From sreejata at yahoo.com Sat Jan 1 20:56:51 2005 From: sreejata at yahoo.com (sreejata roy) Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 07:26:51 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] 49A and the sarkari monsters In-Reply-To: <8c10798f04122704385ab44881@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20050101152651.75384.qmail@web54710.mail.yahoo.com> Hi! All Sorry for bit delay in replying to this mail anyways..... In reference to the mail 49A, I do want to share in brief, two experiences of these sarkari monsters/ dalals /whatever it may be titled as���different names at different work places. I am an overseas student in UK. My scholarship includes the 60% of the fees and I need to teach in my school to pay rest of my fees. My living depends on my part time jobs. I as a customer to the dalals Firstly, to work in UK (whether a student/ not) you need to have a NI number, (national Insurance number). I believe it takes ages to get a NI number in this country. Further NI Office deducts tax from your wages. Secondly there is income tax which deducts from your wages as well; all together they deduct 23% of the tax from your wage Being a student, I am not liable to pay any tax to the UK government. Even if I pay tax, I can claim the money back straight away (it is according to the rule). For that I have to fill up a form P46. The funniest part is, more easy you fill up the form P46 at your work place, it is that difficult to pursue the form and claim your money back. The whole process is hazy. The school admin office will send you to the academic registration office where you will find more procedures and few more faces to deal with, then they will send you to the finance department, then the finance office will ask you to contact the tax office on the phone. In the tax office, somebody is sick/ somebody has gone on holiday/ they will forward you to another department. So you go round in two three phases through few departments chasing dalals / sarkari monsters on phone. By the time you reach the person concerned, your visa has expired; you have to go back to your own country. Further if you work part time in two places at the same time, it is more difficult to claim your money as you can apply for one job only. So it means that the rest of the tax money is gobbled up by the tax office/ monsters / dalals? I once took a chance in three years time to go through half way of the procedures and now I dare not claim my tax money back looking at the whole process. I as a dalal / monster On the contrary, I work for a company (well know in UK) not that way sarakri. This is my part time job. My job is as a dalal/ monster. I sell products on telephone/ telemarketing. The first things I have to tell the customer that I am calling on behalf of customer care of company X. The salutation has to be finely tuned so that the customer feels comfortable to continue with the conversation with the dalal. I get very few friendly responds and most of them are rude. After a day toil of 18hrs which includes job, traveling and also the family hazards. Who will talk to the home improvement dalals? But still we have to be very polite to tackle all these situations as we are in �CUSTOMER CARE�. We have to sit on customer�s head and convince them to buy the home improvement products showing them offers and big deals. However when this customer asks in return that, �No I am not buying anything further as I am facing a problem with your existing product. I have complained several times on phone, send letters to your company. Can you please help me to get my product fixed or can I get my money back?� Instantly I tell them� Oh! Sorry! I am not from that department. The customer asks� You told me now that you are from �CUSTOMER CARE�?� I have to tell him smartly making him confused �it is a different department which deals with these problems.� Unfortunately I /nobody knows about this department/ whether this department at all exists in the company or not to fix the customers problem! We dalals are told by our managers (dalals/ monsters in a bigger form) that this is the company strategy where we are supposed to tell the customer vaguely about that vague department and avoid those hazards. My job is to sell products since I am in �CUSTOMER CARE� If I don�t do that then I am instructed to leave the job immedietly. So the customer roams in my loop as I roam in the loop of the other dalals/ monsters�. My question is how we can identify dalals/monsters? With Best sreejata __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 From jhuns at vt.edu Sun Jan 2 01:05:26 2005 From: jhuns at vt.edu (jeremy hunsinger) Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 14:35:26 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: SIGGROUP CFP: Political Economy of Power in Online Communities Message-ID: <49A87C08-5C2C-11D9-9EEA-000A95C9496A@vt.edu> sorry for crossposting Begin forwarded message: > > Call for submissions > Deadline: 15/01/2005 > >   > Call for Submissions: SIGGROUP Bulletin special issue on Virtual > Communities: ''Less of You, More of Us: The Political Economy of Power > in Virtual Communities'' > > Editors: > Jason Nolan, Knowledge Media Design Institute, University of Toronto > Jeremy Hunsinger, Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, Virginia > Tech > > Submissions due January 15, 2005 > > Less of You, More of Us: The Political Economy of Power in Virtual > Communities > > The goal is to bring into the dialogue a number of researchers on > virtual community who are looking at the borders and peripheral > locations that are ignored, unknown or explicitly overlooked. Within > the notion that community, often the walls we build around ourselves > form mechanism of power and preference, this issue will examine online > communities that are excluded or self-excluding from the dominant > forms, norms and discourses. For example, there are a large number of > researchers inquiring into the recent blogging phenomenon, but I have > heard many explicitly exclude technologies/communities such as > LiveJournal.com with his 3.8 million users (1.7 active), and discount > the value of teenage bloggers, who are mostly female (67% of > Livejournal users). Because researchers tend to cover familiar > territories, we encourage authors to explore alternatives. Our issue > will provide researchers with the opportunity to expose the readership > to a wider sense of virtual community and what is going on at the > edges of the event horizon. > > Some of the anticipated themes are: hacking virtual community; the > overlooked, broken down, subverted or reconceptualized virtual > communities; borders and breaches, the ordering of virtual community; > hacktivism; sexually focused virtual communities; questioning the > value of online community; collective intelligence is just the fordism > of the mind; the Slash Fiction communities; MOOs the early forgotten > virtual communities; and the code beneath the community - exploring > programmer and system administrative communities. > > Submissions should be sent to both: jason.nolan at utoronto.ca and > jhuns at vt.edu Web site: http://www.acm.org/sigs/siggroup > > Templates for SIGGroup submissions: > http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html > > > > Jeremy Hunsinger > Center for Digital Discourse and Culture > () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail > /\ - against microsoft attachments > > jeremy hunsinger jhuns at vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu jeremy.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments From marnoldm at du.edu Mon Jan 3 11:25:06 2005 From: marnoldm at du.edu (Michael Arnold Mages) Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 22:55:06 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Aotearoa - fresh southern summer | January on -empyre- Message-ID: Aotearoa - fresh southern summer with The Paul Annears, Susan Ballard, Stella Brennan, Ian Clothier, Adam Hyde, Trudy Lane, Helen Varley Jamieson, and more guests throughout the month. Surely one of the most desirable global destinations, Aotearoa | New Zealand is currently experiencing a renaissance in media arts and culture. 2005 at -empyre- brings you fresh perspectives from net, sound and media artists, theorists, educators, curators and writers, who are working in, or have recently returned to their home islands. Much is bubbling to the surface from deep pools of creativity such as the Aotearoa Digital Arts list; recent and planned festivals include Version, SCANZ and re:mote; and exhibition venues include Artspace, the Physics Room, the Moving Image Centre and [NON] gallery. Join our guests at http://www.subtle.net/empyre to data mine this southern resurgence of new media and online practice. ------------------------------------- The Paul Annears [http://www.xxos.net ] find there are many advantages to being two people. For many years we have successfully amplified our separate brilliances and recently, through the power of the web, have joined with other 'Paul Annears' in a unique franchising arrangement to produce The Concise Model of the Universe. Paul Annear 404 [ http://www.xxos.net ] has always been anthropographic. Because of this, Paul finds it difficult to avoid strong emotions and unpleasant situations. An obsession with people and her ability to identify with a variety of these creatures has brought her here. Susan Ballard [ http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/space/2002/sensible ] is an artist, writer and musician whose interests cover the broad historical field of new media art with a particular emphasis on contemporary digital and time-based installation from Aotearoa/ New Zealand. Her current PhD research explores relationships between noise and materiality in digital installation art. Stella Brennan [ http://www.stella.net.nz ] is an Auckland-based artist, writer and curator. With Sean Cubitt she founded the Aotearoa Digital Arts discussion list in 2003, and has hosted two subsequent ADA meetings. Her artwork is based in video and installation. Stella teaches at the Auckland University of Technology. Ian M Clothier [ http://www.art-themagazine.com/ian ] is a Pacific based artist writer. In 2004 he was selected for ISEA (Estonia), Digitalis: Ethno-techno (Canada) and ReJoyce Festival (Ireland). Editor of art-themagazine.com, he has contributed to rhizome.org, and was an invited speaker to the Ninth International Conference on Thinking. Adam Hyde [http://www.radioqualia.net ] exhibits frequently internationally and recently won a UNESCO Digital Art Award. He is the Digital Artist in Residence at Waikato University, and is currently organising the 're:mote' festival with Honor Harger and NZ artist duo 'Ethermap', formed by Adam Willets and Zita Joyce. Trudy Lane [http://artefact.mi2.hr ] works in online design and publication for the art/museum industries and as an artist collaboratively creating projects which cross-breed participatory art & educational resource. Trudy has recently returned to New Zealand after 12 years living abroad. Helen Varley Jamieson [ http://www.creative-catalyst.com ] is a writer and theatre artist who has been exploring the concept of cyberformance - remote performers creating live performance via the internet - during the last 5 years. She does a lot travelling with this work, but is currently enjoying some time back home in Aotearoa. Helen writes for Rhizome, Furtherfield and other publications. ============================== -empyre- is an arena for the discussion of media arts practice, and regularly invites practicioners, curators and theorists in the media arts field to discuss specific projects, publications, and issues. Subscribe to -empyre- at: http://www.subtle.net/empyre/ _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Mon Jan 3 15:03:18 2005 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de ({art-messenger}) Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 10:33:18 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Tsunami - call for submissions Message-ID: <20050103103319.20FCA2A4.25F44139@127.0.0.1> Tsunami - call for submissions 1st deadline 31 March 2005 The current Asian tsunami disaster made it again evident: the human being cannot control the destructive powers of nature. A Virtual Memorial www.a-virtual-memorial.org and [R][R][F]2005---XP www.newmediafest.org/rrf2005 initiate on occasion of this disaster and in solidarity with all affected people in this human tragedy a net based art project environment, entitled: Tsunami. The title: "Tsunami" does thematically not only refer to this or similiar disasters in Present or Past, but beyond that "Tsunami" is primarily also understood as a symbol for the Inevitable, the Immutable, for Powers of Nature, Powers of Destiny which cannot be controlled by the human being, situations of helplessness the human being is irrevocably at the mercy of. Has he any chance to escape or take influence? Nearly everybody whereever he may live has made experiences of that kind in one or the other way already. Artists around the globe are invited to reflect these traumatic conditions of human life and submit art works, documents, texts or any other material connected the thematical context which can be submitted as digital file . "Tsunami" - this collaborative project will be published and featured on www.a-virtual-memorial.org and www.newmediafest.org/rrf2005 simultaneously and will take part in all coming physical events of [R][R][F]2005--->XP, global networking project by Agricola de Cologne. Following file typs are accepted: Text: .txt, .rtf, plain email Image: .jpg,.gif., png sound: .mpg3 movie: .mov, .avi, wmv, .swf, .drc, .mpeg2 The submission can consist of different parts, works or documents but must not exceed 5MB. All serious contributions will be accepted. 1st deadline 31 March 2005, afterwards ongoing, but the project will be already launched on 1 February 2005 and from then on continuously updated. Please use this form for submitting 1.Name, Email, URL 2.brief bio (not more than 50 words/English) 3.work(s) (number of entries, titles, year of origin, medium of original work, submitted media file types) 4. Short description for each submitted work (not more than 50 words/English) Please send the submission as individual files attached to info at a-virtual-memorial.org subject: tsunami ************************************** A Virtual Memorial www.a-virtual-memorial.org and [R][R][F]2005--->XP global networking project www.newmediafest.org/rrf2005 are corporate members of [NewMediaArtProjectnetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net contact: info at nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From radiofreealtair at gmail.com Mon Jan 3 22:51:35 2005 From: radiofreealtair at gmail.com (Anand Vivek Taneja) Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 22:51:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: [ZESTPoets] Water and a Tsunami In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20041228203817.00a78e50@pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk> References: <5.1.0.14.2.20041228203817.00a78e50@pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk> Message-ID: <8178da9905010309217a577f08@mail.gmail.com> dear all, an interesting, and perhaps sobering, perspective on the havoc wreaked by the tsunami... even if it gives the sea a particularly malevolent agency... I see you colluded with the Elite Gods of the Earth, Who have pushed us to the fringes of their existence, To live on shifting sands... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lillian D'Costa Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 20:39:06 +0530 Subject: [ZESTPoets] Water and a Tsunami To: zESTPoets at yahoogroups.com Water and a Tsunami Like a giant falling, The earth lost its step. Ten meters down the ocean floor fell. For thousands of kilometers a brutal jagged incision. The earth revolted as if hit in the solar plexus, Its three stories high waves, worse than killer whales. From our shanties Oh Sea Goddess, We worshipped you, The matriarch you presided over our lives, Like children we lived of your bounties. Why then did you avenge against your own. Those who pollute your womb with oil and tar, You have not harmed. Who, in distant lands, insatiably feast on your jeweled fish, pearls and coral, You have made wealthy. Who channel their toxic effluents and plastic into your home, You have shielded, by distance. For, those who produce carbon dioxide and raise your temperature, You have forgiven, For those who plan development projects (of oil prospecting and ports) Along your shore, Their sins you have ignored, For those who test their nuclear weapons in your atolls, You have made powerful. It was my low roof home you swept way. My little wooden boat, bought on a loan. My seven months old baby girl, whom I hoped would be a doctor. It was my community of humble poor your smothered. I see you colluded with the Elite Gods of the Earth, Who have pushed us to the fringes of their existence, To live on shifting sands, So they may easily erase the dispensable me. Oh Mother Sea, Your even hand of justice I do not see. 28-12-04 Lillian D'Costa - ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/yqIolB/TM - --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> «¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥««¤»¥«¤»§«¤» Did you get this mail as a forward? Subscribe by sending a blank mail to ZESTPoets-subscribe at yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/join/ Members are encourage to post poetry, their own and others', respond critically to the poems circulated, and participate in discussions. Post via email at ZESTPoets at yahoogroups.com OR online at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/post/ ==theZESTcommunity====================================== [1] ZESTCurrent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCurrent/ [2] ZESTEconomics: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTEconomics/ [3] ZESTGlobal: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ [4] ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/ [5] ZESTPoets: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/ [6] ZESTCaste: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ [7] ZESTAlternative: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTAlternative/ [8] TalkZEST: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TalkZEST/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ZESTPoets-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ - -- 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 Jan 4 15:14:07 2005 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 15:14:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Susan Sontag dies Message-ID: <41DA6567.3090806@sarai.net> New York Times December 28, 2004 Susan Sontag, Writer and Social Critic, Dies at 71 By Margalit Fox Susan Sontag, the internationally renowned novelist, essayist and critic whose impassioned advocacy of the avant-garde and equally impassioned political pronouncements made her one of the most lionized presences - and one of the most polarizing - in 20th-century letters, died today in New York. She was 71 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was complications of acute myelogenous leukemia, her son, David Rieff, said. Ms. Sontag, who died at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, had been ill with cancer intermittently for 30 years, a struggle that informed one of her most famous books, the critical study "Illness as Metaphor" (1978). A highly visible public figure since the mid-1960's, Ms. Sontag was the author of four novels, dozens of essays and a volume of short stories, and was also an occasional filmmaker, playwright and theater director. For four decades, her work occupied a place of prominence in the contemporary canon, discussed in such diverse forums as graduate seminars, the pages of popular magazines and the Hollywood movie "Bull Durham." Ms. Sontag's best-known books, all published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, include the novels "Death Kit" (1967), "The Volcano Lover" (1992) and "In America" (2000); the essay collections "Against Interpretation" (1966), "Styles of Radical Will" (1969) and "Under the Sign of Saturn" (1982); the critical studies "On Photography" (1977) and "AIDS and Its Metaphors" (1989); and the short-story collection "I, Etcetera" (1978). Her most recent book, published last year, was "Regarding the Pain of Others," a long essay on the imagery of war and disaster. One of her last published essays, "Regarding the Torture of Others," written in response to the torture of Iraqi prisoners by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison, appeared in The New York Times Magazine of May 23, 2004. Ms. Sontag's writing marked a radical break with traditional postwar criticism. She advocated a sensualist approach to the study of art, championed aesthetic form over content and - most subversive - gleefully blurred the boundaries between high and low culture. Learned, thoughtful, deeply cerebral, often provocative, her work repeatedly explored the transcendent experience of making, and looking at, contemporary art, with its jagged edges and attendant themes of alienation and despair. She was concerned throughout her career with sensation, in both meanings of the word. "What Susan did was, she dealt as a literary and philosophical intellectual with the deep problems of human life in our times," Arthur Danto, the Johnsonian professor emeritus of philosophy at Columbia University and an art critic for The Nation, said in a telephone interview today. "She was never a dispassionate or disinterested writer. She always used her own experience as a way of giving meaning to issues that had meaning for everybody." Unlike most serious intellectuals, Ms. Sontag was also a popular celebrity, partly because of her striking, telegenic appearance, partly because of her outspoken, at times inflammatory, public statements. She was undoubtedly the only writer of her generation to win major literary prizes (among them a National Book Critics' Circle Award, a National Book Award and a MacArthur "genius" grant) and to appear in films by Woody Allen and Andy Warhol; be the subject of rapturous profiles in Rolling Stone and People magazine; and pose for an Absolut Vodka ad. Over the decades, her image - strong features, wide mouth, intense gaze and dark mane crowned in later years by a sweeping streak of white - became an instantly recognizable artifact of 20th-century popular culture. Trained in literature and philosophy, Ms. Sontag was a master synthesist who tackled broad, difficult and elusive subjects: the nature of art, the nature of consciousness and, above all, the nature of the modern condition. Where many American critics before her had mined the past, Ms. Sontag became an evangelist of the new, training her eye on the culture unfolding around her, a radical stance at the time. For Ms. Sontag, "culture" encompassed a vast, potentially limitless, landscape. She wrote serious studies of popular art forms, like cinema and science fiction, that earlier critics disdained. She produced impassioned essays on the (mostly French) writers and filmmakers she admired, like Jean-Paul Sartre, Roland Barthes and Jean-Luc Godard. She wrote experimental novels on dreams and the nature of consciousness. She published painstaking critical dissections of photography and dance; illness, politics and pornography; and, most famously, the covert subculture of camp. Her work, with its emphasis on the outré, the jagged-edged and the here-and-now, helped make the study of popular culture a respectable academic pursuit. What united Ms. Sontag's output was a propulsive desire to define the forces - aesthetic, moral, political - that shape the modernist sensibility. And in so doing, she hoped to understand what it meant to be human in the waning years of the 20th century. To many observers, Ms. Sontag's work was bold and thrilling. Interviewed in The New York Times Magazine in 1992, the eminent Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes compared Ms. Sontag to the Renaissance humanist Erasmus. "This is one of the worst-informed eras in history, just like the beginning of the 15th century," he said. "Countries are ignorant about each other. And, like Erasmus, exactly when it is needed, Susan Sontag is a communicator in this broken-down world. Erasmus traveled with 32 volumes, which contained all the knowledge worth knowing. Susan Sontag carries it in her brain! I know of no other intellectual who is so clear-minded, with a capacity to link, to connect, to relate." Other critics were less enthralled. Some branded Ms. Sontag an unoriginal thinker, a popularizer with a gift for aphorism who could boil down difficult writers for mass consumption. (Irving Howe called her "a publicist able to make brilliant quilts from grandmother's patches.") Some regarded her tendency to revisit her earlier, often controversial, positions as ambivalent. Some saw her scholarly approach to popular art forms as pretentious. (Ms. Sontag once remarked that she could appreciate Patti Smith because she had read Nietzsche.) She had a knack - or perhaps a penchant - for getting into trouble. She could be provocative to the point of being inflammatory, as when she championed the Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl in a 1965 essay (she would revise her position some years later); celebrated the Communist societies of Cuba and North Vietnam (just as provocatively, she later denounced Communism as a form of fascism); and, in the wake of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, wrote in The New Yorker, "Whatever may be said of the perpetrators of Tuesday's slaughter, they were not cowards." And in 2000, the publication of Ms. Sontag's final novel, "In America," raised accusations of plagiarism, charges she vehemently denied. Over four decades, public response to Ms. Sontag remained irreconcilably divided. She was described, variously, as explosive, anticlimactic, original, trendy, iconoclastic, captivating, hollow, rhapsodic, naïve, sophisticated, approachable, abrasive, aloof, attention-seeking, charming, condescending, populist, puritanical, sybaritic, sincere, posturing, ascetic, voluptuary, right-wing, left-wing, mannered, formidable, brilliant, profound, superficial, ardent, bloodless, dogmatic, challenging, ambivalent, accessible, lofty, erudite, lucid, inscrutable, solipsistic, intellectual, visceral, reasoned, pretentious, portentous, maddening, lyrical, abstract, narrative, acerbic, opportunistic, chilly, effusive, careerist, sober, gimmicky, relevant, passé, facile, illogical, ambivalent, polemical, didactic, tenacious, slippery, celebratory, banal, untenable, doctrinaire, ecstatic, melancholic, humorous, humorless, deadpan, rhapsodic, aloof, glib, cantankerous and clever. No one ever called her dull. Ms. Sontag was born Susan Rosenblatt in Manhattan on Jan. 16, 1933, the daughter of Jack Rosenblatt and the former Mildred Jacobson. Her father was a fur trader in China, and her mother joined him there for long periods, leaving Susan and her younger sister, Judith, in the care of relatives. When Susan was 5, her father died in China, of tuberculosis. Seeking relief for Susan's asthma, her mother moved the family to Tucson, Ariz., where they spent the next several years. In Arizona, Susan's mother met Capt. Nathan Sontag, a World War II veteran sent there to recuperate. The couple were married - Susan took her stepfather's name - and the family moved to Los Angeles. For Susan, a student so gifted she graduated from high school before her 16th birthday, the philistinism of American culture was a torment she vowed early to escape. "My greatest dream," she later wrote, "was to grow up and come to New York and write for Partisan Review and be read by 5,000 people." She would get her wish - Ms. Sontag burst onto the scene with "Notes on Camp," published in Partisan Review in 1964 - but not before she earned a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees from prestigious American universities; studied at Oxford on a fellowship; and married, became a mother and divorced eight years later, all by the time she turned 26. After high school, Ms. Sontag spent a semester at the University of California, Berkeley, before transferring to the University of Chicago, from which she received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1951. At Chicago, she wandered into a class taught by the sociologist Philip Rieff, a 28-year-old instructor who would write the celebrated study "Freud: The Mind of the Moralist" (Viking, 1959). He was, she would say, the first person with whom she could really talk; they were married 10 days later. Ms. Sontag was 17 and looked even younger, clad habitually in blue jeans, her black hair spilling down her back. Word swept around campus that Dr. Rieff had married a 14-year-old American Indian. Moving with her husband to Boston, Ms. Sontag went on to earn two master's degrees from Harvard, the first in English, in 1954, the second in philosophy the following year. She began work on a doctorate in philosophy but did not complete her dissertation. In 1952, she and Dr. Rieff became the parents of a son. The couple divorced in 1958. Ms. Sontag is survived by her son, David Rieff, who lives in Manhattan and was for many years her editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. (A journalist, he is the author of "Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West," published by Simon & Schuster in 1995.) Also surviving is her younger sister, Judith Cohen, of Maui. A RETROSPECTIVE Susan Sontag A look at the career of Susan Sontag, including reviews of "Against Interpretation," "On Photography" and "In America," and articles about and by the author. http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2003/03/23/books/authors/index.html?8dpc From jeebesh at sarai.net Wed Jan 5 13:09:07 2005 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 13:09:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Milestone on the Way to the GPL Society Message-ID: <41DB999B.7000404@sarai.net> written in 2000 by stefan merten (oekonux), now translated from german into english: GNU/Linux - Milestone on the Way to the GPL Society Stefan Merten > http://www.oekonux.org/texts/meilenstein/english.html From nisar at keshvani.com Wed Jan 5 08:19:20 2005 From: nisar at keshvani.com (nisar) Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 18:49:20 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] LEA Jan '05: The DuSable Project Message-ID: <6250.1104893360615.JavaMail.root@m24> *sincere apologies for cross-posting* Leonardo Electronic Almanac: January 2005 ISSN#1071-4391 art | science | technology - a definitive voice since 1993 http://lea.mit.edu In this month's LEA, the first issue of 2005, our central text is an article by Kathryn Farley on *The DuSable Project*, a "collaborative, media-intensive" event that combines elements of improv comedy, theater, computer-based technology and hypertext. >From LEA's archive, first published in January 1994, we present an excerpt from "B*rbie'sVirtualPlayhouse at CityOfTheFuture.ent" with Henry See providing an insider perspective, as he tackles sensitive issues in the description about his piece. This is a multimedia work lampooning Virtual Sex, and was presented at SIGGRAPH '93. Subcribers can access the LEA archive at: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/archive.html In Leonardo Reviews, we include reviews by Mike Leggett on the book *Film Art Phenomena*, René Beekman on *New Philosophy for New Media* and John Knight on *Funology: From Usability to Enjoyment*. In other sections, we extend a big "thank you" to all our 2004 international peer-reviewers and present a complete 2004 LEA Author Index and issue highlights - a useful indexing feature for researchers. Check in on the latest events in the Leonardo/ISAST community. Check out LEA's greeting at: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/ecard Warmest wishes for the new year from all of us at LEA! ****************************************************************** LEA Information and URLs ------------------------ Receive your FREE subscription to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac e-mail digest at http://mitpress.mit.edu/lea/e-mail -- just provide your email address, name, and password, and check off that you'd like to be added to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac monthly e-mail list to keep on top of the latest news in the Leonardo community. 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LEA emphasizes rapid publication of recent work and critical discussion on topics of current excitement. Many contributors are younger scholars and artists, and there is a slant towards shorter, less academic texts. Contents include Leonardo Reviews, edited by Michael Punt, Leonardo Research Abstracts of recent Ph.D. and Masters theses, curated Galleries of current new media artwork, and special issues on topics ranging from Artists and Scientists in times of War, to Zero Gravity Art, to the History of New Media. Copyright© 1993 - 2005: The Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published by Leonardo / International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST) in association with the MIT Press. All rights reserved. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050104/756bb2b7/attachment.html From zainab at xtdnet.nl Wed Jan 5 15:01:40 2005 From: zainab at xtdnet.nl (zainab at xtdnet.nl) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 10:31:40 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?=93December_Woes=3A_The_Story_of_Be?= =?iso-8859-1?q?autification_of_City_Pave?= me =?iso-8859-1?q?Pavements=94?= Message-ID: <1328.210.7.77.145.1104917500.squirrel@webmail.xtdnet.nl> Let’s Talk City! Now, now, I know what you think of me. I always talk city, so what’s new today huh? Well, this evening, I’d like to present to you all: “December Woes: The Story of Beautification of City Pavements” Pavements of a City: Mumbai is a city of streets, of roads. As I write these words sitting in Delhi, I miss the life that operates on the city’s roads. There’s a lot of it out there. And roads are a multi-purpose entity in Mumbai. There are no borders or boundaries. Its just roads! And roads can be public toilets (for the people of the pavements as well as people of the private houses!). Then, roads are the hubs of employment for thousands of people who sell food and various consumer items on the streets. Roads are hubs for people like Raghu kaka, who not only sell newspapers on the streets, but also have their own networks operating around them. Then, roads are sources of information for lots of people in the city. It is on the city’s streets that gossips circulate, newspapers lie on the roads and people sneak a peek at them as they pass by. Roads and streets – that’s what the legal and illegal city of Mumbai is all about. But the city is changing. It’s about transformations honey! And we are this dying city which needs to be revived. And revive we must. So we start reviving. We start with creating definite boundaries. We lay down dividers and barricade the roads. We create pavements. And as we create pavements, we make the difference between pedestrians and car owners obvious. Some public must walk within the dividers and some of it must drive on the roads – definite boundaries! And as I see pavement beautification works all over the city, I realize that really, we pedestrians were dadas, goons of some sort. Absolutely! We pedestrians in Mumbai are the bullies of the streets. And car owners are helpless before us. Our hurry is their worry. And we can snarl at the Mercedes owner if s/he comes too close to our liking, even though the fault may very much lie with us! That’s how we are, the legal and illegal people of this insane city. Pavements must be beautified. Mosaic tiles are being laid down. Trees are being planted. We are a nice people, a very nice and clean people. We are a people of a city which is dying and which is being revived from death. As I walk along the streets of the city, I think through some of the words which I read in Rachel Carson’s book ‘Silent Spring’. I think of monocultures. Cities are unique entities. Our histories and trajectories have been different. But current processes in the city are moving along common trajectories. Our journeys are about the same, because our goals are to become ultimately “World Class Cities”! World Class City – yeah, World Class City! What in the world is a World Class City? Dear God, This evening, I pray to you to grant me return tickets to Los Angeles and New York (and a couple of thousand dollars to survive). I want to see what a World Class City looks like! December Woes: Bulldozers are working hard at Nariman Point. It is a spectacle to watch these mammoth creatures drop each tetra-pod heavily into the sea! And spectacle it is as about fifty people surround the bulldozer and watch it at work. And all of this is happening in public view, full public gaze! But we are talking about pavements right? So here’s the real story. The pavements on the back side of Hilton Towers are being beautified and if pavements there have to be beautified, Santhya, Shah Rukh, Manoj Kumar and their entire tribe must go. And go they must! Gradually, I see few of them around. These days, there are no encounters with Shah Rukh and none of his false promises. These days, I don’t see my favourite hawker who walks barefoot in the promenade and plays with all the children along the way as he sells tea. I just see people sitting on the walls of Nariman Point. My community is gone, because pavements are being beautified! And this brings us to the end of “December Woes”! Zainab Bawa Bombay www.xanga.com/CityBytes From zainab at xtdnet.nl Wed Jan 5 18:06:10 2005 From: zainab at xtdnet.nl (zainab at xtdnet.nl) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 13:36:10 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] Public Space: Musings on Community and Individual Message-ID: <1750.210.7.77.145.1104928570.squirrel@webmail.xtdnet.nl> 5th Jan 2004 Public Space: Musings on Community and Individual In the month of December 27th Dec 2004: Home is where the computer is. And computer is where the World Wide Web is. And World Wide Web is where the blogs are. Blogging – it’s become the favorite activity of all these days. And there are massive bloggers’ communities everywhere. There are meetings happening. There are conversations and discussions. The World Wide Web is giving rise to several communities, communities which are created on the web and then meet in the world of physical spaces! This evening I am at Nariman Point. It’s already dark. Santhya is around. So is Shah Rukh. I ask Santhya to bring me my favorite sweet corn fare. He pushes off! I meet Shah Rukh. “Kya re?” I ask him. “You know I got caught by the police yesterday as well, even when you had warned me,” he said shyly. “Aren’t you afraid?” I asked him. He replied, “Yes, I feel scared. There is fear. But this is dhanda. Have to do dhanda nah? Why don’t you drink coffee these days? You must drink coffee. It is good!” I laugh. Shah Rukh laughs too and walks off. Dhanda! It’s an addiction in this city. There is fear, constant fear of the police, of authority, of being caught. But dhanda is dhanda and it must happen! As Shah Rukh utters his words of doing dhanda despite the fear, I think of dad. Dad! Dad loves his dhanda. He was almost willing to die for it when they came to burn it down. He decided to run to save his burning factory. And we had to hold him behind, saying, “If there is life, there can be dhanda as well.” This is an insane city, a city of perpetual dhanda! Santhya is also doing dhanda out here. As he is collecting orders, he notices a police officer charging towards him. He quickly slips off and walks coolly, as though nothing has happened. He walks his tapori walk and then goes and sits by the Pay & Park booth. The police officer says something to him. He listens calmly. The officer goes away. There is major talk about tactical city. Mumbai is what I call “Practical City”. Yes, we are a practical city, a rational city! Santhya comes back with my order. I hand out a fifty-rupee note to him. He is expected to return thirty-five rupees back. He fishes out for change in his pockets and then tells me, “I don’t have change just now. But do you trust me to come back with the change? Bharosa ha?” Santhya’s two words, “bharosa hai” struck me hard! Trust hmmm, it’s on trust that this city works. Mumbai is a city of networks. And networks operate by a minimum modicum of trust. Over a period of time, we have become a mistrustful city, a city of suspicious beings. As Santhya is gone to bring me my change money, I stare at the private security guards. Why do we employ private security guards? Because we are a mistrustful people! Santhya comes back and hands me twenty of the thirty-five rupees. “I see you here everyday. I can take back the remaining amount anytime,” I tell him. Visibility and Regularity – two more critical features of networks! Trust is there because there is regularity. And within the gamut of regularity, there is visibility. That is how we learn to trust in this city. Take the example of the local trains. Regular commuters are regular buyers. And credits operate and credits work because of regularity and visibility. There are rarely bad credits! In the landscape of the urban, regularity and visibility are two funny characters. While they are there, they are also not there. Our practices of time narrow down our networks of regularity and visibility. With regularity and visibility, can there be community? There are several communities which operate around Nariman Point. Communities of senior citizens who meet regularly; communities of chauffeurs whose car-owners come to work in Nariman Point, networks of chauffeurs and the BMC Pay-&-Park guys, communities of hawkers and regular customers. With every transformation, some communities die out and new ones come up. Some communities stay on despite changes. I think of the bloggers’ community I just met in Pizzeria a while ago before stepping on to Nariman Point. And I am amidst communities of people here on Nariman Point. At every point in time, there is a need to belong. We each want to belong somewhere. And I wonder whether the urban is a landscape of communities or of individuals or both. I am coming to believe that a public space like Nariman Point is a network of communities. And it is also a space where community formation can take place. Public spaces huh Zainab Bawa Bombay www.xanga.com/CityBytes From basvanheur at gmx.net Thu Jan 6 02:47:08 2005 From: basvanheur at gmx.net (Bas van Heur) Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 22:17:08 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Call for contributions: V-Day Europe 2005 Message-ID: <41DC5954.1050006@gmx.net> Cut.up.magazine (http://www.cut-up.com) invites contributions for a special issue on V-Day Europe 2005. V-Day was born out of Eve Ensler’s award-winning play The Vagina Monologues. Since 1998 V-Day performances of the play and related activities have generated attention to stop worldwide violence against women and girls. In 2005, V-Day Europe will be celebrated in Brussels, the capital of the European Union. For the special issue that is to be published on the 8th of February 2005, cut.up.magazine invites a wide range of journalistic and academic contributions. What are we looking for? Articles (around 1500 words) reflecting on V-Day and The Vagina Monologues, but also those addressing broader issues such as violence against women and the media, feminist theory and popular culture (Ladyfest, …). Reviews (approximately between 200-500 words) on books, CDs, performances, concerts and films that are in some way related to the thematic of V-Day: anything from violence against women to subaltern voices to queerpunk. Art. Send us your artistic work (photography, anything visual that can be digitalized) that deals with these questions. The language of publication is English, but you can submit your writings in English, German or Dutch. More information: bas van heur, bas at cut-up.com cut.up.media http://www.cut-up.com po box 313 2000 AH Haarlem The Netherlands From ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com Fri Jan 7 09:58:54 2005 From: ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com (ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com) Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:28:54 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] At the Trial of Slobodan Milosevic Message-ID: >From September to November 2004, as the scholar in residence at the Waag Society for Old and New Media in Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to attend a few sessions of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. What follows is an account from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), located in The Hague. Ananya Vajpeyi. In front of me is a courtroom: its walls are cream-colored, its furniture wooden, some surfaces are glass, some accents are UN blue. Dead center in my line of sight sits a man, the accused; he is Slobodan Milosevic. White computer monitors, black legal robes, blue security uniforms, a suit-clad perpetrator of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity -- this is the scene I look at, a picture of the regime of international law. A picture taken, in fact, by Luc Delahaye, and hanging before me in a very large print at the Huis Marseille Foundation for Photography in Amsterdam, at an exhibition of Delahaye's work on conflict that also contains photographs from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel / Palestine, as well as a meeting of the Security Council. Belying its capture of an instant in the unfeeling process of law, and despite its subdued composition that may as well have been titled "Legal Bureaucracy", Delahaye's "The Milosevic Trial (2002)" is deeply affecting. It depicts the banality of evil, and in so doing, recalls powerfully for the viewer the trial of Adolf Eichmann as reported on by Hannah Arendt. Three months later I am back in the Netherlands, still haunted by what is seemingly the most banal of images, hoping to study some of the footage of the trial that has been going on for well over two years. Hundreds of hours of the Milosevic trial have been painstakingly and precisely recorded, webcast, and archived, as they unfold in a courtroom that is one of the most heavily mediatized spaces in the legal world. Why come all this way just to look at recordings? asks Geert Lovink, the internet critic and theorist of digital culture based in Amsterdam. Go to Den Haag, he says, see it for yourself. It takes Lovink's words to articulate for me what Delahaye's photograph said, in its own way: on occasion it is possible to look history in the eye, to see it for what it is. Still, I have my doubts. Can one simply walk in, be present, become a witness, not in the trial, but of it? Can anyone go and see what Delahaye saw; does the photographer not have privileged visual access to the historical moment? My colleague at the Waag Society, Paul Keller, himself a media activist, offers to dispel my rather abstract apprehensions by accompanying me to the trial. We look up the courtroom schedule, the trains between Amsterdam and The Hague, directions to Churchillplein where ICTY is located, Keller's agenda, mine. It turns out to be entirely feasible, then, our plan to attend a session of the trial, and so to attend to history. Over the next several weeks I repeatedly go to The Hague, with Keller, with the photographer Wim Klerkx, or by myself. It is not permitted to carry a mobile phone, a camera, a computer or any other kind of electronic device into the viewing area, so I must rely on my companions, my notebook and my memory for impressions of the ICTY premises, the chambers, the sections of the trial that take place while I am there, and the people involved in the whole procedure. I find myself making sketches of the layout of courtrooms 1 and 3, mapping the positions of the judges, the witness, the defendant, the scribes, the prosecutors, the defense counsel, the security guards, but also of the monitors, the cameras, the microphones, the lights, the curtains and blinds, the chairs and tables, the pillars and doors, the exhaust fans and clock; in short, all the material and human elements of the space before me. I realize almost as soon as I sit down in the gallery for the very first time that Delahaye had special permission to take his photograph, not only because ordinarily no photography is permitted, but also because nowhere outside the courtroom can one see Milosevic from the spot at which Delahaye's lens must have been positioned. I realize also that there is a whole other color that Delahaye's palette omitted: the red of the judges' robes. Blue for the United Nations, black, white and red for justice. I am concerned about the detail and accuracy of my impressions because despite the fullness of the scene, its clarity, its reality, the motivation behind the violence that it seeks to discover, punish and atone for is utterly obscure, beyond the scope of eye or camera, hiding in the light on the other side of the transparent glass wall that separates viewers from actors. On the 9th of November 2004 Slobodan Milosevic acts supercilious. His appearance is genial and upper class: he could be a German professor of some mildly difficult subject, linguistics perhaps. He belongs in old Europe, in a highbrow profession, snowy haired, well-bred and murderous. I recognize him, tellingly, from Delahaye's photograph. His dark suit is similar, his location in the courtroom is the same, in life as in the picture, only this time he is not thirty feet from me, in the flesh. He is impeccably dressed. He does not seem unwell at all, nor does it look like he has uncounted killings behind him and a death sentence ahead. Assigned counsel, formerly Amici Curiae, are pleading with the judges to be allowed to withdraw from Milosevic's defense. Their uncooperative charge exudes arrogance, superiority, boredom. If contempt of court could be embodied, it sits there, in the defendant's seat, refusing to recognize the rule of law or the jurisdiction of ICTY. Who are you to try me? his body-language shouts, who are you to judge my innocence or guilt, who are you, that my infinite power cannot simply crush you as it did hundreds of thousands of persons in the country I once ruled? At the recess he stands up, puts his hands in his pockets, makes a remark -- probably a sarcastic one -- to the guard, and leaves the room. An hour later he re-enters, shuffles over to his seat, resumes his posture of exasperation at the foolishness of those who would dare to make him accountable for his deeds, heinous or glorious. The prevalence of rules that dictate the court's deference to the rights of Slobodan Milosevic is necessary, but infuriating. No one was deferential to the rights of his victims -- not their countrymen=2C not their government, not their armed forces, and not the rest of the world. Theirs was the bare life that could be extinguished with impunity. But Milosevic gets due process, and scoffs at it, openly, his hand tucked in his suit-pocket, his mouth curled in a sneer. The photograph "The Milosevic Trial" by Luc Delahaye is the flip side of many other images from the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. Sebastião Salgado captured the forced displacement, the deportations of Bosnians and Croats, awfully reminiscent of Europe in the 1940s. Ron Haviv, Gilles Peress and others brought back pictures from the circles of hell called Sarajevo, Kosovo, Srebrenica. Footage by the television channel ITN took a horrified world into the detention and extermination camps of Omarska and Trnopolje. Bombed bridges and mass graves, streets on fire, Chetnik militia on the rampage, Muslim refugees and deportees in flight, cities under siege, countryside aflame -- behind this antiseptic courtroom lies all of the sickening visceral reality of war and genocide, the carnage and suffering unleashed when Serbian supremacist ideology was put to work in a complex and multi-ethnic nation. In the chair that Delahaye photographed from directly in front of its incumbent (but we can see only off to one side of the chamber, stage-right), in the chair to my left behind the glass, is the author of unspeakable crimes. Sometimes what is hard to believe is not what you see, but what you don't. ICTY's logo depicts a globe in the scales of justice, the world hanging in the balance. Indeed without the law, human society tips over into unbridled chaos. This trial must not peter out, it must come to its logical end, which is an indictment of Milosevic and his deputies. The judges are all of different races, the security guards of different nationalities. The lawyers speak several languages between them. This tribunal is remarkably diverse in its personnel. There are as many women as men present and participating. Simultaneous translation over 5 or 6 channels runs through everyone's headphones. The republics are legal persons, as are their armies, their administrations, their generals, their leaders, and their citizens. Among these big and small, collective and individual legal persons, somehow, occurred the gross illegalities of ethnic cleansing and mass murder. A well-known image of Eichmann during his trial in Jerusalem in 1961 shows him behind a glass booth, surrounded by three security guards, writing something down. In front of him, bottom-center of the frame is a legal personage, gray-haired, sitting behind a microphone. Surely Delahaye makes an explicit reference to this photograph, with his genocidaire subject, glass booth, three guards, and middle- aged man in lawyer's robes seated behind a mic. Within fifty years of the Holocaust, unbelievably, history began to repeat itself in Europe. Now the world appears to have come together to try to understand what happened in the former Yugoslavia, and make reparations to whatever degree possible. There is no justification for abandoning this international effort to bring the truth to light, howsoever slow and expensive the process. Ananya Vajpeyi, Ph.D. Center for the Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University JNU Main Campus New Delhi 1l0 067 INDIA. E: ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com From db at dannybutt.net Fri Jan 7 12:22:40 2005 From: db at dannybutt.net (Danny Butt) Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 12:22:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Location, Location, Location: Property in the First and Fourth Worlds. Message-ID: Kia ora all, Attached a presentation I gave yesterday at the fantastic conference on Intellectual Property in Delhi, organised by Sarai and the Alternative Law Forum ( http://www.sarai.net/events/ip_conf/ip_conf.htm - eventually there will be transcripts I believe). Once again, very rushed (I repurpose a quote or two from my recent "Home Improvement" essay (http://tinyurl.com/4xuey )) and I'd appreciate any commentary that would improve it for further development [also apologies for the lack of referencing, I can provide any that are needed.] Regards, Danny ---------------------- Location, Location, Location: Property in the First and Fourth Worlds. Danny Butt - db at dannybutt.net 48 hours ago, I was at Omaewa, Port Awanui, on the East Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand, the place that you can see on screen. I doubt that any of you have been there, but the place is very important for me being here. It was a long drive and flight so excuse me if I'm not yet present. I hadn't finished my paper when I went to the coast a couple of weeks back, and now that I am no longer a tenured academic I've been unsure as to whether I should finish it. Because if this discussion was taking place in a Maori context at home I would not be reading a paper. Maori have a vibrant tradition of oratory and a paper might be seen as a marker of my poor skills in that area, not to mention disrespectful to the other speakers who have gathered. But this is not to say that my presentation or korero would not be structured: if it was on the marae it would unfold in a very particular way. Firstly, I would begin with a tauparapara to identify myself and also set the mood, I would probably make reference to songbirds such as titi, kaka, or tui, depending on where I was (in Delhi, perhaps the peacock). This would be followed by waioha tuatahi, where I would pay acknowledgments to the Creator, Papatuanuku the Earth Mother, Ranginui the Sky Father, various Guardians, the marae or meeting house, and to the Tangata Whenua or people of the land (hosts). I should then greet the dead, and farewell them. That would seem like an appropriate gesture for the moment and the region, in the wake of the terrible recent events. I should then recite a hono or joining, to return to the living, and hold the distinction between the two states. I should then greet the hosts again in more detail, acknowledging the previous relationship with the hosts. Then I should comment on the take, or purpose for the gathering. Finally, a whakamutunga or whakatauki (proverbs) would close. To white settler pragmatism, such formality seems arcane and unnecessary. Even worse, it may appear to be *closed*, and a brake on progressing to the more important the matters at hand. To the state obsessed with controlling the public domain as a space where each should be the same, such processes are like the burqa in the French schoolyard, an irruption of difference that threatens the very idea of democracy and freedom. I should point out that, apart from the affective dimension of ritual, that I think is undervalued in academic discourse to its political peril, I find the kawa or protocols associated with tikanga Maori tend to be very practical. For example, in a Maori setting a certain hierarchy would ensure I would not be making these tentative remarks on culture, traditional knowledge and intellectual property while the world's foremost expert on such matters sat in the audience preparing to talk in the next session. In the 48 hours since I've known Rosemary Coombe would be here I can assure you I've slept even less than I otherwise might have. And as it turns out, I got so nervous I ended up finishing a written paper on the plane. So while the traditional protocols around oratory I mention above are considered marginal to white thinking, they are no stranger than it would be to say "information should be free" to my friend Te Miringa Hohaia, who is pictured in this photograph at Port Awanui. As a tohunga or holder of traditional knowledge, who was alive during the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907-1962, a New Zealand act specifically outlawing the application and maintenance of that knowledge, Te Miringa understands the value of his knowledge and its place in cultural politics. His ancestors were imprisoned without trial for lifting surveyors pegs placed by the colonial government on their traditional lands in one of the greatest human rights abuses in New Zealand's history, so he also knows a hell of a lot about property. I don't intend to talk about Te Miringa's work as he has edited a book of his own on the events at Parihaka, and that is not my story (see http://www.pukeariki.com/mi/stories/tangatawhenua/pacifistofparihaka.asp). I am not here to trade in what Mindry calls the "politics of virtue", or suggest that his work somehow provides a model for what I am trying to do. I acknowledge him here because our relationship highlights a very pragmatic issue that I face in my life. As a paying-the-bills job, I'm doing some consulting for an Australian university on Digital Rights Management and the Music industry. The University (QUT) is sponsoring the porting of the Creative Commons license to the Australian legal framework, and from Delhi I will go to the launch of the Australian Creative Commons license at a conference with Larry Lessig. The issue comes from trying to describe this work into the Maori context, where I *also* have conversations about intellectual property but ones that are quite different. To give examples, I can discuss biopiracy, the TRIPS agreement, and legislative protection for traditional knowledge quite adequately at home. If I came home with updates on the work of Suman Sahai from genecampaign.org here in India, for example, people would be excited. In the Creative Commons/DRM world, however, the discussions focus on fair use, copyright, access to cultural materials, and freedom. Rarely do the two conversations crossover, and I want to know why. To put it bluntly, for Maori, and I suspect for many indigenous people, the stakes are much higher: firstly, they are a matter of life and death, particularly as they pertain to traditional foods and medicines; and secondly, the effects are always discussed in terms collectively rather than individually as the life and death is for an entire, economic and social system. Anti-colonial activity is necessarily an interdisciplinary project, and one with no quick solutions. What I would like to outline here are the some thoughts on what rapprochement might be possible in the relatively discrete spaces of 1st and 4th world IP activism. Indigenous scholars have already been paying close attention to the first world debates on intellectual property, often with some bemusement, for as Lee Godden has noted, these have been instructive for understanding the mechanisms by which the Western legal system suppresses certain kinds of property rights while extending others. ("The difficulties the common law had in accommodating a construction of property that did not have the attributes of 'bounding' and division is well illustrated by the literary property debates.") But I think it would be productive if the West could also think about what it might be possible to learn about IP from traditional knowledge systems and the work being done in this field by indigenous activists. The value of indigenous epistemologies for Western public culture is that by attaching culture to land they provide a lasting critique of disembodied knowledge, and disembodied property. In the West, property is overwhelmingly focussed on transfer - as David Ellerman puts it "A theory of property needs to give an account of the whole life-cycles of a property right - how it is initiated, transferred, and terminated. Economics has focused on the transfers in the market and almost completely neglected the question of the initiation and termination of property in normal production and consumption." (http://ssrn.com/abstract=548142) There is a suppression of history that is endemic in market based property systems. I believe that one of the problems facing Euro-Amercian anti-IP movements is that they are concerned with transfer more than initiation - they fall into the trap of focus on the present. Indigenous epistemology tends to emphasise historical genealogies of land and cultural formations - in other words, the land is not stripped of its history in order to travel on circuits of exchange, and the same applies to knowledge. In a Maori sense, knowledge is a taonga tuku iho - a gift from the ancestors. It seems to me, in the battle against transnational info-exploitation, that it's useful to have a sense of not just how property is being exploited but how that property was generated in the first place. (Disney, as John Frow pointed out earlier, are particularly well known for just taking people's stuff and calling it their property). So I have to take issue here with the characterisation of the scene by the conference organisers (whose work I should point out I have learnt a lot from and usually find incredibly insightful, making this all the more noticeable): "For the past decade, the significant and pioneering critiques of the intellectual property system have been largely located in the West. Southern elite responses have largely argued for new forms of national protection against trans-national controls. Is it possible to transcend this aporia between a public domain argument in the West and national protectionism in the South?" My view is that not only are insightful responses being made from the third world (I'd put the work of Malaysia's National IT Council in here http://www.nitc.org.my/resources/bkss.pdf); trenchant critiques of IP exploitation have been mounted by indigenous scholars (Aroha Mead and Leonie Pihama at home) both within NGO frameworks and more radical groups. However, characterising this work as national protectionism is incorrect, for in the case of indigenous groups their work is often directed *against* nation-states that fail to grant them rights of property and self-determination that are equal to other citizens, most particularly corporate citizens. I would prefer it if we could use the term national protectionism toward the activities that truly fit this description, such as the cynical manipulation of national legal frameworks by First world information traders, who are *in no sense operating in a free market*, even if such a thing existed. My main concern about this characterisation though, is not to quibble with the terminology, but to suggest that this conception moves the discussion to more abstract geopolitical formations that make the kind of connection I'm talking about seem marginal, because the commons/public is valorised and the private is foreclosed. Anyone with a familiarity with Western feminist theory will immediately recognise the problem, which is as Nancy Fraser suggests, "who gets to be public" in the "actually existing" democracy? Dipesh Chakrabarty and others have pointed out, is that the creation of the abstract "public sphere" was through writing. What is the role of oral culture in thinking about the public domain, a print tradition? For Chakrabarty - there are limitations of public writing as the space of recognition within the law for indigenous groups, and he suggests that "built into the position of historians such as Eric Hobsbawm or Henry Reynolds is an invitation to 'transcend' one's given, particular identity in favour of a general one (such as the nation or class)" (http://www.transforming.cultures.uts.edu.au/ pdfs/reconciliation_chakrabarty.pdf). However Coombe points out that the oral tradition embodies cultural knowledge, it is not abstract, common or transcendent (e.g. Embodied Trademarks, http://www.yorku.ca/rcoombe/publications.htm). This is an important threat and opportunity to movements such as open source and creative commons that base themselves firmly within Euro-US epistemology. The threat is quite simple: anti-IP critiques focussed on abstract conceptions of the public will ultimately fail as social movements because the propensity to use abstract language is itself a class-bound, cultural skill (as Donna Haraway and Sharon Traweek have proven) that inhibits the formation of diverse alliances with those. The opportunity arises from the realisation that, in the end, the creative sector (where much of the energy for the CC movement resides) is ultimately about embodied knowledge and diversely situated cultural practices, not publics, and should thus be able to relate to located activities in cultural politics. In the longer version of this argument I use the work of Chela Sandoval on differential consciousness as a way of thinking about how to work across these divides. Yesterday I checked out the webcast of the Duke conference on the Public Domain in 2001, which productively highlighted the value of embodied knowledge. At the end of Rosemary Coombe's presentation, a male in the audience, self-consciously identifying as liberal, asked Coombe "are you advocating a power of veto for a particular tribe over cultural material that they have developed"? Coombe's response included the simple truth that "neither a zone of absolute freedom or absolute property are the only possibilities in the world we live in". But this dialogue is given its full weight by seeing the questioner scratching his goatee in consternation as he tried to reincorporate Coombe's critique back into something over which he has mastery, or what I saw as Coombe biting her lip, perhaps thinking as I was that the questioner would have been well advised to listen to the paper. The problems of absolute freedom or property are meaningless outside of a particular context. A couple of months ago I was fortunate to meet Gayatri Spivak, of whom I am a huge fan and who as many of you know has been doing some very interesting work in Bengal. We discussed what she has identified as one of the most important and under-explored areas of the global information order: the rapid informationalization of the rural. These processes are characterised by massive information asymmetries between those controlling and those subject to such informationalization. I asked what then, are the research priorities that we can share in such an environment? What is the role of the urban scholar or information agent in these systems? After an eloquent exposition Spivak finished, as she often does, with a simple, compelling, question: "Is language local?" This question has haunted me over the last two months, and I see it as a productive question that guides my recent movements between my home in Aotearoa, my birthplace in Australia, and the historical birthplace of Polynesian peoples in Taiwan. Now it brings me back to Sarai, which has functioned as a kind of intellectual holiday-house for me in thinking about anti-colonialism and the North/South traffic in contemporary media culture. The questions of language, and locality, are obviously deeply intertwined in the concept of property as it has been historically conceived. But more importantly, they bring a self-consciousness to my visit here that raises more existential questions about the limits of language and knowledge that I think are crucial for situating information critique. Methodologically, they raise questions of application and praxis: who is my visit here for? How does it affect the situation at home? What can I productively bring to this particular gathering? Who and what can I bring back to my home and colleagues in Aotearoa? What are the enabling and limiting constraints on my particular role in this whole thing? While such questions have, of course, been explored within the tradition of political theory within and outside the academy, they are largely absent from discussions on the information commons, due to what I see as a blinkered epistemology dominating Euro-American theory, and a resolute avoidance toward issues of differential consciousness and thinking outside one's subject position. But these questions are not arcane reflexivity when I am at home, they are in fact essential underpinnings to productive dialogue. I cannot do *anything* unless I am clear on my location and accountabilities. The main question for me is not "what new critiques of property could we conceivably come up with", but, echoing Spivak once again, "in what specific scenes or contexts of action are we prepared to situate ourselves"? In the discourse of academia, of the public, this is left implicit. My engagement with indigenous groups and their political critique makes these questions crucial. For knowledge is never free, it is, as the feminist science studies literature has made clear, always embedded in a place and knower. And as Spivak has argued, these scenes are never public, they are always specific. Part of the story of the rise of indigenous self-determination movements is the marginalisation of such indigenous values of located knowledge within Euro-American social movements of feminism, anti-racism, and anti-capitalism. To build a popular alliance against Intellectual Property exploitation between firstly, commons movements recovering an abstract collective historical memory *within* Anglo-American capitalism, and secondly, the specific historical experiences of those *colonised by it*, will not be an easy task. To take the time to heal these divides will require us to be prepared to suspend our taxonomies at key junctures, and as Katie King suggests, "To pay attention to and use such theory and methodology coming-into-focus requires a high tolerance for conflict and for beginning again, tasks with emotional, intellectual and political costs. Misunderstandings and mistakes and unrecognized privilege are the paradoxical "common ground" upon which such methodology is made, and they all have their own consequences, sometimes separate from the coming-into-being of such methodology, and not at all necessarily mended by it." But to not do this work in favour of more immediate concerns removes us a rewarding and lasting dialogues that I think will add strength and endurance to our work of rebalancing the global information order. Maori have a saying, ma te wa, roughly "in good time". If there is something indigenous groups have learnt to do, it is to survive. The current round of informationalised capital appropriation and expropriation seems to move at a fast pace, requiring urgent interventions, but as we know it has a long pre-history, and its struggles will be with us for generations. In our quest for freedom over the long haul, I think we have a lot to learn from culturally specific systems of community maintenance that indigenous peoples have maintained. As Amartya Sen puts it, "Freedom... is an inherently diverse concept, which requires consideration of processes, as well as substantive opportunities." -- http://www.dannybutt.net #place: location, cultural politics, and social technologies: http://www.place.net.nz [ Lilith] laughed bitterly. "I suppose I could think of this as fieldwork - but how the hell do I get out of the field ?" (Octavia E. Butler, _Dawn_) From db at dannybutt.net Fri Jan 7 13:15:43 2005 From: db at dannybutt.net (Danny Butt) Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 13:15:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Location - links Message-ID: A couple of people have had trouble with the links in the paper I just sent through, this is because I carelessly didn't demarcate the URLs from closing parentheses - the ")" character - when I typed them. If any of the URLs don't work for you, try deleting the ")" from the end and then they should. Apologies! Danny From space4change at gmail.com Fri Jan 7 17:08:22 2005 From: space4change at gmail.com (SPACE) Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 17:08:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 'The Nature of Ragging in Hostels': First Research Posting In-Reply-To: <8c10798f05010408445b451f23@mail.gmail.com> References: <8c10798f05010408445b451f23@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <8c10798f05010703386fdc332f@mail.gmail.com> Here is the (slightly edited) text of the research proposal for an Independent Fellowship submitted by Shivam Vij of SPACE [Society for People's Action, Change and Enforcement] Stop Ragging Campaign to Sarai-CSDS. The fellowship has been granted for a period of six months. o o o o o Please find enclosed my resume and a proposal for Student Stipend for Research on the City. This is an ongoing long-term project and the enclosed proposal is only a part of it. I hope, however, that financial and critical support for the work would help it regain momentum and form a strong foundation eventually leading to a book* on the practice of ragging and the forms it has taken in South Asia's educational institutions. The proposal is not activist but documentary in intent. It is however, part of the SPACE Stop Ragging Campaign, insofar as I believe it is important to understand the nature of ragging if we seek to eliminate it. This acquires an urgency given the political correctness that ragging enjoys in society. I seek to counter that by exposing the bare facts of ragging, and showing it in its nakedness. It might seem I am presuming that all aspects of ragging are debilitative: however, if ragging indeed fulfils a social function, I will not attempt to hide such findings, but instead problematise them. The entire work will be made available at www.stopragging.org. The site is a property of SPACE, but all work done under the studentship will acknowledge Sarai-CSDS' support, and will also be available to Sarai-CSDS for publication in any format. Thanking you, Shivam Vij o o o o o o o o Proposal for Application for Student Stipend for Research on the City 1. Research question: What is the nature of ragging? In its landmark 2001 judgement that has played a tremendous role in reducing ragging, the Supreme Court of India has defined ragging as: Any disorderly conduct whether by words spoken or written or by an act which the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any other student, Indulging in rowdy or in-disciplined activities which causes or is likely to cause annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension thereof in a fresher or a junior student or asking the students to do any act or perform something which such student will not do in the ordinary course and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment so as to adversely affect the physique or psyche of a fresher or a junior student. While this is legally adequate, it is not enough to explain what ragging really is, and how it has driven young men and women to the extent of committing suicide. The proposed research will attempt to explore the nature of the now-banned but continuing practise specifically in the following areas: a) Ragging and Society: Despite the violence, the suicide cases and the grotesque stories that occasionally make it to the media, what is it that makes ragging politically correct in society? Why do you have so many people defending it? Does ragging fulfil any social functions? Does society abdicate any responsibilities by allowing ragging? What is the relation between an individual (fresher) and a society composed of seniors who wish to 'rag' him/her? b) Ragging and memory: A fresher goes through torture, harassment and abuse, and mostly resents it. Yet, why does he turn into a ragger himself the following year? What drives him to inflict the same injury on a fresh batch of students? It is often found that by now resentment has changed to an avowed insistence that 'I enjoyed being ragged'. What exactly is the role of memory in ragging? How do memories, real and imagined, affect 'mass' ragging? c) Ragging and sexuality: Why is so much of ragging sexual in nature? Why does a male senior wish to see the body of a male junior, and this has gone to the extent, in some cases, of male rape. Is sexuality being merely used as a tool of humiliation? Or could the senior be experimenting with his own sexuality? d) Ragging and women: I felt that there was a need to have a separate section on ragging and women. The atrocities committed in the name of ragging are unimaginable, and the atrocities committed in the name of ragging by young women to young women are even more unimaginable. How do we see this in the light of feminist discourses? Could gender-based repression and discrimination have a role in this?** e) Ragging and the media: Even before a fresher enters the space of a college hostel, his knowledge of what constitutes ragging is defined by (a) news reports of ragging, (b) features on ragging in newspapers, and (c) what he is told about ragging by others, including those who have experienced it. The greatest role here, I believe, is played by (a) and (b). Newspaper coverage of the subject will be analysed and commented upon, with specific attention the ways, if any, in which the media may promote ragging. Also, attempts will be made to find out what problems journalists face in exposing hostel ragging. f) Ragging and the law: This brief section will document and examine anti-ragging laws, how they came into being, how effective have they been, and what changes are required in them. g) Ragging suicides: This section will document some stories of ragging suicides, what drove the victim to commit suicide, and what happened to the case after that. Source material, methodology and work plan: The research is primarily in the realm of field work. When we began our work in June 2004 we invited people to write about their ragging experience, specially ragging victims. We got some heart-wrenching first-hand stories, but many were unwilling to write, for reasons that included not wanting to recall their trauma. I will, in the course of the research, extensively interview victims and record what they have to say. The interview format will also enable me to ask specific questions that cover the finer details of my project. The interviewees will primarily be ragging victims, and the places of interview will be Delhi, Lucknow, and Kanpur. Those in other areas may be interview by someone else, or through the internet. Some interviews will also be of those who have experienced ragging but are not its 'victims'. It would be interesting, for instance, to meet someone who is willing to acknowledge he was ragged harshly, and also committed sexual ragging. A number of psychiatrists and sociologists have experience in the field, and have also written about it, will be interviewed and their existing body of work made accessible at www.stopragging.org. In the paper I eventually present I will draw some conclusions, but they would primarily be suggestive, throwing up a debate, or rather many debates. Because the work will constantly be made available in the public domain (via www.stopragging.org), it is likely to give rise to an inter-debate, with different people responding to different experiences and conclusions. This has already been experienced in the debates on ragging and sexuality, which are documented along with all our work so far at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopragging/ It is unlikely that I will be able to complete my work in the course of the six months-long Fellowship, but should have at least 50 ragging stories, and 50 commentaries from people including psychiatrists and sociologists. This should form a healthy base to continue my study on the nature of ragging. o o o o o o some later footnotes: leading to a book* - I had mentioned that this would be the first such book, but as I later discovered, there is a book called "Ragging: Unquiet Campus" which i'm trying to lay my hands on. (Ragging and women)** - A later addition: Is a ragging system in a hostel reflective of patriarchy? o o o o o o Anyone wishing to help or collaborate is most welcome. You are also invited to join our mailing list: visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopragging/join or send a blank email to stopragging-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Personal queries may be addressed to help at stopragging.org We would be especially grateful to you if you could: a) volunteer to interview ragging victims, or people who have experienced hostel ragging in general. b) Share your own experience, if you have had any. c) Write in your comments, especially if you have worked in the area as a sociologist or psychiatrist. Our website would be up by 1 February (hopefully!) and would be the scene of a lot of activity on both fronts: activism and research. Many thanks, Team SPACE From db at dannybutt.net Sat Jan 8 10:21:10 2005 From: db at dannybutt.net (Danny Butt) Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 10:21:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: Ken Wark's sarai paper - Information wants to be free (but is everywhere in chains) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Ken's paper, delivered at the Sarai conference, is below at his request. I'm not sure how this relates to all the other versions of this manifesto that exist out there! I wish the dialogue afterward was included, as excellent points were raised by Nick Dyer-Witheford and Rosemary Coombe, among others. ------ Forwarded Message From: Ken Wark Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 23:39:54 -0500 Subject: sarai paper Danny, could you please forward this to the sarai-reader list? I'd like people to have access to the full text as i had to skip a lot in the presentation. thnx k Information wants to be free (but is everywhere in chains) McKenzie Wark warkk at newschool.edu 01. Information is a strange thing, as theologically subtle as the commodity was to Marx. It has a peculiar ontological property. Information is never immaterial. Information cannot not be embodied. It has no existence outside of the material. It is not an ideal or a ghost or a spirit. (Although it may give rise to these as mystifications*) And yet information's relation to the material is radically contingent. This contingency is only now starting to be fully realized. The coming of the digital is the realization, in every sense of the word, of the arbitrary relation between information and its materiality. 02. Everyday life confirms this. I could make you a copy of this presentation, and the information in it, or rather the potential for information in it, would then be on a cd in your possession. And yet, it would still be right here, on my hard drive. Now isn't that strange? My possession of information does not deprive you of it. Whatever information is, it escapes the bounds of any particular materiality. Information can escape from scarcity. That is its unique ontological promise, now fully realizable in the digital. 03. Information has then at least one very strange property. It can escape scarcity. And it is this property that makes it very troubling for that other kind of property -- private property -- which is all about the maintenance of scarcity. Information is what economists call a 'non-rivalrous resource' -- a term that is clearly an oxymoron. Information poses not only an intellectual challenge but an historical challenge to economic thought. The challenge is not only to think what else it could be, but to practice the production and reproduction of information otherwise. 04. Now, I am not a lawyer or a historian, so I hope you will pardon me for trying to cut through the complexities to try to produce the concept. If the point is not only to interpret the world but to change it, then there's a role for, shall we say, an artificial clarity. I am not going to explore the actual world of intellectual property exhaustively. I am trying to move on from the actual to the possible. 05. The new ontological properties that information introduces into the world bring forth, as a reaction, new kinds of property relation in the legal sense -- what we now call 'intellectual property' -- another oxymoron. As I would understand it, intellectual property grows out of, but is distinct from, patents, copyrights and trademarks. Intellectual property is the tendency to turn this socially negotiable rights into private property rights. The enormous ramping-up of intellectual property talk results from the contradiction between the newly realized potential of information to escape from scarcity and those with an interest in stuffing it back into the limits that scarcity and the commodity would impose. 06. The ontological property form of information is as socially produced, as its legal property form. The question is how and why these two senses of 'property' have come into conflict. The question is why, if "information wants to be free" in the ontological sense, it is "everywhere in chains", in the legal sense. Coming from the Marxist tradition, I can't help but see the law as superstructural, as reactive, and most particularly as a terrain upon which class interests negotiate. In particular, I am interested in law as a terrain where successive ruling class interests manage the transition from one mode of production to another. This might sound rather 'vulgar', but perhaps in this case it is the reality of the situation that is vulgar, not the theory. 07. As Derrida suggests, there are many 'spirits of Marx', all heterogeneous to each other. There is a French Marx, a German Marx, and very definitely an Indian Marx. He mutates and adapts to specific historical environments. The Marx whose spirit I want to channel I think of as an English Marx. This is the Marx who is a reader of Locke, Hume and Mill. This is the Marx who studied the Parliamentary Blue Books on conditions in the factories. And indeed it might be the Marx who wrote articles for the Tribune on the destruction of the Indian cotton industry by British imperial design. It is the Marx, in short, whose project is a critique of political economy, and for whom property is a central category of thought. 08. There is a very ahistorical notion of capitalism about these days. For Deleuze and Guattari, for example, it has always existed as what the socius or the state resists. But I think it useful to conceive instead of three stages of commodity production, each hinging on a more abstract construction of the private property form. Marx is already aware, as a reader of Ricardo, that commodity production has two rival forms even in his own times. First there is its agricultural form, based on turning land into a form of private property. Then there is its industrial form -- antagonistic to the first -- based on the construction of capital as a more fungible, mutable -- abstract -- form of private property. 09. If there have already been two stages to commodity production, why not a third - - antagonistic to the first and second? I think what we have now is not 'late capitalism' or 'information capitalism' or capitalism 'globalized', but the emergence of a whole new historical stage of commodity production, based on transforming information into a private property right. Intellectual property emerges -- and quite recently -- as a new and more abstract form of property, with which to control the production process. What we have now -- and I hesitate to use this term -- is a 'post capitalism', but one that has very definitely not abolished the question of class. 10. The transformation of land into private property gave rise to a class relation, between what I would call farmers and pastoralists. Pastoralists own land and extract rent from farmers, who must pay rent in case out of the proceeds of the sale of their crops. This is a wholly different relation than that which held between lords and peasants, which involved local traditional rights, payment in kind and so forth. This is analytically (if not always historically) the first stage in the commodity economy. 11. The second stage is the stage of capital, in which workers find themselves dispossessed of all but their labor power, and confront a class of capitalists who own the means of production. As Kalecki says, in capitalism, "workers spend what they get and capitalists get what they spend"; wages, on the one hand, and profits, on the other. And as Ricardo and Marx were well aware, capitalists struggled against pastoralists as much as they struggled against workers. The historic victory of capitalists over pastoralists was not guaranteed, but was certainly aided by the fact that capital is a more abstract property form. 12. In our time the privatization of information gives rise to a new class relation, based on a third moment of abstracting the property form. On the one hand, intellectual property produces what I call a hacker class, the class of those who produce new information. They may be chemists or musicians, programmers or philosophers. It doesn't matter what place one occupies in the intellectual division of labor when all of what we produce is rendered equivalent by the regime of intellectual property. On the other hand, there is what I call a vectoralist class, which owns the means of realizing the value of intellectual property. This includes not just the 'culture industries' but also the drug companies, agribuisiness, and indeed any line of business dominated by the management of a portfolio of trademarks, patents and copyrights. 13. Where the capitalist class found it useful for information to remain relatively free, in the interests of the expansion of production and consumption as a whole, the vectoralist class insists in the enforcement of strict private property rights over information. One might gauge the relative strengths of these rival ruling classes by looking at the state of intellectual property law. One might gauge the preponderance of capitalist and vectoralist interest within a given firm by looking at its policies on the technical and legal enforcement of intellectual property law. One might gauge the place in the development process of a particular country by the way it responds to the demands from the overdeveloped world for the enforcement of international agreements on these 'rights'. In short: by extending the logic of class analysis, one can show how, far from being relegated to the dustbin of history, class is alive and well in our times, even if in forms we have hardly begun to name. 14. We can account for the obsession with enforcing intellectual property law in class terms. It is in the interests of an emerging ruling class. We can account then for the ideologies of information as property also. James Boyle suggests that there is a tension between the idea of maximizing the 'efficiency' of the economy as a whole and producing 'incentives' for information creators/owners. To put it crudely, the shift from the former to the latter is the shift from capitalist to vectoralist thinking about the place of information in the economy, from peripheral to central. But what is striking is that despite legal and ideological coercion, information still wants to be free. Its legal properties clash with its ontological properties. So on the one hand, we see increasingly vigorous attempts to outlaw the free sharing of information; and on the other, we see the persistence of file sharing and piracy. How can we account for this tension? 15. This is the nexus where one might reinvent a kind of critical theory. A critical theory is one that thinks in terms not only of the actual but also of the virtual, the 'possible' in the most material sense. Where this critical theory might begin is by saying that perhaps what this tension over information signifies is that we have finally found the point where we can escape from material scarcity, and from all economies of scarcity. Perhaps we have found the one domain in which we could realize a certain 'utopian' promise: "to each according to their needs; from each according to their abilities." That is what I believe. And I don't think I am alone. There is, as Marcel Mauss observed a long time ago, a latent class instinct that all the products of science and culture really ought to belong to the people as something held in common, indeed as what is what is common. The public is not trespassing. It does not recognize the new enclosures of information within private property as legitimate. 16. File sharing is a social movement, in all but name. It rarely announces itself as a social movement, but then I don't think that is uncommon. Likewise, I think that the 'trespassing instinct', if you will pardon the phrase, has been alive and well and resisting commodification for centuries. Only now it may finally have found an ally in the digital means for reproducing information, so that one's possession of it can be the possession of all. The technicity that makes possible the abstraction of information from its material substrate is not only calling into being something that can be captured by regimes of economic value or legal jurisdiction, but something that can escape them. 17. Which brings us finally to the hacker class. If there is a tresspassing instinct that is alive and well among the people, will the producers of information as property side with that people, or with the vectoralist class? That is the question for our times. This is what is at stake in the struggle between the principle that "information wants to be free", and all that ideological talk about 'incentives' versus 'efficiencies' and other attempts to deny the radical ontological nature of information itself. The hacker class has a choice to make. Either it sides with the vectoralist class, or it realizes that intellectual property does not protect producers of information, it protects owners of information. And who -- in the long run -- comes to own information? Those who own the means of production, the means of realizing its value. The ideological move is to blur this distinction between producer and owner, when in reality the hacker, like the worker or the farmer, has to sell the product of her labor to those who own the means of realizing its value. 18. As those of us from the periphery know: commodification has always been global. Globalization is nothing new -- except perhaps to those in the overdeveloped world who have started to feel the effects of it only lately, with the breakdown of the Fordist or corporatist state and its attendant Keynsian class compromise between capital and labor. But I think that the rise of the vectoralist class gives us a handle on the form that the globalization of the commodity form took in the late 20th century. 19. It is the vectoralist class that produces the means of establishing a global division of labor. It develops the vectoral production process, where information is separated from its material embodiment, thus allowing the materiality of production to be spatially separated from the information that governs its form. And so we end up with a new global division of labor, in which the old capitalist firms of the overdeveloped world mutate into vectoralist firms by shedding their productive capacity. Manufacturing becomes the specialty of the underdeveloped world; the overdeveloped world manages the brands, husbands the patents and enforces the copyrights. Unequal exchange is no longer between a capitalist economy in the north and a pastoralist economy in the south; it is between a vectoralist economy in the north and a capitalist economy in the south. But the vectoral goes one better: it scrambles the once relatively homogenous economic spaces within various nation states. One can find the underdeveloped world now in Mississippi, and the overdeveloped world in Bangalore. 20. This process is complex and contradictory. The paradox of our times is that both the privatization of information, and the expansion of an informal commons, are happening at the same time. What might give us hope is the very fragility of the vectoralist position, which runs counter to the ontological properties of information itself, and can only protect its interests by a massive ramping up of the level of legal coercion. Where land lends itself to 'natural monopoly' and the extraction of rents, this gets harder and harder as property becomes more and more abstract. And now we arrive at the very brittle monopolies of the vectoral economy. The very means of producing and reproducing information that it creates are the forces of its own undoing. 21. There is an alternative model to both the absolute commodification of information and its piracy. (Piracy, after all, is merely the reversal of Proudhon's dictum "property is theft" -- it makes theft property.) The alternative is the gift economy. As John Frow has argued, rather than the gift being a pure, ideal and harmonious state existing prior to the commodity, it is the commodity's necessary double. But I think that the coming of the digital opens up a new possibility for the gift to distance itself from the commodity. What one can create, on the internet, for example, is the abstract gift relation. If the traditional gift always involved a giver and a receiver who are known to each other, who obligate each other, the abstract gift involves no such particular obligation. When one gives information within the networks, the obligation one invokes is something common, not something particular. One invokes the gift as something abstract. 22. This seems to me to point towards an ethics -- a hacker ethics -- and also a hacker politics. If critical theory is to resist becoming merely hypocritical theory, it has to engage with its own means of production and distribution. A hacker politics is one of participating in, and endeavoring to create, both technically and culturally, abstract gift relations, within which information can not only want to be free, but can become free. Rather than advocate for the public against the private, it seems to me that information is a point that offers at least two other possibilities. In the spirit of Derrida, one might deconstruct it; in the spirit of Deleuze, one might escape it. One might approach what Nick Dyer- Witheford calls "a new commonwealth of species being." But as Marx says in the Manifesto -- the forces for change in any social movement are those who ask "the property question." McKenzie Wark ~~~~~~~A Hacker Manifesto http://www.hup.harvard.edu/ ------ End of Forwarded Message From chitrangada.c at gmail.com Fri Jan 7 08:54:06 2005 From: chitrangada.c at gmail.com (Chitrangada) Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 03:24:06 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] jalaluddin rumi In-Reply-To: <000a01c4f3e9$afa3e5a0$c51041db@abc> References: <000a01c4f3e9$afa3e5a0$c51041db@abc> Message-ID: <4966c9cc0501061924131d01d6@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: K. R. Cama Oriental Institute Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 17:44:49 +0530 Subject: To: chitrangada.c at gmail.com We are happy to announce that the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute in collaboration with the Culture House of the Islamic Republic of Iran, will be holding a two-day National Seminar on the Universal Influence of Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi the famed Sufi poet, on 15th and 16th January 2005 at the Institute's premises from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days. Around 20 scholars will contribute research papers on the following topics :- 1. Jalaluddin Rumi – Poet and Mystic 2. Spiritual couplets and sayings of Jalaluddin Rumi 3. Jalaluddin Rumi the greatest Iranian Sufi Poet 4. Rumi's Life Sketch and Mysticism as depicted in the Masnavi 5. Selected Tales from the Masnavi – Their mystical meanings and Rumi's Sufi Doctrine. 6. Post Islamic Sufi Poets of Iran and how they differ from Rumi's Sufi Doctrine. 7. Universal Love, Theories, Practices, Experience and Orders of Sufis. 8. Decline of Sufism in modern times. 9. Moulana Rumi's views on Mysticism 10. Moulana Rumi and Shams Tabriz 11. Moulana Rumi and Music 12. Influence of Moulana Rumi on the culture, literature and philosophy of the world Registration for the Seminar Delegates fees will be Rs.400/- which is inclusive of a kit, and two teas and lunch on both days. Please note that due to limited accommodation, early registration is requested. Registration forms are available between 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the above address. Your cheque may be marked 'A/c. Payee only' in the name of 'THE K. R. CAMA ORIENTAL INSTITUTE'. Looking forward to your participation at the Seminar. (Mrs. Homai N. Modi) (Dr. (Mrs.) Nawaz B. Mody) Trustee & Jt. Hon. Secretary Jt. Hon. Secretary From satish.jha at gmail.com Thu Jan 6 00:56:09 2005 From: satish.jha at gmail.com (Satish Jha) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 14:26:09 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] May the New Year be a Peaceful one! Message-ID: <94d7347e0501051126536ff81b@mail.gmail.com> As we enter the new year.. when the sound of the mighty waves ..continue to resonate wildly in our ears... Let our thoughts and prayers be with all those who have been struck by this terrible disaster... ....and pray to the Almighty... to give strength and courage to all those afflicted and inflicted by the disaster ... May 2005 be a peaceful year for all. -- ______________________ Satish Jha Member, Advisory Board, Perot Systems Inc Special Advisor, Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICTs www.jamesmartin.co.in www.aiti-kace.com.gh www.dpindia.org www.ehealth-care.net ______________________ From space4change at gmail.com Thu Jan 6 16:13:07 2005 From: space4change at gmail.com (SPACE) Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 16:13:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] More on caste and the city: now in Surat Message-ID: <8c10798f05010602431cbc1f84@mail.gmail.com> Now, ghettoisation on caste lines SUDHAKAR RAO TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 05, 2005 09:46:06 PM ] SURAT: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/981708.cms Sanjay Mehta, a diamond worker, had bought a house at the newly-built Shivdarshan Society in an upper middle class locality of Puna Gaam in Surat in April. After he paid about Rs 3.38 lakh, which was part of the bungalow's cost, he was forced to give up the house when some residents found out his caste. "When the residents learnt that I was not from their caste, I started getting threat calls and eventually I had to withdraw my offer and take back my money," says Mehta. As if community-based ghettoisation was not enough in Gujarat, caste-based ghettoisation is becoming a harsh reality in an outwardly progressive city like Surat. Social scientists believe this could be the revival of the hegemony of particular classes, who feel threatened by cosmopolitanism. Some of the signboards outside housing societies blatantly say, "Ahiyan Patel sivaay koiye rehvu nahi ke koine bhaade aapvu nahi, koi jaat na ghar nu levad devad karvu nahi" They are mostly visible in areas like Katargaam, Varachha and Punagaam. The ghettoisation is to such an extent that if an outsider moves into the area, the residents revolt. Even during the TOI team's visit to such areas, a group of residents took objection and started asking questions. Laxmanbhai Mehpani, a Patel staying in the Shivdarshan Society says, "The mental make-up of the people is such that nothing can be done about this." A drug store owner, Sanjay Bhayani, who lives in the Shiv Shakti society in Puna Gaam, says, "We don't want non-Patels to stay here." He argues that if Varachha is dominated by Saurashtra Patels, Pandesara is identified with Oriyas, Palanpur Patia with Maharashtrians. "Surat is one of the more cosmopolitan cities where some castes are feeling threatened, as a result of which such polarisation develops," says Satyakam Joshi, a well-known sociologist. Former president of the Surat Bar Association Babu Rayka says, "There is a traditional conflict between certain castes, so this is mainly to keep off rival castes from their localities." Local MLA Dhirubhai Gajera, who represents Surat city (north), feigned ignorance about the banners in Katargaam and said, "I will not comment until I see the banners." Water resources minister Narottam Patel, who represents Choryasi, which covers the Unn Gaam area, said, "I am not aware of such a thing and cannot comment on the issue sitting in Gandhinagar. If such a thing is happening, then it is wrong." From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sun Jan 9 13:54:53 2005 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 00:24:53 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] jalaluddin rumi In-Reply-To: <4966c9cc0501061924131d01d6@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20050109082453.36877.qmail@web51406.mail.yahoo.com> Did I miss it in the mail? Which city/country is K.R.Cama Institute in? Yousuf --- Chitrangada wrote: > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: K. R. Cama Oriental Institute > > Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 17:44:49 +0530 > Subject: > To: chitrangada.c at gmail.com > > > We are happy to announce that the K. R. Cama > Oriental Institute in > collaboration with the Culture House of the Islamic > Republic of Iran, > will be holding a two-day National Seminar on the > Universal Influence > of Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi the famed Sufi poet, on > 15th and 16th > January 2005 at the Institute's premises from 10 > a.m. to 5 p.m. on > both days. > > > > Around 20 scholars will contribute research papers > on the following topics :- > > 1. Jalaluddin Rumi – Poet and Mystic > > 2. Spiritual couplets and sayings of Jalaluddin > Rumi > > 3. Jalaluddin Rumi the greatest Iranian Sufi > Poet > > 4. Rumi's Life Sketch and Mysticism as depicted > in the Masnavi > > 5. Selected Tales from the Masnavi – Their > mystical meanings and > Rumi's Sufi Doctrine. > > 6. Post Islamic Sufi Poets of Iran and how they > differ from > Rumi's Sufi Doctrine. > > 7. Universal Love, Theories, Practices, > Experience and Orders of Sufis. > > 8. Decline of Sufism in modern times. > > 9. Moulana Rumi's views on Mysticism > > 10. Moulana Rumi and Shams Tabriz > > 11. Moulana Rumi and Music > > 12. Influence of Moulana Rumi on the culture, > literature and > philosophy of the world > > > Registration for the Seminar > > Delegates fees will be Rs.400/- which is inclusive > of a kit, and two > teas and lunch on both days. > > > > Please note that due to limited accommodation, early > registration is > requested. Registration forms are available between > 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. > at the above address. > > > > Your cheque may be marked 'A/c. Payee only' in the > name of 'THE K. R. > CAMA ORIENTAL INSTITUTE'. > > > > Looking forward to your participation at the > Seminar. > > (Mrs. Homai N. Modi) (Dr. (Mrs.) Nawaz B. Mody) > > Trustee & Jt. Hon. Secretary > Jt. Hon. Secretary > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and > the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to > reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the > subject header. > List archive: > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 From soudhamini_1 at lycos.com Sun Jan 9 14:16:39 2005 From: soudhamini_1 at lycos.com (sou dhamini) Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 03:46:39 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20050109084639.276F23384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> This is in response to Ananya Vajpaye's article which I found very packed. I feel the need to unwrap it for myself before I can interact. Do bear with the shearing. I am a film-maker and a current Sarai fellow. A photograph of a war criminal undergoing trial, draws a researcher to look ‘behind’ the picture and catch history direct. She is inundated with more details and nuances than the photo held. The colours of the courtroom. The body language of the criminal still at large. Her own subjectivities. At the same time, she is made aware of the privileged access a celebrity photographer gets to his subject, which is denied her as an anonymous researcher. She also hones in to the particular form of historical discourse the still photo was engaged in. For among the myriad possible angles of framing open to him, the photographer had chosen to frame it as quotation – linking this event to an earlier war crime and this photograph to a nascent genre of war and justice documentation. Interesting. But for someone who works more with images than with words, and hence looking at it from the other side so to speak, a question that is equally interesting is how conscious we are of words as a – mere – representation system. Despite the point and shoot camera and handycam, image making is still shrouded in the mystique of technology and hence overtly suspect. While the means of production of words, including the formal academic word and informal reader-speech, is more familiar - hence more deceptive, in their relation to reality. Or so it seems to me. All we can do I think is to become aware of different ‘frames’ including our subjectivities and the constraints-privileges they entail. The self-reflexive - as critical tool not gimmick - is possibly the only mode of speech available today, in any register. Comments? -- _______________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 From soudhamini_1 at lycos.com Sun Jan 9 14:16:39 2005 From: soudhamini_1 at lycos.com (sou dhamini) Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 03:46:39 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20050109084639.276F23384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> This is in response to Ananya Vajpaye's article which I found very packed. I feel the need to unwrap it for myself before I can interact. Do bear with the shearing. I am a film-maker and a current Sarai fellow. A photograph of a war criminal undergoing trial, draws a researcher to look ‘behind’ the picture and catch history direct. She is inundated with more details and nuances than the photo held. The colours of the courtroom. The body language of the criminal still at large. Her own subjectivities. At the same time, she is made aware of the privileged access a celebrity photographer gets to his subject, which is denied her as an anonymous researcher. She also hones in to the particular form of historical discourse the still photo was engaged in. For among the myriad possible angles of framing open to him, the photographer had chosen to frame it as quotation – linking this event to an earlier war crime and this photograph to a nascent genre of war and justice documentation. Interesting. But for someone who works more with images than with words, and hence looking at it from the other side so to speak, a question that is equally interesting is how conscious we are of words as a – mere – representation system. Despite the point and shoot camera and handycam, image making is still shrouded in the mystique of technology and hence overtly suspect. While the means of production of words, including the formal academic word and informal reader-speech, is more familiar - hence more deceptive, in their relation to reality. Or so it seems to me. All we can do I think is to become aware of different ‘frames’ including our subjectivities and the constraints-privileges they entail. The self-reflexive - as critical tool not gimmick - is possibly the only mode of speech available today, in any register. Comments? -- _______________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 From warkk at newschool.edu Mon Jan 10 15:30:11 2005 From: warkk at newschool.edu (Ken Wark) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 05:00:11 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] pirate, private, public and property Message-ID: Greetings. For those who were at the incredible conference on Contested Commons/Trespassing Publics (and for those who weren't) I thought i would take the liberty of posting my thoughts on the issues raised in the concluding discussion. cheers -- Ken Wark Pirate, Private and Public Property -- Outfoxed McKenzie Wark warkk at newschool.edu There are two kinds of thinkers, suggests Isaiah Berlin: foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes are impatient. They jump about from topic to topic, always moving on. Hedgehogs on the other hand are methodical. They work away at one problem, without dodging the parts that are hard going. Tackling the rocky question of 'intellectual property' is certainly going to be a task for hedgehogs. But perhaps there's a role for foxes, too. If one is going to keep on digging the same hole, deeper and deeper, as hedgehogs do, it might help to know if one is digging in the right place. Perhaps it is easier going if one starts elsewhere. Speaking of foxes, there's an old European folk tale in which your wish can come true if only you can avoid thinking about the foxes' red tail. This of course proves impossible and the wish is not granted. I think we have the same problem with the 'intellectual property' question. If only we could avoid thinking about the p-words * public, private, pirate and property * our wish might be granted, wed might be able to think the question critically and usefully. An uncritical use of the term 'piracy' poses a particular problem. Pirates acquire property that is not theirs by right. It's not hard to see the desire that attaches to being a pirate. It has something to do with enjoyment, in the psychoanalytical sense of the term. A pirate enjoys what belongs to the other. But the problem is that attaching one's desire to this figure only serves to legitimate the 'right' by which the other claims something as their property, for their enjoyment, in the first place. Where 'intellectual property' is concerned, it is far better to begin from the opposite assumption. The one who copies something is not stealing what does not belong to them. Rather, the copier claims culture, knowledge, information as something can belong to anybody. Culture is made by all and belongs to all for the enjoyment of all. That is the assumption from which to start if one wants to produce a critical theory, rather than merely upholding the norm. The same goes for public and private. It is a temptation to advocate for a public culture, in opposition to the privatization of all information we see going on all around us. But here one merely reinforces the binary relation of public and private. One's support for the public is really support, at the same time, for privatization, for the private cannot function without the public as its supplement, as what takes care of the aporias and dysfunctions privatized information inevitably entails. All three of these terms * pirate, public, private, necessitate each other. The public is what is not private and vice versa. The pirate is any illegitimate appropriation outside of the public/private binary. These are the lines drawn in the sand, as it were. The challenge is to think past the lines in the sand, and think the shifting, molecular, granular materiality of the beach itself. "Beneath the pavement lies the beach", as they said in Paris in May 68. The beach, as it turns out, is the stunningly odd way that information actual moves and mutates as it passes through * and constitutes * the social body. To think through the lines in the sand * public, private, pirate * is to think in the place of the state. It is to align oneself with one's inner bureaucrat. That might be all well and good if what one wants is a thought about 'intellectual property' that might assist in policy making or business plans. But it won't do for thinking critically about the granular processes of information itself. If one keeps digging the same old hole here, one will miss what is right before our eyes, and running through our fingers, as the very think that needs thinking: not the categories of property, but the sand itself * information. Information wants to be free but is every where in chains. And it really is strange stuff. It is always material, and always relational, but it has no necessary relation to any particular material form. With the coming of the digital we spiral back to the conditions of orality, where information really can circulate beyond the realm of scarcity. Now, lest one think this is a utopian proposition, something wild-eyed, futuristic, or techno-libertarian, I should hasten to add that this challenge to scarcity in the realm of information is happening everywhere, every day. In Delhi its happening in the Pelikar market, where movies, music and games of all kind are for sale, in complete disregard of anyone's 'intellectual property'. It's the same in New York, where on certain street corners you can pick up any software you might want, or a nice Gucci bag, for not much more than the price of the materials and labor. Information not only wants to be free, it is free. It keeps escaping from any and every material form, finding its way from one hand to the next, through a bewildering array of relations. Sometimes it's a commodity, sometimes it's a gift. If we were to follow it as it traverses the social, it probably passes from gift to commodity and back against more than once. John Frow has made the bold assertion that "there is nothing outside of property". Here I make the equal and not quite opposite claim, at least where information is concerned. There is nothing inside property. It is merely a fetter, an imposition, a hollow form imposed by an obsolete mode of production. To think critically is to think outside of necessity; to think instead in the realm of the virtual. No critical thinking is possible here at all if we just blithely accept the necessity of property * whether pirate, private or public * as if it were natural, eternal and inevitable. While critical thinking is turned toward the virtual, to the real possibilities latent in what is actual, it is not some idealized or utopian future. It is the turning into a concept of what is already suggesting itself in actuality, of what is already appearing, here and there * in this case, those glimpses of the virtuality of information. The coming of the digital provides the historical moment when we can finally think outside the limits of property. The digital realizes the promise of information, the promise of an escape from scarcity. For the first time, on a scale that can traverse the whole social field, my possession of something need not deprive another of it. And that thing is information. The pirating of information is thus a logical impossibility. To pirate something is to dispossess a rightful owner and deprive them of the enjoyment of the thing. But the coping of information deprives nobody of anything. Information has no necessary relation to property, and hence no necessary relation to the division of property between public, private and pirate. All that is interesting about an ethnography of information, or a history of information, is what escapes from these tired state-imposed norms. It might be argued that the world is a complex, diverse place, and that these abstract remarks must cede to the detail of particular worlds, be it the world of the video parlors of Nigeria or the information bazaars of India, or the covert disc factories of China. But it is only as a professional scholar that one need be so wedded to the particular. After all, if there is nothing all that particular about one's particular field of study, one loses the only legitimate reason for building a career by studying it. All well and good. But when it comes to building trans-local networks that might act on a knowledge of the dawning reality of the slogan "information wants to be free", that is where what might be far more useful is precisely an abstract, transversal mode of thinking. One cannot make connections with a mode of thought that thinks like a bureaucrat, with everything in its right place and everything assigned to its proper owner. This is the other criteria for a critical theory. A critical theory starts by bracketing off the categories through which a messy world is 'managed', it discounts their apparent naturalness and necessity, it looks in everyday practices for what escapes from that necessity, it produces the concept of these granular movements * and, finally, it points its concept outwards, toward linkages and networks for expanding the realm of freedom. Critical thinking outfoxes the administration of though. It refuses the double bind of the red, red tale of the red, red tail of the fox. Administered thought works like this: you can have your freedom, the stated quite casually concedes, if only you can stop thinking of the state! And of course, the injunction is structured to make the state the very site to which one's enjoyment is tied. Ooooh, but if I stop thinking of the state I lose its structuring distinctions, its lines drawn in the sand! Better not do that! Better to keep digging the same hole, within the lines it has drawn for us, and pretend the possibility of escape never arises. Better to be a hedgehog. To which the fox relies: "what state?" Look, I jump here, I jump there, drawing this diagram of a network. The fox thinks alone the lines already there, traversing the social, the lines along which information communicates. The fox will find blockages, interruptions, boundaries and corruptions along the way to be sure. But will not mistake them for anything necessary. From the foxes' point of view, the productive, creative jostling of all those grains of sand on the beach * the everyday acts of creative labor * comes first and last. State and law are secondary categories, which stabilize and partition it. Even a fox might come to agree that state and law are good things. But the fox will always have the critical perspective from which to see that state and law are not natural and given. They could very well be otherwise. http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/WARHAC.html McKenzie Wark ~~~~~~~A Hacker Manifesto http://www.hup.harvard.edu/ From chitrangada.c at gmail.com Sun Jan 9 18:49:23 2005 From: chitrangada.c at gmail.com (Chitrangada) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 13:19:23 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] jalaluddin rumi In-Reply-To: <20050109082453.36877.qmail@web51406.mail.yahoo.com> References: <4966c9cc0501061924131d01d6@mail.gmail.com> <20050109082453.36877.qmail@web51406.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4966c9cc0501090519259783a2@mail.gmail.com> Cama's forgotten to add the most important bit! Here's their contact for interested people: 136, Bombay Samachar Marg, Fort, Mumbai 400023/ Ph: (022) 22843893/Fax: 22876593 ______________________ On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 00:24:53 -0800 (PST), Yousuf Hello Everyone, The Film Discussion Group will meet this month on the 9th of January, (Sunday 6.30 p.m) at Gulmohar, India Habitat Centre for Michelangelo Antonio's Blow-Up. The film will be introduced and discussed by filmmaker and film scholar Ranjani Mazumdar. The synopsis of the film is given below - Looking forward to seeing you all Best, Ira. Blow-Up is director Michelangelo Antonioni's view of the world of mod fashion, and an engaging, provocative murder mystery that examines the existential nature of reality through photography. Antonioni's first film in English, it quickly became one of the most important films of its decade, and a milestone in liberalized attitudes toward film nudity and expressions of sexuality. Blow-Up utilizes swinging London of the sixties and one of its key symbols, the fashion photographer. Thomas played by David Hemmings wanders through a park and takes a picture of a happy couple, much to the disgust of the woman, Jane played by Vanessa Redgrave. When he goes back to develop the pictures he sees a suggestion of something in the photo he never noticed while taking it. Has a crime occurred? Year: 1966 Running Time: 102 minutes Major Awards: Golden Palm, Cannes Festival, 1967 Best British Film, 1967 at the British Academy Awards Best Film (1966) National Society of Film Critics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050109/1bb23934/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From raviv at sarai.net Mon Jan 10 10:32:29 2005 From: raviv at sarai.net (Ravi S. Vasudevan) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 10:32:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] 6th Millenium Lecture by Natalie Zemon Davis Message-ID: <6.1.1.1.0.20050110103146.03316430@mail.sarai.net> The VI Millennium Public Lecture on "Cultural Crossings in a Divided World: Some Examples from the Past" will be delivered by Professor Natalie Zemon Davis, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University & Northrop Frye Visiting Professor of Literary Theory at University of Toronto, on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 11.00 a.m. in the Hall, Old Viceregal Lodge (adjacent to the Vice Chancellor's Office), University of Delhi. This will be followed by a panel discussion in Room 22, Arts Faculty Building, at 2.30 p.m. on the same day. All are welcome. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050110/1b7c5d7b/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From shahidamin at vsnl.com Mon Jan 10 11:20:04 2005 From: shahidamin at vsnl.com (shahid amin) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 11:20:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Natalie Davis Millennium Lecture at DU on 12 Jan. Message-ID: <200501101120.04088.shahidamin@vsnl.com> The VI Millennium Public Lecture on "Cultural Crossings in a Divided World: Some Examples from the Past" will be delivered by Professor Natalie Zemon Davis Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University & Northrop Frye Visiting Professor of Literary Theory at University of Toronto, on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 11.00 a.m. in the Hall, Old Viceregal Lodge (adjacent to the Vice Chancellor's Office), University of Delhi. This will be followed by a panel discussion in Room 22, Arts Faculty Building, at 2.30 p.m. on the same day. All are welcome. Synopsis: "Cultural Crossings in a Divided World: Some Examples from the Past" The lecture will open with a critique of excessive dependence on polarities in exploring cultural exchange, and then give four examples of "people between worlds": one, a Muslim from 16th century North Africa who, kidnapped by Christian pirates, spent 9 years in Italy, some of them as a Christian convert, before returning to North Africa and Islam; and three of them inhabitants of the Dutch colony of Surinam in the 18th century: a slave woman, a Dutch-Scottish soldier in Surinam for military reasons, a Jewish physician and writer from an old Surinam family--all three of them crossing between worlds of slave and free. The lecture will dwell upon the various cultural and psychological strategies they use to move between cultural worlds, and assess the meaning and legacy of their lives. Professor Natalie Zemon Davis is Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University & Northrop Frye Visiting Professor of Literary Theory at University of Toronto. In positions at Brown University, the University of California at Berkeley, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, the Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University, Balliol College, Oxford as well at Princeton and the University of Toronto, Professor Davis has pioneered research on the frontiers of history and anthropology, history and film, history and literature, the study of women and gender, and the study of Jews in early modern Europe. One of the most innovative interdisciplinary historians of our time, Professor Davis' publications include Society and Culture in Early Modern France (1975); The Return of Martin Guerre, the basis for the feature film; Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth Century France :The Harry Camp Lectures for 1985-86 (1987); Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth Centuries Lives ( 1995); The Gift in Sixteenth Century France (1999), Slaves on Screen : Film and Historical Vision (2002) Professor Shahid Amin, Millennium Public Lecture Committee _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From iram at sarai.net Mon Jan 10 16:21:03 2005 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 11:51:03 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] the act of leisure Message-ID: <49395.210.7.77.145.1105354263.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> A delayed reaction from Bikas: one of the three persons captured on video by `pandu' in New Friends Colony Community Centre. iram From: bikas ranjan mishra To: iram_g at rediffmail.com Subject: No Subject Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 22:52:23 IST this is what i've to say ( if i'm in my senses) A cop with a movie camera A couple of things need to be thought about before getting into any discussion on the encounter with this cop with a movie camera: - · Surveillance in itself is a different issue altogether · What use the footage shot by Pandu will be put at, should not be confused with whether he should be allowed to shoot it at all? · Thirdly, even if one can argue that asking for privacy at a public place-is really asking for too much, but my question is why the right to choose the victims of this camera be left to someone’s subjectivity? · · And off course, a community centre is certainly not a shopping mall and people have every right to waste their time as well as have every right to not waste their money? Law enforcer should understand that they are-only law enforcers not custodians of (their own understanding of) morality. This was not an isolated incident; Taha would rememer how we were asked to vacate the place during Diwali and Republic days. Once a loud speaker was put there announcing of the menace of the (seemingly so likely) terrorist threat. This made a conversation impossible at the place. I remember Pandu mincing no words to reveal the truth about the cam to us-it’s meant to discourage the people who habitually come here and hang around without any purpose (though, still it leaves me wondering-how he can interpret purposefulness and lack of it, perhaps and in most probability he was talking about the people who don’t come there to spend) It was not only a surveillance cam put at any public place covering the crowd. It’s a deadly combination of technology and human bias. This cam had the advantage of mobility. It can zoom into faces, go closer to them. Spend more time on a particular face than other. Who decides if the faces are suspicious? Who decided to zoom into some one and not on the other? Who decides what is worth shooting and what is not? Surveillance cams are now a part of our everyday existence. However, we might have objection to their intrusion in our lives but a cop with a movie camera is a different proposition altogether. When we as a society hand over a cam to a cop we also validate his subjectivity (or his bias). This is not the question that what happens to the footage this ‘pandu’ shoots rather what i find more compelling is who authorizes him to do that? Whenever we step out of our private spaces-we come under the scanner-subjected to public gaze. We’re being watched. In a public space one can not stop anyone to subject you to his/her staring eyes, however, when one of these staring eyes become a tool in the hands of the state-it is justified on the grounds of some perceived threats-and its gaze can be technologically reproduced, it sounds an alarming bell. There is another aspect of the encounter- we're sitting at a seemingly public space (as the name justifies-community center). Despite this, the cop wanted us to leave. He informed us that this is a place to shop. If we want to hang around there are cafes and bars. Is this the agenda of the state (it reminds me of Huxley)- pastime should be spent in spending-consuming. We work to earn and leisure is meant for spending, there is no third possibility? So even if we buy this argument that we can’t seek privacy at a public space but the question is-are we left with any? Bikas From supreet.sethi at gmail.com Mon Jan 10 16:27:34 2005 From: supreet.sethi at gmail.com (Supreet Sethi) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 16:27:34 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Milestone on the Way to the GPL Society In-Reply-To: <41DB999B.7000404@sarai.net> References: <41DB999B.7000404@sarai.net> Message-ID: GPL society, notion is interesting, seems to reach certain dead ends. Without taking an absolute stand ... and just stating my humble opinion. 1) GPL/FSF addresses the idea of personal freedom. Where I as a actor intend to share my stuff with you with certain pre-condition. 2) GPL Society would be a classic idea where you simply have a problem and a solution to it. So the actor(programer) looks at a situation(problem), lends/volunteers/sells (etc) his labor to create a solution. What is never addressed is the situation has a third subject which has been ignored, subjective opinion of user who uses the program to exploit the solution for the problem that he faced. Which brings us to a keyword: PACKAGING. 3) Current super-tribe environment also called globalization does'nt allow us to have a personal touch with the produce. No emotional attachment to what is our labor. In certain sense I feel, GPL is a reaction to that. But it does'nt give any feasible BUSSINESS MODEL in that accord. Like in medivial periods we saw guilds, something like that would be possible in this time and space is a open ended question. 4) Personnel Utopia's have exists in one form or the other in every period. osho, nudist colonies etc etc. But for certain to phenomenon to take over it has to evolve and prove itself to be universally feasible. Brand driven take-over did work for a while but more it pushes the envolope, more issues are coming up. Does GPL/Gift culture have some potential, but how much the prove themselfs as a model is something to see...... regards Supreet ----------------- Life is what happens while you're blogging On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 13:09:07 +0530, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > written in 2000 by stefan merten (oekonux), now translated from german > into english: > > GNU/Linux - Milestone on the Way to the GPL Society > > Stefan Merten > > > http://www.oekonux.org/texts/meilenstein/english.html > > _________________________________________ > 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 M.Baas2 at uva.nl Mon Jan 10 19:27:35 2005 From: M.Baas2 at uva.nl (Michiel Baas) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:57:35 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Research on Indian students abroad (Australia in particular) Message-ID: <7428F0B8646AF84891E2B755DA9C3579011AA9DF@rea04.fmg.uva.nl> Dear All, I am a PhD student from the University of Amsterdam whose doing research on Indian students studying abroad, in particular in Melbourne (Australia). To cut a long story short (see information about my research below), I am looking for the following: - Indian students studying in Australia (Melbourne in particular) - Indians who have studied in Australia but who returned to India afterwards - Indians who have studied in other countries and who would like to share their experiences with me (by e-mail) INFORMATION: As Singh (1963) shows, from the 1870s onwards small numbers of Indian students found their way to Oxford and Cambridge. This was partly the result of the British who had opened up their examinations for the Indian Civil Services. Besides preparing for these examinations, in some prosperous Indian families, studying abroad had become the 'thing' to do. After Independence slowly the US started taking over the UK as most popular student destination. Interestingly this situation is about to change again. From the mid-nineties onwards the number of Indian students going to Australia for higher education has skyrocketed and Australia is now about to overtake the US in terms of Indian students going there. Prior to the economic liberalizations of the Indian economy in 1991, the number of Indian students studying in Australian institutions, across all education sectors (school, vocational and Higher) was 378. Within a few years, though, the number of Indian students enrolled in Australian educational institutions had increased to several thousand. This coincided with the liberalization of the Indian economy. According to recent statistics provided by IDP , there are nearly 12,000 Indians studying in Australia and IDP estimates that by the year 2025 this number will have increased to 90,000. My main research questions deal with the reasons why Indian students decide to go abroad. Previous research in India showed me that for many this studying abroad is not so much about actually getting better education there, but much more about getting a permanent residency afterwards. And this probably partly explains why Australia became such a success story. I would like to know how they plan their lives abroad and what happens if they succeed or do not succeed in this. My main focus will be on Indian students in Australia but in addition I am also looking for Indians who have studied in other countries and who are willing to share their experiences with me. >From February onwards I will be in Melbourne for at least half a year to interview, talk to, meet up with Indians studying there. After that period I will go to India to meet up with students who have studied abroad in the past but then returned home to work there etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------- If you want/need to know more, do not hesitate to contact me. Kind regards, Michiel Baas From joy at sarai.net Tue Jan 11 01:07:57 2005 From: joy at sarai.net (joy at sarai.net) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 20:37:57 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] Notes on Contested Commons Conference Message-ID: <1090.203.101.2.135.1105385877.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Traditional medicines, software, entertainment commodities are different trajectories of intellectual property [IP]. If we don’t see all these things from the point of view of IP, neither even from the side of knowledge rather as a flowing social experience and social good we might be able to have different perspective to understand all these forms. The objective is to share and develop all these without any barrier. Some how software community have found interesting mechanism, rather than calling it solution, to safeguard such interest of share and access of codes through use of IP, that is copy right law by deploying licensing mechanism. Creative commons license is also designed in a similar fashion. Though I have problem with these and I will come back to it later. But entertainment commodity circulation has found yet another model for easy flow. The model is piracy. It is true for software as well. Capitalist society, unlike aristocracy, makes desire free and available to every one in the society at almost equal level. But the access is totally marked by class abilities. In such situation, commodity market comes up with all kind of cheaper solutions as well. Fake goods and piracy are two typical example of such condition. It is not that necessity is not linked with it, but one does not need fake versions of branded products for basic necessity. There comes the standardised understanding of living condition in hierarchical society and its desire. There are two kinds of fake goods, one that is fake and don’t claim to be original by its look and market circle. Another is trying to disguise as original and exists within the market of the original. Both of them have their class representation. A badly made backpack with incorrect Lotto logo sold in weekly market has a different commodity status from well made perfectly printed fake backpack sold in Lajpat Nagar market. They both are cheaper than original, but again within themselves one is cheaper than other. But all of them some how try to identify with the original brand. This brand is like the most successful boy in the locality, or a successful singer whom another thousand copy. It is the success and perfection that determines the movement of human activity in present society. Similarly video/audio tape and later CD/DVD technology made copying films and music cheap and made it cheaply available to public who is not in a condition or not willing to spend money to go to cinema hall. Copies can be made and are also made in a legal way, that is, by paying royalty, tax, duties, interest and spending many other liabilities. But in that case, going to cinema hall becomes cheaper than buying such copies. Then if some one has to make profit in copy market, he has to bypass all these liabilities. This is what we call piracy. Out sourcing by big companies makes this practice more complex. It is very normal in present big companies that instead of producing themselves they outsource the production to smaller players who can afford to produce at cheaper rate using non-industrial spaces to avoid lot of industrial liability like permanent wage to factory rent at industrial rate. And also they fight with each other. Competing forces will always try to find short cuts. It is part of capitalist mode of existence. I presume due to increasing lack of simple commodity based society capitalist production deploys illegality more sharply to fight each other. So these events are normal in market production and distribution network. But what it does, it shows us the possibility of production of commodities rather useful goods at cheaper cost. And that fascinates me. It is not the network, not messiness, these things are any case there in any production and distribution system in present world whether big or small. But it is this ability of such production and distribution network to reduce cost interests me. It shows us that it doesn’t cost much to produce any commodity if liabilities for proprietarily claims are not spent. It is not only intellectual property but also other forms of property as well. As far as creativity is concerned, bad translation of legal films also create interesting interpretative recessions. Hindi version of Speed and Jurassic Park are good enough example for that. So it is the quality of usage not piracy. Piracy only increases this possibility of usage many fold. But it is the cost that enables such elaborate usage. It links to the issue raised on medicine that pharma companies don’t disclose their cost of production that can be possibly much less than the market cost of the medicine. But because of the patent regime it is not possible to determine actual cost of those medicines. How can we negotiate that? Or can we at all negotiate that. Thus discourse around medicine ends up with policy making and policy changing. The idea of share culture dries up by the time we reach medicine or for that matter traditional knowledge. It seems that the way IP helps to liberate computer code might not at all help to liberate medicine o traditional knowledge. Then does it mean the sharing possibilities end there? Is there any other way to look at other than IP? What is the problem with IP and its different avatar of licensing models? There comes my philosophical problem with GPL and Creative Commons. These are sharing models. But before sharing it ensures the owner of the goods, that is knowledge, will not diminish if that person shares that object. So in the case of another object that would diminish through share will we stop sharing? If GPL and Creative Commons license are strategy to defend sharing dynamics of an object that does not diminish through share, in that case we need to find another model for those objects which might diminish through share. What that model can be? There I think commoning is the solution. Though I don’t think Magna Carta defends a rigorous practice of commoning, it merely symbolizes it, and can still survive like a fossil without any hint of commons. For me commoing is philosophical and spiritual condition where every one is ready to share in spite of loss and every one respects that sharing ethos. Every object has its own production and circulation cycle, there can not be one single model to produce and share it. Knowledge to predict Tsunami by Andaman Tribes might need hundred years to learn. Lets respect that process and request them to inform us in crisis, rather than trying to know it in a NIIT type crash course and share it through GPL. Best Joy From arkitect95 at yahoo.co.in Tue Jan 11 12:31:10 2005 From: arkitect95 at yahoo.co.in (arkitect95) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 07:01:10 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] [arkitectindia] Mail From Pakistan Message-ID: REFORMING PAKISTAN'S UNIVERSITIES -- I by Pervez Hoodbhoy There is a severe and long-standing crisis in higher education. But, until the present military government took the initiative, there was no rehabilitation plan. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, appointed as chairman of the Higher Education Commission, was the wonder-man charged by General Musharraf with turning the situation around. He was quick to make a powerful pitch for vast increases in funding. Foreign donors, worried about the implications of Pakistan's sinking educational system, obliged. The higher education budget zoomed by twelve times (1,200 per cent) over three years, a world record. A number of new and innovative utilization schemes were announced. Some solid achievements did emerge. Internet connectivity in universities has been substantially expanded; distance education is being seriously pursued through the newly established Virtual University; a digital library is in operation; some foreign faculty has been hired; students are being sent abroad for PhD training (albeit largely to second rate institutions); some links with foreign institutions now exist; and money for scientific equipment is no longer a problem. No previous Pakistani government can boast of comparable accomplishments, and the HEC chairman deserves congratulations. But the HEC is also setting into motion very dangerous, potentially catastrophic, systemic changes. In this article I will look at the problems in our higher education system and why the HEC reforms are set to make a bad situation worse rather than better. In a subsequent article, I will suggest some modest steps that may offer a way forward. Pakistan has almost a hundred universities now. Not one of them is world class. Truth be told, not even one of them is a real university, if by a university one means a community of scholars engaged in free inquiry and the creation of knowledge. Take for example the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, reputed to be Pakistan's best. Academic activities common in good universities around the world are noticeably absent. Seminars and colloquia, where faculty present for peer review the results of their on-going research, are few and far between. Public lectures, debates, or discussions of contemporary scientific, cultural, or political issues are almost non-existent. The teaching at QAU is no better. Rote learning is common, students are not encouraged to ask questions in class, and courses are rarely completed by the end of the semester. This university has three mosques but no bookstore. It is becoming more like a madressah in other ways too. It was not always this way. The global intellectual ferment of the late 1960's and 70's had a stimulating impact on Pakistani campuses. Intellectual, scientific, cultural and literary activity flourished. Young Pakistani scholars gave up potential careers in the West to come to Pakistani universities. But in November of 1981, just days after three QAU teachers had been caught with anti-martial law and pro-democracy pamphlets, General Ziaul Haq thundered on television that he would "purge the country's universities of the cancer of politics". He succeeded. A quarter century later, the faculty are more concerned with money and promotions than research, teaching, or bringing their knowledge to bear on the myriad issues facing our society. Among the students there are many burqas and beards, but minuscule intellectual or creative activity. All student unions are gone, and ideological disputes have evaporated into the thin air. Instead of left vs right politics there is simple tribalism.Now Punjabi students gang together against Pakhtoon students, Muhajirs versus Sindhis, Shias versus Sunnis, etc. Some campuses are run by gangs of hoodlums and harbour known criminals, while others have Rangers with machine guns on continuous patrol. On occasion, student wolf packs attack each other with sticks, stones, pistols, and automatic weapons. There are many campus murders. Most students have not learned how to think; they cannot speak or write any language well, rarely read newspapers, and cannot formulate a coherent argument or manage any significant creative expression. Dumbed down, this generation of Pakistanis is intellectually handicapped. Like overgrown children, students of my university now kill time by making colourful birthday posters for friends, do "istikhara" (fortune telling), and wander aimlessly in Islamabad's bazaars. Understanding the scale of the failure is important. Compare Pakistan's premier university with those in its neighbours' capitals. First to the east: Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the Indian Institute of Technology, in Delhi. Their facilities are simple and functional, nothing like the air-conditioned and carpeted offices of most professors at QAU. And, more important, every notice board is crammed with notices for seminars and colloquia, visitors from the very best foreign universities lecture there, research laboratories hum with activity, and pride and satisfaction are written all around. Conflict on campuses does exist - communist and socialist students battle with Hindutva students over the Gujrat carnage, Iraq, Kashmir, and the BJP doctoring of history. Angry words are exchanged and polemics are issued against the other, but no heads are bashed. While lecturing at these institutions during a recent visit, I was impressed by the fearlessness and the informed, critical intelligence of the students who questioned and challenged me. I cannot imagine an Indian professor having a similar reception in Pakistan. Now to the west: Teheran's Sharif University of Technology, and the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, are impressive institutions filled with professional activity, workshops, and seminars. Even as they maintain good academic standards, Iranian university students are heavily political and today are spearheading the movement for freedom and democracy. Iranian students make it to the best US graduate schools. Although it is an Islamic republic, bookshops are more common than mosques in Tehran. Translations into Farsi appear in just weeks or months after a book is published in the western world. Driven by the unfavourable comparison with neighbours, the need for university reform finally became an issue. The first big idea was that Pakistan needed more universities. So today all it takes is a piece of paper from the HEC and some paint. Some colleges have literally had their signboards taken down for repainting, and been put back up changed into "universities" the next day. By such sleight of hand the current tally of public universities, according to the HEC website, is now officially 47, up from the 23 officially listed in 1996. In addition, there are eight degree awarding public sector institutes. Unfortunately, this is merely a numbers game. All new public sector universities lack infrastructure, libraries, laboratories, adequate faculty, or even a pool of students academically prepared to study at the university level. The HEC's "generosity" extends even into largely illiterate tribal areas. There are so-called universities now in Malakand, Bannu, Kohat, Khuzdar, Gujrat, Haripur, and in many other places where it is difficult to detect the slightest potential for successfully establishing modern universities. Another poorly thought-out, and dangerous, HEC scheme involves giving massive cash awards to university teachers for publishing research papers - Rs 60,000 per paper published in a foreign journal. Although these stimulants are said to have increased the number of papers published in international journals by a whopping 44 per cent, there is little evidence that this increase in volume is the result of an increase in genuine research activity. The fact is only a slim minority of Pakistani academics possesses the ethics, motivation, and capability needed for genuine scientific discovery and research. For the majority, the HEC incentives are a powerful reason to discover the art of publishing in research journals without doing research, to find loopholes, and to learn how to cover up one's tracks. Established practices of plagiarizing papers, multiple publications of slightly different versions of the same paper in different research journals, fabricating scientific data, and seeking out third-rate foreign journals with only token referees are now even more common. The HEC has broadcast the message: corruption pays. The casual disregard for quality is most obvious in the HEC's massive PhD production programme. This involves enrolling 1,000 students in Pakistani universities every year for PhD degrees. Thereby Pakistan's "PhD deficit" (it produces less than 50 PhDs per annum at present) will supposedly be solved and it will soon be at par with India. In consequence, an army of largely incapable and ignorant students, armed with hefty HEC fellowships, has sallied forth to write PhD theses. Although the HEC claims that it has checked the students through a "GRE type test" (the American graduate school admission test), a glance at the question papers reveals it to be only a shoddy literacy and numeric test. In my department, advertised as the best physics department in the country, the average PhD student now has trouble with high-school level physics and even with reading English. Nevertheless there are as many as 18 PhD students registered with one supervisor! In the QAU biology department, that number rises to 37 for one supervisor. HEC incentives have helped dilute PhD qualifying exams to the point where it is difficult for any student not to pass. The implications of this mass-production of PhDs are dire. Very soon hundreds and, in time, thousands of worthless PhDs will be cranked out. They will train even less competent students. Eventually they will become heads of departments and institutions. When appointed gatekeepers, they will regard more competent individuals as threats to be kept locked out. The degenerative spiral, long evident in any number of Pakistani institutions, will worsen rapidly, and become infinitely more difficult to break. Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy is Professor of Physics Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/O.5XsA/8WnJAA/E2hLAA/VaTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: arkitectindia-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From definetime at rediffmail.com Tue Jan 11 09:42:34 2005 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 11 Jan 2005 04:12:34 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] War on copyright communists Message-ID: <20050111041234.28942.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com> The war on copyright communists Bill Gates wants software patents to protect his profit, not the public Andrew Brown Tuesday January 11, 2005 The Guardian Bill Gates is an intelligent man who has done a great deal of good in the world. So when he gets caught out in a bare-faced lie this should matter to all of us; and last week, when he called the opponents of American intellectual property law a "communist" movement he was encouraging a mistake that could impoverish the entire world. He said: "Of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist." The argument in principle that Gates makes against "communism" starts in exactly the right place. But his vested interests lead him to drag it in the wrong direction. It is as if the Sheriff of Nottingham were to announce that it's enormously important that your property was protected from criminals - so he'll take everything you have that might be stolen and lock it up for safety in his castle. To start with the good bit of his argument, it is true - as Gates says - that intellectual property matters and copyright benefits the whole of society, and needs to be enforced. The market is a very efficient way of producing good software, and if it is to work then the rules must be enforced, and copyrighted software protected not just by law, but by active policing. Copying without permission seems a victimless crime; but in the long run it is a crime of which we are all victims. This is not just an argument in fairness that says that the author of a work deserves the reward of his or her labours. There is the argument from efficiency, and social benefit. Copyright makes possible a proper market in intangible goods, which means more of them will be produced, which means we all will benefit. Markets aren't the only system by which software gets produced. Plenty of books were produced for love, or without the hope of gain. Shakespeare could hardly have written more if he had been rolling in royalties. Even today, a great deal of the most important software in the world is freely produced and freely given away. Every time you connect to the internet, or look something up on Google, you are relying on software at the other end of the connection which, like Linux, is free for anyone to copy or use. This puts a painful cramp on Microsoft's monopoly. You can see why Gates hates it. If the free OpenOffice software, which can largely replace Microsoft Office, caught on, the cramp would become more painful still. But if Microsoft loses its 69% profit margin on Office, that's not communism, or even anarchy. The free software movement is protected by intellectual property law as much as commercial software is, since copyright law ensures that the code which has been freely given away cannot be taken back into private ownership. And most of the important stuff is written by programmers employed by large companies to strike back at Microsoft. Sun, for example, writes almost all of OpenOffice. That's global capitalism at its nastiest - and most inventive. The real problem with Microsoft's monopoly is that not even Microsoft can compete with its own products - there's no reason to buy new ones when the old ones work well. It has been years since it came out with any program so immediately attractive that people wanted to upgrade. This is a very unhappy position, but that's capitalism. No law of nature says that companies have to stay profitable just because they were in the past. This is a problem for the whole software industry, but the solution Gates favours is bad for all of us. This is to get governments to supply the missing law and to ensure that Microsoft and other large companies will be profitable for ever, at the expense of any smaller, newer, hungrier ones. Software will be protected not just by copyright, but by patents. This makes about as much sense as patenting jokes. Software builds on other people's ideas. Claiming royalties on certain fundamental ideas looks like an easy road to endless riches: BT attempted to patent the clicking on hyperlinks in the world wide web. Microsoft has applied for 1,500 patents, some of them nearly as ridiculous. If these were granted, or enforceable, it would stifle innovation and work against the beneficial effects of copyright. Copyrighting allows people to benefit from their labours, but software patents allow the companies with the largest legal departments to benefit from everyone else's work. For the moment, the folly stops at the borders of Europe. An attempt to allow software patenting within the EU was halted last month by a Polish veto, which shows that a post-communist country understands the demands of a market capitalism better than the world's richest capitalist. · Andrew Brown is the author of In the Beginning Was the Worm. feedback at thewormbook.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050111/a6ed27a7/attachment.html From definetime at rediffmail.com Tue Jan 11 10:00:01 2005 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 11 Jan 2005 04:30:01 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] A man-made tsunami Message-ID: <20050111043001.16041.qmail@webmail28.rediffmail.com> A man-made tsunami Why are there no fundraisers for the Iraqi dead? Terry Jones Tuesday January 11, 2005 The Guardian I am bewildered by the world reaction to the tsunami tragedy. Why are newspapers, television and politicians making such a fuss? Why has the British public forked out more than £100m to help the survivors, and why is Tony Blair now promising "hundreds of millions of pounds"? Why has Australia pledged £435m and Germany £360m? And why has Mr Bush pledged £187m? Of course it's wonderful to see the human race rallying to the aid of disaster victims, but it's the inconsistency that has me foxed. Nobody is making this sort of fuss about all the people killed in Iraq, and yet it's a human catastrophe of comparable dimensions. According to the only scientific estimate attempted, Iraqi deaths since the war began number more than 100,000. The tsunami death toll is in the region of 150,000. Yet in the case of Iraq, the media seems reluctant to impress on the public the scale of the carnage. I haven't seen many TV reporters standing in the ruins of Falluja, breathlessly describing how, in 30 years of reporting, they've never seen a human tragedy on this scale. The Pope hasn't appealed for everyone to remember the Iraqi dead in their prayers, and MTV hasn't gone silent in their memory. Nor are Blair and Bush falling over each other to show they recognise the scale of the disaster in Iraq. On the contrary, they have been doing their best to conceal the numbers killed. When the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimated the figure of 100,000 killed in Iraq and published their findings in one of the world's leading scientific journals, the Lancet, Downing Street questioned their methodology, saying "the researchers used an extrapolation technique, which they considered inappropriate, rather than a detailed body count". Of course "a detailed body count" is the one thing the US military will not allow anyone to do. What is so odd is the way in which so much of the media has fallen into line, downplaying the only authoritative estimate of casualties in Iraq with the same unanimity with which they have impressed upon us the death toll of the tsunami. One of the authors of the forenamed report, Dr Gilbert Burnham, said: "Our data have been back and forth between many reviewers at the Lancet and here in the school, so we have the scientific strength to say what we have said with great certainty." So, are deaths caused by bombs and gunfire less worthy of our pity than deaths caused by a giant wave? Or are Iraqi lives less worth counting than Indonesian, Thai, Indian and Swedish? Why aren't our TV companies and newspapers running fundraisers to help Iraqis whose lives have been wrecked by the invasion? Why aren't they screaming with outrage at the man-made tsunami that we have created in the Middle East? It truly is baffling. · Terry Jones is a film director, actor and Python. His book Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror is published this month by the Nation -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050111/3b20ca95/attachment.html From rahefe at hotmail.com Mon Jan 10 23:08:55 2005 From: rahefe at hotmail.com (Raquel Herrera) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:38:55 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] CONVERSATION METANARRATIVE(S)? Message-ID: The Vth Symposium on Art & Multimedia/Metanarrative(s)? will be held soon (28th-29th January 2005, Barcelona, Spain). As a "warm-up exercise", we the coordinators of the symposium (media art historian and curator Antoni Mercader + me) have published an online conversation about the origin of the symposium and the term "metanarratives". Please check it at> http://metanarratives.blogspot.com You can also check the invited speakers at>http://www.mediatecaonline.net/metanarratives Hoping to have your feedback about this project :> Raquel Herrera From monica at sarai.net Tue Jan 11 15:52:58 2005 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:52:58 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents Message-ID: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4163975.stm IBM frees 500 software patents Computer giant IBM says 500 of its software patents will be released into the open development community. The move means developers will be able to use the technologies without paying for a licence from the company. -- Monica Narula [Raqs Media Collective] Sarai-CSDS 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.raqsmediacollective.net www.sarai.net From zainab at xtdnet.nl Tue Jan 11 17:57:45 2005 From: zainab at xtdnet.nl (zainab at xtdnet.nl) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 13:27:45 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] @Delhi.net Message-ID: <2069.210.7.77.145.1105446465.squirrel@webmail.xtdnet.nl> 11 January, 2005 Standards and Standardization Images and Notions of Development!!! It is too bad to be too thoughtful. I can’t seem to get my mind off the city, the urban and all the everyday experiences. I can conveniently blame all of this to traveling – heck, I can’t seem to be able to stop myself from traveling through the city, people’s minds and through my own mind! Now, now, I know that I am a self-indulgent researcher and I need to stop talking about myself. So let’s talk city! @ Delhi.net! These are days of winter in Delhi, days of cold and mist, fog, and some warm sunshine in between. I have been traveling in the city’s autorickshaws and DTC buses. And I realize that publics can be created anytime, just as much as spaces can be created anywhere, anytime. Last evening, Solly and me went traveling from the North of the city to the South. A Sardar autorickshaw driver stated his opinions about the Delhi Metro. And I love the way in which the state government is selling the metro to the people through advertisement hoardings which state ‘Delhi Metro, Mera Metro’ i.e. ‘Delhi Metro, My Metro’. Now, now, I realize that the government is also into the age of customizing – custom-made services for individual customers. Now, now, I’m confused – am I a customer or a citizen? Gosh, utter confusion! Sardarji, as he drove the autorickshaw spoke of the metro: “Badhiya, really good! Have you seen the metro? It runs at the speed of 300kms. It’s Japanese investment and technology. This, here, is the over-ground metro till ISBT bus stand and then, there, is the underground metro running from ISBT bus stand to Delhi University. The station for the underground one is in the process of construction. I have traveled in the metro, twice.” As Sardarji speaks, I think of urban spectacles and individual curiosities. This auto driver was curious enough to check out the metro. This afternoon, while returning from South to the North, another UPite auto driver speaks to me, “Have you seen the metro? Check out the stations! They are grand! They have lots of things in them i.e. shops and brands. The supply for the metro comes from further up north. Supply means labour. The metro is amazing. You cannot escape without buying a ticket. Very difficult to travel ticket-less. You know why? Because when you enter the station, you get a token which helps you open the door. Now, the door will not open without the token. If you happen to punch the token upside-down, then too the door will not open. So you see, you cannot travel ticket-less on the metro!” Sardarji last night refused to drive us down South. “I lose my way in the nights. I drive around in this region, here in the north. Delhi is being transformed. Badhiya hai!” Auto driver this afternoon states his opinion, “The world is now going to face competition from Delhi. See what wonderful things they are building here in Delhi. Badhiya, badhiya! Now you need not go to bidesh (foreign, abroad). Everything is right here!” I start to imagine and wonder. Urbanites or call us city dwellers, have various ways of constructing imaginations. And I believe we have several images which help us to build our imaginations and reinforce them into beliefs. Perhaps such are beliefs about the city and notions of development. And what is curiously amazing is that neither Sardarji nor the afternoon autorickshaw driver has been to foreign! Sardarji in fact rarely ventures out of his northern Delhi territory. So how does the international get communicated to them, within their own urban spaces and spaces of existence and employment? I believe it is the media, the media which is now producing imaginations of the ‘foreign urban!’, the desire that we in this land of India, will create urban spectacles and wow the world! And maybe it is this colonial inferiority which implicitly leads us to act this way, each metro city suffering from complex or another. Then I think of another urban flow which cannot be discounted. And this is the flow of the desis from bidesh, the NRIs coming back to India. And as this flow increases, the images and beliefs of what constitutes development become stronger. It’s amazing nah, how flows take place in the urban – the desis from bidesh coming back to their lands and the government of Maharashtra (which can also be called Government of Mumbai) throwing out the slum dwellers and the encroachers who are now going back to their gaons/villages. Perhaps this is what might be “Operation Clearing – Making Space for our Prodigal Sons!” Now you may ask me why I talk about standards. I take off from December, the day I read through the Chief Minister’s Task Force Report on “Transforming Mumbai into a World Class City”. Now, Master Chef presents: The Ingredients which go into the Making of a World Class City: · A Metro Rail or Sky Train will also do (available in Shanghai/Singapore. For desi version, try mera metro from Delhi.) · Concreted Roads · Supermarkets, malls and multiplexes: these you can try in individual proportions or mix them all together which will, in turn, enable you to create the ‘Ideal Family Weekend’ · Tiled Pavements and Street Furniture – we are decorating the public domain for pedestrians. No pavement dwellers here please · You can also throw in, for garnishing and flavor, signs indicating “Caution” or “Prohibited”, here and there, everywhere! I guess that should be it nah! Oh no, please note, in order to prepare a world class city, you must start on a clean plate which means all the dirt must either be cleared up or shoved off to a place where it is no longer visible. These are standards which we operate with to create urban spectacles, spectacular spectacles. And standards are defined through popular imagery. The current standards are those of a ‘world-class city’. Now, enough of rambling for today Zainab Bawa Bombay www.xanga.com/CityBytes From eye at ranadasgupta.com Tue Jan 11 19:37:16 2005 From: eye at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 19:37:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Invitation: A Place Called Home (Johannesburg Art Gallery) Message-ID: <41E3DD94.3090007@ranadasgupta.com> You are cordially invited you to the opening of “A Place Called Home” A Contemporary Art Show with artists of the South Asian Diaspora At the Johannesburg Art Gallery Curated by Zayd Minty To be opened by Ferial Hafajee (Editor of Mail & Guardian) on Saturday, 22 January 2005 at 16h00 at the Johannesburg Art Gallery Special performance Duets in the Diaspora - choreographed by the award winning Jay Pather for the Siwela Sonke dance company at the opening. Bani Abidi (Pakistan/USA) Omar Badsha (South Africa) Ansuman Biswas (India/UK) Chila Kumari Burman (UK) Faiza Galdhari (South Africa) Sunil Gupta (India/Canada/UK) Roshini Kempadoo (UK/Guyana) Zen Marie (South Africa) Moti Roti (Trinidad/Pakistan/UK) Prema Murthy (India/Philippines/USA) Usha Seejarim (South Africa) Exhibition closes 13 March 2005 A PLACE CALLED HOME: a contemporary art show with artists from the South Asian Diaspora curated by Zayd Minty is at the Joburg Art Gallery, South Africa from 22 January 2005 (opening at 16h00 by Ferial Hafajee: editor of the Mail and Guardian) to 13 March 2005, following successful runs at the NSA Gallery in Durban, and SA National Gallery in Cape Town. There will be a special performance entitled Duets in the Diaspora - choreographed by the award winning Jay Pather for the Siwela Sonke dance company – at the opening of the exhibition at the Joburg Art Gallery. An exhibition of photographic, print, video, web based and installation works by artists of “Indian”/South Asian descent from all around the world, it is bound to have resonance in South Africa where over a million people originally hail from the Indian subcontinent. The “South Asian Diaspora” of today received its greatest growth from the mid 1800s when large groupings of Indians began moving to countries such as Fiji, South Africa, Trinidad, Surinam, and a host of other places around the globe, first through the indentured labour system, to provide cheap labour in sugar fields, and later as traders. The most recent waves of immigration were in the 1960s and 70s to the UK and more recently to the US (largely to work in the IT industries). Bollywood and a renewed interest in Indian inspired style, should not detract from the commentary that many artists of “Indian” descent - third or fourth generation South Africans, British or Caribbean – have produced in the process of making “home” in the place of their birth or by adopting as “home” the place they have chosen to move to. A Place Called Home includes a number of important local and international artists, amongst them: Sunil Gupta (India/Thailand/Canada/UK), an artist who uses his own history, as a gay, HIV person who has lived in three continents, in his evocative photographs; Chila Burman (UK) who was active in the Black British arts movement of the ‘80s and the renown collective Moti Roti (Trinidad/Pakistand/UK) whose dynamic and visually lush projects, inspired by carnival traditions, engage subtly in tranformative social commentary. The project includes key South African artists such as the renowned Omar Badsha who rose to prominence as a lyrical documentary photographer during Apartheid days. Badsha, together with younger up and coming artists, such as the award wining Usha Seejarim, Durban based Faiza Galdhari and Zen Marie were commissioned to produce new work for this show. Minty is a cultural producer and organiser, who was born and educated in Durban but has worked, since 1991, in Cape Town particularly around issues of culture and transformation. He was previously artistic director of the Cape Town Festival (2002) and is presently based at the District Six Museum. He has co-curated two important shows notably Isintu (1998) at the SA National Gallery and Returning the Gaze (2000) a public art project. Both projects dealt with questions around race and identity. He is a fourth generation South African of Gujerati/Indian descent. A Place Called Home was developed while Minty was a Rockefeller Fellow at Emory University in USA and the website at www.cultproduct.co.za and provides information on the making of the project’, including a detailed contextual essay. It also includes submissions around issues of identity by a number of creative individuals of Indian/South Asian decent from around the world. A Place Called Home, was chosen by a jury of the NSA Gallery as a project of national significance through a National Lotteries grant. It has received the support of The National Arts Council, The Arts and Culture Trust of the President (ACT), the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and The British Council. The exhibition is supported as part of the British Council D+10 programme, celebrating ten years of South African democracy. The Johannesburg leg of the show has received the support of Ochre Media (www.ochre.co.za) More Information: Tiny or Khwezi (Johannesburg Art Gallery) TEL: (011) 725 3130 EMAIL: KhweziG at joburg.org.za Zayd Minty TEL: 0835301912 EMAIL: one at intekom.co.za From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Wed Jan 12 12:39:42 2005 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:39:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <41E4CD36.7060300@linux-delhi.org> Monica Narula wrote: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4163975.stm > > IBM frees 500 software patents > > Computer giant IBM says 500 of its software patents will be released > into the open development community. > > The move means developers will be able to use the technologies without > paying for a licence from the company. IBM foresees the future, where software is a commodity. It doesn't bother them because they sell a lot of hardware and its almost believable that people will buy even more hardware from them if software were free. If as much of the money that was going to Microsoft now starts flowing the IBM way keeping the OSS developers happy is a very good move. That being said, IBM is the leader in new patents every year. IBM rarely let's their patents go. IBM's success is partly due from those thousands of IP patent's they attain every year. IBM already has one of the largest patent portfolios worldwide and it continues to register more patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. With 3,415 patents in 2003 IBM has more than any other company ever has done in a year. It was also the 11th consecutive year that IBM was awarded the most patents, and it brought IBM's total over those 11 years to more than 25000 patents. 500 patents is a tiny fraction of the mountain of patents they own. IBM releasing 500 patents for OSS developers can not be seen as giving away its IP portfolio, nor can it be seen as a generous move of collaboration with the Open source community. Exactly how many open-source projects currently pay IBM for patent licenses? And how many do you expect to pay in future? Another reason why giving away a few patents is a very good idea is because IBM wants to not look like an IP Hoarding company. By freely distributing the patents IBM, in effect is trying to hit those IP hoarding companies. IBM is losing nothing here. What they have gained is a great deal of goodwill, and given open-source development a boost. They have a great deal of experience in building upon open-source projects, where there competitors do not - so anything good for open-source is good for IBM at the moment. This is a smart move by smart people, and it follows in the footsteps of other smart moves. This is an indicator that IBM really understands how open-source can help their business, and if IBM continue in this fashion, they will make a great deal of money while the rest of the world catches up with them in the open-source stakes. Open source changes the notion of who will make money. IBM has made major moves to make sure they will be the benefactors of this change. Pankaj. -- make install --not war From aesthete at mail.jnu.ac.in Tue Jan 11 12:50:42 2005 From: aesthete at mail.jnu.ac.in (Dean School of Arts and Aesthetics) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:50:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] PROF PARTHA MITTER LECTURE Message-ID: <1105428042.8f421440aesthete@mail.jnu.ac.in> LECTURE BY PROF PARTHA MITTER "MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION, MODERNITY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY" VENUE:SCHOOL OF ARTS AND AESTHETICS AUDITORIUM JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY, NEW DELHI TIME 04 PM DATE:19TH JANUARY 2005 (WEDNESDAY) ============================================== 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 nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Tue Jan 11 20:11:43 2005 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de ({e-art}) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:41:43 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Cinema_C: call for submissions Message-ID: <20050111154143.2CCF383E.7304953B@127.0.0.1> Cinematheque at MediaCentre . announces the opening of Cinema_C by launching a special call for submissions (can be also downloaded from ) Title: O-C-I-N ´ Online Cinema - Interactive Narratives Deadline 1 April 2005 ______________________________ O-C-I-N is a new project environment going down to experimental forms of cinema in an online context. . Until now, the spaces of Cinematheque were mainly presenting streaming video works of different kind and interactivity played basically rather a certain role concerning interface design than a conceptional component of the art works themselves. Cinema_C and "O-C-I-N" will focus on the conceptional role of interactivity as a basic component for a new film creation by involving the user actively in the process and progress of story telling. The participating artist or artists collaborative are free to choose and develop their story and the specific way they allow/enforce the user to take influence on the progress of the story in a conceptional and technological concern, and these represent also the basic conditions for creating the art work Although, the call is mainly focussing on two digital output formats i.e. Flash .swf and Shockwave Director .dcr, which may include all possible media files (digital video etc), also other Internet compatible and cross-platform programming environments may be considered on request. . The artist/artists collectives are invited to submit one work only and make the work online available for preview or download, once the work is selected it has to be submitted completely including all files, so that Cinematheque is able to post and host the work online. Cinematheque is neither commssioning, nor aquiring any work, but hosting the art work "only", the best way to make the works available for permanent to the online audience. The artists/artists collective keep all rights on their works. No fee!! . These are the technological specifications for the project to be submitted: screen resolution: 1024x764 px (also maximum project dimensions) output file formats/submission format: Flash .swf/html, Shockwave Director .dcr/html, other formats on request cross platform project size: no limit year: 2001-2005 Please use this form for submitting: ******************* 1.name of artist(s), email address(es), URL(s) (in case of an artists collective plase credit all participants properly) 2. short biography/CV (not more than 300 words each) 3. 1 work/project only -->title, year of production a) URL of the posted work online and/or b) URL from where the project file(s) can be downloaded 4. work description (story included, not more than 500 words) 5. screenshot (.jpeg, max. 800x600 px) . Confirmation/authorization: The submitter(s) declares and confirms that he/she/they is/are holding all rights on the submission and give permission to include the submitted work in "Cinematheque" online/offline environment until revoke. Signed by (submitter) . Please send the complete submission to mediacentre at le-musee-divisioniste.org subject: Cinema_C . Deadline 1 April 2005. ******************************** This call can be also downloaded from Cinematheque at Mediacentre www.le-musee-divisioniste.org/mediacentre is part of [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net contact: info at nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From basvanheur at gmx.net Wed Jan 12 16:05:20 2005 From: basvanheur at gmx.net (Bas Van Heur) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:35:20 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] Issue #5 of cut.up.magazine online Message-ID: <28635.1105526120@www47.gmx.net> A new year, a new edition of cut.up.magazine. If only everything would be so simple. Check: http://www.cut-up.com Two new articles in English: Genetically modified plants aka Frankenfood as a new instrument of surveillance (Wilfried Houjebek); and the practice of time and space in the ladies compartment of the local train in Mumbai City (Zainab Bawa). For those who would like to go Dutch: Micromusic and the revival of the gameboy, Atari and Commodore as musical instruments (Tonie van Ringelestijn); literary work on Kroonduiven Slijm and Derridada (J.K. Harsman); and positive Orientalism and the travels of Foucault to Iran (André Bank). And new reviews (but, of course!): reSort off, Strange Attractor, LCD Soundsystem, KPTMichigan, Under the Bridge in Belgrade, Duran Duran Duran and the Yule Festival. Visual stuff by Frank Kloos. Praise, critique, ideas, contributions? Please let us know: editors, info at cut-up.com cut.up.media po box 313 haarlem the Netherlands -- +++ GMX - die erste Adresse für Mail, Message, More +++ 1 GB Mailbox bereits in GMX FreeMail http://www.gmx.net/de/go/mail From zainab at xtdnet.nl Wed Jan 12 16:38:46 2005 From: zainab at xtdnet.nl (zainab at xtdnet.nl) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:08:46 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] The Story of Vaishali Madve and my concerns about Private Security Message-ID: <2775.210.7.77.145.1105528126.squirrel@webmail.xtdnet.nl> The Story of Vaishali (And my security concerns!) Mom was facing a crisis of a maidservant. Our home faces this crisis once every three or four years. But perhaps this time, the crisis was a little graver than what we had imagined. Slum dwellers and all have been moved from the railway lines and the pavements near our home. And they have been relocated and rehabilitated in New Bombay. One such dweller is Vaishali Madve. On the recommendation of the sweeper in our building, we hired her. Vaishali is about 16 years old. She was living in the slums somewhere in our area till she was rehabilitated to Vashi. She was given a proper house there. Vaishali is young and fashionable. She is also a very hard worker. But somehow, I never liked her. Dad was also against her. But mom liked her work. So Vaishali stuck on. Mom was making her stick on. However, soon, Vaishali started bunking. She needed money everyday in order to be able to commute. And mom is against handing out money from the salary everyday. Anyhow Once, Vaishali bunked work for three days at a stretch. We thought she was gone till she showed up on the fourth day. On that day, mom had an argument with her and warned her. That day, Vaishali was furious and angry. And that day, I was to attend a high level meeting and was very well dressed up for it all. I entered the kitchen to say bye to mom and Vaishali stared at me up and down. I did not like this in the least bit. As I walked out of the door, I felt a sudden pang of fear. ‘What if wealth had showed up on me too much? And what if this showing up raised new ideas in Vaishali’s mind? And what if she decided to murder my mother, to stab her?’ I had a terrible time battling with myself. In the evening, unable to resist, I phoned my mother to check up on how she was. Mum was all well. All these days, I have been at Nariman Point and questioning notions of private security. I wonder why residents have been employing private security on public spaces. A few days ago, I met up with Gitanjali. Gitanjali has lived at Churchgate for about two years. She spoke of her experiences, “My landlady would tell me not to come late at night. She was concerned about people noticing me in the lanes and following me up to the house. She was concerned about her safety and security.” And Bhakti, a resident of Marine Drive had said to me, “You have to know that a lot of old and rich people live in Marine Drive and Churchgate area. After the murder of a wealthy lady by her servant in this area and then subsequent crimes against senior citizens, residents in this area became security conscious.” While I definitely believe that there are other nuances to the issue of private security and public fear, here are the questions that I have today: · What is this transition from private space to public space or the reverse for that matter? · Is it legal/rightful to restrict access of certain peoples to public spaces? · Who is the public in the case of a public space? · Is publics homogenous? · Do owners of residents/private spaces in and around a public space have greater stakes in the public space (not just vis-à-vis concerns of security)? Post-Script to the Story of Vaishali: Vaishali no longer works with us. She had been bunking work too much. Pushpa now works in our home. And Pushpa narrated the story of Vaishali. “Vaishali is young. Her father is a drunkard and he beats her everyday and steals money from her. That is why she needed money everyday to come to work. She is young and loves to socialize and party. She has desires. That is why she refuses to take a full time job and does only part-time work so that she has the evenings to herself. She loves to dress up and be stylish. Obviously, what more do you expect of a 16-year old?” Zainab Bawa Bombay www.xanga.com/CityBytes From oli at zeromail.org Wed Jan 12 22:08:09 2005 From: oli at zeromail.org (Oli) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 17:38:09 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: <41E4CD36.7060300@linux-delhi.org> References: <41E4CD36.7060300@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: <01D53BBCCCD5C972BF4CD87C@142F8154BC2F2AF7DF65AA7D> Just think about eclipse (eclipse.org), an IDE that so nicely fits into the 'open source community', a big success, and IBM saved a lot of money, because PR was not necessary anymore. They are just using the 'community'. The story of eclipse is far more complex, and I am only interested in one point here: open source more and more becomes an 'Adapt or Die' strategy, and it is an competitive advantage to jump on the open-source wagon, which seems to be the future of software as a commodity (yes!). Look here: "Seven open source business strategies for competitive advantage" is not just a proposal that might be of interest, but it's already a paradigm in contempory software development. The strategies names are telling a lot what it is about: The Optimization Strategy The Dual License Strategy The Consulting Strategy The Subscription Strategy The Patronage Strategy The Hosted Strategy The Embedded Strategy So, open source is not innocent. It's a tool being used more and more for competitive advantage. How does the 'open source community' react? Is this an issue and for whom? -Oli --On Wednesday, January 12, 2005 12:39:42 +0530 Pankaj kaushal wrote: > Monica Narula wrote: >> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4163975.stm >> >> IBM frees 500 software patents >> >> Computer giant IBM says 500 of its software patents will be released >> into the open development community. >> >> The move means developers will be able to use the technologies without >> paying for a licence from the company. > > IBM foresees the future, where software is a commodity. It doesn't > bother them because they sell a lot of hardware and its almost > believable that people will buy even more hardware from them if software > were free. If as much of the money that was going to Microsoft now > starts flowing the IBM way keeping the OSS developers happy is a very > good move. > > That being said, IBM is the leader in new patents every year. IBM rarely > let's their patents go. IBM's success is partly due from those thousands > of IP patent's they attain every year. IBM already has one of the > largest patent portfolios worldwide and it continues to register more > patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. > > With 3,415 patents in 2003 IBM has more than any other company ever has > done in a year. It was also the 11th consecutive year that IBM was > awarded the most patents, and it brought IBM's total over those 11 years > to more than 25000 patents. > > 500 patents is a tiny fraction of the mountain of patents they own. IBM > releasing 500 patents for OSS developers can not be seen as giving away > its IP portfolio, nor can it be seen as a generous move of collaboration > with the Open source community. > > Exactly how many open-source projects currently pay IBM for patent > licenses? And how many do you expect to pay in future? > > Another reason why giving away a few patents is a very good idea is > because IBM wants to not look like an IP Hoarding company. By freely > distributing the patents IBM, in effect is trying to hit those IP > hoarding companies. > > IBM is losing nothing here. What they have gained is a great deal of > goodwill, and given open-source development a boost. They have a great > deal of experience in building upon open-source projects, where there > competitors do not - so anything good for open-source is good for IBM at > the moment. > > This is a smart move by smart people, and it follows in the footsteps of > other smart moves. This is an indicator that IBM really understands how > open-source can help their business, and if IBM continue in this > fashion, they will make a great deal of money while the rest of the > world catches up with them in the open-source stakes. > > Open source changes the notion of who will make money. IBM has made > major moves to make sure they will be the benefactors of this change. > > > Pankaj. > -- > make install --not war > > > _________________________________________ > 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 vivek at sarai.net Wed Jan 12 20:05:09 2005 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 20:05:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) In-Reply-To: <20050109084639.276F23384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> References: <20050109084639.276F23384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> Message-ID: <41E5359D.7040807@sarai.net> I agree absolutely with the comment below; certainly writing is also subjective mode of perception; and for that matter, basic sensory perception itself is mediated and constructed in many ways, as the neuroscientists have been showing us for a while now. However, I'm not sure if I agree with your reading (if my reading of your reading is correct) that the Milosevic article was necessarily pointing to the "inadequacies" of photography, or arguing that a textual net could do any better without bringing its own limitations in tow. There is, of course, a question that the article raises over whether "going and seeing for yourself" is in fact a more unmediated activity than looking at Delahaye's photograph or reading newspaper reports, but in my reading this question is kept in constant tension throughout the article and not resolved one way or another. This is something for Ananya herself to address-- so we could be clear at least about what her intentions were. My question would be, why does the question of subjectivity continue to bring about so much anxiety? There was a time when "scientific instruments" such as the camera or the microscope claimed a certain higher authority because they supposedly gave more accurate readings (the pun is instructive) on external reality; then it was discovered over time that they did not. Yet, despite this shift, the primacy of the "objective" account seems to have lingered on-- that one continues to call one's enemies subjective, that the critique of objectivity is only deployed against, say, "inaccurate" colonialist accounts of the other. I want to remind instead, that subjectivity can be used as a positive force, that it can lead us further into the truth (to deliberately, and not innocently, use a currently unpopular word) than objectivity, at least as often as not. The Milosevic article is a perfect case in point. A retired professor of linguistics arrives at the podium in a suit; the lawyers fumble and fail to zero in on him in their self-invented universe of rules and regulations; but a photographer-- and indeed a historian-- are able to offer powerful, subjective readings that show him up for what he really is. sou dhamini wrote: >This is in response to Ananya Vajpaye's article which I found very packed. I feel the need to unwrap it for myself before I can interact. Do bear with the shearing. I am a film-maker and a current Sarai fellow. > >A photograph of a war criminal undergoing trial, draws a researcher to look ‘behind’ the picture and catch history direct. She is inundated with more details and nuances than the photo held. The colours of the courtroom. The body language of the criminal still at large. Her own subjectivities. At the same time, she is made aware of the privileged access a celebrity photographer gets to his subject, which is denied her as an anonymous researcher. She also hones in to the particular form of historical discourse the still photo was engaged in. For among the myriad possible angles of framing open to him, the photographer had chosen to frame it as quotation – linking this event to an earlier war crime and this photograph to a nascent genre of war and justice documentation. > >Interesting. > >But for someone who works more with images than with words, and hence looking at it from the other side so to speak, a question that is equally interesting is how conscious we are of words as a – mere – representation system. Despite the point and shoot camera and handycam, image making is still shrouded in the mystique of technology and hence overtly suspect. While the means of production of words, including the formal academic word and informal reader-speech, is more familiar - hence more deceptive, in their relation to reality. Or so it seems to me. All we can do I think is to become aware of different >‘frames’ including our subjectivities and the constraints-privileges they entail. The self-reflexive - as critical tool not gimmick - is possibly the only mode of speech available today, in any register. > >Comments? > > > > > > > > > From vivek at sarai.net Wed Jan 12 20:25:09 2005 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 20:25:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Remember Iraq? Message-ID: <41E53A4D.3010006@sarai.net> Remember Iraq? For those who haven't seen these two articles, one is a remarkable look at what actually happened in Falluja and another is about the even more disastrously stupid turn of US war policy in the dawning realization of the fact that most of the fighters left Falluja by the 9th day of the offensive. V CITY OF GHOSTS On November 8, the American army launched its biggest ever assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, considered a stronghold for rebel fighters. The US said the raid had been a huge success, killing 1,200 insurgents. Most of the city's 300,000 residents, meanwhile, had fled for their lives. What really happened in the siege of Falluja? In a joint investigation for the Guardian and Channel 4 News, Iraqi doctor Ali Fadhil compiled the first independent reports from the devastated city, where he found scores of unburied corpses, rabid dogs - and a dangerously embittered population Watch an extract from the documentary *Ali Fadhil * *Tuesday January 11, 2005* *Guardian* * December 22 2004 * It all started at my house in Baghdad. I packed my equipment, the camera and the tripod. Tariq, my friend, told me not to take it with us. "The fighters might search the car and think that we are spies." Tariq was frightened about our trip, even though he is from Falluja and we had permission from one group of fighters to enter under their protection. But Tariq, more than anyone, understands that the fighters are no longer just one group. He is quite a character, Tariq: 32 and an engineer with a masters degree in embryo implantation, he works now at a human rights institute called the Democratic Studies Institute for Human Rights and Democracy in Baghdad. He is also deeply into animal rights. Foolishly, I took a pill to try to keep down the flu, which made me sleepy. It was 9am when we crossed the main southern gate out of Baghdad, taking care to stay well clear of American convoys. The southern gate is the scene of daily attacks on the Americans by the insurgents - either a car-bomb or an ambush with rocket-propelled grenades. It took just 20 minutes from Baghdad to reach the area known as the "triangle of death", where the kidnapped British contractor Kenneth Bigley was held and finally beheaded in the town of Latifya. It is supposed to be a US military-controlled zone, but insurgents set up checkpoints here. As the road became more rural and more isolated, I got nervous that at any moment we would be stopped by carjackers and robbed of our expensive equipment. At a checkpoint a hooded face came to the window; he was carrying an old AK47 on his shoulder and looking for a donation towards the jihad. There were six fighters in total, all hooded. The driver and Tariq both made a donation; I was frightened he would search the car and find the camera, so I gave him my Iraqi doctor's ID card, hoping that would work. He apologised and asked that we excuse him. Now, there was nothing ahead but the sky and the desert. It was 1.30pm and a bad time to use this road; we had been told that carjackers were particularly active at this time of day. Tariq pointed out four young men dressed in red, their two motorbikes parked by the side of the road. They were planting a small, improvised explosive device made out of a tin of cooking oil for the next American convoy to leave the base outside Falluja. It was 3.30pm before we got to Habbanya, a tourist resort on a lake supplied with fresh water by the Euphrates, which was once controlled by Uday, Saddam's oldest son. It was here that Fallujans, who used to be wealthy as they supplied a lot of the top military for Saddam's army, came for holidays. Now the place was freezing, and full of refugees. All the holiday houses were crammed with people, sometimes two families to a room. The first family we came across had been there since a month before the attack started. A man called Abu Rabe'e came up. He was 59 and used to be a builder; he said he had a message for our camera. "We're not looking for this sort of democracy, this attacking of the city and the people with planes and tanks and Humvees." He had also fled Falluja with his family. They were all living in a former mechanic's garage in Habbanya. Most of the people we spoke to in Habbanya were poor and uneducated, and had fled Falluja in anticipation of the US attack. Some were in tents; others were sharing the old honeymoon suites where newlyweds used to come when this was a holiday resort. They squabbled among themselves to persuade me to film the conditions they were living in. There was still a fairground in Habbanya, but nothing was working. In the middle of the bumper cars an old lady had pitched a tent with bricks, where she was living with her son. I tried to talk to her but she told me to go away. There was no cooking gas in Habbanya, so the Fallujan refugees were cutting down trees to keep warm and cook food. Then someone came up and said the resistance fighters had heard we were asking questions. We decided to put the camera away and go to a friendly village that our driver knew. It was also filled with refugees from Falluja. One 50-year-old man, a major in the Iraqi Republican Guards under the former regime, took us in. There were four families squeezed into one apartment, all of them once wealthy. The major, like the others, was sacked after the liberation when the US disbanded the army and police. Now jobless, his house in Falluja was wrecked and he was a refugee with his five children and wife near the town where he used to spend his holidays. He was angry with the Americans, but also with the Iraqi rebels, whom he blamed, alongside the clerics in the mosques, for causing Falluja to be wrecked. "The mujahideen and the clerics are responsible for the destruction that happened to our city; no one will forgive them for that," he said with bitterness. "Why are you blaming them - why don't you blame the Americans and Allawi?" said Omar, the owner of the apartment. "We told the mujahideen to leave it to us ordinary Fallujans, but those bloody bastards, the sheikhs and the clerics, are busy painting some bloody mad picture of heaven and martyrs and the victory of the mujahideen," said Ali, another refugee. "And, of course, the kids believe every word those clerics say. They're young and naive, and they forget that this is a war against the might of the machine of the American army. So they let those kids die like this and our city gets blown up with the wind." I wanted to ask the tough old Republican guard why they had let these young muj have the run of the city, but I actually didn't have to. I remember being in Falluja just before the fighting started and seeing a crowd gathered around a sack that was leaking blood. A piece of white A4 paper was stuck on to the sack, which read: "Here is the body of the traitor. He has confessed to acting as a spotter for American planes and was paid $100 a day." At the same time as we were standing looking at the sack, I knew I would be able to buy a CD of the man in this sack making his confession before he was beheaded in any CD shop in Falluja. These were the people who controlled Falluja now - not old majors from Saddam's army. * December 24 * In the morning we went back towards Falluja and heard that there were queues of people waiting to try to get back into the city. The government had made an announcement saying that the people from some districts could start to go back home; they promised compensation. About midday we got a mile east of the city and saw that four queues had formed near the American base. They were mostly men, waiting for US military ID to allow them back home. The men were angry: "This is a humiliation. I say no more than that. These IDs are to make us bow Fallujan heads in shame," one of them said. I met Major Paul Hackett, a marine officer in the Falluja liaison base. He said that the US military was not trying to humiliate anyone, but that the IDs were necessary for security. "I mean, my understanding is that ultimately they can hang this ID card on a wall and keep it as a souvenir," he said. They took prints of all my fingers, two pictures of my face in profile, and then photographed my iris. I was now eligible to go into Falluja, just like any other Fallujan. But it was late by then, somewhere near 5pm (the curfew is at 6pm). After that anyone who moves inside the city will be shot on sight by the US military. Tomorrow, we would try again to get into the city. *December 25 * At around 8am, Tariq and I drove towards Falluja. We didn't believe that we might actually get into the city. The American soldiers at the checkpoint were nervous. The approach to the checkpoint was covered in pebbles so we had to drive very slowly. The soldiers spent 20 minutes searching my car, then they bodysearched Tariq and me. They gave me a yellow tape to put on to the windscreen of the car, showing I had been searched and was a contractor. If I didn't have this stripe of yellow, a US sniper would shoot me as an enemy car. By 10am we were inside the city. It was completely devastated, destruction everywhere. It looked like a city of ghosts. Falluja used to be a modern city; now there was nothing. We spent the day going through the rubble that had been the centre of the city; I didn't see a single building that was functioning. The Americans had put a white tape across the roads to stop people wandering into areas that they still weren't allowed to enter. I remembered the market from before the war, when you couldn't walk through it because of the crowds. Now all the shops were marked with a cross, meaning that they had been searched and secured by the US military. But the bodies, some of them civilians and some of them insurgents, were still rotting inside. There were dead dogs everywhere in this area, lying in the middle of the streets. Reports of rabies in Falluja had reached Baghdad, but I needed to find a doctor. Fallujans are suspicious of outsiders, so I found it surprising when Nihida Kadhim, a housewife, beckoned me into her home. She had just arrived back in the city to check out her house; the government had told the people three days earlier that they should start going home. She called me into her living room. On her mirror she pointed to a message that had been written in her lipstick. She couldn't read English. It said: "Fuck Iraq and every Iraqi in it!" "They are insulting me, aren't they?" she asked. I left her and walked towards the cemetery. I noticed the dead dogs again. I had been told in Baghdad by a friend of mine, Dr Marwan Elawi, that the Baghdad Hospital for Infectious Diseases admits one case of rabies every week. The problem is that infected dogs are eating the corpses and spreading the disease. As I was walking by the cemetery, I caught the smell of death coming from one of the houses. The door was open and the first thing I saw was a white car parked in the driveway and on top of it a launcher for an RPG. I went inside, and the sound of the rain on the roof and the darkness inside made me very afraid. The door was open, all the windows were broken and there were bullet holes running down the hall to a bathroom at the end - as if the bullets were chasing something or somebody. The bathroom led on to a bedroom and I stepped inside and saw the body of a fighter. The leg was missing, the hand was missing and the furniture in the house had been destroyed. I couldn't breathe with the smell. I realised that Tariq wasn't with me, and I panicked and ran. As I got out of the house I saw a white teddy bear lying in the rain, and a green boobytrap bomb. Some of the worst fighting took place here in the centre of the city, but there was no sign of the 1,200 to 1,600 fighters the Americans said they had killed. I had heard that there was a graveyard for the fighters somewhere in the city but people said that most of them had withdrawn from the city after the first week of fighting. I needed to find one of the insurgents to tell me the real story of what had happened in the city. The Americans had said that there had been a big military victory, but I couldn't understand where all the fighters were buried. After I saw the body I felt uncomfortable about sleeping in Falluja. The place was deserted and polluted with death and all kinds of weapons. Imagine sleeping in a place where any of the surrounding houses might have one, two or three bodies. I wanted out. We went back to my friend the old Republican guard officer. I was so tired I could hardly take my clothes off to go to sleep but I couldn't sleep with the smell of death on my clothes. *December 26 * In the morning, I went back to find the cemetery and look for evidence of the fighters who had been killed. It was about 4pm before I got inside the martyrs' cemetery; people kept waylaying me, wanting to show me their destroyed houses and asking why the journalists didn't come and show what the Americans had done to Falluja. They were also angry at the interim President Allawi for sending in the mainly Shia National Guard to help the Americans. At the entrance to the fighters' graveyard a sign read: "This cemetery is being given by the people of Falluja to the heroic martyrs of the battle against the Americans and to the martyrs of the jihadi operations against the Americans, assigned and approved by the Mujahideen Shura council in Falluja." As I went into the graveyard, the bodies of two young men were arriving. The faces were rotting. The ambulance driver lifted the bones of one of the hands; the skin had rotted away. "God is the greatest. What kind of times are we living through that we are holding the bones and hands of our brothers?" Then he began cursing the National Guard, calling them even worse things than the Americans: "Those bastards, those sons of dogs." It wasn't the first time I had heard this. It was the National Guard the Americans used to search the houses; they were seen by the Fallujans as brutal stooges. Most of the volunteers for the National Guard are poor Shias from the south. They are jobless and desperate enough to volunteer for a job that makes them assassination targets. "National infidels", they were also called. I counted the graves: there were 74. The two young men made it 76. The names on the headstones were written in chalk and some had been washed away. One read: "Here lies the heroic Tunisian martyr who died", but I didn't see any other evidence of the hundreds of foreign fighters that the US had said were using Falluja as their headquarters. People told me there were some Yemenis and Saudis, some volunteers from Tunisia and Egypt, but most of the fighters were Fallujan. The US military say they have hundreds of bodies frozen in a potato chip factory 5km south of the city, but nobody has been allowed to go there in the past two months, including the Red Crescent. Salman Hashim was crying beside the grave of his son, who had been a fighter in Falluja. "He is 18 years old. He wanted to be a doctor or engineer after this year; it was his last year in high school." At the same grave, the boy's mother was crying and remembering her dead son, who was called Ahmed. "I blame Ayad Allawi. If I could I would cut his throat into pieces." Then, to the mound of earth covering her son's body, she said: "I told you those fighters would get you killed." The boy's father told her to be quiet in front of the camera. On the next grave was written the name of a woman called Harbyah. She had refused to leave the city for the camps with her family. One of her relatives was standing by her grave. He said that he found her dead in her bed with at least 20 bullets in her body. I saw other rotting bodies that showed no signs of being fighters. In one house in the market there were four bodies inside the guest room. One of the bodies had its chest and part of its stomach opened, as if the dogs had been eating it. The wrists were missing, the flesh of the arm was missing, and parts of the legs. I tried to figure out who these four men were. It was obvious which houses the fighters were in: they were totally destroyed. But in this house there were no bullets in the walls, just four dead men lying curled up beside each other, with bullet holes in the mosquito nets that covered the windows. It seemed to me as if they had been asleep and were shot through the windows. It is the young men of the family who are usually given the job of staying behind to guard the house. This is the way in Iraq - we never leave the house empty. The four men were sleeping the way we sleep when we have guests - we roll out the best carpet in the guest room and the men lie down beside each other. "Its Abu Faris's house. I think that the fat dead body belongs to his son, Faris," said Abu Salah, whose chip shop was also destroyed in the bombing. It was getting dark and it was time to go, but I needed some overview shots of the city. There was a half-built tower, so I climbed it and looked around. I couldn't see a single building that hadn't been hit. After a few minutes I got the sense that this wasn't a good place for me to be hanging around, but I had to pee urgently. I found a place on the roof of the building. While I was doing that a warning shot passed so close to my head that I ducked and didn't even wait to pull up my zip, but ran to the half-destroyed stairs to climb down the building. I felt as if the American sniper was playing with me; he had had plenty of time to kill me if he wanted to. For the rest of the day people were pulling on me to come and see their houses. Again, they asked where all the journalists were. Why were they not coming to report on what has happened in Falluja? But I have worked with journalists for 18 months and I knew it would be too dangerous for them to come to the city, that they are seen as spies and could end up in a sack. So since I was the only one there with a camera, everyone wanted to show me what happened to their house. It took hours. Back in Baghdad that night, I changed my clothes and decided to send them to the public laundry. I was worried about contaminating my family with Falluja. I was thinking that nobody was going to be able to live there for months. Then, I took a very long bath. * December 27 * I woke up at home in Baghdad around 9am. I had had enough of Falluja, but I still felt that I didn't understand what had happened. The city was completely devastated - but where were the bodies of all the dead fighters the Americans had killed? I wanted to ask Dr Adnan Chaichan about the wounded. I found him at the main hospital in Falluja at midday. He told me that all the doctors and medical staff were locked into the hospital at the beginning of the attack and not allowed out to treat anyone. The Iraqi National Guard, acting under US orders, had tied him and all the other doctors up inside the main hospital. The US had surrounded the hospital, while the National Guard had seized all their mobile phones and satellite phones, and left them with no way of communicating with the outside world. Chaichan seemed angrier with the National Guards than with anyone else. He said that the phone lines inside the town were working, so wounded people in Falluja were calling the hospital and crying, and he was trying to give instructions over the phone to the local clinics and the mosques on how to treat the wounds. But nobody could get to the main hospital where all the supplies were and people were bleeding to death in the city. It was late afternoon when I drove out of Falluja and back to Baghdad, feeling that I had just scratched the surface of what really happened there. But it is clear that by completely destroying this Sunni city, with the help of a mostly Shia National Guard, the US military has fanned the seeds of a civil war that is definitely coming. If there are elections now and the Shia win, that war is certain. The people I spoke to had no plans to vote. No one I met in those five days had a ballot paper. A week after I arrived in London to make the film for Channel 4 News, the tape of the final interview arrived by Federal Express. It was the interview with Alzaim Abu, who had led the fighters in the Shuhada district of Falluja and fought the Americans in the early battles in the city centre. We had been been trying to track him down for nearly three weeks. Then Tariq had got a call from him the night I had left for London saying that he would talk. There was a lot of bullshit in the interview; lots of bravado about how many Americans they had killed and about never surrendering and how Fallujans would win. He said that there were a few foreign fighters in the city, but none in his units; mostly, they were Fallujans. But one thing stood out for me that explained the empty graveyard and the lack of bodies. He said that most of the fighters had been given orders to abandon the city by November 17, nine days after the assault began. "The withdrawal of the fighters was carried out following an order by our senior leadership. We did not pull out because we did not want to fight. We needed to regroup; it was a tactical move. The fighters decided to redeploy to Amiriya and some went to Abu Ghraib," he said. The US military destroyed Falluja, but simply spread the fighters out around the country. They also increased the chance of civil war in Iraq by using their new national guard of Shias to suppress Sunnis. Once, when a foreign journalist, an Irish guy, asked me whether I was Shia or Sunni - the way the Irish do because they have that thing about the IRA - I said I was Sushi. My father is Sunni and my mother is Shia. I never cared about these things. Now, after Falluja, it matters. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/ ‘The Salvador Option’ The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq WEB EXCLUSIVE By Michael Hirsh and John Barry Newsweek Updated: 10:22 a.m. ET Jan. 9, 2005 Jan. 8 - What to do about the deepening quagmire of Iraq? The Pentagon’s latest approach is being called "the Salvador option"—and the fact that it is being discussed at all is a measure of just how worried Donald Rumsfeld really is. "What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are," one senior military officer told NEWSWEEK. "We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defense. And we are losing." Last November’s operation in Fallujah, most analysts agree, succeeded less in breaking "the back" of the insurgency—as Marine Gen. John Sattler optimistically declared at the time—than in spreading it out. Now, NEWSWEEK has learned, the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success—despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. (Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte, who is today the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Under Reagan, he was ambassador to Honduras.) Following that model, one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear, however, whether this would be a policy of assassination or so-called "snatch" operations, in which the targets are sent to secret facilities for interrogation. The current thinking is that while U.S. Special Forces would lead operations in, say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself would be carried out by Iraqi paramilitaries, officials tell NEWSWEEK. Also being debated is which agency within the U.S. government—the Defense department or CIA—would take responsibility for such an operation. Rumsfeld’ s Pentagon has aggressively sought to build up its own intelligence-gathering and clandestine capability with an operation run by Defense Undersecretary Stephen Cambone. But since the Abu Ghraib interrogations scandal, some military officials are ultra-wary of any operations that could run afoul of the ethics codified in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That, they argue, is the reason why such covert operations have always been run by the CIA and authorized by a special presidential finding. (In "covert" activity, U.S. personnel operate under cover and the U.S. government will not confirm that it instigated or ordered them into action if they are captured or killed.) Meanwhile, intensive discussions are taking place inside the Senate Intelligence Committee over the Defense department’s efforts to expand the involvement of U.S. Special Forces personnel in intelligence-gathering missions. Historically, Special Forces’ intelligence gathering has been limited to objectives directly related to upcoming military operations—"preparation of the battlefield," in military lingo. But, according to intelligence and defense officials, some Pentagon civilians for years have sought to expand the use of Special Forces for other intelligence missions. Pentagon civilians and some Special Forces personnel believe CIA civilian managers have traditionally been too conservative in planning and executing the kind of undercover missions that Special Forces soldiers believe they can effectively conduct. CIA traditionalists are believed to be adamantly opposed to ceding any authority to the Pentagon. Until now, Pentagon proposals for a capability to send soldiers out on intelligence missions without direct CIA approval or participation have been shot down. But counter-terrorist strike squads, even operating covertly, could be deemed to fall within the Defense department’s orbit. The interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is said to be among the most forthright proponents of the Salvador option. Maj. Gen.Muhammad Abdallah al-Shahwani, director of Iraq’s National Intelligence Service, may have been laying the groundwork for the idea with a series of interviews during the past ten days. Shahwani told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat that the insurgent leadership—he named three former senior figures in the Saddam regime, including Saddam Hussein’s half-brother—were essentially safe across the border in a Syrian sanctuary. "We are certain that they are in Syria and move easily between Syrian and Iraqi territories," he said, adding that efforts to extradite them "have not borne fruit so far." Shahwani also said that the U.S. occupation has failed to crack the problem of broad support for the insurgency. The insurgents, he said, "are mostly in the Sunni areas where the population there, almost 200,000, is sympathetic to them." He said most Iraqi people do not actively support the insurgents or provide them with material or logistical help, but at the same time they won’t turn them in. One military source involved in the Pentagon debate agrees that this is the crux of the problem, and he suggests that new offensive operations are needed that would create a fear of aiding the insurgency. "The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving to the terrorists," he said. "From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation." Pentagon sources emphasize there has been no decision yet to launch the Salvador option. Last week, Rumsfeld decided to send a retired four-star general, Gary Luck, to Iraq on an open-ended mission to review the entire military strategy there. But with the U.S. Army strained to the breaking point, military strategists note that a dramatic new approach might be needed—perhaps one as potentially explosive as the Salvador option. With Mark Hosenball © 2005 Newsweek, Inc. From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Thu Jan 13 10:57:41 2005 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:57:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: <01D53BBCCCD5C972BF4CD87C@142F8154BC2F2AF7DF65AA7D> References: <41E4CD36.7060300@linux-delhi.org> <01D53BBCCCD5C972BF4CD87C@142F8154BC2F2AF7DF65AA7D> Message-ID: <41E606CD.5060104@linux-delhi.org> Oli wrote: > [snip] > So, open source is not innocent. It's a tool being used more and more > for competitive advantage. How does the 'open source community' react? > Is this an issue and for whom? What exactly is innocence? Work for free? Not earning money? Not earning lots of money? What is the problem with lots of big companies using free software and making money out of free software? The code is still available for you and me with the same basic freedoms[1]. Is that not the idea? If IBM were to put some 'paid' developers to work on eclipse, what would happen? what difference would it make? None. The idea is for the software to be available in the public domain. Who is writing or supporting the software is not important. If I do it because I am motivated or I need that software myself or that I am getting paid to write does not make a difference as long as the software is free[2]. I believe it is good for the free software developers to find big companies showing interest in free software. It would just mean more and more developers will be working full time on their hobby projects and how can that be bad for the developers or the quality of the software? [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html [2] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html -- Morality is heard instinct in the individual. -- Nietzsche. From vivek at sarai.net Thu Jan 13 11:52:42 2005 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 11:52:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Microsoft, Geographical Information Systems and the Government of India Message-ID: <41E613B2.2000400@sarai.net> Since there are at least a couple of people on this list who are working on the democratization / social implications of GIS technology, I was wondering if they had any opinions/comment on what it means that Microsoft, reigning emperor of proprietary software, is involved in this...? Thanks, V Microsoft to digitise Indian maps Associated Press Bangalore, January 12, 2005|18:53 IST The Government on Wednesday asked software giant Microsoft to put its vast collection of satellite images, remote sensing data and other information about the country's terrain in digital form. "As the project progresses, citizens of India can actually get a bird's eye view of the country," said P Anandan, head of Microsoft Research India, the company's research center opened at Bangalore, also on Wednesday. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding for research collaboration. The first project under the memorandum will be a geographic information system to make high technology information available to the public in an easily understandable form, Anandan said in a statement. "Comprehensive digitisation of India's terrain can support relief planning and monitoring in the wake of natural disasters," he said. Indian authorities were criticized in the aftermath of the December tsunami waves that killed more than 10,000 along its southeastern coast, for not being part of an international coalition to monitor tsunami threats. Despite having a well-evolved remote sensing satellite system, India often fails to warn its people of natural disasters in time, due to poor infrastructure for disseminating the information. Anandan also said the research center opened Wednesday will hire "a couple of dozen" scientists in 12 months to work on technologies for emerging software markets such as India, multilingual systems and other specialties. From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Thu Jan 13 12:31:04 2005 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 12:31:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Microsoft, Geographical Information Systems and the Government of India In-Reply-To: <41E613B2.2000400@sarai.net> References: <41E613B2.2000400@sarai.net> Message-ID: <41E61CB0.30807@linux-delhi.org> Vivek Narayanan wrote: > Since there are at least a couple of people on this list who are working > on the democratization / social implications of GIS technology, I was > wondering if they had any opinions/comment on what it means that > Microsoft, reigning emperor of proprietary software, is involved in > this...? [snip] It means that the reigning emperor alone has capabilities to do such work. Microsoft have proved themselves in this field with their Map applications. The question is more about the control the government has over the data. Should there be a cheaper/better alternative available in the near/distant future and the Government chose to discontinue using MS products would they be able to break away from a Microsoft solution? The second question is who should have what level of access to the data? Shall Microsoft be allowed to make commercial software using the Data? Should the data be in the public domain? Should it be available to researchers at a nominal cost and not forcing them to buy a Microsoft product if such a product is made? There is a debate going on on the same topic on India-GII[1]. Those who might be interested can join. [1] https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/india-gii -- Morality is heard instinct in the individual. -- Nietzsche. From supreet.sethi at gmail.com Thu Jan 13 13:06:17 2005 From: supreet.sethi at gmail.com (Supreet Sethi) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:06:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: <41E606CD.5060104@linux-delhi.org> References: <41E4CD36.7060300@linux-delhi.org> <01D53BBCCCD5C972BF4CD87C@142F8154BC2F2AF7DF65AA7D> <41E606CD.5060104@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: IBM has been really sucessful service company. Throughout history of IBM, they did'nt have a single successful product ... following being the list of worst failures to capture market since they stepped into PC market OS/2 OS/2 Wrap ViaVoice VisualAge Weblogic Suite and the list goes on... However having said that OSS for IBM is a oppertunity it would'nt want to lose... while every one else would bunch up products. IBM is busy stepping in as vendor providing complete sloutions to dud companies hyper-charging for "services" and selling proprietery solutions bundled up with open-source platforms. IBM actively encourages its clients to use "extensions" which cannot be provided by any other vendors, even if the product is OSS. These facts will never come out it open, most of the IBM clients I know have heavy dependence on IBM services. Funny part is, if you talk to IBM sales, pre-sales, post-sales, they still have subtle pro-Microsoft stance. So the theory of IBM as well oiled engine is rather absurd. regards Supreet From miriamchandy at yahoo.com Thu Jan 13 15:55:57 2005 From: miriamchandy at yahoo.com (miriam chandy) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 02:25:57 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Tsunami news on News Rack In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20050113102558.42399.qmail@web60502.mail.yahoo.com> Dear Subramanya Sastry, Would you be any chance know how I can source a 30-45 sec clip of the tsunami tidal wave/ effect on India's fisherfolk? Am currently working on a documentary that I urgently req the same. The footage can be dv/ beta/ digi beta. Low budget venture that I can pay little to nothing. Do let me know if you came across any sources for such footage. warm regards miriam documentary filmmaker, mumbai --- Subramanya Sastry wrote: > Hello everyone, > > With support from Sarai's FLOSS independent > fellowship between April and > September, I started work on an automated news > monitoring tool called > News Rack. > > A very preliminary system has been up and running > for the past 2 months. At > this time, responding to suggestions from friends, I > have created a profile on > News Rack to collect tsunami-related newsclippings > (from a few newspapers > providing RSS feeds) and categorize them. I have > created a quick and > rudimentary categorization at this time -- it can > (and will be) refined over > time -- please feel free to email me your > suggestions as to how this can be > recategorized. > > You can visit this page at: > http://floss.sarai.net/newsrack/Browse.do?owner=tsunami&issue=tsunami > News on this page will be continually updated. > > You can also visit this by clicking on the 'Browse' > link on the front page > http://floss.sarai.net/newsrack > > I will not pretend that this will be terribly useful > to many of you, but, > perhaps it might be of some interest and use to > hopefully some of you. > Having said that, I have found interesting articles > that I would otherwise > have not seen. > > Feedback on the classification specifically, and > more generally about the tool > is welcome and appreciated. > > Subbu. > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and > the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to > reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the > subject header. > List archive: > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com From ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com Thu Jan 13 16:51:56 2005 From: ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com (ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:21:56 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Further Notes on the Milosevic Trial Message-ID: <13f1e6613eeda4.13eeda413f1e66@vsnl.net> Dear Soudhamini and Vivek, Thank you for your thoughtful responses to my posting. I have attempted to address your concerns at some length. Both what precedes and what follows are subjective accounts, of course. To tell you the truth, I had no awareness of there being a question about subjectivity on my mind when researching the Balkan wars of the 1990s -- not even during the Milosevic trial. I wasn't wondering about Delahaye's subjectivity, or Milosevic's, or my own (certainly not my own, though you may chide me for my lack of self-reflexivity in this regard). I was thinking, instead, about how violence is represented, how it enters into structures and systems of meaning, when really its effect is to undermine meaning, to leave us aghast at the irrationality and meaninglessness entailed by a single moment of violence. And in the break-up of Yugoslavia, we are not looking at a mere moment, but at years of sustained conflict, that shattered millions of lives. Yet we find -- at least in the Netherlands -- photographs, paintings, novels, films, exhibitions, installations: an outpouring of attempts to retrieve and remember and represent what happened. Between genocide and its representations, between Slobodan Milosevic and Luc Delahaye's photograph of him, there is a hiatus. I don't know what else to call it, that's why I say "hiatus": a tear in the seamless fabric of meaning. At ICTY, I found myself in this hiatus. At any given session of the trial, nothing much goes on. The acuity of one's vision itself becomes an obession, because there's not that much to focus on out there. I wore headphones and kept switching between the 6 or 7 channels, listening to the proceedings in various languages. Even though I understood quite a few of these, it felt like the room was totally silent. I could see Milosevic there, right there, his position relative to my own perfectly easy to locate in a closed three- dimensional space, but he could have been a creature from another planet. My friend Wim Klerkx, himself a photographer though disallowed from carrying his camera into the viewing gallery, leant over and asked me what the strange drawings in my notebook were. I was drawing the exhaust fans, in some detail. Why? They were oddly beautiful, sort of 60s in their design. It's not that I draw well. I suppose they gave me something small, particular and harmless to hold on to in the complete madness -- the mayhem, the bloodshed -- that the court was trying to fathom. One time there was a witness whose identity was protected. He had his back to us viewers, and there were screens on either side of him, so we couldn't see him directly, while the monitors blurred his face, so we couldn't see him on camera. When he had to get up to leave the chamber, a blind was pulled down, the entire court room was hidden from our view. The whole scene just vanished behind the blind -- judges, scribes, lawyers, guards, computers, furniture -- pouf! gone! Periodically the sound was turned off, because the judges were consulting with one another privately. At those moments we could see the actors, but we heard nothing of what they said to one another. It was bizarre, being deprived of something to look at on some occasions, being deprived of something to listen to on others. One felt an extreme loss of control over the proceedings, a sort of helplessness that reinforced one's sense of being shorn of one's tools when one came in through the security gates. One had to surrender everything outside before entering, except pen and paper. Then even at the site itself, one periodically suffered these further sensory deprivations. I realized in the middle of one such "blackout" that the opposite of this court room in The Hague is a mass grave in Bosnia. During a coffee-break, once, one of the main lawyers came downstairs to chat with a visitor. He removed his wig, but kept his black robe on. He and his interlocuter sat on two chairs in the lobby, and as I walked by, he smiled at me. I could have gone up to him, he was an Englishman, we spoke the same language. But I was unnerved seeing him outside the court-room, just like that, a man like any other in the legal profession. He was briefly off-duty and I was caught off-guard. What was my intention, you ask me Vivek. The intention of all inquiry, reportedly, is to achieve understanding. But how do you understand and what do you understand, in the hiatus of meaning? So many times I feel -- I fear -- that trying to understand violence, especially genocidal violence, is like hurling oneself at a wall. A separate leg of my research took me to the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, in Amsterdam; yet another leg of it to the media archive at Hilversum, called the Institute for Image and Sound. In these places I leafed through books, I reviewed television footage. Sometimes I went by myself and sometimes my colleague Paul Keller was with me, ostensibly to translate. But again, I wasn't thinking particularly about my subjectivity, or Paul's, or Wim's, Indian, German and Dutch as we are (in that order), the two of them men, I a woman. I wasn't even thinking about the formal distinctions between the different media and genres before me, some visual, some audio-visual, some linguistic and literary. I was thinking, actually, that I don't understand, despite the surfeit of artistic and archival materials at my disposal, I don't understand. It was the wall of violence and I was crashing into it again and again. You are a film-maker and a poet, respectively, I know, you are concerned about the semiotic work of the specific forms of textuality that you create, and rightly so. I am not inattentive to this issue -- it's just, in the face of Milosevic, in propria persona, I found my scholarly reflexes to be inadequate. To my surprise, it turned out that Wim approved of my drawing the exhaust fans, as he did of my drawing the ICTY logo, which I also later photographed repeatedly (it is displayed outside the building, so one can use a camera). Blades in a circle, a globe in the scales of justice. You are trying to get it, he said, making a grasping, tactile sort of gesture with his hand, as though the air were cloth or clay. Yes, I suppose that's it, we try to get it. If you have better luck that I have had so far, please let me know. In the mean time, it strikes me that two documentary films that situate themselves in the hiatus of meaning created by extreme violence, are Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah", from the mid-80s, about the concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland, and Rakesh Sharma's recent "Final Solution", about the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002. In conjunction with Delahaye's photographs, these works, to put it bluntly, changed my perspective. There may be a door in the wall, one has to know how to find it. Thanks, Sincerely -- Ananya. Ananya Vajpeyi, Ph.D. Center for the Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University JNU New Campus New Delhi 1l0067 INDIA. E: ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com From soudhamini_1 at lycos.com Thu Jan 13 21:11:48 2005 From: soudhamini_1 at lycos.com (sou dhamini) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:41:48 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20050113154148.B87973384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> Dear Ananya, Thanx. That must have caused quite an effort in writing. But I was really touched. May I very tentatively suggest that impressions seem to always convey much more than issues – even impressions of incomprehension. Of course its not for me to say what its place in academics is. But it’s a really important question for me and one I wish to address particularly during this fellowship period – how to create method in one’s subjectivity. Vivek, thanx for breaking the ice on my first readers list intervention. More later. Thanx again soudhamini -- _______________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 From soudhamini_1 at lycos.com Thu Jan 13 21:11:48 2005 From: soudhamini_1 at lycos.com (sou dhamini) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:41:48 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20050113154148.B87973384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> Dear Ananya, Thanx. That must have caused quite an effort in writing. But I was really touched. May I very tentatively suggest that impressions seem to always convey much more than issues – even impressions of incomprehension. Of course its not for me to say what its place in academics is. But it’s a really important question for me and one I wish to address particularly during this fellowship period – how to create method in one’s subjectivity. Vivek, thanx for breaking the ice on my first readers list intervention. More later. Thanx again soudhamini -- _______________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 From zainab at xtdnet.nl Fri Jan 14 10:12:44 2005 From: zainab at xtdnet.nl (zainab at xtdnet.nl) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 05:42:44 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] Is the City of Dreams Lost in the Emerging Urban? Message-ID: <1076.210.7.77.145.1105677764.squirrel@webmail.xtdnet.nl> Is the City of Dreams Lost in the Emerging Urban? I am @ Sarai.net. Last evening we were engaged in an exercise on looking at how to create categories. And of course, we talked and exercised city! As we were arranging categories, we had: · Immigration · Livelihood · Migration · Media · Self · Other · Individual and Space · Death And amidst all of this, we suddenly realized that there were no dreams, just economic categories for our cities. Let me get back to Bombay because that is my domain. Bombay, also known as Urbs Prima Indis. Bombay, the City of Dreams. Old Bollywood films featured the sea, the rocks, Nariman Point, VT Station and each of these spaces had symbolic meanings. The individual comes from a small town or village to realize his dream in the city. I remember Raj Kapoor’s films – Awara, Boot Polish, etc. Bombay, the land of glamour and evil designs and political games where the hero wins in the end! Bombay, as I have understood it in the past, has been a city where class has been about fluidity and mobility. Each one came to the city with dreams and the enterprising and street-smart made it from rags to the riches. And I believe a lot of us in the city dreamt. But I wonder whether we really dream today? The presence of the poor, the slums, the hawkers and the pavement dwellers represents the spirit of the city. Their presence is indicative of networks in the city, of relationships, of struggle, survival, etc. in the city. And I wonder where the city of dreams has gone. It is not just the poor who dream. It is us in the middle class who dream as well. Khatta Meetha is a film of that genre. I also wonder whether dreams enable us to truly love our cities as homes, as habitats? I don’t know. My reference point to Bombay at this moment is the Chief Minister’s Task Force Report to ‘transform Mumbai into a world class city’. And I believe that it is not necessary that a beautiful city (including flyovers, multiplexes, malls, etc.) is the ultimate culmination of dreams. If I trace my own research, I realize that dreams are made up with the presences of all – the rich, the poor, the ugly, the ragged, the glamorous, the beautiful, et al. I did not study Rawls’ Theory of Justice for my political science examination because it was too much to handle in times of stress and pressure (and I could not understand it either). I don’t know Habermas, Gramsci or Marx for that matter. I am a poor theoretician on issues of rights, equality, liberty and freedom. All I know is that I am just an individual, a dweller of the city. I am the experiencer, the practitioner, the researcher, the subject and the dweller. As I live, I engage with my habitat and my environment. Questions circle my mind and hover around constantly: · What’s a city in the context of emerging urbanism? · How do we move from where we are – neither romance nor frustration are of great help in moving forward concertedly? · Whose dreams are being executed in the city? · What is the space of the unorganized and the poor in the city? Do we simply relegate them to the margins or do we glorify them (neither of which helps I believe)? · Who represents whom? Is publics homogenous? And if not, what kinds of spaces can exist and with what kinds of dynamics? · What are the terms on which we can start negotiating with groups around us? And through what tactics, means and resources? I don’t have these answers. I am just looking and watching. I have come to realize that my community is with Arjun bhai, with my neighbours Sonal and Pankaj, with Shah Rukh, Santhya, Manoj Kumar. My community is with the people of The Everyday. Perhaps I shall get somewhere, someday Zainab Bawa Bombay www.xanga.com/CityBytes From oli at zeromail.org Fri Jan 14 17:57:06 2005 From: oli at zeromail.org (Oli) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:27:06 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents Message-ID: Thank you Pankaj, yes, there's nothing wrong about your arguments. And it is possible that my point is not interesting for you. But still: What if Open Source is a competitive advantage; the *better* capitalist strategy? And yes: the basic idea of sharing the code is untouched. But as we (those, who share the code) are not all in the same economic/social situation (e.g. IBM and me), Open Source works as an amplifier of already existing inequalities. You claim Open Source to be neutral to its surroundings. And I think this focus is too small. Technology and its policies always relate strongly on society and player in the society. I do not think that isolating the GPL from society and economical relations is a helpful step. The Public Domain is not a good concept, when some are able to use it to improve their leadership, what we are exactly facing with IBM. That's my simple point. Sharing between unequal parties: thats what open source promotes, when being contextualized in social and economical sourroundings. Oh yes, everyone should get paid! And thank you again for promoting the GNU perspective. -oli --On Thursday, January 13, 2005 10:57:07 +0530 Pankaj kaushal wrote: > Oli wrote: >> > [snip] >> So, open source is not innocent. It's a tool being used more and more >> for competitive advantage. How does the 'open source community' react? >> Is this an issue and for whom? > > What exactly is innocence? Work for free? Not earning money? Not > earning lots of money? What is the problem with lots of big > companies using free software and making money out of free software? > The code is still available for you and me with the same basic > freedoms[1]. Is that not the idea? > > If IBM were to put some 'paid' developers to work on eclipse, what > would happen? what difference would it make? None. The idea is for > the software to be available in the public domain. Who is writing > or supporting the software is not important. If I do it because > I am motivated or I need that software myself or that I am getting > paid to write does not make a difference as long as the software is > free[2]. > > I believe it is good for the free software developers to find big > companies showing interest in free software. It would just mean more > and more developers will be working full time on their hobby projects > and how can that be bad for the developers or the quality of the > software? > > > [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html > [2] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html > > -- > Morality is heard instinct in the individual. > -- Nietzsche. > > From tarundua at linux-delhi.org Fri Jan 14 13:58:07 2005 From: tarundua at linux-delhi.org (Tarun Dua) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:58:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1105691286.24965.13.camel@tarund> On Fri, 2005-01-14 at 17:57, Oli wrote: > What if Open Source is a competitive advantage; the *better* capitalist > strategy? It is. > Open Source works as an amplifier of already existing > inequalities. Whoever agreed that inequalities are bad. > Oh yes, everyone should get paid! And thank you again for promoting the GNU > perspective. +1 Pankaj Thanks -Tarun From aarti at sarai.net Fri Jan 14 15:20:12 2005 From: aarti at sarai.net (Aarti) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 15:20:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <41E795D4.5040203@sarai.net> Dear All, Thank you for an interesting discussion on the rights and wrongs of open source and the possible pitfalls ..I am not sure what exactly you mean by it being a "better" capitalist strategy. A better capitalist strategy for what? I'm assuming to make profit. But thats what enterprise is about. The point, I would imagine, is that as long the source code is out there for everyone to use, modify, distribute as they deem fit, the same freedom then also extends to IBM. If IBM wishes to develop proprietary extensions on OSS platforms which users wish to buy, good luck to IBM. But equally, open source allows you and thousands of coders and developers to customise software solutions for users and charge for it. I am not sure what you mean by 'amplifying exisisting inequality'. I mean I know what you mean as a general principle which is that the more powerful will be able to make better and more eficient use of existing commonly held resources. But this is true of almost anything one can think of and by itself is not a very interesting observation. By this I dont mean to suggest that questions of acess deriving from real social and economic inequality are not important. But perhaps we need to think of different ways of approaching those questions rather than working with strict "if its good for capitalism it must be bad for us" binaries. best Aarti Oli wrote: > Thank you Pankaj, > > yes, there's nothing wrong about your arguments. And it is possible > that my point is not interesting for you. But still: > > What if Open Source is a competitive advantage; the *better* > capitalist strategy? > > And yes: the basic idea of sharing the code is untouched. But as we > (those, who share the code) are not all in the same economic/social > situation (e.g. IBM and me), Open Source works as an amplifier of > already existing inequalities. You claim Open Source to be neutral to > its surroundings. And I think this focus is too small. Technology and > its policies always relate strongly on society and player in the society. > > I do not think that isolating the GPL from society and economical > relations is a helpful step. The Public Domain is not a good concept, > when some are able to use it to improve their leadership, what we are > exactly facing with IBM. That's my simple point. Sharing between > unequal parties: thats what open source promotes, when being > contextualized in social and economical sourroundings. > > Oh yes, everyone should get paid! And thank you again for promoting > the GNU perspective. > > -oli > > --On Thursday, January 13, 2005 10:57:07 +0530 Pankaj kaushal > wrote: > >> Oli wrote: >> >>> >> [snip] >> >>> So, open source is not innocent. It's a tool being used more and more >>> for competitive advantage. How does the 'open source community' react? >>> Is this an issue and for whom? >> >> >> What exactly is innocence? Work for free? Not earning money? Not >> earning lots of money? What is the problem with lots of big >> companies using free software and making money out of free software? >> The code is still available for you and me with the same basic >> freedoms[1]. Is that not the idea? >> >> If IBM were to put some 'paid' developers to work on eclipse, what >> would happen? what difference would it make? None. The idea is for >> the software to be available in the public domain. Who is writing >> or supporting the software is not important. If I do it because >> I am motivated or I need that software myself or that I am getting >> paid to write does not make a difference as long as the software is >> free[2]. >> >> I believe it is good for the free software developers to find big >> companies showing interest in free software. It would just mean more >> and more developers will be working full time on their hobby projects >> and how can that be bad for the developers or the quality of the >> software? >> >> >> [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html >> [2] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html >> >> -- >> Morality is heard instinct in the individual. >> -- Nietzsche. >> >> > > > _________________________________________ > 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 oli at zeromail.org Fri Jan 14 20:11:38 2005 From: oli at zeromail.org (Oli) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 15:41:38 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: <41E795D4.5040203@sarai.net> References: <41E795D4.5040203@sarai.net> Message-ID: Dear All, > commonly held resources. But this is true of almost anything one can > think of and by itself is not a very interesting observation. By this I > dont mean to suggest that questions of acess deriving from real social > and economic inequality are not important. But perhaps we need to think > of different ways of approaching those questions rather than working with > strict "if its good for capitalism it must be bad for us" binaries. The difference between the GPL and 'anything one can think of' is that the GPL is precisely written to keep code open and accessible in response to proprietary software. The GPL, so to say, has reflected upon the problematic Public Domain-concept, where everyone is free to take and sell as a 'private good', determined only by your economic power. And what we face now is how capital adapts to a policy initially made as an answer to commodified code. This, I'd say, it is a real interesting and contempory step capital takes, which should not just commented as: so what? as more or less everyone here did. I can not see, where I have raised the very strong binary you mention, Aarti, just by problematizing, or simply mentioning the competitive advantage through open source code. cheers, Oli > > best > Aarti > > > > > > > > Oli wrote: > >> Thank you Pankaj, >> >> yes, there's nothing wrong about your arguments. And it is possible >> that my point is not interesting for you. But still: >> >> What if Open Source is a competitive advantage; the *better* >> capitalist strategy? >> >> And yes: the basic idea of sharing the code is untouched. But as we >> (those, who share the code) are not all in the same economic/social >> situation (e.g. IBM and me), Open Source works as an amplifier of >> already existing inequalities. You claim Open Source to be neutral to >> its surroundings. And I think this focus is too small. Technology and >> its policies always relate strongly on society and player in the society. >> >> I do not think that isolating the GPL from society and economical >> relations is a helpful step. The Public Domain is not a good concept, >> when some are able to use it to improve their leadership, what we are >> exactly facing with IBM. That's my simple point. Sharing between >> unequal parties: thats what open source promotes, when being >> contextualized in social and economical sourroundings. >> >> Oh yes, everyone should get paid! And thank you again for promoting >> the GNU perspective. >> >> -oli >> >> --On Thursday, January 13, 2005 10:57:07 +0530 Pankaj kaushal >> wrote: >> >>> Oli wrote: >>> >>>> >>> [snip] >>> >>>> So, open source is not innocent. It's a tool being used more and more >>>> for competitive advantage. How does the 'open source community' react? >>>> Is this an issue and for whom? >>> >>> >>> What exactly is innocence? Work for free? Not earning money? Not >>> earning lots of money? What is the problem with lots of big >>> companies using free software and making money out of free software? >>> The code is still available for you and me with the same basic >>> freedoms[1]. Is that not the idea? >>> >>> If IBM were to put some 'paid' developers to work on eclipse, what >>> would happen? what difference would it make? None. The idea is for >>> the software to be available in the public domain. Who is writing >>> or supporting the software is not important. If I do it because >>> I am motivated or I need that software myself or that I am getting >>> paid to write does not make a difference as long as the software is >>> free[2]. >>> >>> I believe it is good for the free software developers to find big >>> companies showing interest in free software. It would just mean more >>> and more developers will be working full time on their hobby projects >>> and how can that be bad for the developers or the quality of the >>> software? >>> >>> >>> [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html >>> [2] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html >>> >>> -- >>> Morality is heard instinct in the individual. >>> -- Nietzsche. >>> >>> >> >> >> _________________________________________ >> 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 arkitect95 at yahoo.co.in Fri Jan 14 13:50:26 2005 From: arkitect95 at yahoo.co.in (arkitect95) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 08:20:26 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] [arkitectindia] Mail From Pakistan - II In-Reply-To: Message-ID: REFORMING PAKISTAN'S UNIVERSITIES -- II by Pervez Hoodbhoy For three decades Pakistani education planners toyed with grand plans to build MITs and Harvards in the country. Nothing materialized. But three years ago the first serious effort to deal with Pakistan's chronically ill universities was finally initiated. Unfortunately, this effort by the Higher Education Commission has now become mired in an intense, growing controversy. The immediate cause centres on the award of fake degrees and the flourishing of substandard higher education institutions, as well as on the HEC's head, Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, having personally punished the whistle-blower who brought this important issue to his (and the public's) notice. While unpleasant, this controversy is important because it addresses the deeper underlying question of the quality and credibility- rather than just the quantity – of higher education. In the previous article, I explained how badly the existing university system has been broken and how the current university reform strategy is compounding the problem by concentrating on glitzy things like internet access, digital libraries, virtual learning, etc., while ignoring basic problems. Allowing these "reforms" to continue will destroy what little there is today. On the other hand, it will be a tragedy for Pakistan if the current HEC attempts collapse in a heap of dust. So, how to proceed if we are serious in trying to improve our universities? The policy don'ts are clear. Some have already been discussed earlier: stop the creation of worthless new universities; stop funding and rewarding research that really isn't research; stop dishing out useless PhDs; stop playing the numbers game; and stop feeding academic corruption. The do's are far more than can be discussed here. Broadly speaking, they can be divided into two mutually distinct sets. One set must deal with raising the level of general competence of teachers and students by ensuring that they actually have an understanding of the subject they teach or study, and with increasing the amount of research in specific disciplines. Universities everywhere prepare engineers, doctors, economists, business managers, and other professionals needed to fulfil the stringent demands of a modern society. Pakistani universities obviously need to do the same. The second set relates to the broader function of universities - to create thinking minds, pursue research in subjects that are important but are not of immediate economic utility, to create and organize discourses on social and political issues, and to raise the cultural and aesthetic level of society. Whereas the Soviet and Chinese models concentrated exclusively on the first set of goals, western universities - or at least the good ones among them - successfully synthesized both sets and were far superior. It is a mistake to believe that inadequate financial resources have prevented Pakistani universities from achieving the goals of the first set. In fact, the real need is for deep administrative and organizational reforms, together with the strong political will needed to handle the counter-reaction they would inevitably provoke. First, there must be university entrance examinations at the national level to separate individuals who can benefit from higher education from those who cannot. No such system exists in Pakistan. Only local board examinations - where rote memorization and massive cheating are rampant - are used to select students. But, on our borders, both Iran and India have centralized university admissions systems that work very well. Although corruption in India is perhaps as pervasive as in Pakistan, admissions to the IITs have nevertheless retained their integrity and intensely competitive nature over several decades. Honest examinations are presumably also possible in Pakistan, provided extreme care is taken. Having such university entrance examinations would be important for another reason as well - they would set the goal posts for colleges and high schools all over Pakistan. In the US, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, centrally administered by Princeton, are extremely useful for deciding student aptitude for university education. The "A" level examinations in Britain have similar importance. At the PhD level, if the HEC is at all serious about standards, it should make it mandatory for every Pakistani university to require that a PhD candidate achieve a certain minimum in an international examination such as the GRE. These exams are used by US universities for admission into PhD programmes. Given the state of student and teacher knowledge, and the quantity and quality of research in Pakistani universities, selection through GRE subject tests would have the welcome consequence of cutting down the number enrolled in HEC indigenous PhD programmes from 1,000 per year to a few dozen. The present safeguard of having "foreign experts" evaluate theses is insufficient for a variety of reasons, including the manipulations commonly made in the process of referee selection. Second, we need to test those who would be university teachers. The system has remained broken for so long that written entrance tests for junior faculty, standardized at a central facility, are essential. Without them, universities will continue to hire teachers who freely convey their confusion and ignorance to students. Most teachers today never consult a textbook, choosing to dictate from notes they saved from the time when they were students in the same department. No teacher has ever been fired for demonstrating incompetence in his/her subject. Third, the recruitment of non-permanent foreign faculty, whether of Pakistani origin or otherwise, is essential. Although this country is home to 150 million people, there are perhaps fewer than 20 computer scientists of sufficient calibre who could possibly get tenure-track positions at some B-grade US university. In physics, even if one roped in every competent physicist in the country, it would not be possible to staff even one single good department of physics. As for mathematics: it is impossible to find even five real mathematicians in Pakistan. The social sciences are no better. In this grim situation, it is fortunate that the Higher Education Commission has initiated a programme for hiring foreign faculty with attractive salaries. But the success of this programme is uncertain. Jealousy at salary differentials, and a fear that local incompetence will be exposed, have led local teachers and university administrations to block the hiring of faculty from abroad. There is another problem: Pakistan's image as a violent country deters most foreigners from wanting to come and live in Pakistan for any considerable period of time. Therefore, westerners are almost totally absent from the list of those who have applied under the foreign faculty hiring programme. Apart from Pakistani expatriates in the Middle East, the bulk of applicants are Russian speakers from the former Soviet Union countries. One wishes it could be otherwise. It would be a major breakthrough if Indian and Iranian teachers could be brought to Pakistan. Indians, in particular, would find it much easier to adapt to local ways and customs than others and also have smaller salary expectations. The huge pool of strong Indian candidates could be used to Pakistan's advantage - it could pick the best teachers and researchers, and those most likely to make a positive impact on the system. In the present mood of rapprochement, it is hard to think of a more meaningful confidence building measure. Fourth, we need better, more transparent, and accountable ways to recruit vice-chancellors and senior administrators. What we have now is a patronage system that appoints unqualified and unsuitable bureaucrats or generals as vice-chancellors, and that staffs universities with corrupt and incompetent administrators. While a tenure-track system for faculty is currently under discussion and may allow for breaking with the system of life-long jobs independent of performance, there is no corresponding system being contemplated for the top leadership. But without good leadership, and people who can set an example, no institution can be reformed. Finally, it is crucial to bring back on to the campuses meaningful discussions on social, cultural and political issues. To create the culture of civilized debate, student unions must be restored, with elections for student representatives. They will be the next generation of political leaders. Such a step will not be free from problems - religious vigilantes rule many Pakistani campuses although all unions are banned. Extremists would surely try to take advantage of the new opportunities offered once the ban is lifted. Political parties have also been less than responsible. But the reinstatement of unions - subject to their elected leaders making a pledge to abjure violence and the disruption of academic activity - is the only way forward towards creating a university culture on campus. Ultimately, reasonable voices, too, will become heard. To condemn Pakistani students as fundamentally incapable of responsible behaviour amounts to a condemnation of the Pakistani nation itself. If students in our neighbouring countries can successfully study, as well as unionize and engage in larger issues, then surely Pakistan's can do so as well. The task of university reform has not yet seriously begun. Nor can it do so until issues of the purpose and philosophy of higher education and of the goal of the reforms are squarely confronted. It is time to decide whether we are serious about education being something more than merely giving out certificates. Do we want to build institutions for creating knowledge and helping students to be informed, critical, active citizens? Or not? Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy is Professor of Physics Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. --- In arkitectindia at yahoogroups.com, "arkitect95" wrote: > > > REFORMING PAKISTAN'S UNIVERSITIES -- I > by > Pervez Hoodbhoy > > > > There is a severe and long-standing crisis in higher education. But, > until the present military government took the initiative, there was > no rehabilitation plan. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, appointed as chairman of > the Higher Education Commission, was the wonder-man charged by General > Musharraf with turning the situation around. He was quick to make a > powerful pitch for vast increases in funding. > > Foreign donors, worried about the implications of Pakistan's sinking > educational system, obliged. The higher education budget zoomed by > twelve times (1,200 per cent) over three years, a world record. A > number of new and innovative utilization schemes were announced. > > Some solid achievements did emerge. Internet connectivity in > universities has been substantially expanded; distance education is > being seriously pursued through the newly established Virtual > University; a digital library is in operation; some foreign faculty > has been hired; students are being sent abroad for PhD training > (albeit largely to second rate institutions); some links with foreign > institutions now exist; and money for scientific equipment is no > longer a problem. No previous Pakistani government can boast of > comparable accomplishments, and the HEC chairman deserves > congratulations. > > But the HEC is also setting into motion very dangerous, potentially > catastrophic, systemic changes. In this article I will look at the > problems in our higher education system and why the HEC reforms are > set to make a bad situation worse rather than better. In a subsequent > article, I will suggest some modest steps that may offer a way > forward. > > Pakistan has almost a hundred universities now. Not one of them is > world class. Truth be told, not even one of them is a real > university, if by a university one means a community of scholars > engaged in free inquiry and the creation of knowledge. > > Take for example the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, reputed to > be Pakistan's best. Academic activities common in good universities > around the world are noticeably absent. Seminars and colloquia, where > faculty present for peer review the results of their on-going > research, are few and far between. Public lectures, debates, or > discussions of contemporary scientific, cultural, or political issues > are almost non-existent. > > The teaching at QAU is no better. Rote learning is common, students > are not encouraged to ask questions in class, and courses are rarely > completed by the end of the semester. This university has three > mosques but no bookstore. It is becoming more like a madressah in > other ways too. > > It was not always this way. The global intellectual ferment of the > late 1960's and 70's had a stimulating impact on Pakistani campuses. > Intellectual, scientific, cultural and literary activity flourished. > Young Pakistani scholars gave up potential careers in the West to > come to Pakistani universities. But in November of 1981, just days > after three QAU teachers had been caught with anti-martial law and > pro-democracy pamphlets, General Ziaul Haq thundered on television > that he would "purge the country's universities of the cancer of > politics". He succeeded. > > A quarter century later, the faculty are more concerned with money and > promotions than research, teaching, or bringing their knowledge to > bear on the myriad issues facing our society. Among the students > there are many burqas and beards, but minuscule intellectual or > creative activity. All student unions are gone, and ideological > disputes have evaporated into the thin air. Instead of left vs right > politics there is simple tribalism.Now Punjabi students gang together > against Pakhtoon students, Muhajirs versus Sindhis, Shias versus > Sunnis, etc. > > Some campuses are run by gangs of hoodlums and harbour known > criminals, while others have Rangers with machine guns on continuous > patrol. On occasion, student wolf packs attack each other with > sticks, stones, pistols, and automatic weapons. There are many campus > murders. Most students have not learned how to think; they cannot > speak or write any language well, rarely read newspapers, and cannot > formulate a coherent argument or manage any significant creative > expression. > > Dumbed down, this generation of Pakistanis is intellectually > handicapped. Like overgrown children, students of my university now > kill time by making colourful birthday posters for friends, > do "istikhara" (fortune telling), and wander aimlessly in Islamabad's > bazaars. > > Understanding the scale of the failure is important. Compare > Pakistan's premier university with those in its neighbours' capitals. > First to the east: Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the Indian > Institute of Technology, in Delhi. > > Their facilities are simple and functional, nothing like the > air-conditioned and carpeted offices of most professors at QAU. And, > more important, every notice board is crammed with notices for > seminars and colloquia, visitors from the very best foreign > universities lecture there, research laboratories hum with activity, > and pride and satisfaction are written all around. > > Conflict on campuses does exist - communist and socialist students > battle with Hindutva students over the Gujrat carnage, Iraq, Kashmir, > and the BJP doctoring of history. Angry words are exchanged and > polemics are issued against the other, but no heads are bashed. While > lecturing at these institutions during a recent visit, I was > impressed by the fearlessness and the informed, critical intelligence > of the students who questioned and challenged me. I cannot imagine an > Indian professor having a similar reception in Pakistan. > > Now to the west: Teheran's Sharif University of Technology, and the > Institute for Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, are impressive > institutions filled with professional activity, workshops, and > seminars. Even as they maintain good academic standards, Iranian > university students are heavily political and today are spearheading > the movement for freedom and democracy. Iranian students make it to > the best US graduate schools. Although it is an Islamic republic, > bookshops are more common than mosques in Tehran. Translations into > Farsi appear in just weeks or months after a book is published in the > western world. > > Driven by the unfavourable comparison with neighbours, the need for > university reform finally became an issue. The first big idea was that > Pakistan needed more universities. So today all it takes is a piece > of paper from the HEC and some paint. Some colleges have literally > had their signboards taken down for repainting, and been put back up > changed into "universities" the next day. > > By such sleight of hand the current tally of public universities, > according to the HEC website, is now officially 47, up from the 23 > officially listed in 1996. In addition, there are eight degree > awarding public sector institutes. Unfortunately, this is merely a > numbers game. All new public sector universities lack infrastructure, > libraries, laboratories, adequate faculty, or even a pool of students > academically prepared to study at the university level. > > The HEC's "generosity" extends even into largely illiterate tribal > areas. There are so-called universities now in Malakand, Bannu, > Kohat, Khuzdar, Gujrat, Haripur, and in many other places where it is > difficult to detect the slightest potential for successfully > establishing modern universities. > > Another poorly thought-out, and dangerous, HEC scheme involves giving > massive cash awards to university teachers for publishing research > papers - Rs 60,000 per paper published in a foreign journal. Although > these stimulants are said to have increased the number of papers > published in international journals by a whopping 44 per cent, there > is little evidence that this increase in volume is the result of an > increase in genuine research activity. > > The fact is only a slim minority of Pakistani academics possesses the > ethics, motivation, and capability needed for genuine scientific > discovery and research. For the majority, the HEC incentives are a > powerful reason to discover the art of publishing in research > journals without doing research, to find loopholes, and to learn how > to cover up one's tracks. > > Established practices of plagiarizing papers, multiple publications of > slightly different versions of the same paper in different research > journals, fabricating scientific data, and seeking out third-rate > foreign journals with only token referees are now even more common. > The HEC has broadcast the message: corruption pays. > > The casual disregard for quality is most obvious in the HEC's massive > PhD production programme. This involves enrolling 1,000 students in > Pakistani universities every year for PhD degrees. Thereby > Pakistan's "PhD deficit" (it produces less than 50 PhDs per annum at > present) will supposedly be solved and it will soon be at par with > India. In consequence, an army of largely incapable and ignorant > students, armed with hefty HEC fellowships, has sallied forth to > write PhD theses. > > Although the HEC claims that it has checked the students through > a "GRE type test" (the American graduate school admission test), a > glance at the question papers reveals it to be only a shoddy literacy > and numeric test. In my department, advertised as the best physics > department in the country, the average PhD student now has trouble > with high-school level physics and even with reading English. > Nevertheless there are as many as 18 PhD students registered with one > supervisor! In the QAU biology department, that number rises to 37 > for one supervisor. HEC incentives have helped dilute PhD qualifying > exams to the point where it is difficult for any student not to pass. > > The implications of this mass-production of PhDs are dire. Very soon > hundreds and, in time, thousands of worthless PhDs will be cranked > out. They will train even less competent students. Eventually they > will become heads of departments and institutions. When appointed > gatekeepers, they will regard more competent individuals as threats > to be kept locked out. The degenerative spiral, long evident in any > number of Pakistani institutions, will worsen rapidly, and become > infinitely more difficult to break. > > > Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy is > Professor of Physics > Quaid-e-Azam University > Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. Fund a student project in NYC/NC today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/5F6XtA/.WnJAA/E2hLAA/VaTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: arkitectindia-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From kranenbu at xs4all.nl Thu Jan 13 16:07:49 2005 From: kranenbu at xs4all.nl (Rob van Kranenburg) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 11:37:49 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] on pervasive computing and rfid and distributing insecurity (from talk at sarai) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The Ubicomp World. "Software and methods alone cannot make a company innovative - the organization needs to be ready. Yet the study shows that it is mainly their Idea Management activity which sets the most innovative companies apart." "In the 1920s, the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company tried to discover by experiment what changes in working conditions would improve the productivity of their workers. They found that any change made while the workers knew that a study was going on increased productivity. More lighting helped, but so did less lighting. The fact that people change their behavior when they know they are being studied is now called the Hawthorne effect." In Dreams of a Final Theory, Steven Weinberg speaks of the "spooky ability of mathematicians to anticipate structures that are relevant to the real world". Now we can talk about the spooky ability of designers to do just that, to anticipate structures that are relevant to the real world, however spooky the real world might become. The challenge we are facing is reading the flowing reality of our surface. How to store real-time information flows? How to chart them? Which are our seismographs? How do we match real-time processes with the signified that they are supposed to signify? How to find ways of deciding what is data and what is not data in the space of flows? The disappearing computer, - launched by Future and Emerging Technologies, the European Commission's IST Programme - is a vision of the future: "in which our everyday world of objects and places become 'infused' and 'augmented' with information processing. In this vision, computing, information processing, and computers disappear into the background, and take on the role more similar to that of electricity (it. mine) today - an invisible, pervasive medium distributed on our real world." In such a real world, Martin Rantzer of Ericsson Foresight, claims in A future world of supersenses: "New communication senses will be needed in the future to enable people to absorb the enormous mass of information with which they are confronted." According to him the user interfaces we use today to transmit information to our brains threaten to create a real bottleneck for new broadband services. "The boundaries of what constitutes consumer electronics and computers are getting blurred," says Gerard J. Kleisterlee, chief executive of Royal Philips Electronics, "As we get wireless networking in the home, everything starts to talk to everything." In such a mediated environment - where everything is connected to everything - it is no longer clear what is being mediated, and what mediates. Strategic decisions become process decisions in a mediatized environment. What does this mean for your connectivity in your business environment? It means that you need tools to master this merging of digital and analogue processes of communication and database-driven datasystems. It means that the environment becomes the interface. Where is your dashboard then? Where are your familiar readers of situation, actions, scenarios? The methods, and the concepts that function in an analogue environment are determined by the principle of scarcity. In a ubicomp environment, scarcity is no longer an organizational principle. 1. We see a move from using mixed media (radio, sms, billboard, television) to create user experiences to designing experiences by mediating the environment. 2. We see a move from interaction as a key term to resonance. That refers most aptly to the way we relate to things, people, ideas in a connected environment. 3. We see a move towards ubiquitous and pervasive computing (ubicomp). Computers will be in the fabric of our everyday artefacts. And unlike today's computer artefacts, they will be connected. Digital connectivity is one of the central themes of Ubicomp. 4. We see a move from the barcode to the (Radio Frequency) tag. By mediating - wiring- the environment the lone product is online (when read by a RFID reader, for example). In such an environment the new intelligence is extelligence, "knowledge and tools that are outside people's heads" (Stewart and Cohen, 1997) In Problems now are: Businessmodels, lack of. Didactics, convincing models of transference and fostering feelings of agency. States of emergencies vs. current/normal/common sense notions. How to trade off between unmodified optimism (seamlessness) and unmodified pessimism. E-Sense: In a ubicomp world of e-sense what is the working definition of human and the human social world? Distributing Insecurity: How to investigate the notion of 'distributing insecurity' with programmers and data profilers. in Terms: Disambiguiate (a situation) the step towards a common terminology as a community knows the ambiguities, then agrees to disambiguiate for the sake of discussion. Sonarizing (an object/situation): might also be extended to social and cultural situations; you fire a large number of probes and see what and how it is returned. Grid. Acceptable and productive to coders (programmers), noders (information managers), linkers (interaction deseigners), networkers (policy makers). From Privacy to Privacies In: The internet of things I claim: "Others think there is middle ground between the privacy advocates and the desires of big business. Academics such as Rob van Kranenburg, from the St Joost Academy in the Netherlands, are trying to bridge that gap. "Perhaps in a network society we will have to give up the ghost of 19th-century notions of privacy, which is a very basic concept tied to an individual," explains van Kranenburg. "If you want to move in this networked environment, maybe you have to give something up. But what we need is a proper public debate on this, before the infrastructure is in place," he says" Ubicomp/RFID will create a new situation in information relationships between data, products, situations (people and settings= shopping/travelingŠ) What will this do to our conceptions of privacy? Following up on a USA Today (August 5, 2002) piece on how new SUV interiors are being designed to be "more like living rooms." Michael Kaplan noticed on Design-l that more and more people are leaving their SUVs in shopping center parking lots locked with the engines running (to power the air conditioners). He sees "people sitting in them using their cell phones, watching television, or working on their laptops." He writes: "It occurred to me that the SUV, for many people, is an extension of their home, a little mobile room they can detach and live in when they are not in their fixed home. All fine and well, if these things didn't consume so much energy, pollute the environment, take up excessive parking space, and pose danger to smaller vehicles. They should probably be taxed for the damage they do (lol). And I would think, too, that they could be designed better for what they are used for, have a solar collectors covering their huge surface area to keep the a/c running while parked." This story narrates this now everyday experience of being grounded when we are on the road, being at home while mobile. It exemplifies the design tendencies of this increased interconnecivity of mediasystems - television, mobiles, computers - as it tries to immerse itself into very familiar objects, here the automobile. It is precisely because of the familiarity of the local space that mediasystems are added to the automobile, leaving its primary function - to make miles - intact. In much the same way the notion of privacy is used in the transition we are witnessing towards a deeply merged analogue and digital environment, in a ubicomp world. Privacy is regarded as a more or less stable concept with intrinsic qualities tied to the individual. It is assumed that new connectivities (RIFD, Face Recognition Software, Ubicomp) can or should be added to the existing notion of privacy as a fundamentally individual right and notion. We must investigate the possibility that ubicomp generates authentically new situations and experiences in which an analogue notion of privacy is no longer tenable. In a mediated environment - where everything is connected to everything - it is no longer clear what is being mediated, and what mediates. What is the autonomy of the individual in such an environment? It has autonomies, not autonomy. It acquires privacies, not privacy. In a ubicomp environment buildings, cars and people can be defined as information spaces. Anthony Townsend, from Taub Urban Research Center, has been asked commission by the South Korean government to "turn an undeveloped parcel of land on the outskirts of Seoul into a city whose raison d'etre will be to produce and consume products and services based on new digital technologies. " The main challenge lies in the realization that "half of designing a city is going to be information spaces that accompany it because lots of people will use this to navigate around." Townsend claims that telecommunications in a city in 2012 is going to be a lot more complex: "The most interesting thing about it will be that you won't be able to see it all at once because all these data structures, computational devices, digital networks and cyberspaces that are built upon those components will be invisible unless you have the password or unless you are a member of the group that is permitted to see them." In such an environment, the people themselves - human bodies- become information spaces too. The current defensively argued implementation model is necessarily faulty: In an attempt to achieve a harmony between a town center and a distribution network, officials of the Wal-Mart Corporation announced in March 2003 the opening of Walton Township, guaranteeing its residents a literally bottomless supply of consumer goods, for a flat all-in monthly fee. According to Valerie Femble-Grieg, who designed it, the key to Walton is "a literal superimposition of municipal and retail channels." In an effort to control 'leakage,' the export of flat-fee goods outside the Township by community subscribers, Wal-Mart plans to institute a pervasive inventory control system consisting of miniature radio-frequency tags broadcasting unique product and batch ID numbers." The tree major U.S. car manufacturers plan to install rfd tags in " every tire sold in the nation". The tags can be read on vehicles going as fast as 160 kilometers per hour from a distance of 4.5 meters. In January 2003, Gillette began attaching rfd tags to 500 million of its Mach 3 Turbo razors. Smart shelves at Wal-Mart stores "will record the removal of razors by shoppers, thereby alerting stock clerks whenever shelves need to be refilled-and effectively transforming Gillette customers into walking radio beacons." CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) said anyone can download revealing documents labeled "confidential" from the home page of the MIT Auto-ID Center web site in two mouse clicks. The Auto-ID Center was the organization entrusted with developing a global Internet infrastructure for radio frequency identification (RFID). Their plans are to tag all the objects manufactured on the planet with RFID chips and track them via the Internet. "Among the "confidential" documents available on the web site are slide shows discussing the need to "pacify" citizens who might question the wisdom of the Center's stated goal to tag and track every item on the planet [ http://www.autoidcenter.com/media/communications.pdf ], along with findings that 78% of surveyed consumers feel RFID is negative for privacy and 61% fear its health consequences [ http://www.autoidcenter.org/media/pk-fh.pdf ]. PR firm Fleischman-Hillard's confidential "Managing External Communications" suggests a variety of strategies to help the Auto-ID Center "drive adoption" and "neutralize opposition," including the possibility of renaming the tracking devices "green tags." It also lists by name several key lawmakers, privacy advocates, and others whom it hopes to "bring into the Center's 'inner circle'" [ http://www.autoidcenter.com/media/external_comm.pdf ]. Despite the overwhelming evidence of negative consumer attitudes toward RFID technology revealed in its internal documents, the Auto-ID Center hopes that consumers will be "apathetic" and "resign themselves to the inevitability of it" instead of acting on their concerns [ http://www.autoidcenter.com/publishedresearch/cam-autoid-eb002.pdf ]." Yet, where is the main problem located? Because there are two sides to each coin: At the level of code distributed computing also provides open source initiatives. At the level of node indivituated logistics also provides user centered design, (dis)ability tracking, At the level of link the merging of digital and analogue connectivity opens up realms for play, repose, reflection, research. At the level of network , that is where the main problem is. We must propose a vision that goes against: a policy directed towards more control, security, safety, non-risk directed; from distributing security to distributing insecurity. From the concept of privacy as a sole individuated relatively stable relationship, to negociable privacies. Why will RFID / Smart Cards/ Biosensors be a success? Why is RFID inevitable as techné? Because of a convergence at four crucial levels: Code: distributed computing, non-central, pull technology (reader) Node: logistics need to individuate Link: merging of analogue and digital connectivity Network: a policy directed towards more control, security, safety, non-risk directed. Challenge: From the concept of privacy as a sole individuated relatively stable relationship, to negociable privacies: Every new set of techniques brings forth its own literacy: The Aristotelian protests against introducing pencil writing, may seem rather incredible now, at the time it meant nothing less than a radical change in the structures of power distribution. Overnight, a system of thought and set of grammar; an oral literacy dependant on a functionality of internal information visualization techniques and recall, was made redundant because the techniques could be externalised. Throughout Western civilization the history of memory externalisation runs parallel with the experienced disappearance of its artificial, man made, character. An accidental disappearance, however much intrinsic to our experience, that up till now has not been deliberate. This then is the fundamental change and the design challenge that we are facing in ubicomp; the deliberate attempt of a technology to disappear as technology. In what respect will it alter our notion of the self as a more or less stable identity? Will it not provoke an identity building on the ability to change roles in communication environments? What kind of privacies lay hidden in our new connectivities? Research possibilities 1. Unintended consequences: a. Japan's 'digital shoplifting' plague "Japanese bookstores are set to launch a national campaign to stop so-called 'digital shoplifting' by customers using the latest camera- equipped mobile phones. The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association calls the practice 'information theft' and wants it stopped. It is the kind of thing that most Japanese young women would not think twice about doing. They might spot a new hairstyle or a new dress in a glossy fashion magazine and they want to know what their friends think - so they take a quick snap with their mobile phone camera and send everybody a picture. But the publishers of those magazines feel they are being cheated out of valuable sales. Together with Japan's phone companies, they are issuing stern posters which warn shoppers to be careful of their 'magazine manners'. But the success of this new campaign is open to question. Japan's bookshop owners have already said their staff cannot tell the difference between customers taking pictures and those simply chatting on their phones." b. In Smile, You're on In-Store Camera, Erik Baard describes how the web shopping process of following your customer every step of the way, might now become effectively used in an ordinary supermarket: "The algorithm looks for shapes of people and (passes) the same individual off from camera to camera by, for example, looking for a yellowcolor leaving the left side of one camera view to enter the overlapping right side of the next. " The algorithm is tuned with pressure-sensitive carpets. Neither Identix (formerly Visionics), nor the originator of the pressure-sensitive magic carpet, MIT Media Lab researcher Joe Paradisso, thought of these ways of using their work for tracking consumers: "I was thinking of music. I never thought about this for retail at all," said Paradisso, who has designed performance spaces where footsteps trigger bass or percussive sounds and torso, head and arm movements elicit higher, "twinkling" notes." Searching for sudden "bursts" in the usage of particular words could be used to rapidly identify new trends and sort information more efficiently, says a US computer scientist., Jon Kleinberg, at Cornell University in New York. The method could be applied to weblogs to track new social trends; "For example, identifying word bursts in the hundreds of thousands of personal diaries now on the web could help advertisers quickly spot an emerging craze, or identifying word bursts within email messages sent to a company's customer support address might help maintenance staff spot a major new problem. c. Radar analogy "It will be interesting to witness (if not anticipate) the range of unintended consequences and side effects from the widespread introduction of RFID, and resulting measures and countermeasures. By way of analogous example, here's a piece from Scientific American by a friend, Wendy Grossman, on how the construction of cellular telephone networks have produced opportunities for passive radar ("celldar," really) systems: The law of unintended consequences: build a cellular-phone network and get a sophisticated surveillance system along with it. At least that is what may happen in the U.K., thanks to England's contract research and development firm Roke Manor Research and aeronautics company BAe Systems. The two are working on a way of using the radio waves broadcast by the world's mobile-phone base stations as the transmission element of a radar system. They call it Celldar. Radar works by transmitting radio pulses (or pings) and listening for an echo. Measuring the Doppler shift of the echo can give an object's distance and speed. Celldar proposes to take advantage of U.K. base stations, which transmit radio waves from known locations in a known microwave frequency band. Instead of erecting a radar transmitter, a Celldar operator would only need to set up passive receivers that can measure the cellular-network radio waves reflected from nearby objects and process the data. Because they would not transmit, Celldar receivers can, according to BAe Systems, be smaller and more mobile than traditional systems--and undetectable. Celldar operators would not require the cooperation of the cell-phone-network operators, either.... We should see this sort of thing with RFID as well, i.e., areas where there are numerous readers will be pulsing with RF, and a passive collector could monitor physical space just like a radar, noting disturbances in the baseline RF fields."" 2. Push technology: a. Hypertag Media ethics has now become building ethics. Building ethics has become media ethics. "It's all about linking wireless devices to content," Jonathan Morgan, CEO of Hypertag ,added. "Point and click your mobile phone at a poster in London movie theaters this July and you'll be able to directly access the movie's Web page. Due to be launched in 20 cinemas in mid-July, the Hypertag technology will enable mobile-phone and PDA users one-click access to Web pages by pointing and clicking at advertising posters. "The real-world equivalent of hyperlinks, the small battery-powered electronic tags use infrared signals to send Web links to mobile phones. Developed by the Cambridge, U.K.-based company Hypertag, these smart tags can be discreetly attached to any information display surface, such as advertising panels, billboards or walls, enabling any mobile-phone user with an infrared port or Bluetooth to access digital content by downloading a small software application." b. FBI - LEO "The FBI will be better able to communicate terrorism alerts and other sensitive material to state and local police agencies through a national law enforcement alert system slated to debut later this year, according to FBI and police officials. The new system, using push technology, will be available through the Law Enforcement Online (LEO) network, said Roger Morrison, chief of the FBI's National Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), who mentioned the new system during a July 1 conference on information sharing in Philadelphia. "It's actually almost fully developed now. We're waiting to do some testing on it still," Morrison said in an interview July 3. The new system's users will be able to send out messages as well as receive them, Morrison said. "Of course, ours will override [a message] if we have a major one" to send, he said. "It uses push technology." Push technology allows a user to receive data sent automatically at prearranged regular intervals, as is done with Internet news updates. "We've been telling them what we think we need," he said, and the FBI has met with police chiefs and sheriffs' groups "telling us what they are doing to try and accommodate our needs."" 3. Systems are doing it for themselves; distributing insecurity. Intrusion detection needs to be looked at as a process and not as a product. IDSes are systems that support the process. The products support the process. "One of the biggest problems in IDS world is false positives and too many alerts. To avoid these false positives, IDSes are implementing protocol intelligence. That means, IDSes need to maintain some sort of state information on per connection basis. If you take HTTP as an example, this state information involves storing URL and in case of TCP connections, data packet buffering OR pure data buffering, if the packets come out of order (people refer to this as TCP streaming or TCP reassembly). In case of IP, packets need to be buffered for IP reassembly. So, lot of state information need to be maintained at different levels. Assume that on per HTTP connection, if 500 bytes of state information is maintained, for 10000 simultaneous connections, you require 5 Mbytes of memory." In an unmodified ubicomped world, in a ubiworld, we will be in a state of perpetual OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Embedded systems will be doing mostly a check upon themselves to see if they are in 'on' mode and allright. Distribution insecurity both in the still analogue and in embedded systems, seems the proper way. In a ubicomped world all is forever emerging and in flux, you do not want 50% of your systems memory used for constantly checking upon itself. So we move from our current operational programming rules - to distribute security - towards organizational principles that are guided by the principle of distributing insecurity. 4. Identity Theft (suggested by Steve Portigal). In 2001 86,000 identity thefts were reported. The number doubled in 2002. An official of the Michigan State Police points out that many former violent criminals are now using the Internet for identity theft: "They are switching over to white-collar crime because it's more lucrative and they know they will get less time. Identity theft is not necessarily a sophisticated crime." and Creative minds in Europe - employment, economy and multi-culturalism in hybrid multi-media work. Der Jungfer Europa ist verlobt mit dem schönen Geniusse der Freiheit, sie liegen einander im Arm, Sie schwelgen im ersten Kusse. - Heinrich.Heine In 1999 consumer spending on leisure and services surpassed spending on material goods for the first time, having been only half as big 30 years ago.- Charles Leadbeater Safety as the default position As foreign minister to the Republican French government , the poet Lamartine instructs representatives of France abroad how to talk about the new situation: "In 1792 the ideas of France and Europe were not prepared to conceive and to accept the great harmony of nations among themselves for the benefit of the human race. The views of the century, then drawing to its close, were confined to the heads of a few philosophers. But at the present day philosophy is popular. Fifty years of the freedom of thought, speech, and writing, have produced their results. Books, journals, and tribunes, have accomplished the apostolic mission of European intelligence. Reason, dawning everywhere over the frontiers of nations, has given birth to that great intellectual commonwealth, which will be the achievement of the French revolution, and the constitution of international fraternity throughout the globe." European poets and politicians have always been aware of the modularites of implementating ideas. Alphonse de Lamartine's keyword, of which he never tires, is peace: "The people and the revolution are one and the same. When they entered upon the revolution, the people brought with them their new wants of labour, industry, instruction, agriculture, commerce, morality, welfare, property, cheap living, navigation, and civilisation. All these are the wants of peace. The people and peace are but one word." Now, in 2004 too the people bring with them their new wants of labour, industry, instruction, agriculture, commerce, morality, welfare, property, cheap living, navigation, and civilisation. Little has changed in human needs in 300 years in living alone and living together in families, communities, regions, nations and united nations. But the keyword has. It is not peace that seems to drive us. We too have "Fifty years of the freedom of thought, speech, and writing," after WW II engulfed Europe. But what has it produced? Have "books, journals, and the internet accomplished that apostolic mission of European intelligence, reason?" No. It has produced fear. One March afternoon in 2004 students from St Joost Arts Academy, Breda set off for Oisterwijck, a lovely quiet provincial town. They were dressed in white suits, suits that made them look like weird medics, the kind of people who come to clean out your chicken farm after some horrible disease. Not the kind of people you would trust, at least that is what we thought. Some had sticks to point at dangerous things. Such as the sky. Don't you trust it with all that satellite debris. Better watch out. Some had stickers that made icons of dangerous things. In a red triangle the dangerous object was represented in words: watch out an umbrella, watch out a window, watch out a tree. You can bump into these things, you know. You better watch out. Be careful. Hey! The idea of this performance like intervention was to draw feedback of the kind that would get the joke, that would be aimed at the experienced top down disciplining design process going on. What happened instead was far more interesting but also far more disturbing. Whenever they were approached with a question like what kind of organization are you from, they'd reply: the government. We are the Watch Out Team, a new government sponsored initiative. At the market where they dished out watch out umbrella stickers to grateful umbrella holders I overheard a daughter telling her mother: "They should have done this much sooner!" We never realized how deep a ravine between this huge longing, this ocean of belief and the lack of credibility. As De Certeau argues; so much belief, so little credibility. We saw it played out in front of us. We did not look like clinical scary government spooks, no we were potential saviours, safeguarding the people, the public from harm in every which way. The new library in Rotterdam has cut her bookshelves in halves, transferring the old serene experience of wandering among books hoping for this serendipitous moment into a full contact zone of wandering bodies, their backs aching. An open zone where every action is transparent, every person visible, every meeting among human bodies watched by surveillance cameras. This is how Dante describes in The Convivio the need for process over product, for aiming to script the defining characteristics of a situation, that what makes it into a setting where interaction and resonance can take place- rather then scripting the interactions and resonance in a given setting. "Having said how there exist in my native tongue these two characteristics which have made me its friend--that is, nearness to myself and goodness proper to it--I will tell how friendship, through benefits and harmony of purpose, and through a sense of benevolence born of long familiarity, is strengthened and increased. I say first that for myself I have received from it the gift of very great benefits. For we know that among all benefits the greatest is the one that is most precious to him who receives it; and nothing is so precious as the thing for the sake of which all other things are desired; and all other things are desired for the perfection of him who desires them." "and nothing is so precious as the thing for the sake of which all other things are desired; and all other things are desired for the perfection of him who desires them." What is this thing for the sake of which all other things are desired? This thing is not a thing, but a process, it is feeling safe, at ease; well-being. Feeling safe has to do with the ability to deal with unsafety and insecurity, to have a corporeal experience of agency. It has very little to do with being safe. For how long will it last? That is what people won't stop worrying about. The current dangers of this cultural/political axiom to highlight safety/insecurity as if there could ever be a safe default position, only leads to more fear, more distrust, more anger as incidents will inevitably happen and you will take the blame for not having been able to prevent them. Aiming for the safe default is the current US policy. The US Department of Homeland Security recently established a National Incident Management System Integration Center. They claim that "Responders will be able to focus more on response, instead of organizing the response." For Pennsylviana read France. For Texas read Germany. For South Dakato read Spain. For Virgiania read Estonia: "Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced his plan for the disbursement of more than $110 million in federal homeland security funds awarded to the commonwealth. Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently announced that 433 Texas jurisdictions will receive more than $20.7 million in federal funds for programs to improve local homeland security efforts through increased intelligence, warning communication and facility security. Public Safety Secretary Tom Dravland announced recently that the DHS Office for Domestic Preparedness has notified South Dakota of $20 million in Homeland Security grants for state and local jurisdictions in 2004. Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner recently announced localities will receive more than $9 million for local law enforcement terrorism prevention initiatives." The European challenge lies in marketing from a high level downwards the idea of distributing insecurity, realizing there is no safe default, but that uncertainty is the default position. The fear policy goes directly against the call for more and more innovation, innovation needs a risk friendly environment. If you scare your population, very few risks will be taken. The mobile industries 3G & 4G presentations highlight a person surrounded by power stations that connect nodes that should give this person more agency. The security industries presentations highlight exactly the same but in their case the agency lies in the nodes, not in the person. For both the systems logic is the same: to distribute yourself, your data- into the environment. The key themes, the cultural and political views that shape the environment are insecurity, unsafety, and fear. Who is going to distribute themselves into such an environment? An environment that you are being reminded constantly of that is unsafe, and insecure? What does it feel like to grow up in such an environment? Strategy and tactics in a networked world When Cook's Endeavour sailed into the bay that we know now as Cape Everard on April 22 1770, touching upon Australian shore for the first time, the British saw Aboriginals fishing in small canoes. Whereas the native population of Tahiti had responded with loud chanting and the Maori had thrown stones, the Aboriginals, neither afraid nor curious, simply went on fishing (Hughes:1986). That afternoon two heterogeneous discourses met. Only until Cook had lowered a small boat and a small party rowed to the shore did the Aboriginals react. A number of men rowing in a small boat was a practice they could interpret: to them it signified a raid and they responded accordingly. Undoubtedly the Aboriginals must have `seen' something and even if they could not see it as a ship, they must have felt the waves it produced in their canoes. However, as its form and height was so alien, so contrary to anything they had ever observed or produced, they simply chose to ignore it since they had no procedures of response for something they could not work with.. De Certeau (1984:171) argues that it is the operation of encoding, which is articulated on signifiers, that produces meaning. This extraordinary story perfectly narrates the steps that are required in this operation of encoding; what is essential in this reflexive process is a procedure of translation. Making sense or producing meaning always requires the possession of procedures of translation. Ways of seeing: transgenerations: digikids and the first and second generation internet To visit the final degree show of the Royal College of Art is to witness not just raw creativity but a source of future jobs, exports and earnings.- Charles Leadbeater In the Dutch policy document 'van I naar E-cultuur' the transition towards a culture that is characterized and determined by digital processes is described as e-culture: "E-culture is not just 'something to do with computers.' The cultural implications of digitalisation are far greater than the mere instrumental exploitation of technical opportunities. E-culture is all about a new, digital dimension; a new and - until recently - undreamt-of medium with which existing culture must seek to interact and in which new culture is being generated. But e-culture is also more than just a new medium. Digital technologies and the Internet are opening the door to new forms of expression, changing the roles played by cultural institutions, and placing the audience and user increasingly centre stage.* These new forms of expression, changing roles of institutions, these new mobile media make their mark on every aspect of our culture, mostly on our educational systems, ways of disseminating data, and ways of teaching. Concretely this means that we see a shift in the Netherlands towards hybrid it/multimedia departments. These new courses - Communication, Media & Design - are very successful in the numbers of students that they draw. In all, with six different institutions there are about 2000- 2500 students that do not go to the classical IT, interaction design or multimedia courses at the Arts Academies. For the past three years I have been teaching theory at one such particular CMD in Breda , one day a week, mainly to get an idea of the kind of students that will form our it/media backbone in the next decade. The first observation is the difference in the nature of the visible manifestations of politics. There is no new Waag Society (www.waag.org) or V2 (www.v2.nl) in sight, nor emerging. De Waag and V2 are our Dutch most successful labs. In less than 15 years they have grown into academic nodes on the SURFNET network, the Dutch academic network. This is unprecedented. Never before has a group of autonomous, critical individuals been able to get their ideas, narrative, theories and projects accepted as credible in terms of the existing academic discourse in such a short time span. How was this possible? Because of the liberal climate in the eighties and early nineties in the Netherlands that did allow for bottom-up creative initiatives. De Waag grew out of the non profit Digital City that was supposed to last for six weeks, the first Digital City in Amsterdam in 1993. Young idealists, hackers, 'hippies from hell' as they are called in Ine Poppe's documentary, provided free email and started the digital revolution with their internet provider xs4all. We are only eleven years later and the analogue world is becoming more hybrid as we speak with digital connectivity. Xs4all has become a part of corporate KPN. V2 was the name of a squat building in Den Bosch, the Director Alex Adriaansens was there in 1981. He is still Director now in 2004. V2 participates in numerous European networks, is focussing on their own kind of R&D that is rapidly drawing attention from the regular and corporate research labs, hosts its own V2 publishing and V2 Archive. The young people that started these digital connectivities in spaces and actual places were concerned for more then their own particular work, products or living, their concern was for the public domain; xs4all. This is no longer a concern for my students in 2004. No Logo, culture jamming, public domain, open source networks stem from political strategies of a 80s and 90s generation for which the idea of politics is very much influencd by Gramscian notions on hegemony. Gramsci's notes on hegemony in his prison writings are spread out throughout his text, deeply imbedded not infrequently within concrete historial situations and events as his was no disinterested academic exercise but a genuine attempt to understand the elements of a triumphant Italian fascism. We would however, not misrepresent him if we take his notion of hegemony to mean that in between forced consent and active dissent we find passive consent, that cultural change precedes political change, and that changes must connect to an audience that is ready to respond. As Gramsci notes, "the supremacy of a social group manifests itself in two ways, as 'domination' and as 'intellectual and moral leadership'. A social group dominates antagonistic groups, which it tends to 'liquidate', or to subjugate perhaps even by armed force; it leads kindred and allied groups. A social group can, and indeed must, already exercise 'leadership' [hegemony] before winning governmental power (this indeed is one of the principal conditions for the winning of such power); it subsequently becomes dominant when it exercises power, but even if it holds it firmly in its grasp, it must continue to 'lead' as well. This idea of politics of scheming tactically (in time) to reach a particular location by an overall strategy (place) informed politics before and during the first decade of the internet. For the digikids, young people who have grown up with digital technology and connectivity, the network is not something to either reach for or fight off. It simply is. Because of this network default of a flat web structural surface of things, the very idea of strategy as it is intrinsically tied to the idea of place, makes no sense for why should you scheme towards reaching a particular place, when that place might not be there tomorrow? Or might be somewhere else? 'Just' a node in the network. This situation much resembles the Aboriginal response to Captain Cook's Endeauvour. They simply could not see each other, even if they were right in front of each other, in full view. For the past three years I have been wondering why the clear individual talent that I spot in my CMD students does not show itself when they are in class, either in groups of twenty, thirty or fifty. An awful lot of communication is going on in this group, but it is of the communal kind. It is either text messaging one on one, or chatting one on one, or phoning, or emailing, one on one. In class there is a silent agreement that is cool to seem uninterested, to not voice that poignant comment or that brilliant remark. Interestingly enough, for them the situation is the same, but in reverse. Christiaan Fruneaux, a young programmer in the Balie, an important centre for cultural and political debate (www.balie.nl) in Amsterdam writes to me that 'we', the young culturally active generation is experiencing a complete lack of inspiration, enthusiasm, self irony and joy in the current political and cultural sector, that is- basically, in me: "Actually, that goes for the entire 'grown up' world. People are building on coarse, outdated, old-fashioned social-political 18th and 19th discourses and turn their backs of the rest of the post MTV world. In contrast, we find in our personal lives the exact opposite. A lot of young, energetic and above all creative people are engaged in a broad range of cultural and political activities from a comfortable, chaotic, global, culturally diverse, subjective, digital post 'Jackass and Pimp my Car' self challenging en inspiring worldview." It is clear that we can not see each other's work, cannot recognize each other's position as a political position. A worst case scenario: disintegration From the Netherlands to many many netherlands in twelve steps: 1. The Netherlands has no coin of its own, it has euros. 2. Most legal jurisdiction and law comes from European law and growing. 3 What is a nation state that cannot define itself in its own legal and monetary terms? 4. A state that cannot define itself legally needs an ironclad mental model that embraces all and everyone in the Netherlands. 5. This inclusive mental model is under heavy pressure. 6. The digital network turns civilians into professional amateurs. We see a growth of informal networks operating in between a formal policy level and an idiosyncratic everyday life. 7. The nation state tends to privatise and outsource tasks and obligations. 8. Individual core needs can be privately dealt with; medication through internet, medical care globally available. 9. So we wait now for the first village that refuses to pay its taxes to the Netherlands. Why should they pay for all these Creole cities where over fifty percent of the young people are from different backgrounds and descent, allochtoon is the word goes in Dutch?. 10. What happens when a thousand people refuse to pay their taxes to what for them is no longer a friendly nation state? Who is going to lock them up in the end? 11. There is no room in the Netherlands to put 1000 people into prison. The nation state loses its final argument as a state as it can not make good on its monopoly of violence. 12. Resulting in: the new middle ages. Why should this scenario be unrealistioc? All its axiomaric requirements are met: the network has empowered and is empowering individual citizens to such an extent that they can start managing their private lives for themselves, while Europe as an idea, as a story is still to abstract for citizens to outsource their newly gained perceived autonomy to. And our young designers? Our new media generation? Why should they care about the polis, an ambient agora? Or about accessforall? What does their government do for them but telling them not to do this and that and be careful, hey watch out! What do they owe their nation states? Culture and economy: creative industries Our sons and daughters will not hew, forge, mine, plough or weld.They will serve, design, advise, create, compose, analyse, judge and write. - Charles Leadbeater The future of this country is not call-centres - but its creativity, said Tony Hall. All of us are on a crusade to make a difference to people's skills. Above I argued that our current intellectual climate both stimulates top-down creative industrial initiatives and highlights unsafety and insecurity as the best strategy to confront a public environment. This is a recipe for long-term economic disaster. If we agree that it is foremost the creative minds that companies need to keep at hand- that programming and management maybe outsourced to India or China - then we will have to face up to the fact that such creative young minds are no longer there for companies to keep. As a result of aiming for the safe default, the key themes and cultural and political views that are shaping our environment at the moment are fear, insecurity, and lack of safety. And this undermines other messages the public is getting. For instance, in communicating with the public mobile industries use the image of a person surrounded by power stations, with connecting nodes that give the person "agency"/ power. Security industries use exactly the same image, but in their case the "agency" lies with the nodes rather than the person. Yet in both cases the underlying idea is the same: you need to distribute yourself - or your data - into the environment. Pervasive computing, location based services, RFID are the necessary are logical next step in connectivity. From the pencil onwards technology has been about distributing data in an environment. But who is going to distribute themselves into an environment that is, as you are constantly being reminded, unsafe? The fear policy goes directly against the call for more and more innovation, innovation needs a risk friendly environment. If you scare your population, very few risks will be taken. And interestingly enough, all the axiomatic requirements of a good case scenario are present as well. Never before have the demands of economy and creative practices of making run so parallel. "Culture is moving to the heart of the way we make our living, how we learn, take leisure and express our identities", Charles Leadbeater writes: "In the UK the creative industries as a whole account for more than 5% of GDP. They have been growing at twice the rate of the economy as a whole over the last decade. Compared with 1991 there are 60% more artists, 55% more musicians, 40% more actors and more than 400% more people working in digital media. Our music and computer games industries, for example, earn as much in exports as our steel and textile industries." "Creative and cultural industries do not matter just because they are a large and growing part of the economy. They matter because they also provide benefits to the rest of the economy and society.They have a multiplier effect. We increasingly live in an economy in which value comes from those who have ideas and who can apply them commercially through manufacturing and services. Competitiveness depends on having assets that your competitors cannot copy, buy or imitate.The most important of those assets resides in us: our creativity to devise novel products, services, experiences and processes. Our sons and daughters will not hew, forge,mine, plough or weld.They will serve, design, advise, create, compose, analyse, judge and write.Their skills will be applied to all industries and services, not just the high-tech. " This latter is an important prerequisite towards an inclusive creative industry. Two third of the Dutch population and rising takes their secondary education at vmbo level, lower technical schools. Embracing a Creole Europe can will be skill based, or it will not be. An ethical sense in an ambient environment: Innovation, technology and ethics. In the philosophy of Aristoteles there are three domains of knowledge with three corresponding states of knowing; Theoria, Techné and Praxis. Theoria with its domain of knowledge epistéme, is for the Greek gods, mortals can never reach this state of knowing. But they can strive for it. In Theoria and epistéme we recognize our concepts theory and epistemology. In Techné with its domain of knowledge poèsis we find technology and poetry. The original meaning of the word 'technology' was concerned with know-how or method, and it is with the Great Exhibition of 1851 that the word becomes synonomous with machines. It is therefore all the more interesting that the domain of knowledge which belonged to Praxis: phronesis has dropped out completely, not only in our language but also in our thought and ways of thinking. Phronesis, that knowledge that any one of us uses daily in the practice of living his everyday existence, is no longer recognized as an important domain of knowledge with a modern linguistic equivalent. 'Ephemeralisation' was Buckminster Fuller's term for describing the way that a technology becomes subsumed in the society that uses it. The pencil, the gramophone, the telephone, the cd player, technology that was around when we grew up, is not technology to us, it is simply another layer of connectivity. Ephemeralisation is the process where technologies are being turned into functional literacies; on the level of their grammar, however, there is very little coordination in their disappearing acts. These technologies disappear as technology because we cannot see them as something we have to master, to learn, to study. They seem to be a given. Their interface is so intuitive, so tailored to specific tasks, that they seem natural. In this we resemble the primitive man of Ortega y Gasset: "Š.the type of man dominant to-day is a primitive one, a Naturmensch rising up in the midst of a civilised world. The world is a civilised one, its inhabitant is not: he does not see the civilisation of the world around him, but he uses it as if it were a natural force. The new man wants his motor-car, and enjoys it, but he believes that it is the spontaneous fruit of an Edenic tree. In the depths of his soul he is unaware of the artificial, almost incredible, character of civilisation, and does not extend his enthusiasm for the instruments to the principles which make them possible." This unawareness of the artificial, almost incredible, character of Techné - the Aristotelian term for technique, skill - is only then broken when it fails us: "Central London was brought to a standstill in the rush hour on July 25 2002 when 800 sets of traffic lights failed at the same time -- in effect locking signals on red." Every new set of techniques brings forth its own literacy: The Aristotelian protests against introducing pencil writing, may seem rather incredible now, at the time it meant nothing less than a radical change in the structures of power distribution. Overnight, a system of thought and set of grammar; an oral literacy dependant on a functionality of internal information visualization techniques and recall, was made redundant because the techniques could be externalised. Throughout Western civilization the history of memory externalisation runs parallel with the experienced disappearance of its artificial, man made, character. An accidental disappearance, however much intrinsic to our experience, that up till now has not been deliberate: "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." In Evolution, Alienation and Gossip, The role of mobile telecommunications in the 21st century, Kate Fox claims: "The space-age technology of mobile phones has allowed us to return to the more natural and humane communication patterns of pre-industrial society, when we lived in small, stable communities, and enjoyed frequent 'grooming talk' with a tightly integrated social network." According to her about two thirds of our conversation time is entirely devoted to social topics: "discussions of personal relationships and experiences; who is doing what with whom; who is 'in' and who is 'out' and why; how to deal with difficult social situations; the behaviour and relationships of friends, family and celebrities; our own problems with lovers, family, friends, colleagues and neighbours; the minutiae of everyday social life - in a word, gossip" This underlines the importance of the notion of enaction that Varela outlines in his study Ethical Know-How', Action, Wisdom and Cognition: "enaction as the ability to negociate embodied, everyday living in a world that is inseperable from our sensory-motor capacities" For him this notion is the key to understand ethics in our everyday life. He wonders if the traditional way of setting up a cognitive set of ethical principles and axioms; you should do this, you should not do thatŠis actually indicative of the way people behave when confronted with difficult decisions. What do you do, he asks, when you enter your office and you see your colleague tied up in a what appears to be embarrassing telephone conversation? Would you not be very quiet and try to sneak out of the room unnoticed? Was that not an ethical decision that you made? And were you not immediately convinced that is was an embarrassing situation? Varela then wonders if we posses a kind of ethical sense. A sense to negociate encounters on a daily level. A networked, hybrid, world needs a notion of understanding, what does it mean when understanding takes places or happens. When is a design successful? What are the criteria for its succesfull diseappearing into the local flow? What happens if you understand? When do you feel responsible for the implications of your understanding? When do you feel responsible enough to act? When do you feel responsible for territory that is not yours in ownership? When do you feel responsible for a public domain? When do you feel responsible at all? Needed: vision One of the most intriguing aspects of Bauhaus is that the most successful unit, - the unit coming 'closest to Bauhaus intentions', as Gropius stated, the pottery workshop - was located 25 kilometers from Weimar, in Dornburg. It was hard to reach by train, and hard to reach by car. The workshop master Max Krehan owned the workshop, so there was a business interest from the start. The relationship with Marcks , the Master of Form, was not contaminated with formalized roundtable discussions, but was a productive twoway (abstract-concrete) interrelationship. "More important still, in terms of what Gropius hoped for the entire Bauhaus, was the way in which the pottery workshop operated in close co-operation with the local community in which it found itself. It made pots for the community and the town of Dornburg leased the workshop a plot of land which the students used for vegetables and on which, it was hoped, they would build." So what can we learn from this? That we must not aim to define, alter or transform practices, processes, places or people. The aim should be to define a vision. A vision that should be able to inspire and empower young people in their concrete experience of agency in this seemingly undesignerly new world, towards a humanistic and optimistic positive attitude in the role, function and leadership of the creative individual in his and her capability to make sense, to work within an uncertain framework of unforeseen consequences, unintended uses, and procedural breakdown. Four basic ideas underlie this vision: a concept of life and living as slow becoming, as in Eugène Minkowsky's idea that the essence of life is not " a feeling of being, of existence, but a feeling of participation in a flowing onward, necessarily expressed in terms of time, and secondarily expressed in terms of space." , a concept of slow money, to focus on the design process and sustainability of products and services, a working concept of our notion of control as resonance. and distributing insecurity as the European default. And five: exemplary behaviour of the older generation; but that off course goes without saying -- http://www.virtueelplatform.nl/ http://blogger.xs4all.nl/kranenbu/ VP mobile: 0031 (0) 641930235 0032 472 40 63 72 got stolen and is offline. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050113/25026776/attachment.html From subbaghosh at gmail.com Thu Jan 13 21:15:27 2005 From: subbaghosh at gmail.com (subba ghosh) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 21:15:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] OPEN LETTER TO LALIT KALA AKADEMI Message-ID: "Dear Shri Ghosh, Thanks for your visit to Lalit Kala Akademi and submission of your project. We understand that you need some electronic equipments for your project "Was this Atlas?" We regret to inform you that the akademi has no process of providing electronic equipments for the participants of the exhibition. However, your request for 15 ft. wide painted wall could be made available. As you know that the Akademi has to provide space to almost 60 Indian artists it would be difficult to provide absolute dark area for the projection. However, efforts could be made as far as possible to suit to your project. D.K. Banerjee " Dear Mr Bannerjee, Thank you for your reply, text of which is given above. I am disappointed to know that the Lalit Kala Akademi has, as part of its International exposition decided not to support video based installations or other technologically mediated works by denying facilities for projection and not providing the required i.e. darkened spaces for it. More than the mere fact that video based works are formats that many contemporary artists have incorporated into their language of expression, almost all international exhibitions, similar to the Triennale, showcase video based works as a matter of regular practice.This arbitrary and discriminatory practice in the Indian section towards a certain art form brings to the fore more important questions primarily that of curatorial direction and organisation of the triennale, by the Lalit Kala Akademi, which in the interest of the contemporary art practice in India needs to be urgently addressed. Artistic practice in the fragmented post modern world today, is visibly plural. The continuous overlap of categories has made the theoretical discourse all the more interesting. It has enabled the artistic gaze to envisage a panorama that encapsulates a wide range of expression. History is evidence that greater freedom of expression leads to flourishing of artistic expression, but as we see today it is not an easy path and one has to struggle to achieve it. Such a plurality in the discourse has also enabled the artist to democratize his/her practice. One of the fallout of this overlap is that, media like that of cinema and television, that were generally developed for dissemination of information and public services came under the scrutiny of the creative eye. One such important juncture was the development of television within the social structure and its transformation into becoming a conduit and arbitrator of public opinion. Television not only brought the public voice into the private home of the individual, but at some points replaced it as well. This rupture of the private - public border was embedded with possibilities of artistic expression as it allowed the artist to traverse the hidden psychosis of society. The modern urban artist was quick to react to this possibility, more so because any artistic practice in order to retain its edge, has to be radical, which within the contemporary ethos would mean a continuous questioning of status quo and resist being incorporated into it by retaining the space for criticism directed inwards and outwards as well, otherwise artistic production remains nothing but another product for consumption in the market. One can also see a parallel here with the development of printmaking in the late 19th century and early part of 20th century. One could say that video art is a valid and dynamic response of the artist to the present. This brings us to the discriminatory attitude towards this practice within the portals of the Akademi and its general failure to respond to the voices of contemporary art. While outside its precincts video art seems to be practiced by many Indian artists and with some amount of success. The Triennale by failing to acknowledge it seems to be blind to what Indian contemporary art practice now accepts as a valid form. The failure to accommodate video art in the Indian section of the Triennale exposes several weaknesses in the ideological structure of the academy and its world view of contemporary Indian Art. One of the major fault lines lies at the core of the curatorial premises of the Triennale itself. For one the letter of invitation for the Triennale did not consist of any curatorial brief or concept note that would enable the invited artist to locate oneself. Either the Triennale is totally evacuated of the need to have such a conceptual foundation or the curatorial team, which incidentally remains hidden for mysterious reasons, is incapable of formulating any. Conceptually adrift the only primary international show of art, in India remains a vague amalgam of contradictions thereby generating poor response from other countries who find it hard to take this show seriously. Quantity cannot replace quality at any point of time. This opacity of practice by the Lalit Kala Akademi is not only anti-democratic but also opens up this public institution to manipulations and malpractice. While the Akademi was conceived as an institution primarily managed by the artists, for the artists, it seems to have been reduced to another government department, which in turn seems to project that the artists at the helm of affairs are incapable of imparting any radicalism to this institution or are merely regressive and conservative in their view points. Whatever the reason for this sorry state of affairs the loss is that of contemporary Indian art, because at the given juncture this Institution, funded by the tax payers money, does represent the majority of artists in India, who I am sure would like to see the Akademi be an active participant in giving a dynamic shape to contemporary art in India or has it become another Titanic? The Triennale as the Akademi's showcase exhibition in more than one way fails to meet the minimum requirements of International exhibitions and which is the reason it has deteriorated over time. The reason being, one by the absence of a curatorial premise as mentioned earlier, secondly by not responding openly to contemporary artistic practices by Indian artists. While other Biennales and International shows all over the world make it a point to have conceptual clarity and give adequate time for the invited artists to respond, the Akademi interestingly send its letter of invitation on 1st of November 2004 and wanted a response by 20th of November 2004. What was it doing for the last three years? Paucity of funding cannot atone for mismanagement, rather calls for better management. Given such a poor response of the Akademi to contemporary art practices it is time for Indian artists to take some action. Either this body has to be restructured or deemed redundant in order to save the tax payers money and reconstituted as a more federal structure. Maybe it is also a call to all artists interested in progressive aspect of artistic practice to shed the Akademi and form a network of independent platforms as an alternative. Subba Ghosh From sollybenj at yahoo.co.in Fri Jan 14 10:30:56 2005 From: sollybenj at yahoo.co.in (solomon benjamin) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 05:00:56 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] Is the City of Dreams Lost in the Emerging Urban? In-Reply-To: <1076.210.7.77.145.1105677764.squirrel@webmail.xtdnet.nl> Message-ID: <20050114050056.29999.qmail@web8401.mail.in.yahoo.com> Hi I find Zainabs posting very useful and suspect, cities are of dreams -- even of those who once settled in a city dream of elsewhere. I think that in potraying the "poor" as victims, we remove their space of dreaming. Is then a city, even in its 'non-normative' sense, a place where people dream, and if so, when we present a normative prescriptive approach: This is how cities should be ---- , via a Master Planned approach, via a Conservation program, via a "Movement empowerment" mode, do we then remove the ability of people deserving of this approach, an ablity to dream at their own terms? Three wonderful books, some mentioned earlier: Shantaram, Rachiere's The Philosophy and the Poor, and ____'s The only women detective agency (or something like that..). Each of these suggest the dreams of the ordinary into the extraordianry, and where dreams are set within the daily grind. When 'sqautters' get together to transform a street to a ritual of a loca shrine, in claiming space they too dream..Rachiere's book seems particulary useful in this regard.. as it poses in the artisan as the poet, artist and more... In a sense, there seems today, as reminded by Rachiere in the actions of our globally connected MNCs and Fergussions, Mc Kenzies, PWC, and also our own feternity of architect, urban designers, social activits, conservationistist, attemts to subvert these dreams, a passion for transformaing urban space for local ritual, for relationshops out of the ordinary and a new imagination. --- zainab at xtdnet.nl wrote: > Is the City of Dreams Lost in the Emerging Urban? > > I am @ Sarai.net. Last evening we were engaged in an > exercise on looking > at how to create categories. And of course, we > talked and exercised city! > As we were arranging categories, we had: > · Immigration > · Livelihood > · Migration > · Media > · Self > · Other > · Individual and Space > · Death > > And amidst all of this, we suddenly realized that > there were no dreams, > just economic categories for our cities. > > Let me get back to Bombay because that is my domain. > Bombay, also known as > Urbs Prima Indis. Bombay, the City of Dreams. Old > Bollywood films featured > the sea, the rocks, Nariman Point, VT Station and > each of these spaces had > symbolic meanings. The individual comes from a small > town or village to > realize his dream in the city. I remember Raj > Kapoor’s films – Awara, Boot > Polish, etc. Bombay, the land of glamour and evil > designs and political > games where the hero wins in the end! > > Bombay, as I have understood it in the past, has > been a city where class > has been about fluidity and mobility. Each one came > to the city with > dreams and the enterprising and street-smart made it > from rags to the > riches. And I believe a lot of us in the city > dreamt. But I wonder whether > we really dream today? > > The presence of the poor, the slums, the hawkers and > the pavement dwellers > represents the spirit of the city. Their presence is > indicative of > networks in the city, of relationships, of struggle, > survival, etc. in the > city. And I wonder where the city of dreams has > gone. It is not just the > poor who dream. It is us in the middle class who > dream as well. Khatta > Meetha is a film of that genre. I also wonder > whether dreams enable us to > truly love our cities as homes, as habitats? I don’t > know. > > My reference point to Bombay at this moment is the > Chief Minister’s Task > Force Report to ‘transform Mumbai into a world class > city’. And I believe > that it is not necessary that a beautiful city > (including flyovers, > multiplexes, malls, etc.) is the ultimate > culmination of dreams. If I > trace my own research, I realize that dreams are > made up with the > presences of all – the rich, the poor, the ugly, the > ragged, the > glamorous, the beautiful, et al. I did not study > Rawls’ Theory of Justice > for my political science examination because it was > too much to handle in > times of stress and pressure (and I could not > understand it either). I > don’t know Habermas, Gramsci or Marx for that > matter. I am a poor > theoretician on issues of rights, equality, liberty > and freedom. All I > know is that I am just an individual, a dweller of > the city. I am the > experiencer, the practitioner, the researcher, the > subject and the > dweller. As I live, I engage with my habitat and my > environment. Questions > circle my mind and hover around constantly: > > · What’s a city in the context of emerging urbanism? > · How do we move from where we are – neither romance > nor frustration are > of great help in moving forward concertedly? > · Whose dreams are being executed in the city? > · What is the space of the unorganized and the poor > in the city? Do we > simply relegate them to the margins or do we glorify > them (neither of > which helps I believe)? > · Who represents whom? Is publics homogenous? And if > not, what kinds of > spaces can exist and with what kinds of dynamics? > · What are the terms on which we can start > negotiating with groups around > us? And through what tactics, means and resources? > > I don’t have these answers. I am just looking and > watching. I have come to > realize that my community is with Arjun bhai, with > my neighbours Sonal and > Pankaj, with Shah Rukh, Santhya, Manoj Kumar. My > community is with the > people of The Everyday. Perhaps I shall get > somewhere, someday > > > > Zainab Bawa > Bombay > www.xanga.com/CityBytes > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > ===== Dr. Solomon Benjamin #32, 2nd. 'A' Cross, 10th. Main Koramangala, 4th. 'C' Block BANGALORE 560034 INDIA Phone: 91-80-2552-5485 ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony From uddipandutta at rediffmail.com Wed Jan 12 17:05:14 2005 From: uddipandutta at rediffmail.com (uddipan dutta) Date: 12 Jan 2005 11:35:14 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] abstract Message-ID: <20050112113514.6482.qmail@webmail18.rediffmail.com>   Abstract of proposal The Growth of Print Nationalism and Assamese Identity in Two Early Assamese Magazines By: Uddipan Dutta The words although seem innocent has strong associativeness to the growth of nationalism (and sub-nationalism) in many parts of the world. The variation and exclusiveness of words (language) has the potential to germinate a desire to imagine an exclusive geographical space by a mass of people. In fact, a language may have many ‘varieties’, usually called ‘dialects’ which are equally qualified to be termed ‘languages’. The advent of print has an important influence upon the arbitrariness of the concept of language as well as nation. Speakers of the huge varieties of a single language might find it difficult or even impossible to understand one another in conversation, became capable of comprehending one another via print and paper. Print has taken the role of selecting, codifying and finally making a particular variety the standard variety in many of the world’s languages, and thereby enabling the people to imagine to be the members of a particular speech community and later on to assert a common identity in a geographical space. The processes of standardization of language, growth of nationalism and the development of the print culture go in parallel and operate through a rather complex dynamics. This study is an attempt to deconstruct that complex dynamics in two of the earlier magazines of Assam in the colonial context of the province. The Arunondoi, the first Assamese magazine was an effort of the Baptist missionaries and in the common literary and historical discourse credited with revitalizing Assamese language which was almost at the verge of attrition due to the colonial policy of replacing Assamese with Bengali as a medium of instruction and language of the court. Jonaki, on the other hand was the journal brought out in Calcutta in the year 1889 by Axomia Bhaxa Unnati Xadhin Xobha (Association for the Development of the Assamese Language), the students’ body with an ideological slant for a linguistic nationalism. It is the endeavour undertaken by the native middle class grown up with English education. The embryonic form of sub-national identity founded in the pages Arunodoi gets matured in the pages of Jonaki. The study is an attempt to recount this journey from the unconscious to the conscious by reading through the pages of these two magazines. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050112/f7257472/attachment.html From tapio at translocal.net Fri Jan 14 17:36:27 2005 From: tapio at translocal.net (Tapio Makela) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 14:06:27 +0200 (EET) Subject: [Reader-list] Announcement: Pervasive & Locative Art Network, ICA, London In-Reply-To: <20050114110007.1669228E60C@mail.sarai.net> References: <20050114110007.1669228E60C@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <1105704387.41e7b5c39e611@www.mbar.fi> please circulate | apologies for cross postings PLAN - The Pervasive and Locative Arts Network ANNOUNCEMENT ------------ PLAN EVENT ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) London UK Tues 1st and Wed 2nd February 2005 10am-6pm (music 8pm-1am Tuesday) A two day event bringing together leading international figures to review the emerging fields of locative and pervasive media. Wireless and locative technologies are enabling people to break away from traditional computer interfaces. Mobile devices are mediating new kinds of social interaction and responding to physical location and context. What kinds of creative, social, economic and political expression become possible when every device we carry, the fabric of the urban environment and even the contours of the Earth become a digital canvas? The event launches a new international network (PLAN), bringing together artists, activists, hardware hackers, bloggers, game programmers, free network builders, semantic web philosophers, cartographers, economists, architects, and university and industry researchers. Speakers include Duncan Campbell, Anne Galloway, Matthew Chalmers, Matt Adams, Bill Gaver, Eyal Weizman, Katherine Moriwaki, Sally Jane Norman, Giles Lane, Usman Haque, Franz Wunschel and the Exyzt collective, Richard Hull, Jo Walsh, Schuyler Erle, Teri Rueb, Minna Tarkka, Tapio Makela, RIXC, Pete Gomes, Saul Albert, Susan Kennard, Michael Longford, Steve Benford, Drew Hemment, Ben Russell. [Full list of speakers below] Music in the bar from Xela (City Centre Offices, Type Records), XFM Flo-Motion DJ Nick Luscombe and Apachi61. PLAN is supported by EPSRC and led by Nottingham's Mixed Reality Lab, with partners including Futuresonic (UK), Banff (Canada) and M-cult (Finland). The event is open to the public. Event tickets are priced at £1.50 per day or £3 for two days to cover the ICA daily membership. Please book early to avoid disappointment. [See below for registration process.] ------------ REGISTRATION ------------ Registration is a two-step process: 1]. Book tickets via ICA Tickets, priced at 1.50 (GBP) per day, are available from: the ICA Box Office: 12 Midday - 9:30 pm Email: tickets at ica.org.uk Tel: +44 (0)207 930 3647 ICA Address - ICA. The Mall. London SW1Y 5AH ICA Website - http://www.ica.org.uk 2]. Provide contact details to lra at cs.nott.ac.uk as below If you would like to be included in the PLAN networking activities and delegate list, please send the following contact details to Linda Andrews, lra at cs.nott.ac.uk Name: Organisation: URL: Address: Email Address: Tel No: Areas of Interest: ------------ THE NETWORK ------------ The Pervasive and Locative Arts Network (PLAN) is a new international and interdisciplinary research network in pervasive media and locative media funded as part of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Culture & Creativity programme. The network will bring together practising artists, technology developers and ethnographers with the aim of advancing interdisciplinary understanding and building consortia for future collaborative projects. It will be of relevance to people working in the arts, games, education, tourism, heritage, science and engineering. You are invited to attend an initial two day workshop that will launch the network, review the state of the art, bring key players together, and make initial contacts. The event will also aim to identify a range of specific interests that can lead to the formation of sub-groups within the network. PLAN website: http://www.open-plan.org ------------ EVENT PROGRAMME - SPEAKERS ------------ DAY ONE February 1st 2005 ICA London 9:30am registration 10am start Matthew Chalmers - Glasgow University http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~matthew/ Bill Gaver - RCA http://www.rca.ac.uk/pages/research/dr_william_gaver_609.html Eyal Weizman - Architect www.cabinetmagazine.org/events/weizman.php Sally Jane Norman - Culture Lab, University of Newcastle http://kvc.minbuza.nl/uk/archive/commentary/norman.html Cliff Randell - Computer Science Department, University of Bristol http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~cliff Wilfried Hou Je Bek - Socialfiction http://socialfiction.org Giles Lane - Proboscis http://proboscis.org.uk Matt Adams - Blast Theory http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/ Usman Haque - Bartlett School of architecture http://www.haque.co.uk Franz Wunschel - Exyzt Collective http://www.exyzt.org Richard Hull - Hewlett-Packard Laboratories http://www.mobilebristol.com Constance Fleuriot - Bristol University http://mobilebristol.com Jon Dovey - Bristol University http://www.republicof.net Debbi Lander - Futurephysical http://futurephysical.org Giulio Jacucci - Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT) Advanced Research Unit (ARU) http://www.hiit.fi Annika Waern - Swedish Institute of Computer Science http://www.sics.se/~annika/ RIXC http://rixc.lv/ Pete Gomes - Architectural Association http://www.mutantfilm.com Saul Albert - Twenteenthcentury, Limehouse Townhall http://twenteenthcentury.com/cv.php?mem_id=1 Susan Kennard - Banff http://www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/ Michael Longford - Mobile Digital Commons Network Tobias C. Van Veen - Mobile Digital Commons Network Naomi Spellman - UC San Diego http://34n118w.net/ Brett Stalbaum - UC San Diego http://visarts.ucsd.edu/faculty/bstalbau.htm Minna Tarkka - M-cult http://www.m-cult.org/ Tapio Makela - M-cult http://www.m-cult.org/ ------------ MUSIC PROGRAMME February 1st 2005 ICA London 8pm-1am Xela (City Centre Offices, Type Records) XFM Flo-Motion DJ Nick Luscombe Apachi61 In association with Baked Goods and Futuresonic http://www.baked-goods.com http://www.futuresonic.com ------------ DAY TWO February 2nd 2005 ICA London 9:30am registration 10am start Duncan Campbell - IPTV, The Guardian http://duncan.gn.apc.org Anne Galloway - Carleton University http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org Katherine Moriwaki - Trinity College Dublin http://www.kakirine.com Jo Walsh - Co-author 'Mapping Hacks' http://space.frot.org/ Schuyler Erle - Nocat, Co-author 'Mapping Hacks' http://nocat.net/ Teri Rueb - RISD http://www.terirueb.net Erich Charles Harris - Interact Lab, Informatics, University of Sussex http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/interact/ Lalya Gaye - Future Applications Lab, Viktoria Institute http://www.viktoria.se/lalya Martin Rieser - Bath, BFI http://mobileaudience.blogspot.com Ewen Chardonnet - Ellipse http://e-ngo.org Sarah Kettley - Napier University http://www.eca.ac.uk/tacitus/SarahKettley.htm Andrew Wilson - Blink Media http://fisharepeopletoo.blogs.com/1/2004/09/city_chromosome.html Karl-Petter Akesson - SICS http://www.sics.se Jen Southern - University of Huddersfield http://www.theportable.tv Russell Beale - Advanced Interaction Group, School of Computer Science University of Birmingham http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~rxb/ Steve Benford - MRL Mixed Reality Lab http://www.mrl.nott.ac.uk Drew Hemment - Futuresonic, University of Salford http://www.futuresonic.com/ Ben Russell - Headmap / Locative http://headmap.org ------------ Full details of the PLAN ICA workshop, and updates to the programme can be found on the PLAN website http://www.open-plan.org ------------ From srlclark at LIVERPOOL.AC.UK Sat Jan 15 01:41:42 2005 From: srlclark at LIVERPOOL.AC.UK (Stephen Clark) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 21:11:42 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] CONF: Fairness: Its Role in Our Lives Message-ID: ----- Forwarded message from Bertold Bernreuter ----- Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:36:42 +0100 From: Bertold Bernreuter Reply-To: Bertold Bernreuter Subject: InterPhil: CONF: Fairness: Its Role in Our Lives To: InterPhil Conference Announcement "Fairness: Its Role in Our Lives" A Social Research Conference New School for Social Research New York, NY (USA) 14-15 April 2005 Fairness is a central motivating force in our private and public lives. Who gets what, how is it distributed, and how do we feel about that parceling out of power, resources, access, even attention? When allocation and distribution lead to indignation, the results can be explosive: witness the civil rights movement in the United States or, earlier, the Revolutionary War; the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa; the experiment of the Soviet Union. Current examples abound, from the struggle for a Palestinian state to questions of how to handle taxation, health insurance, and social security in the USA. Equality, justice, and social change all have their roots in our perceptions of fairness, and the very ability to perceive fairness is itself rooted in the behavior of our animal ancestors. It arises early in childhood, when it is echoed in the familiar cry of “That’s not fair.” Understanding what drives those perceptions, and examining how issues of fairness have played out through history, is key to effecting lasting change. This conference brings scientists, policy makers, historians, philosophers, and economists together in a public forum, to explore research on perceptions of fairness and consider historical case studies in the context of that science. Our shared purpose is to move toward informed solutions to some of the serious social problems that now confront us. Contact: Tanya Suphatranand Conference Coordinator Social Research 65 Fifth Ave. Room 375 New York, NY 10003 USA Phone: +1-212-2292488 Fax: +1-212-2295476 Email: socres at newschool.edu Website: http://www.socres.org/fairness/ _________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org/ Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://agd.polylog.org/cal/ - ----- End forwarded message ----- - -- Stephen Clark Dept of Philosophy University of Liverpool Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html. Prolonged discussions should be moved to chora: enrol via http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/chora.html. Other philosophical resources on the Web can be found at http://www.liv.ac.uk/pal. From zainab at xtdnet.nl Sat Jan 15 12:25:12 2005 From: zainab at xtdnet.nl (zainab at xtdnet.nl) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 07:55:12 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] Is the City of Dreams Lost in the Emerging Urban? In-Reply-To: <20050114110814.23424.qmail@webmail31.rediffmail.com> References: <20050114110814.23424.qmail@webmail31.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <1627.210.7.77.145.1105772112.squirrel@webmail.xtdnet.nl> Dear Sabith, Deb and Solly, (postings from both the lists) Thank you for the responses to (should I say 'my' or 'our') posting on 'Is the city of dreams lost in the emerging urban'. I have a couple of questions before I respond to the thread of discussion: 1). Whose dreams is the city made up of? 2). What makes a city 'a city of dreams'? I am curiously wondering what makes Bombay a city of dreams. Would I be able to say the same if I was in Bangalore? or Delhi for that matter? or even Kolkatta? I don't know and maybe people from these cities could respond. I think these days of what really is a city. I am also thinking about my own research on Bombay and public spaces. Do dreams enable the creation of publics and of spaces (both physical and abstract in the sense of community)? Do they enable us to participate and enter certain realms? What is the role of the media in furthering the city of dreams? In this context, I think of the influence of Bpmbay Times and what is metaphorically known as Page 3! Glamour, lifestyle, bollywood, fame, influence, power, connections, high-society are some of the dreams generated. What is powerfully generated and perpetuated by the Bombay Times is the dream of a certain lifestyle. On another level, you have the idea of the 'beautiful city', a dream which developers, planners, MNCs and the government is selling to us. And it is at this moment, I wonder about individual dreams? What is their place and space? I think of old Hindi films and the films of the 70's and 80's which presented ideas of diverse dreams including those of coming to the city and make it big in the film industry. Shantaram is a beautiful book on this notion of dreams, people, the poor and relationships. I think whether we are glorifying the poor by talking about dreams which emanate from the footpaths, pavements and the slums. What about dreams of the middle class? Dreams of workers in the BPOs? What kinds of transformations have taken place in these very dreams. Deb, I definitely agree with you that the poor may have the agency to dream but what about the capacity? Therefore I do not wish to romanticize about the poor. Sabith I personally feel that cities are also about spiritual growth and often, the people I encounter have enormous wisom about life to give to me. I see my own research as a spiritual journey, but that is me and it holds real and true for me. For now this much, but thank you all for your responses and hope we can continue talking along this issue. It would personally enable me to imagine about what kinds of publics and spaces could be potentially possible rather than just superficial community participation. Cheers, Zainab Zainab Bawa Bombay www.xanga.com/CityBytes From infochangeindia at dishnetdsl.net Sat Jan 15 13:22:02 2005 From: infochangeindia at dishnetdsl.net (Infochange India) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 13:22:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Quick updates on the impact of the Asian tsunami Message-ID: <0IAC00CCGLUTWN@smtp4.vsnl.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050115/a6132f42/attachment.html From tapio at translocal.net Sat Jan 15 19:22:12 2005 From: tapio at translocal.net (Tapio Makela) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 15:52:12 +0200 (EET) Subject: [Reader-list] RAM7 Workshop on Collaboration (deadline now but negotiate?) In-Reply-To: <20050115100656.8155928E69F@mail.sarai.net> References: <20050115100656.8155928E69F@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <1105797132.41e9200cb50d1@www.mbar.fi> You still may take part in [RAM] 7:Models of Collaboration in Minsk ! Call for participation: RAM7 - Models of Collaboration deadline 15 January 2005 hosted by Minsk Centre for Innovative Practice in collaboration with CRAC and RAM-Network RAM7 - Models of Collaboration will take place in Minsk 5-9 March 2005. Minsk, where is it? Why in Minsk? Belarus exists in the state of permanent isolation, but whether isolation in the world of network technologies is possible? RAM7 will play a role of temporary multi-disciplinary platform where local and global, hidden and evident, main stream and marginal aspects of New Media culture will meet. The aim of this workshop is to stimulate the process of active learning, exchange of ideas, information and energy between «hidden place» and Network Universe. The starting points are: to provide an opportunity for independent researchers and practitioners to explore current local problems, and initiatives; to learn the international experience for modifying existing situation by analyzing different models of multidiciplinary collaboration. The workshop will focus on studying examples of collaboration models, and will pay more intensive attention on topics related to network based/self-organized educational attempts and art & science collaboration. During RAM7 workshop we plan to test and use mobile phone technologies, internet-works and more. Presentations and theory lectures will be open for public. A program of tutorials will cover topics: working group for Anti-University development (self-organized educational attempts); working group for investigation of art&science collaboration; working group, focusing on experiments in collective authorship. We have already received the wide international response, but we stil need your help and participation. We are looking for internationally recognized experienced experts willing to share experiences in the next themes: • Anti-Universities. Self-organized Educational Attempts • Art and Science. Organizations, projects, strategies. • Open source, Social Networking Software • Theory of collaboration • Collective authorship- interactive art forms that focus on relationships between participants. Payment for travel and accommodation for participants from Russia, Ukraine and Sweden is possible. [RAM]7 site: http://ram7.art375.org [RAM]7 Office in Minsk Progressivnaja srt.8, r.13 Tel/fax: +375 17 234 94 76 working hours: Tuesday, Thursday from 11.00 a m to 18.00 pm Please email to minskram at f-m.fm Nils Claesson Tatiana Tushina Denis Romanovski Dmitri Plax -- RAM7 minskram at f-m.fm From ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com Sat Jan 15 21:03:04 2005 From: ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com (ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 20:33:04 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Omarska: The afterlife of a death camp Message-ID: <15c2cec15c13d8.15c13d815c2cec@vsnl.net> In early December 2004, it came to the attention of the public that the steel magnate Laxmi Mittal, Britain's wealthiest resident, had a controlling share in a former iron ore mine owned by a public sector company of the Republika Srpska. The site of this mine is Omarska, that was revealed, back in August 1992, to be a detention center operated by Serbian forces to incarcerate, torture, rape and kill Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the war that tore Yugoslavia apart. Many have used the term "concentration camp" to describe Omarska during the period when it functioned as a key locus of ethnic cleansing activities carried out by Serbs against their then-countrymen. Bosnian survivors' groups as well as government agencies appealed to Mr. Mittal, who has bought and converted industrial facilities all over eastern Europe and countries that were once a part of the Soviet Union, to make a memorial at Omarska. This put Mr. Mittal in the awkward position of antagonizing Bosnian Serb authorities, who have every interest in the economic regeneration of their ravaged region, but no stake whatsoever in memorializing the terrible violence against other communities committed on their territory. Moreover, mass graves have already been discovered in the neighborhood of Omarska, and there is a genuine possibility of yet more evidence of large-scale murder turning up in the area before it can become functional once again as a mine. Not even the world's single largest steel manufacturer can afford to build his next mining complex over dead bodies. Claude Lanzmann's excruciating 9-1/2-hour documentary, "Shoah" (1985), is shot for the most part in Treblinka, Chelmno, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor, and other such places in Poland where the Nazis once ran their concentration camps, killing millions of Jews during the Second World War. However, Lanzmann does not use archival footage, nor does he attempt a reconstruction of the camps, either at their original locations, or in specially created film-sets. Instead, he returns to these sites as they are -- their ovens, changing rooms, gas chambers, quarters and crematoria mostly over-run with vegetation, mute, snow- covered in the winter and green in the summer, uninhabited and apparently untended, marked by atrocity in a way that simply cannot be undone. "Shoah" took over 10 years to make. Again and again, at different times of the year, in the heat and in the cold, the film-maker went back to the same meadows, fields, streams, railway-stations, forests and graveyards, the leafy country-roads, the paths in the mud going nowhere. In this misleading serenity, unused and undisturbed since the 1940s stand the barracks, gateways, fences and buildings whose purpose defies comprehension. Victims, bystanders and perpetrators, interviewed by Lanzmann over 350 hours, all use words like "unthinkable", "unbelievable", "impossible" and "incomprehensible" to recount what they experienced. We understand that no gloss is possible for what happened to Europe's Jews in the Nazi camps, nor can these physical spaces ever be restored to any kind of normalcy. Too many suffered, too many died, the pain has spilt out of the realm of human relations into nature: the very landscape is utterly tainted. Bodies under the earth. Blood in the soil. Ashes in the air. Gates to a living hell, execution walls, chimneys coated with burnt flesh. Train-tracks that transported thousands of cattle-cars of the unsuspecting living to their unimaginably gruesome death. The testimony of survivors from the towns and villages all around, as they remember huge fires, horrible stench, unbearable screams, a calamitous violence whose physicality once witnessed can never be forgotten. The heart shudders for modern-day Poles, left with a country scarred by these material remainders of irredeemable evil. Can there be an architecture sadder than that of Auschwitz? What can anyone do with such a place? It cannot be covered over and it cannot be recovered. Perhaps Mr. Mittal should watch Lanzmann's film before he hastens to erase Omarska's recent past with his latest venture. Alas for Bosnia, which experienced its own Holocaust not so long ago. If going to Omarksa as it is today fails to move him, Mr. Mittal ought to watch the British TV channel ITN's 1992 footage of the camp while it was still operational, with human beings forcibly kept inside it. He must see those scenes of silence, fear, lying, cruelty, deprivation, impending doom -- all plainly visible through television cameras without a single word spoken. He should look carefully at the blue uniforms of the inmates, the rows of shoes in the sheds, the scarce food in the mess, the barbed wire outside, the eyes of men whose world has been irrevocably violated. If he cannot use his billions to finance a museum or a memorial of some other kind -- an installation, a sculpture, a structure -- on site, then at the very least he ought to leave what used to be the camp alone, let is speak for itself, be its own testimonial against genocide. There are mines enough in the world, and plenty of other ways for a devastated region to rebuild its economy than the inauspicious, unseemly and ultimately immoral attempt to salvage a death camp for industrial activity. (For a detailed report on Mr. Mittal's investment in Omarska, see the Guardian story at, among many other sites: http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=1976). Ananya Vajpeyi, Ph.D. Center for the Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University JNU New Campus New Delhi 1l0067 INDIA. E: ananyavajpeyi at vsnl.com From mail at crimsonfeet.org Sun Jan 16 07:50:27 2005 From: mail at crimsonfeet.org (Prayas Abhinav) Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 07:50:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] publicity, promises and the public space - aproach Message-ID: <41E9CF6B.4050100@crimsonfeet.org> Project: “Publicity, Promises and The Public Space” Time frame: January – May ‘05 * Summary: To conduct research into the practices of public communication – commercial as well as personal in the city and thereby document the broken links between the 'promises and commitments' made and the ones delivered. This could go on to suggest reasons why and how dreams, desires, needs of citizens become habituated to remain unfulfilled. This would also explain how these dreams, desires and needs increasingly defined in terms of space & freedom. And how the pressure of existence (which exhibits in the working and personal lives) manifests. * Link: http://www.prayasabhinav.net/section19.html * Blog Link: http://www.prayasabhinav/blog/ ----------------------------------------->> Approach: Work Plan - ** Stage One: (two months) - Identify and document the practices of public and private “public communications”. - Locate the instruments of these communications to be documented. - Explore & document the events and acts which these communications inspire and instigate. Identify the promises and the projected motivations which are inherent in these communications. - Define & document concrete needs of people which get converted into consumer needs and consumers get trained to remain unfulfilled. - Prepare surveys, questionnaires and formats of interviews focused on personal space, and understand external efforts to reach this space and remain there. - Put together reference/research material – literary, visual and archival, necessary for the research. ** Stage Two (three months): - Begin the process of documentation on text, photo and video. - Review existing literature on the interface between private, common and public space; respective encroachments & encounters. ** Stage Three (one month): - Complete my documentation, with a detailed index and annotation. - Start presenting my work (text, photo and video) in the fora Sarai offers as well as others which are relevant and have a similar focus. - I will also attempt to document the discussion or debate which begins due to such presentations. ** Tools - - Video and still photography - Text - Interviews, surveys - Media archives (for archives of Indian print & outdoor advertisements) ----------------------------------------->> ** Stage - Currently (Jan 15 ’05) in the stage one am identifying archives which I can access, formulating surveys & questionnaires and am beginning to plan the documentation on video, photo and text. Am conceptualizing the structure of the supporting quantitative data that I would need. * The video / slide-show: The script for the video is as such still vague. I Ahmedabad we all the hoardings / billboards on the streets are covered with white sheets in some apparent tax violation. This has resulted in a sight quite rare – prime streets lined with white banners. I have started shooting this and will be documenting it at greater length. These photographs and video clippings make the fantasy of a non-violent city-street with sales-pitches not jumping at you seem imaginable for a moment. If these photos were attempting to document the mind of the public-city - the lines, “And in the beginning was silence…” seem to suggest themselves. * Some of these photographs are available at: http://www.prayasabhinav.net/section21.html ----------------------------------------->> ** Threads (some rough notes): The promise of democracy :: liberty-fraternity-equality, fundamental duties, fundamental rights, access, security… The promise of the city :: opportunities, a personal space in the impersonal jungle, a satisfying temporary ownership, you own what you can afford, you keep what you can afford, you are what you can afford, a life of all qualities to fit all budgets, democratic helplessness, a self-centred and selfish reality, I’m ok - you’re ok, mob, facelessness… The promise of development: … The promise of the market :: ‘anyone can have anything s/he needs’ (as long as s/he can pay for it), there is enough supply; now demand, theory of the best, the valuation of time-objects-resources-knowledge in standardized absolute terms… The promise of (and to) hyper-professionals :: ‘a period of working beyond one’s capability and wish will yield a situation in which one needn’t work at all’; the present is for the sake of the future, the space unavailable can be achieved be vertical elevation, ‘the air at the top is much finer’. Frameworks of negotiations for space :: respect – for privacy, for age, for family/children, for women; legal, hereditary, moral, community and commercial right… The definitions of private space by the social, cultural and political context. If Banks are regulated / Parties, restaurants are regulated, concerts are regulated; why are publicists, publicity, advertising not regulated ? Being subjected to overt and consuming forms of advertising / publicity is the punishment we have to suffer through to be part of a capitalist society where things are cheaper and more in demand than they have to be. The affluent have to be constantly publicized to be having a good time to give an incentive to the mediocre to excel themselves at their own cost and rise higher. ** Keywords identified: cynicism, brand, ambassadors, bribe, evangelist * Words / Terms defined in context: Right to horizon – Literally, with the high-rises and imposing hoardings constantly making sales-pitches knitting brand names and slogans into our minds, do we have a horizon through which we can look freely and seek the distance. Anymore ? With the horizon posing as a tourist device, as a privilege which can be enjoyed from penthouses, farmhouses and hotels; does terming it as a right seem extravagant ? Unfortunately so. Potential space – The space potentially available to develop one’s potential. A space which is uncluttered by persuasions and unwelcome liaisons with our psyche. Not cluttered by dreams strewn about as if in a minefield. Cynicism – The phase after the constant disillusionment, arising out of unfulfilled promises. A phase which leads one to feel convinced about the shallow and false nature of promises. Delicate, sublime and emotional matters are dismissed instantly as false. Brand – a uniform and attractive range of promises. A power to empower the consumer with dreams and to appear to fulfil them. Ambassador – an intermediary who negotiates between the constraints and limitations of selling and the hesitations of buying by his/her own charm, celebrity and brand. Bribe – a compensation to the consumer in terms of a reference from celebrity, cheap price, enticement, contests etc. Evangelist – the person who plays the role of convincing people about the difference in the quality of needs, creating the higher and more specific need – which his product can fulfil. Prescribing – generally on moral, ethical and social grounds. ----------------------------------------->> ** Needs – - Volunteers willing to be subjects of this research. Willing to answer questions, give comments, record data for this research. - Readers who can point out / suggest books, websites etc. which are helpful for the purpose. ----- All comments, suggestions are welcome .... with regards, Prayas Abhinav ----- From kranenbu at xs4all.nl Sat Jan 15 22:32:59 2005 From: kranenbu at xs4all.nl (Rob van Kranenburg) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 18:02:59 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] on scarcity Message-ID: at the conference McKenzie Wark explored the notion of scarcity, I wrote this for Janus. It might not be a brand new start (as Paul Weller sings), but it may be a beginning: New beginnings begin by ways of teaching. And on scarcity, sketchingly. In the philosophy of Aristoteles there were three domains of knowledge with three corresponding states of knowing that were deigned equally important; Theoria, Techné and Praxis. Theoria with its domain of knowledge epistéme, was for the Greek gods, mortals could never reach this state of knowing. But they could try to strive for it. In Theoria and epistéme we immediately recognize our concepts of theory and epistemology. In Techné with its domain of knowledge poèsis we can retrieve the concepts technology and poetry. Related, for example, as follows: the poetics of Aristotle can be seen as a catalogue of literary techniques. The original meaning of the word 'technology' was concerned with know-how or method, and it was only with the Great Exhibition of 1851 that the word became associated with machines. It is therefore all the more interesting that the domain of knowledge which belonged to Praxis: phronesis has dropped out completely, not only in our language but also in our thought and ways of thinking. Phronesis, that knowledge that any one of us uses daily in the practice of living his everyday existence, is no longer recognized as an important domain of knowledge with a modern linguistic equivalent. It took me five years to figure out, to grasp, - understand - let me use the word resonate - these lines of Heraclite: and I rephrase them in my own lines - "of all that which is dispersed haphazardly, the order is most beautiful." In the Fragments you read that these lines are incomprehensible as far as the Heraclite scholars are concerned. They can not link it as a line of verse with other words in other lines in verse. I read it and in reading I knew it to be true. Knowing that only as experience is not very productive in a society that has no non-iconic medium for transmitting these kinds of experiences. In order to make this experience productive; read: make it politically viable and socially constructive - in order to find ways of transmitting, ways of teaching experiences like this - we textualise them. We find analogies, we read initial lines as metaphor, as metonomy. I went for a walk one day in the woods near F., in the Belgian Ardennes. A beautiful walk it was, steep down, hued autumn colours, leaves fading into black. In the quiet meadow that we passed I saw autumn leaves, small twigs, pebbles sometimes - hurdled into the most beautiful of patterns by the strenght of water moving. I looked hard realizing there was indeed no other way of arranging them. I recognized leaves as data. I recognized data as data. And I recognized the inability to find a way to come to terms with Heraclite's line without walking, without taking a stroll in the woods and look around you, look around you and find the strenght of streams arranging. The ability to read data as data is what makes new beginnings. Reflect a while on what you bumped into, run up against, hit when you did not look. Anyone can tell you when a volcano erupts. No one can tell you when it becomes active. Bernard Chouet, a physicist, shut himself up in his study five years ago. With thousands of prints. Thousands of charts. And where no one else saw any data, he saw a deep regularity in certain lines that no one had seen all those years. He saw data where others saw noise. All I have to do now is the following. I can not quite put it into adequate terms and I therefore hesitate. I do check my lines regularly for lines that make no sense even in those regions where we need to make no sense for a while in the registers that do make sense so. It has to do with my ability to visualise a setting in which people resonate with media through simulating processes. Simulating processes that are actual processes, for in a digitised real, any process might become experiential, might resonate. Let us stand still for a while. Reflect on standing still. Just be still. And jump about, maybe?: "A person who weighs 65 kilos, standing still, exerts a pressure of 650 Newtons on the floor. If he jumps up and down on both feet this pressure is multiplied by seven. Fifty people jumping at the same time would produce 23 tonnes of pressure, equal to 33 cars stacked on top of each other : With every drum beat, these tonnes of pressure pile-drive into the ground at the resonant frequency. Seeing, hearing or feeling even the slightest response from the structure initiates a feedback loop between the building and its occupants which increases the feeling of communal action. The amount of force required to cause a full structural collapse is between ten to one hundred times greater than that needed to see the first surface cracking. These warning signs are sufficient for our purposes since they force the authorities to close down the structure. Used in this way the tactic should pose no danger to anyone." That is tactic and strategy in one move, oh, and a simple one at that. We stand. Jump. We become komuso: The komuso, a wandering priest, plays a central part in the history of Japanese Shakuhachi music. From behind their wicker visors these basket-hatted men have "viewed the flow of Japanese life from the seventeenth century to the present", as Charles P. Malm writes. The ranks of the komuso were filled with ronin: masterless samurai. In Kyoto a group of komuso called themselves the Fukeshu. The Buddhist shogun government, which had smashed all Christian inspired opposition after the battle of Shimabara, was very suspicious of any form of organisation that contained these samurai whose allegiance was doubtful. The Fukeshu secretly purchased a building that belonged to one of the larger Buddhist temples. By faking a number of papers claiming their historical origins as coming from China via a priest named Chosan, the Fukeshu tried to secure their position. They also produced a copy of a license from the first Edo Shogun, Ieyasu, giving them the exclusive right to solicit alms by means of shakuhachi playing. When a samurai became ronin he could no longer wear his double sword. So these wandering priests redesigned the shakuhachi. The flute became a formidable club as well as a musical instrument. The Fukeshu asked for official recognition of their temple. The government demanded the official document. The Fukeshu claimed it was lost. The shogun granted their request on the condition that they act as spies for the government. The Fukeshu accepted. The Fukeshu played soft melodies and overheard intimate conversations. If we read these steps backwards there always seems to be one more mask, eine maske mehr. The final layer is nonexistent, the essence never material, the object ever empty. But in finding the story, and in telling, it we have learned. We have learned along the way. What kind of learning is that? Charles Selzer has investigated the role of the exploratory, non-task driven behaviour in learning. His findings indicate that many animals seem intuitively to engage in environmental investigation "without any specific motivation and that their familiarity with a general terrain assists them in solving problems that arise later, such as escaping from predators." According to Selzer, when people investigate the resources available through the Internet, "they engage in many of the same processes that animals engage in when they explore their environment. I argue that exploring the Internet is a learning experience that helps satisfy the desire for explorationŠ Learning is an inherent by-product of sensory processing and (Š) appears to be a by-product of Internet exploration." Learning is a byproduct of standing about. In walking we are the seismographs of everyday life. I went for a walk one day in the woods near Felenne, in the Belgian Ardennes, and recognized data as data, the very beginning of any educational process: deciding what is data and what is not. As data form the key to information and information informs the process of creating intersubjective knowledge communities, it is vital that the tactics and strategies for laying bare the decisions data/not data are at the forefront of educational issues today. The role of the teacher is to lay bare the code that decides what is data and what is not data. For that both teacher and pupil have to move about, walk. Ok. So these are stories and you're telling me it is theory, right? Yes. So, where do I start? You can start by making things scarce. Why? We are moving rapidly towards a hybrid reality, where analogue and digital connectivity will be fighting for the ability to make sense, to make meaning. Pervasive, ubiquitous, pro-active, disappearing computing will foster a renewed animism, where things are coming alive with functionality, connectivity and consequently meaning. When things start talking to each other through Radio Frequency Tags, Bluetooth or smart dust sensors, we can only hope to speak to them. And for that we need procedures of translation. For these procedures we need concepts and models. Ours are formed in a realm of the analogue which is fuelled by the dominance of the scarce over the ubiquitous, the few over the many, the one over the team, the original over the copy. In a digital realm there is no scarcity, we can always add a server, always add bit or two. We can always add data. Ok. But what is your point? I have always refused to have one, but I might have many. Here's one: We live in a world of data which is mistaken for information which is mistaken for knowledge. We negociated for centuries in this analogue world as to what counts as data and what not, what will become information, what will become knowledge, what is deemed worthy to be wisdom. The notions that have scripted this process are inclusion and exclusion. The design principle in this process is scarcity. What is scarce, is valued. So? So we must find a way to come to terms with a hybrid reality that no longer underlies our process of designing data and information into layers for policy and education. In this brief moment of transition (where we still have barcodes and not individual tags) we might try to script scarcity into the digital realm. Fix the pixels on our stylesheets. You add a paragraph? You take one off. But that's just buying time! Indeed, it is. It is, just buying time. For you know as well as I do that this convergence towards a technologically fuelled hybrid real will be matched with the convergence of race, colour and beliefs towards a creole real; a real in which we we all be wearing colours. In such a real we learn by walking. Can you envisage schools there? Teachers? Students? Blind in that world, all of us. Go on. Just move one foot, gently now, gently. Notes: In 'Mobile Vulgus' ("an attempt to reclaim the mobility of the crowd as a physical force for change"), Christian Nold talks about the "potential force a crowd of people hold when they act as a cohesive whole. Music is not dangerous, it's the people. Music can be as loud as you like, and OK you get blast effects but they can't be worse than explosions, and buildings are designed to withstand explosions. No, it's the actual effect that people would be able to cause." MOBILE VULGUS by Chrtian Nold is published by Book Works. 128 pages, printed offset, with an audio CD, 170 x 155mm, ISBN 1870699564, price 7.50 http://www.mobilevulgus.com/text.htm Selzer, C. P., 'The Use of Investigatory Responses as a Measure of Learning and Memory', in Forsythe C., Grose, E., Ratner, J., (eds.) Human Factors and Web Development New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998, p. 21. Malm, W. P. Japanese Music and Musical instruments Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland Vamont, Tokyo Japan, 1959, pp. 153-154. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050115/46c4db51/attachment.html From space4change at gmail.com Sun Jan 16 17:45:03 2005 From: space4change at gmail.com (SPACE) Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 17:45:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] PAN masala! Message-ID: <8c10798f0501160415bfd3974@mail.gmail.com> More on 49A and the sarkari monsters. serves them right, no? o o o o o o PAN counter at paan shop: Two arrested Express News Service http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=113925 New Delhi, January 13: When some people who needed PAN cards went to the paan shop at the income-tax office's canteen at IP Estate, they weren't there by mistake. The owner, Vinod Kumar, had allegedly promised them PAN numbers and cards. He was, the police said, helped by a freelance data entry operator, Amit Sangwan, at the I-T office. Both were arrested yesterday by the Crime Branch after I-T officials tipped them off. The cards were fake, made after tampering with the information of genuine account holders in the database, the police said. This has put a question mark over the security of the information of account holders in the I-T Department. Sangwan, the police alleged, had unlimited access to senior officials' access codes to the database. He is one of several freelance data entry operators working at the I-T Office in Central Revenue Building. These operators, the police say, are paid directly by the I-T officials. Sangwan had worked in different I-T departments for the past three years. DCP, Crime Branch, Tajendra Luthra said he was substituting the names in existing PAN accounts with the names of his 'clients'. Those who bought the cards were unaware that they were fake. Officials have detected 50 cases. ''Because these accounts had been altered in the database itself, it was difficult to detect the fraud,'' said Luthra. The police claim to have recovered from Vinod Kumar PAN forms, stamps and other documents. Income Tax officials, however, said genuine PAN account holders need not worry. ''The central database, which is accessible only to a select few top officials, and not at the regional level, remains unaffected. The scamsters were able to access only the regional database,'' said S S Khan, Director, I-T, Systems. He said it was his department which first detected the scam a week ago while comparing the two databases. ''The scamsters were misusing a facility in the database for altering names and addresses of PAN account holders and selecting accounts which had not been in use for some time. This facility has now been withdrawn,'' said Khan. He said cyber-security at the I-T Department was foolproof but the issue of private data entry operators accessing the database was beyond his purview. From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Mon Jan 17 11:13:03 2005 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 11:13:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <41EB5067.3000300@linux-delhi.org> Isaac D W Souweine wrote: > Pankaj: > > Just wanted to alert you that, unless you're going for a pun or unless > there is an alternate spelling used in British/Indian English, the > Nietzsche quote that you have appended to your email has something of a > critical misspelling: "heard" instead of "herd". It is herd. :) my bad. Pankaj. -- Morality is herd instinct in the individual. -- Nietzsche. From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Mon Jan 17 12:00:55 2005 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 12:00:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IBM frees 500 software patents In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <41EB5B9F.8030003@linux-delhi.org> Oli wrote: > Thank you Pankaj, > > yes, there's nothing wrong about your arguments. And it is possible that > my point is not interesting for you. But still: It is not that it does not interest me. It is that, I do not understand the point. > What if Open Source is a competitive advantage; the *better* capitalist > strategy? What of it then? > And yes: the basic idea of sharing the code is untouched. But as we > (those, who share the code) are not all in the same economic/social > situation (e.g. IBM and me), Open Source works as an amplifier of > already existing inequalities. You claim Open Source to be neutral to > its surroundings. And I think this focus is too small. Technology and > its policies always relate strongly on society and player in the society. Yes, I share code with IBM, IBM gets a competitive advantage against who? HP? maybe. HP starts using free software too. Who gets hurt? No one. The Software is in the public domain. IBM starts selling it for $5000. I can start packaging it on a cd and sell it for 50 bucks a piece or give away for free. Hell, I can visit door to door and install it for everyone who is interested for free. The code is available for everyone, why should IBM be excluded just because they have a lot of money? I give code for free, Should I expect IBM to start giving away supercomputers for free? Besides, no one is forcing anyone to give away their software for free. You are all invited to write your software under restrictive lie-senses. here[1] use this. > I do not think that isolating the GPL from society and economical > relations is a helpful step. The Public Domain is not a good concept, > when some are able to use it to improve their leadership, what we are > exactly facing with IBM. That's my simple point. Sharing between unequal > parties: thats what open source promotes, when being contextualized in > social and economical sourroundings. I do not think that shaving razors are helpful devices. A razor is not a good concept when some are able to use it to cut themselves, what we are exactly facing with suicidal people. Thats my simple point, Suicide: thats what Razors promote when being contextualized in depressed and young humans. Restriction of sharing between unequal parties will only promote inequality. will it not? no matter which context you contextualize it in. The socio-politico-choco-moco-extra-cheese jargon does not drive home any point. I am sorry. [1] http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/eula.mspx Pankaj -- Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't. From space4change at gmail.com Sun Jan 16 19:27:13 2005 From: space4change at gmail.com (SPACE) Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 19:27:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Microsoft attempts to rope in social scientists in India Message-ID: <8c10798f05011605577f987e76@mail.gmail.com> what do you make of this.... Microsoft attempts to rope in social scientists in India Company tries to understand situation in rural areas before creating technologies for them TODD BISHOP Posted online: Friday, January 14, 2005 at 0028 hours IST SEATTLE, JANUARY 13: Microsoft Corp's research unit is turning to social scientists in a new effort to understand the long-term possibilities for computer technology in developing countries. A new Microsoft Research lab, that was inaugurated on Wednesday in Bangalore, plans to employ anthropologists, ethnographers, political scientists and others to observe and document the lives of people in India's rural villages. Kentaro Toyama, a 35-year-old Microsoft computer-science researcher who will lead the lab's emerging markets group, has already begun trekking to distant outposts in India to begin the work. A primary aim of the new group is to help Microsoft understand the situation in rural villages before the company tries to create appropriate technologies for them — rather than first creating the technologies and then trying to find areas where they might apply. "If we want to approach that market, we have to rethink how we do computing — and what computing is," said Microsoft researcher P. Anandan, a native of Chennai, who has returned to the country from Redmond, to lead the company's Bangalore lab. "We don't know the final answers yet." Although social scientists aren't unprecedented at Microsoft Research, computer scientists are far more common. The company's 700-person research unit employs a sociologist in its Redmond lab, and it has begun hiring social scientists at its facility in Cambridge, England. But the focus in those situations is on areas such as online social networks and general communities of computer users. The work to be done by the India lab's emerging-markets group is also expected to help the company better understand similar situations in other developing nations around the world. In some ways, Microsoft is revisiting its original corporate motto — "a computer on every desk and in every home" — with the recognition that, in a global sense, the company isn't anywhere close to realizing that goal. "In fact, I would think we have to start somewhere else — like maybe a PC in every village," Microsoft's Toyama said. The new lab, Microsoft Research's sixth facility, was inaugurated on Wednesday. Microsoft is still working to finalize a lease for the lab in the city. The event was attended by dignitaries including Science and Technology minister Kapil Sibal, who signed a "memorandum of understanding" between the government and Microsoft Research India to partner in science and technology research projects. —NYT From space4change at gmail.com Mon Jan 17 13:53:15 2005 From: space4change at gmail.com (SPACE) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 13:53:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mediaah.com newsletter for Monday, January 17, 2005 In-Reply-To: <200501170435.j0H4Zxs31743@harry.flamingtext.com> References: <200501170435.j0H4Zxs31743@harry.flamingtext.com> Message-ID: <8c10798f0501170023261ceab0@mail.gmail.com> What a relief, Mediaah! is back. Atits peak the media-crit blog was getting as many as 10,000 hits a day. Hats off to Pradyuman Maheshwari! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: mail at mediaah.com Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 23:35:59 -0500 Subject: Mediaah.com newsletter for Monday, January 17, 2005 This is being sent on behalf of mail at mediaah.com as part of the mailing list that you joined. List: Mediaah URL: http://www.mediaah.com - ------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to Mediaah.com's newsletter for Monday, January 17, 2005 Mediaah.com: The Media's Media ** Unsubscribing advice at the end of this mail. Feedback may be addressed to: mail at mediaah.com. ** *** Headlines and perspectives for today, Monday, January 17, 2005 Battle for Business channels http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/battle-for-business-channels.html Monday Memo: Why is Mediaah! back? http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/monday-memo-why-is-mediaah-back.html May a thousand Guhas bloom! (including full text of Vineet Jain letter dated Dec 8) http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/may-thousand-guhas-bloom.html BCCI verdict in favour of Zee? http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/bcci-verdict-in-favour-of-zee.html Mediaah! Relaunch Blast http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/mediaah-relaunch-blast.html Mediaah! Movements http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/mediaah-movements.html Links of the Day http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/links-of-day.html Menu for tomorrow/day-after http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/tomorrow.html Mediaah! closed on R-Day http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/mediaah-closed-on-r-day.html *** Battle for Business channels No, we aren't going to repeat whatever Shuchi Bansal has already stated in her report in Business Standard. We'll reserve our verdict on NDTV Profit until we see enough of it, but, very briefly, we're going to be cautious in our welcoming of both channels. Let's examine the situation a little closely. CNBC-TV 18 is the market leader, but even though it takes pains to position itself as a business channel, it's better known for its stockmarket coverage. The channel has excellent reportage of corporate affairs, advertising and marketing and the personal finance industry, but it's the trading hour that has made it the channel of choice in the biz fraternity. For other coverage, parallels can be drawn to the status an Economic Times has with The Times of India. While the industry would like the biz dailies to cover its events for purposes of record, investors and its constituents, the glamour and reach of the general press is greater. That is the reason why even though CNBC existed, PR agents would still woo the general-interest channels because of their wider impact. In the case of the English channels, CNBC-TV18 scored highly in the ratings game – especially with highend consumers for the amount of time spent on the channel. These figures, tomtommed majorly by CEO Haresh Chawla and his folks, saw NDTV worried as not being the most popular and high profile English news channel wasn't enough. A specialised player was way ahead thanks to its programming mix during the day. NDTV was quick to add a business band through the stocktrading hour, but it wasn't easy to get viewers off the habit of watching the ticker on CNBC-TV18. The latter ironed out its various problems – like airing of the quotes during commercial breaks and ensuring that its editorial act is perfected and broadbased to including stuff like commodities. CNBC also realised that it needs to add on Hindi programming if it needs to target cowbelt viewers who aren't too comfy with English commentary and interviews that pepper its peakhour coverage. However, are there enough viewers for a standalone Hindi channel? Do conservative Hindi viewers prefer watching biz news in English as the better analysts – esp those with FIIs in Mumbai – will be more fluent in English than Hindi? As for NDTV Profit, we are sure it will give CNBC-TV18 a good run for its money, but with the business band going off, won't the numbers of the primary 24x7 channel suffer? Meanwhile, Zee Business is currently available on the DTH platform and has inconsequential reach. We don't think it's part of Pradeep Guha's mandate (since news will continue to be under biradar Laxmi Goel), but we hope that better foresight happens at the Zee HQ on what the channel should be. On Times of India's proposed business channel, given that the group has drained out much of its excess revenues earned from print on Zoom, Messrs Vineet Jain, Arun Arora & Co are now earnestly seeking a partner for the channel. We would think they should look at aligning with the existing players – CNBC-TV 18 or NDTV Profit --- as the combo of either and Eco Times will be unbeatable. See also: NDTV looks to Profit at CNBC TV18's expense, IndianTelevision http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k5/jan/jan132.htm *** Monday Memo: Why is Mediaah! back? A lot of people have been wondering why Mediaah! is back. And how is it that I've managed to do that. Well, because it needed to. Some even called to check if I had quit my job, and if all was ok. I said yes, tired of telling the nth person that there was no definite reason for reviving Mediaah. Hey guys, there's no hidden agenda. I don't have CIA funding, RAW hasn't asked me to do this job to taken on enemy nation. Nor has any industrial body intending to get into the media or an existing conglomerate like The Times of India or Hindustan Times asked me to do it. It's all clean and transparent. No strings attached. No conditions apply. It's just that I believed that the Indian media needed a neutral honest-to-god-and-everyone commentary that doesn't mind mincing words. Over the last year, I've been crazily busy with a new assignment that I had taken up. And I couldn't have done justice to both. That I took up the job was because I figured that there was no immediate sign of monies to be made from Mediaah! and there existed a challenge to turn around a brand that was down in the dumps. Also, I wasn't sure of how the site would be perceived once I was part of a media entity. For instance, if I were to write a negative about Newspaper X, could it be because it's a rival? So lemme give my reasons for reviving the site, in order that it lays to rest once and for all doubts about why Mediaah! is suddenly/ mysteriously/ curiously getting back. For one, I genuinely felt that it's important to have an independent commentator on the media. Unfortunately, despite being off the scene for nearly a year, no one got onto the act. Two, I've kind of settled down in my job, can easily devote a few of pre-dawn hours everyday that I would otherwise spend blogging and mindlessly going through the hundreds of mails I get on RSS reader inbox. Three, there is some money to be made if the site is managed well, and can continue to relive the role that it played last year (this one is a bit of a toughie, since I'm not going to be working 24x7 on Mediaah!) Four, since I have some rupees flowing in from the regular job, I can fund Mediaah! with some ease Five, it was majorly addictive. I was suffering from withdrawl symptoms ever since I shut shop. I still remember the day I heard about Pradeep Guha joining Zee… wanted to launch it with the dhamaka news the same day. Held back similarly several times over, but the urge to revive was major Six, the outpourings last year – from the various mails I received, the presence of senior and junior media professionals at my 'kill' party at the Mumbai Press Club, Shobhaa De's piece in Bombay Times and various other mentions in the media convinced me that there was genuine 'love' for the site. What was most touching was the mail and call I received from Meenakshi Madhvani when I shut the site and when I sent in the announcement last week. Meenakshi is known to be brutally honest with her views and can be pretty tough when it's needed. However, it was heartening to note that she was extremely forthcoming in her praise for the effort and felt that there is need for an independent voice even though she was at the "receiving end once". Okay, enough said. Monday Memo will happen every Monday, and will comment on everything under the sun. Please be kind to Mediaah! for the next week or two as we try and find our feet and rebuild contacts (in the last year, people have changed, offices have moved etc etc). Please don't expect immediate crackers from our end :-). Monday Memo is written by me, Pradyuman Maheshwari. The views expressed are my own and my employers, family and friends have nothing to do with it. Feel strongly about what's said (or unsaid)? Write to pm at mediaah.com or IM me at pradyumanm at hotmail.com *** May a thousand Guhas bloom! You must've read in exchange4media about the human chain that happened last Wednesday (Jan 12) at the Times of India building in Mumbai to bid farewell to Pradeep Guha. Virtually the entire Response team had gathered (including the guys from BBC who are part of the magazine jv). In the coming weeks, we may do a propah analysis of PG's stint at the Times, but before that, for the benefit of non-Times readers, here's the text of the mail that Vineet Jain, managing director of the Times group, sent to all staff. This is dated Dec 8, 2004, the day the news was formally transmitted to the world. Here goes: OFFICE ADVICE Mr. Pradeep Guha has been with us for 29 years. The Company during this period has grown from a production centric entity to a vibrant market driving conglomerate. Mr. Guha played a key role in this transition and built a strong Response team with excellent systems and professionalism. At a time when event marketing was unheard of, he put Femina beauty contest on the world map — producing not one, but four Miss Worlds and two Miss Universes in less than a decade. Filmfare Awards are a talk of an entire nation, widely acknowledged as the Oscars of Bollywood.. It is with a heavy heart that we bid goodbye to Mr. Pradeep Guha. I, on behalf of the entire Times family, take this opportunity to wish Mr. Guha the very best in his future endeavour. "Let a thousand flowers bloom," said Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung. I am confident that with the kind of legacy that Mr. Guha has left behind, it will only enable Response to let a thousand Guhas bloom. Mr. Guha is handing over charge to Mr. Bhaskar Das, who will have all-India responsibility for Response with immediate effect. Mr. Guha has agreed to stay for a few weeks to facilitate a smooth transition. Let's extend our support and best wishes to Mr. Das in his new assignment. (signature) Vineet Jain 8th December 2004 *** BCCI verdict in favour of Zee? This comes to us from the stockmarket grapevine. Since we don't hold any shares in Zee, and we aren't going to burn our fingers in any media stock in the immediate future, we don't mind sharing it with you. Apparently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India ruling on awarding the cricket coverage contract is likely to go to Zee. Or so believes a section of the investing community. We don't know if it's true. We aren't sure if it will happen. But, like cricket which is a game of glorious uncertainties, the business of covering cricket on TV is also full of ifs and buts. Kuch bhi ho sakta hai! *** Mediaah! Relaunch Blast Since we've been away for a year, starting tomorrow, we're going to give you extra special content on each day of the revival week. Here goes the menu: January 18: Koffee with Karan take-off. Rapid Fire on the Media January 19: The Worst of 2004 – Worst Newspaper, Worst Magazine, Worst News TV Channel, Worst Website, Worst SMS news provider, Worst News Media Brand of the Year (no 'worst' award for blogs) January 20: The Mediaah! Awards for 2004 – Best Newspaper, Best Magazine, Best News TV Channel, Best Website, Best SMS news provider, Best (Newsy) Blog January 21: Best News Media Brand of the Year 2004 and above all, Mediaahperson of the Year 2004. *** Mediaah! Movements If you know of people going places, please to let us know. Pl mention your contact numbers (mobile ideally) so that we can call and confirm the news with you. Just drop in a line, we will never ever reveal your identity. Sample of some of the kind of movements we we looking at: Narendra Kusnur, assistant editor at Mid Day and perhaps the best (and most prolific) music journalist in the country, is moving on to Warner Music. Not as its PR chief, but he will be doing what he enjoys most – tasting music and look at the repertoire the music company will offer in the country. Arunava Sinha is taking charge as exec producer at Indiatimes and his position of Editor of ET Online is going to be taken by Sanjay Sindhwani who was looking after the ET Brand. Vikas Singh is being tipped to take over as Editor (Chennai) of The Times of India. Get the picture? Pl sending news of movements to: movements at mediaah.com. *** Links of the Day Industry bids farewell to Andre Nair, IndianTelevision.com, Exchange4media http://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/headlines/y2k5/jan/janmam41.htm http://www.exchange4media.com/peoplemovement/movement_fullstory.asp?section_id=23&news_id=14727&tag=9 462&pict=1 Surya launches Kiran, Asianet also plans music channel, Exchange4media http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory.asp?section_id=6&news_id=14730&tag=9465&pict=4 Gill blames media for Rach's exit, Mid Day http://ww1.mid-day.com/sports/national/2005/january/101630.htm Pepsi puts off Beckham ad given tsunami, Agencyfaqs (Aditya Chatterjee) http://www.agencyfaqs.com/news/stories/2005/01/17/10645.html Health ministry showcause to ITC and Stardust on tobacco surrogate advtg,Exchange4media http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory.asp?section_id=1&news_id=14739&tag=9474&pict=13 *** Tomorrow: ** If the editor is away, who ought to step in? His/her deputy or the brand manager? A look at what happened at ET Delhi (plus Arun Arora's inter-office memo dated Dec 17) ** Guha's secretariat from Times set to join him at Zee Day-after: ** Wassup on the Tata-Times mutually inconvenient embargo? Plus: all the other news and analyses. And the juice that makes you love and hate Mediaah! *** Mediaah! closed on R-Day Like we would do in the past, we inform you in advance whenever we are going to take off so that you can plan your holiday accordingly. We'll be closed on Wednesday, January 26 as it's Republic Day. *** Links of newsletter sent on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Khush Khabari, khush khabari! http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/khush-khabari-khush-khabari.html Why is Mediaah! back? http://mediaah.blogspot.com/2005/01/why-is-mediaah-back.html ** Mediaah! is a personal and 'private viewing' website. Managed by Shivani Maheshwari. Founder-editor: Pradyuman Maheshwari. You can find us on the Web at http://mediaah.blogspot.com. The site is in Beta (test) mode. The Mediaah! newsletters are for private circulation only. Mediaah! supports RSS/XML syndication. Please refer to Mediaah.com (on the internet) for links. Details on Mediaah! and our code of ethics and advertising policy can be accessed from the right navigation bar of the site. If you have a (media) newsbreak or lead and would like Mediaah! to feature it or follow up , please email us at mail at mediaah.com or, better still, call/sms 9820076278 in Bombay. Comments on Mediaah! by the writer of the posts and the various people quoted are their personal views and not necessarily those of the companies they represent or work for. Rights of subscription reserved. copyright 2003-2102 Click to be removed: http://MessageBot.com/r.cgi?list=Mediaah - ------------------------------------------------------------ Powered by http://MessageBot.com/ Get Cool Images at http://www.flamingtext.com/mb.html From kalakamra at vsnl.net Mon Jan 17 15:38:45 2005 From: kalakamra at vsnl.net (kalakamra at vsnl.net) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:08:45 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Glow Positioning System Message-ID: <16aa36c16b008b.16b008b16aa36c@vsnl.net> Glow Positioning System, GPO/KabutarKhana CST, Mumbai. is up for one more day, Monday 17th January, 2005. 6:30- 10:30 pm Its truly worth the experience. Pl do come if you can take a train to CST. shaina anand GLOW POSITIONING SYSTEM by Ashok Sukumaran. At the G.P.O. / Kabutarkhana chowk , near CST, Fort, Mumbai. January 15th and 16th, 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Turn a crank. Light up your city. Participate in your own environment, in a surprising and poetic way. GPS at the GPO is a 1000-foot-long interactive light installation, which will transform an entire city chowk into a visual instrument. Lights can be "played" across the architecture, on the trees and across the roads, by literally anyone on the street by just turning a hand-crank. A giant panorama is unfolded-- by you. The individual enters into a simple yet powerful interaction with their city. This is a visual relationship, but also a relationship about power, and touch, and play. Art, architecture and even urban design are increasingly about relationships- not forms. Technology is enabling these relationships, through mobility, speed and wirelessness. But there is also the feeling of a sensory void, of running too fast. This work explores an entirely different technological possibility- by asking us to slow down, and enjoy the view. This work draws on the tradition of the urban panorama in painting and photography, a trajectory that extends into contemporary video games and "virtual reality". Also popular in the 19th century were moving panoramas, where crank-driven paintings or images provided the audience with a "travelling" experience. The hand crank, of course, also has a lengthy history in cinema. It was present in both early film cameras and projectors. As such, it provided the force mechanism behind the early "motion pictures". Global Positioning Systems tell us where we are at all times, implying that we will travel, globally. In our GPS, "tourism" is a kind of virtual experience, relying on the fading of the actual landscape with nightfall. The experience does not depend on the observer being physically displaced. Yet there is a clear sense of kinesthesia, and the promise of a haptic journey. This kind of electronic, interactive public art is a developing field worldwide. GPS will be a never-before experience, special for the joy and accessibility it provides, for all ages. See http://users.dma.ucla.edu/~suku/ringoflights.html for an animation. About the Artist: Ashok Sukumaran is a media artist and architect. He holds a B.Arch from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, and an M.F.A. in media art from the University of California, Los Angeles. Ashok's work explores the physical space of computer-based sensing and actuation, and the implications of interactivity on human perception and public spaces. In adopting the view that many "new media" technologies are not fundamentally new, his projects imagine a "what could have been" between the disciplines of interactive art, cinema, and architecture. His work has received numerous honors internationally, including a First prize in the 2003 David Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion Award, and a Grand prize in the Samsung Art and Design Institute's competition for 2002. Most recently, he was project director for NANO, a year-long exhibition at LACMA, Los Angeles, exploring the intersection of computational art and nanoscale science. Also in 2004, he also had one-person shows of his work in Mumbai and New York. Ashok has recently moved to Mumbai, where he is one half of ChitraKarkhana with Shaina Anand. From jo at turbulence.org Mon Jan 17 00:37:40 2005 From: jo at turbulence.org (Jo-Anne Green) Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 11:07:40 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] SPEAKER SERIES ON NETWORKED ART IN PUBLIC SPACES Message-ID: <41EABB7C.3090906@turbulence.org> SPEAKER SERIES ON NETWORKED ART IN PUBLIC SPACES Emerson College and New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) announce a new speaker series that will explore ways that artists use wireless technologies to transform our interactions with one another and our urban and natural environments. The series, entitled "Floating Points 2: Networked Art in Public Spaces," is the second in a number of planned collaborations between NRPA and its world-renowned web site, Turbulence.org and Emerson College. "Floating Points 2" presents artists who employ networking technologies to take their work out of the desktop PC and into the streets. The first presentation will be by Anne Galloway on Wednesday, January 26. All events will take place in Emerson College's Bill Bordy Theater, 216 Tremont St., at 7:00 p.m. and will be streamed online. All events are free and open to the public. Anne Galloway Anne Galloway is completing her PhD in sociology and cultural studies of technology at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Researching mobile technologies, public spaces and play, the working title of her dissertation is "Urban Mobile, At Play in the Wireless City". In addition to theoretical work on mobility and urbanism, her current research includes five case studies of ubiquitous computing design for urban environments. Anne has presented her findings at prominent international conferences and workshops in technology, design, and sociology. Her publications include articles for academic journals and online magazines, and she regularly writes at www.purselipsquarejaw.org and www.spaceandculture.org. Anne also teaches undergraduate courses in urban cultures and the sociology of science and technology. Also see http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/10/articles/index04.html Other Speakers in the Series: 02.23.05--Andy Deck and Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga 03.30.05--Jeff Knowlton, Naomi Spellman, and Pete Gomes 04.27.05--Moderated Panel Discussion: Elizabeth Goodman, Teri Rueb, Julian Bleecker and Andrew Shoben/Greyworld Floating Points is co-presented by Emerson College and New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA), a New York-based organization that opened an office in Boston in 2002. Turbulence.org, a project of NRPA, has commissioned over 80 works by both emerging and established artists who explore the creative potential of the Internet and wireless networks. Emerson College, located in downtown Boston, is the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts context. Founded in 1880, Emerson College enrolls 3000. undergraduate and 1000 graduate students, and is committed to bringing innovation to communication and the arts. "Floating Points 2: Networked Art in Public Spaces" is funded by Emerson College and the LEF Foundation. -- 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/20050116/b1824731/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From eye at ranadasgupta.com Mon Jan 17 13:29:16 2005 From: eye at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 13:29:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Launch of "Tokyo Cancelled" Message-ID: <41EB7054.7090004@ranadasgupta.com> Dear All As some of you may know, my first novel, Tokyo Cancelled, is shortly to be launched. Here are details of some of the upcoming launch events. The book has drawn much inspiration from the writing on this list, and I hope that many of you will be able to join me for its release into the world. INDIA 20th January, 6.30pm: launch event at British Council, Calcutta 28th January, 7.00pm: launch event at British Council, Delhi. See: http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-connecting-north-jan05-booklaunch-tokyo-cancelled-2.htm 31st January, 4.00pm: public conversation with Shuddhabrata Sengupta at the Oxford Bookstore in Statesman House, Connaught Place, Delhi UK The book goes on sale on February 7th in the UK (as well as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa etc. The publishing world is imperial in its division of territories). In the UK there are no official public events but a friend of mine is kindly hosting a party on February 12th in London in the book's honour - to which all are welcome. Email me for details. USA and CANADA The book will go on sale in the US and Canada in May. We will have a launch party that month in New York (in the Bose Pacia Gallery in Chelsea); I will announce the date when we've fixed it. FRANCE and GERMANY The book will be out in autumn 2005 in French and German. Again, more details to follow. MORE INFORMATION The Amazon write-up can be seen at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007182120/qid=1103629971/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/026-4411939-0173263 Rana Dasgupta www.ranadasgupta.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From space4change at gmail.com Tue Jan 18 12:47:02 2005 From: space4change at gmail.com (SPACE) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 12:47:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Folklore and Fables Message-ID: <8c10798f05011723172abc8d12@mail.gmail.com> >From Ali, Omar -----Original Message----- From: MUSTAFA HUSSAIN To: Ali, Omar Sent: 1/16/05 3:30 AM Subject: Folklore nad Fables Can any member of Asiapeace kindly provide information on existing Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi collections on folklores and fables from the Sub-continent? Perhaps there are also some English translations as well? A project at the Danish Ministry of Culture is looking for such literature to translate it into Danish for a publication on world litterature. Your help will be highly appreciated. Best regards Mustafa Hussain Copenhagen o o o o o o o [As Mr Hussain's ID is not given, please write to Mr Omar Ali. ] From space4change at gmail.com Tue Jan 18 12:47:07 2005 From: space4change at gmail.com (SPACE) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 12:47:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Folklore and Fables Message-ID: <8c10798f050117231711a29aad@mail.gmail.com> >From Ali, Omar -----Original Message----- From: MUSTAFA HUSSAIN To: Ali, Omar Sent: 1/16/05 3:30 AM Subject: Folklore nad Fables Can any member of Asiapeace kindly provide information on existing Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi collections on folklores and fables from the Sub-continent? Perhaps there are also some English translations as well? A project at the Danish Ministry of Culture is looking for such literature to translate it into Danish for a publication on world litterature. Your help will be highly appreciated. Best regards Mustafa Hussain Copenhagen o o o o o o o [As Mr Hussain's ID is not given, please write to Mr Omar Ali. ] From tarana at cal2.vsnl.net.in Tue Jan 18 13:14:13 2005 From: tarana at cal2.vsnl.net.in (Vector) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 13:14:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] First fellow ship report from Vasudha Joshi: Memories/Arguments Message-ID: <00ec01c4fd31$84210d80$4eb941db@vector> Interiors: I sit in 189 Sarat Bose Road, looking through the windows again. Broken glass panes that I will probably never get around to repairing. For 16 years these panes have witnessed conversations, singing, drinking, stories, histories, projects that never happened, proposals that never got written, proposals that got written but the films never got made, shoved away in old files gathering dust in cartons. Today I took out one of the cartons and dusted some files. I found old files called Bengal/Delta/ Ritwick/Deepak - another project that began but got ship wrecked and filed away.Deepak's notes: a translation of Yayati. His unfinished bio data at the back of which he has scribbled notes.His incomplete translation of Titash, the novel. Reviews he wrote and other misc notes. His last performance was at the hospital, where he acted out the river struck madman in Titash again, before the second stroke that felled him This is just a note to say I am getting them scanned at the moment, and putting them on a Cd for the final presentation...along with a story of what that was about... There is a lot of dusting out of old files to be done for this project. Apart from going out clicking Lake Market that will soon turn into a mall and ofcourse visiting Howrah and catching up with Ramaswamy and his Howrah project when he has the time.And scanning Maya's great grandmothers travelogue of which I managed to locate 3 out of 5 instalments some years ago, that she wrote in Bangalakhi (1930) and correspondence that is lying around in a bag I'm looking forward to this. Have to scan a lot of stuff before I write again. Till Next month Vasudha Joshi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050118/d82707b9/attachment.html From shaheen at mail.ie Wed Jan 19 00:13:52 2005 From: shaheen at mail.ie (shaheen ansari) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:43:52 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Pondering and Wondering Message-ID: <20050118184353.369A937CEE@sitemail.everyone.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050118/af065d45/attachment.html From kristoferpaetau at WEB.DE Tue Jan 18 17:39:22 2005 From: kristoferpaetau at WEB.DE (Kristofer Paetau) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 13:09:22 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Trekhprudny Lane (Moscow) - Coolest artist-run space ever! Message-ID: <1039066299@web.de> The history of Trekhprudny Lane began in 1990, right after the end of the "USSR boom" in Western art institutions and shortly before the collapse of the USSR. Many projects of Trekhprudny Lane can be seen as a preceeding of the work of well-known contemporary artists and of celebrated movements of contemporary art in the 90s. There are also interesting connexions with the work of some younger artists today, who work in a 'performative' way. Last but not least I find the work of Trekhprudny Lane very inspiring for my own artistic research and I hope that You will appreciate my "Top 10" selection of exhibitions made by Trekhprudny Lane! You are very welcome to have a look at the documentation: A web documentation to view at: http://www.paetau.com/downloads/Friends/Trekhprudny_Lane.html A PDF documentation (1,1 MB) to download at: http://www.paetau.com/downloads/Friends/Trekhprudny_Lane.pdf Best wishes, Kristofer Paetau -- If you do not want mails anymore, you can unsubscribe automatically by sending an empty e-mail from your e-mail account to: ARTINFO-L-unsubscribe-request at listserv.dfn.de If this doesn't work, you probably got this e-mail re-routed through another address: Please reply to this mail and write UNSUBSCRIBE in the mail subject and please indicate some old or alternative e-mail addresses in order to help us unsubscribe you. Thank you and apologizes for the trouble! -- . ______________________________________________________________ Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS! Jetzt bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://f.web.de/?mc=021193 From definetime at rediffmail.com Tue Jan 18 18:11:46 2005 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 18 Jan 2005 12:41:46 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) A televisual fairyland Message-ID: <20050118124146.24066.qmail@webmail47.rediffmail.com> A televisual fairyland The US media is disciplined by corporate America into promoting the Republican cause George Monbiot Tuesday January 18, 2005 On Thursday, the fairy king of fairyland will be recrowned. He was elected on a platform suspended in midair by the power of imagination. He is the leader of a band of men who walk through ghostly realms unvisited by reality. And he remains the most powerful person on earth. How did this happen? How did a fantasy president from a world of make believe come to govern a country whose power was built on hard-headed materialism? To find out, take a look at two squalid little stories which have been concluded over the past 10 days. The first involves the broadcaster CBS. In September, its 60 Minutes programme ran an investigation into how George Bush avoided the Vietnam draft. It produced memos which appeared to show that his squadron commander in the Texas National Guard had been persuaded to "sugarcoat" his service record. The programme's allegations were immediately and convincingly refuted: Republicans were able to point to evidence suggesting the memos had been faked. Last week, following an inquiry into the programme, the producer was sacked, and three CBS executives were forced to resign. The incident couldn't have been more helpful to Bush. Though there is no question that he managed to avoid serving in Vietnam, the collapse of CBS's story suggested that all the allegations made about his war record were false, and the issue dropped out of the news. CBS was furiously denounced by the rightwing pundits, with the result that between then and the election, hardly any broadcaster dared to criticise George Bush. Mary Mapes, the producer whom CBS fired, was the network's most effective investigative journalist: she was the person who helped bring the Abu Ghraib photos to public attention. If the memos were faked, the forger was either a moron or a very smart operator. It's true, of course, that CBS should have taken more care. But I think it is safe to assume that if the network had instead broadcast unsustainable allegations about John Kerry, none of its executives would now be looking for work. How many people have lost their jobs, at CBS or anywhere else, for repeating bogus stories released by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth about Kerry's record in Vietnam? How many were sacked for misreporting the Jessica Lynch affair? Or for claiming that Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons programme in 2003? Or that he was buying uranium from Niger, or using mobile biological weapons labs, or had a hand in 9/11? How many people were sacked, during Clinton's presidency, for broadcasting outright lies about the Whitewater affair? The answer, in all cases, is none. You can say what you like in the US media, as long as it helps a Republican president. But slip up once while questioning him, and you will be torn to shreds. Even the most grovelling affirmations of loyalty won't help. The presenter of 60 Minutes, Dan Rather, is the man who once told his audience" "George Bush is the president, he makes the decisions and, you know, as just one American, he wants me to line up, just tell me where." CBS is owned by the conglomerate Viacom, whose chairman told reporters: "We believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company." But for Fox News and the shockjocks syndicated by Clear Channel, Rather's faltering attempt at investigative journalism is further evidence of "a liberal media conspiracy". This is not the first time something like this has happened. In 1998, CNN made a programme which claimed that, during the Vietnam war, US special forces dropped sarin gas on defectors who had fled to Laos. In this case, there was plenty of evidence to support the story. But after four weeks of furious denunciations, the network's owner, Ted Turner, publicly apologised in terms you would expect to hear during a show trial in North Korea: "I'll take my shirt off and beat myself bloody on the back." CNN had erred, he said, by broadcasting the allegations when "we didn't have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt". As the website wsws.org has pointed out, it's hard to think of a single investigative story - Watergate, the My Lai massacre, Britain's arms to Iraq scandal - which could have been proved at the time by journalists "beyond a reasonable doubt". But Turner did what was demanded of him, with the result that, in media fairyland, the atrocity is now deemed not to have happened. The other squalid little story broke three days before the CBS people were sacked. A US newspaper discovered that Armstrong Williams, a television presenter who (among other jobs) had a weekly slot on a syndicated TV show called America's Black Forum, had secretly signed a $240,000 contract with the US Department of Education. The contract required him "to regularly comment" on George Bush's education bill "during the course of his broadcasts" and to ensure that "Secretary Paige [the education secretary] and other department officials shall have the option of appearing from time to time as studio guests". It's hard to see why the administration bothered to pay him. Williams has described as his "mentors" Lee Atwater - the man who, under Reagan's presidency, brought a new viciousness to Republican campaigning - and the segregationist senator Strom Thurmond. His broadcasting career has been dedicated to promoting extreme Republican causes and attacking civil rights campaigns. What makes this story interesting is that the show he worked on was founded, in 1977, by the radical black activists Glen Ford and Peter Gamble, to "allow black reporters to hold politicians and activists of all persuasions accountable to black people". They sold their shares in 1980, and the programme was later bought by the Uniworld Group. With Williams's help, the new owners have reversed its politics, and turned it into a recruitment vehicle for the Republican party. Williams appears to have been taking money for doing what he was doing anyway. These stories, in other words, are illustrations of the ways in which the US media is disciplined by corporate America. In the first case the other corporate broadcasters joined forces to punish a dissenter in their ranks. In the second case a corporation captured what was once a dissenting programme and turned it into another means of engineering conformity. The role of the media corporations in the US is similar to that of repressive state regimes elsewhere: they decide what the public will and won't be allowed to hear, and either punish or recruit the social deviants who insist on telling a different story. The journalists they employ do what almost all journalists working under repressive regimes do: they internalise the demands of the censor, and understand, before anyone has told them, what is permissible and what is not. So, when they are faced with a choice between a fable which helps the Republicans, and a reality which hurts them, they choose the fable. As their fantasies accumulate, the story they tell about the world veers further and further from reality. Anyone who tries to bring the people back down to earth is denounced as a traitor and a fantasist. And anyone who seeks to become president must first learn to live in fairyland. www.monbiot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050118/0ebeed22/attachment.html From janmanass at yahoo.co.in Wed Jan 19 00:20:57 2005 From: janmanass at yahoo.co.in (janmanass) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:50:57 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] [arkitectindia] Re: New Face In-Reply-To: <20041220140438.83668.qmail@web13302.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Hi This question has been ask several times but it has not been replied even once. I request Ark Foundation to tell something about Ark and its activities to those who are intersted inknowing it Thanks Arvind --- In arkitectindia at yahoogroups.com, nimisha sukhadia wrote: > > > dear asfar > > hallo! i got your mail but i didnt know about this > group. so please send me information so i can join. > > yours, > nimisha. > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! > http://my.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give the gift of life to a sick child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/lGEjbB/6WnJAA/E2hLAA/VaTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: arkitectindia-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From shaheen at mail.ie Wed Jan 19 01:00:22 2005 From: shaheen at mail.ie (shaheen ansari) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 11:30:22 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [arkitectindia] Emotional misery amidst abundant =?utf-8?b?wpNyZWxpZWbClA==?= Message-ID: <20050118193022.A06AF37CF1@sitemail.everyone.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050118/544cb7ec/attachment.html From shaheen at mail.ie Wed Jan 19 01:15:43 2005 From: shaheen at mail.ie (shaheen ansari) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 11:45:43 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] [arkitectindia] Pondering and Wondering Message-ID: <20050118194543.65DD037CEC@sitemail.everyone.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050118/fafba95e/attachment.html From sadan at sarai.net Tue Jan 18 12:49:24 2005 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan Jha) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 12:49:24 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Ravi Kalia on MODERNISM IN INDIA: FROM LE CORBUSIER TO LOUIS KAHN & BEYOND Message-ID: <41ECB87C.30000@sarai.net> URBAN CULTURES AND POLITICS SEMINAR SERIES: Urban Experiences Thursday, January 20, 2005, 3.30 P.M. Sarai, CSDS, 29, Rajpur Road. Delhi-54 “MODERNISM IN INDIA: FROM LE CORBUSIER TO LOUIS KAHN & BEYOND” by Ravi Kalia, Professor, Professor, The City College, New York Professor Kalia specializes in South Asian studies, particularly urban-architectural history in colonial, post-colonial India. He is the author of “Chandigarh: The Making of an Indian City” (1987; revised, 1999) and “Bhubaneshwar: From a Temple Town to a Capital City” (1994). He has recently completed “Gandhinagar: The Swadeshi Capital of Gujarat” (forthcoming). Abstract: “MODERNISM IN INDIA: FROM LE CORBUSIER TO LOUIS KAHN & BEYOND” The colorful, cocky, controversial Frenchman Le Corbusier introduced Modernism to India. The patrician Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave political endorsement to the Modernist doctrine. And the mystical American architect Louis Kahn provided the transcendent dimension to it. India enthusiastically embraced Modernism because of its simple but powerful message: modernize your house, and life will follow. For young architects like Charles Correa, B. K. Doshi, and others in postcolonial India, Modernism offered a shimmering vision of escape from everything conservative, traditional, and limited. Modernism also gained acceptance because it was unencumbered by imperialist ideas: because parsimonious Modernist designs and unadorned spaces never represented much of a threat to religiously pluralistic India anxious to create a secular identity and create mass housing for refugees displaced by the partition. The lecture will explore and evaluate the works of Le Corbusier(Chandigarh), Otto Koenigsberger (Bhubaneswar), and Louis Kahn (Ahmedabad) in South Asia, and their legacy. _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From jo at turbulence.org Mon Jan 17 22:34:49 2005 From: jo at turbulence.org (Jo-Anne Green) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:04:49 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Commission: "getawayexperiment.net" by Nathaniel Stern and Marcus Neustetter Message-ID: <41EBF031.5010408@turbulence.org> January 17, 2005 Turbulence Commission: "getawayexperiment.net" by Nathaniel Stern and Marcus Neustetter http://turbulence.org/works/getawayexperiment/index.php "getawayexperiment.net" proposes a dialogue between the virtual and physical processes of sign and site design and perception. Stern and Neustetter have transformed several information-based web pages into collaboratively constructed communication sites; they commissioned local sign-makers in Johannesburg, South Africa to "re-mix" five websites (Fox News, Google Images, joburg.org.za, Solidarity and Turbulence) by painting stylized versions of each image on their main pages. The hand-painted signs were then scanned, prepared for the web, and uploaded. Each of the five sites can be seen in three ways: 1) the original site (on its original server); 2) the "getaway" site in edit mode; and 3) the "getaway" site in non-edit mode. In edit mode, participants from anywhere in the world can click on an image in any one of the "getaway" pages and upload their own replacement images. In non-edit mode each individual image is randomly pulled from the site's database, thereby transforming the "getaways" into dynamic collages that signify something completely new. Concept, Artists/Designers: Nathaniel Stern, Marcus Neustetter; Information Architecture: Templar Wales; Programming/Scripting: BlinkNewMedia; Core Sign-Writers: Mduduzi Manyoni, Tebogo Phafudi, Bongani Nkou, Kasa Thamae, and Nkosana. "getawayexperiment.net" is a 2005 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from The Greenwall Foundation. BIOGRAPHIES NATHANIEL STERN (NYC/Johannesburg) is an internationally exhibited installation artist, net.artist and performance poet. His interactive installations have won awards in New York, South Africa and Australia, and his net.art has been featured in festivals all over Europe, Asia and the US. Stern's collaborative physical theatre and multimedia performance work has won three FNB Vita Awards - including Best Presentation of a New Contemporary Work - and has been featured on the main stage at the Grahamstown Festival (South Africa). His poetry repertoire includes the US National Poetry Slam competition and the RSA HIV/AIDS Arts, Media & Film Festival. MARCUS NEUSTETTER has been developing projects that address the relationship between art and technology. These take the form of mobile, installation, and web artworks tackling the translation of data through different online and offline platforms. In this process he has been exploring the digital and analogue ways of representing virtual experiences. Neustetter has exhibited and been actively involved in developing opportunities and platforms for local digital art through projects in South Africa and Europe. These include ARS Electronica (Austria), Transmadiale.03 (Germany) and E-tester (Spain). As director (with Stephen Hobbs) of The Trinity Session and sanman (southern african new media art network) and The Gallery PREMISES, Neustetter is actively involved in developing cultural strategies through a range of projects. Currently he is a consultant for UNESCO DigiArts Africa. For more information about Turbulence, please visit http://turbulence.org -- 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/20050117/14908a22/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ritika at sarai.net Wed Jan 19 21:32:31 2005 From: ritika at sarai.net (Ritika) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 21:32:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] emerging media networks: CD produced by PPHP@SARAI Message-ID: <41EE8497.8020507@sarai.net> Dear all, We at SARAI are working on a project called 'Publics and Practices in the History of the Present – PPHP' CONTEXT: The project is trying to understand the various media practices in the city. It is increasingly being felt that the new globalisation is transforming media networks in Delhi. At the level of the everyday, the old prohibition and regulation on the social life of commodities have proved ineffective, urban residents are now assaulted with a deluge of cultural products, cassettes, CD's, MP3s, VCD's, cable television, grey markets computers, cheap chinese audio and video players, thousands of cheap print flyers, and signage everywhere. What is remarkable here is the preponderance of these products comes from the grey or informal sector, outside the effective regulation of the state or large capital. India today has the world's second largest music market, a large film industry with global dreams, a majority grey computer market, hundreds of tiny thousands of phone and word processing shops and cybercafes. And as if from the ruins of urban planning new media bazaars, which supply these networks have emerged, existing in the cusp of legality and illegality. Everyday a guerilla war is raging, between new intellectual property raiders, the police and unceasing neighbourhood demand for grey ware. PROJECT and PRACTICES: Very briefly, in PPHP we are trying to understand the Old and New film making/distribution practices, rise - fall and future of other cinematic practices like Videos, Cable TV Industry and Popular Music Culture are few of the media practices that we are trying to unravel and understand. Simultaneously we are also entering spaces which are not only circulating various media but also centres of media production. As researchers in PPHP we are trying to traverse and map these emerging new spaces, and the ever evolving networks. Our methodology is simple – that of threads and networks. From municipal archives to personal collections; from interviews of people 'in' business to interviews of academics, we pass through markets, cinemas, corporate offices, music companies, film distribution offices, detective agencies, law courts, police stations, government archives and factories, we meet shopkeepers, software pirates, porn merchants, architects, singers, accountants, laborers, lawyers, officials and policemen - all of whom constitute the fraught fabric of the Media City. PUBLIC FORMS: We try to knit our diverse experiences into a picture of larger processes and transformations by posting field-notes (largely experiential) on a common list and archive - a space for sharing information, for collaborative research, for creative interventions. Newspaper clippings and other print and audio visual material are also collected and digitized. There is a commitment to making the research public, and in this endeavour, we engage with a variety of forms of presenting research - staccato fieldnotes, news clippings, more ‘poetic’, evocative texts, archival resources, other ‘intermediate’ forms of writing not yet polished into an essay or scholarly article; these modes of writing are put out into the public domain via new forms – the broadsheet, the spiral bound volume, the hyperlinked CD. CD: Last month we prepared a CD for our project. The CD has our field notes, articles, some information bytes, a glimpse of our extensive range of archival collection. In a nut shell - it contains our research work of last three years. We would want to share our research with you. If you are interested to have a copy, just write to me – ritika: ritika at sarai.net or on the reader list, along with your address. It'll be nice if you could also convey what interested you in the work – to facilitate future possibilities of interactions. The CD is not yet available online, but I will get back the moment it is up on the site. Also if you think that any of your other friends and collegues are interested, then please ask them to get back to us. HOping to hear from you, cheers ritika -- Ritika Shrimali The Sarai Programme http://blog.sarai.net/users/ritika What good is that life which does not get provoked or provokes. Gottfried Benn From ishitashruti at yahoo.com Wed Jan 19 09:58:37 2005 From: ishitashruti at yahoo.com (ishita mishra) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 20:28:37 -0800 (PST) Subject: Fwd: Re: [Reader-list] Pondering and Wondering Message-ID: <20050119042837.3626.qmail@web53601.mail.yahoo.com> Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: ishita mishra Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Pondering and Wondering Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 20:26:54 -0800 (PST) Size: 9715 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050118/1bd34ba6/attachment.mht From zahoor_col at yahoo.com Wed Jan 19 22:13:13 2005 From: zahoor_col at yahoo.com (siddiqi zahoor) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:43:13 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [arkitectindia] Pondering and Wondering In-Reply-To: <20050118194543.65DD037CEC@sitemail.everyone.net> Message-ID: <20050119164313.90043.qmail@web41906.mail.yahoo.com> To carry your message with a view to impressing the mind of those who r rather indifferent to reasonableness it is not necessary to counterpose Taj against Oxford.Taj is a finest pieceof architecture and Oxford is a great seat of learning.However, it gives me lot of satisfaction when I come across such messages that reflect humanism and rationalism. More on some other ocassion---------------zahoor shaheen ansari wrote: Pondering and Wondering Sometime raising a right question is more important than a wrong answer. It is in this process I raise some questions in the hope that your responses will enhance my understanding. Think of these questions assuming India is a family and we are its siblings. What should be the criteria of apportioning priority to the different needs and demands of the various members of the family? Do you think it is acceptable to go and buy a TV or home theatre while one of your brothers or sisters is dying of hunger? Can anyone indulge in anniversary celebrations leaving his/her children suffering from some acute illness that demands immediate attention? I would like you to consider the following: 1. The disproportionate expenditure our country spends on 'nice things', sports, recreation etc; 2. The disproportionate expenditure our government spends on critical things, like educating its sons and daughters; 3. The exorbitant expenditure on post-colonial celebrations like Independence Day and Republic Day etc; 4. Why there is such disparity in already scarce funds: 14 % expenditure on defense versus a measly 3.2% of GDP on education. It seems that we cannot, or do not wish to, learn from history. When Westerners were building Oxford, we were building the Taj Mahal. When they were building airplanes we were founding the Muslim League (1906 in Shimal) and Hindu Sabha (1908 in Punjab). There are hundreds of such examples. And now when they are building space shuttles and going to Mars and other planets we are busy in mobilizing and dividing people into religions factions so they can gain 'access' to heaven. I ask you: just where are we going? I have nothing against the Taj, or mosques or temples per se, I simply do not understand the prime objective of our ruling class. Where are the projects for the masses? The budget allocation for different sectors tells us that our father and mother are clearly lethargic about educating us. This is not acceptable, given the most critical change agent is in society is EDUCATION. A question has been haunting me ever since I read two news items in a magazine - one about death by hunger and about the exorbitant price- more than Rs.100 crore- to get one Olympic silver medal. The one event. Rs.100 crore was spent on organizing things for and in Athens. Grooming sports people took months and years of preparation to reach eligibility for entry to Athens Olympic Village. Think of other sport events where so many rupees are being spent. If we dare to surf the web and do some pretty rudimentary analysis of events in the year 2004 we can amass many mind-boggling facts such as the one above. Don't get me wrong. I am not against sport. I have been a basketball player and represented my school and university teams on many occasions. But here with the help of arkitectindia group I am trying to understand a very basic question. Where should a family head? How should our Mother and Father spend money specifically allocated for its children? What are their priorities? And for whom? I think Mum and Dad have some favourites. Consider the following: �� In West Bengal people were dying of hunger after eating some roots of trees. The roots may be of poisonous in nature but they had no option as there was no food supply. Why? �� Several members of a tribal community in Orissa fell sick after eating mango kernels and a few of them died. It was reported that there was a shortage of food but mango kernels were the only option left with them. NDTV reported that the grains were being eaten by rats in the government godowns because of the lack of and inefficiency of communication and transportation facilities. Why? �� Thousands of farmers in Andhra Pradesh and adjoining areas committed suicide. Why? �� Every year we witness hundred and thousands of people who die either of hot wind (loo) or cold breeze. Don't say that the government does not know that every year summer comes, every year winter comes and also every year rain comes. But still there is no provision or programme to tackle this menace. Go out on the streets of Delhi and you will find people lying on the pavements waiting for the sun or death. But will the government built night shelters in different parts of the city? It does not require much - just a covered hall. It comes down to priorities: night shelters Vs. one medal, or you could read it this way: unwanted poor lot Vs. elite sportspersons. Is anybody listening right there in the sport ministry? �� We belong to a country whose government even can't provide primary education to its children. What a shame! January 26th is coming. There is a huge budget to celebrate Independence Day and Republic Day. If we make it a simple affair and invest all the money in building schools and industries the government can create lakhs of job opportunities for its unemployed citizens every year. But again it is a matter of priority. Who cares? �� There is no commitment to provide adequate funds for fulfilling the cumulative gap built up since the Education Commission���s recommendations in 1964-66 within a ten-year timeframe. In case of elementary education, it was to fulfill this cumulative gap that the Tapas Majumdar Committee (1999) recommended an additional funding of Rs. 13,700 crores per year for the next ten years which amounts to about 0.6% of the current level of GDP. This investment will be required for bringing all out-of-school children to formal school system. Is 0.6% of the GDP is too high to invest in primary education? �� We conducted a survey in Dhapo Colony Slum, New Delhi where we were running an education centre there. One question concerned patterns of expenditure. We were shocked to discover the responses of sizeable numbers of respondents whose daily average income was less than Rs75. For them, drink was an important item on the shopping list. And any extra money would be spent on boozing or other sorts of non-productive activities. But like the government of India they also don't have money to send their children to school. There is no concept of saving or investment. Of course there are some exceptional mothers and fathers who think about the future of their children. But not enough. �� The government has introduced Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which provides low quality parallel educational streams. It is, in the words of Prof. Anil Sadgopal, anti-child, anti-poor and anti-education, for which we are paying for with a loan (remember it is a LOAN) from the World Bank, a loan laden with their conditions. Is there no shame in this? The fact that we cannot, will not, spend our scarce financial resources on educating our children? Where is the spirit 'development' in all this? �� Do you think our government has the right to be such frivolous conspicuous consumers? We are a republic, we're independent, let���s throw a party! These are expensive, one-day PR events, VIP soirees for the elite, and propaganda for the dumb masses that we've got something to smile about, as tens of thousands of children turned up to school the day before the party to find that their teacher simply decided not to get out of bed. �� Shall we demand the Government of India to stop these celebrations till, at least, we are able to give the future of India a decent education and employment to those who can and will work? God help us to change. To change ourselves and to change our world. To know the need for it. To deal with the pain of it. To feel the joy of it. To undertake "the journey without understanding the destination. The art of Gentle Revolution" (Michael Leunig) I ask members of this e-group to enlighten me, and others like me, who can't understand the 'simple' logic of our Mother and Father who leave some of us to die in one place and invests so much to nurture others. I am confused between necessity and luxury. Kindly throw some light on it - because I know darkness is nothing but the absence of light. Thanks for patiently reading and considering. Kind Regards, Shaheen shaheen at mail.ie --------------------------------- Sign up for Private, FREE email from Mail.ie at http://www.mail.ie --------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: arkitectindia-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. Learn more. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050119/6ea5c5be/attachment.html From vishwadeepak at rediffmail.com Wed Jan 19 10:16:43 2005 From: vishwadeepak at rediffmail.com (Vishwa Deepak) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:16:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [arkitectindia] Pondering and Wondering References: <20050118194543.65DD037CEC@sitemail.everyone.net> Message-ID: <003301c4fde1$e4902f60$7400a8c0@vishwa> Dear Shaheen Certainly this posting has made me ponder and wonder about the priorities. I strongly feel that we are responsible for whatever has been happening around! Education has not been priority or let me put it in this way that the governmental education system has not been in our minds and given an opportunity we all would have loved to study in some flashy convent and public school without even thinking what is happening to the children in the next house. We as citizens of India have never created pressure on the government for quality by utilising its welfare services for which we pay in way of taxes. The broken road, erratic power and water supply all feature on front pages of the news papers the minute we face major problem with it because it cuts through our veins and we make noise. Noise makes it a priority issue that turns into action - whether taken by government or by anyone else. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan was announced in headlines of the news papers when it was initiated and also the news read that it was supported by the World Bank through soft loan to the country. Hardly there was any talk as most of us are busy with our bread and how to add little more butter and cheese on it. No one asked question that what's the advantage of feeding an old and sick goat that is already in death-bed. So called experts are happy since Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan brought them some more business, which as expert is their priority. Who cares... is our attitude unless the knife is put on our throat. we all are happy talking the issue since it is quite an stimulant. How many of us are ready to send our children into a school run by the government. Response to this question will also answer many unanswered questions. Vishwa ----- Original Message ----- From: shaheen ansari To: arkitectindia at yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 1:15 AM Subject: [arkitectindia] Pondering and Wondering Pondering and Wondering Sometime raising a right question is more important than a wrong answer. It is in this process I raise some questions in the hope that your responses will enhance my understanding. Think of these questions assuming India is a family and we are its siblings. What should be the criteria of apportioning priority to the different needs and demands of the various members of the family? Do you think it is acceptable to go and buy a TV or home theatre while one of your brothers or sisters is dying of hunger? Can anyone indulge in anniversary celebrations leaving his/her children suffering from some acute illness that demands immediate attention? I would like you to consider the following: 1. The disproportionate expenditure our country spends on 'nice things', sports, recreation etc; 2. The disproportionate expenditure our government spends on critical things, like educating its sons and daughters; 3. The exorbitant expenditure on post-colonial celebrations like Independence Day and Republic Day etc; 4. Why there is such disparity in already scarce funds: 14 % expenditure on defense versus a measly 3.2% of GDP on education. It seems that we cannot, or do not wish to, learn from history. When Westerners were building Oxford, we were building the Taj Mahal. When they were building airplanes we were founding the Muslim League (1906 in Shimal) and Hindu Sabha (1908 in Punjab). There are hundreds of such examples. And now when they are building space shuttles and going to Mars and other planets we are busy in mobilizing and dividing people into religions factions so they can gain 'access' to heaven. I ask you: just where are we going? I have nothing against the Taj, or mosques or temples per se, I simply do not understand the prime objective of our ruling class. Where are the projects for the masses? The budget allocation for different sectors tells us that our father and mother are clearly lethargic about educating us. This is not acceptable, given the most critical change agent is in society is EDUCATION. A question has been haunting me ever since I read two news items in a magazine - one about death by hunger and about the exorbitant price- more than Rs.100 crore- to get one Olympic silver medal. The one event. Rs.100 crore was spent on organizing things for and in Athens. Grooming sports people took months and years of preparation to reach eligibility for entry to Athens Olympic Village. Think of other sport events where so many rupees are being spent. If we dare to surf the web and do some pretty rudimentary analysis of events in the year 2004 we can amass many mind-boggling facts such as the one above. Don't get me wrong. I am not against sport. I have been a basketball player and represented my school and university teams on many occasions. But here with the help of arkitectindia group I am trying to understand a very basic question. Where should a family head? How should our Mother and Father spend money specifically allocated for its children? What are their priorities? And for whom? I think Mum and Dad have some favourites. Consider the following: · In West Bengal people were dying of hunger after eating some roots of trees. The roots may be of poisonous in nature but they had no option as there was no food supply. Why? · Several members of a tribal community in Orissa fell sick after eating mango kernels and a few of them died. It was reported that there was a shortage of food but mango kernels were the only option left with them. NDTV reported that the grains were being eaten by rats in the government godowns because of the lack of and inefficiency of communication and transportation facilities. Why? · Thousands of farmers in Andhra Pradesh and adjoining areas committed suicide. Why? · Every year we witness hundred and thousands of people who die either of hot wind (loo) or cold breeze. Don't say that the government does not know that every year summer comes, every year winter comes and also every year rain comes. But still there is no provision or programme to tackle this menace. Go out on the streets of Delhi and you will find people lying on the pavements waiting for the sun or death. But will the government built night shelters in different parts of the city? It does not require much - just a covered hall. It comes down to priorities: night shelters Vs. one medal, or you could read it this way: unwanted poor lot Vs. elite sportspersons. Is anybody listening right there in the sport ministry? · We belong to a country whose government even can't provide primary education to its children. What a shame! January 26th is coming. There is a huge budget to celebrate Independence Day and Republic Day. If we make it a simple affair and invest all the money in building schools and industries the government can create lakhs of job opportunities for its unemployed citizens every year. But again it is a matter of priority. Who cares? · There is no commitment to provide adequate funds for fulfilling the cumulative gap built up since the Education Commission’s recommendations in 1964-66 within a ten-year timeframe. In case of elementary education, it was to fulfill this cumulative gap that the Tapas Majumdar Committee (1999) recommended an additional funding of Rs. 13,700 crores per year for the next ten years which amounts to about 0.6% of the current level of GDP. This investment will be required for bringing all out-of-school children to formal school system. Is 0.6% of the GDP is too high to invest in primary education? · We conducted a survey in Dhapo Colony Slum, New Delhi where we were running an education centre there. One question concerned patterns of expenditure. We were shocked to discover the responses of sizeable numbers of respondents whose daily average income was less than Rs75. For them, drink was an important item on the shopping list. And any extra money would be spent on boozing or other sorts of non-productive activities. But like the government of India they also don't have money to send their children to school. There is no concept of saving or investment. Of course there are some exceptional mothers and fathers who think about the future of their children. But not enough. · The government has introduced Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which provides low quality parallel educational streams. It is, in the words of Prof. Anil Sadgopal, anti-child, anti-poor and anti-education, for which we are paying for with a loan (remember it is a LOAN) from the World Bank, a loan laden with their conditions. Is there no shame in this? The fact that we cannot, will not, spend our scarce financial resources on educating our children? Where is the spirit 'development' in all this? · Do you think our government has the right to be such frivolous conspicuous consumers? We are a republic, we're independent, let’s throw a party! These are expensive, one-day PR events, VIP soirees for the elite, and propaganda for the dumb masses that we've got something to smile about, as tens of thousands of children turned up to school the day before the party to find that their teacher simply decided not to get out of bed. · Shall we demand the Government of India to stop these celebrations till, at least, we are able to give the future of India a decent education and employment to those who can and will work? God help us to change. To change ourselves and to change our world. To know the need for it. To deal with the pain of it. To feel the joy of it. To undertake "the journey without understanding the destination. The art of Gentle Revolution" (Michael Leunig) I ask members of this e-group to enlighten me, and others like me, who can't understand the 'simple' logic of our Mother and Father who leave some of us to die in one place and invests so much to nurture others. I am confused between necessity and luxury. Kindly throw some light on it - because I know darkness is nothing but the absence of light. Thanks for patiently reading and considering. Kind Regards, Shaheen shaheen at mail.ie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sign up for Private, FREE email from Mail.ie at http://www.mail.ie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/ b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: arkitectindia-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050119/511b0252/attachment.html From zahoor_col at yahoo.com Wed Jan 19 23:42:39 2005 From: zahoor_col at yahoo.com (siddiqi zahoor) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:12:39 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [arkitectindia] President of India's Lecture In JNU In-Reply-To: <20050113182725.29531.qmail@web25706.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20050119181239.8850.qmail@web41905.mail.yahoo.com> Mr.President, Many of my colleagues in Science faculty openly acknowledge your contribution in their sphere of learning.I am really happy to note that India is really capable of producing a scientist of your calibre. Science teaches us to pick up facts as they exist;but how u fail to mention the menace of fascism in Indian society; Sir, u may say that u usally avoid things that r political in nature but in the same address u mention " injected terrorism". No civilized society , no enlightened person , no thinking intellectual and even a normal human-being would like to see the spread of fascism in our country since the world during the second world war had a terrible experience at its hands.Such was the hue and cry in UK that ultimately forced the Prince to apologise for wearing a shirt with ' swastik' icon.But in our country even the blue-eyed boy of SANGH parivar is kept on the seat of chief ministership. Sir, no terrorist organisation, no fascist organisation in the world and even a universal gang of criminals had so many ' volunteers' at its command as RSS. After Gujarat carnage do u want any other proof ? So long RSS is allowed to be intoxicated with human blood u cannot build India of your dream. Sir, u occupy the highest office of this land; Gujarat is the fittest case for the imposition of Presidential Rule.Do u agree with me? zahoor siddiqi / President(1979-81), Delhi University Teachers' Association/ A2/ 105,Printers' Apts.,Sector 13, ROHINI, Delhi- 110085. Sneha Singh wrote: Friends This is the lecture delivered by the President of India in JNU, New Delhi. Please read and react on it. Your comment and response will be forwarded to The President of India. He has promised us to reply all the mails within 24 hours. Regards, Sneha JNU, New Delhi ADDRESS AND INTERACTION WITH THE STUDENTS AND FACULTY MEMBERS OF JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY, NEW DELHI 12-01-2005 : New Delhi "The evolution of enlightened citizen centric society" I am indeed delighted to participate in the interaction meet with the students, faculty and staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. I greet the students and congratulate the faculty and staff members of JNU for shaping the young minds. I always cherish interaction with the students and faculties in the school and university environment. When I am with you, I would like to discuss with you "The evolution of enlightened citizen centric society". Our Challenges in the Planet Earth There are many challenges in our planet earth of six billion people. There is shortage of water, increased atmospheric pollution leading to many diseases, depleting fossil materials and other natural resources, depletion of available land for agriculture and lack of availability of uniform opportunity to all citizens. Many nations are experiencing the problems of injected terrorism. The young people of the planet are dreaming to live in the land of opportunities and happiness. We have also seen that the economic prosperity of few nations alone has not brought lasting peace to the world. No single nation will be able to handle the situation by itself. Humanity will require mega missions for harnessing solar energy, drinking water from sea water through desalination process and bringing minerals from other planets and also to bring space manufactured products. In such a situation, the present reasons for conflict between nation to nation will become insignificant and unwarranted. India can play a major role in developing a new model of enlightened citizen centric society which will provide prosperity, peace and happiness to all the nations in the world. Let me discuss the model. Evolution of Enlightened citizens The evolution of enlightened human beings is indeed a big challenge for the world community. There are three components to that. The first component is education with value system, second is religions graduating into spiritual forces to bring universal brotherhood and the third is poverty eradication by attaining economic prosperity through a national vision. Education with Value System The best part for a person is his or her learning period in educational institution. The prime learning period is 5th to 17th year of age. Hence, the curriculum period is the best time for learning, and need the best environment and mission oriented learning with value based educational system. The teacher who loves teaching is an important asset. This reminds me the echo from Bestolozzy, a great teacher's saying, "Give me a child for seven years, afterwards, let the God or devil take the child, they cannot change the child." That is indeed the power of the teacher. For parents and teachers, educational campus and home have to have an integrated mission: education with value system. Fifteen-year value-based education of 30,000 hours in the educational campus is essential to establish an open and transparent society or a society with integrity. Up to the age of 17 years, the father, the mother and the teacher lead a child embedded with value based education. The Nations will target development milestones in a dynamic environment instead of spending tremendous energy and time in problems initiated by small aims. This is the essential environment needed for transforming India into a developed nation. Transforming India into a Developed Nation Our nation is going through a major challenge of uplifting of 260 million people who are below the poverty line. They need habitat, they need food, they need health care, and they need education and employment and finally resulting into a good life. That means transforming into a Developed Nation. Our GDP is growing at more than 6% per annum. Whereas, the economists suggest that to uplift the people below poverty line, our economy has to grow at the rate of 10% per annum consistently, for over a decade. How do we achieve this mission? Integrated action: To meet the need of one billion people, we have identified five areas where India has core competence for integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing (2) Education and Healthcare (3) Reliable and Quality Electric power, Surface transport and Infrastructure for all parts of the country. (4) Information and Communication Technology and (5) self reliance in Strategic sectors. These five areas are closely inter-related and if well done would lead to national, food and economic security, and national security. One of the important components of national development is PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) which will eliminate the rural-urban divide. This model can be followed by the other nations also. The Mission of PURA: The number of PURA units for the whole country is estimated to be 7000. This envisages integrated connectivities to bring prosperity to rural India. These are - physical connectivity of the village clusters through quality roads and transport; electronic connectivity through tele-communication with high bandwidth fiber optic cables reaching the rural areas from urban cities and through Internet kiosks; and knowledge connectivity through education, vocational training for farmers, artisans and craftsmen and entrepreneurship programmes. These three connectivities will lead to economic connectivity through starting of enterprises with the help of banks, micro credits and marketing of the products. Each PURA cluster will connect about 20-30 villages depending upon the region and population and will cost about Rs.100 crores. This is a viable and sustainable business proposition. After initial short-term employment during construction etc., we have to plan for initiating actions for providing regular employment and self employment opportunities in nationally competitive small enterprises in agro processing, manufacturing and services sectors for about 3000 people or more. If the industrial/business parks are marketed well, they can generate employment opportunities in support and services sector for about 10,000 people or more. This will provide sustainable economy for the rural sector. In this national mission, bankers can promote entrepreneurship in the rural areas. This will lead to the removal of urban-rural divide. It will also help to ease out the growing slums in cities by making rural areas attractive habitats. PURA as an Enterprise: A large number of banks have entrepreneurial development programmes. Banks have also been funding Small Scale Industries of different types in various regions. The small scale industrialist is a promising candidate for becoming the chief executive for managing the PURA complexes in an integrated way. PURA enterprises can also undertake management of schools, health care units, vocational training centres, chilling plants, silos and building a market, banking system and the regional business or industrial units. A new mission mode management style has to emerge for PURA enterprises. It should not be looking for protective legislations to support them. Rather they should be efficient to compete with others. This new PURA enterprise needs partnership from the bank, from the Government and also from the private entrepreneurs. Banks can train the entrepreneur for managing the PURA in their training centres and also provide them loans for creating and running PURAs as a business proposition. I would like to give a PURA model which is in operation at Vallam in Thanjavur. Periyar PURA: Recently I had visited Periyar Maniammai College of technology for women and inaugurated a PURA Complex. I thought of sharing with you the developmental concept of a cluster of over 60 villages near Vallam, Thanjavur district of Tamilnadu which involves a population of 3 lakhs. This PURA complex has all the three connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. The centre of activity emanates from the women engineering college that provides the electronic and knowledge connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centres, primary to post graduate level education and vocational training centres. This has resulted in large scale employment generation and creation of number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 850 self-help groups. Two hundred acres of waste land has been developed into a cultivable land with innovative water management schemes such as contour ponds and water sheds for storing and irrigating the fields. All the villagers are busy in either cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketing centres. This model has emanated independent of any government initiative. The committed leadership has been provided by the Engineering institution. This gives me the confidence that PURA is a realizable proposition and this movement can be multiplied by thousands of entrepreneurs, educational administrators and philanthropic institutions with the support of the government agencies Religion transforming into spirituality A message, I have received is that most Indians experienced and old, energetic and middle-aged, young and innocent, they all look to religion for solace and safety. I have also visited great many religious places and houses of worship throughout the length and breadth of this great country and I have met many of our religious leaders. The religions are like exquisite gardens, places full of surpassing beauty and tranquility, like sacred groves filled with beautiful birds and their melodious songs. I truly think that religions are beautiful gardens. They are enchanting islands, veritable oasis for the soul and the spirit. But they are islands nevertheless. How can we connect them so that the fragrance engulfs the whole universe? If we can connect all the islands with love and compassion, in a 'garland', we will have a prosperous India and prosperous world. Let me highlight how the fusion of science and religion led to the transformation of religion into spiritual force. I would like to recall an incident which happened four decades ago. As you all know, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is the visionary of space programme in the country. He is well known for his cosmic ray research area that led to evolving the space research programme for the nation. Both Dr Homi Bhabha and Prof Vikram Sarabhai were looking for a site to establish space research station in the equatorial region. These two great scientists visited a number of places. Thumba in Kerala was selected by the scientific community for space research as it was near the equatorial region and was ideally suited for ionospheric research in upper atmosphere apart from study of atmospheric structure. When Prof Vikram Sarabhai visited Thumba, the locality had series of villages and thousands of fishermen folk were living in that area. It also had a beautiful ancient church, St Mary Magdalene Church, Pallithura and a Bishop's House. Prof Vikram Sarabhai met many politicians and bureaucrats to get the place for the work of space science research. It did not move further because the nature of the place. He was asked to see the Bishop of Trivandrum, at that time in 1962, His Excellency Rct Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira. It was a Saturday when Prof Vikram Sarabhai met the Bishop. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day, ie Sunday. In the morning Service, the Bishop told the congregation, "my children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks truth by reasoning. In one way, science and spiritualism seek the same divine blessings for doing good for the people. My children, can we give the God's abode for a scientific mission?" There was a chorus of 'Amen' from the congregation and the whole church reverberated. Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962. His Excellency Rct Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Trivandrum, took the noble decision to dedicate the church in recognition of the national goal for the establishment of the Indian Space Research Organisation at Pallithura, Thumba. That was the church where we had our design centre, started rocket assembly, design of filament winding machine for FRP product and the Bishop's house was our scientists' place. Later, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) led to the establishment of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and multiple space centres throughout the country. When I think of this event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders, all converge towards giving reverence to the human life. New church and new schools were established in record time. Of course the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave the country the capability of design, development and produce world class huge rocket system and subsequently, India has the capability of launching geo-synchronous, sun-synchronous and meteorology spacecraft, communication satellite, remote sensing satellite thereby provided fast communication, weather forecasting and also locate water resources for the country. Today, among us, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is not there, Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira is not there, but those who are responsible for creation and make the flower and blossom will themselves be a different kind of a flower as described in the Bhagwat Gita: "See the flower, how generously it distributes perfume and honey. It gives to all, gives freely of its love. When its work is done, it falls away quietly. Try to be like the flower, unassuming despite all its qualities". What a beautiful message for all generation of this nation, on integration of minds and universal mind. Enlightened citizen centric society As you all know, the United Nations was established in 1945 after the Second World War with the mission of bringing peace among nations and resolving conflicts as they arise so that war will not be waged between nation to nation. What the world has witnessed today is that two major unilateral wars have taken place in spite of the United Nations. Hence, we need a world body which can facilitate bringing peace, prosperity and knowledge to the nations, irrespective of the economic status of a particular nation. Indeed the vision of the new world body has to be facilitating the evolution of enlightened citizen in the planet. Friends, I have discussed so far the evolution of enlightened citizen with its dimensions of education with value system, national development and religion transforming into spirituality. Since this JNU is a place of intellectuals with economic and societal concern, I put forth these thoughts for your discussion. Definitely, you can get in touch with me through my website www.presidentofindia.nic.in. Conclusion: Modern Nalanda Now I would like to recall an incident, which happened during one of my visits after becoming the President. During my tour to the State of Bihar, among other programmes I visited various spiritual places, Bodh Gaya, and the famous Nalanda University. I walked through the monument and I saw a big hostel, a beautiful study hall of Buddhist philosophy and the college where teachers and students from nearly 63 countries used to study in theology, religion and spiritualism. Why it happened in this country in the 5th century AD? Our civilizational heritage attracted students from various parts of the world. Similarly time has come an institution like JNU has become a place of learning and research in attracting students from many part of the world. Great teachers of the university attract the best students. JNU can have a vision of becoming a modern Nalanda. Every one of us has gone through the various phases of education from childhood to profession. A scene appears in front of me. When the child is empowered by the parents, at various phases of growth, the child transforms into a responsible citizen. When the teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems take shape. When individual or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When the leader of any institution empowers his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas. When the women are empowered, society with stability gets assured. When the political leaders of the nation empower the people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain. The medium for transformation to developed India is the empowerment at various levels with power of knowledge of the enlightened citizens. My best wishes to all of you in your creative educational mission. May God bless you. --------------------------------- ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! --------------------------------- Yahoo! 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URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050119/8e005284/attachment.html From arkitect95 at yahoo.co.in Wed Jan 19 23:35:04 2005 From: arkitect95 at yahoo.co.in (arkitect95) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:05:04 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] [arkitectindia] Re: Pondering and Wondering In-Reply-To: <003301c4fde1$e4902f60$7400a8c0@vishwa> Message-ID: I am realy admire Shaheen's deep thought... but even i have a question to raise (and i think a valid one too) how long we will continue blaming govt.??? how long we continue demanding a just society for all??? what is it that we are doing to make our surrounding a better place to live???? is it not that we should also introspect???? can anyone answer ishita shruti ishitashruti at yahoo.com --- In arkitectindia at yahoogroups.com, "Vishwa Deepak" wrote: > Dear Shaheen > > Certainly this posting has made me ponder and wonder about the priorities. I strongly feel that we are responsible for whatever has been happening around! Education has not been priority or let me put it in this way that the governmental education system has not been in our minds and given an opportunity we all would have loved to study in some flashy convent and public school without even thinking what is happening to the children in the next house. > > We as citizens of India have never created pressure on the government for quality by utilising its welfare services for which we pay in way of taxes. The broken road, erratic power and water supply all feature on front pages of the news papers the minute we face major problem with it because it cuts through our veins and we make noise. Noise makes it a priority issue that turns into action - whether taken by government or by anyone else. > > Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan was announced in headlines of the news papers when it was initiated and also the news read that it was supported by the World Bank through soft loan to the country. Hardly there was any talk as most of us are busy with our bread and how to add little more butter and cheese on it. No one asked question that what's the advantage of feeding an old and sick goat that is already in death-bed. So called experts are happy since Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan brought them some more business, which as expert is their priority. > > Who cares... is our attitude unless the knife is put on our throat. we all are happy talking the issue since it is quite an stimulant. How many of us are ready to send our children into a school run by the government. Response to this question will also answer many unanswered questions. > > > Vishwa > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: shaheen ansari > To: arkitectindia at yahoogroups.com > Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 1:15 AM > Subject: [arkitectindia] Pondering and Wondering > > > Pondering and Wondering > > > > Sometime raising a right question is more important than a wrong answer. It is in this process I raise some questions in the hope that your responses will enhance my understanding. > > > > Think of these questions assuming India is a family and we are its siblings. What should be the criteria of apportioning priority to the different needs and demands of the various members of the family? > > > > Do you think it is acceptable to go and buy a TV or home theatre while one of your brothers or sisters is dying of hunger? Can anyone indulge in anniversary celebrations leaving his/her children suffering from some acute illness that demands immediate attention? > > > > I would like you to consider the following: > > > > 1. The disproportionate expenditure our country spends on 'nice things', sports, recreation etc; > > 2. The disproportionate expenditure our government spends on critical things, like educating its sons and daughters; > > 3. The exorbitant expenditure on post-colonial celebrations like Independence Day and Republic Day etc; > > 4. Why there is such disparity in already scarce funds: 14 % expenditure on defense versus a measly 3.2% of GDP on education. > > It seems that we cannot, or do not wish to, learn from history. When Westerners were building Oxford, we were building the Taj Mahal. When they were building airplanes we were founding the Muslim League (1906 in Shimal) and Hindu Sabha (1908 in Punjab). There are hundreds of such examples. And now when they are building space shuttles and going to Mars and other planets we are busy in mobilizing and dividing people into religions factions so they can gain 'access' to heaven. I ask you: just where are we going? > > > > I have nothing against the Taj, or mosques or temples per se, I simply do not understand the prime objective of our ruling class. Where are the projects for the masses? > > > > The budget allocation for different sectors tells us that our father and mother are clearly lethargic about educating us. This is not acceptable, given the most critical change agent is in society is EDUCATION. > > > > A question has been haunting me ever since I read two news items in a magazine - one about death by hunger and about the exorbitant price- more than Rs.100 crore- to get one Olympic silver medal. The one event. > > > > Rs.100 crore was spent on organizing things for and in Athens. Grooming sports people took months and years of preparation to reach eligibility for entry to Athens Olympic Village. Think of other sport events where so many rupees are being spent. > > > > If we dare to surf the web and do some pretty rudimentary analysis of events in the year 2004 we can amass many mind-boggling facts such as the one above. > > > > Don't get me wrong. I am not against sport. I have been a basketball player and represented my school and university teams on many occasions. But here with the help of arkitectindia group I am trying to understand a very basic question. > > > > Where should a family head? > > How should our Mother and Father spend money specifically allocated for its children? > > What are their priorities? And for whom? > > > > I think Mum and Dad have some favourites. Consider the following: > > · In West Bengal people were dying of hunger after eating some roots of trees. The roots may be of poisonous in nature but they had no option as there was no food supply. Why? > > · Several members of a tribal community in Orissa fell sick after eating mango kernels and a few of them died. It was reported that there was a shortage of food but mango kernels were the only option left with them. NDTV reported that the grains were being eaten by rats in the government godowns because of the lack of and inefficiency of communication and transportation facilities. Why? > > · Thousands of farmers in Andhra Pradesh and adjoining areas committed suicide. Why? > > · Every year we witness hundred and thousands of people who die either of hot wind (loo) or cold breeze. Don't say that the government does not know that every year summer comes, every year winter comes and also every year rain comes. But still there is no provision or programme to tackle this menace. Go out on the streets of Delhi and you will find people lying on the pavements waiting for the sun or death. But will the government built night shelters in different parts of the city? It does not require much - just a covered hall. It comes down to priorities: night shelters Vs. one medal, or you could read it this way: unwanted poor lot Vs. elite sportspersons. Is anybody listening right there in the sport ministry? > > · We belong to a country whose government even can't provide primary education to its children. What a shame! January 26th is coming. There is a huge budget to celebrate Independence Day and Republic Day. If we make it a simple affair and invest all the money in building schools and industries the government can create lakhs of job opportunities for its unemployed citizens every year. But again it is a matter of priority. Who cares? > > · There is no commitment to provide adequate funds for fulfilling the cumulative gap built up since the Education Commission’s recommendations in 1964-66 within a ten-year timeframe. In case of elementary education, it was to fulfill this cumulative gap that the Tapas Majumdar Committee (1999) recommended an additional funding of Rs. 13,700 crores per year for the next ten years which amounts to about 0.6% of the current level of GDP. This investment will be required for bringing all out-of-school children to formal school system. Is 0.6% of the GDP is too high to invest in primary education? > > · We conducted a survey in Dhapo Colony Slum, New Delhi where we were running an education centre there. One question concerned patterns of expenditure. We were shocked to discover the responses of sizeable numbers of respondents whose daily average income was less than Rs75. For them, drink was an important item on the shopping list. And any extra money would be spent on boozing or other sorts of non-productive activities. But like the government of India they also don't have money to send their children to school. There is no concept of saving or investment. Of course there are some exceptional mothers and fathers who think about the future of their children. But not enough. > > · The government has introduced Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which provides low quality parallel educational streams. It is, in the words of Prof. Anil Sadgopal, anti-child, anti-poor and anti- education, for which we are paying for with a loan (remember it is a LOAN) from the World Bank, a loan laden with their conditions. Is there no shame in this? The fact that we cannot, will not, spend our scarce financial resources on educating our children? Where is the spirit 'development' in all this? > > · Do you think our government has the right to be such frivolous conspicuous consumers? We are a republic, we're independent, let’s throw a party! These are expensive, one-day PR events, VIP soirees for the elite, and propaganda for the dumb masses that we've got something to smile about, as tens of thousands of children turned up to school the day before the party to find that their teacher simply decided not to get out of bed. > > · Shall we demand the Government of India to stop these celebrations till, at least, we are able to give the future of India a decent education and employment to those who can and will work? > > > > God help us to change. > > To change ourselves and to change our world. > > To know the need for it. > > To deal with the pain of it. > > To feel the joy of it. > > To undertake "the journey without understanding the destination. > > The art of Gentle Revolution" (Michael Leunig) > > > > I ask members of this e-group to enlighten me, and others like me, who can't understand the 'simple' logic of our Mother and Father who leave some of us to die in one place and invests so much to nurture others. I am confused between necessity and luxury. Kindly throw some light on it - because I know darkness is nothing but the absence of light. > > > > Thanks for patiently reading and considering. > > Kind Regards, > > Shaheen > > shaheen at m... > > > > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- > Sign up for Private, FREE email from Mail.ie at http://www.mail.ie > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- > Yahoo! Groups Links > > a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/ > > b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > arkitectindia-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com > > c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give the gift of life to a sick child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/lGEjbB/6WnJAA/E2hLAA/VaTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: arkitectindia-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From CYM01760 at nifty.ne.jp Wed Jan 19 13:51:39 2005 From: CYM01760 at nifty.ne.jp (=?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCMk8+ZSEhPV87UhsoQg==?=) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 17:21:39 +0900 Subject: [Reader-list] Idgah problem Message-ID: <20050119172139.f8a06e0.32349@nifty.ne.jp> to MRS ritka I am japanese writer,Junko Uchizawa. I am reserching about slaughtering work in the world. In japan, however most people eat meat,there is discrimination against the work. I have seen slaughterhouse in Iran,Egypt, Indonesia,Chez,Korea,and Japan. And now Iam in New Dehli to see Idgha Slaughterhouse. I did today. I saw your message. very interesting, If you are living in delhi, can I have any interview to you? and I can bring infomation about slaughterhouse in Tokyo. That is in just central Tokyo business urban area,named Shinagawa. It is quite rare case in the world. I will go back to TOkyo at 26 afternoon. I am staying in Pahar Ganji. I am waiting for your responce as soon as possible. tomorrow I will go to Ghajipur. best regards, Junko Uchizawa 81-3-5814-5705 phone tokyo now in anoop hotel (9:00I will be back to hotel) From ritika at sarai.net Thu Jan 20 22:53:29 2005 From: ritika at sarai.net (Ritika) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 22:53:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Idgah problem In-Reply-To: <20050119172139.f8a06e0.32349@nifty.ne.jp> References: <20050119172139.f8a06e0.32349@nifty.ne.jp> Message-ID: <41EFE911.4010602@sarai.net> (IN CASE IT IS NOT A SPAM MAIL....) Dear Junko, I'll be glad to meet you. Just call me and we can fix a day. My office address: 29 rajour Road SARAI/CSDS ph: 23960040, extn (23) ???? wrote: > to MRS ritka > > I am japanese writer,Junko Uchizawa. > I am reserching about slaughtering work in the world. > In japan, however most people eat meat,there is discrimination > against the work. > > I have seen slaughterhouse in Iran,Egypt, Indonesia,Chez,Korea,and Japan. > > And now Iam in New Dehli to see Idgha Slaughterhouse. > I did today. > I saw your message. very interesting, > > If you are living in delhi, > can I have any interview to you? > and I can bring infomation about slaughterhouse in Tokyo. > That is in just central Tokyo business urban area,named Shinagawa. > It is quite rare case in the world. > > I will go back to TOkyo at 26 afternoon. > > I am staying in Pahar Ganji. > > I am waiting for your responce as soon as possible. > > tomorrow I will go to Ghajipur. > > best regards, > > Junko Uchizawa > 81-3-5814-5705 phone tokyo > > now in anoop hotel (9:00I will be back to hotel) > _________________________________________ > 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: -- Ritika Shrimali The Sarai Programme http://blog.sarai.net/users/ritika What good is that life which does not get provoked or provokes. Gottfried Benn From vijender_chauhan at hotmail.com Thu Jan 20 18:21:12 2005 From: vijender_chauhan at hotmail.com (vijender chauhan) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:21:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Lucidly (Un)Lucy Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050120/846235a2/attachment.html From soudhamini_1 at lycos.com Fri Jan 21 15:10:34 2005 From: soudhamini_1 at lycos.com (sou dhamini) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 04:40:34 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Madurai Message-ID: <20050121094034.7524EE5BC7@ws7-2.us4.outblaze.com> Hi, I’m giving below, a brief abstract of my project along with my first posting. MADURAI Representations Old and New. Project Abstract An image of a city in people’s minds is made up as much by statistical facts as by associations. In the Tamil consciousness, Madurai is the First City, not Madras/Chennai. Pandyan capital, seat of the Sangam, temple town, home of the jasmine flower - malli, and ‘sungudi’ sari, Madurai is both a mythic city and a real one. I use the word myth, in the sense that Roland Barthes does, as ‘a kind of speech.’ Like speech, myth is consensual and generative. It stays in parlance and determines people’s ideas and behaviour towards the world around them. It determines for instance whether they feel a sense of belonging or alienation in a city, as inhabitant or visitor. What I seek to do is not to de-bunk the myth, but to become aware of its many layers of significance. The image of the city that will then emerge will be ideational rather than merely physical, prismatic rather than two or even three dimensional. I will be studying earlier images of the city as represented in public culture – and attempting to create my own, on digital video – ultimately, for public television. First Pitch I want to approach the city from two directions. From outside – as a visitor, researcher, explorer. And from the inside, through the character of a young (fictional) girl growing up there. Both positions are ambivalent. The outsider may feel a sense of belonging because what he/she ( I don’t know yet if this is a person or just a voice or roving eye or a mere sub-title or what?) is relating to is an idea of the city which he(for the moment lets keep it this way) has gleaned from books, from songs, from movies, from critical enquiry and a concerted effort to understand. The insider on the other hand may feel alienated, because the city and its hidden codes which I call ‘culture’, do not accommodate her personal desires and needs. So her concerted effort has to be to cleave her way through the culture and re-configure it to suit her requirements. At the same time, as an object of study, the city may confound the researcher at many levels. The reality of present day Madurai may contradict what he has come to expect of the ‘mythic’ city from his various sources. While the young girl, discovering/forging her niche space within its hidden recesses, or even in the familiar license with which she demands acknowledgement/ acceptance (as one does with one’s parents) may unravel its innards with the ease of a biologist. Another way of seeing the outside inside question is to state it this way. The researcher supposes the city is outside himself. The girl has to shed the city that conditions/holds her in thrall, to emerge as a person. Between these two – not opposing but complementary - lines of force, the city should unfurl with its own being/reality, on screen. At least that’s the intention. Method The fiction tends to write itself out. Peeps in over my shoulder all the while that I’m poring over stuff and then settles down as image tracts in my mind when I’m ‘doing nothing’. I like to think of this process as reflection – in the physics sense of the term. That the mind throws back, with an equal degree of intensity, what has assaulted it as incident rays of information input. Or maybe refraction is a better term, for it’s really as if it passes through another medium and emerges deflected. That’s why I like the idea of the prism rather than the lens, for the mind. For the rest, I’m just reading for the moment. Just finished a really well written book (in Tamil) called “Society in the Sangam Times”. Was really pleasantly surprised because I had no notion cultural anthropology was ‘on’ in Tamil scholarship. But this book by K.Subramanian, published by New Century Book House in 1982, does a fantastic study of the Sangam times (about 500 B.C. to roughly 300 A.D.) as a transition period between tribal society and the first settlers. He traces remnants of the tribal way of life in people’s continued belief - in magic and mana, animism and fetishism, all barely getting overlaid by primitive religion, in the presence (though transmuted) of totems and taboos, in the process of the formation of primitive myths, right under our noses so to speak, and in the practise of rituals – dances, ceremonies and sacrifices and the gradual shift from matriarchy to patriarchy. He also studies social constructs like ways of eating, the role and identity of the leader, and very interestingly, the role of the artist – and patronage. I’m not sure if its state of the art cultural anthropology but its definitely strong on fundamentals Besides other Tamil scholars, he quotes extensively from Morgan, Engels, Frazer, D.D.Kosambi, E.O.James and Raymond Firth. His source texts incidentally are the Sangam poems. Again, I am not sure if creative writing should be taken as historical evidence – this will soon become crucial to my own work too – but in the quotations that he uses it is pretty easy to distinguish the ‘poetic conceit’ from the authentic detail. It is reassuring to know that documentary and fiction are not seen as polarities within this tradition but as environment and – flower? An important idea I gleaned from this book is that the origin of the city as we know it, the ‘urban consciousness’, appears first in the riverine, agricultural settlement, ( so much for the rural-urban divide!) with the beginnings of a surplus economy. When it becomes possible for one man – who will become king – to live by others’ labour – agricultural/trade, military and intellectual labour. The first cities were high rise structures with divisive fortification – against enemies but also beyond the common man. And the first urban art forms came to be performed for audiences – the king and his family, the militia and the ministry. Until then, there was no audience. Everyone was an artiste, singing and dancing together. This is an important distinction for me. There is also in this deceptively simple book, another crucial chapter which we at Sarai should find very relevant. This is a chapter on networking spaces within Sangam society. Its tough – almost impossible – to give the flavour of the original words. Irukkai - sitting together – is the tribal collective that apparently took place everyday in the morning , when the whole tribe met along with the tribal chief, who sat as one among them, and planned the day’s forays for food. This came to be called Naal Irukkai – sitting together in the day. And invariably they drank. Hence the added epithet – Naal magizhirukkai. Magizh is a lovely word with resonances of both joy and wine. And then they danced – a ritual dance in preparation for the hunt or to appease a god or to pray for rain. And then in the evening they danced again, in celebration or in thanksgiving. And all these were networking activities in which the whole community participated. The television today is for me precisely such a space. It is completely incidental that there is a sophisticated technology behind it and literally between the audience and performer. The pitch of television is such that it creates a community. Its aesthetics are functional, its content the stuff of life itself, everyone is a hero on TV. And yes, we watch it daily. Where it falls short, and significantly so, is in providing ritual content. Which is where I come in, female shaman of the urban jungle, about to blow away the cobwebs of dry habit (no one has fears any more) from people’s minds. Devaratti - she who shook the gods, I would have been called in Sangam times! Do write in with any comments, suggestions, recommendations. Could we retain the subject title of Madurai on all mails on this topic for quick access. I’m traveling over the next two weeks but will read carefully on return. Looking forward and best regards, Soudhamini -- _______________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 From abhi1200 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Jan 20 20:50:09 2005 From: abhi1200 at yahoo.co.uk (Abhishek Sharma) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 07:20:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Story behind the Colorization of Mughal-E-Azam - FIRST POSTING Message-ID: <20050120152009.60015.qmail@web25007.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear Members, Hello, this is Abhishek Sharma from Mumbai, presenting my first posting on the reader list as part of the Independent Fellowship project titled; Colorization of Mughal-E-Azam (MEA). My project deals with the story behind one of the biggest comebacks in world cinema. Last year in the month of November the history repeated itself' this time in Color! Legendary film maker K.Asif's magnum opus; MEA opened to packed houses all over the nation in its new digitaly enhanced and colorized avataar. This fellowship study focuses on researching and documenting the creative, technical and commercial significance of this phenomenal film. To tell you breifly about myself, I am a graduate from National School of Drama and currently working as a project developer in the Hindi film industry. I, being a part of what they call "bollywood", completely understand the significance of this event. In this regard, I started my communication with Mr.Deepesh Salgia of Sterling Investments, who worked as the project Director for MEA Color. He has been kind enough to share with me the entire experience of handling the most complicated colorization process in the history of world cinema. For record, the technical teams had to work extensively on 300,000 picture frames to get the whole film in color. I have already started my communication and meetings with all the top technicians and creative persons involved in this project and must say that what these men have achieved through this film is simply unprecedented in the motion picture history. It is not only the colorization but also the complicated sound re recording on the Dolby 6.1 mix sound track, which puts this film as the first of its kind on the world map. The inspiration behind all this mammoth exercise is no one else but the late K.Asif himself, who wanted his epic love story to be seen in color. His dream has been materialized in the 21st Century and this film has comeback to rule the Box office once again. My project will cover this historical comeback from the very begining, tracing the very origin of the idea, the complicated process of restoring each and every damaged frame of the film, the detailed craft of colorization, the conversion of mono sound to Dolby digital surround sound, the extensive and unique publicity campaign and finally the result at the box office. This is currently the first and only documentation of the making of the colorized MEA and finally I want to get it published as a book. I hope it will be appreciated by all cinema lovers around the world. Looking forward to suggestions and feedback. Yours' Sincerely ABHISHEK SHARMA --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050120/56ad5f5d/attachment.html From mahmoodfarooqui at yahoo.com Wed Jan 19 15:03:23 2005 From: mahmoodfarooqui at yahoo.com (mahmoodfarooqui at yahoo.com) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 15:03:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Interpreting the divine Message-ID: Dear reader list, Your friend mahmood has sent you this feature from www.mid-day.com. If you wish to view it, click the hyperlink below. Interpreting the divine www.mid-day.com. - We deliver Mumbai -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050119/8ea2e547/attachment.html From mahmoodfarooqui at yahoo.com Wed Jan 19 15:38:33 2005 From: mahmoodfarooqui at yahoo.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 02:08:33 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] dastangoi Message-ID: <20050119100834.98864.qmail@web80906.mail.scd.yahoo.com> http://ww1.mid-day.com/columns/mahmood_farooqui/2005/january/101012.htm __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 From schatte2 at ncsu.edu Thu Jan 20 22:51:51 2005 From: schatte2 at ncsu.edu (schatte2 at ncsu.edu) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 12:21:51 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Reader-list] Child friendly environment In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <60241.203.101.9.248.1106241711.squirrel@203.101.9.248> Dear Colleagues, As a new member of the SARAI community I would like to introduce my research under the SARAI-CSDS fellowship. The study being conducted under the fellowship is part of a longer field research for my PhD dissertation. The following abstract explains the project. Abstract: Children’s Friendship with Place: Investigating Environmental Child Friendliness for Children in New Delhi Despite considerable global attention on making cities child friendly, specifically through the two prominent global efforts in contexts of low-resources and rapid urbanization—UNESCO’s Growing Up in Cities (GUIC) projects in 1970s and late 1990s, and the UN Child Friendly Cities (CFC) global initiatives in the 1990s—there does not exist any empirically grounded understanding of the construct of environmental child friendliness. An established body of theoretical literature in environmental psychology, geography, planning and design, however, has proposed that children develop feelings and emotions about their everyday environments which induce powerful, positive or negative images. This literature also emphasizes the role of affect in not only explaining how children learn about places, but also, in pointing out what sorts of environments children find most satisfying. I propose place friendship as a valid form of affective place relationship in childhood that is different from the more widely studied construct of place attachment. Studying children’s place friendship will allow us to empirically investigate the meaning of child friendly places for children in cities. Such investigations will be especially meaningful in contexts that have large youthful populations such as in Indian cities, in understanding the implications of fast urbanization and environmental change for the lives of children. My study proposes that children’s perceptions of a child friendly city are made up of complex images of numerous and interlocking child-friendly places and children in evaluating places with powerful positive images use the criteria for friendship in their place narratives. The field research empirically investigates the functional and narrative possibilities of child friendly places through children’s place image, narratives, and observational studies of children’s place behavior in New Delhi. This study enriches the discourse on place relationships and child friendly cities in fast urbanizing contexts. January report: My study requires accessing a diverse cross-section of children for understanding their experiences of everyday settings. My initial idea was to work with two different schools that cater to different socio-economic backgrounds. However during my initial school scanning this month, I came across a very interesting community school that caters to different cross-sections of childhood. Some children who come here attend different government schools during the day, and use this center as a support. For other children this is a non-formal learning center. I met with the principal, the director of the NGO that runs this school in a Delhi slum, as well as the visiting pedagogical expert. I am scheduled to meet the parents next week to explain the project and seek informed consent in order for their children to participate in the study. Depending on how my meeting goes, I might drop the idea of doing another school if I manage to procure a large and diverse sample in this school itself. I also managed to pilot my interview instrument with 10-year-olds in my own neighborhood this week. As part of my ethical responsibility of doing research with human subjects, I want to respect the protective anonymity of my research respondents, participating institutions and places. Hence I will substitute all real names in my fieldnotes and interview transcripts. Sudeshna Chatterjee From schatte2 at ncsu.edu Fri Jan 21 10:46:05 2005 From: schatte2 at ncsu.edu (schatte2 at ncsu.edu) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:16:05 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Reader-list] child friendly environment Message-ID: <60204.203.101.10.105.1106284565.squirrel@203.101.10.105> Dear Colleagues, As a new member of the SARAI community I would like to introduce my research under the SARAI-CSDS fellowship. The study being conducted under the fellowship is part of a longer field research for my PhD dissertation. The following abstract explains the project. Abstract: Children’s Friendship with Place: Investigating Environmental Child Friendliness for Children in New Delhi Despite considerable global attention on making cities child friendly, specifically through the two prominent global efforts in contexts of low-resources and rapid urbanization—UNESCO’s Growing Up in Cities (GUIC) projects in 1970s and late 1990s, and the UN Child Friendly Cities (CFC) global initiatives in the 1990s—there does not exist any empirically grounded understanding of the construct of environmental child friendliness. An established body of theoretical literature in environmental psychology, geography, planning and design, however, has proposed that children develop feelings and emotions about their everyday environments which induce powerful, positive or negative images. This literature also emphasizes the role of affect in not only explaining how children learn about places, but also, in pointing out what sorts of environments children find most satisfying. I propose place friendship as a valid form of affective place relationship in childhood that is different from the more widely studied construct of place attachment. Studying children’s place friendship will allow us to empirically investigate the meaning of child friendly places for children in cities. Such investigations will be especially meaningful in contexts that have large youthful populations such as in Indian cities, in understanding the implications of fast urbanization and environmental change for the lives of children. My study proposes that children’s perceptions of a child friendly city are made up of complex images of numerous and interlocking child-friendly places and children in evaluating places with powerful positive images use the criteria for friendship in their place narratives. The field research empirically investigates the functional and narrative possibilities of child friendly places through children’s place image, narratives, and observational studies of children’s place behavior in New Delhi. This study enriches the discourse on place relationships and child friendly cities in fast urbanizing contexts. January report: My study requires accessing a diverse cross-section of children for understanding their experiences of everyday settings. My initial idea was to work with two different schools that cater to different socio-economic backgrounds. However during my initial school scanning this month, I came across a very interesting community school that caters to different cross-sections of childhood. Some children who come here attend different government schools during the day, and use this center as a support. For other children this is a non-formal learning center. I met with the principal, the director of the NGO that runs this school in a Delhi slum, as well as the visiting pedagogical expert. I am scheduled to meet the parents next week to explain the project and seek informed consent in order for their children to participate in the study. Depending on how my meeting goes, I might drop the idea of doing another school if I manage to procure a large and diverse sample in this school itself. I also managed to pilot my interview instrument with 10-year-olds in my own neighborhood this week. As part of my ethical responsibility of doing research with human subjects, I want to respect the protective anonymity of my research respondents, participating institutions and places. Hence I will substitute all real names in my fieldnotes and interview transcripts. Sudeshna Chatterjee From sovantarafder at yahoo.co.in Fri Jan 21 16:23:04 2005 From: sovantarafder at yahoo.co.in (sovan tarafder) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 10:53:04 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Fun in the time of Development Message-ID: <20050121105304.6057.qmail@web8502.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear all, This is my first posting and will not be a lengthy one. Hope you have already gone through my proposal abstract (which I sent to Vivek a few days back), so I won't be re-iterating the same story. I'm going to write, for the first installment, about what drove me to the present project. "As Partha Chattopadhyay has argued, since the 1990s, Indian cities have been abuzz with the cry to rid the city of encroachers and polluters only to give the city back to the proper citizen (Chatterjee 2003; 178)". This essay made me ponder over the properness of the citizenship. What are the proper citizens doing here in Kolkata? I found that the graph of urban fun and frolic in the city has been on the rise since the 1990s. I decided to explore the kind of fun the now proverbial city of joy has been reveling in. On an official assignment, I wrote a story on the changing face of city's entertainment in Anandabazar Patrika back in 2001. At that time, I didn't come across Chattopadhyay's essay, which is a fairly recent one. The seed of thought however was sown. Chatterjee's essay really stirred my thought. In this project I seek to explore if there is any relation between developmentality and the funtastic face of Kolkata. All the new fun spots are away from the central portions of the city, for quite understandable reason. Lack of space. But being positioned at the outskirts of the city proper, as I found, gives these spot an added attraction. The promise of an ambience a la rural, that dangles the evanescent hope of getting rejuvenated. But then, what about the current real estate boom in the city where almost all promoters and developers dish out the promise of being located in a village (though a highly comfortable one!) that is situated within the well-connected city ambience. How do these rural and urban interpenetrate? Does the specter of rural haunt the urban? How do these fun spaces fall into the map of development of the city? These are some of the questions that I am going to explore in the coming few months. Hope I'll be enriched with your valuable comments. Reference: Chatterjee, Partha (2003), Are Indian Cities becoming bourgeois at last? in Body.City: Siting Contemporary Culture in India (Ed. Indira Chandrashekhar and Peter C. Ceel) The House of World Cultures, Berlin and Tulika Books. Thanks Sovan Tarafder. Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050121/4bbe556f/attachment.html From maheshradhakrishnan at gmail.com Sat Jan 22 08:33:12 2005 From: maheshradhakrishnan at gmail.com (Mahesh Radhakrishnan) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 08:33:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] job opportunities Message-ID: <653e42dd05012119037e340cb5@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Praktikum/ Mitarbeit Medien- architektur/design/informatik 19.01.2005 / jan 19th 2005 please forward; good until feb 4th 2005 bitte weitergeben; haltbar bis 4.2.2005 Praktikum /Mitarbeit: Medien- architektur/design/informatik apprenticeship/ student job: media- architecture/design/informatics (English description further down) Thema: Architektur, Design, Kommunikation, (Medien-)Informatik, Animation, Film, Kunst,... Zur Grundlagenforschung im Bereich "Medienarchitektur" suchen wir Praktikanten bzw. studentische Mitarbeiter. Forschungsthema ist die Übersetzungen von 2 dimensionalen Bildern und Filmen in dreidimensionale Objekte, Räume und Verhaltensweisen. Das erstreckt sich von der Entwicklung von Grundsatzkonzepten in Bezug auf die medialen "Inhalte" und die Systematik die räumliche Übersetzung bis zur Entwicklung von konkreten (Echtzeit-) 3D Simulationsprogrammen zur Unterstützung künstlerischer und architektonischer Entwicklungsarbeit an konkreten Kunst- und Architekturprojekten. Voraussetzungen: Eine Vorbildung in einschlägigen Programmen oder zumindest das explizite Interesse an der Arbeit mit verschiedenen 3D Animations/ Echtzeit Computerprogrammen inklusive Skripten und ggf. auch Programmierung ist eine willkommene Voraussetzung. Z.b. a) 3d Modeling/ Animationssoftware, wie z.B. 3DStudioMax, Maya, SoftImage, Cinema4D,... und b) Echtzeit 3D Simulationssoftware, wie Blender, Blitz, Quest3d, Virtools,... c) Animations und Videobearbeitungssoftware, wie After Effects, MaxMsp Jitter, Flash... Arbeitsform: Die Natur der Forschung setzt Neugier und die Fähigkeit zur selbstständigen Erkundung neuer Themen und Technologien voraus. (Achtung: kein "typischer Praktikantenjob", bei dem im Wesentlichen Routineaufgaben eines Betriebs erlernt und nach Schema abgearbeitet werden.) Dauer und Perspektive: Vollzeit; im Büro von realities:united in Berlin; Mindestdauer 4-6 Monate, je nach Vorkenntnissen; Vergütung nach Vereinbarung; Beginn: ab sofort. Das Forschungsprojekt wird vom Büro realities:united getragen mit der Perspektive auf die Einrichtung eines permanenten Arbeitsbereiches und dazugehörigen permanent beschäftigten Mitarbeitern. Bei Interesse Bewerbung bitte via Email an: realities:united / Tim Edler und Jan Edler info at realu.de http://www.realu.de/ -------------------------------------------------- please forward; good until feb 4th 2005 apprenticeship/ student job: media- architecture/design/informatics Topic: architecture, design, communication, programming, animation, video for research on topics in the area of "media architecture" we need support in form of an apprenticeship / student job We'll be dealing with the translation between moving images and 3D spaces, objects and behaviors. Work will cover development of raw concepts up to building of software tools for concrete architectural or artistic projects (…) Preconditions: Skills and interest in 3D realtime/ animation applications inclusive scripting and programming is very welcome. For example: a) 3d modeling/ animation software, like 3DStudioMax, Maya, SoftImage, Cinema4D,... and b) realtiome 3D simulation software, wie Blender, Blitz, Quest3d, Virtools,... c) 2D animations and video editing software, like After Effects, MaxMsp Jitter, Flash... Details: Fulltime at realities:united in Berlin; at least 4-6 month dep. on skills; symbolic salary is to be negotiated; begin immediately. The current project is carried by realities:united aiming at creating a permanent department and real employment apply at realities:united / Tim Edler und Jan Edler info at realu.de http://www.realu.de From mahmoodfarooqui at yahoo.com Sat Jan 22 13:11:51 2005 From: mahmoodfarooqui at yahoo.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:41:51 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] first posting In-Reply-To: <41EE37F5.9050607@sarai.net> Message-ID: <20050122074151.14171.qmail@web80901.mail.scd.yahoo.com> MAHMOOD FAROOQUI- FIRST POSTING for sarai fellowship on Dastangoi: The Culture of Story telling in Urdu. While I have been aware of the existence of something called Dastans in Urdu literature, I had never mustered courage to pick up the odd volume that I chanced upon. A large-sized book in arcane print, often illegible, they always occupied the fringes of what was handed down to me as literary heritage. One was supposed to read them to improve one�s Urdu. One heard of an assortment of names, Qissa Chahar Darvesh, Bagh-o-Bahar, Fasana-e-Ajaib that fell under the Dastani tradtition but even when I read a little bit about their production, when studying Urdu literary tradtitions at University, I never grasped the scale of their publication. Dastans were oral narration, much longer than a simple tale or Qissa, that usually centred around the exploits of the fictionalized personality of an Uncle of Prophet Mohammed, Amir Hamza and his family as they battle against infidel and pretentious Gods to establish the sway of righteous faith. Popular in most parts of the Islamic world, the oral narration relied usually on a single volume tale called Dastan-e-Amir Hamza that was written by a variety of people in most parts of the Islamic world. However, as I discovered when interacting with S R Faruqi, the pre-eminent modern Urdu critic, that in India this simple, one-volume story was so embellished that it stretched to a whopping 46 volumes by the legendary Nawal Kishore Press of Lucknow in the nineteenth century. Each of those volumes is a thousand pages or more, which in its totality is certainly the longest single fictional narrative composed in Urdu and probably one of the longest in the world. This huge body of work, volumes of which were published until the 1940s, has today so vanished from our memory that not a single library in the country today has the entire 46 volume set. Further, the syllabi of Urdu in Universities prefer to gloss over this huge corpus. In the name of Dastans what is taught there is a single volume pr�s, Mir Aman�s Bagh-o-Bahar, prepared and suitably edited and bowdlerized by the colonial Orientalists at Fort William College. Yet, this mammoth literature sprang from an oral tradition and its recitation was an important cultural practice for Indo-Islamic regimes well after the onset of colonialism. We have not only neglected their literary status, we have also ignored their unique place in our dramatic and performative tradition, for Dastangos, the narrator-composer of Dastans were usually highly accomplished actors who combined mimicry, ventriloquism, pantomime and voice modulation to command the complete attention of their audience. Last week I went to meet a scholar of medieval Hindi-Urdu romance traditions. He told me about an exhibition based on the Hamzanama, the illustrated text of the story commissioned by Akbar that was the first major art project undertaken in the young MUghal Empire. His guess is that the large size of the folios in that exhibition, as well as the fact that episodes drawn are written at the back, mean that the Dastango would stand behind the panel-folio narrating the tale and they would be changed as the scenery and action changed. Dastangoi as practice was then perhaps a proto form of Television. My idea in this project is two fold. To draw attention to this mammoth and criminally neglected part of our artistic heritage. And to explore the possibility of an enactment-performace that gives us a window to its popularity. Before this project I have been involved with the electronic and print media, where I have freelanced as a columnist and have acted in a feature film. Earlier, I did a degree in M Phil in modern Indian History. I hope to use the material and resources thrown up by this study to make a film about the tradition. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail From sudhir at circuit.sarai.net Sat Jan 22 13:33:17 2005 From: sudhir at circuit.sarai.net (sudhir at circuit.sarai.net) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 09:03:17 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] Call for Papers Message-ID: <3520.163.1.43.132.1106380997.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Apologies for cross posting! WRITING COMPETITION AND CALL FOR PAPERS The Global Flow of Information: A Conference on Law, Culture and Political Economy April 1-3, 2005, Yale Law School The Yale Law School Information Society Project (ISP), The Yale Journal of Law & Technology (YJoLT) and the International Journal of Communications Law and Policy (IJCLP) are pleased to announce their second interdisciplinary writing competition and a call for papers, in conjunction with The Global Flow of Information Conference taking place on April 1-3, 2005 at Yale Law School. We invite students, scholars, policy makers, activists and practitioners to submit papers for the writing competition and/or for publication by YJoLT/IJCLP. Conference Description Patterns of information flow are one of the most important factors shaping globalization. Today individuals, groups, countries, and international organizations are trying to promote and control the flow of different kinds of information across national borders— information ranging from intellectual property and scientific research to political discourse, brand names and cultural symbols. And digitally networked environments subject information to ever new methods of distribution and manipulation. Fights over information flow are going to help define who holds power in the global information economy. The groundbreaking conference on Global Flows of Information, will explore these emerging patterns of information flow, and their political, economic, social, and cultural consequences. We will be looking at the following key questions in six different contexts: (1) governance; (2) economics; (3) culture; (4) politics; (5) science; (6) warfare: • Can the flow of information across borders be controlled? If so, how? • Whose interests are going to be affected by flows of information across borders? Who will be empowered and who will lose influence and authority? • What role can or should law play in securing freedoms, rights, and democratic accountability as individuals, groups, and nations struggle over control of information flows? • What lessons can we learn about how to regulate information flow from past experience with other kinds of flow across borders— for example, flows of goods, services, people, and capital? For a full conference description, list of speakers, schedule, and resources, please visit the Yale ISP web site (http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/). Writing Competition Submissions for the writing competition must be received by noon EST, February 1st, 2005. The author of the best paper, as well as two runners-up will be invited to present their work at a panel during the conference. The selection committee is composed of the editorial boards of YJoLT and IJCLP. The author of the winning paper will receive coverage of his/her travel to and accommodations at Yale University for the conference. Selected papers will be announced by March 1st, 2005. The authors of the award-winning papers will automatically be invited to publish their work in special Fall 2005 volumes of the Yale Journal of Law & Technology (http://yjolt.org) and the International Journal of Communications Law and Policy (http://www.ijclp.org) devoted to the conference topic. Journal Publication All submissions to the writing competition are automatically considered for journal publication as well. Authors unable to submit papers by the writing competition deadline may still submit articles for publication in the Fall 2005 IJCLP/YJoLT volume by noon EST, May 1st, 2005. Authors will be notified of acceptance by June 1st, 2005. The journals reserve the right to decide which journal will publish which work, based on the journals' respective audiences and editorial expertise. Submission Guidelines All submissions should be written in English in .doc or .pdf format. They should conform to academic citation standards, be no longer than 25,000 words, and include an abstract of up to 250 words. Submissions should be e-mailed simultaneously to Simone Bonetti (simo.bonetti at tiscalinet.it) and Boris Rotenberg (boris_rotenberg at yahoo.it), lead editors IJCLP; as well as to Lawrence Cogswell (lawrence.cogswell at yale.edu), Editor-in-Chief, YJoLT. Inquiries may be addressed to any of the above. From soudhamini_1 at lycos.com Sat Jan 22 20:32:54 2005 From: soudhamini_1 at lycos.com (sou dhamini) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:02:54 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] madurai 2 Message-ID: <20050122150254.99CC5C6146@ws7-5.us4.outblaze.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050122/aeaa8697/attachment.html From joy at sarai.net Sat Jan 22 19:44:49 2005 From: joy at sarai.net (joy at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 15:14:49 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] Gopal & Rakhal Message-ID: <1111.203.101.3.160.1106403289.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> There are two people, Gopal and Rakhal. Gopal works in a free software company like Red Hat. Earns a good living, spends all the money on himself and enjoys his life. Rakhal works in a proprietary software company like Microsoft. Earns a good living, supports two unemployed friends and lives a simple life. I am wondering who is more interesting to look at? Best Joy From sananth at sancharnet.in Sun Jan 23 10:27:11 2005 From: sananth at sancharnet.in (Ananth) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 10:27:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Changing Culture of Business: The Informal Sector and Finance Business in Vijayawada Message-ID: <6.1.0.6.0.20050123083538.02808600@smma.sancharnet.in> The Culture of Business: The Informal Sector and the Finance Business - First Month Research Report Submitted By S.Ananth, Vijayawada. Introduction to the Project The research analyses the cultural aspects of the finance business in Vijayawada. As in most parts of India, the informal economy dominates the economic life of the city. Finance business thrives in region and Vijayawada is considered to be the finance capital of Andhra. The finance sector has metamorphosed in the past three decades from the traditionally hire purchase based to various other forms of financial services. They range from the traditional hire purchase form of financing to chit funds (including daily chit funds, weekly chit funds and monthly chit funds) to more unconventional types of finance like “Call Money”(not to be confused with the Inter-bank Call Money) to various forms of “Securitisation”. The business is organised into two broad categories: (1) the registered finance companies and banks (which may be further divided into three categories) and (2) unregistered and individual private money lenders. The first category (the registered finance companies and banks) may be divided into international and national level banks and Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC’s), Vijayawada based public limited companies (some of which are listed on the stock exchanges) and smaller registered finance companies (referred to as “partnerships” in local parlance). An interesting aspect is that all the larger local players have mostly graduated from the partnership level. Participants in the financial services sector in Vijayawada till the mid 1990’s were many small players or partnerships The sector in Vijayawada has undergone a substantial change after GE Capital entered the area of hire purchase in 1996. The receivables of the registered players are officially estimated at about Rs. 1000 crores annually in 2002-03. The informal players in the finance sector cater to the formal businesses and informal businesses. Preliminary research indicates that a number of informal finance players lend to a large proportion of the informal businesses and the retailers in the city. Much of the money that is circulated is “black money”. The huge profits made by these companies led to the surplus capital being deployed in the stocks in the post Harshad Mehta boom in stock markets. Vijayawada was one of the few places that had flourishing unofficial stock exchanges. At its peak in around 1995 – 96 the most significant of these unofficial exchanges had an annual turnover of approximately Rs. 3400 Crores – which was more than the official Hyderabad Stock Exchange. Its nature and functioning were unique and it had a flourishing “badla” financing system where the rate of return was one per cent per week. This drew a number of financiers into the securities trade. The easy finance and the very easy access to buying and selling shares was one of the primary reasons for the boom. This project is aimed at collecting material related to the unofficial finance sector in city of Vijayawada with a focus on the stock exchanges of the city. The objective behind the collection of this material is to understand the cultural aspects of business. WORK DONE IN THE FIRST MONTH: * Collection of printed material and other documents from the office of the largest of the unofficial stock exchanges in Vijayawada. * Processing/Organizing of the material: A selection of the material has been scanned for the use of Sarai as well as for my own use. At present there are approximately fifty scanned documents (most of them related to the documents of the unofficial stock exchange – Vijayawada Share Brokers Welfare Association) these will be submitted to the Sarai media archive. * Interview with major players in the informal as well as formal sectors. These interviews include V.G.K. Prasad, Managing Director, IKF Finance Limited, P. Prasad Rao, Managing Director, DFL Limited and Secretary of ‘The Krishna District Financiers Association’, V. Siva Rama Krishna (one of the early lorry operators in the region and former informal finance lender who has since exited the business), Gopal (name has been changed on request, a informal finance player who lends exclusively to employees), interview with the secretary of the Vijayawada Share Brokers Welfare Association(VSBWA), K. Vasudeva Rao. The interesting point to note is that most of the above mentioned players refused to speak on tape. The stated reason was that ‘these are sensitive matters related to money and hence would not like to be pinned down’. In the case of the Secretary of the VSBWA, he refused to answer any questions relating to the Court case, as the matter is ‘sub-judice’. From sananth at sancharnet.in Sun Jan 23 15:49:59 2005 From: sananth at sancharnet.in (Ananth) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 15:49:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Culture of Business: The Informal Sector and the Finance Business Message-ID: <6.1.0.6.0.20050123154928.02803250@smma.sancharnet.in> The Culture of Business: The Informal Sector and the Finance Business - First Month Research Report Submitted By S.Ananth, Vijayawada. Introduction to the Project The research analyses the cultural aspects of the finance business in Vijayawada. As in most parts of India, the informal economy dominates the economic life of the city. Finance business thrives in region and Vijayawada is considered to be the finance capital of Andhra. The finance sector has metamorphosed in the past three decades from the traditionally hire purchase based to various other forms of financial services. They range from the traditional hire purchase form of financing to chit funds (including daily chit funds, weekly chit funds and monthly chit funds) to more unconventional types of finance like “Call Money”(not to be confused with the Inter-bank Call Money) to various forms of “Securitisation”. The business is organised into two broad categories: (1) the registered finance companies and banks (which may be further divided into three categories) and (2) unregistered and individual private money lenders. The first category (the registered finance companies and banks) may be divided into international and national level banks and Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC’s), Vijayawada based public limited companies (some of which are listed on the stock exchanges) and smaller registered finance companies (referred to as “partnerships” in local parlance). An interesting aspect is that all the larger local players have mostly graduated from the partnership level. Participants in the financial services sector in Vijayawada till the mid 1990’s were many small players or partnerships The sector in Vijayawada has undergone a substantial change after GE Capital entered the area of hire purchase in 1996. The receivables of the registered players are officially estimated at about Rs. 1000 crores annually in 2002-03. The informal players in the finance sector cater to the formal businesses and informal businesses. Preliminary research indicates that a number of informal finance players lend to a large proportion of the informal businesses and the retailers in the city. Much of the money that is circulated is “black money”. The huge profits made by these companies led to the surplus capital being deployed in the stocks in the post Harshad Mehta boom in stock markets. Vijayawada was one of the few places that had flourishing unofficial stock exchanges. At its peak in around 1995 – 96 the most significant of these unofficial exchanges had an annual turnover of approximately Rs. 3400 Crores – which was more than the official Hyderabad Stock Exchange. Its nature and functioning were unique and it had a flourishing “badla” financing system where the rate of return was one per cent per week. This drew a number of financiers into the securities trade. The easy finance and the very easy access to buying and selling shares was one of the primary reasons for the boom. This project is aimed at collecting material related to the unofficial finance sector in city of Vijayawada with a focus on the stock exchanges of the city. The objective behind the collection of this material is to understand the cultural aspects of business. WORK DONE IN THE FIRST MONTH: * Collection of printed material and other documents from the office of the largest of the unofficial stock exchanges in Vijayawada. * Processing/Organizing of the material: A selection of the material has been scanned for the use of Sarai as well as for my own use. At present there are approximately fifty scanned documents (most of them related to the documents of the unofficial stock exchange – Vijayawada Share Brokers Welfare Association) these will be submitted to the Sarai media archive. * Interview with major players in the informal as well as formal sectors. These interviews include V.G.K. Prasad, Managing Director, IKF Finance Limited, P. Prasad Rao, Managing Director, DFL Limited and Secretary of ‘The Krishna District Financiers Association’, V. Siva Rama Krishna (one of the early lorry operators in the region and former informal finance lender who has since exited the business), Gopal (name has been changed on request, a informal finance player who lends exclusively to employees), interview with the secretary of the Vijayawada Share Brokers Welfare Association(VSBWA), K. Vasudeva Rao. The interesting point to note is that most of the above mentioned players refused to speak on tape. The stated reason was that ‘these are sensitive matters related to money and hence would not like to be pinned down’. In the case of the Secretary of the VSBWA, he refused to answer any questions relating to the Court case, as the matter is ‘sub-judice’. From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sun Jan 23 17:33:41 2005 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 04:03:41 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] dastangoi In-Reply-To: <20050122074151.14171.qmail@web80901.mail.scd.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20050123120341.16948.qmail@web51403.mail.yahoo.com> Dear Mehmood Happy to know that someone is working on dastaans this time at Sarai. I saw your write-up on Mid Day and have a few comments about that (not about your first Sarai abstract). I doubt whether one should begin to assume that the epic Tilism Hoshruba/Amir Hamza is religious or 'Islamic' in any way. Dastans were meant for wholesome entertainment which may include some devotional element too, but that probably should not limit them to be interpreted as religious. I suppose every story needs a hero and a villain, and the two also have to have some kind of ideologies or agenda to fight for. Since the dastangoe and his audience/readers are probably �Muslim�, the good guys of the story are simply using Islam to fight their war against the bad guys. But whether this makes the story �Islamic� is open to debate. Of course, the religious folklore and the prophets are being used, since they are part of the popular imagination, in the same spirit as Mahabharata or other folk kathas. In the past, there was a lot of gray area between people�s religiosity, entertainment and cultural expression, which is what the narratives like the dastaans reflect. One probably cannot use today�s standards to classify tilism hoshruba into �religious�, �historical� or any one kind of literature. As for the flowing of the wine etc., there is no dearth of such descriptions in Urdu/Persian medieval literature - not simply the symbolic/poetic use of wine and intoxication, but the fact of its practical use in the so-called �Muslim� world. Of course one can also find plenty of other �perversions� in Persian/Urdu literature, such as the same-sex love, eroticism, vulgarity, or idolatry � often in a book that starts by invoking the name of God and the Prophet and so on. But that does not make them Islamic. I doubt whether we can judge the �liberalism� of Muslims of that era by reading only an epic like tilism. Today, the moment we see something in Perso-Arabic script, we assume that its coming from the Muslim world, and therefore must be �Islamic� in nature. Hence even the �perversions� such as wine or eroticism seem like �justified� in Islam, or reflect a liberal Muslim society, because they are written in Perso-Arabic script. But how do we know that in the past, when Perso-Arabic was the mainstream script in Indo-Persian world, there didn�t exist an equally vehement rejection of the liberal literature such as tilism hoshruba. I guess one has to read it in context of the other literatures being produced at that time to judge its �status� in the society. Looking forward to your postings at Sarai. Yousuf Saeed --- mahmood farooqui wrote: http://ww1.mid-day.com/columns/mahmood_farooqui/2005/january/101012.htm __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and > the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to > reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the > subject header. > List archive: > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From muthatha at u.washington.edu Sun Jan 23 21:00:56 2005 From: muthatha at u.washington.edu (muthatha at u.washington.edu) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 07:30:56 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] inde fellowship - first posting Message-ID: Hello, I am a geographer currently working towards a Ph.D. Research that I will be undertaking in the next 6 months is part of my dissertation fieldwork. I am using the twin lens of science and technology studies and development studies to understand the increasing use of spatial technologies (remote sensing and geographic information systems) in natural resource management based rural development. How is this emerging paradigm altering the nature and content of planning? These technologies are thought to be useful planning tools because they provide a spatial perspective of land resources, large data storage capabilities, repeated coverage for monitoring purposes, and allow automated spatial analysis that gets at the inter relationships between various planning variables. Motivation for this project came from prior work experience in the spatial technology sector in Bangalore. I sat in front of a computer for three years gazing at satellite images and maps of the Karnataka western ghats in an attempt to contribute to understandings of deforestation. Frustrations with the hype about GIS and the shallow manner in which the technology is understood, talked about, and employed (both by proponents and critics) pushed me to step back from using the technology to research it as a process of knowledge production. I am based in Karnataka and my work is in Bangalore and the districts of Kolar and Raichur. The case study that I am focusing on in the next 6 months is an NGO’s use of these technologies for the construction of soil and water conservation, and agricultural action plans in some villages. A key feature of my research is that I will be engaging with the technical details as opposed to studying the technology from the outside. I am undertaking an ethnography of this technical process – participant observations and interviews with the NGO technical staff during all phases of planning such as ground data collection, ordering and representing information in the databases, undertaking spatial analysis, churning out plans and models using GIS software. I also look forward to understanding what I think is an underexamined space – the technical team in an NGO. This is my first round of dissertation fieldwork. I look forward to sharing the story with you all as it evolves. Adios for now from inside the black box! Muthatha From kaiwanmehta at gmail.com Sun Jan 23 22:50:10 2005 From: kaiwanmehta at gmail.com (kaiwan mehta) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 22:50:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] First Posting - Culture of Migration and Politics of Documentation Message-ID: <2482459d05012309203a0efc0f@mail.gmail.com> Hi This is my first posting … The paper is titled Reading Histories: Migration and Culture Politics of Mapping and Representation: Urban Communities Architecture is a matrix of cultural codes and also a site for anthropology. One has to understand architecture as a potential archive not in terms of the physical building but the life that unfolds within it, the craft and decoration that mask it, the material and technology that draw skill and references to construct it. Architecture has to be read as a novel, where facts are mingled with poetic imagination, and this imagination is our great archive to be unearthed. Architecture essentially deals with human societies, their memories and aspirations. The paper tries to understand; 1. Cultures of migration responsible for the urban culture Bombay has 2. Reconstructing this urban culture (its history) by simultaneously reading architecture and other forms of cultural representation like theatre, literature. This in the process hints at urban culture being a composition of neighborhoods/localities, also related to cultures of migration………………generating a peculiar cultural and political urban culture. Communities, essentially housing communities are defined on various cultural frameworks that range from migration patterns, employment status, community structures, etc. Very often they create cultural zones, which are not generated through historical or social sequences, but are enforced to create preferred cultures. How does one understand the living space and community space within these living complexes? This is the essential social space that defines the way individuals imagine themselves vis-à-vis family, society and nation. These are the primary generators of notions that define society and space. How does one holistically document these housing communities? What is a process for a holistic mapping? Architects' classical tools of the plan and map have limitations. There is a need to create a mode of representation that documents the living space and the relationships that it accommodates, the community and the politics that it generates, the form and the memories and aspirations it provokes. In this context how does one deal with mapping, documentation and archiving in this context. This will be viewed in light of the fact that documentation and archiving are emerging strongly as a form of architectural practice and urban studies. These mappings result in generating urban histories and also define policy and planning. I believed that every architect played a role in society and was also crucial to its culture; s/he was not just an aesthetician or a professional service labour. He was the generator of ideas and spaces, where humans lived and worked, where society enacted its drama of culture and politics, religion and mythology. The inner city of Bombay, the earlier 'native town', is the area of my research interest. It has been a prime site for culture, religion and politics. Its history ranged from migration patterns to nationalism and riots. -- Kaiwan Mehta Architect and Urban Reseracher 11/4, Kassinath Bldg. No. 2, Kassinath St., Tardeo, Mumbai 400034 022-2-494 3259 / 91-98205 56436 From pz at vsnl.net Mon Jan 24 00:41:35 2005 From: pz at vsnl.net (Punam Zutshi) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 00:41:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] inde fellowship - first posting References: Message-ID: <00f201c5017f$5c89db60$daee41db@punamzutshi> Thanks for your first posting which sounds extremely interesting. I have a number of questions a sociologist of knowledge: What readings /scholars from Science and Technology studies and Development Studies have you been looking at? What was the outcome of attempt to understand deforestation, which I imagine was undertaken as a professional geographer for a project? Depending on the hypotheses you are working with from STS and Dev Studies, it would be interesting to know if GIS acts to displace the local knowledge of farmers.Does the planning-friendly nature of the technologies of GIS necessarily involve the NGOs as disseminators of this knowledge to farmers? Or are these questions outside the scope of what you are engaging with? What aspects of the hype around GIS disturbed/bothered you? In my extremely limited view, I imagine it is a technique that arises out of the emergence of satellite technologies.Could we non geographers be educated about the history of the technology and its use in India? Punam Zutshi ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2005 9:00 PM Subject: [Reader-list] inde fellowship - first posting > Hello, > > I am a geographer currently working towards a Ph.D. Research that I will be undertaking in the next 6 months is part of my dissertation fieldwork. > > I am using the twin lens of science and technology studies and development studies to understand the increasing use of spatial technologies (remote sensing and geographic information systems) in natural resource management based rural development. How is this emerging paradigm altering the nature and content of planning? > > These technologies are thought to be useful planning tools because they provide a spatial perspective of land resources, large data storage capabilities, repeated coverage for monitoring purposes, and allow automated spatial analysis that gets at the inter relationships between various planning variables. > > Motivation for this project came from prior work experience in the spatial technology sector in Bangalore. I sat in front of a computer for three years gazing at satellite images and maps of the Karnataka western ghats in an attempt to contribute to understandings of deforestation. Frustrations with the hype about GIS and the shallow manner in which the technology is understood, talked about, and employed (both by proponents and critics) pushed me to step back from using the technology to research it as a process of knowledge production. > > I am based in Karnataka and my work is in Bangalore and the districts of Kolar and Raichur. The case study that I am focusing on in the next 6 months is an NGOÂ's use of these technologies for the construction of soil and water conservation, and agricultural action plans in some villages. A key feature of my research is that I will be engaging with the technical details as opposed to studying the technology from the outside. > I am undertaking an ethnography of this technical process Â- participant observations and interviews with the NGO technical staff during all phases of planning such as ground data collection, ordering and representing information in the databases, undertaking spatial analysis, churning out plans and models using GIS software. I also look forward to understanding what I think is an underexamined space Â- the technical team in an NGO. > > This is my first round of dissertation fieldwork. I look forward to sharing the story with you all as it evolves. > > Adios for now from inside the black box! > > Muthatha > > > > > > _________________________________________ > 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 lushinkk at yahoo.com Fri Jan 21 18:12:10 2005 From: lushinkk at yahoo.com (lush inkk) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 04:42:10 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] images of violence Message-ID: <20050121124211.4949.qmail@web80909.mail.scd.yahoo.com> Images of violence. The continuing discussion on this forum about images of violence has spurred me to write too. I hope I am able to flash blindly this way and that in the dark and find some thought somewhere. (The image is from this linux screen saver- a little insect with a headlight attached turns around the screen-again and again, to no end except- filling time while saving the screen, trying to be a bit entertaining- I am not trying to be the last but I hope the ramble does not become too tedious. Images of violence, how violence as an image can be shown, or not, where or when it can be shown, what it means to us, what it says about us, have been part of some discussions( for discussions are few in my life at least, in recent years, and are looked for sometimes) and many thoughts and indignant flashes of emotion. Death, humiliation- that which should not be filmed- because filming and then shameless uncontrolled broadcast makes it become normal-/ indignified, pornographic. A hotmail attatchment that might open out to show a silly condom cartoon, might equally show a spectacle of violence- and both might be watched on office desks using the same casual procedures, trying to get away from routine work. This is a squabble a friend of mine and I have been having for a long time- an argument that I had with another friend- The imaging of violence and its broadcast in the public media- How effective is it, or is it deadening? The image no longer moral. I was aghast to see the image of a family, the window they were framed in about to burn, during the Gujarat riots. I hated the Mid day( with all its tabloidy desires anyway) carrying the image of the man with the briefcase jumping to his death during september 11th. I refused to look at the image of the plane anymore- after the first viewing that had happened I suppose inadvertently? ( I find myself plunging hereon into these ways of narrating, eventually salacious, but also horrified- that have existed even pre the television image� � I just happened to get up late that evening- I came out blearily into the living room and saw this horrible image of the plane crashing..) part of the reaction, even at that moment, across t.v.�s is � perhaps- not cynical- ( perhaps because it was the newness and shock of seeing that violence in america, I feel even the tv reporters standing there could not have been cynical, perhaps- having met some photographers who work in magazines etcetra- cynicism does not come so easily to the person experiencing the ground violence anyway. there was a sense that this was just horrible and� we do not know how to react �. What do they feel about the lines they mouth there and then before the tv camera. Beyond commerce, are there just human moments, where we can look beyond the rubbish standardized language they habitually speak to see them as people who somehow had to see the violence- what did it make them feel? Is the desire to know that also salacious? ) there was a sense that this was just horrible and we did not know how to react but on the other hand- does the language of the violent television image actually deaden us? I am not sure. Beyond all the rubbish editing and the shouting and newsmaking and competing of the various channels- the violence still shakes us? I have not had a t.v. for a long time- the evening news with dinner getting ready sounds really like terminal cynicism. But??is it? Are saas bahu serials the alternative? But I hear of awful real crime �events� where reporters interrogate the criminals, taking on themselves the role of the indignant public, and playing that role out with no nuance. I remember arguments with friends who said the Gujarat images shook so many previously complacent right wing relatives. That the middle class should be forced to see( and thence experience at least some of) the grisly reality of violence. I work in a archive trying to keep video images of Kashmir. I wonder what would be the relevance of collecting bits and pieces of footage captured by television cameramen to provide the image asked for in the �market�- the one for the Indian government channel, the one for the foreign channel etcetra. Are these images then commodities? But there remains the footage of a protest as people try to retrieve the body of their loved one, from police custody, and try to make it the centre of a demonstration. His brains hang out. Women wail. Policemen do their job with stolid faces. This has not become pornography for me, it wont. I cant see it, I would rather not see it. It stuns and numbs me. Is it because I am seeing it in silence, alone, unedited, without a manic voice, that I am forced to face it. Do they show Kashmir as a site of violence- do they show the violence on tv? What do they show? I see the familiar irritating violence of a news channel doing a story on kashmiris passing out of the Indian army. It is of interest and amusement to me as an archivist. It is a violent story, I know. I know people who wont think it so. There must be stories I do not think are violent that are very very violent. My friend who argued about the middle class needing to see violence- was not just making a ( stereotypical) Marxist teacher kind of remark. He was remembering from his experience of an image that he had actually viewed- that had singed him., he saw the police carting away, on the footboard of a cycle rickshaw, a �convict� whose limbs were tied- he was trussed up like a fowl. It is a image that has stayed with him forever like a block before him. That he cannot wish away- The image of the Manipuri women protesting naked- but that was a spectacle- humiliating to the viewer, that they wanted seen. It is about unbearable anger and grief. I have not seen the image, but I flinch from the description. A friend who has relatives in the army- a brother in the north east says she is haunted by the image. A photograph from Kashmir taken in the early nineties. Me, a mainlander in the end, watching- a (motley) bunch of thin people, in army fatigues, mouth covered- stand before a large banner. They are armed. Young terrorists. They don�t look too impressive I might have thought. And there is the sense of �seeing the news image�( salacious) seeing the terrorist- this moment frozen, giving a mirage of it containing their real corporeal bodies, of containing that slice of space on which they were standing � real terrorists- not the mission kashmir/roja variety. I scan the image to make sense of it. It is a news photograph for a srinagar newspaper, black and white for reasons of what they printed in, I suppose- but it makes it strange- though it is a photo of the early nineties, its format, with a border at the end, its aging, yellowing edges- make it seem like long ago, like our childhoods( my generation) to which black and white photos belonged. Taken- with what motive- can I tell? Early nineties- was it important to give space to the militants in newsprint- did it come of pressure, belief, or simply a newsmans desire to be able to show- what he knows is, what exists, not far from where he is living? The kashmiri man sitting with me looked at me and said- not one of these boys must be alive now. It shook me a bit, his gaze at the photograph. And then- We fear that we become, when we are complacent outsiders, salacious in the consumption of narratives about death- especially �abnormal� over narrativised death. It is a phenomenon that predates the image. Gossip. I read a taylor Caldwell from my mothers collection as a adolescent? I think- bits of it, while searching for dirty parts- It spoke of how a bus had crashed, some kids had been killed and some had not. And how the parents who still had their kids had a certain complacency. Then I felt I guiltily understood what it said. Now I feel people also have a genuine compassion. In preimage times, everyone sat in their various corners of the earth and made their own complacencies and own salacious comments. That also bore at their heart- horror and the inability of deal with it, and the recognition that it is horrific. A friend in a mnc who wanted to email a horrific beheading circulating on the internet. What does the image mean to him? Can I know? I know I do not want to see it. The idea of that circulation disgusts me. And then there is the film maker who wants to show the deep violence we have done- of replacing our eye with a machine called the camera and where the shaky ethics of image making have also led us to- To dull comfortable wars where the eye does not see what it kills. My friend and I argued after this film- not with the zest of knowing you are sure you want to stand your ground that we might have had some time ago, but stating ours and conceding not knowing, perhaps the other one was right. I hated �Night and Fog� when I saw it now- alain resnais� film using footage of the nzi concentration camps- He showed a tractor with a big trowel attatched in the front picking up bodies by the dozen and dumping them carelessly. This was the filmed horror post the defeat of the Nazis- showing what the Nazis had done- This was where our argument had started- my friend and mine. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050121/55d6a0bd/attachment.html From zzjamal at rediffmail.com Sun Jan 23 21:46:29 2005 From: zzjamal at rediffmail.com (Khalid) Date: 23 Jan 2005 16:16:29 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] fast food work Message-ID: <20050123161629.13979.qmail@webmail10.rediffmail.com>   Syed Khalid Jamal. M.A(F)Mass Communication,MCRC,JAMIA. Work culture in fast food chains. Sarai Independent Fellowship 2004-05,CSDS. Introduction To do my research I have decided to adopt Participatory observation as the research methodology because I found, in my preliminary research that the employees of fast food chains(about whom the research is all about) feel nervous and apprehensive while talking about their jobs and their work culture. At times it seems to me as if they are sceptic about me being a spy from other competitor outlet. Hence they either exaggerated or concealed a lot of facts about their life and job. I t was difficult to strike an informal conversation with them for two reasons. One, their apprehensions and second their hectic schedule. I therefore decided to be a part of them and do my work while being one of their co-workers. So I began with applying for a job of Crew member in Pizza hut noida. As a recruitment process I took a written test (a copy of which I am carrying) followed by an interview. My decided salary was Rs.3100 pm, for a probation period of six months. My shift timings: 11am to 8 pm. Six days a week. I worked for 11 days and following are my findings and observations. There are basically four departments with their sub departments where employee 1. 1.Kitchen : It is further divided into three sections: Make table, cut table and Pasta station. 2. Service: It has order taking, serving and table –cleaning. 3. Cash 4. Delivery: This has order taking through phone –ins and delivery. Every employee passes through each of the department to understand its demand and needs. There is no fixed time or duration for each department. Its varies from individual to individuals. But my observation is that people who are fluent in English and have acquired the craft of ‘smiling’ are anchored to servicing as they interact with the customers and people who are efficient in kitchen, which is considered to be the toughest, remain in kitchen for several months. All this decided by the shift manager. To be eligible for a promotion one has to successfully clear all the four ‘stations’ and acquire a CHAMPS card. CHAMPS stands for: C-Cleanliness H-Hospitality A-Accuracy M-Maintenance P-Product quality S-Speed of service. CHAMPS batch is given by inspectors who visit the outlet twice a month. They come as a customer and place their order and keenly monitor the working of all the sections and makes notes, while keeping the employee completely unaware of their evaluation. Employees are subsequently informed about their appraisals by the corporate office in a week’s time. Employees are also given EXPERT batch for the sub-sections. Pizza hut also maintains a CSL-Champs Standard Library. This quality monitoring is done by a firm called TRICONS. The starting salary is Rs. 2915 gross .There are ESI and PF deductions. The net comes out to be 2719 which is credited in the corporate SB account of the employee opened by the bank. Salaries are often delayed. Before an employee starts his job, he under goes two days of training which is basically a series of lectures on food industry and customer service, no hands –on of what they actually do in the outlet. Employees have mixed educational qualifications, from tenth standard pass to post graduation. Most of them however are graduating from various distance education programs. This mixed lot of employees demonstrates various motivations for their work. Some are only working for extra money, while others want to carve out a career for them in this industry. There are others who want to learn the craft and carry on with their family food business. There are two kinds of workers. Part timers and full timers. Part timers work for 4 hrs a day whereas full timers work for 9 hrs. These are the official timing. Part timers are paid extra for extra hours of workings but full timers have no such privilege. All employees are paid monthly. Part timers get Rs.17.50 per hour(gross Rs.22 per hour) Employees consider their salary below expectations. A full timer on an avg., expects at least Rs 7500 pm whereas his part timer counterpart expects Rs.50 per hour plus transportation. There is utter dissatisfaction amongst the employee for their job yet they are forced to do these jobs because they are unable to any other. Lot of these employees try and often get jobs in call center industry or in DSRs. Those who are unable to get any, stay back for whatever they are offered.But despite this, on an average the turnover ratio in fast food chains is 40% to 50%. Outlets such as barista and café coffee day are little strict in recruitment policies. They prefer candidates who are graduates and have some experience in food industry. They want their employees to stay and grow and hence clearly demarcate job responsibilities to avoid overburden. I have found the maximum number of Hotel management graduates in these two coffee chains who intend to stay and work for long term basis. I have also observed that due their long and hectic hours of working these young employees of fast food chains develop relationships with other working groups who have similar working hours. Some of them being the bouncers: guards who are employed by bar and pub owners. It is only due to the working hours that these two groups come in contact with each other. They share their life with each other. They often share each others personal problems while sharing food after their respective shifts. But despite all this they remain very distinct in their behavior and attitude as they; from several other angles they are very different from each other. Official Fiction 9 hrs. shift Employees are often called two hrs. before the shift and stay back for another 2-3 hrs. after their shift is finished. Hence 9 hrs shift is usually a 13 hrs. shift i.e. everyday a full timer works for 4-5 ”unpaid ” hrs. Daily reading time For growth it is important to read and understand the industry, it is said there is a provision of library but employees are rarely given time to avail this provision. 30 minutes break with every shift There is no fixed time for breaks. Very often employees work at a stretch for 12 hrs. without taking meals. Job provides friendly and warm atmosphere to work During shift employees are not allowed to talk to each other even if there isn’t any customer, nor are they allowed to sit Job provide opportunity to grow and develop oneself There is no clear cut yardstick for promotion or increments. It all depends on manager’s personal bias. Employee enhance their communication skills and their overall personality Managers are often very abusive in their language and indifferent in attitude. They don’t welcome employees grievances. On the job training There is no such thing!! Employees are just “told” few things before they start their work. But practically they learn while actually working and often pay for their initial mistakes. Weekly offs Employees are rarely given any offs. “For growth, you must learn to wear this “no-off-attitude wardrobe”” they are told. And how about emergencies? Manager’s only belief is : Today’s emergency is tomorrow’s everyday. Their virtual office aim is .. Let there be no excuse for not working. Work more, earn more True, indeed!! But only for part timers. For full timers this does’nt apply. Managerial Seduction The sole attempt of the managers of seduction is to convince the employees, to make them believe and instill in them that: Work is meant to make their life easier, Work is meant to make their world a better place, Technological research is geared to reduce work, Money makes social interaction simpler, It is sin to live without working for a living. The wages they get is equal to their contribution of production, The government, management and leaders are there for their benefits. Employee says We are seduced to surrender our voice. We are seduced to internalize and desire discipline and authority. We are seduced to believe that if customer is satisfied we shall be happy. We are seduced to forget our world, our freedom and our dreams. And engage ourselves in the given “present” work. Eradication of Idle Chatter and Installation of ‘Smile’ Yogi, Tarun, Naushad, Amit and Shammim were all very talkative in school, at home and even at public places, like in a bus, train and in social get-together. During their work shifts they are not allowed to talk to their colleagues. “Talk only to customers or keep quiet” they are told. “If there isn’t any customer then hang around in the restaurant and get the ‘hang’ of the place. But don’t talk .. just don’t”. “Ever since we have come here we have become good listeners or shall I say forced listeners”, says Yogi. “Whenever we talk more, even if it is after work, we soon realize it and feel as if we are committing a sin”, says Tarun, a Sc. Graduate. On top of this they always have to wear smile on their faces. Smile while taking orders, doesn’t matter if it is the 10th hr of your shift. Smile while serving the customer, doesn’t matter if you haven’t had your first meal of the day yet! Smile and this time, Smile Big and say Thank You as the customer is leaving, doesn’t matter if you have just been told that you aren’t going home today. You are on double shift. “SMILE !!! like some software is installed in us, as if we were some kind of machine” says Amit, BCA (Ist year ignou) Work-overloaded Work intensity and time pressure is creating some kind of a hurry-sickness disease. Free time is now a distant dream. They all want to sleep. And sleep at home not in the outlets. Sleep on beds and mattresses and not on chairs and tables. Some of the employees were used to be regular newspaper readers and movie goers. Now, whatever time they get, they sleep and when they get up its time for the next shift. I wonder if one of them were a poet, what would he write in his poem I hear the whistle I must hurry I hear 5 minute whistle It is time I take my work I change my clothes To get ready to work I change my clothes again just before work For I must look professionally agile in my ‘work-uniform’ I work I work and I work Until the king customer leaves, And when he leaves, I leave my work too but before I leave I leave my workplace clean and nice Because I have it in me Because I have it in me Because I have it in me The attitude! In a ‘fix’ For all the employees Arrival time is fixed! Departure isn’t!! Customers complimentary are fixed! Employee’s isn’t!! Work-shift is fixed! Breaks aren’t!! Salaries are fixed! Increments & promotions aren’t!! The only motto seems is: “Squeeze the maximum out of these guys who are in their prime age of potential.” Long live the customer Unserved customer is assumed to be the only emergency for the employees. There cannot be anything more important and more urgent than this. The whole system is geared to deal with this ‘do or die’ situations. It needs exemplary punishment to instill fear among employees. No off’s, no festivals, no health problems and no family issues . these are the basic managerial assumption to extract and exploit the maximum out of the young employees. The only mantra to survive is to satisfy the customer (read God).His occasional abuses have to be borne professionally and not personally(Remember ATTITUDE!!). Manager doesn’t want to face the customer until there is an emergency. On being late manager’s threat to sack is a usual thing. W M D’s !! (With. Minute. Details.) Here everything is standardized >From vegetable cutting to serving every possible parameter is standard. Following are some of examples: VEGETABLE STD. SIZE Onions 8 x 24 cm Tomato 12 x 12 cm Capsicum 8 x 24 cm Mushroom 3 mm Cups, quality rings, spoodles and rocker knife are to be strictly used to maintain standards. Delivery –time. Pizza 17 ½ min. Garlic bread 9min. Beverage 3-min. Cooking Standards Pizza height after baking 15- 25 cm. Saucing 1\2 inch. Colour Golden Brown Eventually the Pizza should be “Crispy from outside and fluppy from inside”. Customers are to be informed in case of any delays or a complementary (it could be another Pizza, a cup of coffee or an overall discount) is provided. Any food item with deviation from the standard size will be thrown out. Separate topping cups are used for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food items. Chemicals called ‘Suma Tap’ is used to sanitize raw food items such as fruits and vegetables, whereas ‘Suma Bag’ is used to clean any food-contact area. Kitchen workers are required to wash their hands every 30 minutes. All utensils are to be washed every ½ hr or after 30 Pizza, whichever is earlier. A document called MRD(Make, Ready, Discard) is attached with every order and is adhered to strictly. 15 kg of vegetables are cut everyday. Cut-vegetables if not consumed with in 24 hrs will be thrown out. They are kept in ‘Walk-in Freeze’ between 1 and 5°C. Deep freeze is used for chickens between 16 and 25°C. Following are some of my observations and narritives: I 22 June,2004. Barista.New Friends Colony. Tuesday.9:40am 20 years old Arun is cleaning the floor.That’s his job.He’s from Patna.Lives in Bharat nagar,okhla.One-room-rented-flat.His elder brother,a motor mechanic,is his whole family.Parents expired 3 years ago. Barista has just opened.TV is on.V channel.Coffee machine noise is in the air. Arun is dressed in navy blue shirt and same coloured trousers and a cap.He is using ‘Colin’ brand of door cleaner very carefully. Furniture is set.Circular tables with triangular chairs.CNN promotional cards on the table saying ..’make connection over hot coffee..’. The Corner Book Store,an in-house book café is not yet open.Six big locks are hanging. Just outside Barista,a newspaperwala is all fresh & ready.People are coming every now and then picking up their readings. Popular hindi song from Diljale..” kisi ke ishq mein khud ko mita do..ho nahin sakta..!!” is adding melody to Barista’s air. This is unusual.Hindi songs are rarely played in Barista until they are aired by MTV or v-Channel;the two ‘official’ channels of Barista.Important sports events are the only exceptions. Trays and desserts are being set. They look tempting. Arun is putting ‘ Brew today’, Barista weekly on the tables now.A newspaper is also attached with it.It is free-for-all.Otherwise ,if aren’t in Barista .it’ll cost you full two rupees!! Total Barista employee are three.They are all at the counter.All between 21 and 25 years. One setting the trays,other pouring coffee materals injars and the last one is working on the coffee machine. Walls are colourful and witty.They define work as ‘ Something we do between coffe breaks!!’.I wonder if it applies to employees as well?? Chess boards are lying. Fourth employee enters.After keeping his bag he’s watering the plants that are kept inside the coffee shop. “Sapne mein milte hai kurri meri ” is the new melody in the air!! Inside Barista is cool and glamourous.Peach coloured furnitures,phloroscent lights,orange counter,yellow walls,tiled –smooth floorings, Barista (Trademarked) paintings on the walls, exotic coffee menu,well lit, pasted just over the cash counter and scented air. None of the working boys have spoken anything to each other. First phone rings..9.55am!! Naushad picks up..he’s talking while constantly staring the wall which says’ Its easier to change your religion than the café.’. First Barista customer turns up..9:57 AM. And here’s the second..just 30 seconds later. The first thing they both does is pick up the newspaper and scan through them. These news dailies were brought by Arun from the newspaperwala.There seems to be a deal .Its Economis Times,Times of India and Hindustan Times. I see more children games –Drump shirade and The Navigator. TV is on mute now,as it is most of the time.Audio system is on.Brian Adams. On tv ,its Anil Kapoor in Taal..10:01am. Lights in Barista is mesmerising.They are in all colours.Yellow,blue and white.They seems to be adding the’relaxing’ element to the ambience.They are lending ‘Peace’ to the place. The boys working at the counter are called the Brew Master.They arte in orange T-shirt,black trousers with black apron over it. Their uniform colours compliment the colours in the interior designing. Fifth employee arrives. 10:21AM. First customer is still here.Reading newspaper.TOI.Sipping orange juice. He’s in white shirt and grey trousers.Looks like an executive.He’s waiting for someone..it seems.Barista is his meeting place. 11:55AM: Youth are pouring in.In couples. Threee middle aged men have also come.They are reading.People read more than they eat. Its look like a reading place than an eat-out joint.Colours,music,air conditioned, lightings and window-side seating arrangements,its indeed a romantic place which forces you to grab a cup of coffee and stay for a ‘little’ more time. 1:10PM. Human voice has now taken over the system voice.In other words the human conversation is more audible than the music playing in the background. Barista employees have become interactive.They are talking to each other now while taking orders,working on computers,on telephone and while serving. It’s 1:35 pm.One couple.5 middle aged men in a group of two and three. That’s all in this outlet. The group-of-three is eating and discussing some kind of a contract.The other group-of-two looks like a client-service provider meeting.One of them is speaking more thean the other,who’s an active listener. 3:30PM Its drizzling outside.Great time for business.Hot coffee is now expected to pick up hot demand. Boys on the counter are smiling they have got a windfall. The rain. II Dinesh,20 yrs. graduating,2NDyear,correspondence ..Family in meerut .Father retired govt. school teacher ..Two sisters,marriageable age ...Mother housewife .,diabetic .,kidney patient .,on dialysis .,needs regular monthly expenditure .,18000 rupees ..Father getting pension ..,2000rupees. Dinesh working in Pizza hut ,Noida, lives in rented room ,Ghaziabad...Gets up at 6 am,fill water,wash clothes,bathing .. leaves for work..2 hrs journey..DTC bus .has to leave home by 8:30 am for ’11 to 8’ shift. Dinesh’s dream ..to be a model likes to read and watch English films to improve English speaking skills .does’nt get to do this work consumes major chunk of the day .not required to speak much during work only take orders and serve .manager discourages from pursuing further studies often misses weenend classes ..wants to study but ‘have to’ work earns Rs.2915 gross per month 2719 net .for the last 2.5 years ..no savings not able to send anything home rent Rs.700 includes water and electricity .food consumes lots of money .wants to get a professional modelling portfolio .will cost 10,000 rupees before that..he should be ‘in-shape’ hence wants to join gym but work timings and strains ..does not allow .relentlessly working fot the last 2.5 years yet says ’he’s working temporily .the day I will get into ‘my’ line I will quit this’. His line being modelling.A glamour world. III Shamim,24 yrs.,B.A Geography, ..Aligarh ..,family in azamgarh ,living in new friends colony, ..works in pizza hut .,for six months ..,previously worked.. as ‘survey officer’ under haryana govt ..also done research survey for DMRC and Delhi general elections, often stays back in the outlet to report for the morning shift .the next day,it saves transportation cost as well, . staying in the outlet gives him airconditioned room, he lives in small room....8 by 8 feet . ,with his friend, .no fan, .no cooler..,sleeps on terrace, mosquito .,flies . and heat ,sometimes walks down from noida outlet to nfc ,as after night shift does’nt get bus ,says he likes walking, .but wants.to buy a second hand scooter ..,trying to change job, ..tried in a private bank ,they asked for personal transportation for credit card selling .,Shamim family in azamgarh, does’nt know about his work, .he does’nt share .,they will think he is a ‘baira’, .for them he is working in a hotel,..father often insists on doing hotel management course shamim does’nt also like his work,but can’t think of anything else and its important to keep doing something. IV Anoop’s tale After passing out from XII Anoop decided to work instead of ‘wondering around’ in college pursuing any higher studies. Unlike most of his friends who are soon going to finish their graduation now,Anoop shows no sign of regrets. ” I think I am much more rational and smart than my friends.After all,what are degrees going to fetch you. I think the 2.5 yrs. of experience that I have gained is much more precious than all the degrees in the world” ,says an abashed Anoop. Working in Pizza Hut Anoop earns 2600 rupees per month and prefers to work in broken shift rather than going for a regular 9 hrs. job. He works between 10am and 2pm first, and then again between 5pm and 10pm. In between he takes some time out for his English Speaking course and also helps in his father’s business. A hard working chap,indeed!! Anoop believes that to learn the art of business one needs to be a hard-task master,and idolizes his manager who’s ‘professionally’ rude and unfriendly Anoop’s father,who runs a tiffin-business isn’t much happy with his son’s choice of working in a fast food chain but prefers to keep quiet and lets Anoop live his life as he wants to live. Besides,he also appreciates Anoop’s diligence. Anoop dreams of opening his own food joint,which will run on the lines of Pizza Hut and he has no hesitation in declaring that like his boss,he, too, will be a hard-task master!! Anoop loves his work place. “ It’s a happening place.I like the crowd.People of my age often come in with their girlfriends and sit for hours,hand in hand.Some of them even bring their guitars and play,sing and share a great time together. I, too , have a girlfriend. Gitima Banerjee. She often come to meet me here at my work place. I talk to her for a while. But only ‘for a while’,not much!!” “My manager keeps an eye on me.Well you know that’s his job!” “Gitima feels great about my job.She always reminds me to learn more from my job, especially from my customers who are educated and knowledgeable.” “My job is cool because it taught me about food-stuffs that I had never heard of before coming here.” “And then there is music all the time We play English songs that I don’t understand but I like the beats.It keeps you going.” “I,too,will open my restaurant one day. It will be equally colourful ,clean,musical and cool.” And there will be no one to stop me or eye on me when I talk to Gitima. V I used to be very talkative.I would always be smiling and cracking jokes,meet my friends regularly and chat with them over phone. Then,smiling was’nt my ‘job’. My work took away my “ happy-go-lucky”image. Now my friends no longer think of me as “cool & mast guy”. Now I am serious and sincere for them. I go to work and come back.Do my daily chores and sleep. Sleep has suddendly become as important as oxygen. I have to think about taking its daily quota to work properly. .Anand,21 years old, II yr. Graduation. VI Music,colourful walls,shinning floors, cool ambience,rich-looking people with their expensive perfumes scenting the air ,these are the inherent characterstics of my work place These people are my customers and they are, most of the time, very polite but equally precise. They wear all the best of the brands that I think of wearing ,their wallets, their keychains ,even the cigrettes they smoke everything is so tempting!! They are nice too because they smile at me and return their smile.They are only one who smile and for whom we smile. Some of them sound rude and ‘ordering’.But its okay with me. Riches,like clothes comes in several shades here. Everyday. Rohit,25 yrs. Full timer,Pizza Hut. VII When I am at work,I eat pizza which I may not afford otherwise. Yet the pleasure does not come.When I go to the outlet and ‘buy’ it, it becomes tastier. This is so strange. I don’t know why it happens . Just few hours later I return to work and get to eat the same pizza with even extra cheese and sause but no amount of ‘toppings’ can make it tastier. Because I am a worker. Taste comes when I am a customer. Sometimes,I feel its all in my mind,its not real.But can’t help .It just does’nt go. Work is always on my mind. Ratan, 19 yrs. Pizza Corner. VIII My mom looks at me strangely when I tell her that the vegetable or fruits that she’s brought is not-good or when I show her how I,precisely cut vegetablesat my work in several geometrical figures of 8x24 mm triangles or 8x8 cm squares. She looks at me with confusions and several ‘????’’s. “What am I upto??” My mother feels sorry for me. Thanks for my work. Dinesh,27 yrs. Mcdonald’s. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In my next phase of research I will study the whole Economics of smile which is inherent in whole food industry especially fast food chains. I also intend to include women workers in my research,to study and map their life histories,in the form narratives. In my futher research, I would also see the points of exploitation,the extent of alienation and the intensity of Standardizaion that is followed in such chains. It will also be interesting to study the mobility in work force in such chains, while at the same time understanding whole mechanism of communication in these chains,both inter as well as intra. I am continuing my work while keeping a close relationship with the workers of fast food chains both at work place and at the place of their residence. wishing you happiness and health. Khalid -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050123/0529b1d2/attachment.html From askshetty at rediffmail.com Mon Jan 24 00:31:59 2005 From: askshetty at rediffmail.com (prasad shetty) Date: 23 Jan 2005 19:01:59 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] STORIES OF NEW ENTREPRENEURSHIP Message-ID: <20050123190159.4979.qmail@webmail49.rediffmail.com> Hello everybody, This is my first posting to the Sarai Reader List for the independent fellowship programme. I am Prasad, an architect from Mumbai specialsed in Urban Management and work on several urban issues from heritage to garbage! I work as an independent consultant, used to teach, work for an organisation called CRIT (www.crit.org.in) etc..etc..etc..My recent interests have been on entrepreneurship in the city and mapping them through gossip. Please find below the brief research proposal.   STORIES OF NEW ENTREPRENEURSHIP Contemporary reconfigurations of the production pattern are most evident when one finds classified planning documents of the government or cheques of a multinational bank being produced in a neighbourhood slum. While such examples raise questions on government, multinational, and the informal sector, they foreground a significant characteristic of the contemporary urban condition – the new entrepreneurship that is rapidly growing in the city. The rising global demand for cheaper material and labour markets overlapped with the state’s ambition to take advantage of such demands seem to have significantly contributed towards the new configurations in the production pattern, which began with a systematic dismantling of the formal industry and protected labour. The owning of the means of production no longer remains centralised with a single industry owner. Commodity production has left the assembly line within a single factory space and shifted to multiple production units located around the globe. The shift in the ownership of the means of production has de-centralised competition. All links of the classical assembly line have been opened up for a new competition. Large industries no longer seem to compete for production, but instead, labourers compete with each other in this magnanimous competition. This competition has given birth to, and nurtured, the agents of cheap production. Their job is to organise material and labour and give the cheapest bid. The reconfiguration of production has effectively changed the classical capitalist - proletariat equation, thus making the city - a city of entrepreneur agents. On the other hand, large industries have engaged themselves in another kind of competition – for the selling of their products. These aggressive attempts in reaching the markets have caused consumption patterns to change, thus forcing an importance of “quality”. Round the clock services, flexible stalks for toothbrushes, cameras with mobile phones etc. are all representative of this “quality” drive which has produced the second set of agents of quality consumption. It is easy to find a housekeeping consultant, a computer maintenance agency, an interior consultant etc. in the city. The demand has moreover created a new type of value for commodities generating and manipulating an urban consciousness that searches for environmental sustainability, appropriate aesthetics and a stress-free comfortable life. Shops selling organic goods, eco-friendly products, health food consultants, beauty parlours, highly equipped gymnasiums, advertisements for health equipments, furniture and fashion boutiques etc have become a part of our contemporary memory. One of the chief characteristics of the agents involved in production and selling is their network with other actors of the society, who not only facilitate resources, but also help to fetch markets. The requirement to establish and nourish this network has created the third type of agents of facility providers and crises traders. The cable television operators, photocopy agencies, quick film developing and printing shops, neighbourhood computer accessories shop, computer and Internet providers, mobile phone agents are all agents who facilitate resources. These agents not only provide facilities, but more appropriately, trade crises that get generated on account of increasing informality. The crises trading is realised more acutely in the case of Chartered Accountants keeping accounts to save taxes, or informal financers providing instant funds without collaterals. The agents who deal with crises specialise in solving the problems that contemporary landscapes have created. The new landscape of competition has an inherent requirement of people with high skill and capacity. The last sets of agents are the knowledge brokers who deal with these issues. Institutes training people in computer handling, public speaking, English language, competitive examinations along with counselling centres for job and education are examples of these agents. The most recent type of knowledge brokerage is in developmental research. One can find several professionals involved in researching on urban environments. The incapacity of the governmental agencies and the new need for communities towards research are some of the issues these knowledge brokers take advantage of. The experiences in Urban Development has led me to understand that conventional planning in the city of Mumbai, by mainstream agencies in the public and private sector have yet to grasp the conditions that are provided by the new economy. The conventional planning in the city still largely, either remains a hangover of industrial suburban planning that seeks to control population growth and provide adequate services; or has entered into a strange managerial mode prompted by the international donor agencies that seek to develop institutional and financial abstractions for addressing the city problems. A more thorough understanding in the shift of economy, I believe, would not only radically change the agenda and processes of planning in the city, but also would articulate new positions other than the traditional public and private sector, or a dubious NGO sector. This project proposal seeks to initiate such an understanding of the new economy, where I argue that the new city is a city of entrepreneur agents and to understand the new city, we need to understand the entrepreneurship of these agents. Only then would we be able to comprehend the new structure of the contemporary metropolis. The project proposes to develop a sketch of the new structure of the contemporary metropolis. I have identified four sets of agents and their entrepreneurship that is significantly shaping the landscapes of the new economy. The proposed project for the independent fellowship aims at examining the nature of this new entrepreneurship. The new entrepreneurship has a new history, new requirements, new structures and new methods of operating and perhaps requires new methods for conceptualisation, which need to move beyond the convenient bracket of “Small and Medium Enterprises” that rely on hard data like initial capital, type and quantity of production, number of employees, square meter area for operation, annual turnover, amount of water and electricity, etc. The new method needs to perhaps investigate into many more soft areas like conditions of establishment and entry point into the enterprise, methods of acquiring finances and other resources, security of the entrepreneur, conditions and value of the labour, type of networks, strategies and tactics for sustenance, types of negotiations, etc. to be able to grasp the details of the new economy. The project proposes to undertake a detailed documentation of forty such cases of entrepreneurships in Mumbai City. Prasad Shetty Residence: 501, Marigold, Opposite Shakti Motors, New Link Road, Malad (W), Mumbai 400 064 INDIA Phone: +91-9820912744 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050123/931b58bb/attachment.html From mila01 at rediffmail.com Mon Jan 24 09:18:00 2005 From: mila01 at rediffmail.com (urmila bhirdikar) Date: 24 Jan 2005 03:48:00 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] january_posting_balgandharva Message-ID: <20050124034800.32382.qmail@webmail7.rediffmail.com>   Hello This is my first posing on the research project on the relationship between the production /consumption of the thumri and allied forms through gramophone records and the fashioning of the stage songs (Natya Pada) in the Marathi Sangeet Natak, with special reference to the celebrated impersonator actor Balgandharva. Introduction The Sangeet Natak is one of the genres of the commercial theatre in Maharashtra which began in the mid nineteenth century. The two important elements in this theatre were : it was a new professional artistic venture for the men of the upper castes and received a strong support from the elite and reformist leaders as well as common viewers as a “respectable” and “decent” form of entertainment as against the popular entertainment forms such as Tamasha, Dashavatar and such other theatrical forms. Secondly, this theatre from the beginning was mainly a theatre of female impersonation (though very soon after its beginning women started acting in this theatre through various Natak Mandalis, All Women Natak Mandalis as well as ‘mixed (mishra)’ Natak Mandalis). As this theatre grew in the nineteenth century it produced various forms such as the Pauranic (mythological Akhyan plays), Farces, Bookish Plays (mainly scholarly/ translated plays). Music had been a central element in the Pauranic plays, while the Farce and the Bookish Plays were without music. At the end of the Nineteenth century, a new form emerged, in popular opinion with the play Sangeet Sahkuntal by Annasaheb Kirloskar, which established the Sangeet Natak that I refer to. From this time onwards (1885) a more or less strict demarcation between Sangeet and ‘Prose’ (word as used in theatre of the time) was established and two separate sets of Natak Mandalis performed each of the genres. Balgandharva (Narayan Shripad Rajhans) joined the most famous Kirloskar Sangeet Natak Mandali in 1908 as its heroine. By this time Kirloskar Mandali had acquired the supreme status by virtue of its excellent productions and singer actors. Bhaurao Kolhatkar, the first singer-female impersonator of this company had won tremendous acclaim for his beauty, acting and singing. By the time he died prematurely, he had graduated from the female roles to the lead male roles. When he joined the company, Balgandharva had already acquired this name (meaning celestial child singer) from Tilak, in appreciation of his superb singing. Later on Balgandharva was to become one of the ‘Star’ heroine first of the Kirloskar Mandali and from 1913 onwards of his own Gandharva Sangeet Natak Mandali. He continued to enact female roles till the end of his career in 1950s. Barring the last few years and a few plays and some theatrical practices especially in the later part of his career Balgandharva was accepted as the most successful female impersonator of his times. This appreciation was based on many aspects of his art. All other female impersonators were appreciated for one or two of their qualities or for some specific roles. However the understanding and appreciation of Balgandharva as the most complete and overall successful female impersonator took into account the visual, auditory and histrionic aspects, and I suggest that this understanding was heavily underlined with the idea of a ‘respectable woman’. In other words, Balgandharva?s ‘darshan’ his singing and the roles he played together created an ideal (essential) woman in theatre, seductive and desirable and yet dignified and respectable; not only the most suitable for the consumption of the women of the respectable households (as well as the dignified men) but also an ideal of imitation in their real lives; as the ‘trend setter’ for women’s attire as well as for the abstract qualities of good womanhood in the domestic and public life: so much so that his fans did not accept a real woman in his place while he was active in theatre. Further, this appreciation of Balgandharva continued in the recent times in the nostalgic writings on Marathi theatre and music as well as in the practice of the Sangeet Natak even after the end of the practice of female impersonation. What I am looking at: Quite obviously there are many complexities in this practice: both in terms of how it was created on stage and how it was consumed. One of them is the kind of music that became the Marathi Natya Sangeet (theatre music). To cut a long story short here I will only say that the Natya Sangeet came to be constructed by incorporating various musical practices available to the composers at the various points in this long period. For example the popular form lavni was incorporated in the theatre music especially in the early years of the Sangeet Naak. Similarly there is a long history of the association between ‘classical’ music and theatre music. This connection is often represented in terms of the contribution of theatre music to the popularization of Hindusthani ‘classical’ music in Maharashtra. My emphasis is on the incorporation of the thumri and allied forms which became available in Maharashtra through gramophone records of the Baijis (Gauhar Jan for example). I argue that the aesthetics of this genre and (perhaps of the format in which it was mainly available at least in the first few years) shaped the most successful representation of the woman achieved in Balgandharva’s singing. The most notable thing here is the status of the ‘original’ which Balgandharva exploited in the representation of the ideal woman. The ‘original’ was a form recogniised as Kaccha gana, though appreciated for its musical intricacies it was none the less practiced (at least publicly) by ‘professional women singers’ or Baijis. How did this genre become purified in Balgandharva?s singing so as to receive the fame of being the true creation/imitation of an ideal womanhood? There are two questions that I am mainly looking at right now: does the practice of female impersonation ‘imitate’ an existing practice of gender or does it ‘create’ one? Two: this is to do with understanding the relation between voice and gender on the one hand and musical genre and gender (and voice) on the other. This also implies the production of voice and genre on the gramophone record disc. What notion of a complete representation of genre is operative in a three minute record disc? I am listening again and again to male singers like Ustad Faiyaz Khan and Pandit Ramkrishnabua Vaze and then to Joharabai and Gauhar Jan, in search of the idea of a complete performance and the elements they choose to highlight to establish this as well as their musical genre, its status and their own individuality. I will be back with some more ideas in the next posting. Meanwhile I look forward to your responses. best urmila -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/22aebce6/attachment.html From rakesh at sarai.net Mon Jan 24 19:30:21 2005 From: rakesh at sarai.net (rakesh kumar singh) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 19:30:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gopal & Rakhal In-Reply-To: <1111.203.101.3.160.1106403289.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> References: <1111.203.101.3.160.1106403289.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <41F4FF75.9080802@sarai.net> I don't know whether I am right or wrong, but to me Rakhal is more interesting. salam rakesh joy at sarai.net wrote: >There are two people, Gopal and Rakhal. > >Gopal works in a free software company like Red Hat. Earns a good living, >spends all the money on himself and enjoys his life. > >Rakhal works in a proprietary software company like Microsoft. Earns a >good living, supports two unemployed friends and lives a simple life. > >I am wondering who is more interesting to look at? > > >Best >Joy > >_________________________________________ >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: > > -- Rakesh Kumar Singh Sarai-CSDS Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054 Ph: 91 11 23960040 Fax: 91 11 2394 3450 web site: www.sarai.net web blog: http://blog.sarai.net/users/rakesh/ From supreet.sethi at gmail.com Mon Jan 24 16:34:08 2005 From: supreet.sethi at gmail.com (Supreet Sethi) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 16:34:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gopal & Rakhal In-Reply-To: <41F4FF75.9080802@sarai.net> References: <1111.203.101.3.160.1106403289.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <41F4FF75.9080802@sarai.net> Message-ID: Just a observation..... First of all "The Urban legend" about employees of MSFT/RHCT described here is very specific to certain frame and tragetectory. Why these questions are being asked... I just wonder, but certain assumption have already been made and value judgement have been passed 1) People working is certain organization tend subscribe to its agenda ( Wondering if you always believe in what you are doing) 2) While one can lead simple life, to enjoy life you need to spend on yourself 3) While spending money on unemployed friends is a good thing, one should'nt take a stance on why those people are un-employed in first place. Who is interesting to look at .... Maybe the one who has got a better face. :-) Anyway any answer is a wrong answer ... So it does'nt matter regards Supreet From joy at sarai.net Mon Jan 24 22:13:23 2005 From: joy at sarai.net (joy at sarai.net) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 17:43:23 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] Gopal & Rakhal In-Reply-To: References: <1111.203.101.3.160.1106403289.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <41F4FF75.9080802@sarai.net> Message-ID: <1371.203.101.6.25.1106585003.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Supreet, I completely agree with you. Lets do some thing, lets change the prefessions, say Gopal does piracy and shares CDs. And Rakhal is a musician who belives in copyright control. There is a shortage of water in the locality, Rakhal shares a bucket full of water with the neighbor but Gopal refuses. Don't say one should look at why there is no water. Lets accept that scarcity is part of our daily life unlike digital informations. Who you think is more friendly? Best Joy From jace at pobox.com Tue Jan 25 00:44:19 2005 From: jace at pobox.com (Kiran Jonnalagadda) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 00:44:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Studying how user interface affects discussion and community online Message-ID: <25C020E6-6E3C-11D9-A6F7-000A95684A18@pobox.com> Hello, this is my first post here. I'm studying how user interface affects discussion and the resulting community in online spaces. In keeping with the spirit of the investigation, I've posted the full text of the proposal to an online discussion space, my journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/jace/351443.html Ignore the comments, please. They make it sound like I won a medal. ;-) My original idea for this investigation came from LiveJournal itself, where I've been a regular user for several years and noticed usage patterns related to the user interface. An example: LiveJournal supports threaded discussions -- that is, a discussion where you can reply to anybody, the person who made the post or someone who made a comment on the post -- a feature unremarkable in mailing lists because it's taken for granted, but unusual for a blog, where the norm is that readers can comment only on the original post, not on another comment. LiveJournal goes one step further: when you reply to someone, they get an email notification with a copy of your comment, and links leading back to the comment online or to the entire post. Combine threaded discussions with email notifications, and you have the ability to let your readers talk to each other without involving you. Here is a recent example from my journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/jace/360412.html Notice that my post of a picture of a clothesline has spawned an unrelated discussion on henna. From personal knowledge, two of the three people involved were not previously familiar with each other. Thanks to LiveJournal's user interface, my post provided a space for these two to get familiar with each other, from where they will go on to engage in each other's journals, essentially building a community where most people know each other well enough to be comfortable in their company. Some people will argue that threaded discussions are bad precisely because they allow people to fork off into parallel discussions, taking attention away from the original post. While this may be a problem on Usenet or mailing lists, it's not on LiveJournal because posts have a limited lifetime. This used to be a few days earlier, but it's barely 24 hours these days (a sign of LJ's UI design approaching overload). I will attempt to explain this in my next post to this list. In around August/September last, when I first presented the idea for this investigation to the good folks at Sarai, but didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, Joel Spolsky of JoelOnSoftware.com wrote an article on social interfaces in software: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/NotJustUsability.html His article helped considerably with clarifying the purpose of my investigation, and explains it better than I have here. I've had a busy January honouring earlier commitments (and hence the delay of this post). During February, I will document UI related observations from various communities online. Since these observations have no backing other than my own claims, between March and July I will attempt to experimentally verify them with a willing community. I'm looking for such a community. It will be a difficult search since they must be capable of modifying their software -- and I don't have the resources to build an experimental community just for this investigation -- but I hope I find one. Please let me know if you are interested. Have a good week, everyone. -- Kiran Jonnalagadda http://www.pobox.com/~jace From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Tue Jan 25 10:05:21 2005 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:05:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Open Invitation] Third National Colloquium on economic and social implications of the new patent regime. Message-ID: <41F5CC89.5080506@linux-delhi.org> January 13, 2005 Sub: Third National Colloquium on economic and social implications of the new patent regime. Dear Friends, The new patent regime brought into effect from 1.1.2005 has serious economic and social implications. The new regime was introduced through promulgation of the Patents (Amendment) Ordinance 2004 bypassing the Parliamentary procedures usually followed for enactment of such an important legislation. Government will now have to introduce a Bill to replace the Ordinance during the budget session of Parliament. That would provide the last window of opportunity to introduce modifications and amendments to the new patent law with a view to protecting public interest to the extent possible. Ignoring the niches of flexibilities available in the TRIPS and Doha Declaration, many vital public interest provisions either have been left out or not incorporated fully in the Ordinance. Concerns have been expressed about the short-comings not only by the knowledgeable people, mass organizations and concerned industry associations in India but also by international organizations and global peoples' movements. It is widely apprehended that under the new patent regime, the supply of essential drugs and pharmaceuticals at affordable prices from manufacturers in India to the poor , particularly in the third world, would be disrupted. WHO (Geneva) and a large number of non-governmental organizations in South East Asia, Americas, Europe and Africa have expressed their concern in this regard to the highest authorities in our country. The new patent regime has serious and far-reaching implications for vital areas such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, bio-diversity and information technology. These concerns need to be addressed. National Working Group on Patent Laws, Research Foundation for Science, Tech. & Ecology and Transform India Group are jointly organizing one day National Colloquium to deliberate on the critical issues raised by the new patent regime, in the Lecture Hall in the Annexe of India International Centre on February 1, 2005. The programme of the Colloquium will be as follows : Forenoon session : New Patent Regime and its implications 10.00 am to 12.30 pm Press briefing 12.30 pm Afternoon session : Implications of extension of the new 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm patent regime to software, plant varieties, micro-organisms, etc. You are invited to kindly participate and enrich the deliberations. A line confirming your participation is requested. Relevant material on the topics would be made available only between 9.30 - 10.00 am. (S.P. Shukla) (Vandana Shiva) (B.K. Keayla) Chairman, Transform India Group Director, RFSTE Convener, NWGPL Co-chairman, NWGPL For further information and to register, please try: Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology A- 60, Hauz Khas New Delhi, India 110016 Ph +91-11-26968077, 26853772, 26561868 Fax: +91-11-26856795, 26562093 From supreet.sethi at gmail.com Tue Jan 25 10:53:12 2005 From: supreet.sethi at gmail.com (Supreet Sethi) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:53:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gopal & Rakhal In-Reply-To: <1369.203.101.6.25.1106584924.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> References: <1111.203.101.3.160.1106403289.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <41F4FF75.9080802@sarai.net> <1369.203.101.6.25.1106584924.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: Dear Joy, I just wish I could see the world through your eyes. But world and especially human behaviour is something very complicated ... Something I still just observe and not comment about. Hundred scenarios can be built and the questions can be posed regarding certain trait of human behaviour. But this is exactly the kind of story telling that "baetal" does for "vikram" and expects the right answer. The fact is there is no right answer. All human beings have alturastic as well as selfish tendencies. It is the matter of what kicks in first. And evolution (going to darwinion notion of it) kills which ever tendence is not effecient for survival. Since both of these tendencies have survived, I guess both are equally important. regards Supreet On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 17:42:04 +0100 (CET), joy at sarai.net wrote: > Dear Supreet, > > I completely agree with you. Lets do some thing, lets change the > prefessions, say Gopal does piracy and shares CDs. > > And Rakhal is a musician who belives in copyright control. > > There is a shortage of water in the locality, Rakhal shares a bucket full > of water with the neighbor but Gopal refuses. Don't say one should look at > why there is no water. Lets accept that scarcity is part of our daily life > unlike digital informations. > > Who you think is more friendly? > > Best > Joy > > From sirfirf at yahoo.com Tue Jan 25 13:47:02 2005 From: sirfirf at yahoo.com (IRFAN) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 00:17:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Voices of FM Radio Message-ID: <20050125081702.74394.qmail@web30706.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Meri awaaz hee parda hai mere chehre ka, Main hoon khamosh jahan mujhko wahan se suniye! (My voice is my mask, the real face upon my face Listen to my silence from wherever you are!) <> Dear Vivek, Please find my Jan posting. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From kaiwanmehta at gmail.com Tue Jan 25 14:25:53 2005 From: kaiwanmehta at gmail.com (kaiwan mehta) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 14:25:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] First Posting - Cultures of Migration and Politics of Documentation In-Reply-To: <2482459d05012309203a0efc0f@mail.gmail.com> References: <2482459d05012309203a0efc0f@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2482459d05012500555e65674@mail.gmail.com> Hi This is my first posting … The paper is titled Reading Histories: Migration and Culture Politics of Mapping and Representation: Urban Communities Architecture is a matrix of cultural codes and also a site for anthropology. One has to understand architecture as a potential archive not in terms of the physical building but the life that unfolds within it, the craft and decoration that mask it, the material and technology that draw skill and references to construct it. Architecture has to be read as a novel, where facts are mingled with poetic imagination, and this imagination is our great archive to be unearthed. Architecture essentially deals with human societies, their memories and aspirations. The paper tries to understand; 1. Cultures of migration responsible for the urban culture Bombay has 2. Reconstructing this urban culture (its history) by simultaneously reading architecture and other forms of cultural representation like theatre, literature. This in the process hints at urban culture being a composition of neighborhoods/localities, also related to cultures of migration………………generating a peculiar cultural and political urban culture. Communities, essentially housing communities are defined on various cultural frameworks that range from migration patterns, employment status, community structures, etc. Very often they create cultural zones, which are not generated through historical or social sequences, but are enforced to create preferred cultures. How does one understand the living space and community space within these living complexes? This is the essential social space that defines the way individuals imagine themselves vis-à-vis family, society and nation. These are the primary generators of notions that define society and space. How does one holistically document these housing communities? What is a process for a holistic mapping? Architects' classical tools of the plan and map have limitations. There is a need to create a mode of representation that documents the living space and the relationships that it accommodates, the community and the politics that it generates, the form and the memories and aspirations it provokes. In this context how does one deal with mapping, documentation and archiving in this context. This will be viewed in light of the fact that documentation and archiving are emerging strongly as a form of architectural practice and urban studies. These mappings result in generating urban histories and also define policy and planning. I believe that every architect played a role in society and was also crucial to its culture; s/he was not just an aesthetician or a professional service labour. He was the generator of ideas and spaces, where humans lived and worked, where society enacted its drama of culture and politics, religion and mythology. The inner city of Bombay, the earlier 'native town', is the area of my research interest. It has been a prime site for culture, religion and politics. Its history ranged from migration patterns to nationalism and riots. -- Kaiwan Mehta Architect and Urban Reseracher 11/4, Kassinath Bldg. No. 2, Kassinath St., Tardeo, Mumbai 400034 022-2-494 3259 / 91-98205 56436 -- Kaiwan Mehta Architect and Urban Reseracher 11/4, Kassinath Bldg. No. 2, Kassinath St., Tardeo, Mumbai 400034 022-2-494 3259 / 91-98205 56436 From definetime at rediffmail.com Mon Jan 24 12:26:51 2005 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 24 Jan 2005 06:56:51 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) Obituary: Johnny Carson (edit) Message-ID: <20050124065651.7509.qmail@webmail46.rediffmail.com> Obituary: Johnny Carson (1925-2005) For almost 30 years, the last person that millions of Americans saw before they went to sleep was Johnny Carson, hosting his Tonight television chat show on NBC. In it, Carson, who has died aged 79, honed an apparently effortless technique that influenced comedians and interviewers on both sides of the Atlantic... ...A private man behind the public banter, he hid his true feelings, an act of heroic modesty considering his huge potential influence. But after he had given his notice to NBC, and his final show approached, he delivered a laconic message about democracy that is worth repeating. He compared it to buying "a big house you can't afford, with money you don't have, to impress people you wish were dead. And, unlike communism, democracy does not mean having just one ineffective political party; it means having two ineffective political parties. "Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold on to, usually a mop or a leaf blower. It means that with proper timing and scrupulous bookkeeping, anyone can die owing the government a huge amount of money... Democracy means free television, not good television, but free... And finally, democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollarbill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head. This signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle. I thank you." http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1396988,00.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/2cee0a67/attachment.html From pz at vsnl.net Mon Jan 24 13:36:23 2005 From: pz at vsnl.net (Punam Zutshi) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 13:36:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] images of violence References: <20050121124211.4949.qmail@web80909.mail.scd.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <001f01c501eb$99e59730$76f341db@punamzutshi> HELP!!Is this only my computer acting up? ----- Original Message ----- From: lush inkk To: reader-list at sarai.net Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 6:12 PM Subject: [Reader-list] images of violence

Images of violence.

 

The continuing discussion on this forum about images of violence has spurred me to write too.  I hope I am able to flash blindly this way and that in the dark and find some thought somewhere.

    (The image is from this linux screen saver- a little insect with a headlight attached turns around the screen-again and again, to no end except- filling time while saving the screen, trying to be a bit entertaining- I am not trying to be the last but I hope the ramble does not become too tedious. Images of violence, how violence as an image can be shown, or not, where or when it can be shown, what it means to us, what it says about us, have been part of some discussions( for discussions are few in my life at least, in recent years, and are looked for sometimes) and many thoughts and indignant flashes of emotion.

 

Death, humiliation- that which should not be filmed- because filming and then shameless uncontrolled broadcast makes it become normal-/ indignified, pornographic.

A hotmail attatchment that might open out to show a silly condom cartoon, might equally show a spectacle of violence- and both might be watched on office desks using the same casual procedures, trying to get away from routine work.

 

This is a squabble a friend of mine and I have been having for a long time- an argument that I had with another friend-

The imaging of violence and its broadcast in the public media-

How effective is it, or is it deadening?

 

The image no longer moral. I was aghast to see the image of a family, the window they were framed in about to burn, during the Gujarat riots. I hated the Mid day( with all its tabloidy desires anyway) carrying the image of the man with the briefcase jumping to his death during september 11th.

I refused to look at the image of the plane anymore- after the first viewing that had happened I suppose inadvertently?  ( I find myself plunging hereon into these ways of narrating, eventually salacious, but also horrified- that have existed even pre the television image.

" I just happened to get up late that evening- I came out blearily into the living room and saw this horrible image of the plane crashing..)

part of the reaction, even at that moment, across t.v.'s is - perhaps- not cynical-

( perhaps because it was the newness and shock of seeing that violence in america, I feel even the tv reporters standing there could not have been cynical, perhaps- having met some photographers who work in magazines etcetra- cynicism does not come so easily to the person experiencing the ground violence anyway. there was a sense that this was just horrible and' we do not know how to react '. What do they feel about the lines they mouth there and then before the tv camera. Beyond commerce, are there just human moments, where we can look beyond the rubbish standardized language they habitually speak to see them as people who somehow had to see the violence- what did it make them feel? Is the desire to know that also salacious? ) there was a sense that this was just horrible and we did not know how to react

 

but on the other hand- does the language of the violent television image actually deaden us? I am not sure. Beyond all the rubbish editing and the shouting and newsmaking and competing of the various channels- the violence still shakes us?

 

I have not had a t.v. for a long time- the evening news with dinner getting ready sounds really like terminal cynicism. But??is it?

Are saas bahu serials the alternative?

But I hear of awful real crime 'events' where reporters interrogate the criminals, taking on themselves the role of the indignant public, and playing that role out with no nuance.

I remember arguments with friends who said the Gujarat images shook so many previously complacent right wing relatives.

That the middle class should be forced to see( and thence experience at least some of) the grisly reality of violence.

 

I work in a archive trying to keep video images of Kashmir. I wonder what would be the relevance of collecting bits and pieces of footage captured by television cameramen to provide the image asked for in the 'market'- the one for the Indian government channel, the one for the foreign channel etcetra. Are these images then commodities?

But there remains the footage of a protest as people try to retrieve the body of their loved one, from police custody, and try to make it the centre of a demonstration. His brains hang out. Women wail. Policemen do their job with stolid faces. This has not become pornography for me, it wont. I cant see it, I would rather not see it. It stuns and numbs me.

Is it because I am seeing it in silence, alone, unedited, without a manic voice, that I am forced to face it. Do they show Kashmir as a site of violence- do they show the violence on tv? What do they show?

I see the familiar irritating violence of a news channel doing a story on kashmiris passing out of the Indian army. It is of interest and amusement to me as an archivist. It is a violent story, I know. I know people who wont think it so. There must be stories I do not think are violent that are very very violent.

 

My friend who argued about the middle class needing to see violence- was not just making a ( stereotypical) Marxist teacher kind of remark. He was remembering from his experience of an image that he had actually viewed- that had singed him., he saw the police carting away, on the footboard of a cycle rickshaw, a 'convict' whose limbs were tied- he was trussed up like a fowl. It is a image that has stayed with him forever like a block before him. That he cannot wish away-

 

The image of the Manipuri women protesting naked- but that was a spectacle- humiliating to the viewer, that they wanted seen. It is about unbearable anger and grief. I have not seen the image, but I flinch from the description. A friend who has relatives in the army- a brother in the north east says she is haunted by the image.

 

A photograph from Kashmir taken in the early nineties. Me, a mainlander in the end, watching- a (motley) bunch of thin people, in army fatigues, mouth covered- stand before a large banner. They are armed. Young terrorists. They don't look too impressive I might have thought. And there is the sense of 'seeing the news image'( salacious) seeing the terrorist- this moment frozen, giving a mirage of it containing their real corporeal bodies, of containing that slice of space on which they were standing - real terrorists- not the mission kashmir/roja variety. I scan the image to make sense of it.

It is a  news photograph for a srinagar newspaper, black and white for reasons of what they printed in, I suppose- but it makes it strange- though it is a photo of the early nineties, its format, with a border at the end, its aging, yellowing edges- make it seem like  long ago, like our childhoods( my generation) to which black and white photos belonged.

Taken- with what motive- can I tell? Early nineties- was it important to give space to the militants in newsprint- did it come of pressure, belief, or simply a newsmans desire to be able to show- what he knows is, what exists, not far from where he is living?

The kashmiri man sitting with me looked at me and said- not one of these boys must be alive now. It shook me a bit, his gaze at the photograph.

And then-

We fear that we become, when we are complacent outsiders, salacious in the consumption of narratives about death- especially 'abnormal' over narrativised death. It is a phenomenon that predates the image. Gossip. I read a taylor Caldwell from my mothers collection as a adolescent? I think- bits of it, while searching for dirty parts-

 

It spoke of how a bus had crashed, some kids had been killed and some had not. And how the parents who still had their kids had a certain complacency.

Then I felt I guiltily understood what it said. Now I feel people also have a genuine compassion.

 

In preimage times, everyone sat in their various corners of the earth and made their own complacencies and own salacious comments. That also bore at their heart- horror and the inability of deal with it, and the recognition that it is horrific.

 

A friend in a mnc who wanted to email a horrific beheading circulating on the internet. What does the image mean to him? Can I know? I know I do not want to see it. The idea of that circulation disgusts me.

 

And then there is the film maker who wants to show the deep violence we have done- of replacing our eye with a machine called the camera and where the shaky ethics of image making have also led us to-

To dull comfortable wars where the eye does not see what it kills.

My friend and I argued after this film- not with the zest of knowing you are sure you want to stand your ground that we might have had some time ago, but stating ours and conceding not knowing, perhaps the other one was right.

 

I hated "Night and Fog" when I saw it now- alain resnais' film using footage of the nzi concentration camps-

He showed a tractor with a big trowel attatched in the front picking up bodies by the dozen and dumping them carelessly. This was the filmed horror post the defeat of the Nazis- showing what the Nazis had done-

This was where our argument had started- my friend and mine.

 

 

 

 

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-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/cd75abdf/attachment.html From kcoelho at email.arizona.edu Tue Jan 25 04:19:59 2005 From: kcoelho at email.arizona.edu (Karen) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 15:49:59 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Jan posting Message-ID: <009201c50267$0b921fe0$ab6c41db@Madras> Hi. I am a cultural anthropologist, have just completed my Ph.d in Arizona, and have returned to live in Chennai. My first posting to this listserve, below, contains my proposal and then an outline of what I (we) have been thinking and doing so far. Tapping in: Urban Water Conflicts as Citizenship Claims in Chennai My project proposes to explore collective, contentious and transgressive practices of urban citizenship as articulated in claims to water in the city of Chennai. Municipal water supply in several Indian cities remains encased in the structure of the commons, particularly in situations of chronic supply shortage. Yet, urban water sector reforms across the country, conceived along neoliberal lines, seek to reconstitute water services as industries responsive to demand, in the process turning water into a commodity and citizens into consumers with private property in water. In Chennai, for example, an emerging component of the reforms is an effort to extend individual water connections to the slums. I found, however, that it was not the orderly administrative discipline of the individual complaint, but rather, the vocal and insistent demands presented by the urban poor, usually in collectives, that provoked effective responses from the frontline bureaucrats of the water service. This was not a smooth relationship of accountability. The officials evinced a consistent hostility to collective representations, but this hostility was grounded in their fear of the mariyal, a common local form of public protest, which usually took the form of a road-block and was particularly popular among women, who squatted or stood behind barricades of colored plastic water pots placed across the road. Even the threat of a mariyal could produce rather prompt response from field engineers or their superiors. The proposal outlined here is an offshoot of my dissertation research, which was an ethnographic exploration of reform in Chennai's water utility, Metrowater, from the vantage point of frontline bureaucrats. Understudying the engineers' work at the Operations and Maintenance depots gave me an insight into the anomalies, disjunctures and leakages that challenged the neoliberal order of reform as it unfolded on the ground. Among the most significant challenges to this order were those posed by the urban slum-dwellers, who appeared in the engineers' sights as unruly and uncivil masses, unwilling to pay for services, and prone to make demands on the state through collective and politicized channels. Failing to bring these masses into line with reformist visions of a civil society composed of individual consumers, the engineers displayed a tendency to retreat from this "impossible" sphere of the public. The project proposed here seeks to interrogate the narratives of order purveyed by the reforming state, this time from the vantage point of its margins, using multi-media techniques. De Certeau (2000) and James Scott (1998) contend that the totalizing administrative order of the high-modern state, or the theoretical concept of the city, is produced by being lifted high off the ground, out of the city's grasp, leaving behind the mass of wandering lifeways that inhabit its spaces. But what these authors portray as the distanced view from above - the God's eye view, the eye of the sovereign - is, in the case of the municipal water service, situated below the ground, in the underground network of pipes that engineers presented as the principle agent of equitable distribution in the service. This anthropomorphic yet impersonal agent of order, then, gave rise to a technocratic discourse in which universal service was guaranteed through rational improvement. But my ethnography revealed that the underground grid was really a "sieve-order" (de Certeau 2000:160), punctured and intersected by bypass connections and illegal taps that revealed the contentious and compromised order of a ground-level service. Beneath the architecture of rules and policies, the landscape of the water service emerged as patchy, layered and segmented, its so-called "givens" altered not just through the linear model of continuous rational improvement, but through unruly assertions of rights and needs. The underground grid thus embodied a myth of order, produced by silences, half-truths and euphemisms, which permitted and regularized the unofficial arrangements through which lower-level bureaucrats, local politicians and the public together devised solutions to the exigencies of daily life. The myth of order was ritually performed through excavations on the city streets, where engineers publicly uncovered selected illegal connections in acts of policing the integrity of the grid. Maps of the distribution system then, are half-truths, idealized representations which ignore some illegal additions and incorporate others as if they were part of the original plan. However they also function as performative instruments of categorization: what is not on the map is by definition illegal. The project I propose here would explore these challenges to the myth of orderly service from the perspective of citizens struggling for access to water. These challenges take a range of everyday forms, from informal arrangements governing access to public fountains and water tanks, to mariyals and illegal taps. All these represent modes through which the urban public, lacking access to private property in water, assert the sovereignty of a basic need. My project conceptualizes the points of leakage in the urban order of the grid as sites in which local claims to citizenship are being asserted, challenging liberal (and neo-liberal) norms of individual-based citizenship. This project, then, would seek to excavate and enunciate the histories hidden in engineered landscapes - the social relations of rule, resistance and compromise that are written into these concrete fixed and putatively impersonal structures. It would seek, as Latour (1988) urges us, to desegregate the world of objects from the world of people, to examine the mutually interacting "social" in both domains. Using localized water conflicts, particularly as they appear at the margins and thresholds of the piped water system, to direct the lens of the enquiry, this study will pose questions like: - How do the urban poor, located at the tail-end of systems and the fringes of administrative order, read and engage with the official texts of the water service? - Where do they locate their own realities on the official grid maps? How do their tales of order cohere with or intersect official tales? - What texts or archives do they rely on for authoritative statements about their rights in water? - What kinds of texts or archives are produced through their informal/illicit claims, assertions and conflicts over water? The project would use a range of media to construct this enquiry, including various techniques of mapping, oral histories and videography. It envisages using these maps, histories and video clips to create an intertextual conversation between official and unofficial histories and geographies. This conversation would be mediated by the core subjects of the study, groups of residents from the urban slums. REFERENCES CITED Certeau, Michel de. 2000. "Walking in the city." in The Certeau Reader, edited by G. Ward. Oxford Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers. Chatterjee, Partha 2001. On civil and political society in post-colonial democracies. In: Sudipto Kaviraj and Sunil Khilnani (eds.), Civil Society: History and Possibilities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Latour, Bruno. 1988. The Pasteurization of France. Translated by A. Sheridan and J. Law. Cambridge, Mass.,: Harvard University Press. Scott, James C. 1998. Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. What I have been doing In January I made contact with a film-maker based in Chennai who will be collaborating with me on this project. We have had a series of small meetings to bring him on board and outline the project in practical terms. I have also been re-establishing contact with the water bureaucrats I worked with during my dissertation fieldwork, >From the long laundry list of ideas we came up with, in brainstorm mode, here are a few things we plan to start with in Feb: - Visit a number of communities with and without a camera. Speak to older people, children -- vocabularies of water, memories of water. - Draw maps with the women - where the water facilities are, where they should be, are there any local organizations, who handles the problems, the role of local politicians. (can we get a gender profile of local water managers in the slums) - Follow transects of water access with a couple of communities - from local water control person to lorry/tank supplier to Metrowater laborer to depot engineer via politician - that kind of thing. All the way from the source to inside the household. - Talk to depot engineers and find out where the excavations are, go check them out. Talk to laborers from Metrowater who do the digging ... - Revisit Ashokamitran's 1960s novel "Thaneer" which describes the restless wakefulness of the city streets in early dawn as people hustle for water... Comments welcome! Looking forward! Karen -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/29e7eb8b/attachment.html From mmdesai2 at yahoo.co.in Mon Jan 24 16:27:53 2005 From: mmdesai2 at yahoo.co.in (mmdesai) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 16:27:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Posting I Message-ID: <004301c50205$aedc6aa0$0a18fea9@com1> My Sarai topic is "Women and their Spatial Narratives in the City of Ahmedabad". I am Madhavi Desai: an architect, teacher, writer and researcher. This research is the coming together of my interest in the built environment and gender. Though quite a bit of work has been done in the West in this field, it is in its nascent stage in India. This work is an attempt to get a closer look at local level and to develop a methodology to do it. This is the abstract: Situated on the banks of Sabarmati River, the city of Ahmedabad has its roots in the medieval times. It has a historic inner city core and extensive modern development all around. Seventh largest city in India, it has population close to 4 million today. The basic premise of the research project is that though the city is theoretically available to all citizens, women are not fully able to physically and culturally participate in it. Focusing on the middle class, this research attempts to document the spatial activities and experiences of women in Ahmedabad in the traditional as well as the modern sections. The objectives are as follows: To trace women's mobility patterns with respect to their neighbourhood and the city, within their social network and outside it. To analyse women's connection to urban institutions and services such as banks, post office, etc. To understand women's activities and sites of leisure such as hotels, restaurants, parks and multiplexes. To look into women's notions of what a city is in terms of their image and descriptions. The research methods used will include observation, questionnaires and interviews; map analysis and perception drawings by women as well as library research. I attach the questionnaire I have developed. I will appreciate any specific suggestions for the topic as well as the questionnaire. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/71dfd660/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: QUESTIONNAIRE SARAI.doc Type: application/msword Size: 22016 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/71dfd660/attachment.doc From prashantpandey10 at rediffmail.com Mon Jan 24 21:37:28 2005 From: prashantpandey10 at rediffmail.com (Prashant Pandey) Date: 24 Jan 2005 16:07:28 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20050124160728.29763.qmail@webmail9.rediffmail.com> Documenting the contemporary history of the making of the Hindi Film song A half note up, a half note down- Musicmakers in Delhi learn to rock My research sets an aim to document in minutest detail the making of a Hindi film song. Any typical Bollywood song has three basic elements –Vocals, lyrics, and music track. Like a film script any song can be broken down on these three parameters. Therefore my research is divided into exploring and critically analyzing these processes a) Composing and making the music track b) The contemporary craft of writing lyrics This will include the study of the changing cartography of the Hindi film song. c) Recording of the song by a playback singer under the supervision of the composer and technicians. 1. During the first month I have started to brush technical concepts related with sound Technology and song recording. Mostly it is regarding how a particular sound file can be generated and stored in a digital form. This is largely through Internet and contributions by friends. 2. Documenting the work of two Delhi based composers Ram Subramaniyam and Abhishek Mathur aka Shekhu. Interactions with two talented Delhi based composers Shekhu(age 24), a full time composer/arranger and Ram Subramanium(age 26), a finance executive. Both of absolutely hate traditional bollywood dhick chik dhick chik i.e. same formulaic music tracks. These two composers are extremely well versed with computers and computer softwares. They handle the composing as well as the recording part all by themselves. You may say a combo of a composer and sound recordist and arranger. Ram who is working with the Price Water House Coopers (PWC) refers himself as a weekender as he makes music on weekends. He has a lot of friends in US who continuously supply him music loops through net. This gives him an edge in terms of putting new sounds is concerned. “If Rahman can use sound samples from Germany why cant I”, he told me in a long chat. Shekhu’s whose father is a bureaucrat operates from his posh chanakyapuri house. He has a “modest” set up of 2 guitars, a MIDI keyboard and a Shure mic and a home PC with an enviable disk space. Observing both these musicians one thing is clear. They think like an arranger. If the basic tune is there they will make a very good track. Then secondly both these composers agree that film music is all about reach and replay value. It is especially applicable to the composers who are based in Bollywood. Reach and replay should here be interpreted in marketing terms and what music companies be telling the producers and director of the film when they want to sell the music. This is largely how they think the industry must be like. However both of these composers do not know much about mainstream Hindi film industry (“ I like this guy RD”) and though they eventually want to do films; their first response is an outright rejection- of practices, of tunes, of singers and so on. They are also not too keen on assisting an Anu Malik or some Himesh Reshmiya. 3. Starting a study of Kumar Sanu’s career and singing style. This involves finding out why so many singers (amateur and professionals) copy him. Readers this is for you. Try singing a kumar sanu song or any song. Can you sing it without straining your forehead and producing a nasal sound? Tanmaykant a budding singer says that singing through nose you can easily approximate high notes something that is very difficult to do through the throat or stomach. Ghulam Sadiq Khan at the Faculty of Music, University of Delhi (he trained Jaspinder Narula) told that in Pakistan the teachers encourage the singers to sing from pait(stomach). Therefore singers there have deep voices unlike the Indian singers who follow a very KL Saigal kind of nasal style. Jaspinder too agrees. The study of Sanu’s career coincides with an analysis of Nadeem- Shravan whose first claim to fame was Aashiqi (T-series, 1990) in which Sanu sang all the songs except one. The trio of NS, Sanu and lyricist Sameer created waves with a string of film fare awards. However out of the three only Sameer is still going strong by managing to write songs like, ek simple si coffee bhi kick deti hai. Liking sanu is no more “cool” especially with listeners who got their musical bearings after the first half of the nineties. There are new singers like Kunal, KK and Shaan who can sing high pitch songs with an English accent. 4. I have arranged a meeting with Satish Kaushik, the director of a recent super hit (music as well as the film), Tere Naam. He shall be in Delhi this week and I would like to ask him how he gets his music done. 6. My next posting will be from Mumbai – direct from the heart of film music industry. I have spoken to a few assistant music directors and they will like to help. So all of you let me know your responses about this one and keep in touch. There’s lot more to come. Prashant Pandey prashant pandey -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/08846bc3/attachment.html From prashantpandey10 at rediffmail.com Mon Jan 24 21:37:28 2005 From: prashantpandey10 at rediffmail.com (Prashant Pandey) Date: 24 Jan 2005 16:07:28 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <20050124160728.29763.qmail@webmail9.rediffmail.com> Documenting the contemporary history of the making of the Hindi Film song A half note up, a half note down- Musicmakers in Delhi learn to rock My research sets an aim to document in minutest detail the making of a Hindi film song. Any typical Bollywood song has three basic elements –Vocals, lyrics, and music track. Like a film script any song can be broken down on these three parameters. Therefore my research is divided into exploring and critically analyzing these processes a) Composing and making the music track b) The contemporary craft of writing lyrics This will include the study of the changing cartography of the Hindi film song. c) Recording of the song by a playback singer under the supervision of the composer and technicians. 1. During the first month I have started to brush technical concepts related with sound Technology and song recording. Mostly it is regarding how a particular sound file can be generated and stored in a digital form. This is largely through Internet and contributions by friends. 2. Documenting the work of two Delhi based composers Ram Subramaniyam and Abhishek Mathur aka Shekhu. Interactions with two talented Delhi based composers Shekhu(age 24), a full time composer/arranger and Ram Subramanium(age 26), a finance executive. Both of absolutely hate traditional bollywood dhick chik dhick chik i.e. same formulaic music tracks. These two composers are extremely well versed with computers and computer softwares. They handle the composing as well as the recording part all by themselves. You may say a combo of a composer and sound recordist and arranger. Ram who is working with the Price Water House Coopers (PWC) refers himself as a weekender as he makes music on weekends. He has a lot of friends in US who continuously supply him music loops through net. This gives him an edge in terms of putting new sounds is concerned. “If Rahman can use sound samples from Germany why cant I”, he told me in a long chat. Shekhu’s whose father is a bureaucrat operates from his posh chanakyapuri house. He has a “modest” set up of 2 guitars, a MIDI keyboard and a Shure mic and a home PC with an enviable disk space. Observing both these musicians one thing is clear. They think like an arranger. If the basic tune is there they will make a very good track. Then secondly both these composers agree that film music is all about reach and replay value. It is especially applicable to the composers who are based in Bollywood. Reach and replay should here be interpreted in marketing terms and what music companies be telling the producers and director of the film when they want to sell the music. This is largely how they think the industry must be like. However both of these composers do not know much about mainstream Hindi film industry (“ I like this guy RD”) and though they eventually want to do films; their first response is an outright rejection- of practices, of tunes, of singers and so on. They are also not too keen on assisting an Anu Malik or some Himesh Reshmiya. 3. Starting a study of Kumar Sanu’s career and singing style. This involves finding out why so many singers (amateur and professionals) copy him. Readers this is for you. Try singing a kumar sanu song or any song. Can you sing it without straining your forehead and producing a nasal sound? Tanmaykant a budding singer says that singing through nose you can easily approximate high notes something that is very difficult to do through the throat or stomach. Ghulam Sadiq Khan at the Faculty of Music, University of Delhi (he trained Jaspinder Narula) told that in Pakistan the teachers encourage the singers to sing from pait(stomach). Therefore singers there have deep voices unlike the Indian singers who follow a very KL Saigal kind of nasal style. Jaspinder too agrees. The study of Sanu’s career coincides with an analysis of Nadeem- Shravan whose first claim to fame was Aashiqi (T-series, 1990) in which Sanu sang all the songs except one. The trio of NS, Sanu and lyricist Sameer created waves with a string of film fare awards. However out of the three only Sameer is still going strong by managing to write songs like, ek simple si coffee bhi kick deti hai. Liking sanu is no more “cool” especially with listeners who got their musical bearings after the first half of the nineties. There are new singers like Kunal, KK and Shaan who can sing high pitch songs with an English accent. 4. I have arranged a meeting with Satish Kaushik, the director of a recent super hit (music as well as the film), Tere Naam. He shall be in Delhi this week and I would like to ask him how he gets his music done. 6. My next posting will be from Mumbai – direct from the heart of film music industry. I have spoken to a few assistant music directors and they will like to help. So all of you let me know your responses about this one and keep in touch. There’s lot more to come. Prashant Pandey prashant pandey -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/08846bc3/attachment-0001.html From iyer_renu at rediffmail.com Tue Jan 25 11:05:37 2005 From: iyer_renu at rediffmail.com (renu swaminathan iyer) Date: 25 Jan 2005 05:35:37 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Gopal & Rakhal Message-ID: <20050125053537.31593.qmail@webmail10.rediffmail.com> ...wouldn't it be better to leave it to the discretion of 'each to his own'! cheers r On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 joy at sarai.net wrote : >There are two people, Gopal and Rakhal. > >Gopal works in a free software company like Red Hat. Earns a good living, >spends all the money on himself and enjoys his life. > >Rakhal works in a proprietary software company like Microsoft. Earns a >good living, supports two unemployed friends and lives a simple life. > >I am wondering who is more interesting to look at? > > >Best >Joy > >_________________________________________ >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: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/2e6a0f23/attachment.html From tasneemdhinojwala at rediffmail.com Tue Jan 25 13:39:42 2005 From: tasneemdhinojwala at rediffmail.com (tasneem dhinojwala) Date: 25 Jan 2005 08:09:42 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] 1st posting Message-ID: <20050125080942.31201.qmail@webmail17.rediffmail.com> dear all , this is our first posting to sarai,hope you will enjoy reading it. Fatema,Marya,Tasneem  -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/a9ad7caa/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: DEATH_2.doc Type: application/msword Size: 24064 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/a9ad7caa/attachment.doc -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: aa.jpg Type: image/pjpeg Size: 85882 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/a9ad7caa/attachment.bin From mmdesai2 at yahoo.co.in Tue Jan 25 13:31:03 2005 From: mmdesai2 at yahoo.co.in (mmdesai) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 13:31:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] (no subject) Message-ID: <003601c502b4$96d2e6a0$0a18fea9@com1> My Sarai topic is "Women and their Spatial Narratives in the City of Ahmedabad". I am Madhavi Desai: an architect, teacher, writer and researcher. This research is the coming together of my interest in the built environment and gender. Though quite a bit of work has been done in the West in this field, it is in its nascent stage in India. This work is an attempt to get a closer look at local level and to develop a methodology to do it. This is the abstract: Situated on the banks of Sabarmati River, the city of Ahmedabad has its roots in the medieval times. It has a historic inner city core and extensive modern development all around. Seventh largest city in India, it has population close to 4 million today. The basic premise of the research project is that though the city is theoretically available to all citizens, women are not fully able to physically and culturally participate in it. Focusing on the middle class, this research attempts to document the spatial activities and experiences of women in Ahmedabad in the traditional as well as the modern sections. The objectives are as follows: To trace women's mobility patterns with respect to their neighbourhood and the city, within their social network and outside it. To analyse women's connection to urban institutions and services such as banks, post office, etc. To understand women's activities and sites of leisure such as hotels, restaurants, parks and multiplexes. To look into women's notions of what a city is in terms of their image and descriptions. The research methods used will include observation, questionnaires and interviews; map analysis and perception drawings by women as well as library research. I attach the questionnaire I have developed. I will appreciate any specific suggestions for the topic as well as the questionnaire. I am also looking for a bibliography on cities in India. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/e2ac59f9/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: QUESTIONNAIRE SARAI.doc Type: application/msword Size: 22016 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/e2ac59f9/attachment.doc From s_bismillah at yahoo.com Mon Jan 24 23:13:50 2005 From: s_bismillah at yahoo.com (syed bismillah) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 09:43:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] The Kashmiri encounter Message-ID: <20050124174350.17740.qmail@web31004.mail.mud.yahoo.com> The Kashmiri Encounter: I have searching for the meaning of kashmiriyat. It is supposed to be something that binds together Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Mulsims. In fact it has many interpretations and connotations. I was about 15 years old when the Kashmiri Pandits left the Valley so I did not have any real relationships with them. However, I have been hearing and reading about Kashmiriyat. The first question that arises in my mind is that what were the factors that produced Kashmiriyat? What kind of cultural traditions, religious institutions that formed the uniqueness of our Kashmiri culture and society. And then the inevitable question; why did this Kashmiriyat not bind the two communities in time of national crisis? Perhaps the answers will be easier to find here in Delhi where both the Kashmiri Pandit and Kashmiri Muslims are living in exile. I have been attending meetings, both public and private where Kashmiris meet. There is always a certain tension in these meetings and a hesitancy to give addresses or contact numbers. I have been interviewing Kashmiris from both communities. Both share a deep longing to go back to the beauty of their homes, to the culture which they left behind and to old times. But the life experiences of both the communities are so different that they seem to be able to share only the nostsalgia but rarely a dream of a future. There is a need to search for answers not only among the Kashmiris but also in our history and in the way politics impacts on our communities and shapes our perspectives of events both in Kashmir and in India. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/e181ef3b/attachment.html From shaheen at mail.ie Tue Jan 25 16:00:10 2005 From: shaheen at mail.ie (shaheen ansari) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 02:30:10 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Spa & Anil: A Story Of Gentle Revolution Message-ID: <20050125103011.1C0E937CEF@sitemail.everyone.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/d1692d0f/attachment.html From shaheen at mail.ie Tue Jan 25 16:03:50 2005 From: shaheen at mail.ie (shaheen ansari) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 02:33:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Re: Pondering and Wondering Message-ID: <20050125103351.259FC37CEF@sitemail.everyone.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/46cec9d8/attachment.html From sadan at sarai.net Mon Jan 24 15:49:18 2005 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan Jha) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 15:49:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Prof. Rada Ivekovic on =?windows-1252?q?=93Border?= =?windows-1252?q?s_and_Partitions=3A_The_Exception_as_Space_and_Ti?= =?windows-1252?q?me=94?= Message-ID: <41F4CBA6.10708@sarai.net> This is a fwd mail sent by Aditya Nigam. sadan. 24th January, 2005 Dear Friends/Colleagues, This is to invite you to a talk in the Seminar Hall of the Centre at 4:00 pm on Thursday, 27th January 2005, by Rada Ivekovic, a philosopher who is currently Programme Director at the Collège International de Philosophie, Paris, and Professor, University Jean Monnet, at Saint-Etienne, France. Prof. Ivekovic has taught at the University of Zagreb and University of Paris-8 (Vincennes à Saint-Denis). She has a doctoral degree from Delhi University, and has worked on Indian and Western comparative philosophy, on partitions (specially those in the Indian subcontinent and the former Yugoslavia), and on the division and sharing of reason. Prof. Ivekovic will be speaking on: “Borders and Partitions: The Exception as Space and Time”, and would like her talk to be followed by a discussion. Please do come for the talk and participate in the discussion if you are in town, and also inform others who may be interested. With best wishes, Satish Deshpande Aditya Nigam Aditya Nigam Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi-110054 Tel: 2250 2784 (R), 2394 2199, 2398 3352, 2398 4784 (O) _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From umashanks at yahoo.com Mon Jan 24 16:03:28 2005 From: umashanks at yahoo.com (umashankar) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 16:03:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Remembered Rhythms Message-ID: > The American Institute of Indian Studies > > Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology > > Invites you to Remembered Rhythms > > a festival of diaspora and the music of India with > performances by three music groups accompanied by a > scholar who will introduce the music and the > performers. A question answer session with the > scholar and performers will follow the performance. > > The Sidi Goma - a group of the African Indian Sidi > community of Gujarat performing their ritual music > and dance, accompanied by the malunga, mugarman and > musindo - instruments they retain from their African > origins. Introductory lecture by Dr. Amy Catlin > Jairazbhoy. > > Delhi :Gandhi Memorial Hall, Pearey Lal Bhavan 4th > Feb 7 pm > > The Rivers of Babylon ñ a London based group of > Indian Baghdadi Jews - sing hymns and folksongs for > festivals and life cycle events of the Baghdadi and > Bene Israeli community. The songs are accompanied by > instruments such as the Oud, Dumbuk, violin and > various kinds of flutes. Introductory lecture by Dr. > Sara Manasseh.. > > Delhi :Gandhi Memorial Hall, Pearey Lal Bhavan Feb > 5th 7 pm > > Bhuyaa Saaj is a Chutney group based in Trinidad, > "Bhuyaa Saaj"is a Bhojpuri word meaning "Sitting on > the ground and entertaining/singing" but they say > "we will stand, sit, dance and entertain! Bhuyaa > Saaj performs in a mix of Bhojpuri and English, > accompanied by the Harmonium, the Dholak , the > Dhantaal ( the trademark of Chutney), the Tassa and > Steel pan. Bhuyaa Saaj will be introduced by Dr. > Helen Myers. > > Delhi :Gandhi Memorial Hall, Pearey Lal Bhavan Feb > 5th 7 pm > > The concerts are open to all and free of charge. > > For further information, audio clips, schedules in > all cities visit www.musicdiaspora.org > > Please forward this email to any and all who might > be interested. > _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From blueskyandus at rediffmail.com Tue Jan 25 16:05:47 2005 From: blueskyandus at rediffmail.com (tangella madhavi) Date: 25 Jan 2005 10:35:47 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Sagar Cinema---a cinema space for Telugu migrants Message-ID: <20050125103547.23744.qmail@webmail27.rediffmail.com> Sagar Cinema---a cinema space for Telugu migrants I set out on the research with largely three paradigms. Firstly, the forces at play at a city cinema space called Sagar Cinema located at Malad (a suburb of Mumbai on the Western express Highway). Secondly, the spatial dynamics of this place as a poor mans multiplex. Finally, to gain insights into the lived reality (ies) of the Telugu migrants who visit Sagar cinema. Sagar Cinema is popularly called a Video theatre largely owing to the fact that it uses VCD’s for screenings. It has multiple screens showing Hindi films through the day. One screen shows Telugu films (morning and night show). One is dedicated to pornography. Sagar cinema flourishes largely in the Malad slum areas which has a large community of Andhra migrants. These migrants do not come to the city with the intention of settling in Mumbai permanently. They belong to a temporary city that is on transit depending upon the rains back Home. Over the weeks, I have been watching Telugu films with Andhraites and few migrants from Karnataka who can’t even understand Telugu! Some times the adrenalin filled Telugu film creates silent roar accompanied by a running commentary by those who have seen the film over and over again. A quiet chat after the screening with the Telugu migrants highlights the inherent contradiction between the films and the lived reality. Those who come by 9.30A.M apparently have found no work at the Naka (corner) near Malad(West) railway station. "... more than 1000 of us -including women- gather at 6.30A.M. If contractors do not pick us up, we come here. What will we do going back to our room?" Ironically there is no public space where these laborers could meet, rest, and network. The rural poor live as underprivileged urban poor who lack access to spaces on the sheer parameter of money. Spaces like Sagar Cinema are often deemed illegal (notorious places regularly visited by the police demanding haftas) and hence such spaces never gain legitimacy. Sagar Cinema fills in for this lack of public space. It translates into a space where the migrants can hear a language they understand and see faces which they can call their own. Things to Do To access the records of the day-to-day screenings of Telugu films. The Telugu films that are screened are on the basis of popular demand. So these records will largely reflect the kind of films that the Telugu migrants like to watch. (and the numbers will reflect their migratory patterns) Preplan the films to be screened and record their reactions through questionnaires. Gather data about the number of such theatres around Malad to inquire if they screen regional cinema.   -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/1d28d24b/attachment.html From machleetank at rediffmail.com Mon Jan 24 13:19:10 2005 From: machleetank at rediffmail.com (Jasmeen P) Date: 24 Jan 2005 07:49:10 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] fast food work Message-ID: <20050124074910.30237.qmail@webmail9.rediffmail.com> HI i think your research is fascinating. just one question; what form do you intend to give this research? at some point in life I want to do a research project on informal food economy...and I think that the two together would make an interesting ground...? Jasmeen On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 Khalid wrote : > >Syed Khalid Jamal. >M.A(F)Mass Communication,MCRC,JAMIA. > >Work culture in fast food chains. > >Sarai Independent Fellowship 2004-05,CSDS. > >Introduction > >To do my research I have decided to adopt Participatory observation as the research methodology because I found, in my preliminary research that the employees of fast food chains(about whom the research is all about) feel nervous and apprehensive while talking about their jobs and their work culture. At times it seems to me as if they are sceptic about me being a spy from other competitor outlet. Hence they either exaggerated or concealed a lot of facts about their life and job. > >I t was difficult to strike an informal conversation with them for two reasons. One, their apprehensions and second their hectic schedule. >I therefore decided to be a part of them and do my work while being one of their co-workers. > >So I began with applying for a job of Crew member in Pizza hut noida. As a recruitment process I took a written test (a copy of which I am carrying) followed by an interview. My decided salary was Rs.3100 pm, for a probation period of six months. My shift timings: 11am to 8 pm. Six days a week. > >I worked for 11 days and following are my findings and observations. > >There are basically four departments with their sub departments where employee >1. 1.Kitchen : It is further divided into three sections: >Make table, cut table and Pasta station. > >2. Service: It has order taking, serving and table –cleaning. > > 3. Cash > >4. Delivery: This has order taking through phone –ins and delivery. > >Every employee passes through each of the department to understand its demand and needs. There is no fixed time or duration for each department. Its varies from individual to individuals. But my observation is that people who are fluent in English and have acquired the craft of ‘smiling’ are anchored to servicing as they interact with the customers and people who are efficient in kitchen, which is considered to be the toughest, remain in kitchen for several months. All this decided by the shift manager. > >To be eligible for a promotion one has to successfully clear all the four ‘stations’ and acquire a CHAMPS card. CHAMPS stands for: >C-Cleanliness >H-Hospitality >A-Accuracy >M-Maintenance >P-Product quality >S-Speed of service. > >CHAMPS batch is given by inspectors who visit the outlet twice a month. They come as a customer and place their order and keenly monitor the working of all the sections and makes notes, while keeping the employee completely unaware of their evaluation. >Employees are subsequently informed about their appraisals by the corporate office in a week’s time. Employees are also given EXPERT batch for the sub-sections. > Pizza hut also maintains a CSL-Champs Standard Library. >This quality monitoring is done by a firm called TRICONS. > >The starting salary is Rs. 2915 gross .There are ESI and PF deductions. The net comes out to be 2719 which is credited in the corporate SB account of the employee opened by the bank. Salaries are often delayed. > >Before an employee starts his job, he under goes two days of training which is basically a series of lectures on food industry and customer service, no hands –on of what they actually do in the outlet. > >Employees have mixed educational qualifications, from tenth standard pass to post graduation. Most of them however are graduating from various distance education programs. > >This mixed lot of employees demonstrates various motivations for their work. Some are only working for extra money, while others want to carve out a career for them in this industry. There are others who want to learn the craft and carry on with their family food business. > >There are two kinds of workers. Part timers and full timers. Part timers work for 4 hrs a day whereas full timers work for 9 hrs. These are the official timing. Part timers are paid extra for extra hours of workings but full timers have no such privilege. >All employees are paid monthly. Part timers get Rs.17.50 per hour(gross Rs.22 per hour) > >Employees consider their salary below expectations. A full timer on an avg., expects at least Rs 7500 pm whereas his part timer counterpart expects Rs.50 per hour plus transportation. > >There is utter dissatisfaction amongst the employee for their job yet they are forced to do these jobs because they are unable to any other. > >Lot of these employees try and often get jobs in call center industry or in DSRs. Those who are unable to get any, stay back for whatever they are offered.But despite this, on an average the turnover ratio in fast food chains is 40% to 50%. > >Outlets such as barista and café coffee day are little strict in recruitment policies. They prefer candidates who are graduates and have some experience in food industry. They want their employees to stay and grow and hence clearly demarcate job responsibilities to avoid overburden. > >I have found the maximum number of Hotel management graduates in these two coffee chains who intend to stay and work for long term basis. > >I have also observed that due their long and hectic hours of working these young employees of fast food chains develop relationships with other working groups who have similar working hours. Some of them being the bouncers: guards who are employed by bar and pub owners. It is only due to the working hours that these two groups come in contact with each other. They share their life with each other. They often share each others personal problems while sharing food after their respective shifts. But despite all this they remain very distinct in their behavior and attitude as they; from several other angles they are very different from each other. > >Official Fiction > > >9 hrs. shift > >Employees are often called two hrs. before the shift and stay back for another 2-3 hrs. after their shift is finished. Hence 9 hrs shift is usually a 13 hrs. shift i.e. everyday a full timer works for 4-5 ”unpaid ” hrs. > > >Daily reading time > >For growth it is important to read and understand the industry, it is said there is a provision of library but employees are rarely given time to avail this provision. > > >30 minutes break with every shift > >There is no fixed time for breaks. Very often employees work at a stretch for 12 hrs. without taking meals. >Job provides friendly and warm atmosphere to work > >During shift employees are not allowed to talk to each other even if there isn’t any customer, nor are they allowed to sit > > >Job provide opportunity to grow and develop oneself > >There is no clear cut yardstick for promotion or increments. It all depends on manager’s >personal bias. > > >Employee enhance their communication skills and their overall personality > >Managers are often very abusive in their language and indifferent in attitude. They don’t welcome employees grievances. > > >On the job training >There is no such thing!! Employees are just “told” few things before they start their work. But practically they learn while actually working and often pay for their initial mistakes. > > >Weekly offs >Employees are rarely given any offs. “For growth, you must learn to wear this “no-off-attitude wardrobe”” they are told. And how about emergencies? Manager’s only belief > >is : Today’s emergency is tomorrow’s everyday. Their virtual office aim is .. Let there be no excuse for not working. > > >Work more, earn more > >True, indeed!! But only for part timers. For full timers this does’nt apply. > >Managerial Seduction > >The sole attempt of the managers of seduction is to convince the employees, to make them believe and instill in them that: > >Work is meant to make their life easier, > >Work is meant to make their world a better place, >Technological research is geared to reduce work, > >Money makes social interaction simpler, > >It is sin to live without working for a living. > >The wages they get is equal to their contribution of production, > >The government, management and leaders are there for their benefits. > >Employee says > > We are seduced to surrender our voice. > > We are seduced to internalize and desire discipline and authority. > > We are seduced to believe that if customer is satisfied we shall be happy. > > We are seduced to forget our world, our freedom and our dreams. > >And engage ourselves in the given “present” work. > >Eradication of Idle Chatter and Installation of ‘Smile’ > > >Yogi, Tarun, Naushad, Amit and Shammim were all very talkative in school, at home and even at public places, like in a bus, train and in social get-together. >During their work shifts they are not allowed to talk to their colleagues. “Talk only to customers or keep quiet” they are told. “If there isn’t any customer then hang around in the restaurant and get the ‘hang’ of the place. But don’t talk .. just don’t”. > >“Ever since we have come here we have become good listeners or shall I say forced listeners”, says Yogi. > >“Whenever we talk more, even if it is after work, we soon realize it and feel as if we are committing a sin”, says Tarun, a Sc. Graduate. > >On top of this they always have to wear smile on their faces. > > Smile while taking orders, doesn’t matter if it is the 10th hr of your shift. > Smile while serving the customer, doesn’t matter if you haven’t had your first meal of the day yet! > Smile and this time, Smile Big and say Thank You as the customer is leaving, doesn’t matter if you have just been told that you aren’t going home today. You are on double shift. > >“SMILE !!! like some software is installed in us, as if we were some kind of machine” >says Amit, BCA (Ist year ignou) > >Work-overloaded > > >Work intensity and time pressure is creating some kind of a hurry-sickness disease. Free time is now a distant dream. They all want to sleep. And sleep at home not in the outlets. >Sleep on beds and mattresses and not on chairs and tables. >Some of the employees were used to be regular newspaper readers and movie goers. Now, whatever time they get, they sleep and when they get up its time for the next shift. > >I wonder if one of them were a poet, what would he write in his poem > >I hear the whistle >I must hurry > >I hear 5 minute whistle >It is time > >I take my work >I change my clothes > >To get ready to work >I change my clothes again just before work > >For I must look professionally agile in my ‘work-uniform’ >I work I work and I work > >Until the king customer leaves, >And when he leaves, I leave my work too > > but before I leave >I leave my workplace clean and nice > >Because I have it in me >Because I have it in me >Because I have it in me The attitude! > >In a ‘fix’ > >For all the employees > >Arrival time is fixed! >Departure isn’t!! > >Customers complimentary are fixed! >Employee’s isn’t!! > >Work-shift is fixed! >Breaks aren’t!! > >Salaries are fixed! >Increments & promotions aren’t!! > >The only motto seems is: >“Squeeze the maximum out of these guys who are in their prime age of potential.” > > > > >Long live the customer > > >Unserved customer is assumed to be the only emergency for the employees. There cannot be anything more important and more urgent than this. The whole system is geared to deal with this ‘do or die’ situations. It needs exemplary punishment to instill fear among employees. No off’s, no festivals, no health problems and no family issues . these are the basic managerial assumption to extract and exploit the maximum out of the young employees. The only mantra to survive is to satisfy the customer (read God).His occasional abuses have to be borne professionally and not personally(Remember ATTITUDE!!). > >Manager doesn’t want to face the customer until there is an emergency. > >On being late manager’s threat to sack is a usual thing. > >W M D’s !! >(With. Minute. Details.) > > >Here everything is standardized > > >From vegetable cutting to serving every possible parameter is standard. Following are some of examples: > > >VEGETABLE STD. SIZE >Onions 8 x 24 cm >Tomato 12 x 12 cm >Capsicum 8 x 24 cm >Mushroom 3 mm > >Cups, quality rings, spoodles and rocker knife are to be strictly used to maintain standards. > > >Delivery –time. > >Pizza 17 ½ min. >Garlic bread 9min. >Beverage 3-min. > > >Cooking Standards > >Pizza height after baking 15- 25 cm. >Saucing 1\2 inch. >Colour Golden Brown > >Eventually the Pizza should be >“Crispy from outside and fluppy from inside”. > > >Customers are to be informed in case of any delays or a complementary (it could be another Pizza, a cup of coffee or an overall discount) is provided. > >Any food item with deviation from the standard size will be thrown out. > >Separate topping cups are used for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food items. > >Chemicals called ‘Suma Tap’ is used to sanitize raw food items such as fruits and vegetables, whereas ‘Suma Bag’ is used to clean any food-contact area. > >Kitchen workers are required to wash their hands every 30 minutes. > >All utensils are to be washed every ½ hr or after 30 Pizza, whichever is earlier. > >A document called MRD(Make, Ready, Discard) is attached with every order and is adhered to strictly. > >15 kg of vegetables are cut everyday. > >Cut-vegetables if not consumed with in 24 hrs will be thrown out. > >They are kept in ‘Walk-in Freeze’ between 1 and 5°C. > >Deep freeze is used for chickens between 16 and 25°C. > >Following are some of my observations and narritives: > > >I >22 June,2004. >Barista.New Friends Colony. > >Tuesday.9:40am > >20 years old Arun is cleaning the floor.That’s his job.He’s from Patna.Lives in Bharat nagar,okhla.One-room-rented-flat.His elder brother,a motor mechanic,is his whole family.Parents expired 3 years ago. > >Barista has just opened.TV is on.V channel.Coffee machine noise is in the air. >Arun is dressed in navy blue shirt and same coloured trousers and a cap.He is using ‘Colin’ brand of door cleaner very carefully. > >Furniture is set.Circular tables with triangular chairs.CNN promotional cards on the table saying ..’make connection over hot coffee..’. > >The Corner Book Store,an in-house book café is not yet open.Six big locks are hanging. >Just outside Barista,a newspaperwala is all fresh & ready.People are coming every now and then picking up their readings. > >Popular hindi song from Diljale..” kisi ke ishq mein khud ko mita do..ho nahin sakta..!!” is adding melody to Barista’s air. >This is unusual.Hindi songs are rarely played in Barista until they are aired by MTV or v-Channel;the two ‘official’ channels of Barista.Important sports events are the only exceptions. > >Trays and desserts are being set. They look tempting. Arun is putting ‘ Brew today’, Barista weekly on the tables now.A newspaper is also attached with it.It is free-for-all.Otherwise ,if aren’t in Barista .it’ll cost you full two rupees!! > >Total Barista employee are three.They are all at the counter.All between 21 and 25 years. One setting the trays,other pouring coffee materals injars and the last one is working on the coffee machine. > >Walls are colourful and witty.They define work as ‘ Something we do between coffe breaks!!’.I wonder if it applies to employees as well?? > >Chess boards are lying. > >Fourth employee enters.After keeping his bag he’s watering the plants that are kept inside the coffee shop. >“Sapne mein milte hai kurri meri ” is the new melody in the air!! > >Inside Barista is cool and glamourous.Peach coloured furnitures,phloroscent lights,orange counter,yellow walls,tiled –smooth floorings, Barista (Trademarked) paintings on the walls, exotic coffee menu,well lit, pasted just over the cash counter and scented air. >None of the working boys have spoken anything to each other. >First phone rings..9.55am!! > >Naushad picks up..he’s talking while constantly staring the wall which says’ Its easier to change your religion than the café.’. > >First Barista customer turns up..9:57 AM. And here’s the second..just 30 seconds later. >The first thing they both does is pick up the newspaper and scan through them. >These news dailies were brought by Arun from the newspaperwala.There seems to be a deal .Its Economis Times,Times of India and Hindustan Times. > >I see more children games –Drump shirade and The Navigator. >TV is on mute now,as it is most of the time.Audio system is on.Brian Adams. >On tv ,its Anil Kapoor in Taal..10:01am. > >Lights in Barista is mesmerising.They are in all colours.Yellow,blue and white.They seems to be adding the’relaxing’ element to the ambience.They are lending ‘Peace’ to the place. > >The boys working at the counter are called the Brew Master.They arte in orange T-shirt,black trousers with black apron over it. Their uniform colours compliment the colours in the interior designing. > >Fifth employee arrives. 10:21AM. > >First customer is still here.Reading newspaper.TOI.Sipping orange juice. He’s in white shirt and grey trousers.Looks like an executive.He’s waiting for someone..it seems.Barista is his meeting place. > >11:55AM: > >Youth are pouring in.In couples. >Threee middle aged men have also come.They are reading.People read more than they eat. Its look like a reading place than an eat-out joint.Colours,music,air conditioned, lightings and window-side seating arrangements,its indeed a romantic place which forces you to grab a cup of coffee and stay for a ‘little’ more time. > >1:10PM. Human voice has now taken over the system voice.In other words the human conversation is more audible than the music playing in the background. > >Barista employees have become interactive.They are talking to each other now while taking orders,working on computers,on telephone and while serving. > >It’s 1:35 pm.One couple.5 middle aged men in a group of two and three. >That’s all in this outlet. > >The group-of-three is eating and discussing some kind of a contract.The other group-of-two looks like a client-service provider meeting.One of them is speaking more thean the other,who’s an active listener. > >3:30PM >Its drizzling outside.Great time for business.Hot coffee is now expected to pick up hot demand. > >Boys on the counter are smiling they have got a windfall. >The rain. > > >II >Dinesh,20 yrs. graduating,2NDyear,correspondence ..Family in meerut .Father retired govt. school teacher ..Two sisters,marriageable age ...Mother housewife .,diabetic .,kidney patient .,on dialysis .,needs regular monthly expenditure .,18000 rupees ..Father getting pension ..,2000rupees. > >Dinesh working in Pizza hut ,Noida, lives in rented room ,Ghaziabad...Gets up at 6 am,fill water,wash clothes,bathing .. leaves for work..2 hrs journey..DTC bus .has to leave home by 8:30 am for ’11 to 8’ shift. > >Dinesh’s dream ..to be a model likes to read and watch English films to improve English speaking skills .does’nt get to do this work consumes major chunk of the day .not required to speak much during work only take orders and serve .manager discourages from pursuing further studies often misses weenend classes ..wants to study but ‘have to’ work earns Rs.2915 gross per month 2719 net .for the last 2.5 years ..no savings not able to send anything home rent Rs.700 includes water and electricity .food consumes lots of money .wants to get a professional modelling portfolio .will cost 10,000 rupees before that..he should be ‘in-shape’ hence wants to join gym but work timings and strains ..does not allow .relentlessly working fot the last 2.5 years yet says ’he’s working temporily .the day I will get into ‘my’ line I will quit this’. > >His line being modelling.A glamour world. > > > >III >Shamim,24 yrs.,B.A Geography, ..Aligarh ..,family in azamgarh ,living in new friends colony, ..works in pizza hut .,for six months ..,previously worked.. as ‘survey officer’ under haryana govt ..also done research survey for DMRC and Delhi general elections, often stays back in the outlet to report for the morning shift .the next day,it saves transportation cost as well, . staying in the outlet gives him airconditioned room, he lives in small room....8 by 8 feet . ,with his friend, .no fan, .no cooler..,sleeps on terrace, mosquito .,flies . and heat ,sometimes walks down from noida outlet to nfc ,as after night shift does’nt get bus ,says he likes walking, .but wants.to buy a second hand scooter ..,trying to change job, ..tried in a private bank ,they asked for personal transportation for credit card selling .,Shamim family in azamgarh, does’nt know about his work, .he does’nt share .,they will think he is a ‘baira’, .for them he is working in a hotel,..father often insists on doing hotel management course shamim does’nt also like his work,but can’t think of anything else and its important to keep doing something. > >IV >Anoop’s tale > >After passing out from XII Anoop decided to work instead of ‘wondering around’ in college pursuing any higher studies. > >Unlike most of his friends who are soon going to finish their graduation now,Anoop shows no sign of regrets. >” I think I am much more rational and smart than my friends.After all,what are degrees going to fetch you. I think the 2.5 yrs. of experience that I have gained is much more precious than all the degrees in the world” ,says an abashed Anoop. > >Working in Pizza Hut Anoop earns 2600 rupees per month and prefers to work in broken shift rather than going for a regular 9 hrs. job. > >He works between 10am and 2pm first, and then again between 5pm and 10pm. >In between he takes some time out for his English Speaking course and also helps in his father’s business. > >A hard working chap,indeed!! >Anoop believes that to learn the art of business one needs to be a hard-task master,and idolizes his manager who’s ‘professionally’ rude and unfriendly > >Anoop’s father,who runs a tiffin-business isn’t much happy with his son’s choice of working in a fast food chain but prefers to keep quiet and lets Anoop live his life as he wants to live. Besides,he also appreciates Anoop’s diligence. > >Anoop dreams of opening his own food joint,which will run on the lines of Pizza Hut and he has no hesitation in declaring that like his boss,he, too, will be a hard-task master!! > >Anoop loves his work place. >“ It’s a happening place.I like the crowd.People of my age often come in with their girlfriends and sit for hours,hand in hand.Some of them even bring their guitars and play,sing and share a great time together. I, too , have a girlfriend. Gitima Banerjee. She often come to meet me here at my work place. I talk to her for a while. >But only ‘for a while’,not much!!” > “My manager keeps an eye on me.Well you know that’s his job!” > >“Gitima feels great about my job.She always reminds me to learn more from my job, especially from my customers who are educated and knowledgeable.” > >“My job is cool because it taught me about food-stuffs that I had never heard of before coming here.” >“And then there is music all the time We play English songs that I don’t understand but I like the beats.It keeps you going.” > >“I,too,will open my restaurant one day. It will be equally colourful ,clean,musical and cool.” > >And there will be no one to stop me or eye on me when I talk to Gitima. > >V >I used to be very talkative.I would always be smiling and cracking jokes,meet my friends regularly and chat with them over phone. >Then,smiling was’nt my ‘job’. > >My work took away my “ happy-go-lucky”image. Now my friends no longer think of me as “cool & mast guy”. Now I am serious and sincere for them. > >I go to work and come back.Do my daily chores and sleep. Sleep has suddendly become as important as oxygen. I have to think about taking its daily quota to work properly. > > .Anand,21 years old, II yr. Graduation. > >VI >Music,colourful walls,shinning floors, cool ambience,rich-looking people with their expensive perfumes scenting the air ,these are the inherent characterstics of my work place > >These people are my customers and they are, most of the time, very polite but equally precise. They wear all the best of the brands that I think of wearing ,their wallets, their keychains ,even the cigrettes they smoke everything is so tempting!! > >They are nice too because they smile at me and return their smile.They are only one who smile and for whom we smile. > >Some of them sound rude and ‘ordering’.But its okay with me. > Riches,like clothes comes in several shades here. Everyday. > >Rohit,25 yrs. Full timer,Pizza Hut. > >VII >When I am at work,I eat pizza which I may not afford otherwise. Yet the pleasure does not come.When I go to the outlet and ‘buy’ it, it becomes tastier. This is so strange. I don’t know why it happens . > >Just few hours later I return to work and get to eat the same pizza with even extra cheese and sause but no amount of ‘toppings’ can make it tastier. Because I am a worker. > >Taste comes when I am a customer. >Sometimes,I feel its all in my mind,its not real.But can’t help .It just does’nt go. >Work is always on my mind. > >Ratan, 19 yrs. Pizza Corner. > >VIII >My mom looks at me strangely when I tell her that the vegetable or fruits that she’s brought is not-good or when I show her how I,precisely cut vegetablesat my work in several geometrical figures of 8x24 mm triangles or 8x8 cm squares. > >She looks at me with confusions and several ‘????’’s. >“What am I upto??” > >My mother feels sorry for me. > >Thanks for my work. > > >Dinesh,27 yrs. Mcdonald’s. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >In my next phase of research I will study the whole Economics of smile which is inherent in whole food industry especially fast food chains. > >I also intend to include women workers in my research,to study and map their life histories,in the form narratives. > >In my futher research, I would also see the points of exploitation,the extent of alienation and the intensity of Standardizaion that is followed in such chains. > >It will also be interesting to study the mobility in work force in such chains, while at the same time understanding whole mechanism of communication in these chains,both inter as well as intra. > >I am continuing my work while keeping a close relationship with the workers of fast food chains both at work place and at the place of their residence. > > > > > > > >wishing you happiness and health. > >Khalid >_________________________________________ >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: Jasmeen ph: + 91 9886840612 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/c5431d72/attachment.html From machleetank at rediffmail.com Mon Jan 24 13:55:58 2005 From: machleetank at rediffmail.com (Jasmeen P) Date: 24 Jan 2005 08:25:58 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] BLANK NOISE : building testimonies Message-ID: <20050124082558.20505.qmail@webmail30.rediffmail.com> HI every body, my first posting and just making it to the 25th deadline. My project BLANK NOISE is described below. I do look forward to a dialogue . sincerely, Jasmeen Art to me is about spitting and cleansing the self. And now you wonder if I have been a victim of child abuse/ rape/ domestic violence. None of the above. Proposal synopsis: Street harassment is an offence. It has been granted normalcy due to its daily recurrence. Street harassment also known as eve teasing needs to be addressed on the streets. The project seeks to build testimonies of street harassment in the public space and making them public. A power game: I see hands a million hands coming towards me as I walk, now the body, my body moves its own way, it has a life outside of my eyes, my mind and so it moves away on its own; sharp, smart, body of mine. My eyes see other eyes. Those eyes do not see my eyes. They see my breasts. I feel sick. My body feels sick. I wear a duppatta. 1) He turned around every minute. I decided to end my walk and take an auto for the rest of the journey. I crossed the road; he too was on the other side. This was towards Kids Kemp on MG Road. He never came near me, he never touched me, but I was scared. What could he do anyways? Half my size. I am a strong woman, I am! 2)Talking to me, taking my measurements the tailor's fingers 'accidentally' touched my breasts. Then onto the hips, calling out the measurement, telling me which 'design' would suit me, he ticked his finger on my abdomen as I stared at him in disbelief. Accident? Trying to gather both the incidents I told mama that he had touched me and that something was wrong with the tailor. This was as we were leaving the shop. If I don't voice now, this man will not learn a lesson. There were at least twenty men and the shop owner was an old man. I told him that the tailor had misbehaved. "Usne battameezi ki hai. Galat tareeke se chooa hai." "Madam this is the first time anyone has said something like this. Pehle kabhi koi complain nahi kiya hai." The tailor came towards me; masking disbelief I decided to leave. I continue to fight it everyday. 3) I walked into a shop on Commercial Street and the shopkeeper and asked the shopkeeper for paper. He replied as he stared at my breasts. I had to tell him where my face was and I walked out. I continue to fight it everyday. 4) I was walking on the main CMH road at about 6 pm one evening. It was not completely dark. It was neither quiet nor lonely. I usually look at people when I walk; my eyes are never looking down. a cyclist went past me; completely non threatening. I suddenly felt something cold through being soaked in through my clothes. He spat his pan on me. I continue to fight it everyday. I have chosen not to ‘walk out ‘of a situation but to stand right there, firm on ground and deal with it. I react. I am a labeled feminist. In August 2003 I initiated the Blank Noise project, a nine girl participatory project which addressed our passivity towards street harassment in contrast to the normalcy with which we perceive daily rape reports. Blank Noise was my graduation project. A group of 60 girls between the age of 17-23 years, was asked to make a mind map with the word public space "power, intimidating, groping, boundaries, force, harass, tease, bump, ignore, games, demanding, run, insecure, withdrawal, caution, invade, abuse, not in control, anger, vulnerable, intrude, defense, mask, ownership. Escape, dynamic, private, abuse. Out of the sixty girls addressed there are 24 girls who felt strongly enough about this to want to 'voice' together. Some of the reactions are stated below. 1- We do not experience it. 2- We do not have the time to address it. 3- “We do not have any such hang ups”. It really is no big deal. It is normal. 4- You can not change the world. 5- I don’t think I am ready to do this. It is a big deal. The workshops enabled the group of girls to explore their public and private identities. At the end of the workshop there were nine participants left and ready to share their experiences with an audience, which they believed was either victim or perpetrator of street harassment. In contrast was a video news piece, Hot News Taaza Samachar, in which I enacted a news reader that repeatedly read out rape reports and in the process was becoming a victim of what she was reading. She, the news reader was in denial of what was being done onto her. At the end she asked the audience “Is this news for you?” In its first phase the project outcome was a multi media installation (sound/ video/ photography/ performance) within the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology campus. Blank Noise as a public art project seeks to: 1) Confronts. Attacks. Heals. 2) Performative. 3) Denies denial In its second phase Blank Noise seeks to intervene in the public space; the streets by addressing/ confronting/ the anonymous public. Brigade Road is the cosmopolitan hub of this city/ flanked by billboards/ posters/ hoardings/mannequins. Brigade Road is also made up of people who just want to ‘hang out’/ people on a mission/ window shoppers/ and the time pass types. This site is my laboratory on which I will perform a series of experiments. The nature of the experiment can not be predetermined and will emerge from the site itself. The only pre set is that I will be building testimonies in the public space. An ongoing project within Blank Noise is “I ASK FOR IT”. How many times have you been asked or justified to yourself saying that you weren’t wearing anything provocative, and therefore did not ‘deserve’ to be victim. In ‘I ask for it, I ask for people across different cultures to give me the clothes that they wore when they felt sexually threatened on Brigade Road. Eventually, with increased participation the clothing project,” I ASK FOR IT” will map Brigade Road. When I think of forms like performance- costumes on the streets- getting people to interact with me/ as I am dressed in different costumes that – ‘deny access’/ a garment made of lights that allows me to walk on the street at night- a garment that reveals testimonies of the body – I am not configuring an end result, but the entire process of exchange and reaction. My research also aims to closely examine the approaches and forms that I want to try. I want to address form by actually trying different forms. My research is on my methodologies. My research is on the language of my art practice. What happens when the nature of the work is in your face? What reaction does it yield? thank you for reading.. Jasmeen Jasmeen ph: + 91 9886840612 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/9fef67a2/attachment.html From vishnu at cscsban.org Mon Jan 24 17:18:46 2005 From: vishnu at cscsban.org (T. Vishnu Vardhan) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 17:18:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Glimpses of Early Indian Cinema Message-ID: <6.0.1.1.0.20050124161617.021969c8@localhost> Hi, this is my first posting on the list. It will give you an idea of the work I have been doing. Hope you will take time to read it, give lots of suggestions and shoot many questions. To start with, check out, how good is your Early Indian Cinema knowledge? 1) Which film is often celebrated for having inaugurated the Indian film industry? 2) Do you know the full name of the pioneering director, Phalke? 3) Which is India's first sound film and when was it released? 4) The first Telugu film is _____________ . 5) Can you guess the film title that is used most number of times and has similar plot? You can find the answers at the end. Go on, read. The above questionnaire kind of hints at what I am interested in. My project is a historical study of mythological films - a dead genre - in Telugu cinema. Various stories from epics - Ramayana and Mahabharatha - were the first narrative sources for the early filmmakers in India, who were experimenting with the 'modern' technology of visual representation. These pioneers in turn played a historically significant role in laying the ground for one of the major film industries of the present day world. From 1913 till 1919, twenty-five narrative films were produced in India and all of them filmed imaginary spaces, mythic people and epic themes and needless to say they were big hits of the time. These films were/are categorized as mythologicals or mythological films. Later, different types of films were tried out along with mythologicals, which can be broadly classified as devotionals, socials, folklore and historical films. Though other kind of films came into existence, mythologicals dominated the Indian film field for another two decades to come. In the history of Indian cinema mythological films played a significant role as the foundation of indigenous film production. According to Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Willemen (1999), although people like Hiralal Sen and H.S. Bhatavdekar started making films as early as 1897, most of them were actualities or scenes of stage shows (e.g. Dancing Scenes from 'The Flower of Persia' (1898), Coronation Ceremony and Durbar (1903), etc. by Hiralal Sen. The Wrestlers (1899), Man and Monkey (1899), Delhi Durbar of Lord Curzon (1903) etc. by H.S. Bhatavdekar). However, it is Raja Harishchandra (D.G. Phalke, 1913) that takes the credit of being the 'first Indian film'. It is worth noting that this is an Indian film because of its use of mythic material. Mythic material is arguably among the reasons for the increased reach of film among the Indian population. Phlake, with his mythological films, seems to have catered to and indeed, helped to create, a different audience from the one which patronized foreign films. He advertised in vernacular newspapers rather than in the English-language press, and took his shows to the hinterland, often by bullock cart, to offer inexpensive screenings to rural audiences who sat on the ground before makeshift screen (Barnouw and Krishnaswamy 1980). Furthermore, with the advent of talkies in 1931, different language cinemas, catering to the particular linguistic tastes of the audiences, replaced the unitary Indian (silent) cinema (it has to be noted that silent films were continued to be made and exhibited for some years even after the advent of talkies). Once again mythologicals eclipsed the Indian film industry(ies). They were prominent in South Indian cinema even after their decline in Hindi, Bengali and Marathi film industry. For a long time they exerted influence on various aspects of film form, film production and film emhibition. There is also an opinion that even in the silent days mythologicals were more popular in South India than in rest of India. Taking stock of the just emerged talkies, their commercial success and influence on the 'film industry' in comparision to the silent days, in 1935, the editorial of the Moving Picture Monthly remarks that income from Bombay talkies has come down when compared to silent films. Because it feels: The language difficulty has reduced the scope of the market. Moreover as Tamil, Telugu and Kanarese talkies are running in the circuit, it is impossible to get even a date for a Hindi talkie... It may interest some of our readers to know that in silent days Kohinoor, Jagdish, Imperial, and other concerns used to derive a lot of revenue from this territory. Mythological pictures have drawn money by shovels from this presidency. The above remark suggests that the declining popularity of Bombay films in Madras region was not only because of the language barrier but also the fact that most of them were also not mythologicals. This coincides with the establishment of the film industry in Madras from where (mythological) films were produced in all the four south Indian languages. In the case of Telugu cinema, during the initial 7 years (when 39 films were produced) almost all the films were mythologicals. I have come to this conclusion after examining Paruchuri Gopala Krishna's Telugu Cinema Sahithyam: Katha - Kathanam - Shiplam, Bulemoni Venkateshwarlu's Telugu Cinema Charitra, Maddali Raghuram edited Aravy Yella Telugu Cinema all in Telugu and of course also referred to Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. And mythologicals successfully continues until 1980s. Further, it has been argued, for instance Chidananda Das Gupta, that mythologicals played a critical role in the political success of N.T. Rama Rao, the star of 1970s, who became the first non-congress Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Given the magnitude of mythological films in Indian cinema it is a manner of concern that the ' Indian' film theory and critical writings on Indian cinema, have not examined it at any greater length. Theorization of film in India is centered on the 'social' and does not give importance to the fact that the mythological was the earliest form of Indian film and had a massive presence for decades. This emphasis, I suggest, might be because the theorization of Indian cinema was more informed by Hindi and Bengali cinema than other language cinema, which were dominated by socials. Even in the context of Hindi and Bengali cinema not much work is done on mythologicals, beyond silent cinema period (Phalke Era), because mythological as a commercially successful form, started declining by 1940s and was being replaced by an all-inclusive film called 'social'. "Indian film studies began to acquire an identity as a separate discipline identity in the eighties" with a sprit to examine "Indian cinema as a modern cultural institution whose unique features can be related directly or indirectly to the specificity of the socio-political formation of the Indian nation-state" (Prasad, Madhava 1998; vii). In this context, I suggest, the 'social' film form was more germane than the mythological film form. Further, social was contemporary to the emerging disciplines of Film Studies in 1980s, and its dynamic presence grabbed the immediate attention of film studies. However, mythologicals of the recent past were out of sight and thus out of mind. Giving a different reason, Madhava Prasad in his recent unpublished work on mythologicals says "while they command audiences for a long time, for critics mythologicals have stood for the worst tendency in Indian cinema", Whatever may be the reason for the absence of much critical writing on mythologicals, it is time that mythological should be examined meticulously without which the study of Telugu cinema in particular and Indian cinema in general is incomplete. Given this context, the project limits its study and looks at the career of pouranicalu or mythologicals in Telugu cinema and intends to answer - Why mythologicals existed for such a long period in Telugu cinema in contrast to other Indian cinemas? Did it have any influence on Telugu film form and industry? If so, what? Furthermore, the project will also look at the criticism of mythologicals, by sections of the reading public, starting from early 1940s and other aspects to explore various intricacies involved in the death of pouranicalu in 1980s. I will be collecting various kinds of print material from various libraries and archives and will also under take oral documentation, as part of which I will be interviewing a generation of actors an technicians who have seen and been part of the life and death of mythological films. Answers: 1) Raja Harishchandra 2) Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, aka Dadasaheb Phalke 3) Alam Ara, 1931 4) Bhakta Prahlada, 1931 5) Bhakta Prahlad(a). I could dig out 16 films bearing the same title. Probably this is the only film title in the world that has been used most number of times. It was made as a silent, Hindi, Gujrati, Marathi, Assameese, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu film. Hope it was an easy read. Pour in your comments. Best, Vishnu T. Vishnu Vardhan Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, 466, 9th Cross, 1st Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore - 560011. e-mail: vishnu at cscsban.org thvishnu_viva at yahoo.com Tel. no. 080-26562986 mobile no. +919845207308 fax no. 080-26562991 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050124/6bda2486/attachment.html From kumartalkies at rediffmail.com Tue Jan 25 16:17:49 2005 From: kumartalkies at rediffmail.com (pankaj r kumar) Date: 25 Jan 2005 10:47:49 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] " Ponytails - Ringtones - Punches " women boxers in India Message-ID: <20050125104749.11586.qmail@webmail25.rediffmail.com> " Ponytails - Ringtones - Punches " women boxers in India Boxing has traditionally been associated with the male physique and psychology. Blood, bruises, cuts and concussion, are considered to be "natural" for men, but absolutely at odds with the essence of femininity. Boxing is deeply engendered, embodying and exemplifying "a definite form of masculinity: plebeian, heterosexual and heroic." Thus, when female boxers display unconventional signifiers like aggression, power and hyper-performity, there arises confusion and a complete lack of grammar to understand to which category they belong. The feminine signifiers (like make up, bindis, manicured nails, and hairstyle) are culturally set ' natural ' signifiers, whether they are carried by a markedly feminine woman in a traditional sense or by a markedly muscular woman. In the context of female boxing the confusion arises because they combine culturally masculine aggression and traditional feminine signifiers. Thus, in the premise of the ring, they feminize masculinity and masculinize femininity. One of the sanctioned societal spaces that make the gender distinction permeable is sport. For both men and women, sports inherently demand a skill, which pushes one to the extremes of physical and mental ability. A female athlete is clearly not the same as a male. Although she may participate in the same sports, under similar rules and regulations, she is biologically and historically different. She has not always been free to participate in the breadth of sports now available to her, and these constraints in her past mark the difference in her present. Keeping the above paradigms in perspective, I have made initial contacts with women boxers. Thorough extensive interviews, the following are the questions that I intend to explore in the coming months. Methods, materials, processes ---Is there a realization about the insufficiency of women occupying public spaces and hence taking up boxing? ---Do they see themselves as the marginal in the sport because coaches/referees are predominantly male? ---How female boxers in India are circumventing / negotiating their sexuality when they enter space which is traditionally and historically dominated by men ---I asked Richa Hushing (A student at Film and Television Institute, Pune, ex boxer): What should the film be about and as a boxer what do you want to see of yourself and others like you? Richa Hushing: "I want you to show that half an hour before the match, it is your mental make up which decides your victory or defeat... The film should highlight my relationship with my opponent off and on the ring. I am not there to kill her but to confront her as an equal. It is a mental battle. You must highlight the fact that only girls from lower and upper class get into boxing because they are already at the extremes of the society. They have nothing to lose. In contrast, to the middle class, the idea of fighting scares them. It is the complacency of the middle class and the tragic truth of opportunities wasted by them to create a niche for themselves." ---How male boxers react to their existence, is it a threat? ---Is woman boxing about speed and aggression or does it have a feminine side too? Is it a uniquely sensuous bodily experience, which, when mixed with the mental challenge is addictive for these women boxers? ---To follow, Aksir in Delhi, (student class 9), whose father is in the Army, who apart from boxing regularly practices Ballet, Kathak, Indian Classical singing, and takes guitar lessons. She will represent the 'class' which one hardly associates with this sport in India. It will be interesting to document and inquire how she moulds her mind and her body as she moves from one activity to another. ---To research on the history of women sports especially women boxing in India. ---Explore the possibility of a woman Coaches and referees.   -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/ae2d92f8/attachment.html From ritika at sarai.net Wed Jan 26 00:42:20 2005 From: ritika at sarai.net (Ritika) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:42:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the slaughterhouse meeting and blogging Message-ID: <41F69A14.7000901@sarai.net> Dear all, this mail is for those who are reading up some of my work on slaughterhouse and who occasionally read my blog - that i must admit that as of now i am an irregular blogger...but Last Saturday I met Junko Uchizawa - a japanese writer, illustrator and a book binder. We chatted for almost 4 hours and it was quite fascinating. Here's a jist of our conversation: Junko is an independent writer. because she is also a book binder - she knows how to make paper etc. SO everytime she would make bind books - she would use paper to do the same. Once she wondered that why wasn't she using leather leather to bind books. She went to her master and he advised her against it. He said that the work of making leather is a closed occupation and also dirty and that she should avoid it. However, she was insistant on learning how to make leather from tanneries etc, and that's how she got interested in the world of slaughterhouses. In course of her understanding on how slaughterhouses and tanneries operate, she learnt that in Tokyo - there are seperate zones in the city which are referred to as zones of "compensation for discrimination". In this zone live specific community called - Bokuru - who are in 'dirty jobs'. The municipality offers them elecricity, facilities, money - everything - just that they are meant to stay in a specific zone. The butchers there are now fighting for their rights. They feel that they are not doing any 'bad' thing and that people should 'respect' their work. Junko is researching the slaughterhouses of the world to understand the specific relationship the community shares with this work and the rest of the population with this work and the butchers. She's been to Morocco, Egypt, CHina, taiwan etc etc....now she had come to delhi - india and has plans to go to US as well. She showed me the magazine she writes for. Obviously is was all japanese for me!! I shared my research interests and reserch material and she was obviouly excited. In a nut shell, it was fun to meet someone from differnt part of the world - but doing such similar work. Blogging is not only fun....it helps in doing research as well!! On that 'preachy' note take care ritika -- Ritika Shrimali The Sarai Programme http://blog.sarai.net/users/ritika What good is that life which does not get provoked or provokes. Gottfried Benn From iram at sarai.net Tue Jan 25 15:38:24 2005 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 11:08:24 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] posting guidelines Message-ID: <49249.210.7.77.145.1106647704.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear all, To ensure that all list discussions are archived systematically for future reference, here are a few posting guidelines for new members to the list. Please give a clear subject header to your postings. Please do NOT mail attachments. Please send in your postings in PLAIN TEXT only. A few postings with attachments have been passed today but please ensure that guidelines are followed. Warm regards, On behalf list moderator, Iram Ghufran From penguinhead at linux-delhi.org Tue Jan 25 17:49:09 2005 From: penguinhead at linux-delhi.org (Pankaj kaushal) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:49:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] posting guidelines In-Reply-To: <49249.210.7.77.145.1106647704.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> References: <49249.210.7.77.145.1106647704.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <41F6393D.8030203@linux-delhi.org> iram at sarai.net wrote: > A few postings with attachments have been passed today but please ensure > that guidelines are followed. > > Warm regards, > > On behalf list moderator, I hope not on the behalf of the moderator, list administrator might be a better term to use. Mentioning her to be the moderator you mean to say this *is* a moderated list. Which I hope it is not. Cheers! Pankaj -- Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't. From vivek at sarai.net Tue Jan 25 18:00:37 2005 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 18:00:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] greg tate on hip hop Message-ID: <41F63BED.3080805@sarai.net> For those of you who love hip hop, and for those who don't-- a very nice and nuanced article from the Village Voice that many interested in the underground hh community have been reading. http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0501,tate,59766,2.html has the instructive photos by Jamel Shabazz that Tate discusses. V. Hiphop Turns 30: Whatcha celebratin' for? by Greg Tate We are now winding down the anniversary of hiphop's 30th year of existence as a populist art form. Testimonials and televised tributes have been airing almost daily, thanks to Viacom and the like. As those digitized hiphop shout-outs get packed back into their binary folders, however, some among us have been so gauche as to ask, What the heck are we celebrating exactly? A right and proper question, that one is, mate. One to which my best answer has been: Nothing less, my man, than the marriage of heaven and hell, of New World African ingenuity and that trick of the devil known as global hyper-capitalism. Hooray. Given that what we call hiphop is now inseparable from what we call the hiphop industry, in which the nouveau riche and the super-rich employers get richer, some say there's really nothing to celebrate about hiphop right now but the moneyshakers and the moneymakers#who got bank and who got more. Hard to argue with that line of thinking since, hell, globally speaking, hiphop is money at this point, a valued form of currency where brothers are offered stock options in exchange for letting some corporate entity stand next to their fire. True hiphop headz tend to get mad when you don't separate so-called hiphop culture from the commercial rap industry, but at this stage of the game that's like trying to separate the culture of urban basketball from the NBA, the pro game from the players it puts on the floor. Hiphop may have begun as a folk culture, defined by its isolation from mainstream society, but being that it was formed within the America that gave us the coon show, its folksiness was born to be bled once it began entertaining the same mainstream that had once excluded its originators. And have no doubt, before hiphop had a name it was a folk culture, literally visible in the way you see folk in Brooklyn and the South Bronx of the '80s, styling, wilding, and profiling in Jamel Shabazz's photograph book Back in the Days. But from the moment "Rapper's Delight" went platinum, hiphop the folk culture became hiphop the American entertainment-industry sideshow. No doubt it transformed the entertainment industry, and all kinds of people's notions of entertainment, style, and politics in the process. So let's be real. If hiphop were only some static and rigid folk tradition preserved in amber, it would never have been such a site for radical change or corporate exploitation in the first place. This being America, where as my man A.J.'s basketball coach dad likes to say, "They don't pay niggas to sit on the bench," hiphop was never going to not go for the gold as more gold got laid out on the table for the goods that hiphop brought to the market. Problem today is that where hiphop was once a buyer's market in which we, the elite hiphop audience, decided what was street legit, it has now become a seller's market, in which what does or does not get sold as hiphop to the masses is whatever the boardroom approves. The bitter trick is that hiphop, which may or may not include the NBA, is the face of Black America in the world today. It also still represents Black culture and Black creative license in unique ways to the global marketplace, no matter how commodified it becomes. No doubt, there's still more creative autonomy for Black artists and audiences in hiphop than in almost any other electronic mass-cultural medium we have. You for damn sure can't say that about radio, movies, or television. The fact that hiphop does connect so many Black folk worldwide, whatever one might think of the product, is what makes it invaluable to anyone coming from a Pan-African state of mind. Hiphop's ubiquity has created a common ground and a common vernacular for Black folk from 18 to 50 worldwide. This is why mainstream hiphop as a capitalist tool, as a market force isn't easily discounted: The dialogue it has already set in motion between Long Beach and Cape Town is a crucial one, whether Long Beach acknowledges it or not. What do we do with that information, that communication, that transatlantic mass-Black telepathic link? From the looks of things, we ain't about to do a goddamn thing other than send more CDs and T-shirts across the water. But the Negro art form we call hiphop wouldn't even exist if African Americans of whatever socioeconomic caste weren't still niggers and not just the more benign, congenial "niggas." By which I mean if we weren't all understood by the people who run this purple-mountain loony bin as both subhuman and superhuman, as sexy beasts on the order of King Kong. Or as George Clinton once observed, without the humps there ain't no getting over. Meaning that only Africans could have survived slavery in America, been branded lazy bums, and decided to overcompensate by turning every sporting contest that matters into a glorified battle royal. Like King Kong had his island, we had the Bronx in the '70s, out of which came the only significant artistic movement of the 20th century produced by born-and-bred New Yorkers, rather than Southwestern transients or Jersey transplants. It's equally significant that hiphop came out of New York at the time it did, because hiphop is Black America's Ellis Island. It's our Delancey Street and our Fulton Fish Market and garment district and Hollywoodian ethnic enclave/empowerment zone that has served as a foothold for the poorest among us to get a grip on the land of the prosperous. Only because this convergence of ex-slaves and ch-ching finally happened in the '80s because hey, African Americans weren't allowed to function in the real economic and educational system of these United States like first-generation immigrants until the 1980s#roughly four centuries after they first got here, 'case you forgot. Hiphoppers weren't the first generation who ever thought of just doing the damn thang entreprenurially speaking, they were the first ones with legal remedies on the books when it came to getting a cut of the action. And the first generation for whom acquiring those legal remedies so they could just do the damn thang wasn't a priority requiring the energies of the race's best and brightest. If we woke up tomorrow and there was no hiphop on the radio or on television, if there was no money in hiphop, then we could see what kind of culture it was, because my bet is that hiphop as we know it would cease to exist, except as nostalgia. It might resurrect itself as a people's protest music if we were lucky, might actually once again reflect a disenchantment with, rather than a reinforcement of, the have and have-not status quo we cherish like breast milk here in the land of the status-fiending. But I won't be holding my breath waiting to see. Because the moment hiphop disappeared from the air and marketplace might be the moment when we'd discover whether hiphop truly was a cultural force or a manufacturing plant, a way of being or a way of selling porn DVDs, Crunk juice, and S. Carter signature sneakers, blessed be the retired. That might also be the moment at which poor Black communities began contesting the reality of their surroundings, their life opportunities. An interesting question arises: If enough folk from the 'hood get rich, does that suffice for all the rest who will die tryin'? And where does hiphop wealth leave the question of race politics? And racial identity? Picking up where Amiri Baraka and the Black Arts Movement left off, George Clinton realized that anything Black folk do could be abstracted and repackaged for capital gain. This has of late led to one mediocre comedy after another about Negroes frolicking at hair shows, funerals, family reunions, and backyard barbecues, but it has also given us Biz Markie and OutKast. Oh, the selling power of the Black Vernacular. Ralph Ellison only hoped we'd translate it in such a way as to gain entry into the hallowed house of art. How could he know that Ralph Lauren and the House of Polo would one day pray to broker that vernacular's cool marketing prowess into a worldwide licensing deal for bedsheets writ large with Jay-Z's John Hancock? Or that the vernacular's seductive powers would drive Estée Lauder to propose a union with the House of P. Diddy? Or send Hewlett-Packard to come knocking under record exec Steve Stoute's shingle in search of a hiphop-legit cool marketer? Hiphop's effervescent and novel place in the global economy is further proof of that good old Marxian axiom that under the abstracting powers of capitalism, "All that is solid melts into air" (or the Ethernet, as the case might be). So that hiphop floats through the virtual marketplace of branded icons as another consumable ghost, parasitically feeding off the host of the real world's people#urbanized and institutionalized#whom it will claim till its dying day to "represent." And since those people just might need nothing more from hiphop in their geopolitically circumscribed lives than the escapism, glamour, and voyeurism of hiphop, why would they ever chasten hiphop for not steady ringing the alarm about the African American community's AIDS crisis, or for romanticizing incarceration more than attacking the prison-industrial complex, or for throwing a lyrical bone at issues of intimacy or literacy or, heaven forbid, debt relief in Africa and the evils perpetuated by the World Bank and the IMF on the motherland? All of which is not to say "Vote or Die" wasn't a wonderful attempt to at least bring the phantasm of Black politics into the 24-hour nonstop booty, blunts, and bling frame that now has the hiphop industry on lock. Or to devalue by any degree Russell Simmons's valiant efforts to educate, agitate, and organize around the Rockefeller drug-sentencing laws. Because at heart, hiphop remains a radical, revolutionary enterprise for no other reason than its rendering people of African descent anything but invisible, forgettable, and dismissible in the consensual hallucination-simulacrum twilight zone of digitized mass distractions we call our lives in the matrixized, conservative-Christianized, Goebbelsized-by-Fox 21st century. And because, for the first time in our lives, race was nowhere to be found as a campaign issue in presidential politics and because hiphop is the only place we can see large numbers of Black people being anything other than sitcom window dressing, it maintains the potential to break out of the box at the flip of the next lyrical genius who can articulate her people's suffering with the right doses of rhythm and noise to reach the bourgeois and still rock the boulevard. Call me an unreconstructed Pan-African cultural nationalist, African-fer-the-Africans-at-home-and-abroad-type rock and roll nigga and I won't be mad at ya: I remember the Afrocentric dream of hiphop's becoming an agent of social change rather than elevating a few ex-drug dealers' bank accounts. Against my better judgment, I still count myself among that faithful. To the extent that hiphop was a part of the great Black cultural nationalist reawakening of the 1980s and early '90s, it was because there was also an anti-apartheid struggle and anti-crack struggle, and Minister Louis Farrakhan and Reverend Jesse Jackson were at the height of their rhetorical powers, recruitment ambitions, and media access, and a generation of Ivy League Black Public Intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic had come to the fore to raise the philosophical stakes in African American debate, and speaking locally, there were protests organized around the police/White Citizens Council lynchings of Bumpurs, Griffiths, Hawkins, Diallo, Dorismond, etc. etc. etc. Point being that hiphop wasn't born in a vacuum but as part of a political dynamo that seems to have been largely dissipated by the time we arrived at the Million Man March, best described by one friend as the largest gathering in history of a people come to protest themselves, given its bizarre theme of atonement in the face of the goddamn White House. The problem with a politics that theoretically stops thinking at the limit of civil rights reform and appeals to white guilt and Black consciousness was utterly revealed at that moment#a point underscored by the fact that the two most charged and memorable Black political events of the 1990s were the MMM and the hollow victory of the O.J. trial. Meaning, OK, a page had been turned in the book of African American economic and political life#clearly because we showed up in Washington en masse demanding absolutely nothing but atonement for our sins#and we did victory dances when a doofus ex-athlete turned Hertz spokesmodel bought his way out of lethal injection. Put another way, hiphop sucks because modern Black populist politics sucks. Ishmael Reed has a poem that goes: "I am outside of history . . . it looks hungry . . . I am inside of history it's hungrier than I thot." The problem with progressive Black political organizing isn't hiphop but that the No. 1 issue on the table needs to be poverty, and nobody knows how to make poverty sexy. Real poverty, that is, as opposed to studio-gangsta poverty, newly-inked-MC-with-a-story-to-sell poverty. You could argue that we're past the days of needing a Black agenda. But only if you could argue that we're past the days of there being poor Black people and Driving While Black and structural, institutionalized poverty. And those who argue that we don't need leaders must mean Bush is their leader too, since there are no people on the face of this earth who aren't being led by some of their own to hell or high water. People who say that mean this: Who needs leadership when you've got 24-hour cable and PlayStations. And perhaps they're partly right, since what people can name and claim their own leaders when they don't have their own nation-state? And maybe in a virtual America like the one we inhabit today, the only Black culture that matters is the one that can be downloaded and perhaps needs only business leaders at that. Certainly it's easier to speak of hiphop hoop dreams than of structural racism and poverty, because for hiphop America to not just desire wealth but demand power with a capital P would require thinking way outside the idiot box. Consider, if you will, this "as above, so below" doomsday scenario: Twenty years from now we'll be able to tell our grandchildren and great-grandchildren how we witnessed cultural genocide: the systematic destruction of a people's folkways. We'll tell them how fools thought they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of hiphop the year Bush came back with a gangbang, when they were really presiding over a funeral. We'll tell them how once upon a time there was this marvelous art form where the Negro could finally say in public whatever was on his or her mind in rhyme and how the Negro hiphop artist, staring down minimum wage slavery, Iraq, or the freedom of the incarcerated chose to take his emancipated motor mouth and stuck it up a stripper's ass because it turned out there really was gold in them thar hills. More by Greg Tate Got Your Sex Raps Here White Freedom The angstiest wigga alive exercises privilege, bears cross, rallies flock, begs forgiveness Eminem's Encore The Resurrection and the Light Ray Charles compels 12 disciples to tell us just exactly who they are Apocalypse Now Janetgate 2004: Black sexuality awaits its Foucault#but three books fill the gap for now From majorod22 at yahoo.com Tue Jan 25 19:12:23 2005 From: majorod22 at yahoo.com (Mario Rodrigues) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 05:42:23 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] First posting Message-ID: <20050125134223.24759.qmail@web51710.mail.yahoo.com> THE POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY OF GOLF IN SOUTH EAST ASIA The golf scene in India has exploded over the last decade with a phenomenal increase in the number of courses, golfers and tournaments. Indian golfers are also making waves on the international circuit. But golf has become more than a game today. It is now a business, industry, career and lifestyle option. This study will examine the political, economic and social impulses that have unleashed the golf revolution in India and also the countours of its expansionism in South- and South-East Asia. But golf has also become a dirty four-letter word in recent times. Golf courses, which are often connected to lifestyle projects, involve appropriation of large tracts of land, often in controversial circumstances, by powerful business & political elites, displacement of marginalised peoples from traditional habitats, destruction/alteration of the environment, pollution due to the excessive use of pesticides and depletion of water reserves. This study will focus on some controversial golf projects in India where such violations have allegedly taken place. The study will also look at attempts to promote golf tourism by the state and central governments in tandem with the tourism industry. It will also peep into the mystical world of celebrity & corporate golf and that of caddies as well and explore the interaction between these disparate classes. In the course of this study, I propose to meet & talk to the professional various actors in the golf drama at select golf locations in India to weave together a sociological, economic, political & environmental canvas of the golf scene in South Asia. Ends I am a journalist working for the Mumbai Bureau of The Statesman. Besides writing any number of stories on various subjects I have also contributed to books on China, Goan music and Indian football. I have also authored the book �Batting for the Empire: A Political Biography of Ranjitsinhji� published by Penguin in 2003. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From joy at sarai.net Tue Jan 25 18:48:54 2005 From: joy at sarai.net (joy at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 14:18:54 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] Gopal & Rakhal In-Reply-To: References: <1111.203.101.3.160.1106403289.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <41F4FF75.9080802@sarai.net> <1369.203.101.6.25.1106584924.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <1057.203.101.4.14.1106659134.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Thanks Supreet and others, For the replies. Issue was not combinations, value judgment, morality or ethics. My concern was, there are many more models of sharing which we tend to ignore if we look only at production based or structural sharing methods. Reproduction of social goods is a process which differentiates human being from other living beings. Thus the logic of evolution, survival instincts and similar ways of looking at human practices I find faulty. Human beings are neither jackal nor hydra. Can we have any other category to think about human relations? Best Joy From faraazmehmood at yahoo.com Tue Jan 25 20:59:18 2005 From: faraazmehmood at yahoo.com (faraaz mehmood) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 07:29:18 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Smokescreen veils banking practices Message-ID: <20050125152918.57737.qmail@web14929.mail.yahoo.com> Nine months before in May 2003 when I stepped into the air-conditioned expanse of a renowned private commercial bank little did I know that the well-lit ambience of the hall was actually blurring dubious & highly questionable work practices designed to hoodwink trusting customers & unsuspecting loan seekers. My bank, lets call it Indian development bank has nationwide branches & a set of values & mode of practices entirely in agreement with all the other national & commercial banks. I was inducted into this bank as an officer trainee after cooling my heels for several months with a MBA degree. The procedure of appointment pleased me & made me hopeful of a bright & fruitful career ahead. On a hot afternoon I got a phone call to come to the bank for a meeting with the branch head. The cashier avinash jain had heard about me through a friend & got rewarded with a cell phone for bringing in a prospective employee. The branch head spoke to the cluster head in jaipur & gave him a satisfactory report. I left for jaipur the same evening, appeared for an interview with the cluster head & the human resources manager who flew from Bombay for the interview. All this made me belief on the ever-praising beliefs of liberalization & privatization. Without a scissor, a clipping, a form or courier I was on the desk as officer trainee. Within a week I was on the cashier�s chair assisting avinash jain with atleast a crore a day. The work model of my bank demands that the new entrants serve in the cashier�s cabin for a year or so. I am doing the same. It took me a fortnight to somewhat get over the unsettling environment of the cash cubicle. & get to sleep when I returned to home at 10 in night. As an officer trainee I am drawing Rs.6000 for a work schedule of 12 to 14 hours. The disparity can be judged when the salary of the branch manager, a 36-year-old suave chap is also taken into account: Rs. 71000 per month. But it�s not the disparity in wages or the burden of unending chores, which bent me down. It�s the weird tactics, which pass off as normal favours every day. After dealing with payments & receipts till 4 o�clock in the afternoon, the bank cashier receives daily payments from urban trust, three telecom companies & the local mandi. We tally the cash before & after the daily collection from these agencies. On the third day at the cash desk I was baffled to find Rs. 2 lakhs & fifty thousand missing!! Tally is the crucifix I dread everyday. The cashier has to pay the deficit & if there is any surplus then a report is sent against him to the Bombay headquarters. I just did not know whom to report & how to seek help. I even thought of my mother�s pension benefits because of a premature retirement on medical grounds. My senior avinash was eating his cold lunch in the pantry & I had become the replica of the aspen leaf. Suddenly the operations head Mathili bhanawat barged in & inquired about the tally. Very casually she told me that I couldn�t tally because she had taken wads worth Rs. 2 lakhs for prabhakar ji, our most esteemed customer, an HNI (High Net Worth Individual) she continued with the explanation that prabhakar ji would send the cheque by the evening. When I protested she gave me a pitiful look & asserted that it was a normal practice. When avinash returned I was less perturbed only Rs. 50,000 had to be accounted for. Avinash sat down to do his tally. Before he could find his surplus sohan choudhary (cash assistant) informed me that he had lent Rs. 50000 from my pie to avinash in Rs. 50 notes. That night I slept in fits. Sometimes I could recover the loss in a dream, sometimes I was searching for them in a nightmare. Unconventional methods, daring practices, highly camouflage rules & conditions together constitute the work schedule of banks in the private sector. Banks still promote themselves as a place of trust & refuge for a secure today & a promised tomorrow. Not so when you look at the hidden costs involve. The customer pays fine for non-maintenance of average quarterly balance, demanding status of the a/c, slight irregularity in cheques & demand drafts & non-understanding of labyrinthine rules & conditions on the loan forms. The bank is armed with the vernacular indemnity form, which declares that the sales executive or the so-called financial consultant has explained everything to the customer in the local language. The crowning irony is that the vernacular indemnity form is itself printed in English with the unsuspecting customer signing in Hindi. I have already created a blog (www.mumal.blogspot.com) in which I have made four entries regarding business process outsourcing alias meagre salaries to 43 off-roll employees amounting between 6000 & 2000. Only eight officers are on the payrolls of the bank. My entry on cross selling speaks of the efforts of the cashier to receive & pay money all the time cajoling the three hundred persons in the queue to opt for the moonlight insurance scheme, personal loans & home loans which the bank patronizes as a partner. Liberalization enables bank �to sell� insurance & loans not bothering about the sanctioning & granting them. I have also written about hidden costs the customer pays for operating or not operating his a/c in our bank. I intend to bring in the anomalies in the clear light for everyone to see that the customer has to be on his guard in all the innocuous daily dealings he does in a bank. Each bank branch is directed to make its own profits & to report to the headquarters its raison d� etre. For this the headquarter supplies them with an impregnable armour of rules & regulations in fine print. I intend to pierce through this ruthless barrier & report through my blog entries (www.mumal.blogspot.com) & my periodical postings Faraaz mehmood __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail From cswara at hotmail.com Tue Jan 25 22:22:57 2005 From: cswara at hotmail.com (Swara Bhaskar) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:52:57 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Space and Violence in Vatva, Ahmedabad- Introduction Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/9a05f5dd/attachment.html From sabitha_tp at yahoo.co.uk Tue Jan 25 22:44:18 2005 From: sabitha_tp at yahoo.co.uk (sabitha t p) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:14:18 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Early women's magazines in Kerala - 1st posting In-Reply-To: <41F62305.4020106@sarai.net> Message-ID: <20050125171418.11825.qmail@web25407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> When the first women’s magazine in Malayalam, Kerala Sugunanabodhini, came out in 1886 it began with an editorial that ran like this: “Nothing related to political matters is included here. Philosophy, physical science, humourous stories that entertain, moral essays that enlighten, stories, women’s duty, culinary science, music, histories of exemplary women, history of places, book reviews, essays on other educational subjects: this book will contain these mostly in prose and sometimes in verse. We shall not include reductive religious debates here.” This gives us some idea about the contents of early women’s magazines. In the course of my project I wish to explore the modalities by which urbane femininity is constructed through the discourse of education in early women’s magazines in Malayalam (1886-1926). Whether to educate women or not and whether it is appropriate for women to be educated in English were hotly discussed topics in Kerala in the late nineteenth- early twentieth centuries. If such questions were answered in the affirmative, the corollary was an enquiry into what kind of education suited women and what the subjects to be taught should be. All such debates were built on certain predetermined notions concerning femininity. These notions are not uniform or homologous; we often find conflicting ideas about ideal femininity emerging from such discussions. I have identified three broad discursive categories related to the project of educating women to become ideals of urbane femininity. These are: sexuality, health and hygiene, and physical appearance. In women’s magazines such as Sarada and Lakshmibai that I have looked at so far, there are a number of essays on monogamy and the excessive femininity of dancers, on environmental hygiene, medical knowledge and the care to be taken in maintaining good health, and on enhancing physical beauty and the perils of being too vainly attached to one’s looks. All three categories of essays employ these common discursive techniques: desirability, propriety and women’s moral responsibility for the upkeep of a healthy public. There are several essays that discuss the Nair Marriage Bill that would make polyandrous Nair women subscribe to a code of legally sanctioned monogamy. The sexual excesses of Nair women possible through the selection of multiple partners or serial monogamy are decried and loyalty to one partner is advocated. This agenda is clear even in essays not dealing directly with the impending Nair Marriage Bill. Essays titled ‘Paativratyam’ (monogamy) or ‘Streedharma’ participate in the debate on curbing the sexual freedom thought to be enjoyed by Nair women. These essays employ a variety of discursive strategies to justify monogamy: that polyandry is unnatural, that it is uncivilized and improper and that it is detrimental to the well-being of the State. Mohiniattam, performed only by women, also is viewed with suspicion as a seductive form of art in this period. Polyandrous Nair women and Mohiniattam dancers are both considered antithetical to the moral health of the public sphere and domestic harmony. What is significant in essays related to women’s health and hygiene in women’s magazines is a belief in women’s education as useful to the public sphere in that it contributes to the maintenance of a clean civic sphere. The woman’s role as citizen is laid out as consisting of the hygienic upkeep of her environment and the medical know-how to take care of her family in case of illness. It is even suggested that a basic education of women in natural sciences will prevent the public body from falling ill. All the issues of the magazines I have looked at so far have a plethora of essays titled “Vayu” (Air), “Jalam” (Water) and “Arogyaraksha” (Care of one’s health). Related to this are essays that support the systematic education of women in medical science, both Western and Ayurvedic. In the essays relating to physical appearance, women are warned against “saundaryabhramam” or being too madly attached to beauty and enhancement of appearance with make-up or too much jewelry. The path to be followed by women is a middle one where neither are rituals of beauty to be entirely neglected, nor obsessively engaged with. A large part of the readership of these magazines consisted of middleclass women and in the interest of the middleclass we notice frugality being promoted through these magazines. “Saundaryabhramam” is considered a sign of vanity and works against the principle of modesty to be adhered to by respectable and desirable middleclass women. However, we can notice a contradiction when we engage with the discourse on dancers that I mentioned earlier. The dancer’s seductive ability is attributed, at least partly, to her artificially enhanced looks: eyes lined with large amounts of kohl, reddened lips, hair adorned with flowers, and neck and arms with sparkling jewelry. Even though men are thought to be drawn to such women, the respectable middleclass woman loses her desirability if she attaches too much significance to her physical appearance. By looking at these three classes of essays in early women’s magazines in Kerala, I hope to arrive at an understanding of what went into the making of a desirable woman as well as to bring out the fissures in the models of desirability being made available to women through early print culture in Kerala. The most significant materials that will be looked at for this project are: A. Copies of early women’s magazines in Malayalam: 1) Kerala Sugunanabodhini (1886, only 6 months; again 1892) 2) Sarada (1904) 3) Lakshmibai (1906) 4) Bhasha Sarada (1914) 5) Mahilaratnam (1914) 6) Sumangala (1915) 7) Mahila (1919) 8) Vanitakusumam (1926) and B. Curricula for girls’ schools in late nineteenth – early twentieth centuries. ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony From nagarikmancha at gmail.com Wed Jan 26 04:18:41 2005 From: nagarikmancha at gmail.com (nagarik mancha) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 04:18:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Closed factories, plight of workers & urban space Message-ID: <41ce1a9a050125144823a64852@mail.gmail.com> A factory closes down. The news, at times, gets 'covered'! Such news in the media creates a ripple of uneasy sympathy in some. Most remain unfazed. The unit doesn't reopen. Workers continue to suffer. So do their families. In lakhs, and lakhs! That doesn't make news. Loss of valuable square centimetres averted! The civil society shows little empathy towards the plight of workers in closed down units. The attitude of the 'welfare' state towards those who had their backs against the wall is abysmally indifferent. The issue is seldom truly addressed in the agenda of the party-oriented central trade unions. Closing down of a factory, by the way, is not synonymous to 'industrial closure'! In West Bengal a very small percentage of factories face legal closures. Most of the more than half a lakh closed industries have undergone 'lockout' or 'suspension of work' or some such similar jargon-like terms which spells 'hunger', 'unpaid dues' and 'joblessness' for the workers. And death, disease and disaster for them and their family members. The legacy of industrial sickness in West Bengal which in the late 60's and 70's witnessed the holocaust of sickness, is a spectre that haunts us till date with varying degrees of intensity. Industrial pockets were reduced to veritable graveyards for scores of chimneys and factory shades. Or else it was wiped clean from the face of the earth making way for an urban complex. Some workers of these closed industries have perished but most have survived, even though barely. Some have been displaced, but many more occupy the same urban and semi-urban spaces where they lived as workers. They have changed; so also such urban spaces they had occupied and also the constituents of the nett occupiers of such urban spaces. The boom of real estate industry, for good or bad, indeed indicates an increasing demand for apartments among a section of the so-called middle class. The nature and structure of the urban space, even in the non-affluent parts of the city and its suburbs, is undergoing a sea of change. This market demand is having a somewhat catastrophic effect, to a certain extent, on manufacturing industry in some areas. Capital is moving from low return manufacturing sector to high return real estate business. Demand for urban expansion, thus, is at times the cause of, and consequently the motive force that is triggering the closure of industrial units, in many cases on the plea of sickness, leading to thousands of jobless, unprotected workers. It maybe worthwhile to study in greater details the changes in the lives and livelihood of hundreds of specific workers from closed industries and its impact on the urban spaces they occupy. Conversely, it would be revealing to study the changes in dozens of urban spaces and ascertain the impact it might have had on the life and livelihood of workers in the vicinity. The synergistic effects of these two changes, is bound to usher in further changes among the remaining non-worker occupiers of urban space too! There could be a sea of difference of the plight of those workers who are eking out a meagre living outside Kolkata as compared to their brethren in the 'great' Eastern Metropolis. Yet another vital theme emanates from the question as to what remains of, and what happens to, the huge resource base of human skill and working experience, which has been shunted out of production and laid to waste along with the rusted machines, crumbling sheds and land in disuse, overgrown with weeds and bushes? What is the prognosis of the ills befallen on those skilful and experienced hands? Cannot this huge national resource base be partly integrated in the current paradigm of ongoing industrialisation? This is another huge question worth looking into! This, in nutshell, is the proposed study Nagarik Mancha intends to take up with support from Sarai/CSDS Independent Fellowship, 2005. Nagarik Mancha (meaning citizen's forum), way back in 1989, started to function as a solidarity and support group for workers in closed and sick industries in and around Kolkata. It is a non-funded, non-party citizen's initiative and is presently active in the field of labour, industry and environment. Nagarik Mancha intends to take up this study with the help of dialogue oriented interactive surveys as well as a statistical surveys. Emphasis will be on accumulating oral history from the grass root level. Discussions and group meetings (with informed consent) aiming at local grass root level participation will form the essential building block of the surveys. Collection of locally published and unpublished materials (leaflets; hand written letters; appeals and memorandums to the administration) during such group interactions and workshops will be attempted. The study will aim at comprehension and analysis of relevant documents and publications, reports, statistics, press clippings, leaflets, posters, previous surveys and other forms of relevant literature including Government documents and papers. We intend to interact with ground level activists, academicians, trade unionists and professionals in the relevant and allied fields in West Bengal. The first lap 1. We have started short listing the seemingly relevant material so long scattered in our own document collection which includes monographs, government documents, newspaper clipping's, reports and so on. 2.We have visited the areas around five closed units and have started interacting to the workers and their families. 3.We have held half a dozen meetings with those activists who are expected to participate in the surveys as well as our support team. 4.We have interacted with some of our resource persons. Early days these! Waiting for responses, suggestions and opinions. Waiting kenly! Thanks. Posted by Ashim On behalf of Nagarik Mancha From zainab at xtdnet.nl Wed Jan 26 13:01:23 2005 From: zainab at xtdnet.nl (zainab at xtdnet.nl) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 08:31:23 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] Republic Day Posting Message-ID: <3263.219.65.13.224.1106724683.squirrel@webmail.xtdnet.nl> Today is Republic Day in India. So, WE have decided to put together a posting. WE??? Well, WE includes me, myself, she and her. We are of a multiple personality order you see. And as you well know by now, WE walk together in the city. This posting comes from a day of traveling in Delhi city. It was 18th January. Preparations for the Republic Day were in full swing. I’d like to thank my friend and colleague at Sarai, Rakesh, who allowed me to experience the sites of his fieldwork in Delhi and produce this experience. It was on his bike that I went through the city of Delhi and realized that while our desire may be to construct strict borders and boundaries, in cities these borders and boundaries are continuously slipping away, recreating and reinventing themselves and perhaps, at some level, spaces are conversing and traveling despite regimes and controls. As the Chinese say, ‘we are living in interesting times’! 18 December 2004 It is 11:30 AM right now. Winter is hard for me. Yet, when I sit on Rakesh’s bike and start to experience the openness of the city, it seems like the spirit of the city comes alive. I am talking with this spirit right now. I don’t care if I am labeled haunted (perhaps I am a tantric researcher!!!). But these are the most beautiful experiences of The Everyday. I realize that each moment of The Everyday is diverse and revealing. Do we love our cities or are they simply economic engines? We are passing by Kashmere Gate area. I look at the spelling of Kashmere. It’s still British. I think here in Delhi, our lives are under the shade and shadow of the colonial past. And it’s difficult to shed this past. Current transformations in Mumbai city make me feel like I am re-living the era of the British – bureaucracy, force and power. We are right below Kashmere Gate. The bike is halted owing to the red signal. The metro is passing above, on the bridge. And, I suddenly feel like standing up on the bike and saluting the metro. I want to sing: Jana Gana Mana Adhi Nayak Jaye He Mera Metro hai naya Vidhata! It’s surreal. I am not a patriot. But I believe state projects can do this to me. Bollywood sometimes manages to fool me like this, especially when I am drunk on war music (and I am not of the warring factions either!). The Delhi Metro is the idea of development. I remember the autorickshaw driver’s words, “Now Delhi can compete on the international level. Everything that the world has, we have here in Delhi!” I enter Pallika Bazaar. Gitika, my interviewee from Mumbai who commutes regularly through VT Station had told me, “I reminded of Pallika Bazaar when I am in the VT Station subway.” So am I. I am coming to believe that spaces can be Siamese Twins, so what if they are separated by borders and labels. Our constructions of spaces can be similar though we may exist in different corners of the world. Then, what is this intellectual property regime? I can’t seem to understand. As I walk through Pallika, I remember my experiences of walking in a shopping center in Dhaka city. Seriously, my memories are in Dhaka and my presence is in Delhi – the divides of the physical and the mental (or should I say sentimental?). Will I be arrested for imaging Bangladesh in Delhi? It seems police regimes are strict on Bangladeshis here. And now, as slums are being razed to the grounds in Mumbai, Bal Thackeray supports and praises the government’s moves saying, ‘the slums are dangerous because they house Bangladeshis.’ The Bangladeshi has become the universal (hated, despised and dangerous) ‘other’ in our metro cities. (And I think I am being fooled simultaneously by politicians and the media.) We again start our escapades on Rakesh’s bike. This time, I am looking at the high-rises being constructed in the Connaught Place area. The buildings are different. They are set against the backdrop of the sky. And suddenly, I think I want to patent the sky. Will that make me a super-rich dude? The day is passing. And I am passing through this city’s streets, sights and signs. I enter Lajpat Rai market. As I walk through it, I remember the ‘duplicate’ market I visited in Bangkok. All the maal there was fake or Chinese made. Gosh, I am almost experiencing the cities of this world right here, right now. Perhaps the Times of India advertising billboards across Delhi’s light-posts were right when they said, ‘because India is going all over the world!’ Do spaces talk? How come spaces remind of similarities? Is it about the space or the sense of place? It’s evening time. We decide to return home. This time I am passing through Daryaganj and loudspeakers are blaring with songs from patriotic films. Lata Mangeshkar is screaming, aye mere watan ke logon, jara aankhon mein bhar lo pani. I think about aankhon mein bhar lo pani – water in the eyes. I have water in my eyes. The pollution is severe. Do real issues tend to get diluted or even disguised under the guise of patriotism and nationalism? Is patriotism some kind of ‘opium of the masses’? Is nationalism being constructed in our cities? Are the borders moving inwards? Postscript: Parveen Babi, the famous yesteryear actor of Bollywood died some days ago. It is said that she was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. I think I am suffering from the same mania – I am schizoidly paranoid of the state. I think it is poisoning my mind. Stay away! Zainab Bawa Bombay www.xanga.com/CityBytes From river_side1 at hotmail.com Wed Jan 26 13:54:09 2005 From: river_side1 at hotmail.com (River .) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 08:24:09 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Hypertextual Poetry: A Study of MSN Poetry Communities Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050126/ad655375/attachment.html From sabirhaque at yahoo.co.in Wed Jan 26 16:07:00 2005 From: sabirhaque at yahoo.co.in (Sabir Haque) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 10:37:00 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [reader-list]IT SANK BY 8 cms-is it the beginning of the end? Message-ID: <20050126103700.56352.qmail@web8406.mail.in.yahoo.com> What sank by 8 cms. -------------------- A temple build over a 40 yrs old ashram, which was surrounded by farming land, over 1000 farmers were dependent on it. The ashram was demolished, the farmers were overthrown, a future of opportunities was unvieled for us...the citizens of Delhi. What else can we ask? We have in our hands, the most glaring example of defiance of human values and ecological care - Akshardham Temple. In a never disclosed news (read "media"), farmers around that land claim that the akshardham temple have sunk 8 cms. The construction is no longer happenning. Although we are still checking out the details. Does it really come as a shock?...frankly, we were anticipating it. What will happen to Yamuna? Or rather How will it affect us? High rise building on the river banks, when it is a common knowledge that the river yamuna lies on a faultline. Does this still manages to scare us? This research is titled "Developments on the Eastern Banks of Yamuna - its future implications". It will mainly document the lives of the rest of the farmers, who will be directly affected by the Akshardham temple & Commonwealth Games village, and the topographical changes waiting to happen in the destined site. The eastern bank river bed area is disputed, and Commonwealth Games village is following the same model on which Asian Games went. The population is closing on to the river extracting every bit the river could offer. We have been already involved in a project concerning the yamuna bed - a film completed just two weeks back titled "Fistfull of steel". A screening will be organised under the aegis of Hazard Center & Lady Shri Ram college. The venue will be finalised soon, we will inform you more about it once the venue is finalized. Well, this is our first posting, will get you more from the site itself. do keep checking this space, Sabir Haque Nidhi Bal Singh Leena Rani Narzary Our Brief ---------- Sabir Haque: Working as a visiting faculty ("New Media") at CMAC, Rai University. Presently editing a documentary film titled "Crises in Crimson". A freelance editor and digital artist. Nidhi Bal Singh: presently based at NDTV, working for the program titled "Gustaki Maaf". A freelance editor and looking forward to make interesting documentaries. Leena Rani Narzary: A freelance producer, loves on work on socially relevant themes. Three of us have just finished our Masters in Mass communication from AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia. Looking forward for a positive response from you all. sabir haque new media evangelist www.whatasight.bravehost.com email: sabir.haque at gmail.com mob: 9891408334 ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony From sabirhaque at yahoo.co.in Wed Jan 26 16:07:00 2005 From: sabirhaque at yahoo.co.in (Sabir Haque) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 10:37:00 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [reader-list]IT SANK BY 8 cms-is it the beginning of the end? Message-ID: <20050126103700.56352.qmail@web8406.mail.in.yahoo.com> What sank by 8 cms. -------------------- A temple build over a 40 yrs old ashram, which was surrounded by farming land, over 1000 farmers were dependent on it. The ashram was demolished, the farmers were overthrown, a future of opportunities was unvieled for us...the citizens of Delhi. What else can we ask? We have in our hands, the most glaring example of defiance of human values and ecological care - Akshardham Temple. In a never disclosed news (read "media"), farmers around that land claim that the akshardham temple have sunk 8 cms. The construction is no longer happenning. Although we are still checking out the details. Does it really come as a shock?...frankly, we were anticipating it. What will happen to Yamuna? Or rather How will it affect us? High rise building on the river banks, when it is a common knowledge that the river yamuna lies on a faultline. Does this still manages to scare us? This research is titled "Developments on the Eastern Banks of Yamuna - its future implications". It will mainly document the lives of the rest of the farmers, who will be directly affected by the Akshardham temple & Commonwealth Games village, and the topographical changes waiting to happen in the destined site. The eastern bank river bed area is disputed, and Commonwealth Games village is following the same model on which Asian Games went. The population is closing on to the river extracting every bit the river could offer. We have been already involved in a project concerning the yamuna bed - a film completed just two weeks back titled "Fistfull of steel". A screening will be organised under the aegis of Hazard Center & Lady Shri Ram college. The venue will be finalised soon, we will inform you more about it once the venue is finalized. Well, this is our first posting, will get you more from the site itself. do keep checking this space, Sabir Haque Nidhi Bal Singh Leena Rani Narzary Our Brief ---------- Sabir Haque: Working as a visiting faculty ("New Media") at CMAC, Rai University. Presently editing a documentary film titled "Crises in Crimson". A freelance editor and digital artist. Nidhi Bal Singh: presently based at NDTV, working for the program titled "Gustaki Maaf". A freelance editor and looking forward to make interesting documentaries. Leena Rani Narzary: A freelance producer, loves on work on socially relevant themes. Three of us have just finished our Masters in Mass communication from AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia. Looking forward for a positive response from you all. sabir haque new media evangelist www.whatasight.bravehost.com email: sabir.haque at gmail.com mob: 9891408334 ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony From swamivandana at yahoo.com Wed Jan 26 18:54:51 2005 From: swamivandana at yahoo.com (vandana swami) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 05:24:51 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Geographies of Space Time and Economies of Nature Message-ID: <20050126132452.55319.qmail@web60309.mail.yahoo.com> GEOGRAPHIES OF SPACE-TIME AND ECONOMIES OF NATURE An Allegorical, Historical Journey into the Archives of the Great India Peninsula Railway (GIP Railway) Research Problem ���..The science and steadiness of the north would galvanize the capabilities of the east��the introduction of Western technology, particularly through railway construction has made it inevitable that the British would become the greatest benefactors that the Hindoo race had known��..� This confident assertion in an editorial in the early 1840�s in The Times of London points to the significantly altered nature of relationships that were developing between Britain, western science and India from the early 19th century onwards. Indeed, with the establishment of a railway network in India since 1853, India gained new visibility as a remapped and reconstructed geographical space in Britain�s imperial cartography. Examining the impact of the arrival of the railways in colonial India, my proposal seeks to historicize the institution of the GIP Railway and its effects on forests of the Deccan region. I would do this by foregrounding a new and productive theoretical combination of the categories of space- time and nature , using the GIP Railway as a terrain upon which to investigate the manner in which the introduction of railway technology altered the domain of space-time and the domain of nature in colonial India. I would also like to argue that the theoretical integration of these categories in the manner that I will elucidate further in the research questions, would allow me to creatively nuance some aspects of the history of colonial India that are variously un-researched or under-researched until now. Very importantly, this research would also enable me to rescue the history of railways in India from the throes of economism and to then place it within the orbit of a truly engaging and dynamic interdisciplinarity. Research Questions My research will focus on the following interconnected questions: * How does an investigation of the precisely mapped route networks of the GIP Railway in and around the forests of the Deccan region press the importance of opening up questions relating to a integrated geographical reading of the transformation of colonial space-time? The GIP Railway was established through some of the most thickly forested areas of the country � the Western Ghats and the forests of the Deccan. A choice of routing the railway in this fashion needed more than an incidental overlap, meaning that by routing the railway in a way that begins with the excellent natural port of Bombay (erstwhile), then cuts through thick and highly malarial vegetation, surmounts the Western Ghats and then weaves itself through the rich cotton tracts of India and taps important towns along its way points strongly to the presence of an extremely well-organised imperial cartography. In this proposal, I would like to analyse precisely and carefully the route maps of the GIP Railway together with the topographical maps of the forested and cotton-rich regions, in order to test the plausibility of my thesis that the GIP Railway, as a pre-eminent wheel of colonialism, made fundamentally significant geographical alterations of space-time in India that led to different kinds of conflicts in the regions it traversed. While I certainly do not believe, nor want to propose that the imperial cartography of GIP routes was merely monolithic, geared solely to extractive ends, I would like to state that the historical archive is replete with commentaries of dislocation of various communities, for instance the Chenchu, Kadar and Baiga tribes of central and southern India. I think that there is no adequate explanation of these dislocations and evictions at hand, least of all one originating in the archive. The archive also talks about the uprooting of fishermen, villagers, small merchants and traders in and around the Bombay region during and consequent to the construction of the GIPR. These archival documents need to be culled out to create an alternative history of railways in colonial India, while showing how the railways turned hitherto open or communally owned territory into privately owned and/or accessed Railway Land . * How does the massive and large-scale deforestation and plunder of the forests of the Deccan for timber and the sourcing up of natural products such as resin, coal and copper, to name just a few of the materials needed to make and set up the railway tracks of the GIP Railway point to the urgent necessity of talking about the economy of a highly commodified (and abused) nature in colonial India? The archive is prolific with materials that describe in detail the timber requirements for railway construction, the regions from where they would be obtained, the exact markets they would be sent to once logging is complete and the prices that these timber logs would fetch in the market. However, the archive is silent on how this alarming level of deforestation led to the forest dwelling tribes losing their habitats and ways of life and being. Attempts made by these forest dwellers to regain access to what was now �state property� savagely implicated them in colonial discourses of criminalization, even as the social-ecological relationships of these dispossessed publics were being severed by the colonial construction of the GIP Railway. In this proposal therefore, I would like to use the available archival materials from the Government of India, Department of Forests, and incorporate their silent and partial rendition to establish that while in many ways it was inevitable that railways would only seek to control, dominate and plunder from nature, this story cannot end by highlighting only deforestation and dispossession of the colonized, as the available archival resources can permit more sophisticated and theoretically unique critiques of colonial modernity. By researching this proposal, I would thus like to demonstrate not only the sheer inadequacy of the dominant theoretical canon regarding the issue of �nature� but to show that we need to urgently theorize economies of nature in the context of railway construction especially in view of the fact that the natural resources in question were frequently transported across vast distances, this then conjoined these otherwise disconnected places , from where these natural resources were harvested, into the singular spatial orbit of the railway economy and its route network. My overarching goal in this proposal is thus to prove that in colonial India, the geography of space-time was intimately, and often violently, connected to the economies of nature. The GIP Railway, being one of the most magnificent and vivid symbols of all the fulsome romance, anguish and catharsis of the �Raj� and modernity in the late 19th century, though ironically the most under-researched, stands as an excellent illustration of these propositions. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 From basvanheur at gmx.net Thu Jan 27 02:12:17 2005 From: basvanheur at gmx.net (Bas Van Heur) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 21:42:17 +0100 (MET) Subject: [Reader-list] Issue #6 of cut.up.magazine online Message-ID: <23406.1106772137@www72.gmx.net> Art, music and the banality of daily politics. Edition #6 of cut.up.magazine is now online: http://www.cut-up.com One new article in English: Interview with the photographer Rabea Eipperle from Berlin (Bas van Heur). And for those who (would like to) understand (the) Dutch/Flemish: The banal fundamentalism of Dutch politics (Thomas van Aalten and Harm Hopman); the work of art in the age of neoliberal recuperability (Didi de Pari$); Dear citizen – please behave (Alex van Veen); and the one and only Mediengruppe Telekommander interview (Theo Ploeg). Images are by Guido Scheffers, Rabea Eipperle and Frank Kloos. Reviews: Apparat, Rod, Station Rose, The Agents of Impurity, Airbus, Robotobibok and Hypergeo. Praise, critique, contributions? Let us know what you think. We crave for your attention: Editors, info at cut-up.com cut.up.media po box 313 2000 AH Haarlem the Netherlands -- Sparen beginnt mit GMX DSL: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl From keith at thememorybank.co.uk Thu Jan 27 04:31:23 2005 From: keith at thememorybank.co.uk (Keith Hart) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 00:01:23 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Hypertextual Poetry: A Study of MSN Poetry Communities In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <41F82143.3010601@thememorybank.co.uk> Dear Nitoo/River, I would like to thank you for your jewel of a first post. First I would like to know more about your choice of nom de (virtual) plume. It reminded me of Heraclitus and of Robert Musil who said, I think, that the river of life carries its own banks with it. I also thought of that old reactionary Tom Eliot who wrote a lot about poetry, culture and tradition. He said, I think, that the great poet is someone who immerses himself (he would say himself) in his tradition and then writes the poem that is necessary to move it along. Could this idea, however inappropriate, apply to the world of Hypertextual Poetry? Indeed what is the relevance of the idea of tradition in this context? I am reminded of Vico who believed that he had invented a new way of thinking, but died before anybody important read and appreciated what he wrote. He imagined that societies were called into being by great poets like Homer, Virgil, Dante and Shaespeare. Who will be the great poet of the internet age and where will s/he come from, what media will s/he use? The historical conditions are perfect -- world society formed for the first time, new means of communication ushered in by the digital revolution. I look forward to reports from your ethnography of a new kind of mass poetry, but I wonder if judging the social and cultural significance of some of this poetry is an issue for you. I am sorry to be eliptical, but I don't say directly what I like about your piece for fear of appearing to be patronising or worse. Keith From lawrence at altlawforum.org Thu Jan 27 09:45:04 2005 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 09:45:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Queering Bollywood Message-ID: Hi All An exciting multimedia database of materials on queer readings of Bollywood has been uploaded on http://media.opencultures.net/queer/ The database contains links to articles, film clips, movie reviews and a queer remix of Kal Ho Na Ho called "Kaun Mile Dekho Kisko" Do have a look, and feel free to mail your comments and suggestions to queerbollywood at yahoo.com Lawrence ======================= Queering Bollywood Queering Bollywood is an exhibition and demonstration of a collection of queer readings in Indian cinema. It is open and collaborative in nature. The idea for doing something like this was born at the Queer film festival organized by Pedestrian Pictures in 2003. The idea was to initiate the process of analysing and collecting information on queer representations in cinema, especially in the Indian context, by creating a database of resources ranging from articles, film clippings, magazine stories etc., aiming eventually to create: € a new dynamic of working together collaboratively towards a film or other such outputs around the idea of queer representations in cinema € a database on queer and subversive readings that can be used in group discussions, classroom, support groups even theme parties, nightclubs etc. € an exciting media product that is interactive and innovative, going beyond textual analysis of cinema, and making it a creative and academic exercise, thus reaching different kinds of publics From supreet.sethi at gmail.com Thu Jan 27 14:34:50 2005 From: supreet.sethi at gmail.com (Supreet Sethi) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:34:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gopal & Rakhal In-Reply-To: References: <1111.203.101.3.160.1106403289.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <41F4FF75.9080802@sarai.net> <1369.203.101.6.25.1106584924.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <1057.203.101.4.14.1106659134.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: I find this switch of gear from frantic posting about specific instance with certain names being thrown in to coming back to "true blue" READER-LIST language more of defence mechenism then anything else regards Supreet From askshetty2000 at yahoo.co.in Wed Jan 26 23:51:47 2005 From: askshetty2000 at yahoo.co.in (Prasad Shetty) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 18:21:47 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Stories of new Entrepreneurship Message-ID: <20050126182147.67129.qmail@web8303.mail.in.yahoo.com> (Dear Vivek and everyone else...Since I did not get my posting in my inbox and saw loads of other postings, I was slightly nervous... Hence I am resending the posting I had sent earlier from this account ... so if you have recived that, just delete this one... Thanks) Hello everybody, This is my first posting to the Sarai Reader List for the independent fellowship programme. I am Prasad, an architect from Mumbai specialsed in Urban Management and work on several urban issues from heritage to garbage! I work as an independent consultant, teach, work for an organisation called CRIT (www.crit.org.in) etc..etc..etc..My recent interests have been on entrepreneurship in the city and mapping them through gossip networks. Please find below the brief research proposal. STORIES OF NEW ENTREPRENEURSHIP Contemporary reconfigurations of the production pattern are most evident when one finds classified planning documents of the government or cheques of a multinational bank being produced in a neighbourhood slum. While such examples raise questions on government, multinational, and the informal sector, they foreground a significant characteristic of the contemporary urban condition – the new entrepreneurship that is rapidly growing in the city. The rising global demand for cheaper material and labour markets overlapped with the state’s ambition to take advantage of such demands seem to have significantly contributed towards the new configurations in the production pattern, which began with a systematic dismantling of the formal industry and protected labour. The owning of the means of production no longer remains centralised with a single industry owner. Commodity production has left the assembly line within a single factory space and shifted to multiple production units located around the globe. The shift in the ownership of the means of production has de-centralised competition. All links of the classical assembly line have been opened up for a new competition. Large industries no longer seem to compete for production, but instead, labourers compete with each other in this magnanimous competition. This competition has given birth to, and nurtured, the agents of cheap production. Their job is to organise material and labour and give the cheapest bid. The reconfiguration of production has effectively changed the classical capitalist - proletariat equation, thus making the city - a city of entrepreneur agents. On the other hand, large industries have engaged themselves in another kind of competition – for the selling of their products. These aggressive attempts in reaching the markets have caused consumption patterns to change, thus forcing an importance of “quality”. Round the clock services, flexible stalks for toothbrushes, cameras with mobile phones etc. are all representative of this “quality” drive which has produced the second set of agents of quality consumption. It is easy to find a housekeeping consultant, a computer maintenance agency, an interior consultant etc. in the city. The demand has moreover created a new type of value for commodities generating and manipulating an urban consciousness that searches for environmental sustainability, appropriate aesthetics and a stress-free comfortable life. Shops selling organic goods, eco-friendly products, health food consultants, beauty parlours, highly equipped gymnasiums, advertisements for health equipments, furniture and fashion boutiques etc have become a part of our contemporary memory. One of the chief characteristics of the agents involved in production and selling is their network with other actors of the society, who not only facilitate resources, but also help to fetch markets. The requirement to establish and nourish this network has created the third type of agents of facility providers and crises traders. The cable television operators, photocopy agencies, quick film developing and printing shops, neighbourhood computer accessories shop, computer and Internet providers, mobile phone agents are all agents who facilitate resources. These agents not only provide facilities, but more appropriately, trade crises that get generated on account of increasing informality. The crises trading is realised more acutely in the case of Chartered Accountants keeping accounts to save taxes, or informal financers providing instant funds without collaterals. The agents who deal with crises specialise in solving the problems that contemporary landscapes have created. The new landscape of competition has an inherent requirement of people with high skill and capacity. The last sets of agents are the knowledge brokers who deal with these issues. Institutes training people in computer handling, public speaking, English language, competitive examinations along with counselling centres for job and education are examples of these agents. The most recent type of knowledge brokerage is in developmental research. One can find several professionals involved in researching on urban environments. The incapacity of the governmental agencies and the new need for communities towards research are some of the issues these knowledge brokers take advantage of. The experiences in Urban Development has led me to understand that conventional planning in the city of Mumbai, by mainstream agencies in the public and private sector have yet to grasp the conditions that are provided by the new economy. The conventional planning in the city still largely, either remains a hangover of industrial suburban planning that seeks to control population growth and provide adequate services; or has entered into a strange managerial mode prompted by the international donor agencies that seek to develop institutional and financial abstractions for addressing the city problems. A more thorough understanding in the shift of economy, I believe, would not only radically change the agenda and processes of planning in the city, but also would articulate new positions other than the traditional public and private sector, or a dubious NGO sector. This project proposal seeks to initiate such an understanding of the new economy, where I argue that the new city is a city of entrepreneur agents and to understand the new city, we need to understand the entrepreneurship of these agents. Only then would we be able to comprehend the new structure of the contemporary metropolis. The project proposes to develop a sketch of the new structure of the contemporary metropolis. I have identified four sets of agents and their entrepreneurship that is significantly shaping the landscapes of the new economy. The proposed project for the independent fellowship aims at examining the nature of this new entrepreneurship. The new entrepreneurship has a new history, new requirements, new structures and new methods of operating and perhaps requires new methods for conceptualisation, which need to move beyond the convenient bracket of “Small and Medium Enterprises” that rely on hard data like initial capital, type and quantity of production, number of employees, square meter area for operation, annual turnover, amount of water and electricity, etc. The new method needs to perhaps investigate into many more soft areas like conditions of establishment and entry point into the enterprise, methods of acquiring finances and other resources, security of the entrepreneur, conditions and value of the labour, type of networks, strategies and tactics for sustenance, types of negotiations, etc. to be able to grasp the details of the new economy. The project proposes to undertake a detailed documentation of forty such cases of entrepreneurships in Mumbai City. Prasad Shetty Residence: 501, Marigold, Opposite Shakti Motors, New Link Road, Malad (W), Mumbai 400 064 INDIA Phone: +91-9820912744 Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050126/406753df/attachment.html From deb99kamal at yahoo.com Tue Jan 25 18:52:12 2005 From: deb99kamal at yahoo.com (Debkamal Ganguly) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 05:22:12 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Crime Pulp Fiction tradition of Bengal Message-ID: <20050125132212.74168.qmail@web52806.mail.yahoo.com> Dear friends of cyber-saraikhana, This is my first posting on the theme of pulp tradition of crime-thriller in Bengal. I already have started to look for the samples of different crime-thriller series published over the years and amazed to see the prolific production of the genre over the decades. I have traced names and writers of many of those series, but actually finding those cheap paperbacks would be challenging, expectedly most of those series are out of circulation. One of the most significant text for study will be series of �Guptakatha� (secret tales), which was initiated by Bhuban Chandra Mukhopadyay, the first sample, �Haridas-er Guptakatha�, published way back in 1871. This is a kind of indigenous genre, developed in Bengal, which was a synthesis of crime, scandal of higher class, yellow journalism of the city, eroticism, chase, black magic, witchcraft and other engrossing materials. In its prime days, the series of publication was considered as a disgrace to the then �Enlightenment culture� of Bengal, by the cultural elites there. Till now I could only follow its content not directly, but from the discussion of famous linguist Sukumar Sen. Here is an open request to the knowledgeable members of Sarai reader list, if a clue can be floated about sourcing of those fantastic books of Bangla Guptakatha series. It will be really helpful for me. I could locate a, short essay written by Panchkori Dey, who was hailed as one of the major initiators of crime tales in Bengal, where he tried to connect the tradition to the story of Daniel in Old Testament of 2000 BC approx. and subsequently Sukumar Sen refers to the old Sanskrit and Pali literature for the continuation of that tradition in India. The observations are sensible, but whether one can find an ideological positioning to put an effort to trace the source of crime stories to such antiquity, might be a question to be asked. Specially in case of Panchkori Dey, who seemed to be overwhelmed by the technique of the sleuths used by e.g. Edgar Allen Poe or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as he mentioned in his article (the focus on rationality, the undeniable power of flow of logic etc as a metonymy of Enlightened Europe), used kind of non-rational intuitive techniques like chance, co-incidence etc as narrative tools to build the story. Even the sleuth of his novels, Arindam, as the writer stated, at times depend on this chance or co-incidence factor, though at times it is shown that Arindam doesn�t lack the quality of assuming a chain of logic to perceive the unknown, as similar as Sherlock Holmes. Whether these opposite tendencies and techniques adopted by him and some of his followers show a sign of inherent subconscious resistance to emerging modernism (in the sense of Partha Chatterjee)? It is too early to comment. Till next posting, Debkamal ------------------------------------------- 404 Vimla Vihar 8-49 Gautamnagar St no. 1 Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad - 500060 India Phone - 9246363517 --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/d3de6c23/attachment.html From himanshusamvad at yahoo.co.in Tue Jan 25 18:18:16 2005 From: himanshusamvad at yahoo.co.in (himanshu ranjan) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 12:48:16 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Allahabad stands for culture... Message-ID: <20050125124816.34929.qmail@web8501.mail.in.yahoo.com> The Growth and Role of Allahabad as a Cultural Centre of the Hindi-Urdu Belt Allahabad emerged as a cultural centre of modern esteem in the twentieth century, out of a very complicated and controversial background of the so-called nineteenth century renaissance where the planks of modernisation and enlightenment were doomed to be engrossed with revivalist and fundamentalist trends. The restricted capitalist transformation of colonial India could not afford otherwise. In comparison to Bengal and Maharashtra the renaissance in the north-west province (i.e. Hindi-Urdu belt) was late and very weak. Muslim separatism and consequently a stronger reactionary trend, the Hindu fundamentalism, erupted in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The basic agenda of religious and social reforms was left behind, and there was a tug-of-war between the educated elite classes of both the communities, with a sole aim to preserve and secure their positions in services under the British rule and to pose their loyalties with the same. Besides, their fractured social status depended on the religious and ethnic identities of their respective communities. The colonial vested interests cleverly exploited this situation of communal imbalance and triggered the 'divide and rule' policy to strengthen their own regime, especially after 1857, the first Hindu-Muslim joint upsurge against the British Raj. The Indo-Persian composite culture was shaken effectively and there was a typical communal divide where Hindi and Urdu were identified with the Hindu and the Muslim religious communities respectively. Ironically both the languages belonged to the same lingustic diction and socio-historic demography of the same belt. Even the democratic demands like that of Devanagari script were raised in a communal way that tilted the balance in favour of the Hindus. Aligarh, Benaras and Allahabad were the three major centres of the above described 'coloured' renaissance, the third one being a junior partner. But with the agencies like the Indian Press and the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan having come into force in the very beginning of the twentieth century almost the whole business was shifted to Allahabad, which had already acquired a typical, modern but colonial, intellectual face, with the academic achievements of Allahabad University. Besides, this second phase was coined with nationalism, where diverse political currents conglomerated under the banner of the Indian National Congress, the Swaraj Bhawan being its Headoffice, with a clear-cut target of gaining freedom and ousting the imperialist regime. The communal plank of 'Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan' prevailed in the nationalist guise of the Congress that led to P.D. Tondon's hegemonic theory of 'one nation, one language, one script, one culture'. Nonethless, the secular Gandhi-Nehru-Maulana Azad combine within the Congress and the cross-currents of the socialists, the communists, the revolutionaries along with powerful sections of Dalits and women, and the supermost factor of the pluralist, multilingual and composite character of our society always stood in the way and made a strong rational check thereon. The inherent communal hatred went on to culminate into the partition of the country, but the century in question also witnessed a number of linguistic, literary, cultural and socio-political movements, debates and discourses that paved the way for the foundation of a democratic and secular India. On the otherhand, though lagging behind in the race, Urdu also faced the intricacies of Muslim separatism and fundamentalism and to some extent lost credibility among the masses. But with the versatile Arabic and Persian traditions, a big canon of contemporary literary giants in its fold, additionally internationalised community-based cultural support and a powerful secular tradition within India, Urdu acquired a strong and distinguished stature of its own. And it goes without saying that Allahabad has been playing a vital leading role in all this throughout the century! This is a brief account of the complex phenomenon and a preliminary outline of the proposed study. Any suggestions or criticism for the anomalies and misconceptions (if any) are most welcome. Hiamanshu Ranjan Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/3bc5f797/attachment.html From k.kuldeep97 at rediffmail.com Wed Jan 26 13:02:59 2005 From: k.kuldeep97 at rediffmail.com (kuldeep kaur) Date: 26 Jan 2005 07:32:59 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?Labour_Room_as_Space_for_Unheard_Vo?= =?iso-8859-1?q?ices=94?= Message-ID: <20050126073259.30537.qmail@webmail32.rediffmail.com> The study titled “The Hospital Labour Room as an Urban Space for Unheard Voices” is Questionnaire based study. These questionnaires are based on issues related to reproductive health and socio-psychological constrains on women while entering the labour room. As par our cultural and traditional norms mother-hood is considered a symbol of ‘completeness of women’ but what they feel and experience during labour process? This study is an attempt to understand the tremendous pressures (physical, psychological or social) which decides reproductive decisions of any woman. Cairo programme of action (The United Nations international conference on population and development in 1994) - define reproductive health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so....” This way labour room is the appropriate place to understand the physical, social and psychological status of women. Reproductive rights are recognized as human rights in national laws and international human rights documents. Are our women aware of if is a million dollar question? Lack of education and information makes women vulnerable not to exercise her reproductive rights is an argument often put forward as explanation for present state of affairs. On the ground any education or information is not sufficient to ensure reproduction free of discrimination, Coercion and violence. The familial and social pressures force women not to exercise her reproductive rights (awareness) — reducing her existence to a womb. Culture, tradition and identity make women subjugate to myths, misconceptions and fears. Labour room provides data and space about health status of would-be-mothers. In labour room most of the cases of Lower-income group women are ‘acute emergencies’. These are referral cases from various small health centers or untrained dais. Most of the time their economic resources are too meager or they are penny-less. When they narrate their stories of poverty, ignorance and helplessness it obviates the real picture of development and progress propagated through main-stream narratives. Son-preference social-psyche is the mainstay of patriarchy and women suffer under its clutches. Even highly educated and well-off women are exploited by son-giving gurus and Babas. Some of the admitted mothers are with threads given by their ‘Gurus’. They refused to open it considering auspicious even before going to the operation theater. In one instance, a woman was forced by her mother-in-law to drink animal excreta mixed in liquids saying, that it will bless her with son. Mostly women depend upon their mother, sisters and friends for basic information. The new era of technology and information has not changed anything for a woman. Rather her exploitation and violence against her have become more sophisticated. The books on such issues are in negligible number? T.V, Radio and press contribute very little in this matter. Mainstream media emphasize on sex education, health education and family planning but where are the required and willing paraphernalia to achieve the propagated goals. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050126/864b41b1/attachment.html From lakshmikutty at rediffmail.com Wed Jan 26 05:33:18 2005 From: lakshmikutty at rediffmail.com (lakshmi kutty) Date: 26 Jan 2005 00:03:18 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] exploring hygiene in Mumbai Message-ID: <20050126000318.22028.qmail@webmail7.rediffmail.com> Hello, This is my first post for the Sarai Independent Fellowship 2005. And it’s mostly full of questions! My project is titled ‘High-Rise Hygiene: Narrativising Mumbai’s New Urban Culture’, and I’m looking specifically at the question of hygiene/sanitation and how it permeates this city’s urban culture. I’m interested in the public discourse on hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness; how this is linked to notions of good health (not limited solely to medical criteria), wellness, comfort/satisfaction; how this is expressed in public spaces, events and interactions; how segregation is crucial to these narratives; how they signify exclusion on the basis of class, caste, cultural/social capital. I’m looking at hoardings, billboards and other public place signages in the city, along with reviewing three newspapers, The Times of India, The Indian Express, Mid Day. Apart from unraveling news reports and features, I’m paying close attention to the editorials and readers’ comments/letters to the editor sections, seeing how these notions play out in this ‘public sphere’. I’ve also planned to speak to people in terms of how they view themselves within these discourses; how do they react to them, do they feel part of, interpellated by or on the margins of narratives that promise a hygienic and healthy Mumbai for all. I’m most interested in train commuters (though I don’t want to stay limited to them), because I feel advertisements on railway platforms speak a wholly different language from other hoardings when it comes to articulating consumerist desires and opportunities for mobility. The starting premise on which my project stands is that the promise of a good healthy life in Mumbai today is not measured in strictly medical terms anymore, it is premised on space and openness, it is marked by the absence of clutter and crowds, it is highlighted by the possibility of escaping the perils of the city while still enjoying the benefits it has to offer. And what is most interesting is that at the same time as the criteria for healthy/sanitized living are changing from medical to non-medical ones, one finds that these new criteria are getting increasingly medicalized. What I mean by ‘medicalization’ is that there is an urgency attached to acquiring these new lifestyles/products/services, without which it will be extremely hazardous to even think of living in this city. The dangers/risks of living unprotected are grave, and only those who don’t love themselves/their near-and-dear ones enough will take such stupid risks. Questions that occur when I read/hear/see/smell: What makes people feel healthy? What urges people to stay healthy? What are seen as threats to personal and public health and well-being? When does the person have to be protected from the public? Is there a universal ethic of cleanliness? How has this become a universalizing, standardizing ethic? What are the material and extra-material tools through which expressions of cleanliness/hygiene/well-being are being normalized? These are some of the leads I’m working on: Residential complexes; architectural designs and planning; space, light and building materials Public spaces and use/abuse Celebrations and consequent disturbances Environment-friendliness Leisure, travel, holidays, getaways Rejuvenate, revitalize, keep fit/healthy; work, play, rest adequately City infrastructure choking, heaving under its own weight, being stretched thoughtlessly beyond capacity I’m curious to know, are there resistances to these discourses about how to live a better life? Of what nature and on what scale? Insofar as trends are being set and followed, of what nature and on what scale are these movements occurring? How does a certain outlook/attitude/way of living get labeled antithetical to health and hygiene? How does a certain way of occupying space become a threat to the maintenance of clean and sanitized environs? What does it mean to have a bathroom so glassy, shiny and clean that one can eat off its floor? What does it mean to sell that as the standard for a clean bathroom? How does it draw up the insecurities of families about their private spaces, and mark these as undesirable, un-cool, and un-healthy? And how does it expose this same ‘fear of being exposed’ as a main reason for these people living a not-quite-not-white kind of existence? Have been reading and looking around the cityscape, making preliminary notes this past month. Thinking about ways to structure the interview. This project is an exercise in training myself to critically engage with the practice of living in this city, as also the means and methods of ‘doing research’. I don’t know as yet how this will shape up by the end of June/July, and cannot predict the manner of its movement into a ‘wider public sphere’, a question the Sarai fellowship concept note exhorted us to consider. Looking forward to finding out Lakshmi P.S. My training in cultural studies, and the social sciences broadly, has been in institutional frameworks so far, and I’m just beginning to find out what it means to be an ‘independent researcher’! Am currently based in Mumbai. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050126/c9cd8da8/attachment.html From maheshsarma at rediffmail.com Thu Jan 27 03:46:33 2005 From: maheshsarma at rediffmail.com (mahesh sarma) Date: 26 Jan 2005 22:16:33 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] The politics of CNG conversion Message-ID: <20050126221633.6022.qmail@webmail31.rediffmail.com>   Contending techno-paradigms for contested public spaces: Interrogating Delhi’s pollution, public transport and prescribed solutions Cities change and mega-cites change massively. Though technologies like the metro, the high rises, the pre-fabs, the malls, CNG, ring rail, and so on appear to drive these changes, a quick look also communicates certain politics behind each of these technologies. The objective of this study is to shine some light on to these politics, especially since they get hidden in the brilliance of the technologies they spin-off. I intend doing this by examining in depth one of the most visible and massive technology brought to bear upon us in the recent past, the complete conversion of the Delhi’s road based public transportation system, into CNG mode. I wish to examine the context under which such a transformation was warranted, the process in which it was ushered in, the actors involved in the whole process, their agendas, both stated and unstated, the interesting process in which the choices were brought in to the public consciousness, and the manner of negotiation and selection, and finally its results and consequences, in short the politics of CNG conversion. Context: True to the contrarian pulls that characterised the Indian developmental project, Delhi too grew haphazardly, where in the past and the present, the industries and middle class, the ruling elite and the begging poor, the serf and the landlord led an uneasy, but mutually dependent co-existence. By mid –80s a host of initiatives, went on to question this developmental trajectory which Delhi was experiencing. Led by middle –class or upper middle class elite, these questioners went on to criticise the outward manifestations of these uneasy existence, like the slums of Delhi, without ever bothering to acknowledge the fundamental political problems they represent. Their preferred vehicle was the PIL. One of them was M.C. Metha Vs. Union of India, on curtailing air pollution in Delhi. The Issue: Delhi, being the capital city of the country, and blessed with a wide road network and a rich population, was home to an unusually huge number of vehicles, largely private owned . Delhi also had a sizeable number of public transport vehicles which were older than a decade. Thanks also to burgeoning small and medium scale industries, the air pollution in Delhi reached alarming proportions. This led to the massive increase in health problems asthma etc. Delhi was also in the threat of losing its blue sky . As NGOs like Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), and Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) brought about massive campaigns, regarding the problem and solutions, advocate Metha filed a PIL, in the Supreme Court seeking directions to force the Govt. of India to act. After series of confabulations the Supreme Court give its initial verdict, which among other things ordered the conversion of the entire fleet of Delhi’s public transport into GNG based vehicles in 1998. While the issue was bitterly contested in the public domain the state kept to itself, with disastrous consequences in 2001 when the march 31st deadline for conversion approached. With too much of drama, breast beating, chest-thumbing and one-upmanship the state did achieve full conversion over a period of time and the public were led to believe that we are on our way to a “ Clean Delhi Green Delhi in GNG powered bus. The verdict on how green Delhi is still open, the debate on particulate matter, Nox Vs.Sox, CNG Vs.Ultra low sulphur diesel still continues. Myths, Realties and then Realties: a) Is Delhi’s pollution primarily due to Public transport? A cursory look at data says public transport vehicles account for less than 10 % of Delhi’s vehicular population, and vehicular pollution is about 20% of the total pollution in Delhi. Questions: It would be interesting to examine the process by which the poor, public transport was made into Villain No.1.One needs to examine the players involved, the processes adopted and public perception and participation. b) Assuming that vehicular pollution is a major factor, is CNG the only answer? Again the verdict seems to be divided. There was the Ultra low sulphur diesel alternative, there was Delhi metro, electric buses and so on. Questions: Why and how was CNG chosen as the Solution No.1, what role did the experts play, and how judiciary arrived at such a technology bound solution? What role the different NGOs played, what were their agendas, and finally what role did the mass media play in the projection and presentation of alternatives. c) Where does the executive stop and judiciary begin and where is the legislature in the whole affair? The whole CNG issue was conceptualised, debated, finalised, executed ,implemented and monitored in the portals of the judicially. The executive meagrely executed, at the threat of imprisonment for contempt and court and interestingly the legislature slept through the episode waking up to conceptualise new emission norms at the very late stages of controversy. Questions: The court was meagrely interpreting the norms of the Air pollution control act. Why did the executive not sue motto implemented them earlier?. What prevented the state from presenting alternatives before the court? Why was the legislature allowed to be by-passed? Who were the beneficiaries of the silence? What role did the prevailing political equations play in the fiasco? These are the broad issues I intend examining in case I get the fellowship. They nature and contents of the questions may change based on facts gathered, I have reasons to believe that the process of policy making in the country is increasingly exclusionary and focussed on the most vocal sections of the population, though these sections may be a minor constituent of the whole populace. Such a decision making process may not be conducive for a democratic country. I propose that the CNG conversion issue is a pointer to not only the changing equations between the important arms of the state, but also the manner in which aspirations of the common man or general public is assembled, analysed and communicated in the Indian polity. I am still reading on all these questions and i am now struggling with more questions than i started with. B.Mahesh Sarma, Researcher Centre for Studies in Science Policy Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi. 110 067 Ph.+91-11- 26100962 Mobile:9868090468 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050126/b0798510/attachment.html From mpillai65 at yahoo.com Tue Jan 25 18:15:23 2005 From: mpillai65 at yahoo.com (Meera Pillai) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 04:45:23 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] foodcourts and footbridges: conceptualizing space in Vijayawada Railway Station Message-ID: <20050125124523.43383.qmail@web53505.mail.yahoo.com> hello! my name is meera pillai. i left formal academic settings about two years ago to offer services in research, program planning and development, program evaluation and monitoring, and documentation to non-governmental organizations, particularly those working with children, women, and people with disabilities; and on governance issues. With the support of the Sarai Independent Fellowship program, over the next six months, I will be pursuing a qualitative research study that I have tentatively titled "Foodcourts and Footbridges: Conceptualizing Space in Vijayawada Railway Station." The idea of the study originated when, as part of an exercise with an organization working with street children, I asked three young men to draw "freehand" maps of Vijayawada Railway Station, and to indicate spaces they thought were "safe" and "dangerous" spaces for street children. When the respondents, former street children now working as rights educators, drew the maps and explained them, I was taken aback. The spaces in the railway station that they identified as dangerous for street children were ones that I, a middle-class (and middle-aged!) woman, would term "safest" - a well-lit, modern food court and the reservation counter. On further inquiry, I discovered that it was precisely because these spaces were used by people like me that the police, using sticks and abuse, kept street children away from. On the other hand, the spaces that were "safest" for street children - the roofs of the footbridges and stairways connecting the different platforms, I had perceived only peripherally, and never as a potential living space for people.It was this anomaly that encouraged me to conceptualize this study. Vijayawada lies in South-Central India, about 275 kilometres north-east of Hyderabad. Its location has made it a significant travel hub within the subcontinent. The Vijayawada Railway Station is the largest railway junction on the South Central Railways section, and one of the most important of the Indian Railways network. Since most trains travelling from the south to the north, north-east and east, and in some instances, even the west of India pass through Vijayawada, the station sees an exceptionally high frequencey of express and passenger train traffic. Every day, the station handles about 30,000 passengers, a number that may go up to a couple of lakhs during important local festivals when people pour into the city to take a dip in the holy river Krishna. Daily, the station services 135 trains, a number that may increase on occasion to 170. It is also an important revenue earner for the Railways. During the 12-day Pushkaram festival in August 2004, the Vijayawada Railway station earned Rs. 5.49 crores. According to a Septermber 2004 survey by a local community organization, an average of 23 children in need of care and protection arrive at Vijayawada Railway Station every day, having left their homes and families because of domestic quarrels, problems in schools and economic hardship. There is a Child line counter at the station, and about a third of these chidlren are rescued, provided with counselling and other support and persuaded to return home or avail services at one of the city's child care organizations. The others disappear into the city to become child labourers or street children, or carry on travelling. A good number live at the railway station, a comparatively attractive place to make a living. They make friends here and become part of a larger peer group, beg for food or money, earn money by cleaning railway carriages, and travel to other big cities. Through the day, the railway station is also used by railway personnel, from senior administrators to Class IV personnel, porters, policement afficilated to two forces, vendors and workers at the different facilities like the food court. People alight from and board trains, buy tickets, or see off friends and relatives. Representatives from child care organizations comb the platforms, as do rickshaw pullers, touts, and sex workers. This study will look at whether the use and control of space is part of the process of defining different social categories. As part of the study, a range of stakeholders (street children, rickshaw pullers, railway officials, porters, vendors, middle-class passengers) will be requested to draw freehand maps of the railway statuion, using sketch pens and KG cardboard. Hopefully these maps will indicate spaces that are significant or periperal to diferent user groups, and they can then serve as starting points to discuss which spaces people use or avoid, who they keep in and out, and how these choices are significant. Street children who live at the Vijayawada Railway Station will be provided with cameras and film and encouraged to take photographs that reflect their lives in the geography of the station. They may be encouraged to make several alternative displays of these photgraphs, to create different orderings of spatiality and clusters of meaning related to their lives and the spaces they live them in. Individual interviews and focus group discussions will look at how different "authorities", including the police, leaders of gangs of street children, and railway personnel perceive, invent and/or implement rules for the spatial ordering the different populations that use the railway station. The data resulting from the study will be analysed and coded into categories to try and understand how space is conceptualized within a complex of intersecting social relationships. It will explore how individuals and groups may try to territorialize and claim spaces within a public utility that is supposedly for the benefit of all citizens, seeking to include some and exclude others from particular areas. Rationales constructed to justify alternative use of contested spaces, and how rules and rationales relate to differing identities, and assumptions about identity may also be revealed. The findings will be organized in a report which also incorporates the viusal material derived during the data collection process. Hopefully the findings will shed some light on the following questions: How do the uses and perceptions of the spaces in the Vijayawada Railway station differ for street children as compared to middle class users, or those whose presence at the station is legitimized by authority conferred by employment in the railways, the police or in social work organizations? What is the relevance of different stakeholders in the geography of this public utility space? How does use of this important space in the city reflect and contribute to diversity in the lives of people? Thanks for your patience. --------------------------------- 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/20050125/e04ca8c7/attachment.html From postbodhi at yahoo.co.in Tue Jan 25 22:22:39 2005 From: postbodhi at yahoo.co.in (Bodhisattva Kar) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:52:39 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Towards a Social History of the Mess-Houses in Calcutta, 1890s - 1990s Message-ID: <20050125165239.83779.qmail@web8308.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, We have been trying to share this abstract with you since yesterday. There seems to be some problem with our email account. It's coming back to us every time. Hope this time it reaches! “Messing with the Bhadraloks: Towards a Social History of the Mess-Houses in Calcutta, 1890s – 1990s” Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar In spite of multiple references in a variety of cultural productions and historical accounts of twentieth-century Bengal, the mess-houses of Calcutta continue to escape full-length studies and remain a largely undocumented career of (post)colonial urbanity. Though almost a thing of the past today, the institution and practices of mess-houses need critical attention to appreciate a widespread practice of forging a community in an urban space throughout the twentieth century. Being shot into the status of a colonial epicenter, the city of Calcutta meant education and jobs for many in its neighboring districts and provinces. From the 1890s, the institution of mess-houses surfaced in the city primarily as a residential establishment of the male middle class migrants who could not afford to hire a whole house and bring their families along. In the mess-houses they shared the rent and the cost of kitchen. Apart from the rent-paying residents, the community usually consisted of a manger (often the landlord himself), a cook, and a common attendant. Although the early mess-houses were organized along the track of caste, increasingly locality emerged as the major axis of gatherings. Students and jobseekers from particular districts of Bengal used to group together in particular mess-houses in the capital city. Very soon the mess-houses outgrew their purely residential purpose and developed into identity-hubs of the unsung diasporas in the city. In fact, much of what today comes to be celebrated as ‘the Assamese renaissance’ was a literary movement that started in a couple of early twentieth century College Street messes. As our preliminary findings indicate, caught between the compulsions of harboring district identities and acquiring urban respectability, the little Sylhets and the little Burdwans in early and mid twentieth-century Calcutta were neither closed cultural isolates in the big city nor open anonymous public spaces completely submerged in the mainstream urban culture. In the first place, the project wishes to appreciate the role of the mess-houses as lived sites of the constitution, exercise and contestation of the distance between the metropolis and the mofussil. From extensive interviews and dispersed written accounts we would try to recover the fast vanishing histories of the everyday negotiations of identity. Documenting the operation of the family and village ties around the mess-houses, the study would like t trace the complexities of the process through numerous other registers of the community life: the tensed shuttling between district parlance and Calcutta parlance, the quarrels over cuisine, the emotional investments in the ‘week-ends’ (when residents coming from the neighboring localities usually left to revisit their families) and so on. The unique location of the mess-houses between the intimate home and the anonymous city entailed a peculiar normative structure. On the one hand, mess-houses clearly signaled individual freedom for salaries single males from oppressive familialism and the mid-twentieth-century accounts (fictional and autobiographical) abound in celebratory descriptions in relaxed caste rules, adventurous nightlife and incessant addas. On the other hand, most of the mess-houses typically assumed, what we may call, the family function: sexual behaviors were zealously policed, women were religiously kept out and the “bhadralok character of the mess” was passionately defended even at the cost of rusticating the rule-breakers. It is this forked movement between intimacy and anonymity – variously inflicted by a shared and shifting code of middle class male morality – that our study would like to address. The rigidly gendered nature of the mess-houses seems to have energized a variety of impressions in the world of Bengali cultural production: laughter, anger, suspicion, helplessness, and moralization. Examining and analyzing these representational strategies and the exclusionary rules of the mess-house communities, our study would try to map the changing homosocial boundaries of the urban space and record the details of the gradual and checkered emergence of the working girls’ hostels – commonly known as ‘women’s mess-houses’. The moral character of the ‘mess-walahs’ was a prized target of the neighboring households in times of conflict. Petitions to the municipal authorities advocating the closing down of mess-houses in bhadralok residential areas were not too rare. Women domestics working in the mess-houses commonly found it difficult to get jobs in the local families. ‘Letters to the Editor’ columns in local newspapers continued grudging complaints about the men who did not live with their families. And yet there is ample evidence in the available literature to show that many notable locals frequented the much-celebrated addas of the mess-houses and were viewed almost as regular members of the community. Love affairs leading to marriages between local girls and mess-boys and the extensive participation of the mess-residents in local festivals and functions also testify that suspicion was often balanced by trust and confidence. It is in this conflictual economy of urban neighborhood that our study would try to situate the institution of the mess-houses. Condemned to a violent ferrying between the stylized representations as hotbeds of heinous crimes in the Bengal detective stories (the Byomkesh stories, for example), as epitomizing the lures and temptations of the corrupting city life (in ‘Devdas’, most famously), as spaces of loss and detachment (in Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s ‘Aparajito’), as spaces of rediscovering the lost community (the popular Uttam-Suchitra comedy ‘Sare Chuattar’) and as collections of the struggling middle class wage earners (in Manik Bandyopadhyay’s ‘Shahartali’), the mess-houses provide interesting entry points to the diverse complexities of urbanization in colonial and postcolonial Calcutta. Finally, we would also be interested in appreciating the conjuncture of the events that brought about the whimpering end of this institution. While successfully surviving a major institutional crisis during the Second World War and a serious social crisis during the Partition, the mess-houses began to slowly disappear in the early nineteen-seventies. We would like to pursue the final days of the mess-houses in and through the various contexts of political situations, flux in the real estate market, growth of the hotel industry, changing job patterns, consumerist tropes and redistribution of social bonds. Till next month! Subhalakshmi and Bodhisattva Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050125/ee458cc5/attachment.html From rochellepinto at yahoo.com Wed Jan 26 14:02:46 2005 From: rochellepinto at yahoo.com (rochelle pinto) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:32:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] goan migrants in bomay Message-ID: <20050126083247.82734.qmail@web30509.mail.mud.yahoo.com> In 1848, a letter sent from the British police in Bombay to the Portuguese government in Goa, complained that Manoel Marie Britto, a butler, was wanted in Bombay because he had absconded from his master�s service, with a bag containing 1000 rupees. He had, according to their report, a copper complexion, had lost one of his front teeth, was rather stout, and �had on black trousers and a black silk waistcoat with flowers on it, a white jacket and a dark blue cloth cap� and he was �rather dirty in appearance�. This description of one among the many migrant Goans moving to Bombay to find work in the nineteenth century is an example of the criminalised representations through which their lives can be recovered. This proposal for a semi-fictionalised illustrated book, of arrival and absorption into the growing city, draws on various other voices and moments, narrated through a range of characters. Goan migrants, who constituted nearly ten percent of the population of Goa by the end of the nineteenth century, were not merely absorbed into a homogenising urban machine. Their institutions and practices in fact were and are a distinct element of Bombay�s urban culture. Their volatile newspapers, cookbooks, hymnbooks and popular novels are evidence of a sophisticated acclimitisation process through which migrants from scarcely monetised villages in Goa were eased through structures which prepared them to appear as salaried and wage labour in Bombay�s offices, restaurants, and dockyards. The narrative in English will weave together excerpts from the various kinds of Konkani print through which migrant Goans made their acquaintance with Bombay. This draws on research conducted for my PhD. thesis for which I consulted texts stored in the Central Library, Goa, as well as the the Oriental and India Office Library, London. The introduction to the book may outline some of the theoretical arguments and conclusions that are suggested in the thesis. The primary intention in producing a fictionalised form of these accounts, however, is to engage the interest of a wider audience particularly within Goa and Bombay. This is an attempt to emphasise the significance of this historical moment which is not otherwise considered a part of literary or print history. A secondary aim is to bolster another process that I have already begun to appeal for the preservation of newsprint and popular books produced by Goans through the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The appearance of a narrativised history will lend credence to my argument that these are valuable resources, which are in a state of neglect and may soon be entirely unavailable to the Goan public. This text may take several forms. The possibility of including visual elements, particularly advertisements, maps and illustrations from old newspapers as a part of the narrative suggests itself. The narrative may be a non-fictional but descriptive account, or a fictionalised narration that develops details about two or three protagonists. Some initial challenges that need to be faced are the differences between the academic and fictional modes of writing � in what way can the material at hand be worked on, given that many of these are already narratives. The primary audience, or at least the one always hovering at the edges of one�s mind as one thinks this through, is the Goan migrant and her descendants. What does such a text have to offer to this reader? Currently I have begun to extract segments of my research that I thought would be ideal for such a text, and am reworking them in a variety of ways for a while until I finalise a definite form for the text. In the coming months I will try and secure some visual documents from newspapers and books in Goa that may form the basis of some sections of this work. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050126/65f1d2b9/attachment.html From iram at sarai.net Thu Jan 27 14:41:31 2005 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:11:31 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] posting guidelines In-Reply-To: <41F6393D.8030203@linux-delhi.org> References: <49249.210.7.77.145.1106647704.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <41F6393D.8030203@linux-delhi.org> Message-ID: <49181.210.7.77.145.1106817091.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear all, Please don't panic! Sarai reader list is NOT A MODERATED list but an administrated list. Best, Iram > iram at sarai.net wrote: >> A few postings with attachments have been passed today but please >> ensure >> that guidelines are followed. >> >> Warm regards, >> >> On behalf list moderator, > > I hope not on the behalf of the moderator, list administrator might be a > better term to use. Mentioning her to be the moderator you mean to say > this *is* a moderated list. Which I hope it is not. > > Cheers! > Pankaj > -- > Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't. > _________________________________________ > 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 sergey_kotsoun at hotmail.com Wed Jan 19 19:39:16 2005 From: sergey_kotsoun at hotmail.com (Sergey Kotsoun) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 17:09:16 +0300 Subject: [Reader-list] The Generator of Music, Futuristic Poems and Abstract Images - 1 Message-ID: The Generator of Music, Futuristic Poems and Abstract Images - 1: http://gmfpai.nm.ru ? _________________________________________________________________ Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.com/ From iram at sarai.net Thu Jan 27 14:45:30 2005 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:15:30 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] posting guidelines Message-ID: <49182.210.7.77.145.1106817330.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear all, Please don't panic! Sarai reader list is NOT A MODERATED list but only a technically administrated list. Thanx Pankaj for pointing out this serious error. Best, Iram > iram at sarai.net wrote: >> A few postings with attachments have been passed today but please >> ensure >> that guidelines are followed. >> >> Warm regards, >> >> On behalf list moderator, > > I hope not on the behalf of the moderator, list administrator might be a > better term to use. Mentioning her to be the moderator you mean to say > this *is* a moderated list. Which I hope it is not. > > Cheers! > Pankaj > -- > Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't. > _________________________________________ > 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 iram at sarai.net Thu Jan 27 15:59:32 2005 From: iram at sarai.net (iram at sarai.net) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 11:29:32 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] posting guidelines In-Reply-To: <2482459d050127025131ab2a27@mail.gmail.com> References: <49249.210.7.77.145.1106647704.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <41F6393D.8030203@linux-delhi.org> <49181.210.7.77.145.1106817091.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> <2482459d050127025131ab2a27@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <49226.210.7.77.145.1106821772.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Kaiwan, If its your first posting with the Subject Head- Cultures of Migration and Politics of Documentation, its there on the reader list. http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2005-January/004834.html List postings by members, written in plain text, with no attachments and a clear subject head, are passed automatically. In case you have posted something else which has not appeared in your mailbox, please let us know. Best, Iram > Hi, > I sent a posting on sunday andthen one on tuesday....neither has > appeared as yet. What could be the proble? Should i re-email or wait? > > If there is a mistake possibility at my end...please tell me so!! > > Thanks, > Kaiwan Mehta > > > On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:11:31 +0100 (CET), iram at sarai.net > wrote: >> Dear all, >> Please don't panic! >> Sarai reader list is NOT A MODERATED list but an administrated list. >> Best, >> Iram >> >> > iram at sarai.net wrote: >> >> A few postings with attachments have been passed today but please >> >> ensure >> >> that guidelines are followed. >> >> >> >> Warm regards, >> >> >> >> On behalf list moderator, >> > >> > I hope not on the behalf of the moderator, list administrator might be >> a >> > better term to use. Mentioning her to be the moderator you mean to say >> > this *is* a moderated list. Which I hope it is not. >> > >> > Cheers! >> > Pankaj >> > -- >> > Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't. >> > _________________________________________ >> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >> > Critiques & Collaborations >> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >> > subscribe in the subject header. >> > List archive: >> > >> >> _________________________________________ >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >> Critiques & Collaborations >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >> subscribe in the subject header. >> List archive: >> > > > -- > Kaiwan Mehta > Architect and Urban Reseracher > > 11/4, Kassinath Bldg. No. 2, Kassinath St., Tardeo, Mumbai 400034 > 022-2-494 3259 / 91-98205 56436 > From river_side1 at hotmail.com Fri Jan 28 00:43:12 2005 From: river_side1 at hotmail.com (River .) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:13:12 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Hypertextual Poetry: A Study of MSN Poetry Communities In-Reply-To: <41F82143.3010601@thememorybank.co.uk> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050127/ae0f2957/attachment.html From singhgurminder2000 at hotmail.com Fri Jan 28 11:19:40 2005 From: singhgurminder2000 at hotmail.com (gurminder singh) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 05:49:40 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Samaj par Langar ka Arthik wa Samajik Prabhav: Ek Adhyayan Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050128/9071387c/attachment.html From definetime at rediffmail.com Thu Jan 27 18:16:33 2005 From: definetime at rediffmail.com (sanjay ghosh) Date: 27 Jan 2005 12:46:33 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] (fwd) Barbarity is the inevitable consequence of foreign rule Message-ID: <20050127124633.13121.qmail@webmail46.rediffmail.com> Barbarity is the inevitable consequence of foreign rule Seumas Milne Thursday January 27, 2005 The Guardian Perhaps Gordon Brown is preparing for that day after the next general election when Tony Blair is expected to offer him the choice of the Foreign Office or the backbenches. Or maybe he just thinks that if he can't beat the Blairites, he might as well join them. But the chancellor's declaration in Africa that Britain should stop apologising for its colonial history must give an unwelcome jolt to anyone hoping that a Brown government might step back from the liberal imperialist swagger and wars of intervention that have marked Blair's leadership. Far from being some heat-induced gaffe, his latest imperial turn follows an earlier remark that we should be proud of those who built the empire, which had been all about being "open, outward-looking and international". Even Blair, who was prevailed on to cut an "I am proud of the British empire" line from a speech during the 1997 election campaign, has never gone this far. Apparently it is meant to be part of an attempt by the chancellor to carve out a modern sense of British identity based around values of fair play, freedom and tolerance. Quite what modernity and such values have to do with the reality of empire might not be immediately obvious. But even more bizarre is the implication that Britain is forever apologising for the empire or the crimes committed under it. Nothing could be further from the truth. There have been no apologies. Official Britain put decolonisation behind it in a state of blissful amnesia, without the slightest effort to come to terms with what had taken place. Indeed, there has barely been a murmur of public reaction to Brown's extraordinary comments and what public criticism there is of the British imperial record has increasingly been drowned out by tub-thumping imperial apologias. The rehabilitation of empire began in the early 1990s at the time of the ill-fated US intervention in Somalia, used by maverick voices on both sides of the Atlantic to float the idea of new colonies or UN trusteeships in Africa. But in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, what had seemed a wacky rightwing wheeze was taken up in Britain with increasing enthusiasm by conservative popular historians like Niall Ferguson and Andrew Roberts, as the Sun and Mail cheered them on. The call for "a new kind of imperialism" by Blair adviser (and now senior EU official) Robert Cooper brought this reactionary retro chic into the political mainstream, and Brown's endorsement of empire has now given it a powerful boost. The outraged response to South African president Thabo Mbeki's recent denunciation of Churchill and the empire for a "terrible legacy" was a measure of the imperial torch-bearers' new confidence. The empire had brought "freedom and justice", Roberts blithely informed the BBC. It would be interesting to hear how Roberts - or Gordon Brown for that matter - squares such grotesque claims with the latest research on the large-scale, systematic atrocities carried out by British forces during the Mau Mau rebellion in colonial Kenya during the 1950s: the 320,000 Kikuyu held in concentration camps, the 1,090 hangings, the terrorisation of villages, electric shocks, beatings and mass rape documented in Caroline Elkins' new book, Britain's Gulag - and a death toll now thought to be over 100,000. This was a time when British soldiers were paid five shillings for each African they killed, when they nailed the limbs of Kikuyu guerrillas to crossroads posts and had themselves photographed with the heads of Malayan "terrorists" in a war that cost 10,000 lives. Or more recently still, as veterans described in the BBC Empire Warriors series, British soldiers thrashed and tortured their way through Aden's Crater City - the details of which one explained he couldn't go into because of the risk of war crimes prosecutions. And all in the name of civilisation: the sense of continuity with today's Iraq could not be clearer. But it's not as if these end-of-empire episodes were isolated blemishes on a glorious record of freedom and good governance. Britain's empire was built on vast ethnic cleansing, enslavement, enforced racial hierarchy, land theft and merciless exploitation. As the Cambridge historian Richard Drayton puts it: "We hear a lot about the rule of law, incorruptible government and economic progress - the reality was tyranny, oppression, poverty and the unnecessary deaths of countless millions of human beings." Some empire apologists like to claim that, however brutal the first phase may have been, the 19th- and 20th-century story was one of liberty and economic progress. But this is nonsense. In late 19th and early 20th century India - the jewel of the imperial crown - up to 30 million died in famines as British administrators insisted on the export of grain (as in Ireland), and courts ordered 80,000 floggings a year; 4 million died in the avoidable Bengal famine of 1943. There have been no such famines since independence. Modern-day Bangladesh was one of the richest parts of the world before the British arrived and deliberately destroyed its cotton industry. When India's Andaman islands were devastated by the tsunami, who recalled that 80,000 political prisoners were held in camps there in the early 20th century and routinely experimented on by British army doctors? Perhaps it's not surprising that Hitler was an enthusiast, describing the British empire as an "inestimable factor of value" even if, he added, it had been acquired with "force and often brutality". But there has been no serious attempt in Britain to face up to the record of colonialism and the long-term impact on the societies it ruled - let alone trials of elderly colonial administrators now living out their days in Surrey retirement homes. Instead, the third in line to the throne thinks it's a bit of a lark to go to a "colonials and natives" fancy dress party, while the national curriculum has more or less struck the empire and its crimes out of history. The standard GCSE modern world history textbook has chapter after chapter on the world wars, the cold war, British and American life, Stalin's terror and the monstrosities of Nazism - but scarcely a word on the British and other European empires which carved up most of the world between them, or the horrors they perpetrated. s.milne at guardian.co.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050127/26032e80/attachment.html From jitendra82003 at yahoo.com Fri Jan 28 12:49:48 2005 From: jitendra82003 at yahoo.com (Jitendra Srivastava) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 07:19:48 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Independent Fellowship - monthly posting Message-ID: <20050128071948.90658.qmail@web40712.mail.yahoo.com> Ek Shahar Ke Roop Mein Gorakhpur Ki Pehchan Mein Gita Press Aur Kalyan Ki Bhoomika Gorakhpur is named after the leader of the Nath sect Guru Gorakhnath. The oldest mention of the place is related to Nath sect. The saint poet Usman of the times of Mughal king Jehangir writes about Gorakhpur in his epic ‘Chitravali’. “Aage Gorakhpur bhal desu nibhahe soyee jo Gorakh bhesu Jahn Thahn marhi gufa bahu ahai. Jogi jathi sanasi rahai” (I find Gorakhpur, nice place where the people are all saintly. Everywhere, I find caves and saints) Today you will not find caves in Gorakhpur, but certainly saints in the Gorakhnath. It is not our intention to discuss Usman’s poetry but to prove that the city existed 400 years ago. It is reported in literature and it is known for Nath sect. It is also to be seen that it is connected with Buddhism also. Raghupati Sahai “Firaq”, the famous Urdu poet of Gorakhpur describes the city as: ‘Gorakhpur is not only the place which Baba Gorakhnath made his abode’. It is also the place where a prince was deeply hurt on seeing a bird hit by an arrow. He got engrossed duply into knowing the reasons for pain and later on become the star of Asia.” Firaq Gorakhpur identifies the city with Gautam Buddha. Firaq is a poet of modern era and thus characterizes Gorakhpur with a philosophy that is acceptable to all. It needs to be researched when and how Gita Press shot into fame and people starting knowing Gorakhpur for Gita Press. Today the city is known for Gita Press. According to Dr. D.N. Verma, the former Head of the Department of Physics of Saint Andrews College opines that there is no doubt that Gorakhpur is known for Gita Press. Even today, you find Kalyan and other books of Gita Press in majority of Hindi speaking homes. Dr. Jitendra Srivastav IGNOU Maidan Garhi New Delhi-68 --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050128/b3562092/attachment.html From jmroberts at bold.net.au Thu Jan 27 17:54:06 2005 From: jmroberts at bold.net.au (jenny roberts) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 22:54:06 +1030 Subject: [Reader-list] Research on Indian students abroad (Australia in Message-ID: <000801c5046b$1a1199a0$1f8706ca@jennyr> I, too, am looking at studing students from the Indian continent and their experience in Australia. I am in Adelaide and involved in post graduate education in physiotherapy. I would very much like to share your findings Yours sincerely Jenny Roberts Jennifer.Roberts at unisa.edu.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050127/08cabf74/attachment.html From pz at vsnl.net Fri Jan 28 02:10:14 2005 From: pz at vsnl.net (Punam Zutshi) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 02:10:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Hypertextual Poetry: A Study of MSN Poetry Communities References: Message-ID: <012d01c504b0$68dbd600$c2ee41db@punamzutshi> Dear Nitoo Das alias River, Talking of rivers there has been a veritable flood of Sarai postings lately but I would like to thank you and Keith Hart whose e mail id is significantly Memory Bank and the Sarai Reader List which allows some of us who have a secret Eng Lit ( and now Regional Writing as it is called) fascination, an entry into these new spaces.And even as I get set to post it off comes your reply to Keith... Had no idea of poetry communities but am glad to overhear these conversations about them and wonder aloud about pseudonyms and artist workshops. Some would say Shakespeare was a pseudonym.Then there is the question of an identity as a collective identity rather than an individual identity.Artist's workshops would be one example. And what about the the ability to understand the nature of poetry? Is this going to be part of this cultural studies exercise? About online communities, tangential thoughts perhaps: What literary and poetic concerns are altered or affirmed by these? What role does poetry play in the first place? And what in the cyber second? Do poets commune in some different way? Rheingold? Who might that be? What do these new opportunities to be a net as against a paper poet actually imply? Do net poets not want to get published? Are you saying that hypertextual poetry (in the English language) actually requires the lineaments of your Assamese world to come into sharper focus for the editors if not the readers, even if you use a screen name? You must have chosen to use a screen name, why? A question : would you share your poetry with the reader list to illustrate/elaborate some of the points you seek to make or would you rather we google our way at least to viewsunplugged.com and wait patiently for the report you submit eventually? Look forward to hearing from you, Punam Zutshi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050128/ac177c0a/attachment.html From sunilmonika at rediffmail.com Thu Jan 27 19:16:15 2005 From: sunilmonika at rediffmail.com (Sunil pandey) Date: 27 Jan 2005 13:46:15 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Jagran.ABC Message-ID: <20050127134615.14338.qmail@webmail46.rediffmail.com>   Jagaran that is jagarata is a north Indian tradition that has got well established in Delhi, through this Mother Goddess gets a charming welcome from her devotees not only devotees but organizers, musicians, singers, artists, sound system providers, electricians, confectioners, fruit sellers and many such persons also earn their bread through this celebration, but jagran parties are the central mode of this wide event. it is very tough to get the real number of jagran parties in Delhi but we know their are some big names of singers such as Narendra Chanchal, Baljeet Deewana, Bansilal Bansi etc. Hollywood personality like Mahendra Kapoor and Jasvinder Narula also provide their time to this celebration in Delhi. While thinking about jagran parties we come to know the people who are working whole day and now they have to pay their devotions whole the night. First of all I met Mandir Wali mataji named Savitriji. She is 'Mahant' of a temple near Maal Road. She says i was 19 years old when at first i felt the mother goddess last year this was her 35th Vishal Jagran, Organized by the temple and its devotees. "Tab Baaje Bahut Kam The" she says we had Dhol and Manjeera. We used to play 'Kanse Ki Thali' whole the night. Really this is a nice celebration when our food pots become instruments. here I could recall the celebration of babies, having their fill and playing "POTS" with their spoons. In Gandhi Nagar I met "Dara Sound Wale" Sri Swarn Singhji he is related to jagrans from the last 23 years. He tells me about the tradition in Gandhi Nagar"________..... “Pahale Pakki Bhente (Songs) Bahut Jyada Gayi Jati Thi". This was the time when Sri Chandera Bali Sharma was Mahant. The Jagran songs can be divided in two categories Pakki Bhente means some traditional songs and simple Bhente are those songs which are developed on the tuning of a film song. The development shows that the trend of singing according to a Hollywood film song got air after a long journey of jagaran. Most of the Pakki Bhents are found in Punjabi there are many books in the market that consist of both the types of bhents. The journey of jagran might have travelled some certain parts of Punjab. What was the status of Jagran during the period of partition it had always been a question for me. What would had been the content of "Tara Rani ki Katha" then as we find there are many changes in it due to the circumstances. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050127/52799244/attachment.html From ravikant at sarai.net Fri Jan 28 13:08:08 2005 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:08:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: The Hindi Little Magazines Message-ID: <200501281308.08360.ravikant@sarai.net> ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: first possting Date: Thursday 27 Jan 2005 10:07 pm From: "anurag prasad" To: dak at sarai.net Cc: ravikant at sarai.net Presently I am working in the Hindustan, New Delhi as sub-editor and Assistant Editor in Bhartiya Lekhak on honorarium basis. In the Bhartiya Lekhak series on Unusual Writers, I have written articles on 'criminal' turned writer Sudhir Sharma, domestic servant turned writer, Baby Haldar and tea vendor in Delhi who is also a novelist - Lakshman Rao. In the Sarai Fellowship project on the vast and unstable yet proliferating world of Laghu Patrikas, I will be addressing the following issues: � Definition of a little magazine: difference between little magazine and commercial magazine � their focus, area and mode of operation � The origin of these magazines, a little bit of their long history, for example their role in the anti-colonial struggle, although my focus is basically the contemorary. � Contents published in these magazines; � Economy of little magazine especially the strategy of producing Special Numbers � Why noted writers have chosen to publish their own magazines? To document and understand this world I will conduct extensive interviews with old and new editors, writers and their readers. I would love to hear from any of you. If you have favourites of your own, please let me know. Anurag 433, Nitikhand-III Indrapuram, Ghaziabad U.P. Mobil- 9871344533 _________________________________________________________________ 3 million brides and grooms. http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/cgi-bin/bmclicks1.cgi?74 Find your life-partner at BharatMatrimony.com - ------------------------------------------------------- From ward.berenschot at gmail.com Thu Jan 27 18:28:20 2005 From: ward.berenschot at gmail.com (Ward Berenschot) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 18:28:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] kindly pass to Swara Bhaskar Message-ID: <41e296805012704583dcffda5@mail.gmail.com> Hello Swara Bhaskar and Moyukh Chatterjee, Through the Sarai mailinglist I read about your project. I am interested in it, and would like to hear more about it. I work for the university of Amsterdam, and I have just arrived in Ahmedabad to start fieldwork for my phd. My project is different from yours, but we have, I think, many interests in common. So if you are coming to ahmedabad, let me know. I hope we can meet. greetings, Ward Berenschot From aliak77 at gmail.com Fri Jan 28 13:34:17 2005 From: aliak77 at gmail.com (kath) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 17:04:17 +0900 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: The Hindi Little Magazines In-Reply-To: <200501281308.08360.ravikant@sarai.net> References: <200501281308.08360.ravikant@sarai.net> Message-ID: <38360719050128000457576d46@mail.gmail.com> are these little magazines the same as zines? are there any online? thanks Kath On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:08:08 +0530, Ravikant wrote: > ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- > > Subject: first possting > Date: Thursday 27 Jan 2005 10:07 pm > From: "anurag prasad" > To: dak at sarai.net > Cc: ravikant at sarai.net > > Presently I am working in the Hindustan, New Delhi as sub-editor and > Assistant Editor in Bhartiya Lekhak on honorarium basis. > > In the Bhartiya Lekhak series on Unusual Writers, I have written articles > on 'criminal' turned writer Sudhir Sharma, domestic servant turned writer, > Baby Haldar and tea vendor in Delhi who is also a novelist - Lakshman Rao. > > In the Sarai Fellowship project on the vast and unstable yet proliferating > world of Laghu Patrikas, I will be addressing the following issues: > � Definition of a little magazine: difference between little magazine and > commercial magazine > � their focus, area and mode of operation > � The origin of these magazines, a little bit of their long history, for > example their role in the anti-colonial struggle, although my focus is > basically the contemorary. > � Contents published in these magazines; > � Economy of little magazine especially the strategy of producing Special > Numbers > � Why noted writers have chosen to publish their own magazines? > > To document and understand this world I will conduct extensive interviews with > old and new editors, writers and their readers. I would love to hear from any > of you. If you have favourites of your own, please let me know. > > Anurag > 433, Nitikhand-III > Indrapuram, Ghaziabad > U.P. > Mobil- 9871344533 > > _________________________________________________________________ > 3 million brides and grooms. > http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/cgi-bin/bmclicks1.cgi?74 Find your > life-partner at BharatMatrimony.com > > - ------------------------------------------------------- > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > -- http://www.aliak.com From aarti at sarai.net Fri Jan 28 13:47:14 2005 From: aarti at sarai.net (Aarti) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:47:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Space and Violence in Vatva, Ahmedabad- Introduction In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <41F9F50A.4040706@sarai.net> Dear Swara and Moyuk, Thank you for your post. As someone who also went to work in the camps post the riots in Gujarat, I am especially interested in the possibilites your proposal opens up. I did not work in Navapura, though my brother Aman did. He wrote a short paper drawing on his experiences, as did a colleague of mine from our work in the Aman Chowk camp. I could send you both if you like. If you'd like to get in touch with them here are their email addresses: amsethi at rediffmail.com and bhrigupati at hotmail.com I will respond conceptually to your paper once I spend some time thinking about the kinds of questions you raise. looking forward to more posts best Aarti Swara Bhaskar wrote: > Dear All, > > This is an introduction to our study of Communal violence in Ahmedabad > undertaken as part of the Independent Research Fellowship Programme of > Sarai. > > Statutory Warning - Its a bit long. > > Of Riots and Ruins- Space and Violence in Vatva, Ahmedabad. > > Moyukh Chatterjee – M.A (Previous) Dept. of Sociology, Delhi School of > Economics. > > __ > > Swara Bhaskar - Programme and Administrative Assistant, Peaceful > Coexistence Project, The AMAN Public Charitable Trust, New Delhi > > _ > > _ > > During the communal pogrom in Gujarat in 2002 we were in Delhi as the > media reports started trickling in about the enormity of the tragedy. > Both of us, separately, were following these events, when by > coincidence and some planning we decided to volunteer through the Aman > Ekta Manch to help in the relief activities in Ahmedabad. This was > some months after the period of explicit violence – though violence of > a different kind continued for much longer by way of government > apathy, sub-human conditions of camp life, extreme poverty to name a > few – and the focus was on running ‘/relief camps’ /for the survivors > and the displaced. We settled down to working everyday at the relief > camp in Vatva (inside the Qutb-e-Alam Dargah) on the outskirts of > Ahmedabad. Starting with basic survey work, we graduated to being > supervisors at a makeshift school for the children at the camp. We > also went to a Dalit colony (almost completely destroyed) neighbouring > the dargah/camp, and this single event led us to ask ourselves many > questions, that till then had seemed irrelevant. The Dalits alleged > that they had been victims of the frustration of the Muslims, who > powerless in the face of the more wealthy/powerful Hindus decided to > punish them for the crimes of the ‘other’ Hindus. These ‘other’ Hindus > surround the Muslim colonies and are the principal accused in the > riots in Vatva. Many narratives we had heard till then became > problematic and we had difficulties in understanding the relationships > between communities and the exact course of events that had led to > violence and counter-violence in this part of Vatva. Of course, these > questions had not seemed half as important as they are now to us, as > then we had no inclination of ever embarking upon a project like this > and our priorities were contingent upon ‘everyday’ problems of camp life. > > Vatva- an industrial area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad had three > official camps for riot victims. One of these was the *Qutb-e- Alam > Dargah* Camp.* *Behind the Dargah lies *Saiyadvada - *a Muslim Colony > whose residents are a mixed population of self employed small > shopkeepers, daily wage labourers and those attached to the Dargah. > Adjacent to it lies* Vaghrivas* and *Chunaravas,* two Dalit colonies > inhabited by the Chunars and Vaaghris who are daily wage labourers and > also sell hooch (country liquor) for a living. To an outsider > Vaghrivas seemed to flow into *Navapura* a relatively more affluent > and larger Muslim colony. Navapura shares a "border" with > *Aasopaalav*, which we were informed was a middle class Hindu > neighbourhood. > > Both Navapura and Chunaravas lie between Hindu/Dalit (We appreciate > the differences between these two identities, but use this term to > indicate the fact that it appears that the two communities were on the > same side - against the Muslims) and Muslim localities respectively > and were subject to looting and destruction of property and built > structures. The topography of Saiyadvada and Aasopaalav remained > unchanged; there were no signs or stories of any kind of a violent > change in the physical appearance of either of the localities. > However, we inferred from the numerous and often contradictory > accounts that we heard, that the residents of both were actively > involved in destroying their neighbours. > > We have decided to go back to Vatva because we had developed a > relationship with the place- its people, children and the surrounding > spaces, having been accepted as friendly outsiders and also because in > the last two years it had been /remembered/ a lot by us. And thus as > we wrote our proposal in ‘absentia’ (not having been back since 2002); > our memory was the chief resource which aided us in this endeavour to > imagine a project in Vatva. > > An essential question that we have posed to ourselves in relation to > our proposed work is: How much of our subjectivities are questioned > and involved in this analysis and in what ways. We encountered Vatva > as outsiders, part of the team of volunteers working in the > rehabilitation process. Our own memory of Vatva in the June of 2002 > reflects how we as outsiders comprehended the disruption in what > seemed to us a ‘shared space’- one whose boundaries and limits were > not immediately visible to us. > > We have decided to focus our research on the transformation in a > shared space (or what we had conceived of as a shared space) by > examining how the memory of violence is recorded in the changed > physical landscape of the area that experienced violence. We > remembered what to us were symbols of a shared space being ruptured. > > We saw, for example, the path that ran from Navapura to the > Qutb-e-Alam Dargah through Vaghrivas that was used by residents of all > the three colonies before the riots. We often had to be guided around > the area while we carried out surveys and interviews. The unease in > using the path was evident as Muslim locals refused to enter Vaghrivas > unless in a large group. On more than one occasion groups of boys in > Vaghrivas would taunt the Muslims who came with us (often children of > the school we were running), in Gujrati. > > We were shown an open field where the boys of Navapura and Aasopalav > played cricket on the evening of 27^th February 2002. The next > morning, the team from Aasopalav, we were told, came to burn houses in > Navapura. We saw in the middle of Navapura an open ground allegedly > owned by the Bajrang Dal where the unfinished structure of a Hanuman > temple lay. Residents of Navapura informed us that there had been > tension in the area over the parades and assemblies of the Bajrang Dal > held in the grounds. We also saw at a little distance from Navapura, a > Jain Ashram. Its role during the riot is contested. The members of the > ashram and some residents of the Saiyidvada and Navapura claimed that > Muslims found safe refuge in it. (We were even shown rooms where the > fleeing Muslim families were apparently kept). Some denied any such > role, and in fact claimed that the Ashram had refused them sanctuary > in the hour of need. We also saw what was described as the "border" > between Navapura and Aasopaalav, which the Hindu mob crossed on the > morning of 28^th February 2002. > > We propose to focus in this project on the notion of ‘shared space’. > We will return to Vatva after two and a half years, a period in which > apparently ‘normalcy’ has been restored to this once ravaged > landscape. Keeping topography and the landscape at the centre of our > project we will look at how physical spaces tell their own stories. > > We hope to be able to trace the history of the two colonies by what we > ‘see’. > > / / > > /Memory /will play a central role in our research as we bring back to > Vatva, our own memory (influenced by our position within the > rehabilitation efforts) of what it was./ What are the relationships > between memory and violence as it is represented in physical/psychical > space?/ We also hope to examine how the residents’ memory of violence > has shaped the space that emerged once ‘rehabilitation’ brought about > ‘normalcy’. We will include in our study the theme of boundaries and > borders and how violence both creates boundaries and makes unseen > boundaries seen. > > The relationship between public and private spaces – the transition > these spaces underwent during the violence and its impact is also part > of our study. What happens when a Dargah also becomes a camp- does it > go back to being only a Dargah? What about spaces that seemed > ‘neutral’- the vegetable market, where people of the colonies shared > the anxiety of rising prices as the price of 'Tamaatar' went from RS 6 > to Rs 10? We also want to look at space within the social structure. > Whether the violence of 2002 and the rehabilitation has changed the > positions the communities occupied in terms of caste and religion – > for example, the space occupied by the Dalits as a minority in a > majority minority area (Muslims a minority in Ahmedabad, are have a > significant presence if not the majority in Vatva); as also the > unstable position different communities have occupied in terms of > social power before, during and after the riots. > > // > > As part of our project we hope to look at the idea of planned and > unplanned spaces: the difference between a cartographer's city and a > ghetto. What is the significance of a space being unplanned at a time > of violence? What is the relationship between civil society and such > spaces after violence? > > Our methods will involve both an engagement with archival material and > field work. Our engagement with archives will involve the use of both > personal and official data. We will refer to surveys carried out in > Vatva both by NGOs (like Lawyers collective and Aman Samudaya) as well > as official surveys of the government. We will also use photographs- > both those taken by the volunteers during rehabilitation work as well > as photographic evidence of the violence. We also plan to use personal > photos of the residents of the period before the riots. We hope to use > maps and sketches during the course of our study of the affect > violence had on space in Vatva. We will also refer to the numerous > fact finding reports that have been published on the Gujarat riots of > 2002. > > Our field work will centre around the act of 'seeing'; as we record > both how the residents see their past reflected in their present space > and how we outsiders 'see' the changes in landscape. > > Our methods will also include extensive interviews and conversations > with locals, ex-volunteers and government officials. > > We hope to- > > -make contact with our fellow volunteers to be able to incorporate > their perspective as well. > > -establish contact with displaced locals or those who have migrated > from the colonies to other areas after the violence and incorporate > the change in demography in our work. > > -engage with the officials (state-level), city planners, > administration responsible for rehabilitation planning, architects of > the new housing complexes (if any). > > -collect an archive of similar work on Ahmedabad (if any) and > incorporate it in our study. > > We will make a series of trips to Ahmedabad and also plan to learn > some basic Gujarati! > > / > > Hope at least some people have got thru this somewhat lengthy > introduction- Looking forward to lots of advise and suggestions etc. > > Cheers > > Moyukh and Swara > > / > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Post your CV on Naukri.com. Get your dream job. > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >_________________________________________ >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 hilalbhatt at yahoo.co.in Fri Jan 28 14:06:00 2005 From: hilalbhatt at yahoo.co.in (Hilal Bhat) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 08:36:00 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Shrine as an anodyne In strife torn Kashmir Message-ID: <20050128083600.32364.qmail@web8410.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear friends I am Hilal Bhat from Srinagar (Kashmir) and am here to share the intitial findings of my Sarai Fellowship,“Shrine as an anodyne in strife-torn Kashmir," which is an attempt to map the shrine within a therapeutic space in the conflict devastated Kashmir. This will be done in the context of a field where fifteen years of violent unrest has resulted in a situation of chronic stress at the existential, psychological and social level. The incidence of and the increase in stress related disorders like post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) during the past decade is staggering. The existing infrastructure is hard pressed to deal with such rates of incidence. This leads to falling back upon the residual practices like visiting a saint at the shrine who happens to be the lone healer in the wake of inadequate institutional support. Nevertheless, history of Kashmir also contributes to this burgeoning trend. A milieu which has been historically pervaded with a certain religious ethos where the existence of charismatic and saintly figures occupies a central place in the existential universe of the individual, results in a phenomenon where people in large numbers seek relief in counsel with saint rather than the psychiatrist. My search to map the presence of the saint within the existential universe of the devotee led me to the shrine of Makdoom sahab, also known as Sultan-ul-Arifeen (the prince of the Gnostics). The shrine is perched on a shelf half way up the Hari Parbat hill located within the heart of the old city of Srinagar. From the distance the shrine complex reminds one of the monastic complexes that are scattered through out Europe and Middle East. The shrine also evokes a sense of the Buddhist monastery. The approach to the shrine is through the Kathi Darwaza, which is the main gateway that allowed one to enter a medieval garrison city founded Mughal emperor, Akbar. Some structures of the old city still remain which once encircled the Mughal City. Past the arched gateway, a gradual incline leads to a flight of steps that end at the shrine complex proper. A corridor like roofed enclosure where the faithful offer payers borders the central courtyard of the shrine. The initial findings were limited to figuring out the profile of the people who frequently visit the shrine. The methods used therein were observation and interview framed in such a way so that they will become the basis of a questionnaire /schedule, which could be used in the subsequent field trips. The initial finding was significant in the sense that shrines are conventionally linked to the notion of backwardness and a superstitious mindset. But the Kashmir Shrines have a different story to offer. The practice of visiting a shrine for healing effects is not peculiar to the supposedly backward classes. The emancipated classes of Kashmir have an equally abiding faith on continuing presence of the saint in the neighborhood shrine. There are rituals, which are intimately related to these people. This is primarily because the saints themselves represented the elite of the time. And the awe of the aura of their influence, even after their death hundreds of years back, leaves a palliative effect on the person who visits such places. Even the Islam in Kashmir got influenced with practices that were in vogue here for centuries prior to its introduction in the valley. In the initial years of turmoil militants, who were indoctrinated with Wahabi ideology raised fingers on such practices and severed peoples’ contact with these shrines that people believed to have come to their rescue in difficult times. I look forward to readers response to make enrich the research. warm Rgds Hilal Bhat srinagar (Kashmir) --------------------ends here------------------------ ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony From ravikant at sarai.net Fri Jan 28 14:30:59 2005 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 14:30:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: The Hindi Little Magazines In-Reply-To: <38360719050128000457576d46@mail.gmail.com> References: <200501281308.08360.ravikant@sarai.net> <38360719050128000457576d46@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <200501281430.59597.ravikant@sarai.net> Not really. Most of these magazines are print magazines with the exception of tadbhav, parakh and Hans that are also available online. But some people may not put Hans and Vagarth under the category of little magazine. Anurag whose posting I forwarded should know better. Anyway, here are the URLs for these four magazines. The last two use their own fonts while the first two use unicode fonts. http://parakhonline.com http://vagarth.com/ www.hansmonthly.com www.tadbhav.com cheers ravikant On Friday 28 Jan 2005 1:34 pm, kath wrote: > are these little magazines the same as zines? are there any online? > thanks > Kath > > On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:08:08 +0530, Ravikant wrote: > > ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- > > > > Subject: first possting > > Date: Thursday 27 Jan 2005 10:07 pm > > From: "anurag prasad" > > To: dak at sarai.net > > Cc: ravikant at sarai.net > > > > Presently I am working in the Hindustan, New Delhi as sub-editor and > > Assistant Editor in Bhartiya Lekhak on honorarium basis. > > > > In the Bhartiya Lekhak series on Unusual Writers, I have written articles > > on 'criminal' turned writer Sudhir Sharma, domestic servant turned > > writer, Baby Haldar and tea vendor in Delhi who is also a novelist - > > Lakshman Rao. > > > > In the Sarai Fellowship project on the vast and unstable yet > > proliferating world of Laghu Patrikas, I will be addressing the following > > issues: � Definition of a little magazine: difference between little > > magazine and commercial magazine > > � their focus, area and mode of operation > > � The origin of these magazines, a little bit of their long history, for > > example their role in the anti-colonial struggle, although my focus is > > basically the contemorary. > > � Contents published in these magazines; > > � Economy of little magazine especially the strategy of producing Special > > Numbers > > � Why noted writers have chosen to publish their own magazines? > > > > To document and understand this world I will conduct extensive interviews > > with old and new editors, writers and their readers. I would love to hear > > from any of you. If you have favourites of your own, please let me know. > > > > Anurag > > 433, Nitikhand-III > > Indrapuram, Ghaziabad > > U.P. > > Mobil- 9871344533 > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > 3 million brides and grooms. > > http://www.bharatmatrimony.com/cgi-bin/bmclicks1.cgi?74 Find your > > life-partner at BharatMatrimony.com > > > > - ------------------------------------------------------- > > _________________________________________ > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > > Critiques & Collaborations > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > > subscribe in the subject header. List archive: > > From river_side1 at hotmail.com Fri Jan 28 23:32:04 2005 From: river_side1 at hotmail.com (River .) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 18:02:04 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Hypertextual Poetry: A Study of MSN Poetry Communities In-Reply-To: <012d01c504b0$68dbd600$c2ee41db@punamzutshi> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050128/f8a48c4f/attachment.html From pz at vsnl.net Sat Jan 29 01:16:43 2005 From: pz at vsnl.net (Punam Zutshi) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 01:16:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Hypertextual Poetry: A Study of MSN PoetryCommunities References: Message-ID: <001901c50572$193ff640$ddf341db@punamzutshi> Dear Nitoo, I think your response allows me entry into the ambience of the poetry community.I begin to understand the reasons for your screen name/chat name/ pseudonym in its most pared down sense if you will.You obviously revel in the many takes on the river idea and the storage space that it allows, and an amusement park is quite an extraordinary certification to have earned.How long have you been a cyber poet? Are these managers and asst managers poets..what qualifies them...are they the ones who get to decide who gets to have their poetry selected? Could you elaborate a bit on the aspect of 'Moral/intellectual /artistic leanings' ? Is there some inner core, 'big names' already published? What makes for a good poetry site? How do you judge? I imagine only a poet can gain entry into this closed world? Reassuring to deal with Nitoo Das alias whatever, courtesy the reader list, and do hope that your report has your poetry somewhere in it.Perhaps Nitoo Das the researcher is a way of somehow marshalling /subordinating the poet identity for academic purposes.And the liberation that is experienced in the use of a screen name has its place, and the reining in of it another? What's this about group loyalty being fierce? Punam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050129/aa6a6a3a/attachment.html From ravikant at sarai.net Sat Jan 29 12:18:10 2005 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 12:18:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Bihari filth and Bihari angst Message-ID: <200501291218.10885.ravikant@sarai.net> A friend wanted to share this with the list. Enjoy. Ravikant ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: Date: Friday 28 Jan 2005 8:44 pm From: "manoj kumar" To: ravikant at sarai.net The Biharies of our parents' generations had passed us many anecdotes related to the involvement of Bihari leaders and political activists in freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders. We have grown up on the stories of Yogendra Shukla, Jay Prahash Narayan, Sahajanand and other leaders. But in the second freedom struggle, which has been led by Reverend Advanijee and started with the Ram Janm Bhoomi Movement, Biharis are so far elusive. Like the first one this second freedom movement also has several phases.So far- Demolition of mosque, Pokharan Explosion, Kargil, Gujarat's ethnic cleansing. During the last Cleansing Operation some dirty Biharis, who piss and shit everywhere and make every Indian city stinking, right from Delhi to Ahamadabad, had been burnt alive in Best Bakery with dirty Muslims. Dirty may be, but Biharis have role to play in the Neo-Nationalist Project. So here is the role envisaged for them (us ..ssh.. Should I include myself and use first person pronoun--"us"?) I am quoting from a book which I have read recently. The writer Joseph Alter has a different conclusion to draw from this anecdote, but amidst Bihar Assembly Election-2005, when Bihar, Biharis and Lalujee is the talk of the town, I can only read the passage as a Bihari, keeping all other possible identities aside. You are free to read the anecdote the way you like. "On the train from Delhi on July 1, 1999, I was talking with a young man, a Jain going to perform obligatory rituals in Haridwar. This young man owns a fairly successful computer repair and assembly company in capital and is an active member of the RSS - Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(National Association of Volunteers, a militant pro-Hindu organization) - and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad( a militant Hindu organization).He is extremely proud of the fact that with his active support these organizations were able to collect ten thousand liters of blood to support the troops fighting Pakistan infiltrators along the line of control near Kargil in Kashmir." More blood than they bloody well new what to do with," he laughed. He is a self proclaimed skeptic and has nothing good to say about politics or diplomacy but is, through his training with RSS ,along with an intensive course in est - about which he could not say enough good thing - committed to self development, personal growth, public service and social reform. As an RSS volunteer he did not advocate nonviolence - the double negative is imperative. "Can you imagine," he pointed out with a sense of self confident cynicism, "a Jain who advocates violence? Do you know what I would propose as a solution to the problem of Pakistan? Get eighty crore Hindus, most of them from Bihar, take them to border, and have them shit and piss all at one time! Can you imagine the stink? All those Biharies in one place, shitting and pissing. I tell you, Pakistan would be washed away in a river of filth. I tell you", he continued, now warming to his subject, "this is a perfect Gandhian solution. Shitting and pissing are natural act, and there is nothing violent involved in shitting and pissing. And then when it is all over, the land will be fertile and those who are left can spend their time harvesting crop rather than fighting." Alter, Joseph S. Gandhi's Body: Sex, Diet and the Politics of Nationalism. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2000. Page-147. It was Gandhi, who was much concerned about piss and shit, because perhaps intuitively he could sense the root cause of untouchability and unease of upper caste Hindus, especially male, with shit, piss. blood, cough, menstrual discharge and all. It was Lohia who once raised voice for rural women, easing out road-side and when some member started laughing the mercurial leader had given him a befitting reply. It was ShreeLal Shukla who, amidst the cynicism of 70s, gave description of women easing out on roadside in his famous novel 'Rag Darabari'. So friends, nothing natural about this very natural act. Calling it 'natural call' is in itself a cultural act. Yes, indeed, it's a political and cultural issue. Could it be an election issue sometimes in future? Manoj Gent, Belgium 27 January 2005 - ------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-4405 Size: 4889 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050129/ed354cbb/attachment.bin From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sat Jan 29 15:53:19 2005 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 02:23:19 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] dastangoi In-Reply-To: <20050123124408.36534.qmail@web80906.mail.scd.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20050129102319.81360.qmail@web51410.mail.yahoo.com> Dear Mahmood Responding after much delay, also copying to sarai for larger debate. I used the word �perversions� for want of a better term and I personally don�t believe wining and eroticism are perversions (the reason why I put it in quotes), but of course people like Thanvi and Shibli would like to believe they are. But there may not be any one standard of how these subjects were accepted or not accepted in a Muslim society at any time. What should be termed �Islamic� is difficult to resolve � at least in my mind. But certainly we have to be careful with a sort of �orientalist� view. An interesting example: a friend of mine who is a scholar of Arabic literature, believed that Encyclopedia Britannica is the �most authentic and exhaustive source of information� about any subject under the sun, which Britannica claims any way. But this friend was frustrated when his efforts in trying to find specific info in Britannica about an Arabic novelist, failed. I tried to help him look for the info, but to our great puzzlement, we couldn�t find any large article on �Arabic literature� in the 32 volumes of Britannica. Finally, we stumbled upon a huge entry called �Islamic Arts� which contained many pages on literature of Arabic, Persian, Turkish and so on, assuming that everything produced in those languages is �Islamic�. My friend�s belief in Britannica�s authenticity shattered completely. Fortunately, for India/south Asia, they didn�t have an entry called the 'Hindu Arts' � they called is South Asian Arts. Also they would never quote Shakespeare or Goethe as Christian Literature. So I am just wondering whether we should even use the term Islamicate for literatures like the dastaans. I personally don�t think that there is such a thing as �Islamic arts�. The spread of Islam may have provided a vehicle of cultural exchange, altering people�s worldview, and therefore a �sophistication of pre-Islamic cultures� is what we see as �Islamic� arts. Of course, Islam�s iconoclasm has its own role to play in all this. I have discussed some of this in my own Sarai fellowship last year. There are many non-Islamic folk narratives in India which contain Islamic folklores or Islamic personages (prophets/saints), and vice-a versa, (I have been exploring such syncretic narratives in popular devotional art), and I think dastaans, at least their oral forms, are coming from the same local traditions. One option would be to relate to arts or their influences by their geography/demography rather than religion. Of course there are gray areas with everything you step in. Yousuf --- mahmood farooqui wrote: > > Dear Yousuf, > > Thank you very much for reading the article and > taking > time out to reply...highly gratified.. > > The reason Dastan-e-Amir Hamza is usually described > as > part of Islamic literature is because it was > produced > in all parts of the Islamic world, not to imply that > it is 'religious' literature...it is part of my > project to situate its Indian speciality and to > emphasise its indigenous, secular dimension... > > It was certaily written for entertainment, but > precisely because the Dastans purport to be an > Islamic > exploit against enemies--in all its versions--and > that > its audience was the Indo-Islamic bazaari ecumene > that > the manner of its fighting and the way it is > described > is important. > > However just as we should not assume that since > Ghazals were part of the arts that was practiced in > the Islamic world that it is an Islamic form...Of > course the Dastan-e-Amir Hamza of 46 volumes that I > am > trying to read is NOT islamic at all... > > I wholly agree that we need to situate this in the > context of other literatures being produced at the > time to judge its acceptability/liberalism etc..the > fact that Thanvi and Shibli take pains to wean > people > away from Dastans slightly later emphasies both > their > popularity as well as their threatening nature as > far > as Islamist reformers are concerned.. > > Perhaps if I use the word Islamicate instead of > Islamic it would be more acceptable? > > SInce you have used the word 'perversions' I was > wondering what you would describe as Islamic? Can it > be delinked from the changing practice of Muslims in > historical time? Is there an essence of Islam beyond > which aspects, beleiefs, practices in > Muslim-Islamicate societies become un-Islamic? Does > the use of the word Islamic equal religious? Is > there > such a thing as Islamic Arts-say calligraphy- would > they then be taken to mean religious Arts? > > I certainly do not find wining, same-sex or > eroticism > perversions of Islam simply because they have been > around in Islamicate-Muslim societies since the same > time that Islam has been around.. > > As for Tilism's popularity, well at least till the > 1870s there is evidence to show that many otherwise > highminded and aristocratic Muslims enjoyed it > greatly, it was performed in private houses and in > public places...there may have been > people/sections/elements that rejected, resented it, > but they acquire prominence later...and that is my > problem too. > > Thank you again for writing...I hope you would > continue to do so... > > I had really liked your piece in Tehelka about > Khamosh > Pani et al..it was polemical and, a rare thing these > days, sincere at the same time... > > Regards > Mahmood > > > > --- Yousuf wrote: > > > Dear Mehmood > > Happy to know that someone is working on dastaans > > this > > time at Sarai. I saw your write-up on Mid Day and > > have > > a few comments about that (not about your first > > Sarai > > abstract). > > > > I doubt whether one should begin to assume that > the > > epic Tilism Hoshruba/Amir Hamza is religious or > > 'Islamic' in any way. Dastans were meant for > > wholesome > > entertainment which may include some devotional > > element too, but that probably should not limit > them > > to be interpreted as religious. I suppose every > > story > > needs a hero and a villain, and the two also have > to > > have some kind of ideologies or agenda to fight > for. > > Since the dastangoe and his audience/readers are > > probably �Muslim�, the good guys of the story are > > simply using Islam to fight their war against the > > bad > > guys. But whether this makes the story �Islamic� > is > > open to debate. Of course, the religious folklore > > and > > the prophets are being used, since they are part > of > > the popular imagination, in the same spirit as > > Mahabharata or other folk kathas. In the past, > there > > was a lot of gray area between people�s > religiosity, > > entertainment and cultural expression, which is > what > > the narratives like the dastaans reflect. One > > probably > > cannot use today�s standards to classify tilism > > hoshruba into �religious�, �historical� or any one > > kind of literature. > > > > As for the flowing of the wine etc., there is no > > dearth of such descriptions in Urdu/Persian > medieval > > literature - not simply the symbolic/poetic use of > > wine and intoxication, but the fact of its > practical > > use in the so-called �Muslim� world. Of course one > > can > > also find plenty of other �perversions� in > > Persian/Urdu literature, such as the same-sex > love, > > eroticism, vulgarity, or idolatry � often in a > book > > that starts by invoking the name of God and the > > Prophet and so on. But that does not make them > > Islamic. > > > > I doubt whether we can judge the �liberalism� of > > Muslims of that era by reading only an epic like > > tilism. Today, the moment we see something in > > Perso-Arabic script, we assume that its coming > from > > the Muslim world, and therefore must be �Islamic� > in > > nature. Hence even the �perversions� such as wine > or > > eroticism seem like �justified� in Islam, or > reflect > > a > > liberal Muslim society, because they are written > in > > Perso-Arabic script. But how do we know that in > the > > past, when Perso-Arabic was the mainstream script > in > > Indo-Persian world, there didn�t exist an equally > > vehement rejection of the liberal literature such > as > > tilism hoshruba. I guess one has to read it in > > context > > of the other literatures being produced at that > time > > to judge its �status� in the society. > > > > Looking forward to your postings at Sarai. > > > > Yousuf Saeed > > > > > > > > --- mahmood farooqui > > wrote: > > > > > > > http://ww1.mid-day.com/columns/mahmood_farooqui/2005/january/101012.htm > > > > > > > > __________________________________ > > Do you Yahoo!? > > Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage > > less. > > http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 > > > > > === message truncated === __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do? http://my.yahoo.com From nisar at keshvani.com Sun Jan 30 06:43:58 2005 From: nisar at keshvani.com (nisar keshvani) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 17:13:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] LEA Special cfp: Locative Media - Deadline 7 March 2005 Message-ID: <15266613.1107047638484.JavaMail.root@m15> LEA Special Issue: Locative Media * Worldwide Call for Submissions * Guest Editor: Drew Hemment lctvmedia at astn.net http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/LEA2004/authors.htm#lmedia The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN No: 1071-4391) is inviting papers [and artworks] that deal with the emerging data-based spatial practice of Locative Media. Across a broad range of contexts the interface between data environments and location has emerged as a central concern, reversing the trend towards digital content being viewed as placeless, or only encountered in the amorphous space of the internet. Artists have long been concerned with place and location, but the combination of mobile devices with positioning technologies opens up a manifold of different ways in which geographical space can be encountered and drawn. An emerging field of creative practice is coalescing around artists and technologists who are exploring the use of portable, networked, location-aware computing devices for social interfaces to places and artistic interventions in which geographical space becomes a canvas. Submissions are sought which foreground not the technologies but rather issues to do with participation, perception and process they raise. What is Locative Media's relationship to dominant logics of representation, and how does it forces a reassessment of accustomed ways of representing, relating to and moving in the world? How may methodologies within Media Art and other disciplines be developed to meet a convergence of geographical and data space? How can collaborative or user-led mapping and cartography offer new possibilities for community organisation? What metaphors are available for these new kinds of spatial experience other than mapping and navigation? How may artists respond to the abstraction inherent in Locative Media as a data-based form, and look beyond the reductive understanding of location that comes from Geographic Information Systems - in which place is considered as a set of geographic coordinates or a wireless cell - to explore, for example, context, co-location and material embodiment? What is the relationship between this emerging critical art practice and both the surveillance and control technologies it deploys and wider mechanisms of domination? What taxonomies of Locative Media projects can be discerned, and how may terminology evolve to meet this new interdisciplinary environment? Locative Media is in a condition of emergence, simultaneously opening up new ways of engaging in the world and mapping its own domain. For this issue, submissions that present the exploratory movements of Locative Media in historical context are of equal interest to submissions that offer a snap shot or polaroid of its current state of emergence. Topics of interest might include (but are not limited to): - Antecedents and historical context - Taxonomies of Locative Media projects - Art and technology collaborations - Social applications - Critical analyses - Cultural analyses - Scalability and ownership issues - etc LEA encourages international artists / academics / researchers / students / practitioners / theorists that engage with locative media to submit their proposals for consideration. We particularly encourage authors outside North America and Europe to send proposals for essays / artists statements. As part of this special, LEA is looking to publish: - Critical Essays - Artist Statement/works in the LEA Gallery - Bibliographies (a peer reviewed bibliography with key texts/references in Locative Media) - Academic Curriculum (LEA encourages academics conducting course programmes in this area to contact us) Expressions of interest and outline should include: - A brief description of proposed text (300 words) - A brief author biography - Any related URLs - Contact details In the subject heading of the email message, please use “Name of Artist/Project Title: LEA Locative Media Special – Date Submitted”. Please cut and paste all text into body of email (without attachments). Detailed editorial guidelines at: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/submit Deadline for expressions of interest: 7 March 2005 Timeline 7 March 2005 - submission of abstracts 11 March 2005 - short-listed candidates informed 1 April 2005 - contributors to submit full papers for peer review (please note the timeline is subject to changes) Please send proposals or queries to: Drew Hemment lctvmedia at astn.net and Nisar Keshvani LEA Editor-in-Chief lea at mitpress.mit.edu http://lea.mit.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050129/5cc5bcf4/attachment.html From veena.naregal at gmail.com Mon Jan 31 14:01:09 2005 From: veena.naregal at gmail.com (Veena Naregal) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 02:31:09 -0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Informal Economies and Distribution Practices : Studying Bollywood Message-ID: " A star is like lipstick. When it fades, it fades." Mr Bagadia, film distributor, who claims to distribute films for their "prestige", and NOT for money. "…Much as I would like to pay you what you get outside, but keeping in view that I do not take recourse to the normal ugly sources of finance, I will be paying you twenty-five lakhs. However, please bear in mind that if the film does not do well, I would only pay you a token sum of Rs. 0. I hope this finds your approval." Bollywood contract, circa 1999. The saleability of its stars notwithstanding, the Hindi film industry has always been described as a distributor's market. Mr Bagadia's seemingly self-effacing words hint at the tension between the star and distributor in determining their respective stakes. Despite its estimated current annual turnover of Rs. 5000 crores, and recent efforts to corporatise film production and finance, the industry continues to be a lucrative but high-risk investment option, relying largely on off-the-books speculative capital and parallel money markets for its finance and distribution arrangements. Taken together, these quotes slyly point towards the routinely ambidextrous practices the Indian film industry has evolved to address some of its intractable core problems. Moreover, the implicit melodrama of the above lines seems to somehow echo the highly-charged resolution that the actual films will bring to the contradictory possibilities addressed through their narratives. As a cultural institution, Indian cinema encompasses many paradoxes. Seemingly, the incontrovertibly high levels of cinephilia among South Asian audiences have not enhanced the industry's ability to be financially self-sustaining. Since, at least, the post-World war II boom in film production, film-making has relied on the informal sectors of the economy for its financial needs as successive governments were reluctant to recognise it as legitimate economic activity. Despite its significant contributions to the nationalist cause, the making of a cultural mainstream and Indian modernity, until recently, the industry has been mostly reviled as a corrupting influence by official culture. Such perceptions have dictated post-colonial censorship and taxation policies vis-a-vis the industry. All of this has impacted upon production practices and representational strategies in major ways. The distribution and exhibition sector have been key to the industry's survival. The Indian film market is roughly divided into five distribution territories, with the overseas market counting as a sixth segment. Recent box-office form of the production banner/director and cast are factors that determine the price per distribution territory and how early on in the pre-/production process films get picked up by distributors. To be declared a trade hit, a film is expected to earn above 200% of its total distribution cost, if collections exceed 350% of distribution price, the film is termed a 'blockbuster', if recovery is less that 50%, it is classified a disaster. Most films are expected to recover costs from collections over the first week. Here, as is universally is the case in the industry, non-formal agreements and transactions prevail, ensuring that the smallest whiff of commercial failure will ruthlessly kill a film's chances of staying on in circulation. And yet, Hindi cinema and the film industry have seen several changes in the past few years. Finally, in December 2000, against much rhetoric of rescuing Bollywood from the clutches of the underworld, film-making was finally accorded industry status. RBI was asked to proceed with issuing guide-lines to banks and finance institutions to consider advancing loans to film-makers. With Bollywood's willingness to explore openings in global markets, a slew of commissioned corporate reports have followed, all testifying to the growth potential of the Indian entertainment industry. Besides the foray of some big business houses into the arena of film production, in a major shift of policy, institutions such as the IDBI and EXIM bank have offered schemes to partially finance film production and exports. In keeping with other changes in the emerging Indian urban scape, a growing number of multiplexes have sprung up to alter patterns of film consumption in the major metros. With multiplexes emerging as a particularly lucrative segment of the exhibition sector, the idea of an all-India hit is no longer a commercial imperative, and producers have shown their willingness to adapt content to selectively tap specific sectors such as the metros combined with the overseas market, or conversely, the small-town circuit, to ensure profitability. Although the scale of interventions aiming to corporatise film finance remain relatively small, these changes raise many questions, including whether indeed these trends signify a major shift in relations between the film industry, state and market, the extent to which these changes will impact on the distribution sector, and more generally, on production strategies and business practices within the industry. An important issue will be whether these changes in the film industry will bear out trends seen in the television services distribution sector, where one heard similar talk about how the entry of corporate players in the cable TV business would reform the business ethic of the neighbourhood cablewallah. Despite achieving some level of consolidation in the cable business, if anything, the entry of corporate interests in media distribution there have only strengthened the role of informal networks, as the long-drawn out impasse over CAS amply demonstrates. The experience of the film industry - what we have in lieu of a cultural mainstream - might prove a fascinating opportunity to actually open up questions about the possible parallels and intersections between practices in the "clean" corporate sector and its supposed opposite, the informal sector of the economy. Despite the salience of reporting on the entertainment industry in the business press today, scholarly writing has fought shy of any sort of documentation or analysis of industry practices in any systematic way. Similarly, film/cultural studies practitioners have tended to overlook focussing on the material processes through which these films are produced to reflect upon the larger social-historical and cultural implications of these conditions and how they influence textual formats and meanings being generated and consumed. This study will initiate the task of gathering data on practices in the film distribution and exhibition sectors. It will focus on representative segments of two major distribution territories on the film circuit: 1) Bombay : comprising of Maharashtra, North Karnataka and Gujarat 2) Delhi and UP . I propose to use the fellowship to analyse data pertaining to the distribution strategies and trajectories for a small number of pre-identified releases over a two-month period, and comprising of both "A" and "B" grade films. This data will be collected from reports in the business and trade press and through field-survey interviews with producers, film directors, distributors, exhibitors, multiplex managers, cinema hall proprietors in metros and small towns. Besides, policy-makers, banking and financial executives, consultants, trade analysts, film journalists and scholars will also be interviewed in order to gauge the significance of some of these recent shifts in film finance and production. ------------------------------ From jeebesh at sarai.net Mon Jan 31 19:31:15 2005 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 19:31:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] How to stop worrying and learn to live with piracy Message-ID: <41FE3A2B.6080003@sarai.net> http://www.businessworldindia.com/feb0705/index.asp How to stop worrying and learn to live with piracy A US professor has rocked the current patent debate by saying that piracy is not only inevitable, it may even be beneficial. Doron S. Ben-Atar is hardly your usual suspect when it comes to subversion. He is a genial giant from the world of academia, a professor of history at Fordham University in New York who has written or co-authored several books, a researcher who has won prestigious fellowships. For all that, he has managed to undermine the conventional arguments in today's hotly debated question of who owns intellectual property (IP) - simply by looking at the issue through the prism of the past. Ben-Atar's contention is that all developed nations, especially the US, did not respect IP rights and indulged in rampant piracy - and he has detailed researches to prove this - during a certain period in their history of industrialisation. Tracing the roots of patent and copyright laws in early America, he says that during the country's industrial revolution, its very prosperity was founded on copyright infringement, industrial espionage and outright theft of IP. What could be construed as subversion is his belief that developing countries should be allowed to do the same. He believes this for two reasons. One: no amount of regulation and policing will stamp out piracy. Indeed, a new study validates this; it shows that losses due to software piracy are rampant across the world, but are highest in the US itself (see 'Topping The Piracy Charts'). Two: it would be unfair to force developing nations to devote their scarce resources to protect the interests of the rich and powerful. He maintains that as long as the income disparity between rich and poor persists "the temptation to pirate would triumph over all principled devotions to an abstract notion of IP." And here is a radical prescription: leaders of developing nations should pay lip service to IP agreements "and occasionally raid a warehouse full of pirated CDs or prosecute a high-profile pirate". That's because US history teaches us that symbolic acts and talk of principles, accompanied by lax enforcement, are a winning combination, he says (see 'Lessons For India'). This unusual perspective on intellectual piracy comes in a riveting study that Ben-Atar has brought out on the historical intellectual piracy in the US and the efforts made by Britain to stem this outflow to its former colony. Published some months ago, Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy And The Origins of American Industrial Power (Yale University Press) has received widespread interest. Much of the buzz around the professor's thesis has been occasioned by the growing competition to a range of American industries from the giant manufacturing hub of China, and to a lesser degree, India and other emerging economies. Ben-Atar takes pains to highlight the many ironies surrounding the IP issue in America. At the same time that the young republic was indulging in full-scale piracy, it had also enacted the most exacting patent laws which required inventions to be original and novel across the world, and not just in America - unlike Europe which granted patents to introducers of technology in use elsewhere. That set new standards for protecting IP. But, shows Ben-Atar, it was a Janus-faced approach. Nearly every branch of manufacture in the US was founded upon imported skill and machinery which was smuggled in because there were strict prohibitions in Europe, especially in Britain, against the emigration of skilled artisans and the exportation of machinery. The IP laws were actually a smokescreen for a very different reality, says the Israel-born academic who went to study in the US 25 years ago. The statutory requirement of international originality and novelty did not hinder widespread and officially sanctioned technology piracy. In fact, most of the patent applications were for devices already in use, since getting a patent involved little more than successful completion of paperwork. But what use is the past in the current battle by the US and allies to impose the WTO-mandated trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement on developing countries? Does history have any les-sons for today's IP warriors in an intensely contested arena? Ben-Atar says it is important to remind Americans of their past so that they better understand what is happening in other parts of the world. "Before Americans rush to condemn those who pirate our knowhow, they must not forget how the US became the richest and most powerful nation on earth." Towards the closing decades of the 18th century, the British colonies of North America were mostly underdeveloped agricultural settlements. The foundations of the American empire were laid during the next 75 years as the US was transformed from an underdeveloped decentralised entity on the periphery of the Atlantic economy into the hub of industry, wealth, and power. "Piracy," says Ben-Atar flatly, "played a crucial role in this process." So, if the developing world is taking a similar route, the US should not be complaining. It is no surprise, says he, that while all WTO members promise to respect international IP rights, in practice, developing nations do little to enforce those laws. His basic point is that all efforts to protect technology are destined to fail. "If past patterns are going to be repeated, within a short time, local entrepreneurs in the developing world will acquire, by whatever means, America's trade secrets and produce the desired goods and services on their own." The latest collision between the US and China on IP violations substantiate his position. In recent weeks, the confrontation between the two trading par-tners has accelerated over US charges that China's state-owned car manufacturer, Chery Automobile Company, had stolen the design from General Motors to make its QQ model. In December last year, GM filed a lawsuit against Chery Automobile for alleged piracy of the design of its Chevrolet Spark, developed by its South Korean affiliate Daewoo. In recent days, US officials have been stepping up the heat on the Chinese government to crack down on IP theft. According to the US commerce department, Chinese piracy is bleeding America of nearly $24 billion annually. In a sharp attack two weeks ago, US commerce secretary Donald L. Evans told the Chinese leaders that they had to 'forcefully confront' the widespread violations of IP rights in China to avoid strains on bilateral relations. While Chery has denied the piracy charge and said that it "is one of the key state-backed automakers that depends on itself for development", the Chinese government's response has been laconic. It has advised GM to resolve the issue through mediation or legal means. That is likely to prove costly for GM, since QQ's sales are already way ahead of the Spark, which was launched after the Chinese mini-car hit the roads. And in a most ironic twist, the six-year-old Chery - it is China's eighth largest automaker with sales of around 90,000 vehicles - has just signed a deal with a major American car firm to export cars to the US. Some analysts believe it is Chery's deal with Visionary Vehicles (in which it has also committed to investing $200 million in the Chinese company) that has prompted the high-decibel Washington response. Lessons for India Doron Ben-atar is categorical about one thing: he is not advocating piracy. Some excerpts from an interview with BW. Are you saying that developing countries should flout international IP regulations and take to piracy? Ben-atar: I am not drawing these historical parallels to condone piracy, but to point out the wrong-headedness of the West's often self-righteous position on IP. Trips imposes patent obligations on developing countries. There are penalties for flouting the rules. Ben-atar: It would be wrong of me to claim that I really under-stand the context and complexities of the current system. What the US benefited from was the absence of international agencies with coercive powers like GATT and TRIPS. The recent development in India is bad for the entire world because the new Ordinance (the amendment of the Patents Act) has alarming consequences. Indian generic drugs had a monumental influence in addressing the health concerns of the underdeveloped world. What can developing countries like India do? Ben-atar: The American experience shows how you can negotiate the terrain of IP by saying you want to adhere to certain standards, but claiming that you are producing something different. The second lesson is of greater importance. The key to the American economic miracle was the immig-ration of millions who brought their skills and ingenuity. Developing nations must develop their own IP, unless they are content with the crumbs. Is it enough to copy the IP of the developed countries? Ben-atar: Developing nations, however, must realise that they will not be able to find prosperity through piracy alone. The only way you can stop the brain drain is by creating an equal environment in India, one that will compensate the bright people for staying behind. There are others who believe that the Ben-Atar is only too right about the impossibility of checking IP theft. The US justice department for one. It said in a recent report that the country was losing the battle against piracy. This is especially true of software. According to the first annual study on software piracy conducted in 2003 by Business Software Alliance (BSA) and IDC (the IT industry's market research and forecasting firm), the industry is losing about $30 billion annually. The rate of losses, however, are the highest in Eastern Europe (71 per cent) compared with 53 per cent for the Asia-Pacific region. All of which, it would appear, underlines the futility of enacting legislation to prevent the diffusion of knowledge. Ultimately, says Ben-Atar, devoting resources to enforcing western standards of intellectual property in the developing world is not only hypocritical and sometimes cruel, but above all, a futile act. "A country's most valuable asset is not yesterday's invention, but tomorrow's innovation. From anannyaleh at yahoo.com Mon Jan 31 23:03:36 2005 From: anannyaleh at yahoo.com (Anannya Mehtta) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 09:33:36 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] a study of film viewing Message-ID: <20050131173337.73332.qmail@web53109.mail.yahoo.com> On film viewing � This study hopes to understand film viewing as a site of meaning, fun and sharing in Delhi. By meaning I hope to convey the now virtual truism that film viewer ship has come to mean more than just the act of viewing. The cinematic pervades every sphere of our lives the social, the political, the emotional and certainly the economic. What is the motivation behind the mechanics of viewing, behind the habit of regular visits to Sarai, the India habitat center, the max Mueller bhavan, the French cultural centre etc? How do audiences understand, interpret and experience films? How do we unravel the ubiquitous presence of the filmic in our lives? In what way does cinema enter the everyday? What form of group congregation does it result in? If independent cinema (non commercial cinema spaces) acts as a new, still emerging public sphere where different narratives of politics, culture, debate, desire and entertainment intersect, then who are these regular film watchers? What is it that people take back with them? I wonder if the journey to the city is a journey towards a new self-definition where unlike in the non-city clear lines of history, familial bonds and the like resist coming to ones aid in defining the self. The cinematic experience weaves in and out of real lives, acting as one of the many agents of influence that produces, shapes and transmutes the self. So cinema both defines and gets successively defined. Cinema becomes a window onto the world. Through cinema the world travels to and away from this ambitious sojourner. The fictional world poses as a mirror, which reflects two people/concepts/faces at the same time, the known self and the stranger, whose journey towards self-definition is influenced by the cinematic image. It is cinema that allows a society or people to remember certain things or forget them. Just as people and communities produce cinema so does cinema produce a people. There are certain emotional and social moments and impulses that are clearly unmappable, where theory or a history of attempting to understand inexplicable actions will inevitably fall short of delineating any clear conception of what influences people. The myriad narratives, multiple testimonies that I hope to unravel will become a mosaic of the possibilities, dreams and real lived experience that define lives in the city. The second and more unformed aspect of my study is to attempt to understand the motivation of these sites of non-commercial film screenings to remain non-commercial spaces. What are the values that these spaces choose to portray and why? Why do such institutions value non-commercial and independent voices at all? Do any patterns of thought, of imagination, of deed emerge? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050131/b9d6ba2b/attachment.html From shah_zulfikar at yahoo.com Mon Jan 31 16:26:46 2005 From: shah_zulfikar at yahoo.com (Zulfikar) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 10:56:46 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] PEP's Plan for Quality Higher Education in Pakistan Message-ID: <20050131105646.96666.qmail@web61203.mail.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, PEP Foundation has developed a plan for quality higher education in Pakistan. Kindly refer the bellow pasted text. This posting is in the context of sharing information as well as seeking support. Best Regards, Z. Shah Karachi Pakistan zshah at pepfoundation.org www.pepfoundation.org -------------------------------------- The Foundation: Promotion of Education in Pakistan [PEP] Foundation is a non-profit, educational and charitable organization, which was founded by two world-renowned Alzheimer’s disease researchers, Dr. Khalid Iqbal and his wife, Dr. Inge Grundke Iqbal, in December 1994. Since 1995 these two founders have been donating to this cause all their book royalties, lecture fees, honoraria, consultant fees and prize monies to the tune of Rs. 3 million per year. We Stand for: The mission of the PEP Foundation is to make quality higher education accessible to all young men and women in Pakistan, irrespective of their economic status. Achievements: The National University of Pakistan [NUP] PEP Foundation is now in the process of building the first private non-profit residential university in Pakistan. This university, named as the National University of Pakistan (NUP), will have a total student enrollment of 20,000, and will include 16 schools/faculties, covering practically all academic disciplines from liberal arts to science, engineering and a medical school. NUP will be built in five phases during 2005-2015. In Phase I an Institute of Excellence in Neuroscience and an Institute of Excellence in Business (Biotechnology) at the University of Karachi campus will be built. These Institutes will be part of International Center of Chemical Sciences of the University of Karachi as well as part of the NIEHE/NUP. The NIEHE will start its academic program in 2005 using the facilities of Dr. Panjwani Center of Molecular Medicine and Drug Research until its own building is completed. In Phase II Institutes of Excellence in Biomedical Sciences, Natural and Applied Sciences, Journalism, Visual and Performing Arts, Pharmacy, Environmental Science, and Computer Science & Bioinformatics. These Institutes will be built at appropriate public University campuses subject to negotiation with these Universities. During Phase III-V, Institutes of Excellence in Liberal Arts, Law, Architecture, Medicine, Dentistry, Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine and Engineering and Technology will complete the NIEHE program. ‘University without Walls’ Fellowship Program [UWFP] Since its creation, the PEP Foundation has been operating a "University without Walls" fellowship program. PEP Fellowships are granted to students in professional undergraduate and graduate degree programs at various universities in Pakistan. Awards are based on a student's need and academic merit. Through this program PEP Foundation has financed the education of over 300 students, males and females in almost equal numbers, towards M.D., Ph.D. and other degrees. Over two thirds of these PEP Fellows have already graduated and many of them are gainfully employed. The Volunteer Visiting Faculty Program [VVFP] This year, the PEP Foundation has also initiated a Volunteer Visiting Faculty Program. Through this initiative, professionals, teachers, scientists and businessmen, who visit Pakistan for their own personal or professional reasons, will donate their time and expertise and teach students in Pakistan by giving one or more lectures in their areas of specialization. Over 200 faculties are expected to teach students during the first twelve months of this project and a steep annual growth of up to 50% per year is expected to follow over the next several years. Advocacy, Awareness & Research Program [AARP] As part of its program, PEP Foundation has conducted research and hold advocacy sittings with various government and non government stakeholders in Pakistan. In 1999, we conducted a study ‘State of Education in Pakistan’, that helped us to better understand the status of higher education in Pakistan and to develop further our strategy to achieve our goals. We also plan a series of symposiums regarding the issues of higher education in the country. In that regard, an annual International Symposium on Higher Education issues will be organized stating next year October 5-6 2005 in USA, followed by the next one in Pakistan with the participation of experts from United States and Pakistan, non-profit organizations, corporations, and policy makers from both countries. Tomorrow Belongs to Us The PEP Foundation is marching ahead to accomplish its mission. It needs support and services from all civil society organizations and individuals who share our vision of making difference through developing the state of education in the country. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050131/89a37993/attachment.html