble. There has been a very strategic silence here on the parts of some conservatives - those opposed to the war, to instrusive govt, and to large fiscal deficits, to hold their peace until Mr. Bush was in office. Now there complaints, which are not unlike Mr Kerry's, are to resurface. I can only think of this as a good sign (!), it appears the greater diversity of opinion the better. The news is truely terrible. Perhaps some solidarity with opposing opinions, given the care with which Mr Bush crafted a victory, is the need of the hour. Diya >  Dear Avinash, > > We have not read your English rendering of the > Lokavidya Samvad piece on Abu Gharib but we have > read your reply to Vivek and Shudha and Shudha's > long comment on the original piece. This is not an > attempt at any comprehensive response but this is > to focus on some connected issues apparently not > covered in this debate so far. > > There is a concept of ' political significance' > which acts as a major source of criteria for making > a choice from the set of available options whether > for development of a practical program or for > making an abstract philosophical point, including > the entire space in between. American strategy for > rule over the world is a matter of great political > significance , much more so than the terror of the > Indian State in Manipur or Iranian State's blood > thirstiness against any dissent. This is obviously > not to underestimate the significance of the > latter two but to emphasise that all these are not > autonomous or parallel events but constitute parts > of a structured whole. One can argue that it is the > war- mongering America's (popularisation of the ) > strategy of terror which enables the Modis to do > what they did in Gujrat. The justification that > America is constructing and popularising for a > tactics of terror by the 'democratic ' states > globally creates political spaces for smaller > states to act in the same way. Indain state and the > rise of BJP are a case in point. I am not > suggesting that there are any linear causal > relationships but I am surely suggesting a logic > in which cause and effect have an important place. > The case of Iran is different. It will take us into > a discussion of revolution and counter- revolution, > state- repression and people's violent resistance , > aggresive violence and that in self-defense and so > on . Refering to vivid pictures and descriptions > may not exactly be the fair way to make a point in > a discussion. It only simulates the linguistic > rhetoric.Violence by the Iranian State and by > Baathist regime in Iraq are no doubt condemnable, > but when and with what purpose? It makes no sense > to compare American violence the world over for > building a new Empire with any other kind of > contemporary violence that I am aware of. > Further should I say that the concept of 'political > significance' is not a political concept. It only tells us > that human sensitivities are not amorphous, they are not > completely unstructured. Even when we wish that they be not > determined by any authority or criteria, political or > otherwise, leave alone any supreme principle of governance, > we could also not wish that they be 'thoughtless'. Human > feelings are worthy of being called so when they are > inseperable from a yearning to act and this is the bed > from where the idea of significance rises. We could call it > social significance but it still remains far too amorphous. > I am against politics, for it necessarily involves a > central authority. But names , words and their meanings > belong to the public domain. I can not have 'my' idiom and > I cannot have 'my' language. So the use of 'political > significance'. > I do not think personally that the strategy of terror is > any new American strategy. American state embodies terror > in its purest form. American society is a political > society, much more so than any other.If the students on > Berkeley Campus called America a police state in 1968 , > they were underlininig a reality which the distant had > seen as a propensity. Terror as propensity to terror as > reality is a transition under 'compulsions' of times, > the strategy remains a terror strategy.May be that the > Chinese state is also building a purely political society > in China and may be this will lead too to a long term > strategy of terror on their part. I know people who feel > very strongly about it. However it is surely not > necessary to talk about it today in the same breath while > discussing the present day strategy of terror of the > American stat > The challenge , I think , lies in imagining a way of > life-a society which is not governed by the modern > Euro-American values , beliefs and epistemic imperatives > and which is not imaginary, utopian. How do we construct > the path to such an imagination? Discussions on lokavidya > and from a lokavidya standpoint are a starting point > that we are pursuing.Our political backgrounds do > interfere and I think heavily both for good and for bad > but has neutrality ever been a virtue ? > > Sunil Sahasrabudhey > > _________________________________________ > 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: -- Diya Mehra Sarai: The New Media Initiative Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, New Delhi 54 (011) 23960040, www.sarai.net From definetime at rediffmail.com Mon Nov 8 17:04:07 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 8 Nov 2004 11:34:07 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) Nato is a threat to Europe Message-ID: <20041108113407.17165.qmail@webmail46.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041108/c4ecf4ca/attachment.html -------------- next part --------------   Nato is a threat to Europe and must be disbanded Our security doesn't depend on the US; we should free up our thinking Jonathan Steele Monday November 8, 2004 The Guardian They walk the walk. They talk the talk. But they don't think the think. In the wake of the huge support given to George Bush last week, it's time we realised how different America's majority culture is, and changed our policies accordingly. What Americans share with Europeans are not values, but institutions. The distinction is crucial. Like us, they have a separation of powers between executive and legislature, an independent judiciary, and the rule of law. But the American majority's social and moral values differ enormously from those which guide most Europeans. Its dangerous ignorance of the world, a mixture of intellectual isolationism and imperial intervention abroad, is equally alien. In the United States more people have guns than have passports. Is there one European nation of which the same is true? Of course, millions of US citizens do share "European" values. But to believe that this minority amounts to 48% and that America is deeply polarised is incorrect. It encourages the illusion that things may improve when Bush is gone. In fact, most Kerry voters are as conservative as the Bush majority on the issues which worry Europeans. Kerry never came out for US even-handedness on the Israel-Palestine conflict, or for a withdrawal from Iraq. Many commentators now argue for Europe to distance itself. But vague pleas for greater European coherence or for Tony Blair to end his close links with the White House are not enough. The call should not be for "more" independence. We need full independence. We must go all the way, up to the termination of Nato. An alliance which should have wound up when the Soviet Union collapsed now serves almost entirely as a device for giving the US an unfair and unreciprocated droit de regard over European foreign policy. As long as we are officially embedded as America's allies, the default option is that we have to support America and respect its "leadership". This makes it harder for European governments to break ranks, for fear of being attacked as disloyal. The default option should be that we, like they, have our interests. Sometimes they will coincide. Sometimes they will differ. But that is normal. In other parts of the world, a handful of countries have bilateral defence treaties with the US. Some in Europe might want the same if Nato didn't exist. In contrast, a few members of the European Union who chose to take the considerable risk of staying neutral during the cold war - such as Austria, Finland, Ireland and Sweden - see no need to join Nato in the much safer world we live in today. So it makes no sense that the largest and most powerful European states, those who are most able to defend themselves, should cling to outdated anxiety and the notion that their ultimate security depends on the US. Do we really need American nuclear weapons to protect us against terrorists or so-called rogue states? The last time Europe was in dire straits, as Nazi tanks swept across the continent in 1939 and 1940, the US stayed on the sidelines until Pearl Harbor. There is a school of thought which says that Nato is virtually defunct, so there is no need to worry about it. That view is sometimes heard even in Russia, where the so-called "realists" argue that Russia cannot oppose its old enemy, in spite of Washington's undisguised efforts to encircle it with bases in the Caucasus and central Asia. The more Moscow tries, they say, the more it seems to justify US claims that Russia is expansionist - however odd that sounds, coming from a far more expansionist Washington. It is true that Nato is unlikely ever again to function with the unanimity it showed during the cold war. The lesson from Iraq is that the alliance has become no more than a "coalition of the reluctant", with key members like France and Germany opting out of joint action. But it is wrong to be complacent about Nato's alleged impotence or irrelevance. Nato gives the US a significant instrument for moral and political pressure. Europe is automatically expected to tag along in going to war, or in the post-conflict phase, as in Afghanistan or Iraq. Who knows whether Iran and Syria will come next? Bush has four more years in power and there is little likelihood that his successors in the White House will be any less interventionist. Nato, in short, has become a threat to Europe. Its existence also acts as a continual drag on Europe's efforts to build its own security institutions. Certain member countries, particularly Britain, constantly look over their shoulders for fear of upsetting big brother. This has an inhibiting effect on every initiative. France's more robust stance is pilloried by the Atlanticists as nostalgia for unilateral grandeur instead of being seen as part of France's pro-European search for a security project that will help us all. Paradoxically, one argument for voting no in the referendum on the European constitution is based on this. Paul Quiles, a French socialist former defence minister, points out that Britain forced a change in the constitution's text so that Europe's common security policy, even as it tries to gather strength, is required to give primacy to Nato. Without control over its own defence, he argues, greater European integration makes little sense. The immediate priority on the road to European independence is to abandon support for Bush's disastrous Iraq policy and get behind the majority of Iraqis who want the US to stop attacking their cities and leave the country. They feel US forces only provoke more insecurity and death. Since Bush's victory two Nato members, Hungary and the Netherlands (which has a rightwing government), have said they will pull their troops out in March next year. Their moves show the falsity of the "old Europe, new Europe" split. In the post-communist countries, as much as in western Europe, majorities consistently opposed Bush's Iraq adventure, whatever their more timid governments said. Wanting to withdraw support for US foreign policy is not a left or right issue. Ending Nato would not mean that Europe rejects good relations with the US. Nor does it rule out police and intelligence collaboration on issues of concern, such as the way to protect our countries against terrorism. Europe could still join the US in war, if there was an international consensus and the electorates of individual countries supported it. But Europeans must reach their decisions from a position of genuine independence. The US has always based its approach to Europe on a calculation of interest rather than from sentimental motives. Europe should do no less. We can and, for the most part, should be America's friends. Allies, no longer. From definetime at rediffmail.com Mon Nov 8 17:02:18 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 8 Nov 2004 11:32:18 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) Screams will not be heard Message-ID: <20041108113218.7364.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041108/540e77b6/attachment.html -------------- next part --------------   Screams will not be heard This is an information age, but it will be months before we learn the truth about the assault on Falluja Madeleine Bunting Monday November 8, 2004 The Guardian With fitting irony, one of the camps used by the US marines waiting for the assault on Falluja was formerly a Ba'ath party retreat occasionally used by Saddam Hussein's sons. Dreamland, as it was known, has an island in the middle of an artificial lake fringed by palms. Now the camp's dream-like unreality is distorting every news report filed on the preparations for the onslaught on Falluja. We don't know, and won't know, anything about what happens in the next few days except for what the US military authorities choose to let us know. It's long since been too dangerous for journalists to move around unless they are embedded with the US forces. There is almost no contact left with civilians still in Falluja, the only information is from those who have left. This is how the fantasy runs: a city the size of Brighton is now only ever referred to as a "militants' stronghold" or "insurgents' redoubt". The city is being "softened up" with precision attacks from the air. Pacifying Falluja has become the key to stabilising the country ahead of the January elections. The "final assault" is imminent, in which the foreigners who have infiltrated the almost deserted Iraqi city with their extremist Islam will be "cleared", "rooted out" or "crushed". Or, as one marine put it: "We will win the hearts and minds of Falluja by ridding the city of insurgents. We're doing that by patrolling the streets and killing the enemy." These are the questionable assumptions and make-believe which are now all that the embedded journalists with the US forces know to report. Every night, the tone gets a little more breathless and excited as the propaganda operation to gear the troops up for battle coopts the reporters into its collective psychology. There's a repulsive asymmetry of war here: not the much remarked upon asymmetry of the few thousand insurgents holed up in Falluja vastly outnumbered by the US, but the asymmetry of information. In an age of instant communication, we will have to wait months, if not years, to hear of what happens inside Falluja in the next few days. The media representation of this war will be from a distance: shots of the city skyline illuminated by the flashes of bomb blasts, the dull crump of explosions. What will be left to our imagination is the terror of children crouching behind mud walls; the agony of those crushed under falling masonry; the frantic efforts to save lives in makeshift operating theatres with no electricity and few supplies. We will be the ones left to fill in the blanks, drawing on the reporting of past wars inflicted on cities such as Sarajevo and Grozny. The silence from Falluja marks a new and agonising departure in the shape of 21st-century war. The horrifying shift in the last century was how, increasingly, war was waged against civilians: their proportion of the death toll rose from 50% to 90%. It prompted the development of a form of war-reporting, exemplified by Bosnia, which was not about the technology and hardware, but about human suffering, and which fuelled public outrage. No longer. The reporting of Falluja has lapsed back into the military machismo of an earlier age. This war against the defenceless will go unreported. The reality is that a city can never be adequately described as a "militants' stronghold". It's a label designed to stiffen the heart of a soldier, but it is blinding us, the democracies that have inflicted this war, to the consequences of our actions. Falluja is still home to thousands of civilians. The numbers who have fled the prospective assault vary, but there could be 100,000 or more still in their homes. Typically, as in any war, those who don't get out of the way are a mixture of the most vulnerable - the elderly, the poor, the sick; the unlucky, who left it too late to get away; and the insanely brave, such as medical staff. Nor does it seem possible that reporters still use the terms "softening up" or "precision" bombing. They achieve neither softening nor precision, as Falluja well knew long before George W Bush arrived in the White House. In the first Gulf war, an RAF laser-guided bomb intended for the city's bridge went astray and landed in a crowded market, killing up to 150. Last year, the killing of 15 civilians shortly after the US arrived in the city ensured that Falluja became a case study in how to win a war but lose the occupation. A catalogue of catastrophic blunders has transformed a relatively calm city with a strongly pro-US mayor into a battleground. One last piece of fantasy is that there is unlikely to be anything "final" about this assault. Already military analysts acknowledge that a US victory in Falluja could have little effect on the spreading incidence of violence across Iraq. What the insurgents have already shown is that they are highly decentralised, and yet the quick copying of terrorist techniques indicates some degree of cooperation. Hopes of a peace seem remote; the future looks set for a chronic, intermittent civil war. By the time the bulldozers have ploughed their way through the centre of Falluja, attention could have shifted to another "final assault" on another "militant stronghold", as another city of homes, shops and children's playgrounds morphs into a battleground. The recent comment of one Falluja resident is strikingly poignant: "Why," she asked wearily, "don't they go and fight in a desert away from houses and people?" Why indeed? Twentieth-century warfare ensured a remarkable historical inversion. Once the city had been the place of safety to retreat to in a time of war, the place of civilisation against the barbarian wilderness; but the invention of aerial bombardment turned the city into a target, a place of terror. What is so disturbing is that much of the violence meted out to cities in the past 60-odd years has rarely had a strategic purpose - for example, the infamous bombing of Dresden. Nor is it effective in undermining morale or motivation; while the violence destroys physical and economic capital, it usually generates social capital - for example, the Blitz spirit or the solidarity of New Yorkers in the wake of 9/11 - and in Chechnya served only to establish a precarious peace in a destroyed Grozny and fuel a desperate, violent resistance. Assaults on cities serve symbolic purposes: they are set showpieces to demonstrate resolve and inculcate fear. To that end, large numbers of casualties are required: they are not an accidental byproduct but the aim. That was the thinking behind 9/11, and Falluja risks becoming a horrible mirror-image of that atrocity. Only by the shores of that dusty lake in Dreamland would it be possible to believe that the ruination of this city will do anything to enhance the legitimacy of the US occupation and of the Iraqi government it appointed. From announcer at crit.org.in Mon Nov 8 12:57:03 2004 From: announcer at crit.org.in (Comet Media Foundation) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 12:57:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Call for Placements at COSMOS Mumbai Message-ID: <960FAE06-3157-11D9-9F43-000A95A05D12@crit.org.in> CALL for PLACEMENTS for COSMOS: A Space for New Media Practices in Mumbai Comet Media Foundation (Comet) is an organisation formed in 1985 and is based in Mumbai, India. Our activities involve creating knowledge artefacts in film and print, distributing ready knowledge materials, conducting workshops and conducting resource festivals. Comet’s work has won a number of awards, including the Jules Verne Prize of the European Union, an international award given for outstanding efforts in science communication. At present we are working towards setting up a media practice space called COSMOS. This we hope will be a part of a movement to get people to think more critically about the place of science and technology, particularly the role of media, in their lives and to give expression to this thinking in the form of new media. In this age when all media formats are merging into a common digital language, we see a need for media workers who can combine skills hitherto seen as separate disciplines, in a creative way. What will be the education of such media creators, activists and researchers, and what will be Comet’s agenda, the concerns we wish to imbue these learners with? Apart from being equipped to understand the technologies and the environment through which these new forms of expression work, their education has to be a process of building perspectives that will enable them to think in a cross-disciplinary way and to aspire to goals of social equity and justice. The focus of the COSMOS activity is threefold: • training of media designers, makers and researchers with an emphasis on science communication, material culture, issues of social change and related activism. • a media production facility oriented to increasing awareness of science engineering and technology (SET) issues. • pursuing of linked activities with associate autonomous local units of media makers (ALUMs), run by independent film makers, alumni and practitioners emerging from the training and production activities of this centre and many other centres all over the country. These three are not sequential but parallel activities, with each activity boosting the others as it moves along, involving a somewhat uncertain gestation period at the outset. The uncertainty is tied to availability of funding, a crucial enabling factor at the start of the process. CALL for PLACEMENTS 1. Proposal Developer at COSMOS To implement the academic aspect of the project, we need a person who would initially be termed as a Proposal Developer working alongside the Coordinator. The task of this person would be to understand the objectives and interests of potential funders vis-à-vis the COSMOS proposal in order to design components which would enable the implementation of the plans of COSMOS. S/he would work on all aspects of the project including, but not limited to: • ascertaining the knowledge needs of different groups of potential learners • developing the proposals for funding accordingly • identifying appropriate funding agencies • liaising with state and central governments and other funding bodies to obtain support • raising funds • documenting the process of seeking and raising funds • detailing a project report, time plan and budget for implementation • functioning as part of a team to achieve the above A person with 5-7 years of work experience would be suitable for this position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in COSMOS, once it is operational. 2. Course Content Developer at COSMOS To implement the academic aspect of the project, we need a person who would initially be the Course Content Developer. S/he would work on all aspects of the project including, but not limited to: • surveying the current scene in education regarding new media • ascertaining the knowledge needs of different groups of potential learners • developing the course contents of various courses of differing durations accordingly • locating suitable resource persons and resource agencies • building relationships with them to create new courses with their expertise • documenting the process of arriving at different concepts • identifying appropriate funding agencies • detailing a project report, time plan and budget for implementation • liaising with governments (state and central) and other bodies to obtain support, material or otherwise • functioning as part of a team to achieve the above A person with 5-7 years of work experience would be suitable for this position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in COSMOS, once it is operational. 3. Researcher-Documentationist at COSMOS To implement the project, we need a person who would initially be termed a Researcher-Documentationist, to work alongside the Principal Project Manager. S/he would work on all aspects of the project including, but not limited to: • conducting correspondence • developing and building databases of potential learners, institutions, resource persons, funders and others • tracking progress of developments outside and within the team to see that deadlines and targets are met as planned • documenting the process of seeking and raising funds • detailing components which would enable the implementation of the plans of COSMOS • working on the project report, time plan and budget for implementation • functioning as part of a team to achieve the above A person with 2-3 years of work experience would be suitable for this position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in COSMOS, once it is operational. Please circulate this call for placements to interested friends and colleagues. Respond to Comet Media Foundation at comet_media at vsnl.com, marking the subject line COSMOS placement. All applicants are expected to be resident in Mumbai full-time. The deadline is tomorrow morning! Sincerely, COMET MEDIA FOUNDATION Topiwala Lane School Lamington Road Mumbai 400 007, India +91.22.2386.9052, +91.22.2382.6674 http://www.cometmedia.org _____ CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust) Announcements List http://lists.crit.org.in/mailman/listinfo/announcer http://www.crit.org.in _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Nov 9 07:52:06 2004 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 07:52:06 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Info: Perry Anderson speaks at Delhi University Message-ID: <200411090752.06768.ravikant@sarai.net> With apologies to those outside Delhi. Ravikant As part of the Millenium Public Lecture Series, Delhi University invites you to a lecture by Perry Anderson on: After Hegemony? Time: 10th November, 2004, 11.30 am Venue: New Convocation Hall, North Campus, Delhi University From vivek at sarai.net Wed Nov 10 12:41:48 2004 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 12:41:48 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Shanghai Biennale Message-ID: <4191BF34.40909@sarai.net> As an interlude-- more reasons to lament the absence of a truly exciting art scene in India. There is also a picture gallery associated with this article. http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1346573,00.html *Is Chinese art kicking butt ... or kissing it?* Collectors are queueing up to buy work by China's bright young artists. But while the scene is certainly buzzing, some worry that the domestic art world is selling out to the west, says Charlotte Higgins Picture gallery: Chinese art at the Shanghai Biennale *Charlotte Higgins* *Tuesday November 9, 2004* *The Guardian* At 50 Moganshan Street in Shanghai is a clump of dusty warehouses and small-scale factories, hedged around by a tall, encroaching thicket of tower blocks. Inside the compound can be glimpsed the busy activity of small-scale industry. A door lies ajar to reveal a dingy shoebox of a room, closely packed with bunk beds to accommodate migrant workers. The building next door, by contrast, fronts the world with a sparkling plate-glass window; behind it is a minimalist office interior, Mies van der Rohe chairs set at neat angles. For 50 Moganshan Street is where, alongside the low-rent workshops, Shanghai's high-end contemporary art world has come to roost. Round every corner you'll find an artist's studio, or an exclusive dealer selling Chinese art for thousands of dollars out of some glamorously dilapidated warehouse. It's like a wet dream of SoHo in the early days. People talk of an "explosion" of Chinese art. For a country that has virtually no contemporary art history, where artists' training is dominated by an ultra-traditional grounding in Chinese painting techniques, where the first clues as to what was happening in the postmodern western art world trickled through as recently as the late 1980s, the scene has mushroomed and transmuted with staggering velocity, artists running through mini-movements (political pop art, the much discussed trend for body art in the mid-1990s, through to a strong focus today on installation, film and video) with alarming speed. In Europe and the US, Chinese art is, as they say, hot. Of the art sold at Moganshan Street, the vast majority is to collectors from abroad. "Kissing foreigners' arses" is how one young art graduate dismissively describes it. "China keeps being discovered," says Davide Quadrio, a touch wearily. An Italian long-term resident of the city, he is a curator who, for the past five years, has run a not-for-profit art centre, his current space accessible via a juddering goods lift up in a Moganshan Street warehouse. "Chinese art is overexposed to foreign journalists, curators, dealers. And for some young artists it's difficult to deal with the expectations. People seem to have an overwhelming need for China at the moment - ideas from China, novelty from China. But you can't find 10 or 15 new young artists each year." Quadrio has been one of the chief actors in the drama that has seen artistic activity in Shanghai transmute over the past decade "from an era of guerrillas to the era of a regular army", as artist Qiu Zhijie has put it. He recalls how, from a low-profile underground, with artists showing avant-garde work mainly to each other in their studios, a more public scene took shape. In 1996, Lorenz Hebling, a Swiss art dealer, set up the first private commercial gallery focused purely on contemporary Chinese work. A turning point came in 1999, when Quadrio's outfit, Bizart, put on an exhibition called Art For Sale. It was Shanghai's first large-scale show of avant-garde art outside the nascent commercial gallery circuit. "It was closed down after two days for pornography," says Quadrio, "but it was illegal anyway - we had squatted a mall." Despite its short life and a furious denunciation in the press, it was a huge success, ambitious in scale and intent, a call to arms for Shanghai artists. Quadrio was now determined to set up a permanent, not-for-profit exhibition space. It wasn't as easy as it might sound. A cultural organisation in the city has no legal status unless affiliated to the government, thus coming under the power of the Shanghai Cultural Bureau. Such control, from a conservative, bureaucratic and extremely circumspect body, was never going to be viable for Quadrio. The way round it was to create a wholly owned Chinese company, becoming a "commercial enterprise in the eyes of the Chinese authorities". The numerous events and exhibitions he has held since then fly, mostly, below the radar of officialdom. It is one of many subtle accommodations Quadrio has come to with the authorities. "You play with the limits, and the government lets you play," he says. Money, rather than censorship, he stresses, is the biggest headache: Quadrio hires out his curatorial and technical skills to help pay for the programme, and works with foreign funders and foundations, including Arts Council England. In one neighbouring warehouse, Li Liang, an artist and dealer, runs a gallery called Eastlink. He is an urbane, sleek figure, his office cluttered with artworks: 2ft-long rat sculptures by Jin Le, vulgarly entertaining multicoloured resin figures by Li Zhan Yang. "I'm doing two things," he says. "I have to have something to sell. And then there are exhibitions, where we can show more experimental work." He is profoundly reluctant to talk about it ("that is in the past now"), but he was responsible for one of the most notorious events of the Shanghai art scene. In 2000, he ran a show on the unofficial "fringe" of the city's first Biennale, which operates from the government-run Shanghai Art Museum. Li Liang's show was, uncompromisingly enough, called Fuck Off, and it featured a photograph of a man eating a baby, by Zhu Yu. The work was one of the manifestations of the Chinese body art movement, in which, in a manner that makes the most violent excesses of the YBAs seem tame, human body parts, corpses, and leavings from medical operations were deployed as artistic materials. One artist reputedly even committed suicide as a performance work. Li Liang's show, unsurprisingly, was shut down, and became an international scandal. He didn't do the cause of his own gallery any favours, but that first Biennale did make an impact, he says. "People began to see art in a different way. They started to understand that contemporary art won't harm society, particularly since it was coming out of the Art Museum. The atmosphere became more open." Through Li Liang's windows I count eight cranes without turning my head. The drilling, hammering, thud and clang of construction is constant. He gestures towards the tower blocks: "These have all gone up in the past eight months." The onward march of the towers daily threatens the artists and curators at Moganshan Street. They have been here a matter of months - an earlier base nearby at West Suzhou Road, in a handsome 1930s British-designed granary, was demolished. It was the sort of building that in the west would have been preserved as a crucial piece of industrial heritage. "Maybe next year the government will make this place permanent as an artists' compound," says Li Liang, more in hope than expectation. "The Shanghai government is pushing for culture at the moment. In their eyes, there are good economic and touristic reasons for culture to be a part of the city ... at the same time, if they get their hands on this place, they will fuck it up with framing shops and Starbucks. There's a complete lack of imagination." The Shanghai Biennale is the most obvious manifestation of the city's recognition that, as Lorenz Hebling puts it, "a big modern city doesn't just have highways, but also culture". Set in the magnificent 1930s racecourse club on the edge of Renmin Park, it's an extensive, ramblingly curated show with a focus on Chinese and South American work. Young Shanghai artists Xu Zhen and Yang Fudong are in evidence, the former with a playful installation for the museum's clock tower that sets the clock hands spinning wildly out of control, Yang Fudong with a haunting evocation on film of the disorientation of urban existence. Victoria Liu, a chic, energetic Taiwanese curator whose parents left Shanghai just before the war, has now returned to the city of her roots. Over the past instalments of the Biennale she has seen "tremendous improvements from the team's hard work and persistence. It gives me great hope. The government - what's the government? It's the people who work in it. There's a younger generation in charge now, many with international educational backgrounds. The director of the art museum has travelled a lot, and he has clear ideas about how the Biennale can improve." With her geometric-cut, scarlet-dyed hair and Issey Miyake trousers, she seems the epitome of jetset art-world glamour. We meet at her high-rise apartment block, the exotically named Sea of Clouds, and she whisks me off into a taxi to visit the huge new space she is about to embark on curating, called Bund 18. Housed in the marbled and pillared halls of the 1920s Bank of India, Australia and China, it is a splendid setting in which, when the builders move out, she is planning art and design shows, performance, film and concerts. "We want to generate people's interest in participating in art life. This isn't about selling," she says. "We'll also do things like print an art map of Shanghai - the sort of thing the gov ernment should be doing, to bring more interest to the city." In a few weeks the rest of the building will fill with restaurants and boutiques: "Shanghai's most intriguing and beautiful retail, dining and entertainment experience" is how the publicity puts it. It's all magnificent, but will anyone who's not part of the Shanghainese or international super-rich dare venture past Cartier to find the exhibition space beyond? Liu brushes the question away and puts her mind to finding a restaurant for lunch. But later, over the Shanghainese version of nouvelle cuisine, something seems to drop away. "You won't want to hear this," she says. "I teach western art at university, from the Eygptians to Damien Hirst. But western curators come here with limited knowledge of our art history, and don't bother to ask curators like me what's going on. Everything is judged by their own standards. For years we were grateful and humble. Now we want to do our own thing. My Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, Chinese colleagues think the same." She believes that Chinese artists are in danger of becoming "copycats" of their western colleagues, and wants to find ways for them to reconnect with their own art history: to find an authentic Chinese voice. "Young artists have no idea of art for art's sake - it's art for the market." It will take years, she says, for interest in contemporary art to spread beyond the elite few. Even then, "the divide "is not going to be about east and west, but about economics, about massive disparity in earnings among Chinese." Less about kissing foreigners' arses, then, than kissing the arses of the rich. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 From coolzanny at hotmail.com Wed Nov 10 19:47:33 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 19:47:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Conflict Resolution Workshop in Delhi Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041110/c39a0418/attachment.html From bharati at chintan-india.org Sat Nov 6 19:31:00 2004 From: bharati at chintan-india.org (Bharati Chaturvedi) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 19:31:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] wastepickers demand recognition Message-ID: <005701c4c6ff$18938e20$ccc59fca@chintan> Wastepickers ask Delhiites to see them with new eyes On Saturday evening, between 1000-1200 wastepickers from different parts of Delhi help a green cultural event at the historic India Gate, a monument to the unknown Indian soldier. The event comprised poems, dramatic and colourful art installations, collages and several rows of paintings strung along the lawns as an exhibition. The event was held just one week before Diwali, the festival of lights, prosperity and cleanliness, with the intention of reminding Delhiites that although Diwali was a time to clean their homes, it was also the time to remember Delhi's cleaners. The waste pickers asked to be recognized for their role in recycling the waste of the city and asked for light in their lives, otherwise ridden with dirt, disease and social disdain. In a highly innovative and unusual programme at India Gate this evening, the waste pickers hosted a special event for Delhi's citizens. The programme also comprised an art competition, where the waste pickers made paintings about their own lives. A panel of 3 eminent judges, artist Amitava Das, lawyer Malvika Rajkotia and DCP Crime Tejinder Luthra picked out the first, second and third prizes in both the children's and adult's categories. The prizes were given out in the children's category by the chief guest, Mr. Sachin Pilot, a well known Member of Parliament and in the adult's category by Ms. Nafisa Ali, a popular thespian and champion for HIV positive victims in India. Mr Pilot said that it was vital that citizens now begin to participate and recognize the work of the sector. He also said that he himself would like to help such poor persons find ways to have their demands heard. He also said that it was significant that the wastepickers' were congregating at a historic and public area India Gate in their quest for making citizens aware about their work. Ms. Nafisa Ali said that the work done by wastepickers was very important to the city and urged them to organize themselves. She also pointed out the callousness of citizens, saying how visitors were still littering the lawns with paper and plastic, forgetting that a wastepicker would have to pick it all up for recycling. Several citizens from various walks of live were present and they were joined by visitors to India Gate. The waste pickers put up a small cultural show on a stage named Kabarmanch, or a stage for waste. They recited poems and appealed to the public to remember that while they cleaned their homes on Diwali, to also recall that there were over 80,000 people who the cleaned the waste they threw out. They also put on display many tableau, displays, art works and posters, with assistance from a group of artists, in order to create public awareness. The choice of India Gate as the venue was also for this reason of public participation in the event. The waste pickers had earlier walked though the highly busy Sarojini Nagar Market with various tableaux they had made, dressed in capes made of waste, to educate the public about how to handle their waste in a manner that was responsible and safe. They were joined by school children for a half kilometer long chain that asked busy shoppers and shopkeepers to think of their waste and their waste pickers. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041106/f0b3c69e/attachment.html From coolzanny at hotmail.com Thu Nov 11 11:00:58 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:00:58 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Santhya Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041111/14fe3abe/attachment.html From coolzanny at hotmail.com Thu Nov 11 11:01:53 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:01:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Conversations Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041111/19a86b7e/attachment.html From avinash at sarai.net Fri Nov 12 14:15:16 2004 From: avinash at sarai.net (avinash kumar) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:15:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter to Bush junior Message-ID: <4194781C.7060806@sarai.net> Please Bomb Seattle, by Geov Parrish DEAR PRESIDENT BUSH, I write as a proud American and a resident of one of its many great cities: Seattle. You've probably heard of us-Space Needle, mountains, salmon, Microsoft. When you owned the Texas Rangers baseball club, your team was in the same division as our Mariners. We stunk back then. We hope you remain grateful. Oh, and Boeing sends its deepest love. Mr. President, I have an enormous favor to ask of you: Could you bomb us? Not just once or twice for show; I mean really bomb the city of Seattle, hard, like what you're planning for Baghdad and probably for Pyongyang and Tehran and Damascus and whatever other 50 or 60 major world cities are in the Pentagon's files. Blast us back to the Stone Age. Make it hurt. Send us a message. Don't hesitate or think too much about this-I wouldn't want you getting migraines or anything. But if you do, consider that we, too, are under the rule of a power-hungry leader we never voted for, one with unthinkable numbers of nasty weapons. But that's not all. Mr. President, we're in the "blue" part of the country, the part that went for Gore, so I'm sure you'll understand that we've contributed more than our share of terrorists over the years. Those guys arrested a few weeks ago for stealing top-secret plans from the military? Our guys. We've been breeding them for years: the D.C. snipers, the Green River Killer, Ted Bundy-we "harbored" them all. To your talented staff, making the case that we're an international menace should be a breeze. Mr. President, let's face it: The biggest threats to global security come from the biggest countries, not the smallest. To pull them into line, you'll need to convince them that you'd take anyone out, even your own mother. Even your own city. Hit us, say, with one of those big new post-daisy-cutter MOAB bombs, the ones that kill just like Hiroshima's nuke except with less radiation. Maybe drop a few thousand cruise missiles so that the fireball extends all the way out past the suburban sprawl. Dumb, smart, whatever. Doing this would give all Americans a far healthier respect for the new American empire you're creating. The problem with obliterating Baghdad and its 5 million people is that they're just too far away. For most Americans, the handiwork of your genius is simply too abstract to fully appreciate. However, if you take out a place like Seattle-a city they've likely visited, a place where they might have an old friend-it becomes much more real. And since we're only three time zones away, an attack here will get far more media coverage than attacking some obscure dictator's playpen. Just ask-I'm sure the networks will cooperate. Even better, viewers will be able to more fully appreciate what your weapons do, because the survivors will look like them (except for the burns), even speak the same language (mostly), value human life just as much as they do. Our dilemmas will seem so much more vivid to our fellow Americans than the fate of 23 million stage props to Saddam Hussein. It'll make for some amazing reality TV shows. And, of course, a wealthy city like Seattle, with its big skyline and modern infrastructure, means trillions in rebuilding contracts after the war-enormous windfalls you can award as party favors at your next 2004 fund-raising dinner. If you ever get bored, you can just bomb us again! Bomb, rebuild, bomb, rebuild . . . now that's putting our economy to work! All in all, Mr. President, I think it's a perfect fit for the new American empire you're constructing. It's an unprovoked attack upon a defenseless civilian population, based on crimes committed by either unaccountable leaders or psychotic individuals who passed through town. It'll make your friends even richer, and it'll contribute, far more directly than any overseas campaign, to your re-election success. Dead people can't vote Democratic. And we'll get a rebuilt Alaskan Way Viaduct out of the deal. Now that you've thought about it, Mr. President, I'm sure you realize that you can't back down. I trust Secretary of State Colin Powell will be making the necessary representations to foreign powers shortly. I think you'll be surprised at how many nations will be willing, even eager, to help with this one. - Your patriotic friend, Geov Parrish P.S. I'm moving to Phoenix. Soon. P.P.S. Damn! I just remembered! We don't have any untapped oil reserves. I guess that calls this whole thing off, huh? Never mind. [Courtesy of http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0311/news-parrish.php.] From avinash at sarai.net Fri Nov 12 14:37:25 2004 From: avinash at sarai.net (avinash kumar) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:37:25 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 'I got my kills ... I just love my job' Message-ID: <41947D4D.7090905@sarai.net> 'I got my kills ... I just love my job' Toby Harnden in Fallujah observes American soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division taskforce avenging their fallen comrades as battle begins 09/11/04 "The Telegraph" -- After seven months in Iraq's Sunni triangle, for many American soldiers the opportunity to avenge dead friends by taking a life was a moment of sheer exhilaration. As they approached their "holding position", from where hours later they would advance into the city, they picked off insurgents on the rooftops and in windows. "I got myself a real juicy target," shouted Sgt James Anyett, peering through the thermal sight of a Long Range Acquisition System (LRAS) mounted on one of Phantom's Humvees. "Prepare to copy that 89089226. Direction 202 degrees. Range 950 metres. I got five motherf****** in a building with weapons." Capt Kirk Mayfield, commander of the Phantoms, called for fire from his task force's mortar team. But Sgt Anyett didn't want to wait. "Dude, give me the sniper rifle. I can take them out - I'm from Alabama." Two minutes tick by. "They're moving deep," shouted Sgt Anyett with disappointment. A dozen loud booms rattle the sky and smoke rose as mortars rained down on the co-ordinates the sergeant had given. "Yeah," he yelled. "Battle Damage Assessment - nothing. Building's gone. I got my kills, I'm coming down. I just love my job." Phantom Troop had rolled out of Camp Fallujah, the main US military base, shortly before 4am. All morning they took fire from the Al-Askari district in Fallujah's north-east, their target for the invasion proper. The insurgents, not understanding the capabilities of the LRAS, crept along rooftops and poked their heads out of windows. Even when they were more than a mile away, the soldiers of Phantom Troop had their eyes on them. Lt Jack Farley, a US Marines officer, sauntered over to compare notes with the Phantoms. "You guys get to do all the fun stuff," he said. "It's like a video game. We've taken small arms fire here all day. It just sounds like popcorn going off." Another marine stepped forward and began to fire an M4 rifle at the city. "He's a reservist for the San Diego police. He wants a piece of the action, too". A Phantom Abrams tank moved up the road running along the high ground. Its barrel, stencilled with the words "Ali Baba under 3 Thieves" swivelled towards the city and then fired a 120mm round at a house where two men with AK-47s had been pinpointed. "Ain't nobody moving now," shouted a soldier as the dust cleared. "He rocked that guy's world." One of Phantom's sniper teams laid down fire into the city with a Barrett .50 calibre rifle and a Remington 700. A suspected truck bomb was riddled with bullets, the crack of the Barrett echoing through the mainly deserted section of the city. The insurgents fired 60mm mortars back, one of them wounding a soldier. There were 25mm rounds from Phantom's Bradley fighting vehicles, barrages from Paladin howitzers back at Camp Fallujah and bursts of fire from .50 calibre machineguns. One by one, the howitzers used by the insurgents were destroyed. "Everybody's curious," grinned Sgt Anyett as he waited for a sniper with a Russian-made Dragonov to show his face one last, fatal time. A bullet zinged by. Dusk fell and 7pm, "A hour", the appointed hour to move into the city, approached. The soldiers of Phantom all reflected. "Given the choice, I would never have wanted to fire a gun," said Cpl Chris Merrell, 21, manning a machinegun mounted on a Humvee. "But it didn't work out that way. I'd like a thousand boring missions rather than one interesting one." On his wrist was a black bracelet bearing the name of a sergeant from Phantom Troop. "This is a buddy of mine that died," he said. "Pretty much everyone in the unit has one." One fear playing on the mind of the task force was that of "friendly fire", also known as "blue on blue". "Any urban fight is confusing," Lt Col Newell, the force's commander, told his troops before the battle. "The biggest threat out there is not them, but us." His officers said that the plan to invade Fallujah involved months of detailed planning and elaborate "feints" designed to draw the insurgents out into the open and fool them into thinking the offensive would come from another side of the city. "They're probably thinking that we'll come in from the east," said Capt Natalie Friel, an intelligence officer with task force, before the battle. But the actual plan involves penetrating the city from the north and sweeping south. "I don't think they know what's coming. They have no idea of the magnitude," she said. "But their defences are pretty circular. They're prepared for any kind of direction. They've got strong points on all four corners of the city." The aim was to push the insurgents south, killing as many as possible, before swinging west. They would then be driven into the Euphrates. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited From shivamvij at gmail.com Thu Nov 11 19:21:39 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 19:21:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gone with the copyright law Message-ID: Any reax, friends? Shivam American fundamentalism By Yuval Dror Haaretz (Israel) | 11 November 2004 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/500082.html The Gutenberg Project is an international enterprise whose goal is to post classic literary works on the Internet. Since works of literature are protected by copyright, the project is careful to post only works whose copyrights have expired and are now in the public domain. Israel has its own version of the Gutenberg Project: the Ben-Yehuda Project. Who can fail to love such a project? It is entirely staffed by volunteers, and there is no law-breaking. Just a lot of love for texts and literature. But the Gutenberg Project's basic premise - taking material that is in the public domain - is now in danger. The New York Times reported this week on the project's Australian branch, which put the full text of Margaret Mitchell's classic "Gone with the Wind" on the Internet and almost got slapped with a lawsuit. Mitchell published her novel in 1936. Under American copyright law, the work is protected for 95 years, or until 2031. When this law was first enacted, at the end of the 18th century, the period of protection was only 14 years, with an option to extend it for an additional 14 years. The copyright period was extended twice, and in 1909, the law was amended to state that works such as "Gone with the Wind" would be protected for 28 years, with an option of extending for an additional 28 years. But since the mid-1960s, the copyright period has been extended 11 more times, and it now stands at 95 years (or 70 years after the author's death). Not every country agrees that this is how works of culture should be treated. In many European countries, the copyright expires 50 years from the date the work is published. Thus Elvis Presley's early songs will enter the public domain in Europe in another two months. In Australia, and in Israel as well, the copyright expires 50 years after the author's death. Mitchell died in Atlanta on August 16, 1949. Thus according to Australian law, her signature work entered the public domain in 1999, so there was no reason not to publish it on Project Gutenberg's Australian Web site. But far be it from a country such as the United States to allow its copyright holders to lose the profits they are supposed to be able to collect almost a century after the work was published. The Australian site received a letter from lawyers representing Houghton Mifflin, the company responsible for Mitchell's intellectual property, which demanded that the site immediately remove the link to Mitchell's text. The Gutenberg Project volunteers gave in. This incident raises questions that will occupy Internet buffs for years to come. For instance, can the long arm of the American law oblige a group of Australian volunteers to obey it? It turns out that the answer is yes. Trade agreements between the U.S. and Australia oblige the Australian authorities to protect the intellectual property of American artists. Because of similar agreements, Israel is also obligated to fight copyright violators who distribute pirated discs of American songs. The U.S. is one of the world's most zealous protectors of its citizens' intellectual property. But this American zealotry has recently crossed the line into fundamentalism. At the urging of American record and film companies - some of the wealthiest U.S. corporations, which donate millions of dollars to politicians - the U.S. enacted draconian laws that have no parallel elsewhere in the world, whose sole goal is to supply protection that borders on the absurd to cultural works that in the past would have entered the public domain. Moreover, the U.S. obligates countries with which it signs trade agreements to include a pledge to protect American intellectual property in these agreements. And since no one wants to pick a quarrel with the U.S., in practice, the world is required to enforce American law. Will American copyright law become the law of the Internet? Does this imply that the most extreme law in every field will be the one that binds every law enforcement agency on the planet? It is hard to exaggerate the danger to cultural freedom worldwide, which has found expression over the Internet, if the answers to these questions turns out to be affirmative. From shivamvij at gmail.com Thu Nov 11 19:24:16 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 19:24:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 'Arafat's Dark Legacy' Message-ID: Arafat's Dark Legacy: A one minute film on 'HonestReporting.com' http://www.honestreporting.com/m/legacy.asp From announcer at crit.org.in Thu Nov 11 10:56:07 2004 From: announcer at crit.org.in (Centre for the Study of Culture & Society) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 10:56:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] PhD Scholarships in Comparative Film Studies Message-ID: <3062B387-33A2-11D9-9F43-000A95A05D12@crit.org.in> PH.D. SCHOLARSHIPS IN COMPARATIVE FILM STUDIES The University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) and Centre for the Study of Culture & Society (Bangalore) are announcing four funded Ph.D. Scholarships in Comparative Film Studies Four scholarships leading to a Ph.D. in Comparative Film Studies are available under a new research programme that seeks to promote research capable of contributing to the newly emerging discipline of Comparative Film Studies. The 3-year full-time programme has been devised and will be conducted jointly by the School of Media and Performing Arts of the University of Ulster (Coleraine, Northern Ireland) and the Centre for the Study of Culture & Society (CSCS, Bangalore, India). It will be hosted and administered by the CSCS. Selected candidates will be registered with the University of Ulster for a research degree leading to a PhD awarded by the University of Ulster. The University of Ulster's Centre for Media Research will cover all UU fees for 3 years*. Selected candidates will be based at the CSCS although no formal residency requirements apply. * Nominal Bench and Library Fees extra REQUIREMENTS: The programme is open to applicants with a Masters degree or equivalent experience. Applicants from all parts of the world are welcome. HOW TO APPLY: Interested parties must apply in writing and provide the following documents: - filled in application form (to be downloaded from the website of the University of Ulster). - evidence of MA qualification or equivalent - curriculum vitae - a research proposal (600 to 1000 words) outlining the area and nature of the research the candidate intends to undertake - a copy of one essay on a relevant topic written in English Send your applications and supporting documents in an envelope marked Ph.D. Programme in Comparative Film Studies' to Administrative Officer Centre for the Study of Culture and Society 466, 9th Cross Madhavan Park 1st Block, Jayanagar Bangalore 560011, India Last Date for Application: 20 DECEMBER 2004 For further details write to: Dr Valentina Vitali, University of Ulster Dr S.V. Srinivas, CSCS Ashish Rajadhyaksha, CSCS Dr Paul Willemen, University of Ulster For further information: http://www.cscsban.org http://www.arts.ulster.ac.uk Ashish Rajadhyaksha Senior Fellow Centre for the Study of Culture & Society 466 9th Cross Madhavan Park 1st Block Jayanagar Bangalore 560011 Phone: +91.80.2656.2986 Fax: +91.80.2656.2991 E-Mail: ashish at cscsban.org Web Site: http://www.cscsban.org _____ CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust) Announcements List http://lists.crit.org.in/mailman/listinfo/announcer http://www.crit.org.in _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From jo at turbulence.org Fri Nov 12 10:21:46 2004 From: jo at turbulence.org (Jo-Anne Green) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 20:51:46 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Spotlight: "On Lionel Kearns" by Jim Andrews Message-ID: <41944162.40308@turbulence.org> November 12, 2004 Turbulence Spotlight: "On Lionel Kearns" by Jim Andrews http://turbulence.org/spotlight/kearns Needs Shockwave and Quicktime plugins "On Lionel Kearns" is a look back at a forward-looking poet. It explores the sixties-through-eighties pioneering work of proto-digital Vancouver poet Lionel Kearns. Kearns' work in text, visual poems, and animated poetry videos is combined with Andrews' interactive visual programming; the result crosses borders between the digital poem, the documentary, and the essay, and re-programs the literary hypertext of net.art. "On Lionel Kearns" is an introduction to the work of a poet who presents a larger vision of what it means to write and be a poet than was widely accepted or understood when the work was originally published. Kearns practiced and wrote about the sort of poly-artistic, variously-mediated poetics we see developing in the digital domain, and he wrote about computers and poetry in parables of insight. He looks forward from the sixties into the present and, past the present, into the future. "On Lionel Kearns" has been reviewed by Geoff Huth: http://dbqp.blogspot.com/2004/11/on-on-lionel-kearns-jim-andrews-and.html BIOGRAPHY Jim Andrews is a poet-programmer-audio guy-critic. He has been publishing vispo.com since 1995. Recent work includes: Digital Writing Circa 2004, written for a talk in England; Paris Connection, a project in critical media on six Parisian artists; Arteroids, a literary game for the Web; and Nio, interactive audio/visual music. For more Turbulence Spotlights, please visit http://turbulence.org/spotlight/index.html -- Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog and Conference: http://turbulence.org/blog -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041111/c8780dde/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From abshi at vsnl.com Mon Nov 15 21:35:09 2004 From: abshi at vsnl.com (abshi at vsnl.com) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 21:05:09 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Talk in Mumbai: Intimacy and Its Perils: Hidden Histories of Caste and Gender Message-ID: <1181969118610d.118610d1181969@vsnl.net> Gender & Space Project PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action & Research), Mumbai presents A Talk by Anupama Rao Date: 19 November 2004 Place: Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai Time: 6 p.m. Intimacy and Its Perils: Hidden Histories of Caste and Gender Independent India has been decisively shaped by struggles of Indians against colonial rule and movements to reform Indian society from within. In colonial India, liberal ideas of freedom and individuality confronted a society governed by the inequities of caste. The control of women and their sexuality was especially important in defining caste boundaries. Therefore they also became central to political projects that sought to annihilate caste. Radical anti-caste activists experimented with new forms of marriage, demanded inter-caste marriages, and even addressed issues of sexual freedom outside the confines of marriage. Popular forms such as the tamasha, the farce, and the Satyashodak and Ambedkari jalsas played a critical role in popularizing such critiques. Anupama Rao’s talk addresses these powerful experiments to democratize everyday life through the use of popular cultural forms. Anupama Rao is Assistant Professor, History at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is author of "Gender and Caste: Contemporary Issues in Indian Feminism" (Kali for Women, 2003), as well as the forthcoming books: "The Caste Question: Untouchable Struggles for Rights and Recognition," and "Discipline and the Other Body: Correction, Corporeality, and Colonialism." From vivek at sarai.net Tue Nov 16 12:05:12 2004 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:05:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] first person account of a migrant fighter Message-ID: <41999FA0.407@sarai.net> If you haven't read it-- The Guardian Thursday November 11, 2004 'The only place I am going from here is heaven' Yemeni tells how he left family to join fighting Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Falluja >From inside a room in one of Falluja's safe houses came a beautiful voice reciting verses from the Qur'an and choking with tears. "If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your tribe, your fortunes and your trade are more dear to your hearts than God, his prophet and the jihad in the name of God," chanted the voice, "be fearful of God then, he will never talk to the wrongdoers." The room was half-lit, the walls were bare except for one picture of Mecca. The only piece of furniture was a prayer mat in the middle of room twisted at an angle to face the south. A Kalashnikov rifle and an ammunition pouch were laid against the wall. A pair of old trainers stood at the edge. On the mattress sat a man with a small Qur'an in one hand and a set of prayer beads in the other. Sometimes his voice would be drowned out by the sounds of explosions rocking the city. As he finished his prayers he stood up, held his hands high and started praying: "Oh God, you who made the prophet come out victorious in his wars against the infidels, make us come out victorious in our war against America. Oh God, defeat America and its allies everywhere. Oh God, make us worthy of your religion." The man - tall, thin with a dark complexion, black eyes and a thin beard - arrived in Falluja six weeks ago. He spent a few days sharing a room with other fighters until they were distributed among the mujahideen units in the city. He was with a group of the Tawhid and Jihad stationed in the west of Falluja in the Jolan district where heavy fighting has been raging for the last two days. Living with other Arab and Iraqi fighters, he was given the honour of leading the prayers because of his beautiful voice. Anxiously waiting for the Americans outside a makeshift bunker, he told his story. He said he was not here because he loved death as death but because he perceived martyrdom as the most pure way in which to worship God. He was, he said, a Yemeni religious student from the the capital San'a, who had been studying sharia law for six years, while working as minibus driver to support a pregnant wife and five children. He first tried to come to Iraq to fight the Americans during the war 18 months ago. "I wanted to come and fight for Islam. I met a Jordanian merchant who provided me with tickets to Syria and $100. He even drove me to the airport himself." Sent back But once there, he was prevented from going any further by the airport police. "I was wearing my jalabiya and a small turban and when the police asked me why I was going to Damascus I said, to work. They asked me what kind of work. I said to work for the salvation of my soul. And they sent me back." He pointed at his cheap cotton trousers and said: "This time I learned the lesson and bought these." For a year he went back to his studies and his family, forgetting Iraq and jihad. But the scandal of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib woke him up, he said. His wife, a religious student working on her masters thesis, urged him to leave everything and go for jihad in Iraq. "She told me they are doing this to the men, imagine what is happening to the women now. Imagine your sisters and me being raped by the infidel American pigs." He suddenly realised his mistake, he said, and spent the night crying. The next day he borrowed money for another journey - one that he described as his last. He was given a contact name in Aleppo, a city in the north of Syria, who would arrange for him to be smuggled across the border. "I didn't tell anyone, I just told my wife. I borrowed a car from a friend and we went out to do some shopping. She bought me two trousers and a shirt. We went then to my father's house. I told my mother, forgive me if I had done anything wrong. She said, why? I told her nothing, I just want forgiveness from you and dad. "She asked me if I was going to Baghdad. I said no. She hugged me and cried." The fighter told how he went back home and sat with his wife and children, who had no idea that this was their last dinner with their father. "My favourite daughter came and sat in my lap and slept there. She opened her eyes and said, 'Daddy, I love you'." Weeping as he spoke, he said: "You know these memories are the work of the devil trying to soften my heart and bring me back home. The only place I am going from here is heaven." When he arrived in Damascus, he learned from other jihadi networks that the Syrians had tightened security on the border. Other would-be mujahideen were waiting in small apartments in Damascus, Aleppo and Hams. After a month he realised that the cleric who was running the smuggling network was working with the Syrian mukhabarat, the secret service, handing over the mujahideen to the police. He fled, but in a small mosque in Aleppo, he met a young cleric who promised to help him reach Iraq. The Yemeni was handed to another group which placed him in a small house with other jihadis for two weeks. One night he was taken to a village on the Syrian side of the border in the north. "They came and said we are crossing today. It was a very scary journey. We had to lie still in the desert if we heard American helicopters. "We spent two nights on the border in a village, then we were taken to another village to be given military training. Most of the brothers with me have never used a weapon in their life. "I knew how to use an AK-47. After a few days they came and said we need fighters to go to Hit" - a town north-west of Baghdad. There he joined a minibus filled with Arab fighters, driving through the night. They were escorted by two cars, he said, including a police car. He produced his Qur'an from his pocket. "When I was in Syria, I bought seven copies of this, wrote the name of my wife and my five children on each and left the seventh empty - I didn't impose a name for the newborn on my wife. She called me later when I was preparing to cross and told me she has written on it 'shahid' - martyr." From definetime at rediffmail.com Tue Nov 16 14:52:20 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 16 Nov 2004 09:22:20 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) Academic's stress Message-ID: <20041116092220.14401.qmail@webmail47.rediffmail.com>   Cracks in the ivory towers >From outside, universities may seem like havens of calm and civilisation, but an increasing number of academics are suffering from work-related stress, and even bullying. Polly Curtis and John Crace report Tuesday November 16, 2004 The Guardian There's a saying that if you think you're standing still, then you're probably going backwards. If true, then the collective psyche of UK academics may be in even worse shape than first thought. Six years ago, Gail Kinman of the University of Luton produced her first survey into stress and work-life balance in higher education, which revealed levels of stress far in excess of most other professions. Today Kinman, with Fiona Jones from Leeds University, publishes a report for the Association of University Teachers, Working to the Limit, that shows continuing cause for concern. "I had rather expected that my 1998 findings would turn out to be a blip," says Kinman. "Academics were then in the process of having to adjust to changes in the system - increased bureaucracy and more pressure both to extend student contact time and to get published - and hadn't yet learned to cope with the pressure. I had imagined that administrators and staff would have found a way to manage and improve the system." It hasn't quite turned out that way. Pressure to publish for the research assessment exercise is still intense, and the focus on undergraduate personal development planning continues to stretch the working day to its limits. Meanwhile fixed-term contracts, threats of redundancy, unsympathetic management styles and good old-fashioned departmental back-stabbing keep the nights sleepless. "There appears to be no consistency across universities," Kinman continues. "Nearly half of all academics have no idea whether their institution even provides stress management training, and the reported levels of stress remain consistent with six years ago. "Some things have even got worse. In 1998, 44% of respondents reported that they had considered leaving higher education. This time round, the figure has risen to 47%. We have no way of knowing just how many of those who considered leaving in 1998 carried out that threat, but these numbers cannot be good for the morale and health of the profession." Kinman and Jones polled 1,100 academics and academic-related staff at 99 universities. Nearly half say they are constantly under strain, over two-thirds (69%) say that they find their work stressful and 78% believe that the status of their profession is in decline. Seventy-two per cent of academics find that their first thought every morning is about work. The list goes on and gets worse. Half show borderline levels of psychological distress. Eight out of 10 say that as the result of that stress they are tired even when they've slept; over half say they experience headaches and 41% have trouble sleeping. One in five report dizziness, heart pounding or skin rashes, which they put down to stress. But there is a silver lining. University workers do feel they have a choice in what they do at work and how they do it. Some 81% agreed with a statement that said they had the possibility to "learn new things" in their jobs. These are strong reasons for staying in the profession and probably more like the image that outsiders have of universities. Outside of these ivory towers, people are unsympathetic. The view of universities is of the leafy campus and quiet library; places for contemplation and debate, not nailbiting and backstabbing. Schoolteachers, not scientists, have nervous breakdowns because of workload; bully-boy tactics are rife in the stock exchange, not the library. What on earth do academics have to be stressed about? "Every job comes with its own internal psychological contract," Kinman says. "The deal that most academics make with themselves when they enter the profession is that they will be trading a lower salary for greater autonomy and flexibility. "When they discover that not only are the pressures as intense - if not more so - than in other professions, but that much of their workload has been reduced to bureaucracy, they feel cheated that the contract has been violated. They are in effect mourning the loss of the job they thought they had." Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University and a leading researcher into work-related stress, says: "People have this view that academics are people who have long holidays, teach a bit and then play with some research," he says. "People don't have sympathy for us. They will have sympathy for doctors and nurses. Who trains the doctors? We do. Who trains the nurses, the social workers, the teachers? We do. Who trains all the people they worry about? Us. These attitudes add to the problem. We don't perceive ourselves to be valued." Three-quarters of academics polled by the AUT said there had been a decline in status for academic staff in the past five years. Cooper says the near-epidemic levels of stress on British campuses can be blamed on the pace of change. "The talk about mergers, the downsizing, the restructuring, the 'take more students' demands are all putting stresses and strains on people. Too much change can be the move-maker for someone who's struggling." The majority in the AUT survey blame stress levels on the lack of time to prepare for lessons, classes that are too big and the massive expansion of paperwork that has come with the stepped-up quality control and monitoring systems. Meanwhile, 90% say that the pressure to get their research published has also increased. Some researchers say that this dichotomy between research and teaching leaves them with a tough and career-debilitating choice. David Roberts (not his real name) is only 26, but he runs a research team at a Russell Group university. He's exactly what the ageing workforce needs, yet is considering leaving because he feels so torn between teaching and research. "There's disjunction between short-term targets - the marking of 60 dissertations or something - and doing research that will advance your career. You're stressed by missing what you're meant to be doing in the short term, then by the fact that you know your career is slipping away from you. "You either have to stand up to management or do their bit and see your career suffering. I'm a young academic on a fixed-term contract. I need to publish to get another job, or have this job go permanent." At the heart of it, he says, is the research assessment exercise, the government's tool for making universities compete for cash to fund their research. Individual departments' research income is based on the number of papers their people have published. If you're not publishing, you're a liability, even if you're busy with other things. Like, for instance, teaching. "The vice-chancellor says we're a research-led university, but we're doing that in our spare time because teaching in itself is a full-time occupation," says Roberts, who is looking for a new job. He's thinking of leaving the Russell Group after he approached one former polytechnic, which told him his workload would be half the number of students he currently works with. Roberts talks in a resigned, disappointed fashion. But others are angry with their bosses, the vice-chancellors and even the government for allowing their workload to spiral out of control. Andy Robinson is in charge of the student administration office at Queen Mary, University of London. He says he's struggling to keep the university's record system afloat as the pressures pile on: increasing accountability, different types of learning and marking, more overseas students and more plagiarism, and a creaking computer system. "I have seen this place go down the tubes," he says. "Trying to get 50% of young people into HE is farcical. It puts pressure on institutions. "I'm furious that I can't do my job properly. My appraisal was one of the most negative experiences in my life because the targets I had set myself in the one previously were unattainable. No matter what I want to do, I can't take it forward. I used to enjoy my job, I think it is a worthwhile job to do, but I think there are so many ways we could do this better." Joanna Bryson is a computer scientist who has worked in three Ivy League institutions in the US and is now settled in Bristol. She is at the other end of the paper trail. "The major source of frustration is the lack of administration - secretarial resources are seen as something that can be cut here. People do their own photocopying. In America, there tends to be a secretary for every two or three professors," she says. Bryson worked in financial services in Chicago before becoming an academic. "The thing I like best about industry is that when you go home it's over," she remembers. "But in academia there's always more work you could be doing, a lecture to write or a paper to research." The AUT research found some worrying issues concerning work-life balance. The boundaries between home and work in the life of the academic are wafer-thin - even more so if, like 20% of those polled, you live with another academic. On average, a quarter of academics' working life happens at home. Some 10% of academics check their email five times a day at home. Many people appreciate this flexibility in working, but not when those hours are in excess of a full working week in the office. Those who did manage to separate their home and work lives were less likely to be suffering from stress. What it seems the university workforce is desperate for, in an age of the RAE, soaring student numbers, shifting structures and the blurring of their working lives into their home life, is a damn good manager. And that's what they say they aren't getting in universities. Eva Berglund quit a University of London anthropology department, and academia altogether, because of the "big egos and bad morale". The culture was unbearable. "There's an institutional sense of nobody trusting you, and you have to create a paper trail, which makes you feel under surveillance. You have no power to do anything if the feedback is bad." What runs through the AUT report is a strong sense of a huge divide between them and us. People are generally happy with their colleagues - 57% report that they are "satisfied" with the people with whom they work on the same level. But that figure decreases as you go up the career ladder: a third are dissatisfied with their immediate bosses and 56% are unhappy with the support they receive from senior managers. Some 73% disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement "management has become more sensitive to the needs of academic staff". Sue Blackwell, an AUT representative at Birmingham University, who herself has suffered from stress and now counsels other members, says that managers in any other organisation are employed because they are good with people. But this doesn't happen in universities. "People take these jobs because they want to do teaching and research, they then get promoted to management, for which they are not trained or experienced," she says. "They are promoted because they have a lot of publications, because that's what counts. But they are not necessarily good at dealing with people as human beings." Good management is more than a cup of coffee, a shoulder to cry on and a few touchy-feely words of comfort. Fiona Jones suggests that a useful starting point in alleviating stress would be a clarification of just what is and isn't expected of staff. "There needs to be much more realistic expectations of what is possible," she says. "Universities want their staff to become far more visible within the department, to be available at all times for students. But this is clearly incompatible with the more invisible, contemplative demands of research. There needs to be a clear division of time: employers can't just have it both ways." Both authors are anxious that the report should be considered constructive rather than antagonistic. "One does need to be careful about how the findings are presented," says Kinman. "We don't want academics to come across as a bunch of moaning minnies. It's as important that staff understand the pressures of management's job as vice versa." Kinman's concerns may be groundless. Most employers recognise that stress is a critical issue. "Stress is stress - regardless of the causes or whether it's perceived or actual," says Matt Grainger, communications adviser for the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea). "Universities are committed to providing support to staff." The backbone of this support will be the release of new guidelines to update the 1999 publication, Dealing with Stress. "It would be wrong to pre-empt the new report," says Clive Parkinson, health and safety adviser for the Ucea, "but it's safe to assume that the review will be based on pilot studies of stress-management schemes in universities, such as Birmingham, and the six stress standards published recently by the Health and Safety Executive. There's no doubting the sincerity of the commitment, but the fact is that any guidelines will remain just that. Guidelines. There are no statutory demands on any employer, so inevitably provision is likely to be at best inconsistent and at worst non-existent. The situation is far from ideal. Even so, as Kinman points out, there's still plenty of room for the situation to get worse. "With the introduction of top-up fees," she says, "students are likely to become even more demanding and vociferous consumers. They will expect even more from their academics." Don't say you haven't been warned. Stress by numbers 69% of academics and academic- related staff agree or strongly agree with the statement "I find my job stressful" 66% claim to work more than 45 hours a week 65% had too much paperwork 57% are "satisfied" with colleagues on same level 56% are unhappy with the support they receive from senior managers 47% have considered leaving higher education 41% have trouble sleeping 45% would not be able to discuss problems of stress with their senior managers 38% can cope with the demands of the job 37% were happy with the quality of their research 32% had enough time to prepare for their classes 21% claim to work more than 55 hours a week 18% had experienced bullying at work Source: Association of University Teachers · Association of University Teachers' stress helpline: 0870 6061407 Full report Working to the limit (pdf) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041116/77f3b44f/attachment.html From office at roomade.org Sun Nov 14 18:35:50 2004 From: office at roomade.org (Roomade) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 14:05:50 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] 2004 Taipei Biennial Message-ID: Taipei's artistic take on reality By Caroline Gluck International Herald Tribune Friday, October 29, 2004 TAIPEI In terms of its funding and size, the 2004 Taipei Biennial is a minnow in the sea of blockbuster contemporary art shows that have become so fashionable in Asia and the rest of the world. Nevertheless, Belgium-based Barbara Vanderlinden, who with her Taiwanese colleague, Amy Huei-hua Cheng, pulled the show together in just four months, believes that the Biennial succeeds for reasons other than size. "In Asia, the Taipei Biennial is one of the smallest," she said. "In fact, it's a big museum exhibition, but it's one with the strongest identity." The fourth Taipei Biennial - called "Do You Believe in Reality?" and running through Jan. 23 at the Fine Arts Museum - showcases contemporary art by more than 40 individual artists and collectives from around the world whose primary material is everyday life and human experience rather than grandiose or abstract ideals. Many, like Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-Jen, reflect on the impact of globalization and the social displacement it can cause. In his haunting, soundless film, "The Factory," former female garment workers were invited to return to an abandoned garment factory seven years after its closure and perform their former tasks. The carefully staged sequences are interwoven with footage of a time when the factory was helping to drive Taiwan's economy, thus emphasizing both personal and collective loss. "On the surface, it's to do with globalization. Factories are moveable but employees aren't," said the artist. "The deeper part of the message is to show the human factor that stayed. There are certain things that are not changeable." Some artists in the show are established names, such as Agnès Varda, Yoko Ono, Rem Koolhaas and Steve McQueen. The artists use different media - photography, architecture, performance art, installations - but film and video predominate. Biennials are designed both to showcase the contemporary art scene in a city or country, and to introduce new ideas from international artists to the local public. While this show is essentially thematic - rather than a survey of the latest art trends - from the moment you enter the lobby, it is clear that it is firmly grounded in a Taiwanese context. The Chinese architect Chang Yung-Ho's wood and rice paper installations, shaped like cameras and placed at different heights, screen excerpts of 16 documentaries depicting the political, economic and cultural transformation of Taiwan, touching on issues such as immigration and urbanization. Work by some of the youngest artists question expectations about art and museums. "Invade the TFAM" (the museum's acronym), the work of Kuo I-Chen, a 25-year-old Taiwanese art student, projects the shadow of an airplane crossing the ceiling of the museum, and its low rumbling sound. They are triggered by an outdoor sensor when real planes fly across the museum, which lies near the flightpath of the city's domestic airport. The work is described as an attempt to break down the illusion that in the museum - literally and figuratively - you are sealed off from the outside world. Part of this show explores the idea of artists as citizens actively involved in the world around them rather than just representing it. The American artist Martha Rosler's installation, "If You Lived Here" (1989), deals with homelessness and what she views as the injustice of capitalism and the shortcomings of political leaders. Social activism is also a hallmark of the Dutch artist Jeanne Van Heeswijk's work. In this show, her collaborative project, "A Paper House," brings the squatter culture of Rotterdam into the museum. Other artists approached the question of "reality" in a more anthropological way. Lu Jie, the Chinese curator of one of the projects, spent a year working with thousands of government officials, artists and cultural workers from northern Shaanxi province for "The Mapping of Yanchuan Paper-Cuttings," a survey of the traditional folk craft of paper cutting. But is it contemporary art? Yes, said Liu: "I don't think we should protect paper cutting as an exotic, but dying, folk art." Some works underline the way reality can seem stranger than fiction. In the Albanian artist Anri Sala's documentary, "Time After Time," a single fixed shot coming in and out of focus reveals an old horse standing near a busy highway. It barely moves as cars and their bright lights pass noisily by. You are left pondering how it got there, and why it doesn't leave. Copyright © 2004 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041114/8aef8cbb/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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In colonial India, liberal ideas of freedom and individuality confronted a society governed by the inequities of caste. The control of women and their sexuality was especially important in defining caste boundaries. Therefore they also became central to political projects that sought to annihilate caste. Radical anti-caste activists experimented with new forms of marriage, demanded inter-caste marriages, and even addressed issues of sexual freedom outside the confines of marriage. Popular forms such as the tamasha, the farce, and the Satyashodak and Ambedkari jalsas played a critical role in popularizing such critiques. In this talk Anupama Rao will address these powerful experiments to democratize everyday life through the use of popular cultural forms. Anupama Rao is Assistant Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is author of "Gender and Caste: Contemporary Issues in Indian Feminism" (Kali for Women, 2003), as well as the forthcoming books: "The Caste Question: Untouchable Struggles for Rights and Recognition, "and "Discipline and the Other Body: Correction, Corporeality, and Colonialism." Date: Friday, 19th November 2004 Time: 6 p.m. Venue: Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Mumbai Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (022) 5574 8152 / +91 (0) 98204 04010 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041116/61dfb600/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From shivamvij at gmail.com Sat Nov 13 13:20:54 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 13:20:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] POP on Gmail Message-ID: Gmail offers free POPs Published: November 10, 2004, 11:13 AM PST By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com Google on Wednesday threw another bone to customers of Gmail, its free Web-based e-mail service. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company now allows people to download e-mail from any third-party account or forward their Gmail for free, or what's called POP (Post Office Protocol) access. Using the feature, people can send Gmail e-mail to mobile devices, such as a Blackberry, or to Microsoft Outlook. The company, whose offer of 1 gigabyte of mail storage prompted rivals to follow suit with added storage, said it does not have any plans to charge for either feature. Rivals including Yahoo and Microsoft charge for similar POP access. Yahoo Mail, for example, collects $19.95 for POP e-mail forwarding, among other premium features. It does not charge for POP downloading to Yahoo Mail. From sunil at mahiti.org Tue Nov 16 22:32:08 2004 From: sunil at mahiti.org (Sunil Abraham) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 17:02:08 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Call for contributing theme editors for portal on Internet Governance in the Asia-Pacific Message-ID: <1100624528.638.68.camel@box> Help build a portal on Internet Governance in the Asia-Pacific Call for contributing theme editors UNDP's Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) in co-operation with the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) is launching a portal on ICT policy issues in the Asia-Pacific region to stimulate dialogue on ICT policy priorities and build a resource collection with country-specific news and key background readings in major issue areas. The portal will be a collaborative online effort, with all resources added and managed through an easy-to-use web interface. APDIP is seeking to appoint a number of topics editors that assume responsibility for maintaining information resources on a pro-bono basis in one of the following issue clusters, all with specific focus on the concerns of the Asia-Pacific region. - Editor 1: physical infrastructure policies: e.g. interconnection and backbone access policies, competition regulation, universal service rules and Internet, wireless and Internet telephony regulations, collective access schemes - Editor 2: logical infrastructure: e.g. IP address management, domain name rules, public policy dimension of Internet standards and standards development - Editor 3: data and network security, online fraud, spam and cyber-crime regulation - Editor 4: e-commerce related policy issues: consumer protection, taxation, customs duties, secure payments systems What are we looking for? The ideal candidates would have in-depth expertise in the selected policy area in the Asia-Pacific region and they would be committed to nurturing a public information exchange on the issues from an independent and objective perspective. Editors are expected to make time for populating the topics area with a limited number of key background references, for providing news updates twice a week, and for managing the submissions of information resources suggested by other website users. They receive credit for their efforts through high visibility and prominent recognition on the website, as well as the opportunity to interact with senior-policy makers, private sector representatives and civil society actors that will make up the main target audience of the web portal. How can you get involved? If you are interested, please send your CV and a brief cover page outlining your interests, expertise and preferred thematic area by no later than November 23 to Mr. Dieter Zinnbauer: dieter at apdip.net Background - About the Internet Policy initiative UNDP-APDIP has initiated an Open Regional Dialogue on Internet Governance, to establish a regional perspective on important aspects of Internet Governance as viewed by stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region. The initiative aims to facilitate consultations at the national, regional, and sub-regional levels, while surveys and research will be undertaken that will result in a consolidated input to the UN World Summit on the Information Society and the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (UN-WGIG). - About the Portal A core component of the initiative is the development of an interactive portal website that consolidates key resources on Internet Governance for Asia-Pacific stakeholders and provides a wide range of interactive and participatory features, including options for commenting on issues, adding resources, starting discussions or setting up private information sharing spaces for related communities of practice. The portal will operate on a Plone content management system, which provides all these features through a website based-online editing system that does not require any advanced website programming skills. For an example of Plone in action see www.iosn.net. - About APDIP UNDP-APDIP is an initiative developed and funded by the United Nations Development Programme and covers countries in the Asia-Pacific region through 25 UNDP country offices. APDIP aims at assisting member countries in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to foster social and economic development. For more information on ORDIG, please go to www.igov,net; for more background information on APDIP, please visit www.apdip.net. Thanks, ಸುನೀಲ್ -- Sunil Abraham, sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (60) 1-2205-3895 Currently on sabbatical with APDIP/UNDP Manager - International Open Source Network Wisma UN, Block C Komplex Pejabat Damansara. Jalan Dungun, Damansara Heights. 50490 Kuala Lumpur. P. O. Box 12544, 50782, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: (60) 3-2091-5167, Fax: (60) 3-2095-2087 sunil at apdip.net http://www.iosn.net http://www.apdip.net "A world opened up by communications cannot remain closed up in a feudal vision of property" - Gilberto Gil, Minister of Culture, Brazil From coolzanny at hotmail.com Wed Nov 17 14:54:46 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:54:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Nexus-es and Public Spaces in Mumbai Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041117/13722c87/attachment.html From aesthete at mail.jnu.ac.in Wed Nov 17 12:42:43 2004 From: aesthete at mail.jnu.ac.in (Dean School of Arts and Aesthetics) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 12:42:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] MOHILE PARIKH SEMINAR Message-ID: <1100675563.8fb96b60aesthete@mail.jnu.ac.in> SCHOOL OF ARTS AND AESTHETICS JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY NEW DELHI In Collaboration with Sanskriti Pratishthan New Delhi and Mohile Parikh Center Mumbai Cordially invite you to a lecture series on Visual Arts VENUE: INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE CONFERENCE ROOM NO 3 MAX MULLER MARG NEW DELHI 110003 TIME : 5.45 pm 18th & 19th November, David Carrier Champeny Family Professor, Case Western University, Cleveland Institute of Art Thursday 18TH November “The Shapes of Art History’ Friday 19th November “Why we need a Universal Art History. Museum and Mutual Recognition” Chair Dr. Kavita Singh, S.S.A J.N.U 25TH & 26TH November Prof Ding Ning Faculty Member Deptt of Art Studies Peking University Thursday 25th November “Ancient Chinese Painting: Life Philosophy of Non Professionalism” Friday 26TH “Towards a New Century: A Glimpse into Contemporary Chinese Art” Chair Dr Ravni Thakur Reader, Delhi University, Faculty of East Asian Studies ============================================== This Mail was Scanned for Virus and found Virus free ============================================== ============================================== This Mail was Scanned for Virus and found Virus free ============================================== _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From shivamvij at gmail.com Tue Nov 16 21:25:18 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 21:25:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Computer addicts could go blind! Message-ID: Computer addicts could go blind! [Health India]: London, Nov 16 : http://news.newkerala.com/health-news-india/?action=fullnews&id=42840 A new research has found that constant use of computers may be linked to the development of a progressive eye disease, specially in shortsighted people, which eventually leads to blindness, according to a report published in the British Medical Journal. Glaucoma is a relatively common eye disease that develops very slowly, characterised by progressive sight defects or visual field abnormalities over time. Its exact cause is unknown, although potential risk factors, including smoking and high blood pressure, have been suggested. Researchers at the Toho University School of Medicine in Tokyo categorized the use of computers in blocks of five years, ranging from less than five years, to more than 20 years, as well as the average amount of time spent at the screen per session, ranging from 1 hour to more than 8 hours at a time. An in-depth eye test revealed that around a third of the workers had suspected glaucoma, characterised by distinct visual field abnormalities. And there also appeared to be a significant link between these and heavy computer use among workers who were short sighted. In fact, the most common refractive error was short sightedness, leading the authors to speculate that the optic nerve in short sighted eyes might be more vulnerable to computer stress than it is in normal eyes. (ANI) From definetime at rediffmail.com Wed Nov 17 12:40:36 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 17 Nov 2004 07:10:36 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: documantary film festival Message-ID: <20041117071036.29732.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com>   Note: Forwarded message attached -- Orignal Message -- From: "FIRC Delhi - Librarian" To: Subject: documantary film festival -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041117/f7971d5c/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: "FIRC Delhi - Librarian" Subject: documantary film festival Date: no date Size: 61512 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041117/f7971d5c/attachment.mht From vivek at sarai.net Thu Nov 18 12:30:45 2004 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 12:30:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] last on Derrida Message-ID: <419C489D.1090506@sarai.net> >From the Village Voice-- a pretty charming, intriguing essay. V. The Essay by *Leland de la Durantaye* Of Spirit The late, great Derrida's last lectures had a mysterious double in the crowd November 16th, 2004 11:30 AM acques Derrida, the world's most famous philosopher, died of pancreatic cancer in a Paris hospital on October 8. He had long been shy of the spotlight. From 1962 to 1979 he refused to be photographed, relenting only when /Le Monde/ ran a photo of Michel Foucault with the caption "Jacques Derrida." Wary of iconization, he combined extreme discretion as regarded his private person and life, and extreme generosity as concerned teaching and lecturing. He spoke in dozens of countries on hundreds of occasions on topics from Plato to phenomenology, Heidegger to hospitality, Descartes to deconstruction. He gave lectures in support of political causes such as the anti-apartheid movement, the rights of Algerian immigrants, and the plight of Czech dissidents, and he gave other lectures simply because he was invited. A telling (if apocryphal) Kansas appearance: An audience member stood up and recounted the scene from /The Wizard of Oz/ in which Dorothy and her friends finally meet the wizard, who is powerful and overwhelming until Toto pulls away the curtain to reveal a very small man. "Professor Derrida, are you like that?" the audience member asked. Derrida paused before replying, "You mean like the dog?" Appearances notwithstanding, this was no joke—or at least not merely one. The image of Derrida that readers often had was that of a wizard—wonderful or not—booming from behind an imposing curtain of works and words. But to himself, he was far more like the dog. The philosophical vocation that he adopted and advocated was a classical one—that of tugging at the loose ends of accepted truths, of taking hold of the curtains of metaphysical, linguistic, and political certainty, and pulling. I arrived very early at the gated building in the center of Paris where Derrida taught in his last years. If I arrived early enough, I saw the following. Hours before the lecture was scheduled to begin, the first group of auditors arrived: the misinformed. They had heard, as once had I, that they needed to arrive wildly early to secure a seat—which was untrue. They would look about the near-empty auditorium, suspecting they were in the wrong room, before resigning themselves to wait and producing passionately tattered copies of Derrida's /Of Grammatology/ in one of the many languages into which it had been grammatologized. Foreign emissaries continued to trickle in for another half-hour, and then the first major domestic detachments began to arrive. Familiar faces appeared. An hour and 15 minutes before the lecture, the most unusual of Derrida's usual suspects—his giant double—would arrive. It was said that he hadn't missed a lecture in decades. Upon entering, he would cast such a fierce, "deconstructing" glance—as a woman sitting behind me once called it—that the room grew still. After scanning the crowd for we never knew what, he mounted heavily to his accustomed seat on the left side of the auditorium, which we unkindly called "the lunatic fringe." I would always make a point of asking whoever happened to be sitting next to me who this man was, and heard that he was a psychoanalyst, a pharmacist, an oceanographer, a madman; that he was Derrida's brother, his barber; that he was Derrida himself. As his auditors knew, Derrida was a master of conceptual disguise. His lectures typically followed a winding path. He would begin with a paradox, or just some very weird statement ("Speech is speechless," "Nietzsche's umbrella was no ordinary umbrella"), and once he had his audience's attention, would gradually and gracefully guide the paradox from deep space to inner space, from nonsense to sense. Derrida's pharmacist, or whatever he was, would ask a question at the end of nearly every one of these lectures. The question would be a mirror image of what we had just heard. It would begin with sense—good, sound, irrefutable sense—and then veer eerily away, grading from question to statement, statement to rant, rant to raving, sense to nonsense. At some point he would be cut off by either an impatient audience, or a patient Derrida. The effect was so curious that during my first weeks I was sure the two were working in concert in the interest of greater deconstruction. To this day I am not certain. A group of elegant women invariably sat in the front row. They were often warmly dressed and, to the wonderment of the auditorium, would remain so even through the "sultry" period of the lecture when, after roughly an hour, overcrowding and poor ventilation would send temperatures soaring and induce light-headedness in listeners sitting in the upper reaches of the vertiginous auditorium. Various theories reigned as to how the elegant women kept cool. A man in the seat next to me (himself clad from head to foot in leather) speculated that as Derrida's thought operated according to special "magnetic principles," and as "weather is essentially magnetism," temperatures very near Derrida's body might be much different than those, say, 20 feet away. I changed seats. Magnetism and leather were important elements in these lectures. Derrida provided the magnetism, and his audience the leather. Paris boasted a rich variety of lectures and seminars offered by erudite and even charismatic teachers. But none drew such varied crowds as Derrida's. Many were what one expected in a lecture course given by a world-renowned philosopher: learned men and women with a stake in philosophy and its discontents. Many, like myself, had traveled long distances to be there. But just as one found precise phenomenologists with conceptual apparatuses that could abstract you from everyday experience in the blink of an eye, one also found there ardent cabalists, languorous dilettantes, renegade psychoanalysts, celebrated poets, and journeyman plumbers. Forty-five minutes before the lecture was scheduled to begin, two film crews set up shop. Then came the students en masse, making pit stops at the still-unoccupied lectern to place recording devices of varying shapes, sizes, and vintages. (One—there every week—was so large and bulky it looked like the phones used in World War II films.) By 4:45 no seats were left; students had staked out both the aisles. By 4:50, the room was a fire marshal's nightmare. By 4:55, auditors had camped out on every bit of available floor space around the podium. At 5:00, he arrived. He was never noticeably nervous, and he was always markedly businesslike. In his efforts to procure a still-larger auditorium he would pass around a book for everyone to sign—which would take over half an hour to run its course. He had on every occasion a lot of material he wished to present and spared us avuncular anecdotes not rare in Parisian philosophy seminars, in which the speaker fondly recalled the time he and Sartre didn't put too fine a point on it. Derrida's lectures were meticulously prepared and dynamically read. More surprising, they were funny. The steep roads of his thought were not always easy to follow, but they were, even at their most recondite, riveting—not just for the conceptual strength and linguistic agility of the speaker, but also for the way that he would pounce on new ideas as if they were scurrying about at his feet, and for the excited pitch his voice would reach when he had at last got hold of them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the early years of the 20th century, members of Paris's cultural elite would send away a servant every Friday afternoon on a special mission. After traversing the bustling city, the servants would convene in the main auditorium of a large gated building in the center of Paris. There they would wait. A few hours later, their employers would come and take their places. And then a small man with piercing eyes and an amicable smile would enter the auditorium: the most famous philosopher in the world, Henri Bergson. Bergson's friend William James once said of hearing him speak that "it is like the breath of the morning and the song of the birds." This was, however, not the only note heard by intellectuals of the day. T.S. Eliot went to no small pains to energetically denounce the "epidemic" that was "Bergsonism." The popular Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck suggested that Bergson was quite simply "the most dangerous man in the world." The influential French author Julien Benda declared that he would willingly kill him if he thought death would limit his influence. Just as the most famous philosopher in the world during the opening decades of the 20th century was a small, handsome, Jewish Frenchman criticized for a philosophy with "irrational" elements, so too was the most famous philosopher of its closing decades. During the years when his books and person made their mysterious mark upon my life, Derrida was often denounced as a dangerous man and his thought as a nihilistic epidemic. But we who gathered together to hear him speak could not square this threat with the bright-eyed man with the birdlike voice who stood before us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ /Leland de la Durantaye is an assistant professor of English and American literature and language at Harvard University/. From tripta at gmail.com Thu Nov 18 13:25:41 2004 From: tripta at gmail.com (tripta chandola) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 13:25:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Casual conversation In-Reply-To: <20041117071036.29732.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com> References: <20041117071036.29732.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: Looking down from the balcony, blowing smoke out of my fourth cigratte in a row, I was revelling in the chaotic patterns the crowds were forming below. This is in the middle of the Delhi winter, almost winter, afternoon. Unlike the summers, when everyone walks with an agitated pace to slip into spaces sparing them of the wrath of the still, brazen sun; the winter walk is different. It slow and sonorous. The patterns that crowds leave on a winter afternoon are much calmer. And soothing. At least they seem when observed from the height I was. Maybe that is why I did not think of anything `odd' in noticing two people engrossed in intense conversation walking past. They looked like any two people walking around really enjoying the conversations basking in the friendly sun. One of them was dressed in formals, with black shoes and shinny ties and all and the other was stark naked except for the peacock feathers he was carrying. Why it didn't strike me as odd was because he walking along a busy south delhi junction with the nonchalance confidence of it being the most `normal' thing to do. I did not find anything `odd' about it, then. But it got me thinking about the oddities which disrupt the normalcy with which we govern ourselves. Who decides these oddities? What is normal? Etc and all. But beyond this and everything else, I revel in the corners and contours which the city(ies) allows for spectacles as such to unfold and enact in the public and the privates. _________________ Rantings on the cities that we live, those that exist and those that don't. regards, tripta From coolzanny at hotmail.com Fri Nov 19 12:24:16 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 12:24:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Interview with a seafront outsider resident Message-ID: Dear All, Here is a transcript of my first interview with a resident of Marine Drive seafront. I am keen to speak to more people living along the seafront, not just in Mumbai, but across the world. If any of you is interested in sharing your experiences of railway stations and seafront, would be a willing candidate for an interview, please be forthcoming! Cheers, Zainab Interview with Vivek Rana Vivek Rana, originally from Bangalore, came to Bombay in January 2004. He works in the field of Public Relations and is also one of the trustees of an NGO in Bangalore called �Dream A Dream�. Vivek�s office is situated at Nariman Point and he lives at Marine Drive. It has been nearly eleven months now that Vivek is in Mumbai. As a resident of the seafront and also as one working in Nariman Point, I conducted the following conversation-cum-interview with Vivek: Vivek warns me that he does not know whether his answers are going to be �right or wrong� and that he is not one of the politically correct persons. Embarrassed with the procedure of audio recording, we start off: �I live at Zaver Mahal, on �D� Road. We were looking for a good PG (accommodation). This was the first place we saw. I was shocked because the place was very small. Then we looked around other places and saw that all of them were equally bad if not worse. In fact, it was like walking around somebody�s house for a minute till you found your room. This place was good because I had a separate entrance. I had my privacy and it was then that I decided to go in for this place.� Zainab: If you had a choice, where else would you have liked to live in Mumbai? Vivek: I don�t think anywhere else, considering that my work is in town, I wouldn�t want to live anywhere else. Zainab: Is that the culture in Bangalore as well i.e. most people live close to their places of work? Vivek: Well, uh, umm � In Bangalore (he goes on slowly), well, so far I have lived close to my place of work. One, Bangalore is very concentric where people have lived in Central City and work is always in the Central City. I wouldn�t mind traveling to work if it was easier. I find it very difficult to travel by the local trains here, especially during peak hours � otherwise it is fine. I see my colleagues traveling from so far, people living at Bhayendar and other places far and they get tired (by the time they reach office). And there is no life after work because you reach home only at 9:30 or 10 (PM) and then what do you do after that. I am not used to a life of just work. If I am moving, I need to be close to the place where I work. Zainab: I am sure you must be paying a bomb for that place � What are the kinds of differences you see between living in Bangalore and living in Bombay? Vivek: Weather is a big thing. But I am sure you are not talking about weather, I mean climatically � Zainab: No, whatever, climate, anything � Vivek: So, climate is a big thing. People are a bit more warmer there � Zainab: In Bangalore? Vivek: Yeah! I say this for two reasons. One, because after work there is a lot of bonding that happens among friends and among work colleagues. Zainab: Yeah, I have seen that in some of your cafes there. Vivek: Yeah, which is not possible in Bombay because basically everyone is in different corners of the city. Friends toh everyone is working in different places, work timings are pretty erratic here. In Bangalore, most people in worst case would finish work at 6:30 � 7 (PM), worst case. Most are done by 5:30-6 (PM) which is not possible in Bombay. Zainab: So what is your typical day like? Vivek: I am up at 5 (AM). Do my own stuff. Go for a jog. Then I get ready. Leave for office by 7:45-8 (AM). I am in office. Rarely do I travel. But yeah, sometimes I go to Andheri, Bandra, very rare. Usually finish work by 5:30-6 (PM). Once I am back, then I go for a jog (at Marine Drive/Nariman Point). Then I am back. Then if I feel like I cook my own dinner. Else I go out and eat. Then maybe I watch a movie at home or read. Otherwise there is the NCPA which is fabulous. I go for a play or something. Then there are the (Art) Galleries which are around. Zainab: What is your social network like in Bombay? Vivek: Actually it is very interesting because I came to Bombay with nobody here. I didn�t have friends, I didn�t have relatives. Well that�s another way of looking at social life here, you know. It�s easy to make friends Zainab: (clarifying) here, in Bombay? Vivek: Yes. And that�s how I have made friends but network is different in the sense over the phone, we chat, whatever, because we hardly meet everyday. But yeah, that is how it is today. Zainab: Yes. And do you have your jogging network (on the seafront), your circuit while you jog? Vivek: No, not really. Yeah, now that�s different here. When you talk about the difference between Bangalore and Bombay, that�s the difference here that people don�t even smile here! Zainab: Yeah? Vivek: That�s something I found very strange here. Even when you smile (at them). Nobody bothers really which is what I meant by Bangalore being a warmer city. You go on the road, smile, people will talk. You go jogging practically for a week and people will see you and you can start a conversation. But in Bombay I don�t think people even care. Perhaps it is that little moment (on the seafront, while jogging) that they get to be with themselves, they WANT to be with themselves. Zainab: Right � Vivek: So that could be the case. Zainab: So, when you look at Marine Drive, at Nariman Point, what is your idea of Bombay? What is the image of Bombay? Vivek: (a brief pause) Dirty! Zainab: Dirty. Do you say that in terms of pollution, or what? What do you mean by dirty? Vivek: Okay, let�s take the Oberoi (now Hilton Towers). Look around the Oberoi and it is all filthy. And that is the irony of this city, I think. You have the wealthy people around here, who don�t care about their city. You have the Marine Drive and all those people living in the apartments who are really, really rich. But you see their workers, right in front of your eyes, going and dumping all the garbage into the sea which is right in front of their houses. You see the sea completely dirty as you go along, but nobody seems to bother. Zainab: But �dirty� for you wouldn�t mean the hawkers around there? Vivek: Not really. But they contribute because they dirty the roads. Look a typical example, The Oberoi. You go to the back of The Oberoi and you see the hawkers there and they are throwing, washing their vessels there, everything. The road obviously becomes dirty. There is water, dirty water there, running, all along the roads and trash dumped in the drains � Zainab: Yeah, and then it all gets clogged there. What is this sea face, I mean what kind of a space is it? Is it a space for entertainment, a space where you get to be yourself? What is it to your mind? Vivek: To me, the sea brings back sanity to you. To be able to take a walk there in the morning, to get to jog there in the evening, somehow it helps you get off all that trash that accumulates in you throughout the day. It is like a purifier, in a way! Not in the true sense, but that only relief that you have here. Zainab: And would you find any place which is its equivalent or better than this? Vivek: Hmmm. See I love going to Ballard Estate in the night. Zainab: In the lanes inside? Vivek: Yes. I think it is very Gothic, very London-like, especially the Asiatic Library. You sit on the steps and all, it�s very nice. It�s a beautiful space in the night with not too many people there. You feel relaxed. Somehow it seems more cleaner then. Otherwise, this area I don�t know too much. Zainab: And how much of Bombay are you familiar with, comfortable with, confident about? Vivek: Err, until Bandra I am cool. Andheri, I know very little. Zainab: Okay. But you would normally go around the Western suburbs. Vivek: Yeah. I have been to Sion, as far as it gets on the Central Side. Zainab: Do you think that there are too many people here in Bombay? Vivek: Yes. Zainab: But isn�t that becoming a case with Bangalore as well? Vivek: Sure. Zainab: Then in this case, who is a Bombayitte and who is not? Or for that matter, who is a Bangalorean and who is not? Vivek: I think that line is just too thin. Bangalore, I have always thought, does not have a culture any longer. Which is why a lot of people like being there because it allows you to be yourself. It is very open, absorbing. You could just be who you are. It was known as a �laid-back� city and it still is a �laid-back� city. But otherwise, it does not have a culture of its own. It allows you, you know. That is why you see this floating population there which falls in line with the city. Zainab: Floating population means � Vivek: Uh � the IT Industry, you see a lot of people from the North coming here. Zainab: And would you say Bombay has a culture of its own? Vivek: Uh � yeah, it does. Zainab: What culture? Vivek: It�s money-minded, wanna be successful, wanna be seen in the crowd. Zainab: Yes � Vivek: Also, this culture, which I don�t relate to and I don�t like, is a very tense, uh � Zainab: Hyper � Vivek: Yeah, hyper, chaotic, but order with chaos, but very chaotic kind of culture. Zainab: But you are saying there is order? Vivek: Yes, to a certain extent, there is order in the chaos. I mean look at the trains, they run fabulously, on time, I think! Zainab: (laughing) And what do you think is the difference between living here and working here (at Nariman Point)? Vivek: Not much. Zainab: You mean there is not much difference between living here and working here? Vivek: Not really, considering that I stay close by. Zainab: So it seems that a lot of your life is between home and work, in this area itself. Do you feel cut-off or do you feel what of the rest of the city or you�re just perfectly happy with the way it is? Vivek: I feel perfectly happy because most of what interests me is in this part of the town. All that I want is happening here. At the most I would go up to Peddar Road, to Crossword�s (Book Store) or to some of the good restaurants there. My life and all that I want is here. I am pretty much happy here. Except that friends are far away. So either I travel or they come here. Zainab: Hmmm. Ummm (thinking up of the next question) Vivek: (at this point) Are we on track? Zainab: (laughing) Yes, pretty much! Okay, coming back to the previous point, you were around when the hawkers (on the seafront) were there and now they are not. Earlier they were on the seafront, now they are on the back of Hilton Towers. I don�t know whether you are aware that earlier hawkers used to stand on the seafront. Vivek: No, I am not aware of this. I know that there were the small bhutta (corn) shops around and they are still there now Zainab: Yeah, at the back of Hilton Towers. Vivek: Right and they are around. But I did not know that there were other hawkers around. Zainab: In the sense that there were all eateries and all, some ferrous wheel chaps, that�s all. Vivek: Now nothing of that sort. Zainab: Yeah, now nothing of that. So when you came there was nothing at all on the seafront? Vivek: Nothing at all meaning nothing of this sort. There were some of the �merry-go-rounds� but in terms of eateries, I used find only the bhuttas and stuff like that, on the seafront. Zainab: (affirming) On the seafront. And gradually they also got thrown off from there too. Vivek: Yes, gradually. Now I don�t even see them. I only see people walking (the hawkers) and requesting (the people) and they (the hawkers) bring it somewhere else. Zainab: Right, right. Vivek: I knew initially that there were some of these small bhutta shops, who are still available. Zainab: Yeah, they�re still there. So what do you think about their removal in the first place? Do you think it was a good move to take them off because this is a space for people to walk? What is your view on this? You don�t have to be politically correct! Vivek: I think there is a need to maintain certain rules about certain spaces, to maintain decorum and to keep maintain cleanliness. So on the one hand I�d say that this move is justified. So I would prefer that you don�t have hawkers or anything like that (on the seafront) because one, they don�t really have the civic sense to clean the place and two, consumers, the people, also eat and throw the stuff all around. So when that itself is a big problem � I also think it is important that space is maintained for people to walk because you have places for food like Chowpatty, if you really want to spend and eat food on the beach. You have dedicated spaces (for these purposes) so I think you should maintain that. Zainab: Okay, so if you think about it, whose space is Nariman Point? Are you saying this is a public space, or a space only for the residents, or you�re saying this is a space for the entire city to come here and chill out? What kind of a space is this? Is it a public space at all? Vivek: I think it is a public space. Zainab: South Mumbai never had a Multiplex Theater of its own and now we have INOX. Just by speculation, do you think INOX is going to make any difference to the landscape of Nariman Point? I know it is situated behind, but what do you think would happen to Nariman Point with INOX coming? Do you think the meaning of entertainment would change or what kind of experience will change because sometimes I think that Nariman Point is after all an experience and INOX is also an experience, though we are talking about two different kinds of experiences? So what do you think of INOX coming there, the coming up of a Multiplex theater? With images of the globe created, the idea of a global city � Vivek: Hmmm. I would think in two ways. One is that the coming up of CR2 itself, the mall, is going to be a sore thumb in the initial few months because Nariman Point is never known to be a place where people shop! I don�t know what kind of a crowd you will be attracting if you are targeting the business community. Zainab: What do you mean when you say �kind of crowd�? Vivek: I mean if you look at people in my building, I know that none of them are going to be people who will go shopping at a Swarovski or something, to be honest. If you open a Swarovski, you open a Ruby Tuesday, it is not going to make sense. The people who are going to be working there will be the ones who may buy. So if you are looking at fillers in the afternoons, or during lunch-breaks when people are going to buy, I don�t think it�s a great structure. But if you are targeting the residents, those who live in South Mumbai, you might turn lucky. But the multiplex will help. Zainab: � in terms of drawing the number, the crowds � Vivek: Yeah, the young crowds. I would also think it�s a nice place for people to hang out after work where you might want to catch a movie or two just because it�s right next to you. For people, in terms of bonding and stuff, it might help. Zainab: And how would you say that bonding at Nariman Point is different from bonding inside a CR2? Vivek: No, ummm, well � there is little to do in terms of bonding at Nariman Point. Zainab: Because it is such a vast open space? Vivek: Yeah, what do you do? And you�re so accustomed that there is nothing there so you want to run home. But given that there is a novel space now, there are cinema halls, there are so many movies showing, you can choose to go anytime you like there, I would think there is a space. And initially, it is about the novelty. People would say �let�s go and do something there after work�. It could work. At least the way I think, for my colleagues, it�s a big thing where they�d say okay let�s go, catch a movie after work; we can send someone to get tickets in the afternoon, whatever. Son in that sense, yeah, I think it�s gonna be a relief after mundane work at leats. You want to take a break, just go. Zainab: What�s your idea of a public space? Vivek: � (blank) Zainab: I mean what comes to your mind when I say public space? A park, garden, etc.? And what is your experience like in a public space? Your experiences in Bangalore, in Bombay? What are your public spaces like in Bangalore? Do you have parks, gardens � Vivek: Yes, in Bangalore we have parks and gardens. It is known as the Garden City. We have shopping areas as well. Zainab: Hmmm. So where do people meet? Vivek: Malls and coffee shops. Younger generation � a lot of coffee shops. My generation � a lot of pubs. One thing that you must understand is that Bangalore takes to novelty very quickly. Zainab: So when does the novelty die out? I mean, does the novelty die out too soon? Vivek: Yes, dies out too soon! Just as quick as it takes to the novelty. Very few establishments have survived. Zainab: Like you would say some of your old coffee shops and stuff like that? Vivek: Yes. One good example would be the India Coffee House on M. G. Road which has not changed since donkey�s years when it was first started out in 1847. The waiters still dress like British Butlers. They still serve you toast and scrambled eggs which is LOVELY (smacking his lips, recalling tastes from memory). It is just so much a part of Bangalore that if it is gone, we would, for Bangalore, it would be a big loss. You have spaces like that. Zainab: So then, what�s the difference between old spaces and spaces like malls? Why do they survive and why don�t your novel spaces survive? Vivek: (thinks) I think they�re very impersonal. Zainab: novel spaces? Vivek: Hmm, malls. Zainab: But aren�t they were customized, individual made? Vivek: I don�t think so at all. They are just very cold, very ____________, very ____________. Look at the kind of displays and collection they have. I mean look at Cross Roads by itself � one horrible place to shop! Zainab: I agree. And you think that old coffee houses are personal or that at least there is something to them? Vivek: They have an old charm, you know. Zainab: After all these days of living here, do you feel like you belong here or you still feel like an outsider? Vivek: No, I don�t know. I never had these problems. I can make myself home anywhere. I feel very much at home here. Zainab: So you think it�s okay to be a two-city person, a Bangalorean and a Bombayitte? And how long do you plan to be here? Vivek: Sure. I don�t know. Actually a lot depends on my work and how long I plan to continue in this field itself i.e. Public Relations. Post Interview Session � A Walk Along Nariman Point: After we finished talking, Vivek and me went for a walk along the sea face. He also promised to show me the building where he is living at Marine Drive. As we walked along, there was a discussion on spaces and land being a premium in Mumbai City. He suddenly remarked, �Remember in the beginning I was telling you two things are different between Bangalore and Bombay? This is the second difference where in Bangalore space is bigger, both in terms of physical space and personal space. Houses are large whereas here in Bombay, it is squatted.� Soon we reached the sea face. By now, there was a huge crowd of people along the sea face. Families had come in large numbers and everyone was bursting crackers at the promenade. The air was full of lead fumes. And the crackers were of various shapes, sizes and noises (including the new Osama bomb!)! It was the entire city�s day out. Yet, when I actually think about the notion of public space, I wonder about people�s practices of public space. We talk of wanting open spaces and public spaces and then when we have them, we pollute them ourselves. Where are the boundaries of rights and responsibilities? Or is it about I-don�t-care because it�s not happening in my backyard syndrome? Do we then, ourselves, hand over our rights to public space to the residents of the area and create the enclosures and barricades? What are the limits to public spaces? Where do we draw the line? As Vivek and me settled at one spot around Marine Drive, we spoke of relationships in this city. Relationships is one subject which tops my list of favorites because I club it with the larger issue of space and see how support systems operate in spaces. Relationships in a city are fragile, more so in Mumbai where time is the biggest constraint to a relationship and distances separate people (and also fears of the local trains!). Vivek spoke to me of �Khataah� the movie starring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah which is set in a Mumbai Chawl and elaborates on the intricacies and frailty of relationships in chawls. The evening ended at 8:30 PM when both of us parted ways towards our respective destinations. But Nariman Point was only beginning to come alive, noises and people�s cackles were increasing with the passing moments. The entire city is here today � in the open � outside of their closed spaces! Zainab Bawa Mumbai www.xanga.com/CityBytes _________________________________________________________________ Get head-hunted by 10,500 recruiters. http://www.naukri.com/msn/index.php?source=hottag Post your CV on naukri.com today. From definetime at rediffmail.com Thu Nov 18 18:18:32 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 18 Nov 2004 12:48:32 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) Quality time with paedophiles Message-ID: <20041118124832.23018.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com>   Quality time with paedophiles Child abusers in Canada who have been befriended by groups of volunteers rarely reoffend. Could the same happen here? David Wilson Thursday November 18, 2004 The Guardian How do we protect our children from the threats posed by predatory paedophiles? As a criminologist specialising in this issue, and as a father of two young children, I am often asked what steps I take to ensure my own children's safety. Reminding questioners that, on average, only six children per year are abducted and murdered by strangers, and that far more children are murdered and sexually abused within the family, offers no consolation. "But what if it was your child that was one of those six?" comes the inevitable reply. It is then that I mention a Canadian scheme that challenges our assumptions about what we should do to prevent more children becoming victims - a project which has been shown to reduce the predicted rate of reoffending by more than 70%, compared to the UK Prison Service's sex offender treatment programme, which, on average, produces reductions of just 10%-15%. The scheme, Circles of Support and Accountability, was started 10 years ago in Ontario by Pastor Harry Nigh. Its guiding principle couldn't be further from the "naming and shaming" this country seems to favour. It actively includes released paedophiles within the community, rather than excluding them from it, and offers them support from members of the public, which in turn alters their behaviour. The idea behind the scheme is counter-intuitive, but simple and effective. Each Circle has seven members: six volunteers and one released paedophile, who is known as the core member. The volunteers give up some time once a week to meet the paedophile, perhaps over coffee or lunch, just to chat to find out how he is doing, whether he has taken his medication, attended his job interview, spoken to his counsellor and so forth. And, on the seventh day, everyone gets together to share a meal and celebrate a life without committing further crimes against children. Could you do this? Could you give up your time to a paedophile who has often caused untold damage, through his abuse, to many children's lives? Canada has had just as many appalling child abuse scandals as we have had, and some of the country's most notorious "public enemies" have become core members on Circles. Gord Stuckless, who admitted 572 sexual acts against boys while working for the Toronto Maple Leafs, a top ice hockey team - think Manchester United or Arsenal - is now on a Circle, having left jail six years ago. "The worst thing would be to come home to nothing," he says. "No support. [You] just sit there and watch TV. Crazy ideas come into your head and after a while you say: 'To hell with it'. You throw up your hands, and that's when another victim happens. But if you have your Circle to talk to, well, there you go." So what is it that is at work here? Eileen Henderson, the indefatigable organiser of the Toronto Circle project, explains: "We are a ready-made family. If they abused again they would feel they were letting us down. These men are no different from the rest of us. "They need to know that they fit in, that they belong, that they have a place with a group of people who say that there are certain things you need to do to help change your behaviour, and we're here to help you do it." What's all the more remarkable is not only the idea of including a group of people within the community who have done damage to it and who, common sense says, should be kept out of it, but also the fact that Eileen and her many volunteers do not come from any specialist psychological or psychiatric background, but are just ordinary members of the public who are prepared to give up their time. They do get training now, but they didn't in the early days: Harry Nigh formed the first Circle as a result of "accidental courage", from the belief that someone had to do something positive. But why, 10 years later, do people volunteer? Eileen, a mother of two children herself, explains that Canadian communities have begun to recognise that by working together they can ensure their own safety, "not by pushing people to the margins, not by pushing people underground and then trying to convince themselves that they are safe and have done a good thing, but by allowing people to come into our community and finding ways to walk with them and support them". Wendy Leaver, a friend and fellow volunteer, says: "I want to establish a relationship with a released paedophile on a Circle because, if it ever came to the point that he has a relapse and might want to abuse a child, the thought will go through his mind to call me and say: 'I need to talk'. " What keeps me going is that this works. There are no more victims because we support paedophiles in the community; they haven't reoffended. What else can produce that sort of result? Not your vigilante groups. What I'm doing is stopping future victims." Of all the schemes and programmes that already exist in this country to alter a paedophile's behaviour - which are largely cognitive-based and managed by psychologists - could it be that something that started as a community initiative, initially with no specialist or expert input, that sought to include, rather than to exclude, this notorious group of offenders has, in fact, found a means of preventing more children from being abused? The Canadians certainly think so, and there are now pilot projects in this country to see if the success of these Circles can be replicated here. Those projects need more volunteers to survive, and the question you have to ask yourself is whether or not you would be prepared to give up your time to make sure that your community is safer for your - and everybody else's - children. · David Wilson is professor of criminology at the Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research at UCE in Birmingham; his film about the Circles project, No More Victims, will be shown on BBC4 on November 24 david.wilson at uce.ac.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041118/f6b312e3/attachment.html From shivamvij at gmail.com Fri Nov 19 14:24:37 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:24:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Watch van Gogh's controversial film online Message-ID: VIDEO | Submission Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was recently killed after the release of this film, "Submission," about the sexual and physical abuse of Muslim women. The screenwriter, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is a Somali-born, right-wing member of Parliament who was raised a Muslim but has since renounced her faith. She has referred to Islam as an "oppressive, misogynist religion trapped in the 13th century." The film, as you might expect, was extremely controversial, in particular for scenes showing verses of the Quran written on a woman's naked body. It was meant to be the first of three films on the topic, the second of which was to have been from a Muslim man's perspective. Watch the movie (note: 56k seems to be the only speed working): http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2655656 More information on the film and filmmakers: The Day I Became a Martyr: Islam Protest Brings Fatal Fatwa In death, Theo van Gogh is a painful symbol for what he so stridently called for in life: the end of tolerance. Dennis Lim | The Village Voice http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0446/lim.php From pukar at pukar.org.in Fri Nov 19 10:06:37 2004 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 10:06:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Talk by Anupama Rao: Today, 6 pm Message-ID: <000f01c4cdf1$5d8b28f0$73d0c0cb@freeda> The Gender and Space Project, PUKAR presents a talk by Anupama Rao on Intimacy and Its Perils: Hidden Histories of Caste and Gender Independent India has been decisively shaped by struggles of Indians against colonial rule and movements to reform Indian society from within. In colonial India, liberal ideas of freedom and individuality confronted a society governed by the inequities of caste. The control of women and their sexuality was especially important in defining caste boundaries. Therefore they also became central to political projects that sought to annihilate caste. Radical anti-caste activists experimented with new forms of marriage, demanded inter-caste marriages, and even addressed issues of sexual freedom outside the confines of marriage. Popular forms such as the tamasha, the farce, and the Satyashodak and Ambedkari jalsas played a critical role in popularizing such critiques. In this talk Anupama Rao will address these powerful experiments to democratize everyday life through the use of popular cultural forms. Anupama Rao is Assistant Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is author of "Gender and Caste: Contemporary Issues in Indian Feminism" (Kali for Women, 2003), as well as the forthcoming books: "The Caste Question: Untouchable Struggles for Rights and Recognition, "and "Discipline and the Other Body: Correction, Corporeality, and Colonialism." Date: Friday, 19th November 2004 Time: 6 p.m. Venue: Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Mumbai Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (022) 5574 8152 / +91 (0) 98204 04010 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041119/f3e4cc07/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From coolzanny at hotmail.com Fri Nov 19 17:19:13 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:19:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] World Bank City Message-ID: 19th November 2004 VT Railway Station These days, my attention has shifted to the Insides of VT railway Station. By now, it seems clear to me that VT is the world�s most grand railway station. Its grandeur lies in two aspects: a. The fact that it caters to over 32 lakh passengers daily b. The building itself which is the world�s only functional administrative building declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO I have been holding conversations concerning VT with various kinds of people and it is a wonder how the station has undergone changes with time. Last week, my neighbour spoke to me about how VT station has become a privatized entity where every service has been contracted out including the sweepers � �the age of liberalization� as he remarked. This afternoon, I discovered that even the boot polish personnel are contracted out and they pay a rent for the space which is leased out to them. Gradually, railway stations in Mumbai are becoming contracted entities. The railway station space was earlier a space for hawkers and encroachments. Today, the authorities have recognized the value (monetary) of the station space and have leased out various inches and centimeters of the space in an effort to earn revenue. Therefore, while pondering over VT station, I realized today that we are living in an era of World Bank cities where infrastructure policies and rules concerning �management� of the city are dictated by the terms and conditions which come along with the various World Bank loans. A World Bank city in my imagination is an institutionalized and structuralized city � a city where everything �should� be in order, where diversity is curtailed through various rules and regulations. I don�t know whether World Bank imagines the everyday and the everydayness like some of us do, but then, it�s all about the money baby! Show me the money and we�ll do as you please Sirrrrrrrrrrrr! Certain changes have come about inside the station. There are outsiders even inside the station, as a station personnel pointed out to me, �The Pepsi, Coke and the Coffee Fountains are outsiders.� He said in context of the fact that the rest of the refreshments counters and stalls inside the Railway Station are part of the Railway Canteen Management. Thus, our multinationals are seen as �outsiders�! Areas and authorities are clearly demarcated and practiced in and around VT station. Thus, while the station authorities have the permission to evict hawkers inside the station, they cannot do anything to the hawkers immediately outside the station because that boundary is then of the BMC. Talk about VT to people who truly understand its historical and aesthetic value and the immediate responses point out to the role of the railways in spoiling it. As I have been talking to people and finding out their perceptions concerning VT and Churchgate Railway Stations, I myself perceive that VT is a bureaucratic institution where permission is the order of the day while Churchgate is the express service, symbolizing the age of globalization and liberalization and the management paradigm of governing the city. Perhaps VT is bound by its own limitations, the fact that it is a Grade I Heritage Building, the fact that it also embodies in its self the outstation railway station and therefore the fears, anxieties and perspectives of terror, bombing, smuggling, etc. While I write about VT, I am amazed by the boundaries and demarcation of authorities that operate within the area � you have the railway authorities, the police, the GRP and the RPF and the baap of all i.e. the BMC. You also have the illegal entities i.e. the hawkers, which become legalized or at least justified by the consumers and purchasers. It�s complex dynamics man! Inside the station as well, as I have always pointed out earlier, territories are marled. This afternoon, in a conversation with a boot polish guy, he mentioned that he is at VT since the last 15 years and is here because his father was also here. When I had started talking to Santhya, he also mentioned to me that his uncles have always been at Nariman Point and hence he is also here. Hawkers have their own practices of territory and family inheritance. I am both amused and intrigued by how the process of property is actually one of inheritance and legitimate transfers. Perhaps because of this practice of inheritance by the hawkers that the city�s influential are irked. How can space, which belongs to none, be used by some �outsiders� (the hawker being the outsider)? And what is most objected to is the tragedy of the commons which takes place in the case of free commons. Again, you may object to the issue of free commons when it comes to outsiders and aliens, particularly the poor, but when the practice of free commons is done by industries and corporations, by legalized networks, then you hail it in the name of development! Making my way through urban complexities � Zainab Bawa Mumbai www.xanga.com/CityBytes _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ Click here now! From shivamvij at gmail.com Sun Nov 21 17:38:07 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 17:38:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] backdoor nybooks Message-ID: anyone here who has a password/ backdoor to paid articles at nybooks.com? would be very grateful. thanks shivam From shivamvij at gmail.com Sun Nov 21 17:43:03 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 17:43:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Lecture by Dr. Mridu Rai In-Reply-To: <20041120123848.17013.qmail@web40512.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20041120123848.17013.qmail@web40512.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: From: History Department Events DSA Programme Department of History University of Delhi invites you to Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir a talk by Dr. Mridu Rai on 24th November (Wednesday, 2:30 p.m.) Venue: Room no. 202, Arts Faculty Annexe About the speaker: Dr. Mridu Rai is Assistant Professor of History at Yale University. Between 1999 and 2001,Dr. Rai was an Assistant Professor at Bowdoin College. She studied at Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and received her Ph.D. in modern south Asian history from Columbia University. Her research—focusing on the problem of religion and politics in the making of modern Kashmir from the 1840s to the 1950s, has culminated in a book titled Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir(Delhi, Permanent Black, 2004). Coming up next in the series... 1st December (Monday): Ecology, Environment and Colonial India: Departures and Beginnings by Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan From jeebesh at sarai.net Mon Nov 22 15:58:44 2004 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 15:58:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IF YOU ARE A HUMAN Message-ID: <41A1BF5C.9040106@sarai.net> This article cam my way from ALF newsletter. best, j -------------------- This article is about Human beings, Democracy, UNHCR, Refugees, The Iraqis, Islam, Kurds, Human rights, Respect, Money, Donations, Angelina Jolie, Pavarotti, Giorgio Armani, Donors, Peace, History, Campaigns and about you if you care about these words. Hi there, I am SAM, an Iraqi refugee living in Lebanon at the moment; I have spent the last 9 years of my life as a refugee registered with the UNHCR in Beirut. The last 3 years, I have spent as an activist for peace and human rights (especially refugees and asylum seekers) on the Internet; I'm also books author and ebooks publisher. I have launched many campaigns to improve our situation as refugees in Lebanon and hopefully bring more understanding to our problems worldwide. I helped make many changes and improvements at the UNHCR office in Beirut; I used the Internet as the field for my activities (you can read more about that in my free ebook ‘MY CAMPAIGNS’ http://www.unhcr.co.uk/truth/free_ebooks.htm ). My latest campaign is to stop the UNHCR from conducting illegal and humiliating actions, by using photos of refugees as banners and human-buttons to collect money. This is an abuse of the dignity and humanity of the refugees and must stop immediately and a clear public apology present by the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees. My friends, I am talking about the pictures you can see here: http://www.unhcr.co.uk/if_human/if_human.htm As I’m a refugee and an activist for human rights, I feel that the problems of refugees are not being solved by the UNHCR in fact their policies are worsening them. I have been saying this since the first day I started my activities and I said then that “If we want to improve the situation of the refugees in the world we must start with changing the policies of the UNHCR,” I even wrote this in my books. The people of the UNHCR have used these pictures as banners and buttons to collect money from donors. As a human being and a refugee, I felt these pictures represent a bad and offensive example of the disrespect for our humanity as refugees and asylum seekers. It does nothing to represent the meaning and the principles that were mentioned in the UN51 convention. It fills me with pain and sorrow to see this disrespect to our dignity and humanity and also how they are deceiving the community with these pictures. Unfortunately, the people who work at the UNHCR are working hard to present to you a portrait of a refugee as a poor human being who's problem will end when you donate a few $$$. Please look at their website (just google for the unhcr) and look at the pictures there. Everywhere on the site you'll just see pictures about poor people! They have worked hard to establish a deep-rooted connection between poverty and refugees. Everywhere in the world now if you ask anyone what the word 'refugee' means the answer will be "a poor person who has lost his home", does any one of you know another meaning for the word? They have showed you just one thing: poor people as refugees and they made it clear that by paying some money to them, the problem will be solved; all it needs is financial resources! When you look directly at their websites, the pictures of poor people will grab your attention straight away! For UNHCR, the problem is money only! We all as humans need money, but not only the money! There are many things in the life not only money, for example things like what you could read in my free ebook ‘REFUGEES FARM’ http://www.umacr.org/truth/free_ebooks.htm When I started to post in Yahoo groups mentioning I’m a refugee, many people didn’t believe me, and they asked, “how it was possible for me to have access to the Internet?” I was astonished at the beginning but afterwards I understood the reality of what they were saying and started to post messages telling the truth and because of this the UNHCR declared war on me and prosecuted me. So then I started to call myself “The Truth Warrior” because I am struggling to tell you the truth. I was the first refugee who wrote and published an e-book on the net and the first refugee who wrote and published an e-book about the UNHCR and the first who used the Internet as a weapon in his struggle to survive and to make changes in real life. The people of the UNHCR emphasized the connection between the refugees and poverty and they drew a foggy picture of refugees, creating a strong impression about their poverty, more than the fact they were stateless refugees. They also put forward the idea it was the poverty creating the reality of them being refugees in the first place. Now it is an accepted idea in the world community that a refugee is just a poor person looking for a better life, well this is just not true! The majority of the world doesn’t even realize that it is even possible for a millionaire to have to flee his home and be a refugee. Article 1 of the Convention defines a refugee as "A person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution." There is no mention made of the financial situation of the refugee or the degree of poverty he is experiencing, in plain simple words ‘poverty does not make someone a refugee’. As I said before “the link between poverty and being a refugee is another thing entirely”. Most of the time the situation of the refugees is bad because they have no security, no opportunities to get work and this then does create poverty! Its clear that giving money will not solve the problem, what's needed is real understanding for the problems that refugees are facing and they need global co-operation to solve these problems. This inspired me to adopt my motto: Justice brings peace, freedom brings democracy Understanding is the way. Let me share with you some figures published by the UNHCR itself. The table is on my site here: http://www.unhcr.co.uk/if_human/if_human.htm >From that table, we can see the total private donations in year 2003 were US$ 20,072,010. Now let’s analyze that number, Anyway if we consider the total numbers of asylum seekers and refugees and others of concern to the UNHCR which was 20,556,781 persons published on their table on the 1st of August 2003. Now we need to divide that amount on the number of refugees 20,072,010/20,556,781 guess what? It’s equals $0.97! So then each refugee will have a grand sum of $0.97 every year from these donations!!! Yes my friend, they humiliated us for less than $1 a year. Now let me think what I can do with this amount of money in one-year m’mmmm, maybe I can buy 2 bars of Lebanese candy! I registered with UNHCR more than 8 years ago now and until this day I have not received one cent from them! So according to that table they owe me $7.80, a fortune!!! I declare now that I don’t want this money ($7.80) I just want them to remove these humiliating pictures and make a public apology. You can ask the UNHCR in Beirut about that point via their email: lebbe at unhcr.ch and please ask them also about the amount of the money that they give for the refugees in Lebanon now. I hope they’ll answer you! Don’t you think it’s strange that it’s hard to get answers from the UNHCR! You’ll see if you’re interesting to know the truth! The big question is: Does all this money come from these human-buttons asking for donations on the UNHCR'S site? Does Pavarotti or Giorgio Armani need these human-buttons to make donations? If they need these buttons and it's a good way for collecting money for the UNHCR why don't they use their own pictures this way to bring more money in for the UNHCR. Also about Angelina Jolie, she is a goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR and she has worked hard to collect money for the UNHCR, she is pretty and attractive and her picture would make an excellent human-button. They could write on the Angelina Jolie button "make a donation and be like Angelina" or Send a donation to receive thanks from Angelina" do you think that would offend her or the others we spoke about? Why would it do you think??? Her pictures are everywhere so let them use these as a human-button to collect money if they feel it is inoffensive and not dishonorable to her. The last thing about these numbers is the percentage of the amount that different governments contribution to the UNHCR. I read in one table the total is $928,865,984. So what will happen if the UNHCR loses the 20 million that comes from private donors, if they remove the human-buttons of refugees? OK, they will have $908,865,984, but they would be giving respect to the refugees of the world, do you think they care? $0.97 a year makes no difference to a human being but if we divide the same amount between the number of people working for the UNHCR, I believe they have about 5000 employees… so 20,072,010/5000=$4014.40 more than $4000 a year don't you think that makes a difference? I have finished now about the numbers, let us continue about the pictures, and the idea of using the Angelina Jolie, maybe you will say that her picture is already being used on the site of the UNHCR and you would be right! But there are a few differences between her picture and the pictures of the refugees. Angelina’s picture isn’t used to collect money; it’s used to show how much she cares about people and her help for the UNHCR. When you click on her picture, you read about Angelina, but when you click on the human-button of the refugees you find a form to donate money. The important difference being this, Angelina’s picture gives you her name, dates and history. The human-buttons, say nothing about the people on them, no names, no dates, nothing! This pushed me to find out more about these human-buttons. I found out the truth about the picture on the Iraqi banner in the page about Iraq, and the button on this page to donate money. I wrote about it in my book “THE TRUTH WARRIOR” I could tell you quickly about it now, for more details please look in the book. This is a picture of a Kurdish family, and it was taken in 1991! So that was 13 years ago!!! The funny thing is that they used it to illustrate and draw attention to an event that happened last year, writing on it “IRAQ EMERGENCY” strange to speak about an emergency and use a 13 year old picture don’t you think? Do you know why they used that picture? Because it was easy… they had it already, no new refugees crisis happened during the last war with the USA on Iraq in 2003! Guess what? This picture shows a Kurdish family fleeing by crossing the border near Suleymaniye in the north of Iraq! The problem now, of course is the returning of refugees who left during Saddam's rule. The age of the picture and the fact it was taken for a different reason, it's deceptive and dishonest act. I would have thought that a big organization like the UNHCR would be able to get a more modern picture of what is happening. They receive information daily and I am sure they don't need to resort to 13-year-old pictures; this information is from the last century!!! Maybe now there are not any pictures of Iraqi refugees to encourage donors to click the human-button! What a pity for the people of the UNHCR and for the refugees, especially the Iraqis. I wonder, how old the other pictures? Do you feel that the picture shows the real situation of Iraqi refugees now? Are the Iraqis still fleeing and seeking refuge outside Iraq? The truth is always painful. The UNHCR has stopped receiving new applications form Iraqis seeking help, and when an Iraqi goes to the UNHCR in Beirut to ask for assistance they are told that the only help they can get is repatriation to Iraq. At the moment Iraqi refugees are scattered around the world, Many countries are offering to help return Iraqis home. These countries governments mostly finance these plans. For example in England the government has offered $1000 plus the cost of their flight home to each refugee. In Lebanon, we are not sure about the amount of financial support for those wishing to return home, but someone who had gone home told me that it was about $40 informed me, the source of the money was also unclear. Some people are saying that this money is from unknown Iraqi parties and some say the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut. I am currently looking for more information on this matter. Anyway I don’t feel the $40 dollars given to refugees in Lebanon is worth anything. Especially when viewed against the $1000 given by most European countries. The question is this: If there is no refugee crisis in Iraq and the financial support is being paid for by the governments where these people are, why is the UNHCR still asking for money using pictures of Iraqi refugees? One more important question about that picture, do you think that the people who work for the UNHCR know anything about this woman or her family? Are they registered refugees? What is her name and where are they all now? Do you think she agreed to have her picture put on the web and used as a human-button? I would love to know the answers to these questions, but unfortunately I can’t ask the people at the UNHCR even though I tried many times over the years. They never answer any questions! Instead they have tried to hurt me and even tried to get my ISP to cut my connection! I hope one day you get the chance to ask them, and that maybe they will answer you. They didn’t answer any of my friends who sent them messages. So please if you like, let us play their game and be a little cheeky. I hope that one of you can contact them and tell them you want to donate money to help the family they showed in the picture. Not telling them of course that you know the picture is old. Just tell them you want to sponsor that family. Notice that they wrote on it ‘Emergency’ so it’s good to help them out! I’ll wait with baited breath to hear their answers. What do you think the answer will be? What do you think she would feel like if she saw her picture used like that, and what if her family sees her like this or someone in her village? She is a Moslem woman and to expose herself like this is a sin in Islam. Did you notice she uses two pieces of cloth to cover her head? The UNHCR using picture of Moslem woman on the net as a banner and as a human-button to collect money where millions of men could see her!!! That is a very big sin in Islam. As I’m a Moslem and I am sure the UNHCR haven’t asked the woman’s permission to display her picture publicly like they are doing now, I am asking them to respect the Islamic religion and apologize to the woman and remove her picture immediately. Also I am asking each Moslem person reading this article to express their concern about this sin, which is being committed by the UNHCR for the sake of this woman and her family. Every Moslem knows what sin is, and it is also a sin to be silent when you see a wrong being committed. I am asking each Moslem to contact the UNHCR and express your opinion as we are guided to do by Islam. I’m asking Moslems particularly and all members of other religions generally, to express concern about the abuse of refugees because all religions are based on respect for the dignity of all humanity. There is a legal point of view for this subject: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1950. According to the UN51 convention and the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (G.A. res. 428 (V), annex, 5 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 20) at 46, U.N. Doc. A/1775 (1950)). “CHAPTER II. - FUNCTIONS OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER 10. The High Commissioner shall administer any funds, public or private, which he receives for assistance to refugees, and shall distribute them among the private and, as appropriate, public agencies which he deems best qualified to administer such assistance. The High Commissioner may reject any offers which he does not consider appropriate or which cannot be utilized. The High Commissioner shall not appeal to governments for funds or make a general appeal, without the prior approval of the General Assembly. The High Commissioner shall include in his annual report a statement of his activities in this field.” As you can see the UNHCR must have permission from the General assembly for any general appeal for money. The question is: Did the General Assembly agree to use these pictures to appeal for funds? I would sincerely love to receive an answer, I am a refugee and I feel it is an abuse of our humanity as refugees in this world. Its not just abuse of our humanity but for the humanity of all humans. We appeal to you to support this campaign to remove these abuses and to provide more respect for all refugees worldwide. Our situation in the world worsens day after day without any new polices to help or improve our situation. The UNHCR uses us as human-buttons and baits to collect money! Our problem is not only because of poverty it's because the general abuse of the meaning and the principles of UN51 convention because of these money collectors in UNHCR and other organizations. This abuse must stop immediately. If UNHCR needs money so badly, there must be other respectable and honorable ways to make general and public appeals for money. For example using buttons like paypal provides for donation without any humiliating pictures of humans at all. I'm not saying that the people of UNHCR are all bad, they're just part of a system and they have their procedures and regulations. I just wanted to explain some of our feelings as refugees. To offer my understanding of the relationship between the refugees and the UNHCR. I'm an eyewitness to that relationship, trying hard to improve the relationship using my campaigns, my books and my unanswered questions. I feel sad because the UNHCR has failed in the past 3 years to answer my questions. Until this day they failed to answer even one question! I'm not asking for the impossible. I just want some answers, as I'm a refugee, as I'm a human and as I'm an activist for human rights. All that gives me the right to ask and to have my questions answered. I invite you as fellow humans and members of the world community to support my mission by asking the UNHCR to remove these abuses and to provide some reasonable answers for the questions that you have read in this article. This invitation is a very important as part of the collective efforts to enhance respect for human rights, and for global peace. The UNHCR represent an important constituent of our community, as humans and any failure in its performance will weaken the harmony and peace of the world. We're living in a time where wars are declared to liberate people from despotism and further democracy and human rights. Blood is being shed now to improve democracy, respect for human rights. Do we need wars and to shed blood every time we face disregard for human rights and democracy?! Isn't there any peaceful way? I have heard many people claim that they're working to help the refugees and human rights activists and some of them are collecting money also. I'm asking these people: What are you doing to help refugees and enhance human rights and respect our humanity? I'd like to know, and if you have nothing to do now, you can start work and help refugees by working to remove these abuses and humiliations for all humans. Contact the UNHCR and ask them about these pictures and tell them that these pictures are an abuse of refugees’ dignity and humanity, when you can do this then we can see that you really care about refugees. I don’t have any money to pay you but if you would like to help us in our struggle and you respect our humanity as refugees in the world, then we would be very thankful for this help. I’m an E-book publisher and I will be publishing many more E-books in the future. I would like to have answers to the questions in this article and since the people at the UNHCR refused to answer my questions, I declare now that I’ll give free access to all of the E-books I will write in my lifetime to the first person who will find the answers to my many questions concerning the UNHCR. He/she will be a hero of all refugees and I’ll write about them what they would like. I can’t give them a medal now, but we will give them our love and our thanks as refugees. Please, if you think this issue is important and needs acts, you can send messages to the UNHCR and your government to speak your opinions according to your rights and the democracy. Here are some emails: ecu at un.org,inquiries at un.org,Hqpr00 at Unhcr.Ch,tb-petitions at ohchr.org,info at usaforunhcr.org Notice that you can find more emails here: http://www.umacr.org/truth/emails.htm or you can brows for more on the net or to find more ways for contact them like phones or faxes. Together we will build better world. You could reach me fast via this form: http://www.unhcr.co.uk/email_me.htm and you can read about me here: http://www.unhcr.co.uk/about/osam_altaee.htm Thanks THE TRUTH WARRIOR OSAM ALTAEE http://www.unhcr.co.uk From definetime at rediffmail.com Sat Nov 20 14:03:08 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 20 Nov 2004 08:33:08 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Preservation of Early Indian Recordings (last posting) Message-ID: <20041120083308.18346.qmail@webmail17.rediffmail.com> Preservation of Early Indian Recordings (epilogue) #Digital Archiving of Early Hindustani Records On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 Patrick Moutal wrote : Dear Sanjay Saheb, What a good surprise when I found, in my letter box, this morning, your kind letter along with the two CD full of mp3 treasures. Wholehearted thank. Thanks a thousand and one times. That will be food for long long time. I just listened to Vilayat Khan's "Gauri". It is not Gauri as mentioned in title. It is Rag Bhim - which is also called Gavati. (Rag Gauri belongs to Purvi That with komal re, tivr ma, komal dhaivat - while Bhim (as Khan saheb's calls it, belongs to Khamaj That . It's chalan: sa ga ma pa k.ni sa / dha pa dha ma pa ga ma re k.ni sa / pa k.ni sa dha--- ma pa , ga ma pa ga ma re ---- k.ni sa). That Khansaheb's rendering is superb. I just got a bit more space for the site and will certainly include a number of archives on it. (thus I don't know how many, yet). I will first have to redigitize them to a lower bit rate so that they occupy less space. Moreover, many visitors don't have large bandwidth and it will be faster and cheaper for them to download - despite the little loss of quality. Archives are archives and if people don't understand what treasures come to their ears, they can as well go to their mohala record shop and purchase the latest - commercial - CD releases... ;-) Do you want me to put your name as the contributor to these archives or do you prefer to remain discreet about it ? Please, do let me reiterate all my thanks to you for this unvaluable gift. Net can bring the best and the worst. Your generosity demonstrates - beyond words - what noble use it can bring. I am really moved by your kindness. Best regards and I WILL stay in touch. Pat On Nov 8, 2004, at 2:25 PM, sanjay ghosh wrote: Dear Panditji, One small matter. If you are giving credit, can you put a line somewhere that : Digitization of some of the tracks was fecilitated by a Sarai fellowship. (URL http://www.sarai.net/community/fellow.htm ...for further enquiry) Thank you / merci. best of luck, sanjay Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 00:42:14 IST Dear Sanjay saheb, That's done ! I have removed the old files of Abdul Karim with wrong titles and put - all together - 125 new audio files - on the web site. 3 days work. Thanks again for all. Best regards, Patrick patrickmoutal at mac.com http://moutal.net http://homepage.mac.com/patrickmoutal/macmoutal/rag.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041120/8a7540c0/attachment.html From pz at vsnl.net Sun Nov 21 16:57:03 2004 From: pz at vsnl.net (Punam Zutshi) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 16:57:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Google Scholar Message-ID: <001901c4cfbd$07b27140$47f341db@punamzutshi> Here is the url http://scholar.google.com/ Punam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041121/a9e81109/attachment.html From isast at leonardo.info Fri Nov 19 01:52:45 2004 From: isast at leonardo.info (Leonardo/ISAST) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 12:22:45 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Leonardo and San Francisco Art Institute Announce Partnership Message-ID: <200411182022.CSF63411@ms2.netsolmail.com> Press Contact: Pamela Grant-Ryan, pgr at leonardo.info FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Leonardo and San Francisco Art Institute Announce Partnership November 18, 2004 (San Francisco) - The San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), one of the foremost art colleges in the nation, and the International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST) announced today a partnership that will bring the editorial offices of Leonardo, the Society's publishing arm, onto the main campus of the Art Institute in May, 2005. The announcement was made by SFAI President Chris Bratton and Leonardo/ISAST Board Chair Roger Malina. "The presence of Leonardo on campus will expand opportunities for SFAI students to further explore the intersections of new media, art, science, criticism, and publishing," said Chris Bratton. "For over thirty years their publication Leonardo has been the journal of record for cutting edge artistic investigations of science and technology," Bratton continued. "Bringing them into the SFAI community will be a tremendous advantage for students and for our new interdisciplinary Centers for Art + Science, Media Culture, Public Practice, and Word, Text, and Image." The partnership underscores a period of great investment in academic programs at the Art Institute. The school introduced four new Centers for Interdisciplinary Learning to its undergraduate curriculum this fall and also opened a new facility for artistic investigation in high definition technology, the Ars Nova XXI HD Research Laboratory. Other SFAI partnerships created through the new Centers include NASA, the Exploratorium, Bay Area Video Coalition, San Francisco Center for the Book, and Arion Press. The journal Leonardo was established by space pioneer and kinetic artist Frank Malina in 1967, around the same time his friend, physicist Frank Oppenheimer, founded San Francisco's hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception, the Exploratorium. Today Leonardo/ISAST is a professional organization that promotes scholarship and documentation on the work of artists involved with the sciences and new technologies and stimulates collaboration between artists, scientists, and engineers. Its activities include the awarding of prizes, organizing workshops, and three academic journals published by MIT Press: Leonardo, Leonardo Music Journal, and Leonardo Electronic Almanac. The Leonardo Book Series, with twenty titles to date, is a key resource in the field. Leonardo/ISAST works in partnership with a sister society, Leonardo/OLATS, in Paris, France. Leonardo/ISAST's website is http://www.leonardo.info. "As Leonardo grows," said Roger Malina, Chair of the Leonardo Board, "one of our primary goals is to reach out to the new generation of artists who are developing - in so many different ways - the interdisciplinary forms envisioned by Leonardo's founders, and also to promote scholarship by historians and theoreticians of this growing area of art practice. This partnership will allow us to continue working with all our university partners while giving us direct access to a young and vibrant artistic community." The partnership between Leonardo and SFAI includes internships for Art Institute students, collaborations on lecture series and symposia, and other joint endeavors to be announced in coming months. According to SFAI Center for Art+Science co-coordinator Meredith Tromble, there will also be other, less quantifiable benefits from the partnership. "Our campus provides a system for people - students, faculty, and the public - to meet, take part in conversations, and exchange creative ideas on a daily basis. The Center for Art + Science is very excited about bringing the Leonardo community into this mix." SFAI is committed to arts education in a cross-disciplinary environment, not only between art-making media, but also between the arts and other disciplines. As described by New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman, the college has served as "an academic oasis and think tank for artists toiling at the intersection of moving images, sculpture, and Conceptualism." The partnership with Leonardo will help provide an active framework from which students can explore new ways of looking at, thinking about, and making art, while learning about science, technology, writing, and history. * * * * _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From monica.mody at gmail.com Fri Nov 19 15:36:33 2004 From: monica.mody at gmail.com (Monica Mody) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 15:36:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] The Tri-Continental Film Festival India 2004 Message-ID: <4badad3b04111902062094df2d@mail.gmail.com> A GLOBAL CULTURE OF FILMS THAT MATTER: THE TRI-CONTINENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 2004 New Delhi, Nov 19, 2004: Breakthrough presents the Tri Continental Film Festival, a showcase of human rights cinema from Latin America, Africa and Asia. Held in earlier years at Buenos Aires, Johannesburg and Cape Town, this is the first time the film festival arrives in Asia with a diverse selection of powerful films by independent filmmakers. Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are the 3 cities in India where, through December, the films will be screened at popular venues as well as schools and colleges. The festival opens at Siri Fort Auditorium II, New Delhi, on December 3rd and runs until December 5th, arriving in Mumbai at the NCPA and Fame Ad Labs from December 6th to December 9th. Finally, it moves to Kolkata from December 13th to December 16th, at the Max Mueller Bhavan and the Seagull Arts & Media Resource Centre. The Tri-Continental Film Festival is an annual event that jumps between the three continents of Latin America, Africa and Asia. Conceived by a group of Latin American filmmakers in 2002, this is an arts and cultural initiative that seeks to use the medium of film to explore linkages between social struggles and respect for human rights norms and practices. The festival organizers, apart from Breakthrough, include Lawyers for Human Rights and Uhuru Productions from South Africa and the Argentinian Movimiento do Documentalistas. The festival features a vast array of stories from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, as well as from around the African continent, South Asia and Palestine. Highlights of the program include the award winning documentaries "Choropampa: The Price of Gold", about a devastating mercury spill that transforms a quiet peasant village into a hotbed of civil resistance; "Dias de Carton (Cardboard Days)", about Buenos Aires' newly formed army of street scavengers; and "Original Child Bomb", a poetic and contemplative film about the nuclear bomb and its cost to humanity. Also featured are: an innovative project where street children produce a video documentary about themselves (Voces de la Guerrera); a mobile cinema unit which takes HIV+ film stars through the mountains of Lesotho (Ask Me, I'm Positive); and Junoon guitarist Salman Ahmed challenging hardline Islam (The Rockstar and the Mullahs). The films, along with mainstream venues, will be screened at colleges across India such as Ramjas, Delhi University, as part of youth outreach. Panel discussions and question and answer sessions with international filmmakers such as Antonio Zirion, Don Edkins and Joel Zito Araujo, as well as veteran filmmakers and activists from India, will run in conjunction with the screenings. For additional information, please contact Alika Khosla at 98998 88548 or Monica Mody at 98112 69257. Breakthrough is an international human rights organization that uses education and popular culture to promote values of dignity, equality and justice. CONTACT INFORMATION: Alika Khosla or Monica Mody Breakthrough C 3/15, Safdarjung Development Area, New Delhi 110016 011 26967040, 26967039 http://www.breakthrough.tv http://www.3continentsfestival.co.za ### _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From coolzanny at hotmail.com Mon Nov 22 21:18:45 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 21:18:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Illegality and Cheaper Prices Message-ID: 21st November 2004 This evening, a kind of public discussion and debate took place over the topics of my research. It was a gathering of precisely six persons. One of them asked me what I do and I spoke about my current research. �You should check out the scene at Churchgate Station,� one of them started telling me. �There are no hawkers around the station now. We have walk miles to be able to buy a cigarette which was earlier within the easy grasp and reach because of your paan-bidi seller right outside the station.� Another added, �I was craving to eat the vada-pav but I noticed that the hawkers were gone.� As the discussion gained momentum, it came out (in the open) that the residents around Churchgate area were apparently upset with the washing of utensils and the clutter-clutter, bang-bang of the hawkers which starts at night at around 12:30 AM and goes on till 4:30 AM, therefore the eviction. One of them protested, �But this moving away of hawkers seems to be this South Mumbai elite citizens� phenomenon where those with clout want the hawkers to go away.� I added that hawkers were being moved away from all railway stations. In fact, in a newspaper report a few days ago, the Chief Minister expressed his concern (read apprehensive anxiety of currently mild nature) to the Municipal Commissioner Johnny Joseph to go easy on the hawkers� evictions from the railway stations. �But come to think of it, the hawker is in demand because things are cheap when they are illegal. When you make things legal, you have to pay more and therefore charge more,� exclaimed one of the persons present. I spoke of my concepts of Mumbai becoming a World Bank, clean and surveillable city and how our vision is to become Shanghai. One of them, playing Devil�s Advocate pointed out, �So, what�s wrong in becoming Shanghai? Is that not what people want? Would you say that people who enter the multiplexes are dumb?� �Obviously not,� I responded, �People going into multiplexes make a choice to go there. But the Shanghai vision is not my idea of Mumbai.� As I pondered on this point later (and even until now), I wonder whether we as individuals are actually �in control�, whether we are the ones who �truly make choices�. Perhaps this idea of free will and the rhetoric of the market economy of �the customer is supreme� is only an illusion � I don�t think there is any free will. We are allowing ourselves to be guided by means of images which are being dished out daily by the media! That�s how it is perhaps. And therefore, I am afraid whether the Shanghai vision is what we actually want of this city or just some kind of a feel good phenomenon where we are allowing ourselves to be fooled yet another time! Is there a public man anymore? The discussion continued. One of them said, �Actually, come to think of it, we in Mumbai are very used to the idea of going out on the streets and making our purchases at any point in time. Everything is within easy reach (given that spaces everywhere are little markets and stalls). The vegetable vendor comes to our door. The curd-fellow is around till 11:30 PM at night and right outside my house. With the mall culture, we are actually speaking of driving all the way to a mall and stocking the supplies we need!� �Yeah, that�s right,� another chipped in as if struck by the lightening of insight, �When I was in Africa, I actually learnt this Western concept of stocking groceries because otherwise, you have to drive down a long way in order to be able to procure something very little. Every night I would do my shopping and stocking.� Perhaps that is it � that is my problem with a structure like a mall. It is not local, within easy means of reach. What it creates is additional burdens � have to have a car to drive to the mall to shop, expending of fuels and resources and buying more than what you need because you have to �stock� and �stocking is based on the idea of keeping more than you want as a speculation. The conclusion for the day was that hawkers are important because they provide a cheap means for food to people who are otherwise unable to afford. Is it true that illegality comes with a cheaper price? For whom? Hmmm � discussion spaces in the urban, a matter of get-togethers, a matter of dissent, consent, argument, negotiation and sometimes even bitterness if the debate is seen as personal attacks. For me, an enriching experience, a matter of knowledge and discussion venturing into the public domain! Exciting nah??? Zainab Bawa Mumbai www.xanga.com/CityBytes _________________________________________________________________ Get head-hunted by 10,500 recruiters. http://www.naukri.com/msn/index.php?source=hottag Post your CV on naukri.com today. From souweine at hawaii.edu Tue Nov 23 01:12:38 2004 From: souweine at hawaii.edu (Isaac D W Souweine) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:42:38 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] Amartya Sen on Indo-Chinese history Message-ID: <2f8ba502f8ba28.2f8ba282f8ba50@hawaii.edu> Not sure if this is groundbreaking, but it is informative and well presented. -Isaac http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17608 From radiofreealtair at gmail.com Tue Nov 23 09:34:17 2004 From: radiofreealtair at gmail.com (Anand Vivek Taneja) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:34:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Road to Abu Ghraib - Jon Ronson In-Reply-To: <418A3B28.40601@sarai.net> References: <418A3B28.40601@sarai.net> Message-ID: <8178da9904112220046f90c640@mail.gmail.com> an extremely funny response to The Men Who Stare At Goats Men Who Stare At Goats Last week there was a programme on TV about 'Psy-ops'. This was a top secret American initiative,designed to see if humans had deep psychological powers which could be harnessed by the military.Millions were poured into this venture. Was it possible for a man, purely by the power of thought,to stop a goat's heart from beating?The following thoughts occur to me. 1.No it wasn't 2.If ,after years of effort, he succeeded, so what? 3. If, after years of effort, he succeeded, mightn't the goat actually have died of old age? (or boredom) 4.Er, are we really sure goats are the main enemy, guys? 5. Was the war on goats another battle between good and evil,'us and them', an attempt to separate the,ahem, sheep from the goats? 6.What is the connection between the men who stare at goats and the 'My Little Goat' book George Bush loves reading? I feel a conspiracy theory coming on. 7.Are we really one hundred per cent sure that goats possess weapons of mass destruction?*** ***An exploding udder doesn't really qualify http://crisiswhatcrisis.blogspot.com/2004/11/men-who-stare-at-goats.html On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:52:32 +0530, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,1339464,00.html > > *[· *This is an edited extract from The Men Who Stare At Goats, by Jon > Ronson, published by Picador on November 19 at £16.99. To order a copy > for £16.14, with free UK p&p, call 0870 836 0875. Jon Ronson's > three-part television series, The Crazy Rulers Of The World, starts on > Channel 4 on November 7.] > > *The road to Abu Ghraib* > > In the wake of Vietnam, the US military were demoralised and prey to > some fairly crazy ideas. They thought they could train 'super soldiers' > with psychic powers. In this first extract from his revealing new book, > Jon Ronson describes how their aspirations were perverted in the prisons > of Iraq > > *Saturday October 30, 2004 > The Guardian * > > It is the summer of 1983. Major General Albert Stubblebine III is > sitting behind his desk in Arlington, Virginia, and he is staring at his > wall, upon which hang his numerous military awards. They detail a long > and distinguished career. He is the US army's chief of intelligence, > with 16,000 soldiers under his command. He controls numerous covert > counter-intelligence and spying units, scattered throughout the world. > He would be in charge of the prisoner-of-war interrogations, too, except > this is 1983, and the war is cold, not hot. > > He looks past his awards to the wall itself. There is something he feels > he needs to do even though the thought of it frightens him. He thinks > about the choice he has to make. He can stay in his office or he can go > into the next office. He has made his decision. He is going into the > next office. He stands up, moves out from behind his desk and begins to > walk. He thinks to himself, what is the atom mostly made up of anyway? > Space! > > He quickens his pace. > > What am I mostly made up of? Atoms! > > He is almost at a jog now. > > What is the wall mostly made up of, he thinks. Atoms! All I have to do > is merge the spaces. The wall is an illusion. > > Then General Stubblebine bangs his nose hard on the wall of his office. > > He is confounded by his continual failure to walk through his wall. > There is no doubt in his mind that the ability to pass through objects > will one day be a common tool in the intelligence-gathering arsenal. And > when that happens, well, is it too naive to believe it would herald the > dawning of a world without war? Who would want to screw around with an > army that could do that? > > These powers are attainable, so the only question is, by whom? Who in > the military is already geared towards this kind of thing? And then the > answer comes to him. Special Forces! This is why, in the late summer of > 1983, General Stubblebine flies down to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. > > Fort Bragg is vast - a town guarded by armed soldiers, with a mall, a > cinema, restaurants, golf courses, and accommodation for 45,000 soldiers > and their families. The general's meeting is in the Special Forces > Command Centre. "I'm coming down here with an idea," he begins. The > commanders nod. > > "If you have a unit operating outside the protection of mainline units, > what happens if somebody gets wounded?" He surveys the blank faces > around the room. "Psychic healing!" he says. "If you use your mind to > heal, you can probably come out with your whole team alive and intact." > > The Special Forces commanders don't look particularly interested in > psychic healing. > > "OK," says General Stubblebine. The reception he's getting is really > quite chilly. "Wouldn't it be a neat idea if you could teach somebody to > do this?" General Stubblebine rifles through his bag and produces, with > a flourish, bent cutlery. > > Silence. He tries again. > > "Animals!" says General Stubblebine. > > The Special Forces commanders glance at one another. > > "Stopping the hearts of animals," he continues. "Bursting the hearts of > animals. This is the idea I'm coming in with. You have access to > animals, right?" > > "Uh," say Special Forces. "Not really ... " > > General Stubblebine's trip to Fort Bragg was a disaster. It still makes > him blush to recall it. He ended up taking early retirement in 1984. His > doomed attempt to walk through his wall and his seemingly futile journey > to Fort Bragg have remained undisclosed until the moment he told me > about them in the Tarrytown Hilton in upstate New York on a cold > winter's day two years into the war on terror. "You know," he said, "I > really thought they were great ideas. I still do." > > What the general didn't know, as he proposed his clandestine animal > heart-bursting programme, was that Special Forces were concealing the > fact that they did have access to animals, there were a hundred goats in > a shed just a few yards down the road. > > General Stubblebine, I discovered, had commanded a secret military > psychic spying unit between 1981 and 1984. The unit wasn't quite as > glamorous as it might sound, he said. It was basically half a dozen > soldiers sitting inside a heavily guarded, condemned clapboard building > in Fort Meade, Maryland, trying to be psychic. Officially the unit did > not exist. The psychics were what is known in military jargon as Black > Op. When one of them got a vision - of a Russian warship, or a future > event - he would sketch it, and pass the sketches up the chain of > command. And then, in 1995, the CIA closed them down. > > I tracked down a former Special Forces psychic spy to Hawaii. Glenn > Wheaton, retired sergeant first class, was a big man with a tight crop > of red hair and a Vietnam-vet-style handlebar moustache. He told me how > in the mid-1980s Special Forces undertook a secret initiative, codenamed > Project Jedi, to create super soldiers - soldiers with super powers. One > such power was the ability to walk into a room and instantly be aware of > every detail; that was level one. > > Level two, he said, was intuition - making correct decisions. "Somebody > runs up to you and says, 'There's a fork in the road. Do we turn left or > do we turn right?' And you go" - Glenn snapped his fingers - "We go right!" > > "What was the level above that?" I asked. > > "Invisibility," said Glenn. "After a while we adapted it to just finding > a way of not being seen." > > "What was the level above invisibility?" I asked. > > "Uh," said Glenn. He paused for a moment. "We had a master sergeant who > could stop the heart of a goat ... just by wanting the goat's heart to > stop. He did it at least once." > > "Where did this happen?" I asked. > > "Down in Fort Bragg," he said, "at a place called Goat Lab." > > Goat Lab, which exists to this day, is secret. Most of the soldiers who > live and work within Fort Bragg don't even know of its existence. Those > military personnel not in the loop, said Glenn, assume that the rickety > clapboard hospital buildings dating from the second world war, are > derelict. In fact, they are filled with one hundred de-bleated goats. > > Goat Lab was originally created as a clandestine laboratory to provide > surgical training for Special Forces soldiers. During this more > conventional phase of the goats' lives, each one was taken through a > soundproofed door into a bunker and shot in the leg using a bolt gun. > Then the Special Forces trainees would rush the goat into an operating > theatre, anaesthetise it, dress the wound and nurse it back to health. > Goat Lab used to be called Dog Lab, but it turned out that nobody wanted > to do all that to dogs, so they switched to goats. It was apparently > determined within Special Forces that it was just about impossible to > form an emotional bond with a goat. > > I pressed Glenn: "Whose original idea was the goat staring?" > > Glenn sighed. He said a name. Over the next few months, others gave me > the same name. It kept coming up. It is a name few people outside the > military have ever heard. But this one man, armed with a passion for the > occult and a belief in superhuman powers, has had a profound and > hitherto unchronicled impact on almost every aspect of US army life. > General Stubblebine's doomed attempt to pass through his wall was > inspired by this man, as was - at the other end of the scale of secrecy > - the US army's famous TV recruitment slogan, "Be All You Can Be". > > The man was named Jim Channon, and he, too, lives in Hawaii. > > Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon (retired) remembers exactly how it all > began, the one precise moment that sparked the whole thing off. It was > his first day in combat in Vietnam, and he found himself flying in one > of 400 helicopters, thundering above the Song Dong Nai river, towards a > place known to him as War Zone D. They landed among the bodies of the > Americans who had failed to capture War Zone D four days earlier. > > "The soldiers," said Jim, "had been cooked in the sun and laid out like > a wall." > > An American soldier to Jim's right jumped out of his helicopter and > began firing wildly. Jim shouted at him to stop but the soldier couldn't > hear him. So Jim leapt on him and wrestled him to the ground. > > And then a sniper fired a single shot at Jim's platoon. Everyone just > stood there. The sniper fired again, and the Americans started running > towards the one and only palm tree in sight. Jim was running so fast > that he skidded face first into it. He heard someone behind him shout: > "VC in black pyjamas one hundred metres." > > About 20 seconds later, Jim thought to himself, Why is nobody shooting? > What are they waiting for? They can't be waiting for me to instruct them > to shoot, can they? > > "TAKE HIM OUT!" screamed Jim. > > And so the soldiers started shooting, and when it was over a small team > walked forward to find the body. But, for all the gunfire, they had > failed to hit the sniper. Moments later, the sniper killed one of Jim's > soldiers with a bullet through his lungs. His name was Private First > Class Shaw. > > When he returned to the US, it was Jim's job to drive around the country > to meet parents and give them citations and the personal belongings of > their dead children. It was during these long drives that Jim replayed > in his mind the moments that had led to the death of Private First Class > Shaw. Jim had yelled for his soldiers to kill the sniper, and they had > all, as one, and with every shot, fired high. "This came to be > understood as a common reaction when fresh soldiers fire on humans," Jim > said. "It is not a natural thing to shoot people." > > (What Jim had seen tallied with studies conducted after the second world > war by the military historian, General SLA Marshall. He interviewed > thousands of American infantrymen and concluded that only 15-20% of them > had actually shot to kill. The rest had fired high or not fired at all, > busying themselves however else they could.) > > It was heartbreaking for Jim to realise that Private First Class Shaw > had died because his fellow soldiers were impulsively guileless and > kind-hearted, and not the killing machines the army wanted them to be. > "The kind of person attracted to military service has a great deal of > difficulty being ... cunning. We suffered in Vietnam from not being > cunning. We just presented ourselves in our righteousness and we got our > butts shot off." > > And so, in 1977, Jim wrote to the vice chief of staff for the army in > the Pentagon, saying he wanted the army to learn how to be more cunning. > He wanted to go on a fact-finding mission. The Pentagon agreed to pay > Jim's salary and expenses. > > It was early in Steven Halpern's career as a composer of a series of > meditation and subliminal CDs (titles include Achieving Your Ideal > Weight and Nurturing Your Inner Child) that he met Jim Channon in 1978 > at a New Age conference in California. Jim said he wanted somehow to use > Steven's music to make the American soldier more peaceful, and he also > hoped to deploy Steven's music in the battlefield to make the enemy feel > more peaceful too. "He said he needed to convince the higher-up military > brass; the top ranks," said Steven. "These are people who had never > known a meditative state. I think he wanted to get them into it without > naming it." > > Or maybe hypnotise them with subliminal sounds? > > Steven told me a little about the power of subliminal sounds. One time, > he said, an American evangelical church blasted the congregation with > silent sounds during the hymns. At the end of the service, they found > their donations had tripled. > > Almost all the people Jim visited during his two-year journey were, like > Steven Halpern, Californians. Jim went through Reichian rebirthing, > primal arm-wrestling, and naked hot-tub encounter sessions at the Esalen > Institute. He saw it as America's role "to lead the world to paradise". > > He returned from his journey in 1979 and produced what he called First > Earth Battalion Operations Manual. The manual was a 125-page mixture of > drawings and graphs and maps and polemical essays and point by point > redesigns of every aspect of military life. The new battlefield uniform > would include pouches for ginseng regulators, divining tools, foodstuffs > to enhance night vision and a loudspeaker that would automatically emit > "indigenous music and words of peace". Soldiers would carry with them > into hostile countries "symbolic animals" such as lambs. The soldiers > would learn to give the enemy "an automatic hug". > > There was, Jim accepted, a possibility that these measures might not be > enough to pacify an enemy. In that eventuality, the loudspeakers > attached to the uniforms would be switched to broadcast "discordant > sounds". Bigger loudspeakers would be mounted on military vehicles, each > playing acid rock music out of synch with the other to confuse the enemy. > > Back on base, robes and hoods would be worn for the mandatory First > Earth Battalion rituals. The misogynistic and aggressive old chants ("I > don't know but I've been told, Eskimo pussy is mighty cold ...") would > be phased out and replaced by a new one: "Om." > > First Earth Battalion trainees would "attain the power to pass through > objects such as walls, bend metal with their minds, walk on fire, > calculate faster than a computer, stop their own hearts with no ill > effects, see into the future, be able to hear and see other people's > thoughts". > > Now all Jim had to do was sell these ideas to the military. > > He presented his great plan to his commanders at the officers' club in > Fort Knox in the spring of 1979 - four-star generals and major generals > and brigadier generals and colonels - and he had them captivated. Word > spread. > > General Stubblebine was a West Point man with a master's degree in > chemical engineering from Columbia. He learned about the First Earth > Battalion when he was stationed at the army's Intelligence School in > Arizona. Stubblebine's tenure as commander of Military Intelligence > coincided with huge slashes in his budget. These were the post-Vietnam > "draw down" days, and the Pentagon wanted their soldiers to achieve more > with less money. Learning how to walk through walls and the like was an > ambitious but inexpensive enterprise. And so it was that Jim Channon's > madcap vision, triggered by his post-combat depression, found its way > into the highest levels of the US military. > > In May 2003, shortly after President Bush had announced "the end of > major hostilities" in the war in Iraq, a little piece of the First Earth > Battalion philosophy was put into practice by PsyOps (US army > Psychological Operations) behind a disused railway station in the tiny > Iraqi town of al-Qa'im, on the Syrian border. The people of al-Qa'im did > not know that Baghdad had fallen to coalition troops, so Sergeant Mark > Hadsell and his PsyOps unit were there to distribute leaflets bearing > the news. Adam Piore, a Newsweek journalist, was tagging along, covering > the "end of major hostilities" from the PsyOps perspective. > > At that time it was pretty calm in al-Qa'im. By the end of the year, US > forces would be under frequent guerrilla bombardment in the town. In > November 2003, one of Saddam Hussein's air defence commanders - Major > General Abed Hamed Mowhoush - would die under interrogation right there > at the disused train station. ("Natural causes," said the official US > military statement. "Mowhoush's head was not hooded during questioning.") > > One night, Adam was hanging out in the squadron command centre when > Sergeant Hadsell wandered over to him. He winked conspiratorially and > said, "Go look out by where the prisoners are." Adam knew that the > prisoners were housed in a yard behind the train station. The army had > parked a convoy of shipping containers back there, and as Adam wandered > towards them he could see a bright flashing light. He could hear music > too. It was Metallica's Enter Sandman. From a distance it looked as > though some weird and slightly sinister disco was taking place. > > A young American soldier was holding a really bright light and he was > flashing it on and off, on and off, into the shipping container. Enter > Sandman was echoing violently around the steel walls. Adam stood there > for a moment and watched. The song ended and then, immediately, it began > again. > > The young soldier holding the light glanced over at Adam. He carried on > flashing it and said, "You need to go away now." > > "Did you look inside the container?" I asked Adam when he was telling me > this story two months later, back in the Newsweek offices in New York. > > "No," said Adam. "When the guy told me that I had to go away, I went > away." He paused. "But it was kind of obvious what was going on in there." > > Adam called Newsweek from his cellphone and pitched them a number of > stories. Their favourite was the Metallica one. "I was told to write it > as a humorous thing," said Adam. "They wanted a complete play-list." So > Adam asked around. It turned out that songs blasted at prisoners > included the soundtrack to the movie XXX; a song that went "Burn > Motherfucker Burn"; and, rather more surprisingly, the I Love You song > from Barney the Purple Dinosaur's show, along with songs from Sesame > Street. > > I first learned about the Barney torture story on May 19, 2003, when it > ran as a funny, "And finally"-type item on NBC's Today show: > > Ann Curry (news anchor): US forces in Iraq are using what some are > calling a cruel and unusual tool to break the resistance of Iraqi POWs, > and trust me, a lot of parents would agree! Some prisoners are being > forced to listen to Barney the Purple Dinosaur sing the I Love You song > for 24 straight hours ... > > NBC cut to a clip from Barney, in which the purple dinosaur flopped > around amid his gang of ever-smiling stage-school kids. Everyone in the > studio laughed. Ann Curry put on a funny kind of > "poor-little-prisoners"-type voice to report the story. > > It's the First Earth Battalion, I thought. > > I had no doubt that the notion of using music as a form of mental > torture had been popularised and perfected within the military as a > distortion of Jim's manual. Before he came along, military music was > confined to the marching-band-type and other rousing music to fire up > the troops. It was Jim who came up with the idea of using loudspeakers > in the battlefield to broadcast "discordant sounds" such as "acid-rock > music out of synch" to confuse the enemy, and the use of similar sounds > in the interrogation arena. > > I called Jim right away. > > "They're rounding people up in Iraq, taking them to a shipping > container, and blasting them repeatedly with children's music while > repeatedly flashing a bright light at them," I said. "Is that one of > your legacies?" > > "Yes!" Jim said. He sounded thrilled. "I'm so pleased to hear that!" > > Why? > > "They're obviously trying to lighten the environment," he said, "and > give these people some comfort, instead of beating them to death!" > > I think Jim was imagining something more like a crèche than a steel > container at the back of a disused railway station. "I guess if they > play them Barney and Sesame Street once or twice," I said, "that's > lightening and comforting, but if they play it, say, 50,000 times into a > steel box in the desert heat, that's more ... uh ... torturous?" > > "I'm no psychologist," said Jim, a little sharply. > > "But the use of music ..." I said. > > "That's what the First Earth Battalion did," said Jim. "It opened the > military mind to how to use music." > > Barney had become the funniest joke of the war. Within hours of Adam > Piore's Newsweek article appearing, the internet was aflame with Barney > torture-related wisecracks such as "An endless loop of the theme song > from Titanic by Celine Dion would be infinitely worse! They'd confess > everything within 10 minutes!" > > Adam himself had told me that he was finding the impact of his Barney > story quite baffling. It was picked up everywhere, and was invariably > treated as a humorous story. "It was sort of outrageous to be in this > shit hole up on the border in an abandoned train station, totally > uncomfortable, unable to take showers, sleeping on cots, and when we > finally got cable a couple of days later, scrolling across the screen is > this ... Barney story." > > Kenneth Roth, of Human Rights Watch, was clearly sick of talking about > Barney by the time I caught up with him. "They have," said Kenneth, > "been very savvy in that respect." > > "Savvy?" I said. > > He seemed to be implying that the Barney story had been deliberately > disseminated just so all the human rights violations being committed in > post-war Iraq could be reduced to this one joke. > > When I returned to the UK, I found I had been sent seven photographs. > They were taken by a Newsweek photographer, Patrick Andrade, in May > 2003, and captioned, "An escaped detainee is returned to a holding area > in al-Qa'im, Iraq." There is no sign of loudspeakers, but the pictures > do show the interior of one of the shipping containers behind the > disused railway station. > > In the first of the photographs, two powerfully built American soldiers > are pushing the detainee through a landscape of corrugated iron and > barbed wire. He doesn't look hard to push. He is as skinny as a rake. A > rag covers his face. One of the soldiers has a handgun pressed to the > back of his neck. In all the other photographs, the detainee is inside > the shipping container. He is barefoot, a thin plastic strap binds his > ankles and he's crouched against the silver corrugated wall. The metal > floor is covered with brown dust and pools of liquid. Right at the back > of the shipping container, deep in the shadows, you can just make out > the figure of another detainee huddled on the floor, his face masked by > a hood. > > Now the rag only covers the first man's eyes, so you can see his face, > which is lined, like an old man's, but his wispy moustache reveals that > he's probably about 17. There's an open wound on one of his skinny arms. > He might have done terrible things. I know nothing about him other than > these seven fragments of his life. But I can say this. In the last > photograph he is screaming so hard it almost looks as if he's laughing. > > * * A week or two passed. And then the other > photographs appeared. They were of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib > jail on the outskirts of Baghdad. A 21-year-old US reservist called > Private Lynndie England had been snapped leading a naked man across the > floor on a leash. She featured in many of the photographs. It was she > who knelt laughing behind a pile of naked prisoners. They had been > forced to build themselves into some kind of human pyramid. The pictures > could hardly have been more repulsive. Here were young Muslim men - > captives - being humiliated and overwhelmed by what looked like > grotesque US sexual decadence. It struck me as an unhappy coincidence > that Lynndie England and her friends had created a tableau that was the > epitome of what would most disgust and repel the Iraqi people, those > people whose hearts and minds were the great prize for the coalition > forces - and also for the Islamic fundamentalists. > > The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, flew to the jail. He told the > assembled troops that the events shown in the pictures were the work of > "a few who have betrayed our values and sullied the reputation of our > country. It was a body blow to me. Those who committed crimes will be > dealt with, and the American people will be proud of it, and the Iraqi > people will be proud." > > Lynndie England was arrested. By then she was back in the US, five > months pregnant, performing desk duties at Fort Bragg. Then word got out > through Lynndie England's lawyers that her defence was that she had been > acting under orders, softening up the prisoners for interrogation, and > that the people giving the orders were none other than Military > Intelligence, the unit once commanded by Major General Albert > Stubblebine III. > > It was sad to remember all that nose-banging and cutlery-bending, and > see how General Stubblebine's good intentions had come to this. I called > the general and asked him, "What was your first thought when you saw the > photographs?" > > "My first thought," he said, "was 'Oh shit!'" > > "What was your second thought?" > > "Thank God that's not me at the bottom of that pyramid." > > "What was your third thought?" > > "My third thought," said the general, "was 'This was not started by some > youngsters down in the trenches. This had to have been driven by the > intelligence community.' Yep. Someone much higher in intelligence > deliberately designed this, advocated it, directed it, trained people to > do it. No doubt about it. And whoever that is, he's in deep hiding right > now." > > "Military Intelligence?" I asked. "Your old people?" > > "It's a possibility," he said. "My guess is no." > > "Who then?" > > "The Agency," he said (meaning the CIA). > > "In conjunction with PsyOps?" I asked. > > "I'm sure they had a hand in it," said the general. "Sure. No doubt > about it. You know, if they'd just stuck to Jim Channon's ideas ... " > > "By Jim Channon's ideas, do you mean the loud music?" I asked. > > "Yeah," said the general. > > "So the idea of blasting prisoners with loud music," I said, "definitely > originated with the First Earth Battalion?" > > "Definitely," said the general. "No question. So did the frequencies." > Frequencies, he said, dis-equilibrate people. "There's all kinds of > things you can do with the frequencies. Jesus, you can take a frequency > and make a guy have diarrhoea, make a guy sick to the stomach. I don't > understand why they even had to do this crap you saw in the photographs. > They should have just blasted them with frequencies!" > > On May 12, 2004, Lynndie England gave an interview to the Denver-based > TV reporter Brian Maas: > > Maas : There's a photograph that was taken of you holding an Iraqi > prisoner on a leash. How did that come about? > > England : I was instructed by persons in higher rank to "stand there, > hold this leash and look at the camera". And they took a picture for > PsyOps and that's all I know ... I was told to stand there, give the > thumbs-up, smile, stand behind all of the naked Iraqis in the pyramid > [have my picture taken]. > > Maas : Who told you to do that? > > England : Persons in my higher chain of command ... They were for PsyOps > reasons and the reasons worked. So to us, we were doing our job, which > meant we were doing what we were told, and the outcome was what they > wanted. They'd come back and they'd look at the pictures and they'd > state, "Oh, that's a good tactic, keep it up. That's working. This is > working. Keep doing it, it's getting what we need." > > I was beginning to wonder whether the scenarios had, in fact, been > carefully calculated by a PsyOps cultural specialist to present a vision > that would most repel young Iraqi men. Could it be that the acts > captured in the photographs were not the point, and that the photographs > themselves were the thing? Were the photographs intended to be shown > only to individual Iraqi prisoners to scare them into cooperating, > rather than getting out and scaring the whole world? > > Joseph Curtis (not his real name) worked the night shift at the Abu > Ghraib prison in the autumn of 2003. When I talked to him he had been > exiled by the army to a town in Germany. The threat of a court martial > hung over him. He had previously given an interview about what he had > seen to an international press agency, thus incurring the wrath of his > superiors. Even so, against his own better judgement, and against his > lawyers' advice, he agreed to meet me, secretly, at an Italian > restaurant in June 2004. > > We sat on the balcony of the restaurant and he pushed his food around > his plate. "You ever see The Shining?" he said. > > "Yes," I said. > > "Abu Ghraib was like the Overlook Hotel," he said. "It was haunted." > > I assumed Joseph meant the place was full of spooks: intelligence > officers - but the look on his face made me realise he didn't. > > "It was haunted," he said. "It got so dark at night. So dark. Under > Saddam, people were dissolved in acid there. Women raped by dogs. Brains > splattered all over the walls. This was worse than the Overlook Hotel > because it was real. > > "It was like the building wanted to be back in business," he said. > > Joseph remarked that he couldn't believe how much money was floating > around the army these days. These were the golden days, in budgetary > terms. This was not a side issue. In January 2004, the influential think > tank and lobbying group, GlobalSecurity, revealed that George W Bush's > government had filtered more money into their Black Budget than any > other administration in American history. Black Budgets often just fund > Black Ops - highly sensitive and deeply shady projects such as > assassination squads, and so on. But Black Budgets also fund schemes so > bizarre that their disclosure might lead voters to believe their leaders > have taken leave of their senses. Bush's administration had, by January > 2004, channelled approximately $30bn into the Black Budget - to be spent > on God knows what. > > "Abu Ghraib," Joseph was telling me, "was a tourist attraction. I > remember one time I was woken up by two captains. 'Where's the death > chamber?' They wanted to see the rope and the lever. When Rumsfeld came > to visit, he didn't want to talk to the soldiers. All he wanted to see > was the death chamber." > > Joseph took a bite of his food. > > "Yeah, the beast in man really came out at Abu Ghraib," he said. > > "You mean in the photographs?" I asked. > > "Everywhere," he said. "The senior leadership were screwing around with > the lower ranks ... " > > I told Joseph I didn't understand what he meant. > > He said, "The senior leaders were having sex with the lower ranks. The > detainees were raping each other." > > "Did you ever see any ghosts?" I asked him. > > "There was a darkness about the place," he replied. > > Joseph was in charge of the super-classified computer network at Abu > Ghraib. His job didn't take him into the isolation block, even though it > was just down the corridor, but on one occasion he was invited to see > the model planes someone had made - and also to take a look at the "high > values". (The "high values" were what the US army called the suspected > terrorists, insurgent leaders, rapists or child-molesters.) He accepted > the invitation. > > The isolation block was where all the photographs were taken - the human > pyramid, and so on. Joseph turned the corner into the block. > > "There were two MPs there," he told me. "And they were constantly > screaming. 'SHUT THE FUCK UP!' They were screaming at some old guy, > making him repeat a number over and over. > > "'156403. 156403. 156403.' > > "The guy couldn't speak English. He couldn't pronounce the numbers. > > "'I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR YOU.' > > "'156403. 156403.' > > "'LOUDER. FUCKING LOUDER.' > > "Then they saw me. 'Hey, Joseph! How are you? I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR YOU. > LOUDER.' " > > Joseph said that the MPs had basically gone straight from McDonald's to > Abu Ghraib. They knew nothing. And now they were getting scapegoated > because they happened to be identifiable in the photographs. They just > did what the Military Intelligence people, Joseph's people, told them to > do. PsyOps were just a phone call away, Joseph said. And the Military > Intelligence people all had PsyOps training anyway. The thing I had to > remember about Military Intelligence was that they were the "nerdy-type > guys at school. You know. The outcasts. Couple all that with ego, and a > poster on the wall saying 'By CG Approval' - Commanding General Approval > - and suddenly you have guys who think they govern the world. That's > what one of them said to me. 'We govern the world.' " > > An aide to Condoleezza Rice, the White House national security adviser, > visited the prison, to inform the interrogators sternly that they > weren't getting useful enough information from the detainees. "Then," > Joseph said, "a whole platoon of Guantánamo people arrived. The word got > around. 'Oh God, the Gitmo guys are here.' Bam! There they were. They > took the place over." Perhaps Guantánamo Bay was Experimental Lab Mark > 1, and whatever esoteric techniques worked there were exported to Abu > Ghraib. > > Perhaps this is the way it happened: in the late 1970s Jim Channon, > traumatised from Vietnam, sought solace in the emerging human potential > movement of California. He took his ideas back into the army and they > struck a chord with the top brass who had never before seen themselves > as New Age, but in their post-Vietnam funk it all made sense to them. > Then, over the decades that followed, the army, being what it is, > recovered its strength and saw that some of the ideas contained within > Jim's manual could be used to shatter people rather than heal them. > Those are the ideas that live on in the war on terror > > © Jon Ronson, 2004. > > > > _________________________________________ > 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 not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. http://www.synchroni-cities.blogspot.com/ From vivek at sarai.net Tue Nov 23 10:55:32 2004 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 10:55:32 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Seeds become big transnational business in Iraq Message-ID: <41A2C9CC.4000205@sarai.net> (http://jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2004-weekly/nos-21-11-2004/pol1.htm#6) The News on Sunday -- Pakistan November 21, 2004-- Shawal 07, 1425 A.H. 3. Political Economy Seeds become big transnational business in Iraq Less visible than the butchery of Fallujah are the country's subsistence farmers who are losing the rights to use saved seed and their right to produce their local food By Michel Fanton As violence rages on in Iraq under the US-led military coalition, the occupation's corporate backers are waging a less visible but as deadly economic war against the Iraqi population. In the frontline of this assault, less visible than the butchery of Fallujah, are the country's subsistence farmers who are losing the rights to use saved seed and their right to produce their local food. A recent report issued by international NGOs GRAIN and Focus on the Global South1, scrutinises the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) rules that were included in a new patent "order", one of 100 orders that were imposed on Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority of Paul Bremer, in April 2004, with the aim of opening the country to the full onslaught of globalised "free for all trade". The PVP provisions are designed to suppress traditional seed-saving and exchange practices going back to the neo-lithic ten thousand years ago, in favour of commercial rights that presage a takeover of Iraq's agriculture and food supply by transnational corporations that control the agricultural pesticide and seed business. The FAO estimated in 2002 that 97% of Iraqi farmers used their own saved seed or bought seed from local markets. Their main crops are wheat, barley, date and pulses, which is as big a part of their diet and very much at the base of their food network. But under the new regime, states the report, "farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds of any "protected plant variety" that enters the country. The rights of corporate plant breeders, (seed corporations who develop seed using genetic engineering, who own the seed, all or part of their gene sequences, lease genes and seeds as a software, and shamelessly harvest royalties worldwide), extend to harvested material, including plants product obtained from the protected variety. For instance, if the protected variety is a type of wheat, a registered cultivar, that requires less kneading as flour to make bread, then the seed company could claim rights over the final product, in this case it could be a "copyrighted" french stick, brioche, croissant, or pizza base. The unstated purpose of PVPs is to allow the interests of industrialised agriculture to appropriate plant genetic material, apply scientific breeding techniques including genetic engineering, and come up with "new" varieties that meet commercial criteria. These are laid out by the UPOV convention as "new, distinct, uniform and stable". At Seed Savers in Australia, we know from having grown thousands of farmers' varieties, that their seeds cannot meet these criteria of uniformity. Even if indigenous people without formal education or even pen and paper, wanted to--or could afford to--they don't stand a chance of registering their seeds because their varieties are cross-pollinating, loaded with genes and very diverse. The reason why farmers keep these local food varieties is because they are very resilient, adapted to local conditions, and are more likely to give a crop then the modern high-tech seeds that need pesticides, fertilisers and irrigation. These land race or farmers' varieties are the genetic base of today's food for all of us. This crop diversity is not rewarded by the formal sector only used by corporate breeders for their specialised complex genes sequences that are the base of modern patented varieties. We share the misgivings of GRAIN and other groups supporting biodiversity and food sovereignty, that other vulnerable countries such as Cambodia and Afghanistan we have recently visited, are being coerced by the US to accept PVP regimes similar to Iraq's, which go beyond the rules even of the WTO. Inevitably included in such bilateral trade "agreements" is the obligation to accept GE crops. GRAIN also warns of the potential of bio-piracy fuelled by IPR regimes that pander to corporate profiteering. The report mentions that Iraq's national seed bank, established in the 1970s, is feared lost, although samples of Iraqi varieties are held in trust at an agricultural institute in Syria. "These comprise the agricultural heritage of Iraq...and ought now to be repatriated," the report urges. Fat chance! The security of seed banks in Third World countries is of concern to Seed Savers members. We are appealing for help from specialists in Intellectual Property law to advise us and advocate for our partner seed and food networks, in the Solomons, Ecuador, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Now is the time for people of goodwill not only to oppose the war on Iraq but also to support indigenous populations everywhere to resist those who are profiteering from the war by naming them and boycotting their product. That was the drift of a speech by Arundhati Roy recently given in Sydney, Australia in acceptance of the Sydney Peace Prize. Now is the time for people of goodwill not only to oppose the war on Iraq, but to help indigenous populations everywhere resist attacks on their food sovereignty by naming the corporations who are privatising plant genes, and boycotting their products. -- Cobrapost News Features The author is a co-founder of International Seed Savers. From geert at desk.nl Tue Nov 23 14:48:52 2004 From: geert at desk.nl (geert) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:18:52 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Trespass Against Us Message-ID: <1101201531.1181.45.camel@koffertje> From: robert weissman To: corp-focus at lists.essential.org Subject: [corp-focus] Trespass Against Us Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 17:39:49 -0500 Trespass Against Us: Twenty Things to Know About Dow Chemical on the 20th Anniversary of Bhopal By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman Let's assume for a second, as the law does, that a corporation is a person. If a corporation is a person, then how come we don't see biographies of corporations? We're not talking about "official" biographies -- those written by people in the pocket of the corporation. Of course they exist. By why not warts-and-all biographies of major American corporations? Like -- the Life and Times of General Motors? Actually, a historian by the name of Brad Snell has been working for years on such a biography about General Motors -- warts and all. He says he's almost finished. In 1974, Gerard Colby Zilg wrote a book titled "DuPont: Behind the Nylon Curtain," which was a biography of DuPont Corporation -- warts and all. Zilg claimed that his publisher, under pressure from DuPont, buried the book -- and it went nowhere. Now comes Jack Doyle. Doyle is trying to make a career out of writing critical corporate biographies. In 2002, under contract with the Environmental Health Fund, Doyle wrote his first corporate biography, titled Riding the Dragon: Royal Dutch Shell & The Fossil Fire. Now, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, Doyle is out with Trespass Against Us: Dow Chemical and the Toxic Century (Common Courage Press, 2004). At midnight on December 2, 1984, 27 tons of lethal gases leaked from Union Carbide's pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, immediately killing an estimated 8,000 people and poisoning thousands of others. Today in Bhopal, at least 150,000 people, including children born to parents who survived the disaster, are suffering from exposure-related health effects such as cancer, neurological damage, chaotic menstrual cycles and mental illness. Over 20,000 people are forced to drink water with unsafe levels of mercury, carbon tetrachloride and other persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals. Activists from around the world -- including human rights, legal, environmental health and other experts -- are mobilizing over the next two weeks to demand that Dow Chemical, the current owner of Union Carbide, be held accountable. Here we are 20 years after this disaster, and the company responsible for this catastrophe and its former executives are still fugitives from justice. Union Carbide and its former chairman, Warren Andersen, were charged with manslaughter for the deaths at Bhopal, but they refuse to appear before the Indian courts. Many events worldwide are taking place to coincide with the 20th anniversary, including the release of Doyle's book-length rap sheet against Dow. Doyle took the title of his book "Trespass Against Us" from Lord's prayer: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We asked Doyle if he was urging humanity -- those who have been polluted by Dow chemicals -- to forgive Dow for its trespass against us. "Not at all," Doyle said. "By using the 'trespass against us' phrase, I am trying to make visible the invisible -- trying to show that there are boundary lines being violated daily by toxic substances. Corporations are making a profit on the invasion of my personal space, my biology. They are not controlling the full costs of their operation, and we are picking up the tab for their externalities in form of disease, illness, lower immunity, altered reproduction, birth defects, cancer. That's not right. That's a mortal trespass, an unforgivable transgression that must be stopped. We are certainly not calling on consumers to ask that companies be forgiven -- quite the opposite. They need to be prosecuted. Companies like Dow are getting away with biological trespass daily." And his book documents this. In honor of the dead and dying in Bhopal, we urge you to buy Doyle's book. Every time you use common plastic items, think of the destruction. Every time you use Saran Wrap (originally a Dow product), question the consequences. And in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the crime of Bhopal, we present here 20 things to remember about Dow Chemical -- the company now responsible for Bhopal and a fugitive from justice. 20. Agent Orange/Napalm -- The toxic herbicide and jellied gasoline used in Vietnam created horrors for young and old alike -- and an uproar back home that forced Dow to rethink its public relations strategy. 19. Rocky Flats -- The top secret Colorado site managed by Dow Chemical from 1952 to 1975 that is an environmental nightmare for the Denver area. 18. Body burden -- In March 2001, the Centers for Disease Control reported that most Americans carry detectable levels of plastics, pesticides and heavy metals in their blood and urine. 17. 2,4-D -- An herbicide produced by Dow Chemical. It is still in use today. Used for killing lawn weeds, crop weeds, range weeds, along utility company rights-of way, railroads. One of the key ingredients in Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used in Vietnam. 2,4-D is the most widely used herbicide in the world. 16. Mercury -- In Canada, Dow had been producing chlorine using the mercury cell method since 1947. Much of the mercury was recycled, but significant quantities were discharged into the environment through air emissions, water discharges, waste sludge and in end products. In March 1970, the governments of Ontario and Michigan detected high levels of mercury in the fish in the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River and Lake Erie. Dow was sued by state and local officials for mercury pollution. 15. PERC -- Perchloroethylene, the hazardous substance used by dry cleaners everywhere. Dow tried to undermine safer alternatives. 14. 2,4,5 T -- One of the toxic ingredients in Agent Orange. Doyle says that "Dow just fought tooth and nail over this chemical -- persisted every way it could in court and with the agencies, at the state and federal levels, to buy more time for this product. They went into a court in Arkansas in the early 1970s to challenge the EPA administrator. They did that to buy some extra marketing time, and they got two years, even though it appears that Dow knew this chemical was a bad actor by then, caused birth defects in lab animals, and was also being found in human body fat by then. But it wasn't until 1983 that Dow quit making 2,4,5-T in the U.S., and 1987 before they quit production in New Zealand. And 2,4,5-T health effects litigation continues to this day." 13. Busting unions -- In 1967, unions represented almost all of Dow's production workers. But since then, according to the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, Dow undertook an "unapologetic campaign to rid itself of unions." 12. Silicone -- Key ingredient for silicone breast implants, made by a joint venture between Dow and Corning (Dow Corning). Made women large, but also made them sick. Ongoing illness and litigation. 11. DBCP -- Toxic active ingredient in Dow pesticide Fumazone. Doctors who tested men who worked with DBCP thought they had vasectomies -– no sperm present. 10. Dursban -- Chlorpyrifos, a toxic pesticide, a product that proved to have the nerve agent effects that Rachel Carson warned about. Also tested on prisoners in New York in 1971 and in 1998 at a lab in Lincoln, Nebraska. Took over for DDT when DDT was banned in 1972. Huge seller. In June 2000, EPA limits use. 9. Dow at Christmas -- "Uses of Dow plastics by the toy industry are across the board," boasted Dow Chemical in an internal company memo one Christmas season -- "and more and more of our materials are found under the Christmas tree and on the birthday table, make some child, some toy company, and Dow, very happy indeed." Among the chemicals used in these toys -- polystyrene, polyethylene, ethylene copolymer resins, saran resins, PVC resins, or vinyls and ethyl cellulose. And a Happy New Year. 8.The Tittabawassee -- River and river basin polluted by Dow in its hometown, Midland, Michigan. 7. Brazos River, Freeport, Texas -- February 1971 headline in the Houston Post read: "Brazos River is Dead." In 1970 and 1971, Dow's operation there was sending more than 4.5 billion gallons of wastewater per day into the Brazos and on into the Gulf of Mexico. 6. Toxic Trespass -- Doyle writes: "Dow Chemical has been polluting property and poisoning people for nearly a century, locally and globally -- trespassing on workers, consumers, communities, and innocent bystanders -- on wildlife and wild places, on the global biota and the global genome. ... Dow Chemical must end its toxic trespass." 5. Holmesburg Experiments -- In January 1981, a Philadelphia Inquirer story reveals that Dow Chemical paid a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist to test dioxin on prisoners at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. Tests were conducted in 1964. Seventy inmates tested. 4. Worker deaths -- Dow has a long history of explosions and fires at its facilities, well documented by Doyle in Trespass Against Us. One example, in May 1979: an explosion ripped through Dow Chemical's Pittsburgh facility, killing two workers and injuring more than 45 others. 3. Brain tumors -- In 1980, investigators found 25 brain workers with brain tumors at the company's Freeport, Texas facility -- 24 of which were fatal. 2. Saran Wrap -- The thin slice of plastic invaluable to our lives. Produced by Dow until consumers were looking for Dow products to boycott. Dow decided to get out of consumer products for this reason -- they sold off Saran Wrap -- and since just makes chemicals that make our consumer products. 1. Bhopal -- Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we seek to bring to justice those who trespass against us. Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are co-authors of the forthcoming On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org). (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman This article is posted at: _______________________________________________ Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us (russell at nationalpress.com or rob at essential.org). Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve corp-focus at lists.essential.org. To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your address to corp-focus, go to: or send an e-mail message to corp-focus-admin at lists.essential.org with your request. Focus on the Corporation columns are posted at . Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. If you would like to comment on the columns, send a message to russell at nationalpress.com or rob at essential.org. From shivamvij at gmail.com Tue Nov 23 14:25:09 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 14:25:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Who killed whom Message-ID: From: "Ishtiaq Ahmed" asiapeace mailing list Dear All, Asiapeace member Aamir Riaz, USA, drew my attention to an editorial in the Daily Times of Wednesday, November 17, 2004, in which it had been argued that the unilateral Bab-e-Pakistan at Walton near Lahore to the Muslim victims of the 1947 holocaust would not reflect the loss of life of Hindus and Sikhs at that time. Also, it was incorrectly pointed out that large scale massacres started first in East Punjab and Delhi. I correct that by referring to the massacre of Sikhs and Hindus in the Rawalpindi division. My letter has been published today. Please find both items. Best regards, Ishtiaq Ahmed Moderator Asiapeace - An electronic discussion group Homepage: http://www.statsvet.su.se/stv_hemsida/statsvetenskap_04/hemsidor/ishtiaq _ahmed.htm www.asiapeace.org http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asiapeace Affiliate of Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA). Associate Professor Department of Political Science Stockholm University 106 91 Stockholm SWEDEN. Ishtiaq.Ahmed at statsvet.su.se Daily Times - Site Edition Wednesday, November 17, 2004 EDITORIAL: Bab-e-Pakistan - one-sided memory Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi announced Saturday that the foundation stone of the Bab-e-Pakistan monument would be laid on March 23, 2005. The monument would be constructed on a 110-acre site on the Walton Road in Lahore where the largest refugee camp was established after the 1947 partition for the Muslims displaced from India. With President Pervez Musharraf as chief of the Bab-e-Pakistan governing council, the project costing Rs 800 million would be completed in quick time. It will contain the main monument, gardens, headquarters of the boy scout movement, and a high school each for boys and girls. A library devoted to the Pakistan Movement will also be housed in the Bab-e-Pakistan complex. Like all symbols of nationalism the Bab-e-Pakistan will make us relive the painful birth of the state of Pakistan. It will commemorate the killing of thousands of innocent Muslims as they made their way across Indian Punjab, the rape of the refugee women of Amritsar where the Muslim community was butchered by Sikhs. There will be pictorial depiction of the bedraggled millions who streamed across the newly drawn frontier and kissed the soil of their new homeland. Bab-e-Pakistan will remind us of the sacrifices the Muslims of India made for their new homeland. It will follow the earlier Bab-ul-Islam, namely Sindh, where the Arab Muslim commander Muhammad bin Qasim defeated a Hindu local ruler to bring Islam to the part of India which is now Pakistan. Every nation has a monument representing the "painful birth syndrome" which is supposed to keep nationalism alive as an instrument of uniting the various regional identities within a country. (Bab-e-Pakistan, too, will represent all the four provinces.) Perhaps the most tragic depiction of this syndrome took place in the Balkans where in the 19th century whole populations were moved several times with accompanying communal mayhem. The Balkan nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century came to be based on the memory of this suffering. The last decade of the 20th century saw the genocide the preservation of this collective memory brought to the region. It was at a "painful birth" monument at Kosovo that Serb dictator Milosevic swore revenge against the Muslims of old Yugoslavia for which he today faces trial at an international court. A monument at Dhaka commemorates how a West Pakistani army killed "millions" in East Pakistan. Pakistan and India have bad memories of the partition. Stories of migration from both sides have been recorded. They are touching in the extreme and highlight the inhumanity to which the two communities descended during the pre-partition riots. It was a tale of the wicked few driving the innocent majority into the trauma of dislocation and death. It is no use putting a political gloss on the events of 1947. The memoirs of partition are too solid a legacy to sweep under the carpet. Now that India and Pakistan are about to embark on peaceful coexistence after an epochal war of fifty years, shouldn't we introduce a motif of non-communalist humanity in the over-all theme of Bab-e-Pakistan? We should not concentrate only on the suffering of millions of those who came in; we should also remember the suffering of the millions who had to leave. If Bab-e-Pakistan comes up without the political bile secreted since 1947 by the textbook nationalism of India and Pakistan, it will stand forever. If not, it will fail the test of time, because evil is not eternal and its celebration is even less durable. The first touching evidence of the suffering of 'the other side' is recorded in Jinnah Papers: Pakistan, Pangs of Birth, Volume Five (15 August to September 1947), ably put together by ZH Zaidi. These were the papers found in the office of the founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. They tell a story that Bab-e-Pakistan should include as one of its themes. There are letters written to Jinnah by Sikhs and Hindus in distress trying to leave a riot-torn Pakistan. The real massacres started first in East Punjab and the UP. When the Muslims heard of them in West Punjab they unfortunately decided to imitate the savagery, which did them no credit. Interesting letters in the volume from Indian Sindhi president of the National Congress JB Kripalani and his wife tell Jinnah about how the Pakistani officers were stripping the Hindus crossing over to India of their belongings. Mrs Kripalani actually submitted an eyewitness report from Hyderabad describing how the Hindu refugees were being looted. If Jinnah Papers provide one side of the picture, there is the Indian side too, and it has recently been highlighted by Mushirul Hassan in his book India Partitioned: The other Face of Freedom. No one in India and Pakistan can deny that the Partition of 1947 was a trauma. The large mass of people involved in this two-way exodus was permanently damaged by it. Remembering it is not such a good thing if it intensifies the hatred India and Pakistan have nurtured for each other. It is for this reason that Bab-e-Pakistan is not such a good idea, unless it stands aside from the politics of Partition and focuses on human suffering. In fact, history in South Asia has been moulded negatively by this "separatist" recall. In Pakistan, the refugee joined up with the Punjabi to frame a tough anti-India ideology; in India, the refugee has eventually given birth to the BJP, the party that lives on hatred, with top leadership drawn from refugees from Sindh. The only way the Partition recall can be useful is if its presentation indicts both the communities. If Babe-e-Pakistan has to be built, let it represent suffering of all refugees from both sides. * Letters, Daily Times, Lahore, November 22, 2004 Punjab holocaust Sir: Your editorial, "Bab-e-Pakistan - one-sided memory" (Daily Times, November 17), aptly critiques the Punjab Government's decision to go ahead with a memorial at Walton for the Muslim victims of the 1947 Punjab holocaust. To ignore the fact that Hindus and Sikhs were also victims of the massacre does not respect the extent of the human tragedy that took place. However, you mention that "the real massacres started first in East Punjab and the UP". This is not true. Even Justice Muhammad Munir, who was member of the Punjab Boundary Commission, mentions on page 17 of his book, From Jinnah to Zia, that the Muslims were the first to resort to large-scale massacres. The systematic killing of mainly Sikhs but also Hindus took place in the villages around Rawalpindi and Gujjar Khan between the night of March 6-7,1947 and continued until March 13. However, the real big-scale continuous massacres began after the announcement of the Radcliffe Award on 17 August, and more Muslims died in those attacks because they were completely unprepared whereas the Sikhs had been preparing for such an eventuality ever since more than 2,000 of them were killed in the March riots. ISHTIAQ AHMED Stockholm, Sweden From ninadism at yahoo.com Tue Nov 23 22:45:37 2004 From: ninadism at yahoo.com (ninad pandit) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:15:37 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] 'Snapshots From A Family Album' screening on Thursday, 25th November Message-ID: <20041123171537.90143.qmail@web42103.mail.yahoo.com> Dear friends, Chauraha will screen the film 'Snapshots From A Family Album' on Thursday, 25th November 2004 at the NCPA, Nariman Point, Mumbai. This film is made by Avijit Mukul Kishore, and a must see. Do come and inform others. Title: 'Snapshots From A Family Album' Duration: 63 minutes Language: Hindi and English Direction+Cinematography: Avijit Mukul Kishore. Venue: Little Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point, Mumbai. Date and time: 25th November 2004, 6:30 PM --------------------------------------------------------------------- SYNOPSIS Family a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head Hometown the place of one's principal residence Snapshot a casual photograph made typically by an amateur with a small handheld camera (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The definitions of family and home were put to test in the years this film was shot. My parents were living and working in different cities, late in their careers. 'Snapshots from a Family Album' is a look at my family over those five years. We are a second generation urban family with roots in a distant hometown in northern India. The film celebrates moments of togetherness and periods of separation as it looks at the life of a typical middle class North-Indian family living out of two cities, Delhi and Bombay. My mother interweaves personal stories with the history of the nation when she talks of playing with little girls displaced from Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947. My grandmother talks of the comic nitty-gritty of joint family life with people from different cultures coming together under one roof. My father finds joy tending to his plants after retiring from his job. It is everydayness of life that the film is interested in looking at, with the background of a migrant family in a state of constant transition. I had recently graduated from film school when I started shooting this film. It was intimate and un-self-conscious, looking at my parents over the years. The film's look is as much one of the camera as it is that of a son starting his career in a world unfamiliar to his parents � that of films. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! � Get yours free! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041123/425c38b2/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From aesthete at mail.jnu.ac.in Tue Nov 23 14:33:35 2004 From: aesthete at mail.jnu.ac.in (Dean School of Arts and Aesthetics) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 14:33:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Lectures by Prof Ding Ning MOHILE PARIKH SEMINAR Message-ID: <1101200615.92b9c1e0aesthete@mail.jnu.ac.in> From : Dean School of Arts and Aesthetics Subject : MOHILE PARIKH SEMINAR SCHOOL OF ARTS AND AESTHETICS JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY NEW DELHI In Collaboration with Sanskriti Pratishthan New Delhi and Mohile Parikh Center Mumbai Cordially invite you to a lecture series on Visual Arts VENUE: INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE CONFERENCE ROOM NO 3 MAX MULLER MARG NEW DELHI 110003 TIME : 5.45 pm 25TH & 26TH November Prof Ding Ning Faculty Member Deptt of Art Studies Peking University Thursday 25th November Ancient Chinese Painting: Life Philosophy of Non Professionalism Friday 26TH Towards a New Century: A Glimpse into Contemporary Chinese Art Chair Dr Ravni Thakur Reader, Delhi University, Faculty of East Asian Studies ============================================== This Mail was Scanned for Virus and found Virus free ============================================== _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From tellsachin at yahoo.com Tue Nov 23 20:54:16 2004 From: tellsachin at yahoo.com (Sachin Agarwal) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 07:24:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] A review of Right to Information Campaign in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh Message-ID: <20041123152416.37103.qmail@web41509.mail.yahoo.com> A review of Right to Information Campaign in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh Detailed report of People�s Investigation (Janta Jaanch) done in six village panchayats. Information that was sought: Bill - vouchers, receipts and payments register, muster roll, proceedings register and list of BPL card holders. In Bharawan, Mohammadapur, Aira Kakemau , Sahgawan, Shivpuriya, Parsa, Lalamau Mawai, Godwa Khem villages of Bharawan development block and Sikroria and Purwamaan villages of Sandila development block. In Sandila block, after filing of affidavit, the Block Development Officer was asked thrice to present the statement of income and expenditure. In Bharawan development block the muster roll and statement of income and expenditure with all bills/vouchers was asked for construction of two roads between Jakhwa power house to Sagargadhi and between block office to village Jajupur. Information that was made available: 1. Income and expenditure statements of village panchayats Bharawan, Mohammadapur, Itaunja Shivpuriya, and Godwa Khem (all villages of Bharawan development block) and of village panchayats Sikroria and Purwa Maan (both villages of Sandila block). Government investigation: Because the information provided by the government was at considerable variance with the ground reality inquiries were demanded at all places. Open investigation was carried out at only at Bharawan and a bungling of Rs. 284,311 was discovered. At Sikroria the discovered bungling was only of Rs. 1900. The village Pradhan (head) were punished at both the places. But later on the actions were reversed at both the places. At Bharwan it was due to judicial intervention and at Sikroria it was due to administrative action under political pressure. People�s Investigation (Janta Jaanch) Disappointed by the administrative and the judicial intervention, the people decided to themselves verify the ground realities of the information provided by the government. The idea was to physically verify the information provided by the government machinery. The entire exercise was called People�s Investigation (Janta Jaanch) The findings of people�s investigation are as under: Village Panchayat Date of investigation Estimated bungling (Rs.) Sikroria 14 July 2004 169,102.00 Bharawan 16 July 2004 292,271.00 Godwa Khem 30 July 2004 92,800.00 Purwa Maan 03 August 2004 67,974.00 Mohammadapur 28 August 2004 72,764.00 Itaunja Shivpuriya 04 September 2004 20,024.00 TOTAL = 714,935.00 Ram Sagar Verma �Guddu�, Keshav Chand, Neel Kamal, Jayashanker, Shyam Kishor, Ganga Sagar Awasthi, Toori, Sajeevan Lal, Mohan Lal, Pyare Lal, Ajay Patel, Ram Babu, Shri Niwas, Hansraj, Mahesh, Sandeep Pandey. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! � Get yours free! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041123/fd1a8640/attachment.html From vivek at sarai.net Wed Nov 24 11:24:57 2004 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 11:24:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society, Berkeley, February 2005 - Call for Papers Message-ID: <41A42231.7030109@sarai.net> >>Dear Colleague, >> >>I am writing to you on behalf of the Conference Organising Committee to >>inform you of the call-for-papers for: >> >>THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGY, KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIETY >>University of California, Berkeley, Friday 18 - Sunday 20 February 2005 >>http://www.Technology-Conference.com >> >>This conference takes a broad and cross-disciplinary approach to >>technology in society. With a particular focus on digital information and >>communications technologies, the interests addressed by the conference >>include: human usability, technologies for citizenship and community >>participation, and learning technologies. Participants will include >>researchers, teachers and practitioners whose interests are either >>technical or humanistic, or whose work crosses over between the applied >>technological and social sciences. >> >>As well as an impressive line up of international main speakers, the >>conference will also include numerous paper, workshop and colloquium >>presentations. We would particularly like to invite you to respond to the >>conference call for papers. Papers submitted for the conference >>proceedings will be fully peer-refereed and published in print and >>electronic formats in the new International Journal of Technology, >>Knowledge and Society. If you are unable to attend the conference in >>person, virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit >>a paper for refereeing and possible publication in this fully refereed >>academic journal, as well as access to the electronic version of the >>conference proceedings. The deadline for the first round call for papers >>is 30 November 2004. Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of >>submission. >> >>Full details of the conference, including an online call for papers form, >>are to be found at the conference website. >> >>Yours Sincerely, >> >> >>Dr Christopher Scanlon >>The Globalism Institute >>RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia >> >>*** >>Note: Under new Australian Legislation, we want to ensure you are not >>unhappy that we contact you by email about this conference. We have >>identified you as an academic who works in the humanities or social >>sciences and who may be interested in the themes of this conference. If >>you wish to discontinue email communication in relation to this >>conference, please inform us by reply. > From coolzanny at hotmail.com Wed Nov 24 21:18:58 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 21:18:58 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Everyday Net of Legality and Illegality - Publics and Practices Message-ID: 23rd November 2004 Publics and Participation I started my expedition for the day from VT Station. As I stepped out of the train, the immediate sight that confronted me was of the Ticket Checkers (TCs). I call them Men in Black. They are dressed in black coats and trousers and a white shirt inside. Hum kaalen hai to kya hua dilwale hai (So what if we are black (dark)? We are people with hearts!) is a song from the famous horror black and white film Gumnaam. But this song don�t apply in the case of our men in black. They stood in a group, at platform number 5, right at the EMU halt. As soon as a train would arrive, they would spread out and start asking commuters for tickets. Commuters tend to get very irritated when TCs stop them, especially if the commuter is a legal man i.e. following the rules and buying tickets. Some commuters simply rush out and when stopped, they are still moving ahead, sifting for the ticket inside the shirt pocket or the purse and handing it over to our Men in Black. This is an interesting practice of time vis-�is legality. People in this city do not want to get into legal messes. They want to avoid the doors of legality as much as they can. There are, in this case, two options: Option Number Ek � Be legal, do legal Option Number Do � Go the illegal way, what we can call the doosra darwaza (the other door) or the peeche ka darwaaza (back door) It is not just the everyday man, but even the biggie in his corporate office and chair who use the doosra or the peeche ka darwaaza. Sometimes the illegal option is the faster way out. Men in Black were performing their duties pretty diligently. As soon as a train would arrive, they would disperse and start checking people. Two TCs were standing a little before the subway station exit and two were positioned on near the main line entry. I don�t know whether fines still continue to go into their pockets or not. But at one time, you could get away by paying Rs.50 instead of Rs.250 and the Rs.50 would go into the TC�s pocket. Rs.250 ensured that you would get a white slip, a legal slip, certifying the fine amount and that would go into the railways� treasury. These days, hefty women, almost goon-like, do the rounds of the ladies compartment in the local trains. These are female ticket checkers and they can be very goon-like, very vindictive and very obnoxious. I guess everyday trespassers i.e. those who travel ticket-less, will find tactics to deal with these bhai like behens. Video Wall: I did not know this, or should I say that I did not notice this, until now, that the TV screen at VT Station is known as the Video Wall. You can advertise on the Video Wall by paying a certain amount of money. Usually, I have seen news running on the screen. This afternoon, something surreal happened and believe you in me, it was lifelike. I was leaning against a pillar when suddenly, I happened to gaze towards the video wall. I saw Jassi (of the tele-serial Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin on Sony TV) walking from the wall into the station. Actually, it was just the video effect � she was walking in a daze towards the camera on the screen but it almost seemed like she was one of the commuters, walking with a dazed look straight into the railway station. I was shocked for a moment until I realized what was happening. It was only the world of images and the trappings of my mind. How can Jassi come to VT Station? The episode continued. I had not known the video wall to be a channel surfing board, but then, it is. The boot polish guys sitting on Platform Number 1 were gazing into the screen as also the sleepy afternoon commuters. This is dopaher ka entertainment for the commuters, a doze of your favourite TV Serials which you may have missed out last night. Thus, the video wall appears to be a distraction. This week, during an interview with a commuter who commutes from Goregaon to Churchgate, she mentioned to me how the video screen is but a form of distraction. Her take is that when it comes to VT Station, the commuter watches TV instead of looking around at the station and appreciating its wonders and beauty. How then can we talk of heritage, I wonder! Soon enough, as the boring Kkusum serial took over, I found a man dexterously climbing over the ladder to the Video Wall room and switching channels. Now, news began to play on the screen. Talk of the station as a lonely place Mr. Pritish Nandy � I think today the station is about moving images and consumptive time! I chanced to notice that the hoarding advertisements at VT have also changed. The TATA�s have advertised two of their latest pesticide products and MTNL had advertised its latest telephone billing packages. The advertisement hoardings at VT are mainly those of the government institutions or at least, of government-like institutions which have also taken a private turn viz., the State Bank of India, New India Insurance Company, MTNL, Garuda Mobile, TATA�s, etc. One of the odd men out in this gamut is a long panel of branded men�s underwear, a long panel which hits you in your face with its bright red colour and its positioning on the high wall which has you notice it as soon as you get off the station. In a conversation with a gentleman today, we spoke of the Churchgate and VT Stations. Truly, VT is representative of the Sarkari (government) era, though it is currently Sarkari with a �management� touch. VT is about contracts, about bureaucracy and I would imagine all of that which comes with Sarkari. In contrast, Churchgate is a bland station, something like a clearance machine. The gentleman spoke to me about how the college crowd at VT would comprise of the Ambedkar and Siddharth college type (nerdy, middle-class type) and perhaps the only plush crowd is that of St. Xaviers� College �which comes by first class between 11 AM and 12 PM. In contrast, Churchgate has the hip KC College and Sydhenam crowd. VT is truly India, Bharat,� he says proudly to me! I walked out of VT Station, in an attempt to try to talk to the hawkers outside. The perfume and deodorant seller was doing extremely well. The only time he had was to count notes. I saw some Sardarji men examining packets of Charlie perfume, awed and skeptical simultaneously, in a somewhat hesitant decisive mode of �to buy or not to be (i.e. hip)�! Sun glasses sold opposite were also doing well just as much as the sock seller by the side. At VT, it is about the positioning of your stall. Which layer are you placed along and whether you are among the first few or not! I walked towards the crowded area of the station. I stopped at a table where the guy was selling pirated CDs. His name as I have christened him is Ruwail. He had streaked his hair copper, just a few of the frontal streaks. He was wearing a bright red T-Shirt. The music CDs were priced at Rs.30 (Hindi and English alike) while the latest movie CDs were priced at Rs.60. When I heard this price, I quickly calculated in my head that Ruwail is offering me the screen experience for Rs.60 which I can play and replay several times at home while INOX would offer me a one time fare for Rs.100 minus the food et al which I can procure for less than half at home if I were to watch the VCD. Truly, technology has percolated to the lowest rung of the masses. I wonder whether piracy and the development of multiplexes was a simultaneous phenomenon in India. The poor, who are actually the cine-goers, can no longer afford the cinematic experience which they once could. Cable TV has enabled them to indulge in family entertainment sitting right at home. That�s where piracy helps and fuels the Cable TV movement. I bought one music CD from Ruwail. The music CDs were damn interesting, especially the covers that were designed. The cover gives you a rough idea of the content � the cover is basically an image of the summary of the CD. You can never be sure of what the real contents are. One of the interesting covers was a pop music CD cover. It had Britney Spears on it on one side and Asha Bhonsale on the other! Cool nah! But the CD was full of Hindi Pop songs as the list was displayed on the back side of the cover. I want to own a collection of these fancy covers. Truly, experience these days is all about moving images and the aspirations which the images evoke in you! Ruwail thought me to be an interested customer. I told him I would come back the next day and pick up a copy of one of the latest films (he was not there the next day). Someone tried to bargain with Ruwail. �Give me two for 50 bucks instead of 60,� the customer tried. Ruwail refused to budge saying, �We get only two rupees per CD. What do you expect?� Ruwail�s customers were mainly middle-class office-goers, the government office babu types. Ruwail�s USP (Unique Selling Point) was hi collection of Mukesh songs and the old black and white film genre songs. He had people coming in continuously. In contrast, the guy located a little distance away hardly had customers though his fare was largely similar to Ruwail�s. He was standing empty and alone with his partner. Framed photos of Gods were being sold at Rs.10 a piece and believe you in me once again, the stuff is worth a 100 chips sold at 1/10th the price. I wonder where all this goods comes from? Does it get transported from the city through the trains arriving at VT � from inside to outside? Least likely for the railway station has become a major surveillance site for large goods packages. The purchase of pirated CD almost made me feel empowered. I was participating in the everyday illegality! And it felt great to trespass and wag my tongue out to the authority. Perhaps this is the eternal rebel inside of me showing its face � like I said, I am majorly schizophrenic! Churchgate Station: I walked to Nariman Point from VT. As part of this route, I go by the Churchgate station subway. While standing at VT today, I realized that every piece of space in this city has been territorialized and marked � very clearly and indicatively! When I entered the Churchgate Station subway, the BMC proudly welcomed me into it with their loud hoarding. As soon as I was on the border between the subway and the railway station, which I actually see as a continuity, I found a little neon board saying, �Western Railway Welcomes You�. That�s it. Spaces are no longer about continuity � they are about markings and naming! Everything is being made starkly visible in this city! Outside the station, it has a clean shaven look. Hawkers have been moved off the station. The MCGM grey surveillance van stands close to watch. It is an ugly looking vehicle, almost a replica of a mobile prison. As I walked, I peeped through the back door bars and noticed a cycle inside it. Perhaps this was confiscated property. Nariman Point: I proceeded towards Nariman Point. Today I am determined to meet Shah Rukh, the little tea-seller boy and ask him if he will speak to me. As I started walking from my usual starting point towards the settling down point, I noticed several little scenes of legality and illegality. The first one goes like this: Just close to the site where work on the seafront is taking place, I noticed a mustachioed man, dark and with almost Ravana like looks, sitting with two other plain-clothed officials. There were two peanut sellers standing in front of him. He started, �Tum log abhi din mein aane lage. Zara raat mein aao (You people have started coming here in day time. At least come out in the night.).� This legal henchman, perhaps either of the police or the BMC was in a way warning the hawkers to come out on the seafront when it is dark. That is the time when surveillance van goes away. Thus, in a city, illegality shows its face and operates in the dark, especially when it now comes to the hawkers. Porous legalities, as Lawrence Liang says. The same legal henchman is the guy surreptitiously promoting illegality in the dark hours of the city. This mustachioed Ravana, then, in a sarkari haram-khor like manner began to toss the peanuts and fling them into his mouth. Obviously, the hawkers had to oblige with some freebies. I moved towards the seafront and settled close to the pay and park site. Shahrukh walked towards me as if he knew I wanted to speak to him. I bought a cup of tea from him and extracted a promise that he would talk to me tomorrow. I did not dare disturb him in his time of dhanda. But I am very unsure whether he will turn up tomorrow, though he has promised me. Sitting next to me at Nariman Point was a mother-daughter pair. They seemed Hyderabadi. The daughter was telling her mother that the hawkers now stand behind the Oberoi Hotel. The name Hilton Towers has still not sunk inside the everyday parlance of the peoples. The mother nodded her head. Soon, the daughter began to count the number of rooms in Hilton Towers. She said, �It is 520 rooms.� Her mother was a bit startled with this count. �How,� she asked. The daughter responded, �If it is 260 on the front side, then we need to double it and consider the back side as well.� The mother-daughter duo kept gazing at the hotel. It is a symbol of the city�s glamour, an aspiration of the everyday youngster to be in it someday and savour the goodies and the fares dished out by it. But, this is after all, only a dream, an aspiration and one lives by the constant flavours of this aspiration. That�s enough in itself. I proceeded to head back to home. As I walked along, I noticed a police jeep with two plain clothed officers coming out of it and sizing up a beggar woman. She tried hard to escape but the havaldar caught hold of her. She pleaded him to let go off her, but he was stern and wouldn�t care at all. She was pushed inside the jeep. Then, her wailing child was picked up from the pavement and put inside the vehicle too. Some passers-by noticed this scene, stopped for a while, then continued. Like I said, who dare and also care confront the police and get into legal tangles? I followed the jeep carefully. At various points, it would halt and the plain clothed men would walk out and look around. Perhaps this is another surveillance drive to move the beggars off the seafront. This is only speculation for I still don�t know the real moves. As I watched this scene, the same thoughts came to my mind � public space, but where is the public and what do they do when these legal-illegal episodes take place. Perhaps the public is savouring the space; after all, it is not us, it is only them, the squalor of this city. But who knows, tomorrow it might just be us in their place? Sound of the Day: While walking towards the seafront, I had noticed a cold-drink seller making the familiar whrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggggg, whrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggggg sounds which I was used to hearing at Nariman Point. Except that this time, he had a mobile cart consisting of a plastic tub and two bottles in his hand. I felt frightened on hearing his bold calls. Does he know what he is upto? What will happen if the surveillance guys hear him? Almost the scene where Gabbar tells his men in the film Sholay, �Jab baccha raat ko shor karta hai to maa kehti hai, so ja, so ja warna Gabbar aa jayega!� Image of the Day: A coffee-tea seller selling his wares from the insides of a McDonalds thick plastic bag. These bags are produced and sold at a price at various paan shops and with pheriwalas around hawking and non-hawking zones. This is one such bag which has a ugly yellow colour, an ugly red and the M of McDonalds with the curved smile. The wonder about this scene is the image: an illegal guy, selling his wares quietly from the insides of a corporate entity which itself has many claims running against it! That�s globalization and urbanization for you messres! Zainab Bawa Mumbai www.xanga.com/CityBytes _________________________________________________________________ Get head-hunted by 10,500 recruiters. http://www.naukri.com/msn/index.php?source=hottag Post your CV on naukri.com today. From coolzanny at hotmail.com Wed Nov 24 21:18:01 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 21:18:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Announcement Message-ID: Dear All, Those who may be interested in the following, contact Ms. Ayesha Ganguly on ayesha at phasefive.org Cheers, Zainab Surabhi Foundation for Research and Cultural Exchange is looking for young researchers and Project Assistants to join the organisation. Surabhi primarily carries out research on various cultural and heritage issues and conducts events in the same field. The engagement can also be short term for a duration of about 6 months if a longer committment is not possible. Zainab Bawa Mumbai www.xanga.com/CityBytes _________________________________________________________________ NRIs! Easy to send, easy to receive! http://creative.mediaturf.net/creatives/citibankrca/rca_msntagofline.htm Ask us how! From tray at cal2.vsnl.net.in Thu Nov 25 08:21:25 2004 From: tray at cal2.vsnl.net.in (Tapas Ray) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 08:21:25 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Indian censorship law & rules References: Message-ID: <000001c4d2a0$365caca0$0100a8c0@tapas> Hello all. In July 2003, the Department of Information Technology, Government of India, had passed a pretty draconian censorship order - No. GSR529(E) - for the net. The story was broken by the Times of India, if I remember correctly. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could (a) give me a link to a site, preferably official, that has the order (I was unable to find it on the DoIT site), (b) let me know whether this order has been withdrawn or amended, and if so, the link(s) to those sites, and (c) information on and links to any other order related to net censorship/control that may have been passed. Once again, your help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Tapas Ray From avinash at sarai.net Fri Nov 26 14:01:01 2004 From: avinash at sarai.net (avinash kumar) Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 14:01:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 18 year old Reena Rasaili of Nepal... Message-ID: <41A6E9C5.7090100@sarai.net> Dear Friends, I am senidng this piece which has reached me through a friend. I am deliberately not attaching the gruesome photographs as I have posted it on www.sacw.net as well. Those who are interested in photographs can check out the same. avinash Dear All, I am forwarding a message from a friend in Nepal which gives a close up view of the war against the Maoist rebels being waged by the Royal Nepal Army. Forward this to friends and colleagues who may/will be interested in knowing disseminating information regarding the situation in Nepal. At the end ofthe mail I have attached a part of the message sent by this friend, edited as per instructions. Please do not kill this mail... forward it for information as much of this information is being supressed by teh Nepal Government and is not available in the media. aniket. steel yourself and read on.... ========================================================= The case of Reena Rasaili, Devi Sunwar, Maina Sunwar and their family...including Bimala B.K. Aniket, the attached picture is of a dalit girl who was raped and beaten and battered after being pulled out from her bed and her house at midnight by a group of drunken king's soldiers (shahi nepali sena) in mufti. There were about twenty soldiers. They had her for five hours. They locked the rest of the family inside the house. The family could hear the eighteen-year-girl's moans and shrieks and pleas and whimpers all through the five hours (midnight to 5 am). At five am there was silence. And then three gunshots. Then silence. The girl had been tied to a tree and shot in three places. The soldiers pulled her down, and kindly covered their handiwork with her shawl. Then they left. The little brother of the young girl came out and saw the body covered by a shawl. He called the rest of the family. The girl's aunt, a CPN UML activist, somewhat brave, pulled open the shawl, and this is what she saw. They informed a human rights lawyer, who came the next day from Ktm. There are no roads/railways, so it took the lawyers time to reach. They took the photos. Told the family to keep the body in situ since it's evidence and not to touch anything. The family did as told. Back in Ktm, not a single journalist or doctor was willing to go and do the needful (post-mortem, further investigation). The two lawyers are under death threat. They are followed by the army all the time. They cannot register a case since there is no medical evidence of rape, though it seems evident. The army then went to the aunt's house and picked up her daughter, who has disappeared, and is presumably dead. All within five days, Devi, witnessed (heard) the rape and beating and murder of her niece and had to cope with the fact of her daughter Maina, having disappeared. Maina was identified by Bimala B.K. dalit female, related to Maina and Reena. Bimala had been in army custody for twenty days. For six days she was tortured mercilessly. Then on the seventh day, her eyes were tied and she was gang raped. Repeatedly. On the twentieth day of her detention, she was made to wear police uniform. The army who accompanied her were in civvies. She identified Devi's house and called out Maina, who was then arrested, detained, and that's the last the father saw of the fifteen-year-old girl. The aunt was witness. Now the entire family, extended, is in refugee status in Ktm. They can't sleep, they can't eat. They are seriously psychologically affected. There is no security for anyone. Why was this done to the family? Because two members, children, joined the Maoists. This is what is done by way of counterinsurgency. There have been no battles. There are only encounters. And next morning radio Nepal reported that a terrorist, Reena Raisali (photo), was shot dead in an encounter. This is one case of a family: two girls dead, rape, extrajudicial killing, torture, displacement, illegal detention, disappearance, mental torture, dalit...how much can the human form and mind endure? There is no proof against the army. They cannot be taken to court. They will have their own court martial, which is closed to the public. And they take the decision. Who will testify against them? Does anyone dare to? What justice will anyone get? Who is safe in Nepal? What is the nature of this people's war and the counter-insurgency it invites? Do something... Keep these photos carefully and safely. They are of Reena Raisali, aged 18, village Pokhari Chauri, district Kavre, Nepal. Date: Night of 12-13 February. The Asian Human Rights Urgent Appeal is pasted below. It does not even begin to capture the insanity. **** NEPAL: Three young persons shot dead by security personnel and a girl among the victims were gang-raped before being killed in Pokahari Chauri-4, Kavre District URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM 23 February 2004 --------------------------------------------------------------------- UA-22-2004: NEPAL: Three young persons shot dead by security personnel and a girl among the victims was gang-raped before being killed in Pokahari Chauri-4, Kavre District NEPAL: Extra-judicial killings; Gang rape; Torture; Forced disappearance --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a reliable source of extra-judicial killings of two young girls and one young boy, Reena Rasaili (18), Subhadra Chaulagain (17) and Tasi Lama, by security personnel in Pokahari Chauri-4, Kavre District in Nepal on 13 February 2004. It is alleged that Reena Rasaili was gang-raped for about five hours by a group of security force before being killed. After the incident the perpetrators started to threaten the witnesses in order to cover up the case. Already, a 15-year-old girl named Maina Sunuwar, a daughter of the eyewitness of the killing of Reena Rasaili, has been arrested by security personnel and remains disappeared since 17 February 2004. In Nepal, the arbitrary arrests, torture, forced disappearance and extra-judicial killings of individuals have become widespread after the armed conflict between the Nepalese authorities and the rebel Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist) forces became violent since the breakdown of a cease-fire on 27 August 2003. Many extra-judicial killing cases have been reported from Nepal, and the country had one of the highest rates of disappearance in the world last year. AHRC urges you to call for the impartial and immediate investigation on these cases and punishment of perpetrators by writing letters to the government of Nepal. Please also request the government to provide the protection to the witnesses while the investigation is going on. Urgent Appeals Desk Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) ------------------------------------------------------ DETAILED INFORMATION: The plainclothes army forces shot two young girls, named Reena Rasaili and Subhadra Chaulagain, between midnight of 12 and dawn of 13 February 2004 in the in Pokahari Chauri-4 village, Kavre District in Nepal. It is alleged that a group of security personnel also raped Reena before shooting her. There was a report about another extra-judicial killing of a young boy named Tasi Lama, who lives in the same village by security personnel on that same day. Several family members and relatives of the victims were also tortured. However, the next day (13 February), the national radio broadcasted news stating that the security forces killed three Maoist named Reena Rasaili, Subhadra Chaulagain and Tasi Lama during the encounter with the Maoist rebels. Pokahari Chauri-4 village is a very remote area without access to the city and its hospitals, and is located forty-five kilometers away from Dolalghat and almost 150 kilometers far from the Kavre district headquarter. CASE 1: Gang rape and execution of Ms. Reena Rasaili (Statement is based on the account of the victim's father and aunt) According to Karna Bahadur Rasaili, 53, the father of the victim of Pokhari Chauri VDC-4, Raikar, around 10 plainclothes armed security personnel came to his house at midnight and told him to open the door saying that they were friends of Comrade Deepak, who is his son who had joined the Maoist party. He did not open the door out of fear, so they broke the door and entered the house. After searching the house, the security personnel then pulled his daughter, Reena Rasaili from her bed even though Reena cried, "I am not a Maoist. I am a student of grade seven and social worker in Rural Energy Development Centre, Kavre." About five security personnel took her to the cow-shed where other members of the family were not allowed to go, but could hear the crying. The rest of them went to the other neighbor's houses. The victim's aunt, Ms. Devi Sunuwar, (37) a permanent resident of Kavrethok VDC- 6, Kavre stated, "I did not hear any conversation between Reena and the security personnel. I only heard her painful crying and moaning voice from inside. It continued for almost five hours." she reported. At around 5:00 am the security personnel took Reena out from the cattle shed and brought her 100 meters northwest from there. Then, the victim's father and the family members heard three or four rounds of firing. They could not go outside due to fear, and the security personnel left the house. In the morning, they found the body of Reena totally naked in the west side of their house. As her clothes including the undergarment were totally displaced, it appeared that she was raped before the killing. Reena sustained bullet injuries on her head, breast and eyes. She had injuries and scratches on her stomach and chest. Separately, the security personnel took Mr. Murali, a brother in law of Ms. Devi Sunuwar who was sleeping at the same house, somewhere and later he appeared with a severe injury caused by brutal assault. A recent development of the case: On 17 February 2004, a group of security personnel arrested a 15-year-old schoolgirl as well as the daughter of Ms. Devi Sunuwar (aunty of Reena Raisaili and witness of the incident). According to the girls' father, Mr. Purna Bahadur, about 15 security personal in civilian clothes came to his house at about 6:00 am on 17 February and asked about his wife, Devi Sunuwar, who was absent from the house to see her mother in Pokhari Chauri VDC-4, Kavre. When they could not find Devi Sunuwar, the security personnel arrested Maina instead telling Purna Bahadur to bring his wife to Lamidada Army Camp if he wants his daughter to be released. On18 February 2004, he and his wife Devi accompanied the head master of the Bhagawati Higher Secondary School, the chairperson of the village and another 28 village people, to the Lamidada Army Camp, but the army authorities denied that they had arrested and detained Maina. http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2004/625/ ======================================================== The mail from my friend, copied below, describes the situation ..... aniket... == == == == Aniket please remove all evidence that this is from me in all mails circulated. This is highly explosive material. I am under threat (not legally, but a stray bullet, a vehicle accident). My friends are all in danger. But the information has to come out. I also append something I wrote to xyz to help you understand the level of insanity that Ktm induces. I was in a discussion with Pp and Pa on what to do with all this information on this horrible set of cases. Yesterday Pp brought four pix of one of the girls in the state in which they found her and I knew the description, but the picture was something else. My stomach just turned over and I was stunned. I thought that I was ready for it all. This is a toughening process, but it's very hard to cope with all this ihumanity. Bestiality they say. But beasts never behave like this. Not any single specie in the world. Only humans in and out of uniform. Then there was the question of the enormity of it all. And what to do, how to go about it without putting any witness or lawyer at risk. I had horrible nightmares. Of people in arms 'them' just opening locks and doors and coming in and pulling vulnerable unarmed people out of their beds and raping them, beating them, making them disappear. I feel so sad and so angry and so helpless and so strong and so lucky all at once. We've never had to go through this in our lives or our families. We are so fortunate. And we are so weak. We can do nothing but make a noise and hope that the noise, discordant, out of sync, somewhere touches someone's heart, reaches someone's ears. This is one or two of hundred odd cases of the rape and torture of minor girls by the shahi nepali sena. This is the only case where they left her body in the open. Usually they bury it or take away the evidence of the crime. They were probably drunk and they probably got a little scared because daylight was about to break and a camp of Maoists was not very far from where they did their deeds. There's no one who understands really or who can help. There's just silence all around. What's happening in Iraq is nothing compared to this. Why aren't the Indians interested in this? They can't do anything immediately about Iraq, but our friends can do something to stop this complete degeneration of the human being in Nepal. You know xyz, the army guys who do this aren't okay in the head. They need to be healed. They apparently drink a lot, do these horrible things, and then drink again. they can't sleep. They get nightmares. Who is making them do these things? What is being put in their heads? They aren't killing and attacking Maoists in combat. They go to those villages which are known to have provided many Maoists, and they do this to the family members, especially to the women, the old men and the children. xyz, this is counter-insurgency. What happens then inside the head of the Maoist young person whose family has been wrecked thus and every crime against humanity perpetrated against it? The crime goes beyond human imagination, beyond the worst nightmare. It was real. And the family is alive. The mother is insane. The little brother is insane. The father is insane. His eyes fill with tears and he keeps moaning, why, why, why, why my little girl? The little girl who went to school, who played girly games with her friends, the little girl who never harmed anyone, who tended the goats, who filled the water, who was the only dalit in the village who could read and write. What did they do to her? They hear her moans and shrieks. They hear the gunshots in their heads. They see her picture lying dead. Nearly naked. Battered. Who would do that to a little girl of eighteen? Who? The body was made for loving, for making love, for making babies, not for this. You know and I know, this little girl was only one part of what they did to the family. They did more, and more, and more. They disappeared her cousin, who is dead. They smashed the family physically emotionally economically, psychologically and mentally. All the dimensions. ** ** ** From definetime at rediffmail.com Wed Nov 24 14:20:56 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 24 Nov 2004 08:50:56 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (Fwd) I was right to shoot 13-year-old child Message-ID: <20041124085056.21699.qmail@webmail46.rediffmail.com> Israeli officer: I was right to shoot 13-year-old child Radio exchange contradicts army version of Gaza killing Chris McGreal in Jerusalem Wednesday November 24, 2004 The Guardian An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a warning from another soldier that she was a child by saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old. The officer, identified by the army only as Captain R, was charged this week with illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and other relatively minor infractions after emptying all 10 bullets from his gun's magazine into Iman al-Hams when she walked into a "security area" on the edge of Rafah refugee camp last month. A tape recording of radio exchanges between soldiers involved in the incident, played on Israeli television, contradicts the army's account of the events and appears to show that the captain shot the girl in cold blood. The official account claimed that Iman was shot as she walked towards an army post with her schoolbag because soldiers feared she was carrying a bomb. But the tape recording of the radio conversation between soldiers at the scene reveals that, from the beginning, she was identified as a child and at no point was a bomb spoken about nor was she described as a threat. Iman was also at least 100 yards from any soldier. Instead, the tape shows that the soldiers swiftly identified her as a "girl of about 10" who was "scared to death". The tape also reveals that the soldiers said Iman was headed eastwards, away from the army post and back into the refugee camp, when she was shot. At that point, Captain R took the unusual decision to leave the post in pursuit of the girl. He shot her dead and then "confirmed the kill" by emptying his magazine into her body. The tape recording is of a three-way conversation between the army watchtower, the army post's operations room and the captain, who was a company commander. The soldier in the watchtower radioed his colleagues after he saw Iman: "It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward." Operations room: "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?" Watchtower: "A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death." A few minutes later, Iman is shot in the leg from one of the army posts. The watchtower: "I think that one of the positions took her out." The company commander then moves in as Iman lies wounded and helpless. Captain R: "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over." Witnesses described how the captain shot Iman twice in the head, walked away, turned back and fired a stream of bullets into her body. Doctors at Rafah's hospital said she had been shot at least 17 times. On the tape, the company commander then "clarifies" why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over." The army's original account of the killing said that the soldiers only identified Iman as a child after she was first shot. But the tape shows that they were aware just how young the small, slight girl was before any shots were fired. The case came to light after soldiers under the command of Captain R went to an Israeli newspaper to accuse the army of covering up the circumstances of the killing. A subsequent investigation by the officer responsible for the Gaza strip, Major General Dan Harel, concluded that the captain had "not acted unethically". However, the military police launched an investigation, which resulted in charges against the unit commander. Iman's parents have accused the army of whitewashing the affair by filing minor charges against Captain R. They want him prosecuted for murder. Record of a shooting Watchtower 'It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward' Operations room 'Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?' Watchtower 'A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death' Captain R (after killing the girl) 'Anything moving in the zone, even a three-year-old, needs to be killed' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041124/287370cf/attachment.html From tannisthoghosh at yahoo.com Wed Nov 24 16:39:25 2004 From: tannisthoghosh at yahoo.com (Tannistho Ghosh) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 03:09:25 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] e governance through geographical information system in West Bengal Message-ID: <20041124110925.16346.qmail@web20704.mail.yahoo.com> Dear friends, We are pleased to inform you that Panchayats and Rural Development Department, Government of West Bengal has collaborated with our organisation Riddhi Management Services in developing the first web based Geographical Information System of all the gram panchayats in West Bengal. These maps showing GP boundaries, markets, roads, railways, rivers and Census 2001 demographic information are now available on the internet for free viewing at www.trendswestbengal.org The system can also answer complex statistical queries. This is a giant step forward for the state in bringing about convergence and focus in policy planning and strategic action. We are aware of the initiatives undertaken by your organisation so we decided to send you this piece of information. Please log on to www.trendswestbengal.org and browse the maps. If you have any feedback regarding this initiative it will be nice if you can get in touch with us at this email: tannistho at rediffmail.com or (0)9830165161 Yours sincerely, Tannistho Ghosh Consultant, Riddhi Management Services Pvt. Ltd.v --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041124/f220fa94/attachment.html From tellsachin at yahoo.com Wed Nov 24 12:56:52 2004 From: tellsachin at yahoo.com (Sachin Agarwal) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 23:26:52 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Attack on people associated with the Mehdiganj (Varanasi) movement condemened. Message-ID: <20041124072652.454.qmail@web41503.mail.yahoo.com> Attack on people associated with the Mehdiganj (Varanasi) movement condemened. Dear All We condemn the attack on volunteers and people associated with the Mehndiganj movement. The people at Coke seem to be going off balance due to the mass awakening and they recognising their natural right on underground water. Any amount of PR exercise of Coke could not deter the morale of the determined activists. This right of people has also been repeatedly established by various judicial pronouncements. The actions of coke seems be desparate attempts to prevent the people from pursuing their rightful cause. Especially so when it stands exposed on the so called 'social works' being done by it, on and around the Mehendiganj botteling plant. Just to remind that the village pradhan of Mehendiganj has disputed all of coke's claims of social work in area. We urge the administration to take stern against the people who tried to man handle the volunteers and issued life threats to noted social activist Dr. Sandeep Pandey. The people have their right to peaceful protest which any corporation cannot snatch away by using money and muscle power. There are some reports from the scene of action which say that the Coca Cola company is offerring money to people who will stand on their side. What could be a better example of misuse of corporate financial strength? We condemn the unlawful actions the Coca cola. All concerned citizens are requested to please express their protest in this regard to the various authorities of the state on their contact information provided below. Chief Minister of UP: Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav +91 522 222 5757 +91 522 223 9296 +91 522 223 9234 (Fax) +91 522 223 6768 (Residence) +91 522 223 6368 (Residence) +91 522 223 0002 (Residence Fax) Chief Secretary of UP: Shri VK Mittal +91 522 222 1599 +91 522 223 8212 +91 522 223 9283 (Fax) email: csup at up.nic.in Commissnor of Varanasi Division: Shri Dubey Ji +91 542 2502 158 +91 542 2508 203 +91 542 2382 333 (Residence) +91 542 2382 345 (Fax) District Magistrate of Varanasi: +91 542 2502626 +91 542 2502727 +91 542 250 2754 (FAX) +91 94151 45001 MOBILE Regards, Sachin Agarwal Right to Life Action Group Society for People's Action, Change and Enforcement (SPACE) +91 94152 55042 --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041123/6b1f1749/attachment.html From tellsachin at yahoo.com Wed Nov 24 23:33:31 2004 From: tellsachin at yahoo.com (Sachin Agarwal) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 10:03:31 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Noted social activist Sandeep Pandey arrested with hundreds of social workers Message-ID: <20041124180331.50476.qmail@web41507.mail.yahoo.com> PRESS RELEASE Noted social activist Sandeep Pandey arrested with hundreds of social workers *** Mehendiganj (Varanasi, India) 24 Nov, 2004. Noted social activist and awardee of prestigious Roman Magsaysay award Dr. Sandeep Pandey was arrested by police here with hundreds of social workers. Pandey was leading a padyatra (foot march) from Sihanchawar in Balia district to Raja Talab in Varanasi district of eastern Uttar Pradesh in India. During his foot march during November 15 to November 24 Pandey was demanding closure of Coco Cola bottling plant at Raja Talab. His contention is that due to the uncontrolled extraction of under ground water by the plant the water level in the vicinity of the plant has gone down dramatically causing serious ecological threat and hardships to the local poor communities. According to the campaign literature issued by the activists the plant is drawing close to 25 lakh litre water everyday. The soft drinks company is also releasing toxic waste on the fields of farmers causing tremendous damage to their crops. He is demanding public accountability of actions of the cola multinationals as it is �not producing anything that is good for the society.� On the final day of his foot march Pandey along with around 400 social workers, women and villagers were arrested by the police when they were on their way to the gate of the Coca Cola company to stage a protest meeting and dharna (situp). Those arrested include Nand Lal Master, the leader of the anti coke protest at Mehendiganj, Arvind Murti, the State Coordinator of National Alliance of People�s Movements (NAPM), Dwijemdra Vishwatma a member of state working committee of NAPM, Anoop Sanda and Sanjay Singh of Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, women activist Bindu Singh, Chanchal Mukherjee and hundreds of other people demanding the closure of coke plant. The police also resorted to lathi charge (beating by cane) on the peacefully assembling social workers, women, children and villagers. Pandey has alleged that this is a Coke sponsored arrest as they �were not even allowed to reach the site of the meeting and arrested before the proposed direct action against the plant could actually start.� He also claimed that �the coke company has given huge sums as bribe to the local state administration machinery and the local press as the press people were not there when the arrests was taking place.� Interestingly the media has not even properly reporting the foot march ever since its start. An inquiry against the General Manager of the coke plant and his immediate arrest is demanded by the people arrested by the police. It is also not out of place to mention that yesterday some coke sponsored rowdy youth issued life threats to Pandey and his supporters when he was attending a social meeting at Kashi Vidyapeeth University at Varanasi. The youth were intercepted and handed over to the police. Their connection with the Coke Company was established due to presence of its posters and pamphlets in the car they had used to come to the site of the meeting. The Right to Life Action Group and Society for People�s Action, Change and Enforcement (SPACE) have condemned the police action and arrest of all social activists. Signed SACHIN AGARWAL Right to Life Action Group Society for People�s Action, Change and Enforcement (SPACE) +91 94152 55042 o o o o o o o o o o o For more information call: Sandeep / Jim Carman: +91 94157 90126 Arundhuti Dhuru: +91 94150 22772 O o o o o o o o All concerned citizens are requested to please express their protest in this regard to the various authorities of the state on their contact information provided below. Chief Minister of UP: Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav +91 522 222 5757 +91 522 223 9296 +91 522 223 9234 (Fax) +91 522 223 6768 (Residence) +91 522 223 6368 (Residence) +91 522 223 0002 (Residence Fax) Chief Secretary of UP: Shri VK Mittal +91 522 222 1599 +91 522 223 8212 +91 522 223 9283 (Fax) email: csup at up.nic.in Commissnor of Varanasi Division: Shri Dubey Ji +91 542 2502 158 +91 542 2508 203 +91 542 2382 333 (Residence) +91 542 2382 345 (Fax) District Magistrate of Varanasi: +91 542 2502626 +91 542 2502727 +91 542 250 2754 (FAX) +91 94151 45001 MOBILE Regards, Sachin Agarwal Right to Life Action Group Society for People's Action, Change and Enforcement (SPACE) +91 94152 55042 --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! � Get yours free! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041124/30faa87a/attachment.html From surovani at hotmail.com Wed Nov 24 12:19:02 2004 From: surovani at hotmail.com (Suro / Vani) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 12:19:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Announcement: Neela Bhagwat Concert for Saheli, New Delhi : Tu jaag sakey to jaag Message-ID: Dear Friends, As you may already know, Saheli is in the midst of a fund raising drive, and many of you have responded whole-heartedly to our call. As part of this effort, Neela Bhagwat has offered to do a fund-raising concert for us where she will be singing songs of Kabir and Jyotiba Phule among others. The concert, scheduled for 5th December also marks an occasion to remember the demolition of the Babri Masjid, to respond in these communal times with songs that affirm our secular spirit. TU JAAG SAKEY TO JAAG ~Saheli presents Neela Bhagwat in Concert~ 5th December 2004 5.30 pm Rajendra Bhawan, 216 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, Opposite Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi Passes are available for a contribution of Rs. 100 each. To book some for you and your friends just reply to this mail, or call one of us and we'll work out how / when you can pick them up! Contacts: Deepti: 9899019750 ; Vani: 9891128911 Looking forward to seeing you there! In Solidarity, All of us from Saheli p.s.: If you have made a contribution to Saheli during this drive, look out for two complimentary passes in your post-box!! Saheli Women's Resource Centre Above Shop Nos. 105-108 Under Defence Colony Flyover Market (South Side) New Delhi 110 024 Phone: +91 (011) 2461 6485 E-mail: saheliwomen at hotmail.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ravikant at sarai.net Thu Nov 25 12:55:53 2004 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 12:55:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fw: Hinglish for global times Message-ID: <200411251255.53350.ravikant@sarai.net> Click here to read this story online: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1123/p01s03-wosc.html Headline:  A Hindi-English jumble, spoken by 350 million Byline:  Scott Baldauf Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Date: 11/23/2004 (GURGAON, INDIA)Turn on any Indian television station these days and you're likely to hear things like "Hungry kya?" and "What your bahana is?" Or one of your friends might ask you to "pre-pone" your dinner plans or accuse you of "Eve-teasing." No, you didn't mishear them. These and countless other new words and phrases are part of the fastest-growing language in the country: Hinglish. The mix of Hindi and English is the language of the street and the college campus, and its sound sets many parents' teeth on edge. It's a bridge between two cultures that has become an island of its own, a distinct hybrid culture for people who aspire to make it rich abroad without sacrificing the sassiness of the mother tongue. And it may soon claim more native speakers worldwide than English. Once, Indians would ridicule the jumbled language of their expatriate cousins, the so-called ABCDs - or the American-Born Confused Desi. (Desi means countryman.) Now that jumble is hip, and turning up in the oddest places, from television ads to taxicabs, and even hit movies, such as "Bend it Like Beckham" or "Monsoon Wedding." "Before, advertisements used to be conceived in English and then just translated into Hindi almost as an afterthought," says Ashok Chakravarty, head of the creative division of Publicis India, an advertising firm outside New Delhi. But that method doesn't work for the vast majority of Indians who know only a smattering of English. "You may be understood, but not vibed with. That's why all the multinational corporations now speak Hinglish in their ads." To get an idea of what the tamasha (ruckus) is all about, listen to a typical Hinglish advertisement. Pepsi, for instance, has given its global "Ask for more" campaign a local Hinglish flavor: "Yeh Dil Maange More" (the heart wants more). Not to be outdone, Coke has its own Hinglish slogan: "Life ho to aisi" (Life should be like this). Domino's Pizza, which offers Indian curiosities such as the chicken tikka pizza, asks its customers "Hungry kya?" (Are you hungry?), and McDonald's current campaign spoofs the jumbled construction of Hinglish sentences with its campaign, "What your bahana is?" (Bahana means excuse, as in, "What's your excuse for eating McDonald's and not home-cooked food?") None of this would have happened 10 years ago, says Sushobhan Mukherjee, strategic planning director for Publicis India. "My grandfather's generation grew up thinking, 'If I can't speak English correctly, I won't speak it,' " says Mr. Mukherjee. "Now, power has shifted to the young, and they want to be understood rather than be correct." Hinglish has a buzz now, adds Sanjay Sipahimalani, executive creative director of Publicis India. "Ten years ago, if somebody used Hindi in an otherwise perfect English sentence, I don't think that we would have hired him. It would be a sign of a lack of education. Now it's a huge asset." The turning point that made Hinglish hip, say cultural observers, was the introduction of cable television in the mid-1990s. Eagerly anticipated music channels like MTV and its competitor, Channel V, originally provided only English music, presented by foreign-born Indian video jockeys who spoke only in English. Outside metro areas, the response was not encouraging. Then Channel V started a new campaign that included comic spoofs on the way Indians speak English. By 1996, Channel V's penetration of the Indian market went from under 10 percent to over 60 percent. "There are two trends going on here," says Vikram Chandra, a TV newscaster for NDTV news channel in New Delhi. "One is that [businesses] have to Indianize in order to survive in this market.... At the same time, most Indians recognize that to succeed and do well, English is where it's at." In effect, Indians are trying to have it both ways. English coaching institutes are now burgeoning nationwide. Yet what Indians speak at work is not necessarily what they speak at home, with their friends, or on the bus. Indeed, David Crystal, a British linguist at the University of Wales, recently projected that at about 350 million, the world's Hinglish speakers may soon outnumber native English speakers. While most of the Indians who come to the West to work in the information-technology sector speak English, the sheer numbers of Hinglishmen in IT makes it almost inevitable that some Hinglish words will get globalized. The subcontinental tug of Hinglish is already being felt abroad. In Britain, the No. 1 favorite meal is an Anglo-Indian invention called Chicken Tikka Masala. And last week, Microsoft announced the company's decision to launch local versions of Windows and Office software in all 14 of India's major languages, including Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Indians have always had a way with English words. Sexual harassment, for instance, is known as "Eve-teasing." Mourners don't give condolences, they "condole." And then there's "pre-pone," the logical but nonexistent opposite of "post-pone": "I'm busy for dinner. Can we pre-pone for lunch instead?" Different Indian cities have their own Hinglish words. In Bombay, men who have a bald spot with a fringe of hair all around are called "stadiums," as in "Hey stadium, you're standing on my foot." For the vast majority of Indians who have never studied English, and indeed, who may be barely literate, Hinglish is a foreign language that allows them to connect with their immediate world. "In Bombay, everybody knows the word 'tension,' " says Shaziya Khan, a young advertising whiz in Bombay. "My maid one day told me, 'Aajkul humko bahut tension hain.'" (Translation: These days, I feel a lot of tension.) "She understands, and I understand. It really works." (c) Copyright 2004 The Christian Science Monitor.  All rights reserved. Click here to email this story to a friend: http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/send-story?2004/1123/p01s03-wosc.txt The Christian Science Monitor-- an independent daily newspaper providing context and clarity on national and international news, peoples and cultures, and social trends.  Online at http://www.csmonitor.com From iram at sarai.net Thu Nov 25 17:29:08 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 12:59:08 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <489c765a852ef343684412b886659ea5@sarai.net> Dear all, We would like to initiate a discussion on the reader list on issues involving the performance of law in our everyday lived experience through the institutionalisation of the leisure act and the intertwining of leisure space and surveillance. Some of the issues that we would like to probe/ excavate/ explore/ understand also through an experiential study of the New Friends Colony Community Centre, are: - The nuances that govern the State and non state players in their behaviour in non formal spaces which do not seem to fall under the purview of either public or private space. - The control/ censorship of thought and action as a direct fallout of the use of quasi legal language by the State and its implications in codes of deemed public behaviour. - The ambivalent dictates in the name of public security and legality that form the basic subtext of restraining ordinary forms of leisure. - Does the State want the public to stay within the `private’ space of the home- safe and secure and to come out only to engage in some form of economic activity or other? And is leisure activity in public space possible without spending money? AN INCIDENT: On a cold, foggy evening, last winter, Taha and a couple of other friends, Bikas and Gaurav, all students from Mass communication Research Centre, Jamia were sitting at the fountain opposite Bon Bon pastry shop in New Friends Colony Community Centre. CC, as it is popularly called by Jamia students, lies in the shadow of Softel Surya hotel. It is surrounded by a number of posh south Delhi gated colonies, the Jamia University and its hostels, and a few other middle class colonies. The last bus stop for #400, is Okhla Village barely 2 kilometres from CC. So far, CC has been able to cater to all its distinctly diverse communities of patrons. So, if there is the stylish Ego Thai on one hand, there is also a more middle class New Delhi Food Corner, serving the best butter chicken in all of Delhi. The khaki uniform is not an unfamiliar sight in CC because of the presence of New Friends Colony thana within the complex of shops and restaurants. The people seemed to be used to a certain amount of police presence and control, especially around diwali, dusshehera, eid, new years eve, 26th January, and the 15th August. Despite illegal encroachments by shop owners, and a mushrooming community of street kids from the Okhla railway station flyover complex, the relationship between the police and public is what can be termed as normal- normal to our times. The wine and beer shops close at 10 pm but CC would remain open till 1 am on normal days. That evening, as these friends were sitting at the fountain and talking about what young people would normally talk about… studies, career, politics, films,colleagues, etc that Taha noticed a man in khaki with what suspiciously looked like a 3 CCD camera, video recording what looked like themselves! On questioning, the man proudly identified himself as Pandu[name changed], a constable with the NFC thana. They told him that they were media students in MCRC, Jamia and were working with Zee news, star news and CNBC! On hearing this, Pandu revealed that he was friends with an ex- student who worked as a reporter with Aaj Tak news channel. He pointedly asked them to sit in either Barista or Mc Donalds, if they wanted to be out that late and instead of loitring around. According to Pandu a training in digital camera and basic non linear editing software had been given to at least one constable in all police stations of Delhi. Instructions had been given to record the janta from 7.30 pm till 9:00 pm everyday. Pandu proudly showed these guys the footage shot so far. A couple of men having beer in a car, zoom in to the number plate of the car, some close up shots of women and mid shots of themselves. In fact, because Taha’s face was covered by a shawl, he had changed the camera angles to get a better shot. It was amply clear was that Pandu was a not a very good camera person! Pandu disclosed, with an air of self importance, that because an alleged terrorist arrested from some part of Delhi, had apparently had dinner at Ego Thai, orders were issued to video graph the area, map people, and generate profiles of regulars and new comers. In retrospect, the enormity of the situation did strike these people but final projects were on and you don’t take pangas with the police if you are a law abiding student from jamia Millia Islamia. Hence, though the matter was much discussed/ debated, but just that. This summer Taha ran into Pandu again. At CC. He promptly shot Taha for a a few minutes, smiled, waved a hi and went on his way like a friendly neighbourhood constable. Possibly his camera work had improved but one can only guess, for this time he did not show the footage to Taha. College was finally over. Taha and his friends have left the hostel. Bikas wrote a short story about the incident but I guess lost it in shifting accomodation. He works with CNBC. Gaurav is a free lance photographer and Taha is a researcher on information society. Community Centre is as welcoming as before. They are now building a mall cum multiplex cinema hall on top of Mc Donalds. CC just might change. We invite readers and writers on the list to share personal experiences/ discuss opinions/ raise questions on the institutionlistion of leisure and the surveillance/ control of leisure/public space in Delhi and elsewhere. How law determines the way we behave and how does one perform in the face of this bareness of act? looking forwards to responses, cheers, iram and taha From coolzanny at hotmail.com Fri Nov 26 10:28:09 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 10:28:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure In-Reply-To: <489c765a852ef343684412b886659ea5@sarai.net> Message-ID: Dear Iram and Taha, Thank you for intiating this discussion on the reader list. I personally believe that this issue is very valuable considering the developments taking place in various cities. Here are some of my comments from my experiences in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. I also have a few questions of clarfication at the end which I hope you would address. In my understanding, questions of security, especially public security, acquire a different dimension in the case of New Delhi for two reasons: a). It being the capital city and given the political elite residing there and the history of 'attacks', there can be various kinds of dramas about 'public security' playing on both real and percieved threats. b). Delhi's proximity to Kashmir and the media generated images of Kashmir in the public mind. The Kashmir factor is a tricky one because it can often be used as an excuse to increase 'security' in the name of 'public'. I remember that when the Ansel Plaza incident took place, we tried to generate a small discussion in the public on the issue of security and a young boy protested strongly saying 'how can you even question the idea of 'public security'. If it comes from the government, it must be right'. While I was damn surprised on hearing such a view, I realized that most people tend to be drugged on media generated stories and images which perpetuate and legitimize government and therefore the notions of 'terrorist', 'attacks' and 'security' which then get conditioned in the public mind. Taking the case of Bombay, I find that the idea of public security gets practiced in certain public spaces like the railway station. But again, this is selective as in the case of VT/CST where the outstation side of the station is patrolled more for detecting narcotics, smuggling, etc. In Bombay's case, our proximity to Gujarat can also be a factor. Thus, roads get patrolled during times of high tension in Gujarat, there are naka bandis, etc. Similarly, during high profile events, there tends to be greater public security. In the case of Bangalore, again from whatever I have seen, the gated community concept looms large particularly in the new developing areas near the new airport aka Prestige Group Development Projects. Here we have the idea of private security which I see as almost equal to living in a prison. I come back to Bombay and highlight some recent trends. Private security is very much on the rise in this city. In my last few posts, I had spoken of how residents and corporates are paying 'BMC-Police' to ensure removal of hawkers. In my field interviews this week, I found out that actually, residents and corporates are hiring private security to ensure removal of hawkers. And the interesting thing is that those employed in private security tend to be Biharis and Bhaiyyas, two tribes which this city hates. So you pit the people you hate (as security) to remove the people you hate (the hawkers et al who are also Biharis and Bhaiyyas). Private Security is a huge thing in the residential buildings and societies in this city. Decisions to hire private security are usually taken by the building managing committee with silent approval (owing to lack of time to participate in society meetings) of the rest of the residents. Then we want the security to show that they are doing 'real work' - so we install intercoms in all the houses and the security checks on all the people who enter the building, want him to enter his name and identity in the register/muster and then the guard will call home and ask if he should allow this and this person to enter our home. Lots of work nah? Earlier, this was all rubbish, but now, this is a fashion, a trend. Surveillance in public spaces is a very problematic concept. I personally feel irritated with the presence of the ugly grey van at Nariman Point though it may not be doing anything to me. The worst part of this trend is that the very publics don't seem to notice this van, because it is not affecting them right now. As long as it is not happening to me (NIMBY), it's fine! BMC rules and regulations operate in parks in Mumbai. You cannot sit in a park after 10 PM. Similarly, at Worli Sea Face, Police patrolling starts after 9 PM and young people in cars are asked to show their identity and push off. It happened with me once. The road opposite Churchgate station was once used for protests and dharnas so that the cause is visible to the public and more so when traffic gets obstructed. The residents and the who's who of the area complained to the BMC and got the protests and dharnas packing off to Azad Maidan, an area which is away from public everyday vision and sight. Street culture is a critical aspect of city life. The streets in Mumbai are public spaces in themselves. If I see the developments taking place in Mumbai, I find that gradually, all kinds of 'developmental' projects are aimed at cleaning up the streets so that the city looks clean. In the process, you wipe out the very mechansims of security which operate naturally through means of vibrant streets (and then you employ private security). I would hate to see Mumbai become another Delhi. But, private security is huge in Bombay City and is only increasing if I may say so. It is possible to enjoy a public space without paying for it. Also, one can think of paradigms of public space where payment is made for the survival and maintenance of the space. I think Sarai is an excellent example of a public space. Some of my friends in England had started a restaurant which served as a meeting space but the restaurant obviously needed money to survive which needed to come from the users. Ultimately, the restaurant shut down because it could not support itself. From the research explorations in Bombay, I personally feel the idea of public space is hugely dependant on people's paradigms of space and time. Work/economy appears to be a distraction and takes people away from participation in public. In retrospect, when I think back, my own interest in my city arose after my visits to Srinagar. In Srinagar, every space is surveilled and I thought I was hugely lucky to live in a city where there was no authority sitting on my head and watching over me. Gradually, today I am beginning to feel that Bombay is on its way to becoming a Srinagar - a surveilled city! Questions of Clarification: 1). What/who is a state and what/who is a non-state actor? 2). What would you mean by a non-formal space? 3). How is a non-formal space different from a private space and what/how would you explain/define a private space? Cheers, Zainab _________________________________________________________________ Chat with thousands of singles. http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/cgi-bin/bmclicks1.cgi?74 Only on BharatMatrimony.com's Instant Messenger. From rahul_capri at yahoo.com Fri Nov 26 10:39:04 2004 From: rahul_capri at yahoo.com (Rahul Asthana) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:09:04 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Polization of Society in Europe Message-ID: <20041126050904.49495.qmail@web53601.mail.yahoo.com> After USA,it seems to be Europe turn now http://www.techcentralstation.com/112204AA.html Text of the article ---------------------- Now that the Cold War is over Western European countries ought to be role models for the East. What a farce, then, that Belgium has taken a cue from Vladimir Putin. In true autocratic fashion the high court banned Vlaams Blok -- the nation's most popular political party. The party has since been refounded and renamed Vlaams Belang, meaning "Flemish Interest." Vlaams Blok isn't any party I'd want to belong to. They want to break Belgium in half along ethnic lines and completely shut down immigration. They even offered immigrants cash to leave and never come back. Still, banning a political party -- especially the one that's most popular -- is no way to behave in a democracy no matter how kooky the party in question may be. It's obviously, you know, undemocratic. And it will only make the targeted party (in whatever new form it takes) more popular than it was. Opinions can't be abolished by court order. Political grievances don't vanish just because party leaders have to slap a new label on an old bottle. The best way to shunt the Blok's extremism off to the side is for one of the more centrist parties to adopt its moderate planks. They don't have to blacken their cosmopolitan souls in the bargain. There's a reason Vlaams Blok is rising in popularity. It's not because they want an independent state for Dutch-speaking Belgians. And it's not because the people of Antwerp have itchy fingers on the genocide trigger. It's popular because, in a country where the elite wallow in hysterical Political Correctness, Vlaams Blok is the only party willing to even discuss immigration at a time when radical Islam is metastasizing in Europe. The party was banned as racist. I have little doubt that it is -- at least to an extent. Far-right anti-immigrant parties are always magnets for racist nuts and ethnic nationalists. The Belgian high court has a peculiar definition of racism, though. One member of Vlaams Blok wrote a political tract denouncing female genital mutilation in Muslim countries. The high court says the tract is racist. Nevermind that "Muslim" isn't a race, the person who wrote it is not ethnically Belgian. She's a Muslim woman from Turkey. Denouncing female genital mutilation is the sort of thing liberals and feminists recently did -- and occasionally still find the courage to do. If the European ruling class wants to relegate this view to the right-wing lunatic fringe they'll only boost the clout of the real fringe by making it look more reasonable than in is. A liberal tolerant culture can't survive an infiltration of intolerant illiberal immigrants who refuse to assimilate even if most immigrants don't cause any problems. Decent-minded people don't like to think about this, let alone talk about it. But the problem can't be pretended away. The murder of Theo Van Gogh in Amsterdam and the vicious backlash that followed ought to prove that. Volksrant reported that ten Muslim and five Christian sites in the Netherlands were attacked in one single week. Though no one aside from Van Gogh has been killed (yet), the attacks included fire-bombing, arson, vandalism, and nailing bloody pig's heads to doors. 18 times as many people live in the United States as in The Netherlands. If Americans reacted as violently after the attacks on September 11, one hundred and eighty Muslim sites would have been attacked by vigilantes in one week alone. Needless to say, the minor backlash that did follow was an insignificant blip compared to the fury unleashed in Holland. Imagine the rage that would convulse Dutch society if Amsterdam or The Hague experienced an attack on the scale of what happened on September 11. The Dutch are among the most liberal and tolerant people on Earth. So why was the civilian response to terrorism so out of proportion to what happened in the US? Glenn Reynolds has a theory that might explain part of it. Nothing breeds that sort of freelance violence like the perception that the duly constituted authorities aren't willing to protect the citizenry. People in the United States didn't doubt that; people in the Netherlands have had reason to. If Europe's mainstream parties can't come to grips with this they're toast. There is no shortage of political maniacs on the margins -- who are totally uninhibited by political correctness -- who can always propose a "solution" if no one else will. If (perhaps I ought to say "when") push comes to shove in Belgium as it already has in Amsterdam -- watch out. The extremists will appear a lot more sane than they are next to the feckless fantasists they'll have to compete with. They are setting themselves up to attract more and more frustrated moderates and even liberals into their ranks. In time those moderates and liberals may, because of the slippery workings of the political slope, cease to be liberal or moderate. The center cannot hold if the state decrees the center doesn't exist, that the only choice is between left-wing fantasy and right-wing lunacy. When the pendulum swings -- and it will swing -- the ethnic nationalist parties will benefit most. And the phrase "Old Europe" might apply more aptly than it does now. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today! http://my.yahoo.com From coolzanny at hotmail.com Sat Nov 27 11:35:36 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 11:35:36 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Main Hoon Na! Message-ID: 24th November 2004 Main Hoon Na! I promised him that I will be there at 4 PM and extracted a similar promise from him. But I am afraid he will not turn up. He thinks I am a press reporter and that I am going to write about him in the papers. Maybe his pappa told him not to come here today and go into hiding. I feel guilty, guilty because my inability to explain to him what I am doing may have intimidated him and subsequently, he has not come here to do his business today. I feel guilty because perhaps he lost his day�s income because of me. I am basically feeling damn guilty � His name is Shahrukh. He sells tea on Nariman Point. Earlier, tea sellers would go around on their bicycles with huge aluminum water filters and sell tea. Ever since their eviction from the seafront, I find these men walking around with thermos flasks and asking visitors if they want tea/coffee. Shahrukh is perhaps about 7-8 years old. He normally wears denim jeans and a blue shirt. He is white, completely white skinned. And he has funny looks on his face � sometimes he is smiling, sometimes he is serious. I cannot comprehend him. He is a mystery. So when I cannot comprehend someone, I call him/her funny. But I believe that Shahrukh is very perceptive, very mature for his age. He is clever. Yesterday, I went to the seafront looking out for him and there he was, right before me. I bought a cup of tea, very sugary and watery. I told him whether he would give me an interview. �I had seen you with the bhuttawala (i.e. Santhya). You were talking to him also nah?� he inquires with me. He thinks there is some kind of romance between Santhya and me. He smiles and tells me, �You wait here. He (i.e. Santhya) will also be here in sometime. Talk to him and go.� Shahrukh�s parents are from Benaras. But he has been born and brought up here. �Mera pappa bhi idhar chai bechta hai (My father also sells tea here). I don�t go beyond the signal (opposite Air India building which is technically where Nariman Point actually begins). It is difficult to carry the thermos beyond that point and there is also harassment (what kind, I am not sure as of now). My father sells tea beyond.� Thus, it seems that father and son have marked out business territories. They must be entrepreneurs of some order! Shahrukh�s main asset is his big thermos flask. It is larger than him, green in colour with designs made in gold. When he carries it, he almost leans to one side owing to the weight of the flask. By now, I think his gait has naturally become like that. �I come here by 4 or 5 PM and am here till 1 or 2 AM,� Shahrukh informs me about his timings on the seafront. �Why are you doing all this?� he asks me. �Do you write for a newspaper?� I want to explain to him what I am doing. I ask him if he knows about the Internet. He nods indifferently. Then I ask him if he knows what a computer is. �No,� he says candidly. I try to tell him that for the moment, everyone reads your story on my blog. Then I tell him that I am a student. I don�t think he is convinced because I myself am not convinced. Damn! Darn! The anxieties of being a researcher � There is a brief interlude of silence between us. I become a bit patronizing and adult like and ask him whether he likes Shahrukh Khan. He is not interested in my question. I am embarrassed. We promise to meet around 4 PM tomorrow. Today, I am here at the appointed hour. I am looking around here and there, expectantly, but he is not there. I am afraid that not only have I frightened him off, but also some of his other fellows. All kinds of speculations arise in my mind. After all, these are a surveilled people and they cannot trust anyone and everyone. Besides, I am not promising to be their saviour either. I have declared that I am not from any NGO or institution who will fight their case. It is 4:25 PM. I am still waiting for him. I begin to distract myself, look around here and there. A couple, middle-class and old, come and sit on the two benches diagonally opposite to me. They wipe the sweat on their face, drink some water from the bottle they are carrying inside their bags and look around. Gradually, they have turned their faces towards Hilton Towers and are looking at it intently. A bunch of three other men come and sit close to me. They also start commenting on Hilton Towers. It seems like Hilton represents a kind of aspiration of the middle-class in this city. It represents their desires and ambitions to have a home in a high-rise apartment, to live in an upmarket locality. Hilton has something about it which draws people�s attention towards it. I need to talk to people and find out what is it about Hilton that they look upto � is its sheer immensity, its size, its structure � what? I am frustrated. It has been a hard day with appointments not kept. As I am sitting and trying to counsel myself, I hear the ring tone of a cell phone which is set to the song �Kiska hai yeh tumko intezaar main hoon nah (Who is it that you are waiting for when I am here)� from the blockbuster film Main Hoon Na. I turn and notice a man talking on his cell phone. I wonder whether this is some kind of providential cue to approach him and talk to him. I make my move. �I am only a first timer here. Actually I am not even from Bombay. I am from Indore in MP. Was in Bangalore for 6 months and have been in Mumbai for 2-3 months now,� he informs me when I ask him whether he frequently comes to the seafront. His name is Praveen. He works in the software sector. He is here today for an interview in one of the Nariman Point offices. �I like it here, at the sea. It is peaceful. Shaant hai (it is quiet and soothing). My friends had told me that when you go to Bombay, you must visit Nariman Point,� he goes on. Praveen is only too happy to talk to me. He dislikes Bombay. �What rush, what crowd. I was frightened when I came here the first time. People have hectic and frenetic pace of life out here. It�s crazy. There is no time for relationships here. Everybody is in their own world altogether. Those who are old residents of Bombay are used to all of this. But for us newcomers, this is crazy. I got frightened when I first looked at the local train. I knew I couldn�t get into it. What dhkka mukki (push and jostle). Even if you can climb into the train easily without pushing and jostling, people are so used to it that they will do it irrespective. When I try to tell someone bhaisaheb, bhaisaheb, trying to calm the person down, this person will get inside the train and stare at me as if I am about to start a fight or something with him. I have learnt that in the local trains here, you don�t have to do anything to get in and get out; the crowds will do it all for you.� I swear upon the god I believe in, I did not provoke him on the local trains. He was forthcoming himself. What can I do if all that people talk to me about this city is its local trains??? Praveen went on talking to me. Perhaps in this city, I was the first stranger he had known who was interested in knowing his story. Who would care and why? Praveen explained his lifestyle to me. �I live in Goregaon and work in Andheri. Andheri is a damn crowded area, mad you can say. In a software firm, you usually work under a team leader. A whole week�s tasks are assigned to you. If you complete the work allotted to you in less than five days, it is not like additional work will be given to you. But work in the software sector gets boring after some point in time. Therefore you feel like moving out. Further, there is a lot of money you earn in the software sector and that too very quickly. Once you hit the 30 or 40 thousand mark per month, you want to spend and maintain your standard. After all, 33% of your income would go into paying taxes. So why not enjoy and make the most of things. But work in software is performance dependant. There is no security, like in the case of a government job. But in a government job, there is less money. For four years, you will keep on earning ten thousand whereas in the software firm, you will hit forty or fifty thousand in four years.� Praveen�s typical day begins when he enters office by 9 or 10 AM. He must report by 10 AM else he has to fill in a data sheet and give explanations. While the morning reporting time is fixed, there is no fixed time to finish work in the evening. Sometimes he leaves office at 9 or 10 PM. Praveen sleeps his entire weekend. �Aur kya karein (What else to do)?� he shrugs and says, �The whole week you slog and weekend is the only time you have to yourself. So I sleep and sleep.� He is irked by the cost of living in this city. �Right now, I am paying 2.5 thousand for the little flat I am sharing in Goregaon. If I aspire to move to Andheri, the rent doubles and I have to pay 5k. And this place,� he says pointing to Nariman Point and Hilton Towers, �is only a dream. I can fantasize about wanting to rent a place here but can never reach here.� I identify with Praveen. In my college days, my dream was to be able to live at Nariman Point, to be close to the sea, to have my sanity and my calm in the right place! �There is no climate in Bombay. See, it is November and there is no sign of winter. In our home in Indore, it would be freezing. Bangalore is also so much better.� When I ask him about public spaces in Bangalore, he only speaks of the malls. �Aur kya hain (What else is there?)?� he asks rhetorically. �But the problem in Bangalore, even though it is very nice, is that you have to know one of the two languages � either Kannada or English. You cannot speak in your own mother tongue, in Hindi. In Bombay, that�s the advantage. Speak in any language and it is fine. When you speak your own language, it feels nice.� I understand his small town mentality. He justifies, �It is only when you move out of home that you learn a lot of things.� As I listen to him, I begin to visualize a map of the migration patterns in the country among the educated youth � from their home towns, they come to Bangalore to realize their aspirations and dreams and then maybe come to Mumbai. That�s the journey which perhaps everyone undertakes these days. Are they illegal migrants then? Why don�t we think of razing their settlements down too? I want to sit on a bulldozer and go on a rampaging spree! Praveen�s aspiration is go back to his home in Indore. Life is much peaceful there. For now, he wants desperately to move to Pune because Pune is less hectic. It has its parallels with Bangalore. He just wants to move out of Bombay. �I have 2.6 years of experience in IT. Now, an IT Park is being established in Indore. I will have opportunities then. I want to go back.� Home � what dreams � what desires � all of this everyday! As we talk, a boy selling peanuts comes by. Praveen insists on buying some. The boy is insisting that we take some of the peanuts. It will be his first sale of the day. I start to maintain my distance and not get too involved. Praveen has become insistent that I eat all of the peanuts. It is his big brother mentality and my Mumbai individuality that are clashing. I manage the situation for now. Then he asks if I want to have coffee. And I first refuse politely and then firmly. I start to get up. His concluding remarks are: �Food is another big problem in this city. I hate this vada-pav now. I am fed up of eating it. A good thali also costs fifty bucks here. How can I afford it everyday? That�s why I cook myself in the evenings.� I tell him that I am going to look out for Shahrukh. He also gets up to leave. He couldn�t make it on time for his appointment today and does not know whether he will get leave tomorrow to come here again. We say bye and depart. And I shall also depart here today, with all of these emotions and desires that I listen to and carry in myself everyday! Hush!!! Zainab Bawa Mumbai www.xanga.com/CityBytes _________________________________________________________________ Chat with thousands of singles. http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/cgi-bin/bmclicks1.cgi?74 Only on BharatMatrimony.com's Instant Messenger. From sadan at sarai.net Sat Nov 27 13:21:41 2004 From: sadan at sarai.net (Sadan Jha) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 13:21:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] announcement Message-ID: <41A8320D.6090401@sarai.net> URBAN CULTURES AND POLITICS: Urban Experiences This seminar series is an initiative to establish a critical dialogue with current academic research on urban experiences and media politics in South Asia. We begin the series this year with an exploration of regimes of urban sexuality. Scheduled between December 2004 and February 2005, six lectures will focus on the field of the urban in contemporary as well as historical settings. Thursday, 2 December 2004; 3.30 P.M. Sanjay Srivastava, " Ticketless Travel, or, ‘Doctor, Patient Go Missing Despite Delhi Police’s All Night Vigil’: Sexuality, Urban Print Culture, and its Publics." Sanjay Srivastava teaches anthropology, cultural studies and social theory at Deakin University, Melbourne. He is currently affiliated with CSDS. His publications include 'Constructing Post-colonial India: National Character and the Doon School', 'Asia: Cultural Politics in the Global Age' (co-authored), and 'Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia' (contributing editor). His current research focuses on urban spaces and cultures. From iram at sarai.net Sat Nov 27 21:11:16 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:41:16 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <1122.61.11.30.112.1101570076.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Zainab and all, Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay. I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ valid/ legal reason for many things. Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear my understanding of public/private space. Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal performance of behaviour. I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of what is private and public. However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use the pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- versa. The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential terrorist or an anti-social being. To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know what to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- formal space. I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and head home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be wary of strangers. Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people though not all publics to these public spaces. Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? looking forward to more views, Cheers, Iram From iram at sarai.net Sat Nov 27 21:11:43 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:41:43 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <1124.61.11.30.112.1101570103.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Zainab and all, Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay. I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ valid/ legal reason for many things. Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear my understanding of public/private space. Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal performance of behaviour. I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of what is private and public. However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use the pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- versa. The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential terrorist or an anti-social being. To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know what to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- formal space. I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and head home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be wary of strangers. Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people though not all publics to these public spaces. Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? looking forward to more views, Cheers, Iram From iram at sarai.net Sat Nov 27 21:12:02 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:42:02 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <1125.61.11.30.112.1101570122.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Zainab and all, Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay. I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ valid/ legal reason for many things. Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear my understanding of public/private space. Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal performance of behaviour. I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of what is private and public. However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use the pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- versa. The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential terrorist or an anti-social being. To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know what to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- formal space. I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and head home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be wary of strangers. Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people though not all publics to these public spaces. Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? looking forward to more views, Cheers, Iram From iram at sarai.net Sat Nov 27 21:13:24 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:43:24 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <1127.61.11.30.112.1101570204.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Zainab and all, Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay. I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ valid/ legal reason for many things. Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear my understanding of public/private space. Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal performance of behaviour. I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of what is private and public. However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use the pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- versa. The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential terrorist or an anti-social being. To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know what to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- formal space. I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and head home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be wary of strangers. Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people though not all publics to these public spaces. Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? looking forward to more views, Cheers, Iram From iram at sarai.net Sat Nov 27 21:13:51 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:43:51 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <1128.61.11.30.112.1101570231.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Zainab and all, Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay. I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ valid/ legal reason for many things. Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear my understanding of public/private space. Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal performance of behaviour. I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of what is private and public. However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use the pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- versa. The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential terrorist or an anti-social being. To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know what to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- formal space. I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and head home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be wary of strangers. Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people though not all publics to these public spaces. Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? looking forward to more views, Cheers, Iram From iram at sarai.net Sat Nov 27 21:14:17 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:44:17 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <1145.61.11.30.112.1101570257.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Zainab and all, Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay. I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ valid/ legal reason for many things. Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear my understanding of public/private space. Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal performance of behaviour. I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of what is private and public. However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use the pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- versa. The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential terrorist or an anti-social being. To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know what to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- formal space. I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and head home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be wary of strangers. Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people though not all publics to these public spaces. Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? looking forward to more views, Cheers, Iram From iram at sarai.net Sat Nov 27 21:14:47 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:44:47 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <1168.61.11.30.112.1101570287.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Zainab and all, Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay. I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ valid/ legal reason for many things. Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear my understanding of public/private space. Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal performance of behaviour. I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of what is private and public. However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use the pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- versa. The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential terrorist or an anti-social being. To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know what to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- formal space. I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and head home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be wary of strangers. Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people though not all publics to these public spaces. Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? looking forward to more views, Cheers, Iram From shohini at nda.vsnl.net.in Sat Nov 27 22:14:10 2004 From: shohini at nda.vsnl.net.in (shohini) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 22:14:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] List Attack References: <489c765a852ef343684412b886659ea5@sarai.net> Message-ID: <001701c4d4a0$52c95a80$5de941db@shohini> Dear Moderator: Help! I am, all of a sudden, getting five copies of every reader's list email. Could you please check. If its happening only to me than of course, I need to figure this one out. Warmly Shohini From iram at sarai.net Sun Nov 28 14:35:42 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 10:05:42 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] apologies Message-ID: <3013.61.11.30.112.1101632742.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> dear moderater and my co-members on the list, i deeply regret that five copies of a mail sent by me have flooded your mail boxes, courtesy a bad computer set up at my local cyber cafe not that it is any excuse. apologies, warm regards, iram From coolzanny at hotmail.com Sun Nov 28 20:38:52 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 20:38:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure In-Reply-To: <1168.61.11.30.112.1101570287.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: Hi Iram, Thanks for the insightful email. I draw some analyses from your last email, very quick and brief ones for the time being: 1). Streets and side-ways are increasingly being seen as loose, uncontrolled spaces which need to be controlled. So, we have moves from the corporate sphere, the government sphere, to demolish, have private and public security around. At least that is what I see happening in Mumbai. In Delhi in any case, streets are largely vacant from whatever bit I have seen. In fact I feel unsafe walking on the streets in Delhi, except for Old Delhi. 2). Streets and side-ways are also being seen as spaces of illegality, again a Bombay perspective. Here is precisely one of the sites where the everyday battles between legality and illegality are being fought. And then again the issue of controlling loose space. 3). In this discussion on security, there is a very strong need to think in terms of the corporate-government perspective. I cannot think of one without the other in these times in Mumbai. Battles of competition, economy are being waged between the corporates and the loose urban spaces. For instance the four 7 star hotels at Nariman Point pooling money and hiring private security to evict hawkers. While the public is not involved in this tussle, we are talking of some kind of public when we refer to thge hawkers which is being seen as 'outsiders, encroachers'. 4). Then again, the media generates tremendous images of the terrorist, the encroacher, the illegal entity and these condition the public mind very strongly. In debates on security, these three angles are critical. When we talk of public spaces, one of the things I am wrestling with in my research on the seafronts and railway stations here is who is the public? And the public seems damn dead when you ask me. They are snoring, caught up in the humdrum of daily lives. I have often thought of public and community spaces in Mumbai city to be problematic because people tend to use less of these owing to tight notions and practices of time and these then become dangerous. For instance the Shivaji Park. Then you have surveillance, rules, regulations, laws, policing, etc. And the media contributes to this all. For now, I am saying this. But there are several thoughts. Particularly about institutionalizing entertainment and leisure which is what happens in malls and now with a spate of festivals in Mumbai City which aim to commecialize and brand street food. There are terms of entry into public spaces like malls and multiplexes and you were damn right when you said that if your scout around outside an upmarket place, you are seen suspiciously by the guards. What I am wary of is this increasing fuzziness between private and public security and the use of private security in public spaces. Cheers, Zainab Zainab Bawa Mumbai www.xanga.com/CityBytes From: iram at sarai.net To: reader-list at sarai.net CC: taha at sarai.net Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:44:47 +0100 (CET) Dear Zainab and all, Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay. I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ valid/ legal reason for many things. Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear my understanding of public/private space. Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal performance of behaviour. I don�t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of what is private and public. However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.� So, one will use the pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- versa. The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential terrorist or an anti-social being. To get back to the question of private and public space, I don�t know what to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- formal space. I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public� imagination? I�m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. Will Mc Donald�s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops and robbers�, not allow her to play in the veranda? However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve Manisha�s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain `sacrosanct� spaces in CC on many occasions. Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure acts. `Publics� would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full of `strangers�, watch/participate in `fun� activities, eat, drink and head home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be wary of strangers. Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people though not all publics to these public spaces. Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? looking forward to more views, Cheers, Iram _________________________________________ 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: _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ Click here now! From shivamvij at gmail.com Mon Nov 29 11:35:57 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (shivam) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 11:35:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A Video and a City Message-ID: VIDEO | A Video and a City: Parafonista and El Alto A look at El Alto, Bolivia: the city that took on and defeated power just over a year ago, giving the people new hope. This music video by jazz-fusion group Parafonista is a display of pain and rage, of the unstoppable force of people organized to resist a tyrant that had been selling their common patrimony to transnational corporations. It is a portrait of the city that rose up to topple then-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada even as its fallen lay dead in the streets. Luis A. G�mez | Salon Chingon http://www.salonchingon.com/cinema/rios_profundos.php?city=ny From abose25 at hotmail.com Sun Nov 28 21:00:12 2004 From: abose25 at hotmail.com (Aniruddha Basu) Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 15:30:12 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] re: the act of leisure Message-ID: Dear Iram, I was aware of the incident at CC but had not given it a serious thought until i read your posting. Let me explain why. Apparently your main accusation against the cop is not that he asked our friends to leave but that he was photographing them against their knowledge.If so, let me venture to say that ,that is something we are all guilty of.I think it is far more revealing to photograph people in informal settings, when they are unaware of it. Our celebrated media revels in it.How many times have we seen a Outlook or India Today capturing perfectly law abiding citizens in slightly uncomfortable and uncompromising situations? Starlets kissing, teenagers holding hands in Lodhi gardens..and so on.Havent we all resorted to a certain dubiousness of means while shooting documentaries or EFP�s?At least the cops usually will not (dare not), publicize their material.We can sue them if they try.That is not to say that I am defending the Delhi Police.Surely not! Our policemen are often uncooperative and sometimes a downright nuisance. However it is unfair to paint them entirely in black based on one incident. What I do not understand is what the aforementioned incident has to do with leisure. If that dumb cops�s point was to prevent people from hanging around after midnight then maybe there is some justification to it.Delhi is after all notorious for its late night crimes and coupled with the security threat is enough to make our callous authorities paranoid and even overreact perhaps. I think you are equating the concept of leisure with the freedom to move around. The point is that society at large ( my family included ) will simply not be able to comprehend what we gained by strolling around late nights at CC, doing nothing in particular.There�s nothing wrong with that per se, its just that it does not fit in with societies concept of leisure. Of course if you are shooting late at night at CC , then the cops don�t bother, it�s a hard nights work after all!(I speak from personal experience). Leisure to my mind is entirely contextual..Leisure in the private sector is often a part of official policy. They are recreations formulated by the HR in an organization to help the employees de-stress and unwind , so that they can perform better and increase productivity. My friend who is working in American Express was asked to go to a resort in Rajasthan for a few days, as a �change of scene�.Any refusal to go would be met with frowns and disapproval.Another friend in TOI has a compulsory yoga session in the mornings on weekdays, due to which he has to reach office one hour earlier.Ad agencies are hosting an interoffice cricket tournament, with match practice on weekends,most schools have their own Extra Curricular Activities after school hours..the list is endless. Psychologists argue that such activities are necessary to broaden an employee�s horizon and keep him/her alert. Undoubtedly there are many who will consider this too as an invasion of privacy and examples of needless regulation.Thus its pretty clear that it is not the state alone which decides what leisure should consist of; rather every group, community or even society have their own conception of leisure which those outside the group may not approve of. One cannot have uninhibited freedom in a society bound by rules. And what about our immediate families? We may( and do) consider boozing late nights at CC as leisure, but both cops and our families will be in complete agreement, that it is an unwanted, destructive habit. Thus don�t our loved ones contribute to stereotypical notions of leisure as well? The authorities do what they do because they know that they have both legal and sociological sanction behind it.The solution is simple.You cannot change the state if you don�t change the mindset... aniruddha b Home | My MSN | Hotmail | Groups | Search | Messenger Feedback | Help � 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. TERMS OF USE Privacy Statement Anti-Spam Policy _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ Click here now! From taha at sarai.net Mon Nov 29 15:29:13 2004 From: taha at sarai.net (taha at sarai.net) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:59:13 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure In-Reply-To: References: <1168.61.11.30.112.1101570287.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <2099.210.7.77.145.1101722353.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Hi Zainab, I largely agree with your take on the street as a site of surveillance/ contestation/control. But what amuses me the most is the way in which the state seeks to manage spaces like public parks/ community centers/ roads inside a residential colony etc. There seems to be a method behind innocuous measures to gently push the outsider out. The discourse of hygine/ crime/ cleanliness/ security is invoked on a routine basis to secure land/ pavements/ municipal roads/ public parks and of course community centers. Not that crime is mythical in this case but does securing public land in the name of crime prevention help??? I don't know?? or WHY the fencing of land appears to be the only creative solution to crime prevention ? The public-private partnership of Mumbai is also mirriored here, but its more subtle. The chief minister's motherly smile carefully hides the sneer as the Bhagidari between the government and the residents shifts into higher gear. The Delhi Police accelerates its neighborhood watch campaign encouraging neighbors to spy on each other and report any 'suspicious' activity to the police. The RWA's tighten the noose around the hawkers/ sales person/ vegetable vendors/ scavengers and pedestrians. The RWA fences the residential colony area and installs gates around them restricting the access and control of 'public' parks/ streets/ roads/ and shops. The DP also installs CCTV cameras around jantar mantar complex to monitor agitations and also ofcouse keeps a watch on every vehicle/ pedestrian that passes by its watchful gaze. The act of contestation in this haze of assumed/imagined rights [of possession/ ownership of land/ area/ property] then becomes interesting. The missing iron bar on a road divider which is wide enough to let a person pass or a gap in the wire meshing of a colony fence becomes a site of relief. But the arbitrariness through which this kind of power operates makes it more dangerous. The question then becomes how does one negotiate with a quasi legal approach of power. For example, during Christmas last year, the Head constable of New Friends Colony thana with eight constables went around the community center evicting idlers, who were generally sitting and chatting around CC. I was one of them, when I questioned him, he waived his Danda angrily at me,saying, ' Agar Aapko Baat Karni Hai To Cafe Coffee Day Ya Barista Ja KE Baitho Par Yahan Aise Khali Nahi Baithna'. When I reiterated my 'right' to sit here and do whatever I so damn well please, he just stared at me and said with a heavy accent 'Suna Nahi Kya'. That was it. I couldn't do anything about it. This brings us again to the question of leisure. Why in a place like CC sitting idly and chatting around the campus invites the state's wrath but Barista and Cafe Coffee Day are a safeguard to its harassment. It isn't that CC is always like this, God forbid no,but what drives this manic sort of obsession of the state with the street, common grounds where people converge/meet/walk. cheers Taha > Hi Iram, > Thanks for the insightful email. I draw some analyses from your last > email, > very quick and brief ones for the time being: > > 1). Streets and side-ways are increasingly being seen as loose, > uncontrolled > spaces which need to be controlled. So, we have moves from the corporate > sphere, the government sphere, to demolish, have private and public > security > around. At least that is what I see happening in Mumbai. In Delhi in any > case, streets are largely vacant from whatever bit I have seen. In fact I > feel unsafe walking on the streets in Delhi, except for Old Delhi. > > 2). Streets and side-ways are also being seen as spaces of illegality, > again > a Bombay perspective. Here is precisely one of the sites where the > everyday > battles between legality and illegality are being fought. And then again > the > issue of controlling loose space. > > 3). In this discussion on security, there is a very strong need to think > in > terms of the corporate-government perspective. I cannot think of one > without > the other in these times in Mumbai. Battles of competition, economy are > being waged between the corporates and the loose urban spaces. For > instance > the four 7 star hotels at Nariman Point pooling money and hiring private > security to evict hawkers. While the public is not involved in this > tussle, > we are talking of some kind of public when we refer to thge hawkers which > is > being seen as 'outsiders, encroachers'. > > 4). Then again, the media generates tremendous images of the terrorist, > the > encroacher, the illegal entity and these condition the public mind very > strongly. > > In debates on security, these three angles are critical. > > When we talk of public spaces, one of the things I am wrestling with in my > research on the seafronts and railway stations here is who is the public? > And the public seems damn dead when you ask me. They are snoring, caught > up > in the humdrum of daily lives. I have often thought of public and > community > spaces in Mumbai city to be problematic because people tend to use less of > these owing to tight notions and practices of time and these then become > dangerous. For instance the Shivaji Park. Then you have surveillance, > rules, > regulations, laws, policing, etc. And the media contributes to this all. > > For now, I am saying this. But there are several thoughts. Particularly > about institutionalizing entertainment and leisure which is what happens > in > malls and now with a spate of festivals in Mumbai City which aim to > commecialize and brand street food. There are terms of entry into public > spaces like malls and multiplexes and you were damn right when you said > that > if your scout around outside an upmarket place, you are seen suspiciously > by > the guards. What I am wary of is this increasing fuzziness between private > and public security and the use of private security in public spaces. > > Cheers, > Zainab > > > > Zainab Bawa > Mumbai > www.xanga.com/CityBytes > > > > > From: iram at sarai.net > To: reader-list at sarai.net > CC: taha at sarai.net > Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure > Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:44:47 +0100 (CET) > > > Dear Zainab and all, > > Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and > Bombay. > I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that > Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ > valid/ legal reason for many things. > > Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use > categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take > recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear > my understanding of public/private space. > > Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space > and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour > in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot > at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones > private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news > channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal > performance of behaviour. > I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of > what is private and public. > > However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community > Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, > subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, > cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved > by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a > security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the > restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private > contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard > Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use the > pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to > the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- > versa. > > The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a > particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential > terrorist or an anti-social being. > To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know what > to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a > square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It > is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and > restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard > controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual > to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential > patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my > understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across > class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- > formal space. > > I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs > economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have > coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ > imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is > Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station > flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She > collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. > > Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their > restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does > the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops > and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? > > However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve > Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain > `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. > > Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games > like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday > Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure > acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full > of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and head > home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and > so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be > wary of strangers. > > Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, > cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, > roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people > though not all publics to these public spaces. > > Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of > leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who > defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? > > looking forward to more views, > > Cheers, > Iram > > > > _________________________________________ > 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: > > _________________________________________________________________ > Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ Click > here now! > > From coolzanny at hotmail.com Tue Nov 30 11:26:14 2004 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:26:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure In-Reply-To: <2099.210.7.77.145.1101722353.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: Dear Taha, I read Aniruddh's email. One experience which I very clearly remember had taken place with my sister, me and a friend. This was three years ago. After watching a movie in the Excelsior Theater at VT, three of us proceeded towards VT station. We stood by a corner of a shop in the subway and were chatting. The private security guard came up to us and said this is not a place to hang around, get out from here. My friend who was male, was irritated and said that since we were not creating any trouble and were neither in the way of the people or the shop, he had no right to shoo us off. We stood there for some more time and I think the guard kept watching over us. I agree with Aniruddh when he says that certain mindsets have to change. Normally, in Mumbai, I cannot imagine hanging around in a street which has private residences and which is quiet by itself. I imagine this is how NFC is having been there once. Also, NFC by itself is a very plush locality and it is not surprising that you would get shooed off just for hanging around there. If I have to wait for somebody outside Regal Cinema at Colaba, the guard of the cinema will keep a watch over me, wondering what I am doing - am I soliciting clients i.e. am I a prostitute? If I am dressed like a South Mumbai yuppie, then I am okay because it means that I am waiting for my bunch of friends to join me for a movie. When you speak about leisure, a trend which i have noticed in some of interviews with people who live around Marine Drive and Nariman Point, they tell that there is no place in Delhi to hang out for free. At Nariman Point, you can hang around for free because it is a vast public space. Do what you like, though of course there are some civil lines to this. Spaces like these are few in Mumbai, but critical because they provide breathers not just to the middle class and below, but also to the rich and famous who may be getting suffocated inside the confines of their home. This kind of free, levelling and open leisure is somehow coming under the eyes of the corporate entities. Thus, Nariman Point will now be revamped with an art deco precinct, portions of it will be adopted by corporates for maintenance, there will be brass street furniture and what not. The architect, Ratan Batliboy, who has conceived of these grand ideas says in the latest issue of Time Out that what was free will continue to remain free, only that the quality of people who come to Nariman point will now be improved. And this is what concerns me, as Ravi says, 'terms of entry'. 'Terms of entry' into particular spaces are being regulated. You have to dress in a certain kind of way, behave in a certain way, if you are to feel accepted in a space. This is societal norms and conventions and also trends as shaped by the media. It concerns me that in attempting to create a Shanghai or an aesthetic city, we want to do away with people who we think are rowdy, hooligans, etc. We want to clean out the anti-social elements, a recent drive against beggars, CSWs and drug peddalars in South Mumbai which is atrocious in some ways and very brutal too. All of this because we want to create an aesthetic city. What bullshit! Street culture is critical to the very safety of the city. As I read about crimes in the trains and at railway stations, I feel some of it emerges from the erosion of illegal entities who were always a part of the street - of course, this is just speculation and there could be more to this than what I am saying. Property by itself is exlcusionary - this belongs to me, you cannot tresspass. The inside nooks and corners of private residential roads are not meant for 'hanging around' as we have known them to be. If you are hanging around outside these, you are very likely to be seen as a troublemaker. I think this also has to do with the concepts and practices of time in a city - who has time for faaltugiri in a city? Only faltu people! And faltu people in our imagination are trouble makers or mischief mongers! Cheers, Zainab Zainab Bawa Mumbai www.xanga.com/CityBytes From: taha at sarai.net To: "Zainab Bawa" CC: reader-list at sarai.net Subject: RE: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:59:13 +0100 (CET) Hi Zainab, I largely agree with your take on the street as a site of surveillance/ contestation/control. But what amuses me the most is the way in which the state seeks to manage spaces like public parks/ community centers/ roads inside a residential colony etc. There seems to be a method behind innocuous measures to gently push the outsider out. The discourse of hygine/ crime/ cleanliness/ security is invoked on a routine basis to secure land/ pavements/ municipal roads/ public parks and of course community centers. Not that crime is mythical in this case but does securing public land in the name of crime prevention help??? I don't know?? or WHY the fencing of land appears to be the only creative solution to crime prevention ? The public-private partnership of Mumbai is also mirriored here, but its more subtle. The chief minister's motherly smile carefully hides the sneer as the Bhagidari between the government and the residents shifts into higher gear. The Delhi Police accelerates its neighborhood watch campaign encouraging neighbors to spy on each other and report any 'suspicious' activity to the police. The RWA's tighten the noose around the hawkers/ sales person/ vegetable vendors/ scavengers and pedestrians. The RWA fences the residential colony area and installs gates around them restricting the access and control of 'public' parks/ streets/ roads/ and shops. The DP also installs CCTV cameras around jantar mantar complex to monitor agitations and also ofcouse keeps a watch on every vehicle/ pedestrian that passes by its watchful gaze. The act of contestation in this haze of assumed/imagined rights [of possession/ ownership of land/ area/ property] then becomes interesting. The missing iron bar on a road divider which is wide enough to let a person pass or a gap in the wire meshing of a colony fence becomes a site of relief. But the arbitrariness through which this kind of power operates makes it more dangerous. The question then becomes how does one negotiate with a quasi legal approach of power. For example, during Christmas last year, the Head constable of New Friends Colony thana with eight constables went around the community center evicting idlers, who were generally sitting and chatting around CC. I was one of them, when I questioned him, he waived his Danda angrily at me,saying, ' Agar Aapko Baat Karni Hai To Cafe Coffee Day Ya Barista Ja KE Baitho Par Yahan Aise Khali Nahi Baithna'. When I reiterated my 'right' to sit here and do whatever I so damn well please, he just stared at me and said with a heavy accent 'Suna Nahi Kya'. That was it. I couldn't do anything about it. This brings us again to the question of leisure. Why in a place like CC sitting idly and chatting around the campus invites the state's wrath but Barista and Cafe Coffee Day are a safeguard to its harassment. It isn't that CC is always like this, God forbid no,but what drives this manic sort of obsession of the state with the street, common grounds where people converge/meet/walk. cheers Taha > Hi Iram, > Thanks for the insightful email. I draw some analyses from your last > email, > very quick and brief ones for the time being: > > 1). Streets and side-ways are increasingly being seen as loose, > uncontrolled > spaces which need to be controlled. So, we have moves from the corporate > sphere, the government sphere, to demolish, have private and public > security > around. At least that is what I see happening in Mumbai. In Delhi in any > case, streets are largely vacant from whatever bit I have seen. In fact I > feel unsafe walking on the streets in Delhi, except for Old Delhi. > > 2). Streets and side-ways are also being seen as spaces of illegality, > again > a Bombay perspective. Here is precisely one of the sites where the > everyday > battles between legality and illegality are being fought. And then again > the > issue of controlling loose space. > > 3). In this discussion on security, there is a very strong need to think > in > terms of the corporate-government perspective. I cannot think of one > without > the other in these times in Mumbai. Battles of competition, economy are > being waged between the corporates and the loose urban spaces. For > instance > the four 7 star hotels at Nariman Point pooling money and hiring private > security to evict hawkers. While the public is not involved in this > tussle, > we are talking of some kind of public when we refer to thge hawkers which > is > being seen as 'outsiders, encroachers'. > > 4). Then again, the media generates tremendous images of the terrorist, > the > encroacher, the illegal entity and these condition the public mind very > strongly. > > In debates on security, these three angles are critical. > > When we talk of public spaces, one of the things I am wrestling with in my > research on the seafronts and railway stations here is who is the public? > And the public seems damn dead when you ask me. They are snoring, caught > up > in the humdrum of daily lives. I have often thought of public and > community > spaces in Mumbai city to be problematic because people tend to use less of > these owing to tight notions and practices of time and these then become > dangerous. For instance the Shivaji Park. Then you have surveillance, > rules, > regulations, laws, policing, etc. And the media contributes to this all. > > For now, I am saying this. But there are several thoughts. Particularly > about institutionalizing entertainment and leisure which is what happens > in > malls and now with a spate of festivals in Mumbai City which aim to > commecialize and brand street food. There are terms of entry into public > spaces like malls and multiplexes and you were damn right when you said > that > if your scout around outside an upmarket place, you are seen suspiciously > by > the guards. What I am wary of is this increasing fuzziness between private > and public security and the use of private security in public spaces. > > Cheers, > Zainab > > > > Zainab Bawa > Mumbai > www.xanga.com/CityBytes > > > > > From: iram at sarai.net > To: reader-list at sarai.net > CC: taha at sarai.net > Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure > Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:44:47 +0100 (CET) > > > Dear Zainab and all, > > Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and > Bombay. > I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except that > Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a justified/ > valid/ legal reason for many things. > > Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use > categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take > recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to clear > my understanding of public/private space. > > Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of space > and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private behaviour > in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking lot > at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones > private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news > channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal > performance of behaviour. > I don�t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of > what is private and public. > > However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC Community > Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, streets, > subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, > cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is reserved > by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a > security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the > restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private > contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard > Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.� So, one will use the > pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to > the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and vise- > versa. > > The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes a > particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential > terrorist or an anti-social being. > To get back to the question of private and public space, I don�t know what > to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of a > square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. It > is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and > restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard > controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of individual > to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential > patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my > understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across > class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- > formal space. > > I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc needs > economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not have > coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public� > imagination? I�m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there is > Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway station > flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She > collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. > > Will Mc Donald�s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their > restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does > the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of `cops > and robbers�, not allow her to play in the veranda? > > However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve > Manisha�s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain > `sacrosanct� spaces in CC on many occasions. > > Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games > like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank Holiday > Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of leisure > acts. `Publics� would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space full > of `strangers�, watch/participate in `fun� activities, eat, drink and head > home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored and > so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to be > wary of strangers. > > Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, > cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the streets, > roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of people > though not all publics to these public spaces. > > Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea of > leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and who > defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? > > looking forward to more views, > > Cheers, > Iram > > > > _________________________________________ > 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: > > _________________________________________________________________ > Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ Click > here now! > > _________________________________________ 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: _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ Click here now! From radiofreealtair at gmail.com Tue Nov 30 11:38:50 2004 From: radiofreealtair at gmail.com (Anand Vivek Taneja) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:38:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure In-Reply-To: <489c765a852ef343684412b886659ea5@sarai.net> References: <489c765a852ef343684412b886659ea5@sarai.net> Message-ID: <8178da9904112922084aa768b4@mail.gmail.com> Dear Iram and Taha, " We invite readers and writers on the list to share personal experiences/ discuss opinions/ raise questions on the institutionlistion of leisure and the surveillance/ control of leisure/public space in Delhi and elsewhere. How law determines the way we behave and how does one perform in the face of this bareness of act?" So - A brief history of the death of a professional loiterer - at the Humayun's Tomb Complex - or, the grass belongs to the Aga Khan... 1998 - I jump an old, crumbling medieval wall, and land up in the walled garden surrounding Isa Khan's Tomb, an enclosure just off Humayun's Tomb, and so far, 'free entry', whether you jump the wall or enter through the gate. The ticketed entry started only at the Humayun's gateway to Humayun's Tomb, further on. Precisely by having leaped the wall, the 'free' walled garden where no one bothered you seemed like arcadia. 2000- A hot summer, I have to see off a friend at Nizamuddin station, but am a bit early. so i go to Isa Khan's Tomb, still free entry, climb upto the roof, and lie down in a small window cut into the eight feet thick drum supporting the dome, for light and ventilation. the thick stone, and the cross ventilation are cool, and i have a beautiful, undisturbed hour of sleep, waking up to see the names of many lovers carved into the plaster... evidence of other loiterers who lounged around here at peace... many families loll around in the green lawns of Humayun's tomb come evening, it is a popular picnic place. 2000. winter - People from The Naramda Valley have arrived at Nizamuddin Station in the morning, to protests against the Supreme Court's recent decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Volunteers from Delhi have been told that there is police surveillance on, and in order for the proposed dharna at the Supreme Court to be successful, we have to disperse all over the city. it's many hours till the dharna, where do we go? As the sun is rising, twenty of us, villagers and shehri-s walk into the Isa Khan Tomb enclosure. No one bothers us for the first hour or so, but then the guard from Humayun's Tomb (hired from a private security agency, in which the guards are trained at, ironically, HumayunPur, behind SafdarJung Enclave) comes visiting, and looks very worried. We tell him we're here for Deve Gowda's Kisan Ralley - of which the posters are up all over the city, and are left in peace. 2001. railings go up around the Humayun's Tomb Complex . The entry to Isa Khan's Tomb is now also ticketed. differntial ticketing. foreigners pay twenty five times more than indians do - ten rupees versus two hundred and fifty. you don't need white skin to be a foreigner. or black skin. you could be from the north east. you could have long hair. you could be carrying a backpack. i get used to being asked the potentially profound question, 'Kahaan se aaaye hain?' The Jahaan-e-Khusrau Festival starts, at which the least of the tickets is a hundred rupees. 2001. summer. i am sitting with a woman friend on the roof of isa khan's tomb. a security guard comes and asks us to leave. then he calls me aside and asks, 'kaam banana hai kya?' sometime in 2001. there is a shootout in the humayun's tomb parking lot, at night. the police kill an alleged terrorist. 2004.last sunday. much money has come in to the humayun's tomb complex from the aga khan trust over the past few years. part of the money has presumably spent on the hi-tech entry turnstiles with magnetic strip cards, operated manually, by the security guards. and the computerised ticketing. inside, there are notices that warn you not to sit on the grass, and there are many guards patrolling to ensure that you do not. and last sunday, i noticed that there were men, in plain clothes, noting down the number of each and every vehicle which was parking at Humayun's Tomb. XXX - Monuments=Museums=Malls=Control Space - All leisure space/time is potential profit. - All leisure/space time has to be channelled/disciplined/regimented. - 'Have you seen anyone but drivers sitting in the park (read Greens, read Commons) in M-Block Market?' - 'Shift the patriwallas into the park'. - 'Do not walk on the grass.' – signboard at Humayun's Tomb. - It costs over six hundred rupees to watch the Taj in the moonlight. I have been reading The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping - a bulky, wrist spraining volume in which text is often incidental to the argument, edited by Chuihua Judy Chung, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas, and Sze Tsung Leong. To me, it is a remarkable documentation and reiteration of the processes and the architecture that is shaping urban spaces globally, but not in the registers of intervention and outrage, as one would have expected, but of cynicism and irony. The last article in the book, which to my mind significantly sums up the various urban trajectories that the book maps, is 'Ulterior Spaces' by Sze Tsung Leong, which dwells on the concept of 'Control Space.' To quote – 'Currently, data represents the technology by which the city is being reconfigured, regardless of its physical composition. Information has become the new mapping device that unlocks the city to reveal the inner working of life, economics and society in vivid detail… '…the manifestation of the powers that configure the city have shifted from the outwardly visible to the invisible; in other words, the city is rendered less through composition, gravity, form or material than it is through statistics, demographics and economic performance… '… control space is motivated by the desire to understand, predict and even fashion the ever-changing, often imperceptible, processes of urban life. As a result the shape of the contemporary city is no longer cohered by the physical visible characteristics such as form, iconography, or density, but arrived at by default, as the residue of ulterior motives. 'AIDA™. Artificial Intelligence Discrimination Architecture. Originally developed to identify Russian missiles in space, AIDA is now used to "recapture possible store defectors in a pre-emptive strike before they start shopping elsewhere." …(Safeways) will be able to spot consumer unhappiness by cross checking existing sales patterns (through data from loyalty cards) with current baskets… activate corrective measures – such as direct mail and special offers. XXX The grass that still grows in M-Block Market, Gk-I, is not 'controlled space'. Yet. Leisure that is not consumption is not in the state's interests because it has the potential to be subversive. (of course, the Ego Thai terrorist problematises that…) It is not in the interests of those who the state chooses to partner –who want you to consume. Shuddha once drew linkages between the absences that (de)linked ACP Rajbir Singh of the Delhi Police, The shootout in the basement of Ansals Plaza, the figure of the terrorist, and the criminal negligence of the Ansals that led to the Uphaar tragedy…. Those linkages are important to my understanding of the Pandu in CC –especially with a new mall and mutiplex coming up at what was once Grandlays. The space for leisure is the space of consumption is the space of control. In the interests of National Security, please Keep Off the Grass. On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 12:59:08 +0100, iram at sarai.net wrote: > > > Dear all, > > We would like to initiate a discussion on the reader list on issues > involving the performance of law in our everyday lived experience through > the institutionalisation of the leisure act and the intertwining of > leisure space and surveillance. > > Some of the issues that we would like to probe/ excavate/ explore/ > understand also through an experiential study of the New Friends Colony > Community Centre, are: > > - The nuances that govern the State and non state players in their > behaviour in non formal spaces which do not seem to fall under the purview > of either public or private space. > > - The control/ censorship of thought and action as a direct fallout of the > use of quasi legal language by the State and its implications in codes of > deemed public behaviour. > > - The ambivalent dictates in the name of public security and legality that > form the basic subtext of restraining ordinary forms of leisure. > > - Does the State want the public to stay within the `private' space of > the home- safe and secure and to come out only to engage in some form of > economic activity or other? And is leisure activity in public space > possible without spending money? > > AN INCIDENT: On a cold, foggy evening, last winter, Taha and a couple of > other friends, Bikas and Gaurav, all students from Mass communication > Research Centre, Jamia were sitting at the fountain opposite Bon Bon > pastry shop in New Friends Colony Community Centre. CC, as it is popularly > called by Jamia students, lies in the shadow of Softel Surya hotel. It is > surrounded by a number of posh south Delhi gated colonies, the Jamia > University and its hostels, and a few other middle class colonies. The > last bus stop for #400, is Okhla Village barely 2 kilometres from CC. > > So far, CC has been able to cater to all its distinctly diverse > communities of patrons. So, if there is the stylish Ego Thai on one hand, > there is also a more middle class New Delhi Food Corner, serving the best > butter chicken in all of Delhi. > > The khaki uniform is not an unfamiliar sight in CC because of the > presence of New Friends Colony thana within the complex of shops and > restaurants. The people seemed to be used to a certain amount of police > presence and control, especially around diwali, dusshehera, eid, new years > eve, 26th January, and the 15th August. > > Despite illegal encroachments by shop owners, and a mushrooming community > of street kids from the Okhla railway station flyover complex, the > relationship between the police and public is what can be termed as > normal- normal to our times. The wine and beer shops close at 10 pm but CC > would remain open till 1 am on normal days. That evening, as these friends > were sitting at the fountain and talking about what young people would > normally talk about… studies, career, politics, films,colleagues, etc > that Taha noticed a man in khaki with what suspiciously looked like a 3 > CCD camera, video recording what looked like themselves! > > On questioning, the man proudly identified himself as Pandu[name changed], > a constable with the NFC thana. They told him that they were media > students in MCRC, Jamia and were working with Zee news, star news and > CNBC! On hearing this, Pandu revealed that he was friends with an ex- > student who worked as a reporter with Aaj Tak news channel. > > He pointedly asked them to sit in either Barista or Mc Donalds, if they > wanted to be out that late and instead of loitring around. > > According to Pandu a training in digital camera and basic non linear > editing software had been given to at least one constable in all police > stations of Delhi. Instructions had been given to record the janta from > 7.30 pm till 9:00 pm everyday. > > Pandu proudly showed these guys the footage shot so far. A couple of men > having beer in a car, zoom in to the number plate of the car, some close > up shots of women and mid shots of themselves. In fact, because Taha's > face was covered by a shawl, he had changed the camera angles to get a > better shot. It was amply clear was that Pandu was a not a very good > camera person! > > Pandu disclosed, with an air of self importance, that because an alleged > terrorist arrested from some part of Delhi, had apparently had dinner at > Ego Thai, orders were issued to video graph the area, map people, and > generate profiles of regulars and new comers. > > In retrospect, the enormity of the situation did strike these people but > final projects were on and you don't take pangas with the police if > you > are a law abiding student from jamia Millia Islamia. Hence, though the > matter was much discussed/ debated, but just that. > > This summer Taha ran into Pandu again. At CC. He promptly shot Taha for a > a few minutes, smiled, waved a hi and went on his way like a friendly > neighbourhood constable. Possibly his camera work had improved but one can > only guess, for this time he did not show the footage to Taha. > > College was finally over. Taha and his friends have left the hostel. Bikas > wrote a short story about the incident but I guess lost it in shifting > accomodation. He works with CNBC. Gaurav is a free lance photographer > and Taha is a researcher on information society. > > Community Centre is as welcoming as before. They are now building a mall > cum multiplex cinema hall on top of Mc Donalds. CC just might change. > > We invite readers and writers on the list to share personal experiences/ > discuss opinions/ raise questions on the institutionlistion of leisure and > the surveillance/ control of leisure/public space in Delhi and elsewhere. > How law determines the way we behave and how does one perform in the face > of this bareness of act? > > looking forwards to responses, > cheers, > iram and taha > > _________________________________________ > 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 not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. http://www.synchroni-cities.blogspot.com/ From iram at sarai.net Tue Nov 30 13:36:19 2004 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:06:19 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list]: the Act of leisure In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <32988.210.7.77.145.1101801979.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear aniruddha, The core issue is not that pandu hawaldar was shooting something akin to a shadi video of Taha, Bikas and Gaurav in New Friends Colony community centre without their permission. The point to ponder is exactly WHAT he intends to do with the footage? Will it be part of a citizen profile library that anyone can access? However you are absolutely right in believing that we have equated the concept of leisure with freedom to move around! In fact, I feel that freedom to move around is far more important than any concept of leisure. So, what is leisure? Is it a generic term? Is it individual? and is it different for economists/ sociologists/ psychologists and historians etc etc.? Cheers, Iram PS: `dubiousness of means while shooting documentaries or EFP’s”- It is an important issue but is it central to this discussion? > > Dear Iram, > > I was aware of the incident at CC but had not given it a serious thought > until i read your posting. Let me explain why. > > > Apparently your main accusation against the cop is not that he asked our > friends to leave but that he was photographing them against their > knowledge.If so, let me venture to say that ,that is something we are all > guilty of.I think it is far more revealing to photograph people in > informal > settings, when they are unaware of it. Our celebrated media revels in > it.How > many times have we seen a Outlook or India Today capturing perfectly law > abiding citizens in slightly uncomfortable and uncompromising situations? > > > Starlets kissing, teenagers holding hands in Lodhi gardens..and so > on.Havent > we all resorted to a certain dubiousness of means while shooting > documentaries or EFP’s?At least the cops usually will not (dare not), > publicize their material.We can sue them if they try.That is not to say > that > I am defending the Delhi Police.Surely not! Our policemen are often > uncooperative and sometimes a downright nuisance. However it is unfair to > paint them entirely in black based on one incident. > > What I do not understand is what the aforementioned incident has to do > with > leisure. If that dumb cops’s point was to prevent people from hanging > around > after midnight then maybe there is some justification to it.Delhi is after > all notorious for its late night crimes and coupled with the security > threat > is enough to make our callous authorities paranoid and even overreact > perhaps. I think you are equating the concept of leisure with the freedom > to > move around. > > The point is that society at large ( my family included ) > will simply not be able to comprehend what we gained by strolling around > late nights at CC, doing nothing in particular.There’s nothing wrong with > that per se, its just that it does not fit in with societies concept of > leisure. Of course if you are shooting late at night at CC , then the cops > don’t bother, it’s a hard nights work after all!(I speak from personal > experience). > > Leisure to my mind is entirely contextual..Leisure in the private sector > is > often a part of official policy. They are recreations formulated by the HR > in an organization to help the employees de-stress and unwind , so that > they > can perform better and increase productivity. My friend who is working in > American Express was asked to go to a resort in Rajasthan for a few days, > as > a ‘change of scene’.Any refusal to go would be met with frowns and > disapproval.Another friend in TOI has a compulsory yoga session in the > mornings on weekdays, due to which he has to reach office one hour > earlier.Ad agencies are hosting an interoffice cricket tournament, with > match practice on weekends,most schools have their own Extra Curricular > Activities after school hours..the list is endless. > > Psychologists argue that such activities are necessary to broaden an > employee’s horizon and keep him/her alert. Undoubtedly there are many who > will consider this too as an invasion of privacy and examples of needless > regulation.Thus its pretty clear that it is not the state alone which > decides what leisure should consist of; rather every group, community or > even society have their own conception of leisure which those outside the > group may not approve of. One cannot have uninhibited freedom in a society > bound by rules. > > And what about our immediate families? We may( and do) consider boozing > late > nights at CC as leisure, but both cops and our families will be in > complete > agreement, that it is an unwanted, destructive habit. Thus don’t our loved > ones contribute to stereotypical notions of leisure as well? The > authorities > do what they do because they know that they have both legal and > sociological > sanction behind it.The solution is simple.You cannot change the state if > you > don’t change the mindset... > > aniruddha b > > > > > > > > > Home | My MSN | Hotmail | Groups | Search | > Messenger > Feedback | Help > © 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. TERMS OF USE Privacy > Statement Anti-Spam Policy > > _________________________________________________________________ > Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ Click > here now! > > _________________________________________ > 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 taha at sarai.net Tue Nov 30 17:05:00 2004 From: taha at sarai.net (taha at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 12:35:00 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure In-Reply-To: References: <2099.210.7.77.145.1101722353.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <33152.210.7.77.145.1101814500.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Aniruddha, Anand, Zainab and all, Thankyou for taking this discussion through various trajectories and giving some food for thought to us all. Hopefully! Aniruddha, I do understand the need to have an eclectic approach to leisure, to complicate it in order to unpack it. I am completely in agreement to the argument that leisure must be contextual but I think that that there exist numerous other contexts beside the corporate context, which I believe are as much important. So how does then one negotiate with this? Does one completely ignore the need to have leisure in the context of those who can’t ‘afford’ the services of a resort in Rajasthan !. What does then constitute leisure? Should leisure always mean images, which we see on the ‘Discovery’/ National Geographic/ NDTV [Night Out] channel? Where leisure is packaged as a commodity, which can be bought at a price. Where it becomes an object that can be fetishized. Where it induces a sense of anxiety in those who can’t meet the expense of its rendering. What then becomes of leisure and its meaning? What then constitutes leisure? Doesn’t it then embodies into a hotch- potch collages of largely two dimensional images, of iconography, of depictions, of representations, of portrayals, Of exotic locales, of beaches, of luxury cruises across the Carabians, of foreign lands, of meeting different/ ‘unknown’ people, of unheard of places, of exquisite dresses, of unique jewellery, of dinning out, of trendy discotheques, of partying late, of unwinding [MTV style]. Doesn’t then leisure become a cloistered sort of an experience where ones sees and hears but doesn’t smell, taste, or feel? Doesn’t leisure then transmogrify into a sort of a protestant ethic as argued by Weber, where idleness is regarded as sin; so when viewed from the spirit of capitalism, loitering/ chatting/ idling/ walking/ sleeping/sitting/ conversing/ faltugiri etc would then be not but regarded as a sin/ violation/corruption/impetuous act/ breach/ contravention/infringement/ transgression? of law/society/ culture/ resident associations/ management committeess etc. But this exactly is the point I am arguing against, that WHY should my act of chatting or idling be regarded as a misdeed? Does there exist NO other ethic except the Protestant ethic that drives the spirit of capitalism? What nomenclatures must then [if it should be] be devised to address these other existing forms of leisure/ non-formal activities? Will seclusion or conversely inclusion with the right of entry reserved, be the only justification to this dilemma? Anand’s insightful account of the Humayum Tomb Complex and Isa Khan tomb’s tell us that yes, it is but is it the only alternative? I don’t know. Will Nariman point go the Isa Khan way in near/distant future? Zainab’s argument of the necessity of street cultures to the city is, I think, critical because vibrant streets are an important site to deconstruct the notion of leisure as a site of consumption and hence control. For it represents a detour to approach the idea of leisure as also a non- formal activity without the burden of a corporate context or regimes of state regulation, surveillance or control. Cheers Taha > Dear Taha, > I read Aniruddh's email. One experience which I very clearly remember had > taken place with my sister, me and a friend. This was three years ago. > After > watching a movie in the Excelsior Theater at VT, three of us proceeded > towards VT station. We stood by a corner of a shop in the subway and were > chatting. The private security guard came up to us and said this is not a > place to hang around, get out from here. My friend who was male, was > irritated and said that since we were not creating any trouble and were > neither in the way of the people or the shop, he had no right to shoo us > off. We stood there for some more time and I think the guard kept watching > over us. I agree with Aniruddh when he says that certain mindsets have to > change. Normally, in Mumbai, I cannot imagine hanging around in a street > which has private residences and which is quiet by itself. I imagine this > is > how NFC is having been there once. Also, NFC by itself is a very plush > locality and it is not surprising that you would get shooed off just for > hanging around there. If I have to wait for somebody outside Regal Cinema > at > Colaba, the guard of the cinema will keep a watch over me, wondering what > I > am doing - am I soliciting clients i.e. am I a prostitute? If I am dressed > like a South Mumbai yuppie, then I am okay because it means that I am > waiting for my bunch of friends to join me for a movie. > > When you speak about leisure, a trend which i have noticed in some of > interviews with people who live around Marine Drive and Nariman Point, > they > tell that there is no place in Delhi to hang out for free. At Nariman > Point, > you can hang around for free because it is a vast public space. Do what > you > like, though of course there are some civil lines to this. Spaces like > these > are few in Mumbai, but critical because they provide breathers not just to > the middle class and below, but also to the rich and famous who may be > getting suffocated inside the confines of their home. This kind of free, > levelling and open leisure is somehow coming under the eyes of the > corporate > entities. Thus, Nariman Point will now be revamped with an art deco > precinct, portions of it will be adopted by corporates for maintenance, > there will be brass street furniture and what not. The architect, Ratan > Batliboy, who has conceived of these grand ideas says in the latest issue > of > Time Out that what was free will continue to remain free, only that the > quality of people who come to Nariman point will now be improved. And this > is what concerns me, as Ravi says, 'terms of entry'. 'Terms of entry' into > particular spaces are being regulated. You have to dress in a certain kind > of way, behave in a certain way, if you are to feel accepted in a space. > This is societal norms and conventions and also trends as shaped by the > media. It concerns me that in attempting to create a Shanghai or an > aesthetic city, we want to do away with people who we think are rowdy, > hooligans, etc. We want to clean out the anti-social elements, a recent > drive against beggars, CSWs and drug peddalars in South Mumbai which is > atrocious in some ways and very brutal too. All of this because we want to > create an aesthetic city. What bullshit! > > Street culture is critical to the very safety of the city. As I read about > crimes in the trains and at railway stations, I feel some of it emerges > from > the erosion of illegal entities who were always a part of the street - of > course, this is just speculation and there could be more to this than what > I > am saying. > > Property by itself is exlcusionary - this belongs to me, you cannot > tresspass. The inside nooks and corners of private residential roads are > not > meant for 'hanging around' as we have known them to be. If you are hanging > around outside these, you are very likely to be seen as a troublemaker. I > think this also has to do with the concepts and practices of time in a > city > - who has time for faaltugiri in a city? Only faltu people! And faltu > people > in our imagination are trouble makers or mischief mongers! > > Cheers, > Zainab > > > > Zainab Bawa > Mumbai > www.xanga.com/CityBytes > > > > > From: taha at sarai.net > To: "Zainab Bawa" > CC: reader-list at sarai.net > Subject: RE: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure > Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:59:13 +0100 (CET) > > Hi Zainab, > > I largely agree with your take on the street as a site of surveillance/ > contestation/control. But what amuses me the most is the way in which the > state seeks to manage spaces like public parks/ community centers/ roads > inside a residential colony etc. There seems to be a method behind > innocuous measures to gently push the outsider out. The discourse of > hygine/ crime/ cleanliness/ security is invoked on a routine basis to > secure land/ pavements/ municipal roads/ public parks and of course > community centers. Not that crime is mythical in this case but does > securing public land in the name of crime prevention help??? I don't > know?? or WHY the fencing of land appears to be the only creative solution > to crime prevention ? > > The public-private partnership of Mumbai is also mirriored here, but its > more subtle. The chief minister's motherly smile carefully hides the > sneer as the Bhagidari between the government and the residents shifts > into higher gear. The Delhi Police accelerates its neighborhood watch > campaign encouraging neighbors to spy on each other and report any > 'suspicious' activity to the police. The RWA's tighten the noose around > the hawkers/ sales person/ vegetable vendors/ scavengers and pedestrians. > The RWA fences the residential colony area and installs gates around them > restricting the access and control of 'public' parks/ streets/ roads/ and > shops. The DP also installs CCTV cameras around jantar mantar complex to > monitor agitations and also ofcouse keeps a watch on every vehicle/ > pedestrian that passes by its watchful gaze. > > The act of contestation in this haze of assumed/imagined rights [of > possession/ ownership of land/ area/ property] then becomes interesting. > The missing iron bar on a road divider which is wide enough to let a > person pass or a gap in the wire meshing of a colony fence becomes a > site of relief. > > But the arbitrariness through which this kind of power operates makes it > more dangerous. The question then becomes how does one negotiate with > a > quasi legal approach of power. For example, during Christmas last year, > the Head constable of New Friends Colony thana with eight constables went > around the community center evicting idlers, who were generally sitting > and chatting around CC. I was one of them, when I questioned him, he > waived his Danda angrily at me,saying, ' Agar Aapko Baat Karni Hai To Cafe > Coffee Day Ya Barista Ja KE Baitho Par Yahan Aise Khali Nahi Baithna'. > > When I reiterated my 'right' to sit here and do whatever I so damn well > please, he just stared at me and said with a heavy accent 'Suna Nahi Kya'. > That was it. I couldn't do anything about it. > > This brings us again to the question of leisure. Why in a place like CC > sitting idly and chatting around the campus invites the state's wrath but > Barista and Cafe Coffee Day are a safeguard to its harassment. It isn't > that CC is always like this, God forbid no,but what drives this manic sort > of obsession of the state with the street, common grounds where people > converge/meet/walk. > > cheers > > Taha > > > > > > Hi Iram, > > Thanks for the insightful email. I draw some analyses from your last > > email, > > very quick and brief ones for the time being: > > > > 1). Streets and side-ways are increasingly being seen as loose, > > uncontrolled > > spaces which need to be controlled. So, we have moves from the > corporate > > sphere, the government sphere, to demolish, have private and public > > security > > around. At least that is what I see happening in Mumbai. In Delhi in > any > > case, streets are largely vacant from whatever bit I have seen. In fact > I > > feel unsafe walking on the streets in Delhi, except for Old Delhi. > > > > 2). Streets and side-ways are also being seen as spaces of illegality, > > again > > a Bombay perspective. Here is precisely one of the sites where the > > everyday > > battles between legality and illegality are being fought. And then > again > > the > > issue of controlling loose space. > > > > 3). In this discussion on security, there is a very strong need to > think > > in > > terms of the corporate-government perspective. I cannot think of one > > without > > the other in these times in Mumbai. Battles of competition, economy are > > being waged between the corporates and the loose urban spaces. For > > instance > > the four 7 star hotels at Nariman Point pooling money and hiring > private > > security to evict hawkers. While the public is not involved in this > > tussle, > > we are talking of some kind of public when we refer to thge hawkers > which > > is > > being seen as 'outsiders, encroachers'. > > > > 4). Then again, the media generates tremendous images of the terrorist, > > the > > encroacher, the illegal entity and these condition the public mind very > > strongly. > > > > In debates on security, these three angles are critical. > > > > When we talk of public spaces, one of the things I am wrestling with in > my > > research on the seafronts and railway stations here is who is the > public? > > And the public seems damn dead when you ask me. They are snoring, > caught > > up > > in the humdrum of daily lives. I have often thought of public and > > community > > spaces in Mumbai city to be problematic because people tend to use less > of > > these owing to tight notions and practices of time and these then > become > > dangerous. For instance the Shivaji Park. Then you have surveillance, > > rules, > > regulations, laws, policing, etc. And the media contributes to this > all. > > > > For now, I am saying this. But there are several thoughts. Particularly > > about institutionalizing entertainment and leisure which is what > happens > > in > > malls and now with a spate of festivals in Mumbai City which aim to > > commecialize and brand street food. There are terms of entry into > public > > spaces like malls and multiplexes and you were damn right when you said > > that > > if your scout around outside an upmarket place, you are seen > suspiciously > > by > > the guards. What I am wary of is this increasing fuzziness between > private > > and public security and the use of private security in public spaces. > > > > Cheers, > > Zainab > > > > > > > > Zainab Bawa > > Mumbai > > www.xanga.com/CityBytes > > > > > > > > > > From: iram at sarai.net > > To: reader-list at sarai.net > > CC: taha at sarai.net > > Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure > > Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:44:47 +0100 (CET) > > > > > > Dear Zainab and all, > > > > Thanx for sharing your experiences/ observances of Delhi, Bangalore and > > Bombay. > > I guess as cities go, there are many similarities in all three except > that > > Delhi being the national capital can always cite security as a > justified/ > > valid/ legal reason for many things. > > > > Taha and I should have been more clear on what we mean when we use > > categories such as private/ public and non formal spaces. I will take > > recourse to the space of the New Friends Colony community center to > clear > > my understanding of public/private space. > > > > Can one really define public and private as clear-cut categories of > space > > and behaviour? How does one categorize private or deemed private > behaviour > > in public spaces? For example, kissing ones boyfriend in the parking > lot > > at CC or for that matter, public or deemed public behaviour in ones > > private space. For example, a film star giving an interview to a news > > channel while sitting in her drawing room would elicit a more formal > > performance of behaviour. > > I don’t think that I am in a position to give conclusive definitions of > > what is private and public. > > > > However, when I talk of public space with reference to the NFC > Community > > Centre, I mean the sidewalks, pavements, verandas, parking lots, > streets, > > subways, and squares etc. The inside of the shops, restaurants, bars, > > cinema halls are private spaces because the right of admission is > reserved > > by the owner of the property or one is deterred by the presence of a > > security guard. The public space of the verandas are taken over by the > > restaurants and shops, the parking lot is leased out to private > > contractors and all other spaces are meant to be used, to quote Richard > > Sennet as ` areas to move through and not be in.’ So, one will use > the > > pavement, sidewalk, veranda, square to move from the general store to > > the chemist to pizza hut to the cinema hall to the parking lot and > vise- > > versa. > > > > The idea of sitting in front of Ego Thai [an upmarket restaurant] makes > a > > particular kind of individual, a nuisance, a vagabond, a potential > > terrorist or an anti-social being. > > To get back to the question of private and public space, I don’t know > what > > to call the space of the fountain in a small open area in the shape of > a > > square typical to many Community Centres in Delhi. It is owned by DDA. > It > > is not a private space owned by any of the surrounding shops and > > restaurants. It is not a public space because a private security guard > > controls movement of people. He will not allow certain kind of > individual > > to sit around and that includes anyone who is not a patron/potential > > patron of the shop/ restaurant. Public spaces, according to my > > understanding were supposed to be spaces, that were open to all across > > class, caste, race, religion and gender, hence the use of the term non- > > formal space. > > > > I agree that a public space such as a restaurant, cinema hall, etc > needs > > economic transaction to survive. But, are spaces where one need not > have > > coffee and sit or watch a film for free, totally out of `public’ > > imagination? I’m still grappling with this one though. Besides, there > is > > Manisha. She is eight years old and lives under the Okhla railway > station > > flyover. The NFC Community Centre is work and play space for her. She > > collects garbage, begs and is a regular sight at CC. > > > > Will Mc Donald’s- the family restaurant allow her to enter their > > restaurant space if she wants to buy a seven-rupee ice cream cone? Does > > the security guard, who I see as a non- State player in this game of > `cops > > and robbers’, not allow her to play in the veranda? > > > > However, this discussion was initiated not because I wanted to solve > > Manisha’s problem but because I was not allowed to sit in certain > > `sacrosanct’ spaces in CC on many occasions. > > > > Coming back to the idea of leisure and control, the popularity of games > > like football, rugby etc in Europe after the passing of the Bank > Holiday > > Act 1871 indicates at the institutionalisation of certain kind of > leisure > > acts. `Publics’ would go out in large numbers, congregate at a space > full > > of `strangers’, watch/participate in `fun’ activities, eat, drink and > head > > home. But through all of this entry/exit would be restricted/monitored > and > > so would behaviour and announcements/advertisements would ask people to > be > > wary of strangers. > > > > Appu Ghar, trade fairs, zoological gardens, resorts, parks, stadiums, > > cinema halls etc. become such public spaces and the spaces of the > streets, > > roads, pavements, subways, and railway stations become carriers of > people > > though not all publics to these public spaces. > > > > Some ideas that we are thinking about- Do we take leisure and the idea > of > > leisure as given? What are the normal/ accepted forms of leisure and > who > > defines them? Is leisure a performance of sorts? > > > > looking forward to more views, > > > > Cheers, > > Iram > > > > > > > > _________________________________________ > > 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: > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ > Click > > here now! > > > > > > > _________________________________________ > 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: > > _________________________________________________________________ > Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ Click > here now! > > From definetime at rediffmail.com Tue Nov 30 15:37:28 2004 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 30 Nov 2004 10:07:28 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] the Act of leisure Message-ID: <20041130100728.2180.qmail@webmail18.rediffmail.com> It's strange that the Delhi Police is video recording 'loiterers'. If the opposite were to happen, the Police force as I see it in South Delhi would be in a lot of trouble. The local constabulary goes around collecting money/goods from almost every construction site, every street vendor - without any fear. Well almost. About a year ago, the patrolling constables would come on a daily basis to the construction next door and 'collect' on a daily basis from the labourers. Once when I was in the ear-shot of their dealings, they quickly stepped aside and started an impromptu chit-chat with me. As I heard from the labourers later, they resumed their 'dealings' the minute, I turned my back to them. This whole surveillance and security does have a strong class element to it. And the 'terms of entry' issue revolves around that same class conflict to an extent. Once I saw this same 'patrolling squad' question this guy probably from the nearby slum cluster, (about 18 or so) who was merrily passing through our colony with 3 girls. The questioning bordered on intimidation, and since it all happened in my presence I can add - comepletely uncalled for. In the barricaded colonies of south delhi, our constitution rights become quite hazy. Whatever the DP's pretenses, the fact remains that only a chosen few are at the recieving end. Here's a little news item from a slightly more evolved society, which seems to encompass vigilance(surveillance), public space, 'anti-social' behaviour and authoritarian might. Hope it adds fuel to the ongoing conversations. -Sanjay Parents protest as school suspends 40 girls for bullying Audrey Gillan and Rebecca Smithers Saturday November 27, 2004 The Guardian At first there were only a few of them - girls gathered by a wall outside school at 3pm last Tuesday. Two had agreed to meet to chat about a wayward boyfriend, but jealousy and spurned feelings of teenage love quickly turned the encounter into a screaming match. As the words "slag" and "bitch" flew, more pupils were drawn into the crowd. At the centre of it was a 15-year-old, being pushed and shoved and told that if she came back to school she would be "dead". Yesterday, she was not at Glenmoor school in Bournemouth. Nor were 40 of her fellow pupils, who were suspended by their head teacher, accused being involved in a bullying incident. Images captured by the school's CCTV cameras show a growing group of 13 to 15 year olds as the row escalates. Pam Orchard, the school's head, intervened when two of her teachers failed to control the situation. After assessing the footage, she concluded that all 40 girls had been involved in bullying. The victim, she said, was petrified: "When I went out there to break it up I couldn't believe what I saw. They were swarming about the girl like bees round a honey pot, punching and kicking out. "The girl was absolutely terrified. This was so disgraceful I had no option but to suspend for a fixed term the girls who participated in it. I won't tolerate bullying of any kind in my school." Mrs Orchard said that girls who were "normally polite and accommodating" were crowding round the girl and "behaving like a mob". She gathered them all together on Wednesday and told them not to return to school until Monday. The victim and her 14-year-old accuser had agreed to have a chat after one discovered the other had snogged her ex-boyfriend, who had finished with her a week or two before. Yesterday, a number of the girls who had been suspended said that Mrs Orchard had over-reacted. Chelsea Collins, 14, said the younger girl, who was alleged to have started the incident, was upset by everything that had happened. "She is a quiet girl and she said that she wants the whole thing to come to an end, for people to stop arguing. She is really sorry." Chelsea said she was angered by her suspension. "I feel like I have been victimised. I was just walking past the crowd and went to have a look at what was going on. I was on the edge of the group. I didn't say anything to anyone and I didn't attack anyone." Her mother, Jakki - along with some of the other girls' parents - said she was furious that her daughter had been excluded. "I have spoken to my lawyer about my daughter being branded a bully. It is not true. How can you suspend a girl for not doing anything and just watching an incident?" Another mother, Tracy O'Shea, said her daughter, Kirsty, 15, had merely walked over to the group to see what was happening and ended up being punished. "She was one of the last ones to meet up with the group. Like most people would, my daughter came out of school, saw this confusion going on, walked over to see what was happening and that is all she did." A friend of the girl who started the row said: "When she realised that everyone was being suspended she started crying. She said it was all her fault and that she was really sorry. The boy they were fighting over wasn't worth the bother." Another girl said: "She was really upset when he dumped her about two weeks ago. Then on Friday night he got off with the other girl on the common. She found out about it and got really upset. But then everyone started to gather round and shout stuff at her." Last night, Jayne Bond, the school's assistant head, denied that the school had overreacted as a result of this week being declared national Anti-Bullying Week by the Department for Education and Skills. "If this had not happened during Anti-Bullying Week, we would have made exactly the same decision," she said. "I haven't heard that any parents will be taking legal advice, but if I do hear of it, we will also have to do that." Pupils knew the school's bullying policy. "All the girls know if an incident is happening and you join in and you don't do anything to help or support, then you have to be equally culpable. "We can't allow an incident like this to occur and not do anything about it. We have to make it very clear that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable." According to government figures, one in three secondary school pupils experiences bullying and one in four primary pupils is a victim of playground abuse. More than half of all children believe that bullying is a "big problem". About 80% of incidents take place at lunchtime or during breaks. But in the most serious cases, according to the charity, Kidscape, up to 20 children kill themselves every year as a result of bullying. Outside Glenmoor school yesterday, a group of girls stood by the wall, singing, playing and staring at the media gathered on the pavement across the road. They didn't know what all the fuss was about. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20041130/1a5dc28f/attachment.html From shivamvij at gmail.com Tue Nov 30 19:15:30 2004 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:15:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] India better at subways than New York? It's true Message-ID: India better at subways than New York? It's true By Jeremy Carl [NY Daily News | 27 November 2004] http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/256727p-219891c.html When I moved to New Delhi, India's chaotic capital, I scarcely expected to find a model for urban transit from which New York could learn. But New Delhi's Metro Rail is just that: a great new system that makes me reflect sadly on the glacial progress of New York's long-delayed Second Ave. subway and the continuing public wars between the mayor and transit officials. New York is talking - again - about starting work on the 8-mile Second Ave. line. It's budgeted at $17 billion and scheduled to take up to 16 years to complete. Given the MTA's history, the time and cost estimates are undoubtedly low. Meanwhile, India, a developing country with a per-capita income approximately 1/13th of America's, is building a 21st-century system at a fraction of that cost. New Delhi started from scratch in 1998 and now has 13 miles of rail line up and running. The system is due to grow to 40 miles by next June, as workers complete their jobs three years ahead of schedule. The cost of all this: $2.3 billion, a mere fraction of the Second Ave. estimate. And the city plans to expand the network to 150 miles by 2021, about the time the Second Ave. subway might be ready. How has New Delhi done it? Obviously, wages are phenomenally lower than they are in New York. But that still doesn't begin to explain the cost differences. And it certainly does not explain the difference in time lines. New Delhi's team is kept on schedule through the leadership of a 71-year-old engineer, E. Sreedharan, who is a legend in India for his ability to finish complex projects ahead of time and under budget. That's a lesson for New York: Leadership matters, and New York's can't-do bureaucrats are in desperate need of some. In contrast to Delhi's count-every-minute attitude, New York officials have talked about a Second Ave. subway since the 1920s and actually began building some sections more than 30 years ago. But the project has plodded along, a victim of bureaucratic inertia, construction kickbacks, intransigent unions and fund diversions. By 1972, there had been at least four formal project delays. That's when the city's Transit Authority put out a brochure titled, "The Line That Almost Never Was." It still isn't. New Delhi's experience shows that world-class public transport can come to one of the world's largest cities - even one in a low-income, developing country - ahead of schedule and under budget. If New Delhi can do it, why can't New York? Carl is a visiting fellow working on transportation policy at the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi. -- -30- From sbreitsameter at snafu.de Tue Nov 30 22:56:13 2004 From: sbreitsameter at snafu.de (Sabine Breitsameter) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 18:26:13 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Bhopal - radio play, Dec 1, 2004, 19.05 CET - live stream In-Reply-To: <20041130115050.3465028E58F@mail.sarai.net> References: <20041130115050.3465028E58F@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: Hello everybody! Quite a number of you on this list had been supporting me with infos for my radio projects on the Bhopal gas tragedy. Thank you very much . The programs will be aired during the next days on the cultural channels of German public radio as well as in Austria. Their duration is one hour. If you want to listen to the program, you can go to the Internet on Dec 1, 2004, 19.05 CET http://www.dradio.de/dlr/ scroll down on the left until you see "Live-Stream". Click it. Then you get a pop-up-window. Don't go to "Deutschlandfunk" on top, but to "DeutschlandRadio" some lines below, and click the sort of player you need. You will be able to listen to the live-stream of the program. Sorry, it will be only audible in German. However, there is a lot of original sounds and voices from Bhopal. The piece's title is "Bhopal - Erinnerungen an die Giftgas-Katastrophe von 1984". There is another radio piece of mine on Bhopal aired on SWR2, on Dec 2, 14.05 CET, however, there is no live-stream available. Thanks again Sabine From aasim27 at yahoo.co.in Tue Nov 30 19:18:55 2004 From: aasim27 at yahoo.co.in (aasim khan) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 13:48:55 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Act of Leisure Message-ID: <20041130134855.63367.qmail@web8510.mail.in.yahoo.com> I found your posting on the Act of Leisure very interesting and I wish to put my inputs in this mail. I would like to initiate a discussion about the very definition of leisure itself because in my view it is here that we can definitely find a link between the idea of leisure and the controls (via surveillance, as in the case with Taha at CC ) .The reason why I focus my attention to the very basic definition of leisure is because I feel that it is not just a performance rather it is governed by very deep rooted concepts of class,caste,religion,age etc etc. That is to say no matter how carefree we might appear when we perform this act we better not be careless for the results could be very difficult. I would cite an example that brings forward the lack of definition which precedes the idea of leisure itself and how it is very distinctly linked with the mechanisms (such as increasing surveillance) which exist to control it. We all are aware of the recent incident involving two students of a Delhi School, who were caught in The ACT on an MMS msg send out by the guy himself to his friends. There are several issues which have been highlighted in the media but there seems to be unanimity about the fact that what happened was BAD? The school passed its moral verdict by suspending both the students involved in the incident. My first point is about the whole idea of MAKING OUT. Would something like this (and there is no clear definition like a lot of other leisure activities.) be considered an Act of Leisure at all? For it seems to be a bit too Personal a matter. Well What about making out in public spaces? What about making out in schools where the surveillance is very highly institutionalized. Some parents might have justifiable complaint that making out is unhygienic (Kids should not put dirty things in their mouths!),most of them insist that it is immoral. Just on what grounds. Is it not just a very good way of learning about one’s sexuality? This form of (extreme) leisure certainly is the raises extreme repulsion and in tern oppression from the state as well. The constant tyranny of cops in the parks and other HOT SPOTS for people who want to make out! Anyways moving on, this incident also involved the new mms being misused. Well SMSing and MMSing seem to be the fav. Leisure activities for a lot of people in Dli.And we all are very well aware what sorts of SMS jokes do the rounds on city’s million plus phones. Just because this time it was a video (it was a sick joke though!), it caught everyone by surprise. And now we hear of some hotels banning MMS phones in their lobbies fearing and using counter surveillance to stop it! This maybe just the beginning of the ice berg because several Mobile companies in Europe and US are planning to give there customers a new service, PORN on their MOBILE phones. And it is estimated to be a million dollar industry, with a huge marketer among the youth! Anyways, this incident certainly brought a lot of hypocrisy that exists in our city to the ront pages of national newspapers. But long with that it raised an alarm, esp. among the surveillancewallahs, about the whole idea of leisure activities, be it SMS/MMS or Making Out. ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony From abose25 at hotmail.com Tue Nov 30 21:08:28 2004 From: abose25 at hotmail.com (Aniruddha Basu) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 15:38:28 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list]: the Act of leisure In-Reply-To: <32988.210.7.77.145.1101801979.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: Dear Iram, If Pandu& Co. really intend to process the footage as part of some citizen profiling project,then we'll be well within our rights to sue the morons and create a media issue out of it.However such an Orwellian possibility is not very likely to occur.My guess is that he shot the footage as part of 'normal procedure' since as you mentioned, a suspected terrorist was seen in the vicinity , and the cops were trying to keep an eye on anything suspicious.There really seems to be not much cause for alarm yet. Regarding your question about what constitutes leisure,I think that if we regard leisure as a private or individual act then it differs literally from person to person,and being a private matter is outside the realm of public debate.And, if leisure is as I suggested societal/contextual,then at best we can compare forms of leisure but not find any underlying thread to formulate a theory.So, its an open ended question which begs an answer.Leisure can be generic or individual (or both), is my guess.An economist will obviously look at leisure from a purchasing power/lifestyle perspective( how often can I afford going to PVR?).A psychologist will view leisure as a highly subjective phenomenon based on personality traits, while a sociologist will probably relate leisure to culture and socialization.However all these viewpoints would require enormous research and fieldwork,which I am in no position to make. Finally when I wrote about dubiousness of means my only intention was to point out that many of us have adopted the methods that Pandu had employed, and that there's nothing wrong in it per se.Our ends were of course nobler! Aniruddha. >From: iram at sarai.net >To: reader-list at sarai.net >CC: "Aniruddha Basu" >Subject: Re: [Reader-list]: the Act of leisure >Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:06:19 +0100 (CET) > > >Dear aniruddha, > >The core issue is not that pandu hawaldar was shooting >something akin to a shadi video of Taha, Bikas and >Gaurav in New Friends Colony community centre without >their permission. The point to ponder is exactly WHAT >he intends to do with the footage? Will it be part of >a citizen profile library that anyone can access? > >However you are absolutely right in believing that we >have equated the concept of leisure with freedom to >move around! In fact, I feel that freedom to move >around is far more important than any concept of >leisure. So, what is leisure? Is it a generic term? Is it individual? and >is it different for economists/ sociologists/ >psychologists and historians etc etc.? > >Cheers, >Iram > >PS: `dubiousness of means while shooting documentaries >or EFP�s�- It is an important issue but is it central to >this discussion? > > > > > Dear Iram, > > > > I was aware of the incident at CC but had not given it a serious thought > > until i read your posting. Let me explain why. > > > > > > Apparently your main accusation against the cop is not that he asked our > > friends to leave but that he was photographing them against their > > knowledge.If so, let me venture to say that ,that is something we are >all > > guilty of.I think it is far more revealing to photograph people in > > informal > > settings, when they are unaware of it. Our celebrated media revels in > > it.How > > many times have we seen a Outlook or India Today capturing perfectly law > > abiding citizens in slightly uncomfortable and uncompromising >situations? > > > > > > Starlets kissing, teenagers holding hands in Lodhi gardens..and so > > on.Havent > > we all resorted to a certain dubiousness of means while shooting > > documentaries or EFP�s?At least the cops usually will not (dare not), > > publicize their material.We can sue them if they try.That is not to say > > that > > I am defending the Delhi Police.Surely not! Our policemen are often > > uncooperative and sometimes a downright nuisance. However it is unfair >to > > paint them entirely in black based on one incident. > > > > What I do not understand is what the aforementioned incident has to do > > with > > leisure. If that dumb cops�s point was to prevent people from hanging > > around > > after midnight then maybe there is some justification to it.Delhi is >after > > all notorious for its late night crimes and coupled with the security > > threat > > is enough to make our callous authorities paranoid and even overreact > > perhaps. I think you are equating the concept of leisure with the >freedom > > to > > move around. > > > > The point is that society at large ( my family included ) > > will simply not be able to comprehend what we gained by strolling around > > late nights at CC, doing nothing in particular.There�s nothing wrong >with > > that per se, its just that it does not fit in with societies concept of > > leisure. Of course if you are shooting late at night at CC , then the >cops > > don�t bother, it�s a hard nights work after all!(I speak from personal > > experience). > > > > Leisure to my mind is entirely contextual..Leisure in the private sector > > is > > often a part of official policy. They are recreations formulated by the >HR > > in an organization to help the employees de-stress and unwind , so that > > they > > can perform better and increase productivity. My friend who is working >in > > American Express was asked to go to a resort in Rajasthan for a few >days, > > as > > a �change of scene�.Any refusal to go would be met with frowns and > > disapproval.Another friend in TOI has a compulsory yoga session in the > > mornings on weekdays, due to which he has to reach office one hour > > earlier.Ad agencies are hosting an interoffice cricket tournament, with > > match practice on weekends,most schools have their own Extra Curricular > > Activities after school hours..the list is endless. > > > > Psychologists argue that such activities are necessary to broaden an > > employee�s horizon and keep him/her alert. Undoubtedly there are many >who > > will consider this too as an invasion of privacy and examples of >needless > > regulation.Thus its pretty clear that it is not the state alone which > > decides what leisure should consist of; rather every group, community or > > even society have their own conception of leisure which those outside >the > > group may not approve of. One cannot have uninhibited freedom in a >society > > bound by rules. > > > > And what about our immediate families? We may( and do) consider boozing > > late > > nights at CC as leisure, but both cops and our families will be in > > complete > > agreement, that it is an unwanted, destructive habit. Thus don�t our >loved > > ones contribute to stereotypical notions of leisure as well? The > > authorities > > do what they do because they know that they have both legal and > > sociological > > sanction behind it.The solution is simple.You cannot change the state if > > you > > don�t change the mindset... > > > > aniruddha b > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Home | My MSN | Hotmail | Groups | Search | > > Messenger > > Feedback | Help > > � 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. TERMS OF USE Privacy > > Statement Anti-Spam Policy > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > Protect your PC! Call in the experts! http://www.msn.co.in/security/ >Click > > here now! > > > > _________________________________________ > > 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: > > > > _________________________________________________________________ Chat with thousands of singles. http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/cgi-bin/bmclicks1.cgi?74 Only on BharatMatrimony.com's Instant Messenger.