Friday, September 29, 2006

An article from timesonline about hindu temples

sept 29th, 2006

another white-boy limey says rude things about hindus. and hurtful, incorrect things. but then of course he's a believer in the aryan invasion fairy tale, so he must be one of witzel's 'experts' on india.

i wonder why he carefully avoids saying anything about mohammedan harems. answer: he is scared shitless about mohammedans cutting his nuts off. this is the sort of cowardly bully who deserves a couple of threatening phone calls and other 'encouragement' to behave.

i also wonder if his university and his church are brothels, too. after all, they are being used as such by british mohammedans. white girls are sluts, they scream, while gang-raping them.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Raj

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2362622,00.html

and this is the author's profile

http://www.buck.ac.uk/publicity/dofe/kealey.html

Why is a Hindu temple like a Soho phone box? Must I draw you a picture?

Science Notebook by Terence Kealey
THE HINDU temples of central and southern India can be startlingly erotic. The temples of Khajuraho are the most explicit, being encrusted with statues of naked females — big-breasted and narrow waisted — doing naughty things with rampant men (see them on Google images). How can a religion be so pornographic?

The standard explanation is that Hinduism harnessed sex in the service of mysticism, but we scientists are materialists and we distrust spiritual accounts. How would anthropologists explain pornographic temples?

*

The first clue was provided by Robert Carneiro in his paper A Theory of the Origin of the State. There, Carneiro noted that the first states were created by despots, who exploited the introduction of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. Human tribes, Carneiro observes, have fought each other for millennia, but when human beings were still hunter-gatherers a battle led only to the dispersal of the defeated, who melted away.

After agriculture was invented, some 10,000 years ago, a defeated tribe could not afford to disperse: it had become dependent on the food of its farms. So, if defeated in battle, agricultural tribes would collude with their victors, producing food in exchange for quarter: "Ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food" (Genesis 47). The first states, therefore, were cruel places, which exploited men — and women.

In her book Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History, Laura Betzig noted how similarly the early emperors — whether in Africa, Asia or America — behaved, suggesting that traditional empires can best be understood not historically but biologically, having been moulded by coalitions of dominant males to propagate their genes. All the emperors had harems, for example, and the Indian Udayama's 16,000 women were used similarly to the thousands owned by the Inca Sun King or the Chinese Emperor.

Consequently, DNA testing has confirmed that upper- caste females in India are genetically indistinguishable from lower-caste females, because pretty hoi polloi girls have always been imported into the palaces. But the upper-caste males of India — who are the descendants of the Aryan conquerors of 5,000 years ago — have never allowed male proles to marry their daughters, and they remain genetically distinct. They have, therefore, retained the spoils of conquest for themselves and their sons.

One aspect of imperial despotism is the restriction of trade. It was Charles Darwin who noted that trade is a human instinct. In Voyage of the Beagle Darwin described the natives of Tierra del Fuego as primitive, yet: "They had a fair idea of barter. I gave one man a large nail (a most valuable present) without making any signs for a return; but he immediately picked out two fish, and handed them up on the point of his spear."

Traditional empires, being despotic, restricted trade to the palaces and temples, forbidding hoi polloi from trading or travelling. Only priests and princes and certain privileged merchants (who were closely regulated) traded and travelled. And one lucrative trade that the priests and princes often monopolised was the oldest and most despotic of all, prostitution.

Temple prostitution was, therefore, a feature of Hinduism and other imperial cultures — and a profitable one too. There were, for example, some 400 women on the payroll at the Rajarajesvara temple in Tanjore in the 11th century. They were procured by priests who roamed the land in search of pretty young girls.

Doubtless the girls were seduced by a theology of mysticism, just as the widows who, as suttees, threw themselves on their dead husbands' funeral pyres believed they were attaining spiritual purity, but the sexual economics of female exploitation provide a candid explanation of what was happening.

As do the statues on the temples. Frankly, they are arousing, even in these jaded times, being more explicit than the photos in today's telephone booths. In short, a millennium ago the temples of India were brothels — they may have been more than that, but they were brothels too — and they advertised their wares as brothels always have. The erotic temple statues of India remind us, therefore, that kings and priests — like politicians today — have always been despots.


Fwd: Malegaon

sept 29th, 2006

interesting mail from an anonymous source. i have no idea about its veracity, and honestly i am a little leery about anonymous tip-offs from "deep throat"-type personalities. but it has some interesting allegations, so go ahead and analyze it :-)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Master Blaster

Dear Sir/Madam
 
I am a Joint Secretary Rank Officer of Government of India. As a responsible citizen I feel it my utmost duty to reveal an unimaginably ghastly attempt of UPA government to mislead the people of India over the matter of terrorism. I am referring to Malegaon Bomb Blast Case.   
 
We know it so very well as to how shamefully the UPA regime has been pursuing the minority appeasement policy. It has almost surrendered to jehadis. Such a brazen and shameless minoritism was raising several eyebrows even among some of the traditional UPA supporters. A Hindu backlash has been a foregone conclusion.    
 
After the Blasts at Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai; the UPA government was under tremendous pressure to take some stern and tough measures against terrorists and their supporters (among Muslim community, of course). But no section of UPA is willing to take such measures, for their "Vote Bank" consideration. Due to this brazen inaction of UPA government (i.e. the soft-approach towards terrorists and their supporters), the average Hindu, particularly the educated ones, have become very angry with them.
 
The situation has reached to such an extent that even the most die-hard supporters of UPA government—the "secularists" of the English-electronic media (ToI, H.T., NDTV, CNN-IBN etc.)—are finding it increasingly difficult to hush-up (if you are not a downright idiot, you must have noticed/sensed this suicidal tendency of our own media, i.e. hushing-up or even justifying the incidents of mass killing of Hindus by Muslims on one pretext or other) the incidents of such mass killings of Hindus.
 
Under tremendous pressure to do something about such incidents, the UPA government has orchestrated this Bomb Blast with the following "secular" objectives in their mind:-
 
  • Primarily, they want to make it appear as if this blast has been carried out by Muslim jehadi organisations (you see, how instantly the Home Minister Mr. Shivraj Patil accepted and termed it as terrorist strike; in total contrast to how dilly-dallying approach he usually takes when Hindus are attacked). One may wonder as to what the UPA Government stands to achieve from this? In UPA's scheme of things, the foremost priority has been to mollify the Hindus' anger towards Muslims—whenever such attacks take place on Hindus. Now hold your breath, they are not doing this because of any noble motives of shielding the Muslims from Hindus' wrath (as no such danger exist) neither because they love Muslims. It is all because of the fact that they think that the Hindus' anger and distrust (towards Muslims) will lead to a massive Hindu Polarization towards BJP/RSS. They think that after this blast at Malegaon the future (inevitable) attacks on Hindus and their places of worship may get secularized!! Believe me, after this incident of Malegaon, the lunatics in UPA think that from now onwards if there is any attack on Hindus and their sacred places the Hindus may be fooled and insinuated into thinking that the terrorists ( i.e. Muslim Jehadi organisations) not only attack the Hindus and their places of worship but Muslims and their places of worship as well (that is why the blasts were engineered just outside a Mosque, that too during the Friday prayers, and a Muslim burial site). These utter lunatics think that when Hindus see Muslim Jehadis attacking the Muslims itself, the average Hindus may not get that angry when they and their places of worship are attacked by Muslim Jehadis! The crux of the matter is that "lunatic seculars" in UPA want to make average Hindus believe that terrorist treat Hindus and Muslims alike, and attack on Hindus is not any specifically Muslim Jehadi deed; rather something of a regular (although severe) criminal deed!! They think that if Hindus are fooled into such thinking their polarization towards BJP/RSS can be checked!!
 
  • The second objective of this engineered attack is to malign and slander the terrorists among the Muslims; to make average Muslim believe that jehadi terrorists are not their friends either. They hope that after such incidents many Muslims will become the hostile to terrorist organisations and will become the informer about the terrorists' activities. Although, to keep muslim masses away from terrorist organisations is a noble cause; but even to think of such steps to achieve this goal in not only criminal but a ridiculous and foolhardy approach as well. In fact, it is utterly stupid even to think that such buffoonery tactics will wean away the Muslims from jehadi organisations. Muslims know it too well that under no circumstances whatsoever (unless there is Shia-Sunni kind of problem); no jehadi organisation will ever attempt to do such a thing—killing the fellow Muslims without any reason. Even if the Blasts were done by Muslims (although, it has been not) and even if Muslim clerics knew of this; they will never openly admit it. I predict that despite the lack of any evidence, they will blame either the Hindu organisations or the security forces for this.
 
Now I would tell some other details that I know about it. What I certainly know about the blasts is that it has been orchestrated by the MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE of UPA regime. I know it for sure that the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi knew about it beforehand (remember the prophetic warning of P.M. in chief Ministers' conference—I think it was perhaps a slip of tongue) However, I am not so sure about the Home Minister; he is probably not into it (though I am not sure). But the master minds behind this are Mr. Sitaram Yechury & a Secretary Rank Officer of Government of India. This man—the secretary (I don't want to name him for my own security concerns, however I must give some hints as to who he is)—is known to be very close to Communist Leaders and it was the communist leaders who foisted him to his present post in such a ministry that is very crucial in communists' scheme of things.
 
How this conspiracy was hatched? It was the Jama Masjid Blasts that gave birth to this conspiracy. Who was behind the Jama Masjid Blasts? Though, I am not certain about it but—being a top ranked government official—I know some innermost information about this. Some police officials had apprehended Imam Bukhari behind this! Why Bukhari did this? He wanted to organise a protest rally in favour of that Phoolpur Mufti who was behind the Varanasi Blasts. He wanted a pretext for such rally. After the Blasts he even organised that rally in favour of Phoolpur Mufti. The Bukhari wanted to create the impression that same set of people were behind both the Blasts—the Varanasi as well as Jama Masjid Blasts. For what reasons; I don't know. However, to ensure that no one is killed in the Blasts (if the people were killed the matter would have snowballed), a very low intensity bomb (probably a fire cracker with wires and crude detonators wrapped around it—as was apprehended by the police) was used. Some police officers wanted to carry the investigation on this line but they were soon browbeaten by the UPA government and the matter was hushed up. Even several media people too know of this. To suppress the matter, as usual, the ISI and Lashker were blamed for it.      
 
However the secularists in media—even though many of them knew that ISI and Lashker had no role into this—used this incident to convince the Muslims that jehadis (ISI, Lashker, Jaish etc.) are as much of their enemies as of Hindus'. Noble though, the aim is but approach is foolish. The fight against the terrorism cannot be fought with such weak-kneed people as secularists are. Instead of facing the problem in a frank way, they want to wish away the very menace of terrorism. Since I am not in a mood to lecture the secularists, therefore I won't say much about this.
 
But it was this approach taken by media on Jama Masjid Blasts that got Mr. Secretary to think of such move. Initially, as I came to know of it, he proposed such idea before communist leaders in a lighter and non-serious way. But Mr. Yechury got immensely impressed by this idea and suggested such a move to Congress Top Brass through a NON-POLITICAL Christian Leader from Kerla. Since I am not 100% sure as to whether this leader was really involved into conspiracy I won't reveal his name; however, as soon as I become sure of his involvement, I will reveal his name.
 
After weighing the pros and cons of the matter, the congress leadership ultimately agreed to it. However some differences emerged within the UPA; whereas the congress wanted to frame Jehadi outfits for this, the communists wanted to implicate some Hindu organisations for this. What ultimately was decided, I don't know. However I was stunned to see that whereas newspapers and T.V. channels, close to Congress, were blaming the Jehadis; a Newspaper considered very close to leftist lost no time in blaming Hindu organisations for this!! It seems that matter remained unresolved (regarding who should be framed for Bombings) till last and has been left open for any type of interpretation by interested parties.
 
UPA has been expecting imminent attack on Hindus during festival season of Dashehra, Durga-Pooja and Deepawali and due to this they had been under considerable pressure. But after perpetrating this Blast they are quite relieved! After the Blasts the conspirators were in a joyous mood and Mr. Secretary termed it as a MASTERSTROKE; as in his opinion, this has achieved two goals simultaneously (1) Blunting RSS/BJP criticism of UPA over attack of Jehadis on Hindus and (2) Getting some informers from among the Muslim community.
 
You must note it in advance—future attacks of Hindus are going to be hushed up under these arguments by media and UPA regime:--
 
  • The Standard Congress line will be--"you see, they attack Muslims too".
 
  • The Standard Leftists Line will be—"you see, Hindus are also attacking Muslims".
 
The ultimate aim of this is to leave Hindus confused and to check their possible polarization towards RSS/BJP. Such is the thinking of the people who are in-charge of running this nation!       
 
Who carried out the bombings? As far as I know, no official machinery has been used to carry out the bombing. I have been informed that sections of Nepali Maoist Cadre and/or CPM Cadre were actively involved into this.       
 
How dramatized and well orchestrated the whole incident is, can be gauged by following events:-
 
  • How a news channel's camera team immediately rushed to the spot?
  • How that particular leftist newspaper (referred above) knew it in advance that no one will be caught for this?
  • To give the incident a dramatic turn an unmanned jeep with huge explosive materials was planted and rumours were created that Blasts were aimed at diverting the police attention for safely smuggling the explosive materials. Only a die hard fool will believe this. Even the common man knows that after such incidents the police become far more active; those who want to smuggle the arms etc. would prefer normal incident free days for this rather than high alert days. But you see how foolish the media is—how seriously they took this propaganda for truth.
  • The composition of investigating team is nothing but a bunch of idiots; I have been told so by my friends in police.  
 
However many foolish people may get impressed with such an idea but in all, it is nothing but a criminal act. I am absolutely sure that this bombing is aimed more at confusing the Hindus than on weaning the Muslims away from terrorist organisations. Even if it is aimed at later, buffoonery apart, it is an unthinkably criminal way to achieve this aim. What is needed is tough and stern measures against jehadi Muslim Leaders (Bukhari, Madani, etc.) and Organisations (Madarsas and other seminaries, particularly the Devbandi and Ahle-Hadisi ones) rather than killing the innocent Muslim Civilians . I guarantee that such moves to fight terrorism and create Muslim informers will certainly fail. However it may end-up confusing the Hindus and may serve as a justification for future killing of Hindus.
 
Due to my personal security reasons I can come into open only when this wretched bunch of criminals—the UPA Government—goes out of power.   However I plead every right thinking citizen of India—Hindu and Muslim alike—to send this mail to as may people as possible. I want this fact to come into open.
 
 
THE INFORMER.


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nytimes on india's growth

sept 29th, 2006

i take this with a large pinch of salt. by concentrating on industry, we will go down a death spiral by destroying the land and the water table and by creating monster cities for a centralized industrial economy. much like the "satanic mills" and mill towns of new england.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/business/worldbusiness/30rupeecnd.html?hp&ex=1159588800&en=66938d7c88a3e722&ei=5094&partner=homepage

agriculture and water management a la tarun bhagat sangh's recharging of the water table and check-dams and other accumulated local knowledge. after all, karikala chola's 1940-year-old grand anicut is still standing in the kaveri delta. this must be the oldest extant irrigation waterworks in the world.

see the second story about the water crisis in delhi. we dont need no huge cities. decentralize!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/asia/29water.html?hp&ex=1159588800&en=b23dcc90599744b6&ei=5094&partner=homepage


WSJ: Why is Musharraf America's favorite dictator?

sept 29th, 2006

the WSJ is being rather sensible in questioning why this administration coddles musharraf so much. but they too miss the issues of pakistan being a) china's proxy, b) involved in ongoing genocide against the baluchis. of course pakistan's ongoing genocide against indians is not a particular concern for the yanks, we all know that.

so does mush have incriminating photos of bush, or what? why is america so tender towards this horrible dictator?

thanks to the indefatigible ram narayanan for forwarding this.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ram Narayanan
Date: Sep 29, 2006 3:51 PM
Subject: Why is Musharraf America's favorite dictator?
To:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115949118500677436.html

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE, SEPTEMBER 29, 2006

COMMENTARY

The Musharraf Exception 

By ROBERT L. POLLOCK 

September 29, 2006; Page A16

Pervez Musharraf is America's favorite dictator. The Bush administration seems to consider the Pakistani general -- who took power in a 1999 military coup -- an indispensable ally, and has yet to publicly pressure him on the democracy front. Democrats and foreign policy thinkers of the "realist" school seem equally comfortable with the idea of Gen. Musharraf running Pakistan for the indefinite future. Indeed, if the purpose of the general's new autobiography -- "In the Line of Fire" -- was to win American sympathy ahead of an attempt to fiddle with next year's presidential election, he probably needn't have bothered.

A recent meeting of the Musharraf fan club took place at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, where Gen. Musharraf gave brief remarks and took questions as he launched his book tour on Monday night. He was treated to standing ovations that exceeded mere politeness as he entered and left the hall. Not one questioner raised the democracy issue. And if the moderator -- former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin -- was curious, he didn't let on. He was too busy extolling Gen. Musharraf's wisdom and the fact that he has been kind enough to employ as prime minister Mr. Rubin's ex-Citibank colleague, Shaukat Aziz.

Even among the "neocon" architects of President Bush's democracy-promotion agenda it's hard to find an unkind word about Gen. Musharraf, as I discovered while spending several days last year in Islamabad with former Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith. Behind this bipartisan support -- or at least acceptance -- is Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, and the perception that Gen. Musharraf is the only thing standing in the way of its takeover by a radical Islamic government. But there are good reasons to doubt this perception, and to suspect that allowing a permanent "Musharraf Exception" to the democracy agenda will do more harm than good.

On the plus side of the Musharraf ledger is, indeed, the obvious fact that the man with the keys to Pakistan's bombs is not a raving Islamic fanatic. He has been an ally -- of convenience, at least -- in the fight against al Qaeda. And his rule, while autocratic, is not oppressive. With a smart and vibrant free press, Pakistan undoubtedly passes what Condoleezza Rice has called the "public square test" -- a fancy way of saying you can speak your mind without fear of being carted away by the cops.

At the same time, however, Gen. Musharraf suffers from his lack of legitimacy among the secular classes who have run Pakistan's democratic governments in the past, and who would almost surely win if another free poll is held. The Islamists got only 11% in the last parliamentary election, but the general is increasingly courting them as he attempts to hold power -- which may be one reason his antiterror efforts haven't included any attempts to crack down on the madrassas. For the same reason, Pakistan's efforts to control Taliban elements operating within its borders seem half-hearted. And when confronted with a question about this at the Council Monday night, Gen. Musharraf launched into an ethnocentric diatribe about supporting Afghanistan's Pashtun majority. Never mind that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a Pashtun. Gen. Musharraf went on at length about the apparently unseemly fact that the late anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud -- a "minority" Tajik, he kept pointing out -- is revered in Kabul.

More broadly, Gen. Musharraf used his Council on Foreign Relations remarks to criticize the Bush administration's broader war on terror. "I feel that we are only using the instrument of the military to combat terrorism," he said, ignoring the democracy agenda. And what does he think the root cause of terrorism is? "Palestine is the core issue," he said, repeatedly. The audience could have been forgiven for thinking it was listening to the tired rhetoric of someone like Hosni Mubarak. But then, Gen. Musharraf seems increasingly like Mr. Mubarak, and less like the modernizer preparing Pakistan for a return to democracy that he claims to be.

Don't get me wrong. Your humble correspondent is under no illusions about the feasibility of immediate democratic revolutions in every country of the Islamic world. But equally, let's have no illusions about Pervez Musharraf. He took power illegitimately in a country with some history of democracy, however imperfect. And now he seems to be in no hurry to give it up. The Bush Doctrine can survive the Musharraf Exception over the short run. But over the longer term, the credibility of our efforts to address the root causes of terror will require nudging Pakistan, too, back toward the democratic path.

Mr. Pollock is a member of the Journal's editorial board. 
____________________________________________________________

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Thursday, September 28, 2006

conspiracies by semites in kerala

sept 28th, 2006

interesting case studies. mohammedans doing their thing, which is open violence and murder. christists doing their thing, which is subtle insinuation and innuendo.

different means, same end: imperialism.

1. an explosive investigative report tabled in the kerala assembly suggests that mohammedan bigwigs were fully aware of the plans for the maraad massacre of hindus. both the NDF of mad'ani and the muslim league (leaders including kunjalikkutty of ice-cream parlor sexual molestation fame, as well as -- get this, possibly the UPA foreign minister at the center, e. ahamed) were part of the conspiracy to kill hindus.

2. the attack on the tantri of sabarimala (he was physically assaulted and beaten up) and the forcible taking of photos of him in the nude with some women -- this was masterminded by a mohammedan named bechu rahman, the photographer was another mohammedan named sattar, and the prime perpetrators include on sobha john, her cousin anil, etc -- all christists. they conspired to attack him because he was a hindu, even though he was a chief priest at one of hinduism's holiest shrines.

3. the other attack on sabarimala, with a dodgy devaprasnam and a woman who claimed she had touched the image, turns out to be another conspiracy. the dodgy devaprasnam astrologer, one parappangadi unnikrishna panicker, turns out to have been a long-term pal of this unheard of kannada actress named jaimala who made the dubious claim that she had 'entered' the sanctum at sabarimala, which is a physical impossibility. this panicker is a fraud; he apparently was trying to blackmail sabarimala. also, it turns out that jaimala is a 'christist by injection', being married to one.

the christists have been targeting sabarimala for some time, because it is affecting their conversion quotas. christists in tamil nadu for instance had made huge headway in converting poor people using their madonna cult of velankanni. (interesting in and of itself because the madonna church stands on a demolished hindu shrine to 'vel-ilang-kanni-amman', the consort of vel-murugan, kartikeya). but the madonna cult has been checkmated by the ayyappa sect: a huge number of poor tamils have become ayyappa devotees. thus the need to destroy the ayyappa temple. besides, it is a pain for christists in their plans to just grab all of the western ghats in kerala. so, in the 1950's, they set the temple of fire! today, they try to destroy it through innuendo.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

air india 182 retrial: the face of terrorism, up close and personal

sept 27th, 2006

and nobody mourns for the human rights of these victims. or of the victims of the mumbai train bombings. or of the pilgrims burned alive in godhra. all the tears are wasted on the perpetrators. this is an abomination. this is simply unjust: the evil ones get the sympathy, the innocent bystanders are forgotten.

the poignancy of the mother never mourning her dead daughter.
that of the son mourning his dead mother.

these are real people, you know. their tears are real. no less real than the tears of the victims of 9/11. but their grief has been devalued, diminished, disrespected. why are the tears of indians so devalued?

there was a beautiful and wrenching short story by bharati mukherjee -- the management of grief -- about this tragedy. this is the only time she has ever been sympathetic to her indian characters.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1159267267118&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

Air India witness tells of `epiphany'
Sep. 26, 2006. 04:07 PM

OTTAWA — A witness testifying at an inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing remembered how as a 12-year-old boy he experienced ``an epiphany" in the hours after learning his mother had been killed in the attack. A shaky-voiced Susheel Gupta took the stand on Day 2 of the federal probe, saying he learned of the crash off Ireland shortly after 6:30 a.m. the day after his mother left on a trip to India to see her parents. Gupta said he left the house to deliver the Sunday newspapers after his father told him and his brother their mother was dead. He said he cried through the entire 90 minutes it took to complete his three newspaper routes, then sat beside a creek near his home and watched as a turtle struggle to right itself after rolling on its back. Gupta told inquiry commissioner John Major he thought what a ``horrible world we live in" as he watched the innocent turtle in its death throes; he equated it with the death of his innocent mother and decided to save the animal. He said he decided then and there he did not want to be part of the same kind of evil that killed his mother, that he wanted to side with the "innocents" of the world, and he returned home full of purpose.

txt Write

Meantime, it took 20 years — and a narrow escape from yet another potential tragedy — for Jayashree Thampi to come to terms with the Air India bombing.

Thampi, who lost her husband Lakshmanan and seven-year-old daughter Preethi in the 1985 terrorist attack, recounted today how the enormity of it all overwhelmed her at the time.

"I closed my mind to the crash, I concentrated on my work at the Bank of Montreal," she told a public inquiry. "I pretended it did not happen to me. In all those years I never cried for my daughter."

The tears didn't come until last August — after Thampi had watched in horror at Toronto's Pearson Airport as an Air France plane carrying her son Vivek skidded off a runway and burst into flames.

This time the ending was a happy one, as Vivek emerged safely into his mother's embrace.

"Nobody understood why I was crying, because my son was safe," Thampi told a hushed hearing room in a trembling voice.

"They didn't know I wasn't crying for the son who made it, but for the daughter who didn't. For the first time in 20 years I mourned the death of my daughter and cried for her."

Thampi is one of dozens of family members who have told — or will tell — their story to the inquiry mandated by the Conservative government to investigate the June 1985 downing of Air India Flight 182 that took 329 lives.

Two Japanese baggage handlers died the same day when another bomb exploded on the ground at Narita Airport near Tokyo. Both blasts were blamed on Sikh extremists campaigning for a homeland in northern India.

Major has set aside the first three weeks of his hearings to let the families of the victims tell their stories in their own words. But they've done more than dwell on their personal grief.

Virtually all so far have added heart-felt appeals to Major to get to the bottom of why Canadian security and police forces failed to prevent the bombing, then botched the criminal investigation that followed.

"Air India was a preventable tragedy," said Thampi. "Why did the system fail?"

It's already known the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had the men suspected of planning the bombing under surveillance for months before the attack.

And it's known that CSIS unthinkingly erased wiretap tapes both before and after the event, thus hampering the work of the RCMP in its effort to gather enough evidence for a criminal prosecution.

Two prime suspects, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, did not face trial until two decades after the bombing — only to be acquitted in a verdict last year that shocked the victims' families.

Major has no power to re-try those cases, but the families cling to the hope that he can shed new light on the affair all the same.

"For 20 years we asked for a public inquiry," noted Padmini Turlapati, a Toronto pediatrician who lost two sons on Flight 182.

Successive governments brushed off the demand for the kind of wide-ranging probe Major is now conducting, insisting that a more tightly focused case before the criminal courts would offer a better hope for justice.

When the verdicts in last year's trial finally came down "it shattered all hope and decimated me back to zero," said Turlapati.

She now puts her trust in Major.

"We have hung in limbo with no closure, as living dead," she told the judge. "We want to know how the system failed us (as) Canadians. Only the truth will set us free and help us heal."

Susheel Gupta, who has grown up to become a federal Crown prosecutor in the years since his mother perished on Flight 182, also expressed hope that justice can yet be done.

"I promised to myself, and to my mother, that I was going to work in a field where I could make my country safer, healthier and happier," said Gupta.

"I could not walk into a court of law today if I did not have faith in our laws and justice system."

That said, he urged Major to consider some changes, including tougher measures to fight terrorist fundraising in Canada and making it easier to strip Canadian citizenship from terrorist suspects and return them to their countries of origin.

Gupta concluded with an impassioned plea for inquiry participants to remember the human consequences of the events they're examining.

"This is the face of terrorism," he said, as a video screen flashed a morgue photograph of his mother's battered face, the caption identifying her simply as victim No. 97.

"As lawyers and academics, many of you . . . will consider issues and scenarios in a vacuum in your debates. I consider that a mistake."

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

to all those sick and tired of being 'motivated'

sept 26th, 2006

these are pretty good antidotes :-)

dont you just hate those feel-good exhortations under cheerfully pretty photos?

http://www.despair.com/viewall.html

hat tip: www.siliconvalley.com

christists' god is a “a misogynistic, ..., racist, infanticidal, ..., capriciously malevolent bully”.

25th sept, 2006


the full quote is: "a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully".

but it wont fit on the blogspot header, so i dropped some of the choice epithets.

but it seems like a pretty accurate description of the creature, yhwh, who is also known as ialdoboath, the blind one.

http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7939629&fsrc=nwlgafree


i called this christist god GOF in a column: a mean, puny, tribal. jealous "god of the fundamentalists", a limited, second-rate, pathetic god.

i like the considerably more explicit statement by richard dawkins, famous for 'the blind watchmaker'.

although i reject atheism and science, being a theist and a believer, i will read this book because it is likely to be a well-reasoned diatribe against faith. in particular, against the blind faith that animates the semites. of course, many people make a shibboleth of science as well -- they have their blind faith in some rosy 'science'-thingy that does not exist.

in this context, i keep thinking, there are so many absurd things semites do: we should point them out and mock them.

1. using up all that fertile land to bury the bones of their worthless brethren. at the rate they are going, they will eventually use up all the land in the world for cemeteries. burial is such an absurd act, fostered by the even more absurd belief of some bodily elevation to some bizarre heaven!

2. eating all those animals, in a particularly environmentally destructive way. their should be a tax on non-vegetarians because they cost so much to maintain -- one pound of meat requires forty times the grain, water, and energy as one pound of vegetable foodstuff. so non-vegetarians like the semites need to be ostracized and taxed heavily

3. their totally anti-environmental perspective was well-articulated by the late james watt, reagan's interior secretary. why, i'm going to cut down all the forests and dig holes in the ground wherever anybody wants, because, after all, the world is going to end in 2000! yes, he actually said this, and he was the *interior secretary* in charge of the land. what a moron! but he's really a good semite, just mouthing the inanities of his blind faith.

oriana fallaci, RIP

sept 25th, 2006

she saw the perils of the mohammedan invasion of europe. and she said so in the strongest possible terms. a fighter, indeed. requiescat in pace. one passionate italian bites the dust.

http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7939667&fsrc=nwlgafree

Monday, September 25, 2006

nytimes: how to win elections using electronic voting machines to cheat

sept 25th, 2006

i dont trust bloody computers. this is because i know computers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/business/yourmoney/24digi.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

quite possible this is what happened in 2004 as well: a stolen election. all it would have taken was a pliable election commission employee or two. and a couple of decent programmers.

this would also explain how the marxists are able to hang on in west bengal despite all the indications to the contrary.

yeah, one man, one vote, one time.

one guy who's liable to be murdered pretty soon

sept 26th, 2006

poor gupta.

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,114335,00.html

remember the christist-mohammedan couple who were hacked to death in bangalore a few months ago by the mohammedan wife's family? of course, the media kept quiet about it, and the christists were too scared to complain, too.

nytimes: chinese supporting agriculture

sept 25th, 2006

well, okay, floriculture, but same idea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/business/worldbusiness/25flower.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

and they're spending $200 billion on refrigeration, roads, etc.

this is the right path to take -- india shoud do the same as well.

ghostwriter, i have seen and appreciated your points about arable land in india; i made the same point before when i calculated that 57% of india's land is arable, and only 14% of china's (plus tibet's) is. but i do appreciate the numbers you provide and your arguments about agriculture. i am going to write about this shortly, but i have been extremely busy.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Pakistan gets OIC support on Kashmir dispute -- IndianMuslims.info

sept 22nd, 2006

but of course they would.

to quote my southern (us) friend, he of the picturesque speech, is the godman catholic?

does the bear ummm... do its thing in the woods?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yash

Pakistan gets OIC support on Kashmir dispute -- IndianMuslims.info

New York, Sep 21 (IANS) In a show of support for Pakistan's position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute with India, the Organisation of Islamic conference (OIC) reiterated that the resolution of the dispute was the necessary condition for the normalisation of relations between the two south Asian neighbours.

"Alleviating the sufferings of Kashmiris would remain a matter of priority for the OIC," OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu observed while addressing the meeting of OIC Contact group on Jammu and Kashmir on the sidelines of UN General Assembly on Wednesday, reported Online news agency.....

Friday, September 22, 2006

more on global warming

sept 22nd, 2006

good of branson to put some money into this.

i think everyone is suddenly -- after the sudden oil price hike and the various manifestations of mohammedan power in europe (the murder of theo van gogh, the paris riots, the danish cartoon incident, the godman incident) -- getting to see that they have to get off the serious dependency on oil.

this is an opportunity for less polluting and renewable biofuels. and also for non-polluting and non-global-warming technologies like solar power.

in a perverse way, OPEC's antics, 9/11, al-qaeda [sic] all will add up to a world that weans itself off of fossil fuels relatively soon. the economic and other incentives are there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/science/22warmcnd.html?ex=1159070400&en=f342b8801f746c6e&ei=5087%0A

the heart bleeds for this arab; saudis "dont want to send their offspring to the us"

sept 21st, 2006

this turki fellow is a convicted rapist and thief. he, a "student" at the ripe old age of 37, raped his indonesian (?) maid, stole her wages and otherwise abused her.

this, according to turki himself, is "traditional mohammedan behavior".

the us authorities apprehended him. and look at the terrible sins they committed against him: a) they (gasp!) forced him to shave his beard, b) they (gasp, gasp!) made his wife take off her headscarf.

not one word of contrition about the crimes against the maid. but then she doesn't matter, she's only a woman. (this is one of mohammedanism's serious vulnerabilities. their womenfolk are going to turn against the guys and start with small things -- like spitting in their food -- and then on to bigger things :-)

the nerve of these yanks! dont they know saudis are the rulers of the world?

and see, in revenge, no saudi "students" will now go to the us. instead they will go to mahathir's malaysia or to australia. i suppose so that they can fly some planes into the petronas towers or the sydney opera house eventually.

thanks to shahryar for finding this obscure article and highlighting some real gems in it. the arab sense of entitlement is astonishing, but not surprising. they believe their ideology of arab imperialism -- mohammedanism -- is winning. after all, their allah gave the arabs oil just so that they could dominate the world, right? otherwise why would so much oil be in their hands? so the whole world must give them extra consideration, which is their right. on the other hand, they dont have to give any consideration to others. they are the natural rulers, after all: this is what arab imperialism teaches them.

yet another good reason to speed up the search for substitutes for oil. let the arabs go back to eating sand and lavishing affection on camels.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shahryar
Date: Sep 20, 2006 7:12 PM
Subject: Al-Turki Episode Makes Saudis Think Twice Before Sending Children to US
To: Rajeev Srinivasan

 
Wednesday, 20, September, 2006 (27, Sha`ban, 1427)
 

Saleh Fareed, Arab News —
 
JEDDAH, 20 September 2006 — Due to the intimidation and harassment Saudi students have been recently experiencing in the United States, especially after what happened to Homaidan Al-Turki and his family, Saudis are thinking twice before sending their children to study in America.
 
"Such discrimination and humiliation would discourage parents from even thinking about sending their children to study in the US," said Muhammad Al-Enezi, 39.
 
On Aug. 31, a Colorado court sentenced Al-Turki to 27 years in prison for sexually assaulting his maid, forcibly imprisoning her and not paying her wages — charges he vehemently denies.
 
Al-Enezi, a teacher at one of the largest high schools in Jeddah, said that many of his students who had been contemplating of studying in the US now showed no interest in heading there.
 
"Most of them refuse to continue their college education in the US and they have the support of their parents. It's obvious that they've decided so after hearing about the mistreatment and intimidation suffered by other Saudi students in the US," he said.
 
Jamal Al-Najjar, a government employee and father of two, urged the Saudi government to put pressure on the US administration to change its policy toward Saudi students.
 
Al-Najjar hopes that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will interfere and bring a solution to the issue relating to Al-Homaidan, who was sentenced in the US under "false accusations."
 
"I am not going to sacrifice my sons by sending them to the US as long as they keep mistreating our children and abusing them for no reasons. My two sons will be graduating this year from high school and I will never ever think of sending them to America," Al-Najjar said.
 
"I know of many parents that have changed their plans and are sending their children to other destinations such as Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The US is not the right place for our children and I hope all parents do not think about sending their children to any part of the US," he added.
 
According to the latest statistics, there has been a noticed decrease of GCC students in the US, the biggest drop being in Saudi numbers.
 
"This is because of the new political climate after Sept. 11, 2001, and the fact that Muslims in the US are facing many difficulties for mistakes that could be dealt in a less aggressive way," said 29-year-old Ahmed Al-Falih, who is currently studying at a university in the US Midwest.
 
Speaking to Arab News by telephone, he described the situation of Saudi students as unsafe. "Many students feel scared. They expect the unexpected just like Al-Turki who has been accused of rape and other things that he did not do."
 
Meanwhile, a Saudi tourist returning from the United States recently expressed anger and frustration at mistreatment suffered at the hands of US authorities when he was detained for a couple of hours at the J.F. Kennedy Airport.
 
"I thought things would have calmed down after all these years but the situation is still tense and Arabs are discriminated against and mistreated," said Mamdouh Al-Saeed, 24.
 
Al-Saeed added that he would not feel comfortable going to the US for further education in the current climate.
 
Al-Turki, 37, said that US authorities were persecuting him for "traditional Muslim behaviors". He blamed anti-Muslim prejudice for his conviction and the severity of the sentence. He claimed that the prosecutors persuaded the maid to accuse him after they failed to build a case against him as a terrorist.
 
People across Saudi Arabia have little faith in the US government and constantly accuse the authorities there of double standards by harshly punishing Al-Turki, while simultaneously letting off the perpetrators behind the Abu Ghraib fiasco in Iraq with a slap on the wrist.
 
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.


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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

ignore agriculture at our own peril

sept 19, 2006

and why isn't the agriculture minister at the center doing hara-kiri over this?

why isn't the maharashtra government resigning?

yeah, bring in heavy industry and pollute the land; kill off the local genetic variation and become dependent on GM seeds from the yanks. nice going, sonia gandhi and sitaram yechuri.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/world/asia/19india.html?ei=5087%0A&en=565a95908a0fedbd&ex=1158811200&pagewanted=all

a bad idea to mess with rivers

sept 19, 2006

this is why i am concerned about the consequences of large-scale shifting of the hydrological environment.

the army corps of engineers did this in the florida everglades, causing serious havoc.
the soviets built the aswan dam, causing the nile's silt to back up behind the dam, just like it's going to these 'birds-foot' islands in the mississippi delta, going to unwanted places.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/science/19rive.html?ei=5087%0A&en=ac11008747c1227e&ex=1158811200&pagewanted=all

macarthur 'genius' grant for california woman doing tropical medicine in india

sept 20th, 2006

is this 'black fever' kala azar? if so, this is one useful white person. most drug firms refuse to do drugs for tropical diseases because there's more money in drugs for diseases of the affluent such as cancer and heart disease and depression.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/15556412.htm

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

brahma chellaney: Sun rises again

sept 19th, 2006

it is good to see that japanese leaders are discovering their spine.

in stark contrast to india with manmohan 'havana man' singh whose motto is: "here, let me bend over for you, musharraf, so you can kick me real good. and oh, while you're at it, do point out a choice spot to bush as well."

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brahma Chellaney

A politically resurgent Japan is intent on shaping the evolving power balance in Asia

 

Sunrise nation

Brahma Chellaney

September 19, 2006 Hindustan Times

A week from now, Japan's Parliament will pick a new Prime Minister. The outcome is already evident: Shinzo Abe is set to be elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Born a decade after the end of World War II, Abe symbolises the ongoing generational change in Japanese politics, which has long been dominated — India-style — by old men. Abe is expected to accelerate the nationalist shift in policy instituted by outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Such is the international hype over China that it is frequently forgotten that Japan remains the world's second largest economic powerhouse — after the US — and has an economy that is more than double the size of China's. As Asia's first economic success story, Japan has always inspired other Asian States. Now, with the emergence of new economic tigers and the ascent of China and India, Asia is collectively bouncing back from two centuries of historical decline.

The most far-reaching but least-noticed development in Asia in the new century has been the political resurgence of Japan. With Japanese pride and assertiveness rising, the nationalistic impulse has become conspicuous. Tokyo is intent on influencing the Asian balance of power to avert the rise of unipolarity in Asia.

A series of subtle moves has already signalled Japan's aim to break out of its pacifist cocoon. Abe, the son of a former foreign minister and grandson of a post-war prime minister earlier imprisoned by the Americans as a Class-A war criminal, plans to revise Japan's US-imposed Constitution within five years. The main thrust of the move is likely to be on the elimination of the military proscription enshrined in Article IX.

Over the last decade, as China began to enjoy in its moment in the sun, the 'Land of the Rising Sun' began to feel threatened by the lengthening shadow of a neighbouring giant, whose economic modernisation it had advanced by providing $ 30 billion in cheap yen loans in addition to making large direct investments. As if to make this threat look real, China's bellicose anti-Japanese rhetoric shook Tokyo out of its complacency and diffidence, setting in motion Japan's political rise. Tokyo may not share Beijing's obsession with indices of national power, but Japan's military establishment, except in the nuclear sphere, remains the most sophisticated in Asia.

One major element underpinning Tokyo's new confidence is its economic recovery after a prolonged period of stagnation. The sun is rising again. Economic data show Japan has come out firmly from a lost decade, a period in which its loss became China's gain.

For resource-poor Japan, endowed only with human talent and abundant fresh water, the key to future success is exactly what had spurred its past success: an emphasis on leading-edge technologies while maintaining a vaunted tradition of craftsmanship. Thus, even during its economic stagnation, Japan continued to increase its rate of investment in science and technology (S&T), resulting in innovations such as plastic that conducts electricity, which is now widely used in mobile phones. Last spring, identifying eight priority sectors for promoting innovation, Tokyo announced a plan for investment of 25 trillion yen in S&T over the next five years.

A major threat to Japan's competitive edge, however, comes from within — a declining birth rate and an ageing population. For the first time ever, the number of natural deaths surpassed the number of births last year. Compared with the US's fertility rate of 2.1, Japan's is at a record low of 1.29. This has important economic and social implications.

One way for Japan to prop up science-based innovation in the face of declining births is to open its universities and technology centres to foreign researchers. This is no easy task for any of the homogenised societies of East Asia. But just as Japan has come to live with the discomforting fact that the top sumo wrestlers of today are non-Japanese, it will have to open its research institutions to foreigners in order to raise productivity.

No prime minister has shaken up Japan more than the still-popular Junichiro Koizumi, who, despite leading the LDP to one of its largest parliamentary majorities just a year ago, is doing what no Indian leader has done: voluntarily quit office.

In his five-and-a-half years in power, Koizumi laid the foundation of a more muscular Japan. As he leaves office, he can draw satisfaction from the fact that he has built popular support for removing the shackles enshrined in the pacifist Constitution. Under him, Japan has shown the resolve not to kowtow to a China eager to supplant the US as the main player in Asia.

Koizumi's exceptional legacy has got linked to the controversial Yasukuni shrine, a Shinto war memorial. The shrine, seen by Beijing and Seoul as an emblem of Japan's past militarism, became the symbol of a major policy change under Koizumi. To Japanese nationalists, his visits to Yasukuni, in central Tokyo, have epitomised Japan's return to being a 'normal' State.

Koizumi loosened constitutional constraints to make it possible to send troops and naval tankers overseas. He introduced legislation to elevate the Japan Defence Agency to full ministry status. Under him, Tokyo has also expressed its desire to slash its generous, $ 3.7-billion annual financial support to US forces stationed in Japan.

Such actions underlined Koizumi's determination to expand Japan's strategic options and create a more autonomous defence structure, even as China's accumulating power has prompted Tokyo to reinvigorate its military ties with the US. Building strategic autonomy will remain a priority under Abe, who has derisively compared Japan's past diplomacy to performing "sumo to please foreign countries on a ring they made, abiding by their rules".

Asian security will be shaped by the equations between Japan, China and India — Asia's three main powers — and their bilateral relations with the US. Booming trade in Asia, however, does not signify improving political ties. China is Japan's largest trading partner, but that has not prevented Beijing from aggressively employing the history card against Tokyo. Taiwan is the largest single investor in China, but that has not stopped Beijing from pursuing military plans for a full-scale invasion of the self-governing island. China is India's fastest-growing trading partner, but that has not halted Chinese actions antithetical to Indian interests.

Evidently, history testifies that close, interdependent economic relations do not ensure political moderation and mutual restraint. It is thus important for Japan and China, and India and China, to build stable political ties. The three seem to recognise that imperative, because they have a stake in maintaining the peaceful diplomatic environment on which their continued economic growth and security depend.

While China's rise has drawn Japan and India closer to the US (and to each other), Tokyo and New Delhi are both interested in building greater room for manoeuvre vis-à-vis Washington. To do so, they need to manage their relations with China well. Deterioration in ties with Beijing will increase Tokyo's or New Delhi's need for strategic help from the US. Similarly, for China, rising tensions with Japan or overt dissonance with India only undercut its appeal in Asia and in the world, making it more difficult for it to realise its larger geopolitical ambitions.

The emerging new Japan is keen to bolster ties with India. Given the present Asian power disequilibrium, New Delhi needs such strategic leverage. It also requires Japanese technology, FDI and market access to speed up its economic modernisation. Once Abe takes charge, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Tokyo visit ought to be finalised soon.

The writer's latest book, Asian Juggernaut: The Rise of China, India and Japan(HarperCollins), is being published soon.

 

Monday, September 18, 2006

last comment on the godman and his moves

sep 18, 2006

christism and mohammedanism are identical imperialist ideologies, just like marxism. they are not religions. so the godman criticizing mohammedans is pretty much the pot calling the kettle black.

but the interesting thing is the power of those supporting the mohammedans. they have forced the godman to eat his words. this is worth noting. christism's leading godman floated a trial balloon, but had to retreat headlong and make a quasi-apology.

this is further evidence that christism is dying. it started dying when the so-called 'enlightenment' in europe caused ordinary whites to stand up and tell the godmen that the ideology they were pushing was nonsense. it has not stopped declining. it's only in third world countries that christist money from white people is propping up this wretched dogma.

the question is, will euro-america decline fast enough that christists won't have enough money to destroy other cultures such as hinduism?

the answer is in the affirmative for mohammedanism because it wont be long before oil becomes worthless again and the arabs can go back to their camels and eating sand. and the yanks will seize and nationalize all their overseas assets.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yash

Two sides of the same coin
9/16/2006, Shachi Rairikar
 

the level of the godman's intellect

sept 18, 2006

godman ratzinger is fully behind this attack on evolution. so that shows the level of *his* evolution. next he will be talking about the flat earth. these christist fundamentalists are all alik; remember that russian orthodox godman moron nikon whose oeuvre we considered here in an earlier discussion.

anybody think ratzy is any better than or different from the most obscurantist mullah? what exactly is the difference between ratzy and bukhari? nothing.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,71795-0.html?tw=rss.index

We need the best for the brightest .....Arun Shourie

sep 18th, 2006

what we should really be worrying about: not the 'piss process', or the godman's foot-in-mouth disease, but the widespread efforts by the crypto-mohammedan arjun singh to bring india down to the level of pakistan in education.

read this and weep.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yash

We need the best for the brightest
Arun Shourie
 
An inverse snobbery is afoot. We are lectured every other day: "What is needed is universal, free, primary education." From this comes the unstated inference: "Institutes of higher learning - the IITs, IIMs - are institutions of, and for the elite. They must be bent to serve the poor, suffering, excluded backwards."

No one can deny that we must spread primary education at the fastest pace possible. That China has achieved near universal literacy and just about 60 per cent of us are literate - and that too only on our definition of "literacy", that is that a person is able to sign his name - must account for some of the difference between China and India today. Nor does one need much argumentation to see that we must wholly reorient our school education: it consists almost entirely of imparting information, and then trapping the student in the exams into revealing what he does not know; when she can get the information at the click of a mouse, of what significance is it that she has or hasn't memorised the date of the Battle of Plassey? Contrast what our NCERT textbooks' controversies, with the report in the International Herald Tribune the other day [1 September, 2006] about the textbook that has been put out in China's Shanghai region: Bill Gates and JP Morgan get prominence while Mao is mentioned in just one sentence - it explains that when flags are flown at half-mast when a person like Mao dies. That's it.

Nor can anyone dispute that one of the things we must expand is vocational education. Seventy per cent of those who graduate have degrees in Arts. One, they don't want to do the sorts of jobs that are available. Two, employers have little use for them. Third, you can't find a plumber¿ Krishan Khanna, an alumni of IIT, Kharagpur, an evangelist for vocational education, points to the telling contrast: India has about 5,000 ITIs (under the Ministry of Labour) and about 7,000 vocational schools (under the Ministry of HRD; and never the twain shall meet!); China has about 500,000 secondary vocational schools.

There can be no dispute about the need for expanding primary and vocational education, nor for the need to reorient them totally. It is the inference that is drawn, "IITs and IIMs are for the elite, higher education is for the elite," which is errant nonsense. Higher learning, and the Research and Development work that can follow only from such higher learning are just as necessary. Not "Either/or", as Vinoba would say, but "And also".

The growing gap

We often pride and comfort ourselves with the observation, "We have one of the largest pools in the world of scientific and technical manpower." But clearly, the numbers, large in absolute terms, are not large enough: look at the way salaries, even starting salaries have shot up in the last five years in IT, ITES and similar professions: they speak to a grave shortage.

Even if the absolute figures of engineers and scientists are taken at face value, numbers by themselves don't go far. While celebrating the impressive jump in enrollment in higher education - the 1991 Census had counted 20 million with graduate and higher degrees, and 53 million by 2003; while pointing out that enrollment in science and engineering courses had risen faster than overall enrollment: 2.7 times in science and 10 times in engineering; the NCAER's India Science Report, sets out some telling figures that give pause. Almost 30 per cent of those who have finished 12th class or higher in science are not working in jobs requiring scientific learning: they are either unemployed or are housewives. The figure is 20 per cent in the case of science graduates, and 14 per cent for those with Ph. Ds in science. Of science graduates, only a third are employed in "professional and technical" assignments. And on the other side, many employed in science-centered jobs turn out not to be sufficiently qualified. Of post-graduates who are unemployed, two-thirds have studied science. Of Diploma Holders who are unemployed, 53 per cent belong to the science stream¿

But sub-optimal utilisation is just one aspect. A presentation of Dr. R.A. Mashelkar points me to two studies and the indices of output they sketch - Science and Engineering Indicators, 2006, Volumes I and II, National Science Board, Arlington, VA; and R.N. Kostoff, D. Johnson, C.A. Bowles and S. Dodbele, Assessment of India's Research Literature, Office of Naval Research and Northrop Grumman, Arlington, VA. These show an alarming slippage - of effort, of attainments, of standards.

Consider one index: the number of papers that are being published by China and India in high-calibre journals - ones that are accessed by Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index. The Kostoff study indicates that in 1980, papers from China were one-fifteenth of the papers produced from India. In 1995, they became about equal. By 2005, papers originating from China had become almost thrice those from India. Between these dates, papers from India increased by 2.5, China's ten times. Kostoff and his associates point out that the scientific output of South Korea already exceeds that of India, and that of Taiwan and Brazil is catching up fast.

As part of the dramatic growth in Chinese research output may be caused by the multiplication of journals, Kostoff and his colleagues turned to three high Impact Factor journals - the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Physical Review Letters, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "India had noticeably more publications in the three journals prior to about 2000," they note. In 2005, their figures show, Chinese researchers published more than five times the number of papers than Indian researchers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Mashelkar points to his own field, Chemistry: every eighth paper published in Chemical Abstracts is now from China; every fortieth Indian.

Nor is this accidental. The US National Science Board's Science and Engineering Indicators shows the focused effort behind China's leap. In 1991, China was spending around $ 12 billion on R&D, $ 85 by 2003. Our total R&D expenditure is around $ five billion. Over this period, China's academic R&D expenditure increased ten-fold. "China's R&D expenditures are rapidly approaching those of Japan, the second largest R&D performing nation," the study notes. "OECD data show China's investment at 17% of Japan's in 1991 but at 74% of Japan's in 2003." The National Science Board's analysts observe, "such a rapid advance on the leading R&D performing countries and regions would still be unprecedented in recent history."

This emphasis on R&D is bearing results. Focusing on five high-technology industries, Science and Engineering Indicators shows that "In 2003 China had surpassed Japan as a producer of high-technology goods¿ China's rise from a mere $ 23 billion in 1990 to $ 224 billion in 2003, remarkable both for its speed and consistency, moved its share of world high-technology exports to 12%, beyond Japan's share," which by then had been pushed down to 9%. Not just papers by Chinese researchers are now such an important proportion of high-impact publications, their work is being translated into products. And many of these high-technology industries add sinews to military prowess.

This effort of China has only accelerated with each passing year. While we are on a course to undermine the few islands of excellence that have survived, the IITs and IIMs, China has set itself a target at the opposite end: one hundred world-class universities. Mashelkar points out how it has already begun pursuing this target. It is giving each of its ten leading universities $ 125 million - around Rs. 550 crore each. The two foremost universities - Beijing and Tsinghua - are being given $ 225 million each - around Rs. 1,200 crore each! In the second phase, China has decided to allocate similar grants to thirty more universities.

I leave the task of collecting comparable figures about our universities as an exercise for you, dear reader!

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Somali cleric calls for pope's death & Italian nun shot in Somalia.

sept 17th, 2006

this is quite entertaining. the crusades starting again?

it would be nice if the semites go to war with each other: two identical, ruthless, imperialist ideologies at each other's throats. the rest of us can then watch from the sidelines and just mind the collateral damage.

christism == white imperialism
mohammedanism == arab imperialism


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yash

Somali cleric calls for pope's death  - theage.com.au
 

A HARDLINE cleric linked to Somalia's powerful Islamist movement has called for Muslims to "hunt down" and kill Pope Benedict XVI for his controversial comments about Islam.

...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060917/ap_on_re_af/somalia_nun_killed

Italian nun shot dead by Somali gunmen-- http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/brand/SIG=br2v03/*http://www.ap.org  

MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR, Associated Press Writer 41 minutes ago
MOGADISHU, Somalia - An Italian nun was shot dead at a hospital by Somali gunmen Sunday, hours after a leading Muslim cleric condemned Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks on Islam and violence.The nun, who was not immediately identified, was shot in the back at S.O.S. Hospital in northern Mogadishu by two gunmen, said Mohamed Yusuf, a doctor at the facility, which serves mothers and children. The nun's bodyguard and a hospital worker were also killed, doctors said.
...

'piss process' to start again

sept 17th, 2006

never mind the 200 innocents murdered in cold blood in mumbai's trains.

the 'piss process' is so important that manmohan singh has restarted it.

what a sorry apology for a leader!

ratzy eats his words

sep 17th, 2006

godman ratzinger is a lion when it comes to hindus because he's pretty confident no hindu assassin will go after him. but he is a lamb when it comes to mohammedans as it's quite likely some mohammedan will now attempt to murder him (like a mohammedan turk attempted to kill godman john paul 2). so he's backpedalling furiously.

one could say he realized he over-reached himself. the church doesn't count for much these days, given the media's embrace of mohammedan petro-dollars. the fact that ratzy heads the oldest, biggest, and most ruthless MNC isn't cutting it these days. the saudis have many billions to spend and journalists and politicans (like george galloway of the uk) and happily feeding at that particular trough (i guess saying 'pork-barrel' would hurt tender mohammedan sentiments again, and we can't have that, can we?).

ratzy tried to say he was merely quoting someone. but he was pretty transparent in his over-cleverness: why did he quote this particular person, unless he agreed with whatever was said by him?

'god's rottweiler' is turning into 'god's poodle'.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pope-Muslims.html?hp&ex=1158552000&en=1bf0fbecf10b5603&ei=5094&partner=homepage

meanwhile, mohammedans are setting fire to churches and killing nuns and so forth. the usual.

what should hindus do now?

a) add fuel to the fire by saying ratzy should not have said these things, and that we sympathize with genuine 'hurt mohammedan sentiments'

b) be totally sanctimonious and ask 'why can't we all get along?' -- the useful idiot litany. we could also offer to mediate between the christists and the mohammedans (just as the limeys offer to mediate)

any other ideas?

nytimes: wheat acreage diminishes in the us

sep 17th, 2006

just in time for india to increase its imports of wheat.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/business/16wheat.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

Saturday, September 16, 2006

meanwhile china makes merry with africa

sept 16, 2006

the yanks are also getting a little worried about chinese making like a big power, giving aid and whatnot with a flourish.

back at the ranch, india's 'secular' honchos do some navel-gazing, figuring out how to deal with the godman ratzinger attacking mohammedanism. must put sonia and arjun singh on the horns of a dilemma, i suppose? which semites do you support now?

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2006/gb20060914_000920.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

Thursday, September 14, 2006

NSHR Backs Saudi Convicted of Maid Abuse in US

sept 14th, 2006

look at the sense of entitlement:

this arab raped his indonesian maid and stole her money. what about her human rights? oh, i forgot she only has 1/4 a human right.

but now the arabs are upset that he's not given 5-star treatment in jail.

they expect that just like ma'dani got a spa with 10 ayurvedic physicians at his disposal in coimbatore, all mohammedans are entitled to special treatment.

in contrast, remember that poor 80 year old sikh priest who was starved, beaten, and terrorized to death in jail in california. http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/mar/22rajeev.htm

and they remember international laws like the geneva convention only when it suits them. what about poor maniappan kutty who was beheaded by mohammedans in afghanistan? http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/16rajeev.htm

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shahryar
Date: Sep 14, 2006 6:52 PM
Subject: NSHR Backs Saudi Convicted of Maid Abuse in US
To: Rajeev Srinivasan

 
Thursday, 14, September, 2006 (21, Sha`ban, 1427)

 
 
JEDDAH, 14 September 2006 — The head of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has asked the US State Department to treat humanely a Saudi citizen in Colorado who was sentenced to 28 years to life in prison for abusing his maid.
 
NSHR President Bandar Al-Hajjar met Erica Barks-Ruggles, deputy assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor at the US State Department, in Riyadh on Tuesday.
 
According to the NSHR, Homaidan Al-Turki, 37, was forced to shave his beard in prison and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, who pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was transferred to immigration officials on Sept. 1 for deportation, was allegedly forced to remove her hijab while in custody.
 
"The NSHR will focus on the inhuman treatment Al-Turki faces in prison," said Al-Hajjar.
 
Al-Hajjar requested that Al-Turki be treated according to the international laws and treaties. He said: "Ramadan is approaching and Al-Turki will be fasting during the holy month. As a diabetic, the inmate will also require special dietary needs." Al-Hajjar also said he hoped Al-Turki would be allowed courtyard access and an adequate room.
 
Al-Turki was found guilty in June of 12 counts of forced sexual contact with his Indonesian maid, theft of the maid's $150-a-month wages that were never paid, and false imprisonment and conspiracy to imprison her.
 
The Saudi public has viewed the verdict as harsh, says Al-Hajjar, with many suspecting that Al-Turki's nationality and religion played a key factor in the sentence.
 
Last week, federal prosecutors filed a motion to drop their charges, citing "outstanding work" by prosecutors in Arapahoe County, Colorado, where the charges were filed. The federal prosecutors also said they didn't want to subject the maid, whose identity is being concealed because of the sexual nature of the charges, to further testimony on the bench.
 
"We sincerely hope that the authorities in America will abide by the international laws of human rights," said Al-Hajjar.
 
The United States' treatment of prisoners has been under global scrutiny due to the shirking of the Geneva Conventions regarding the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, many of whom have been denied or given limited access to legal counsel.
 
The NSHR took the opportunity to address the treatment of Guantanamo detainees at the meeting. "They are being treated inhumanely which violates human rights treaties and laws," Al-Hajjar said he told Barks-Ruggles.
 
The NSHR reiterated its call for US officials to charge the Guantanamo detainees and bring them to trial in civil courts. "The detainees' continued presence in the American detention distorts the image of American justice and human rights in front of the Saudi public," said Al-Hajjar.
 
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.


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