Category: Uncategorized

(According to the film’s Director, Michael Bay, they made about $850,000 for advertising various products. He had called his corporate friends to place their products in the film. Ed.)

By Kanishk Tharoor (Open Democracy)

Five years ago, Indian voters comprehensively shredded the predictions of their country’s chattering class, toppling the then ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and sweeping to power the centrist Congress party. Analysts, pollsters, and journalists at the time all expected a BJP triumph, believing too readily the hype surrounding the BJP’s promise of an “India Shining”. The country’s electorate – the largest in the world – proved them woefully wrong.
Once again, the Indian voter has upstaged the Indian commentator. While many predicted that the ruling Congress-led coalition would shade this year’s national elections, none foresaw the emphatic victory that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claimed this weekend. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) – comprising the Congress and its remaining regional allies – won 263 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha (the lower house of parliament), a measly nine seats short of the required majority. Congress leaders need only cherry pick small, convenient parties to make up the deficit.

The Hindu nationalist BJP and its allies, under the umbrella of the New Democratic Alliance (NDA), return to the opposition after only mustering 158 seats, trailing by a yawning chasm of over one hundred MPs. They now look on morosely as Congress builds a coalition government likely to be the strongest and most stable in over two decades of fractious politics.

Open Democracy
(Submitted by reader)

The really impressive thing about Obama is his fearlessness about taking up multiple issues to put forward a broadly progressive viewpoint, one that is well ahead of the US public. Just in the past week, he covered new auto emissions standards, the need for empathy on the part of judges, the abortion issue at Notre Dame, Palestine with

Netanyahu, and Guantanamo today. For any other national leader, dealing with just one of these issues would be an achievement.
Sekhar Ramakrishnan

Washington Post

The Atlantic
both about Obama’s meeting with human rights groups yesterday,

New York Times about Obama’s speech today on Guantanamo,

Washington Post

Washington Post

Washington Post
all three about Obama applying pressure on Netanyahu and Israel,

Huffington Post
analyzing how the NY Times distorted the whole story to make it appear that the meeting with Netanyahu was about Iran, and

New York Times
with the text of Obama’s speech, contain all the material below.

The Atlantic
with the reaction of a conservative who opposes torture and Guantanamo,

C-SPAN
with the complete Obama speech, and

Washington Post
a short video with key points made by Obama.

Rising Kashmir News

Srinagar, May 23: To facilitate female prisoners and their children, the State government Saturday amended the manual for the superintendence and management of jails in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to a notification issued by the Home Department, a child with its mother is not a prisoner and is entitled to food, shelter, medical care, clothing, education and recreational facilities as a matter of right.

Before sending a woman, who is pregnant to jail, it shall be ensured that the jail in question has the maximum basic facilities for child delivery as well as for providing prenatal and postnatal care for mother and the child, the notification states. “In such cases, the facilities of District Government Hospital must be availed.”
According to the notification remedies would be made available to pregnant female prisoner to have delivery outside the prison and where birth takes place in prison, only the name of the locality shall be recorded with the birth registration office.

Following the amendment, a female prisoner would be allowed to keep her child till it attains the age of six years.

“Thereafter, the child would be handed over to suitable surrogate as per the wishes of the mother or shall be sent to suitable institution run by the Social Welfare Department. The children admitted outside the jail shall be allowed to meet their mother in the jail once a week,” the notification states. “The child would be given proper education and recreation opportunities and kept in a crèche or nursery, which would be preferably run outside the main prison premises. Every child who is allowed to remain with his or her mother in the jail would be provided the facility of crèche or nursery and visitation by relatives and NGOs.”

Rising Kashmir for more
(Submitted by Pritam Rohila)

Friday, May 22, 2009/THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL

By Harris Khalique

Around forty politicians and civil rights campaigners belonging to socialist and social democratic parties in Asia have gathered in Manila to look at the systemic crisis of global capitalism the world is witnessing and the search for policy and practical solutions. A few are representing the Argentinian, Swedish and German left as the conference is supported by FES, the political foundation belonging to the leading leftwing party of Germany, SPD, and Olof Palme International Centre, named after the late prime minister of Sweden, who was very popular and assassinated by a bigot outside a cinema hall after he and his wife watched a movie together and were going home. (My fellow countrymen and women, this is possible in some countries that those possessing highest political offices go to public places and use public transport).

At the conference, not everyone is represented but the presence of some sitting Asian parliamentarians, South East Asian academics and leaders of some formidable political parties from ten Asian countries make the event both lively and engaging. Conspicuous by their absence are representatives from Indian political parties. Because to me, the real party practising social democracy, both through its policies and political action, in the Indian subcontinent is Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM), primarily in Bengal and for quite some time influencing or ruling other states with the help of likeminded parties, like in Kerala. Leftist parties who decide to participate in the electoral process in a broad-based democracy cannot avoid becoming social democrats in real practice. We see the same happening with socialist parties in Europe but those who call themselves communists in South Asia become defensive if you question the purity of their ideology in practice. Nevertheless, the debate between the ones proposing radical change and the ones asking for reformative transformation continues in the backdrop.

Something that everyone tends to agree upon at the conference is a unique opportunity for pro-people forces in the world to deconstruct and redefine the global fiscal arrangement on the one hand and challenge the dominating role of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO in running the economies of the third world on the other. Speculation in industry, especially food commodities, must stop and progressive taxation must be levied in order to ensure that education and health care are not left at the mercy of the market. The main speakers asked for putting an end to privatisation of social services and supporting the demand for higher real wages by strengthening trade unions and social movements. One of the speakers highlighted the prospects of reshaping the economic system in the wake of environmental damages to the planet. He stressed on the existence of an inherent link between exploiting natural resources to the hilt for high profiteering and rapid climate change. The participants were critical of the tendency of some neo-liberal apologists to put the blame for the current crisis on some greedy individuals running companies and banks instead of unequal income distribution and wage stagnation. The Argentinian delegate, associated with Nueva Sociedad, gave a reality check. He said that the left around the world must not see Latin America as the saviour. Some steps that are taken in the continent by its nationalist politicians which are definitely radical but Latin American left in reality is not anti-capitalist but anti neo-liberalism and anti-economic imperialism. He said that re-nationalisation of oil in Venezuela and gas in Bolivia is in effect re-negotiation of contracts with trans-national companies, which in effect is a fundamental change in approach and a step in the right direction but not to be confused with ending private ownership per se.

In such conferences, one is made to realise again that the existing discourse of the left in Pakistan is fraught with inadequacies, rhetoric without contemporary knowledge and a weak understanding of the global economy. Our narrative must reflect the changes that have taken place in world’s political economy and relate it to the possibility of an indigenous Pakistani theory of economy and polity based on collectivism and inclusion.

(Submitted by Abdul Hamid Bashani Khan)

Dr. Sarojini Sahoo talks to Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal

Sarojini Sahoo (born 1956) is a reputed Indian feminist bilingual writer who has won the Orissa Sahitya Academy Award (1993), the Jhankar Award (1992), the Bhubaneswar Book Fair Award, and the Prajatantra Award. She writes in both Oriya and English and besides her eight novels and eight anthologies of short stories in Oriya, she has published one novel and two collections of short stories in English. Her novel The Dark Abode has gained critics’ appreciation abroad and has been translated into many languages like French, Bengali and Malayalam. Two of her novels have been published from Bangladesh. Besides writing, she has been also an Associate Editor of a city based monthly magazine Indian AGE published from Vadodara and Chennai. She is a known blogger for her ideas in feminism and has gained world wide fame. Thanalonline has commented thus about her literary genius: “Her novels have gained a reputation for the frankness about sexuality and of feminist outlook.” She is also in Advisory Board of Indian Journal of Post Colonial Literature, published by English Department of Newman College, Thodupuzaha, Kerala. In a detailed conversation, Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal (another Advisory Editor of IJPCL) engages Sarojini on several issues related to, feminism and her creative art.

Your website ‘sarojinisahoo.com’ introduces you thus: “She writes with a greater consciousness of women’s bodies, which would create a more honest and appropriate style of openness, fragmentation and non-linearity.” Is not this candid and frank portrayal of female body anti-woman? The titillating material provided by the feminists may arouse the opposite-sex and may further make the women playthings in the hands of men. In the poem ‘An Introduction’ by Kamala Das, we have the candid expression: “I became tall, my limbs swelled and one or two places sprouted hair.” I think this type of excessively candid expression may titillate the baser instincts of the men to make them sex-maniacs and thus creating a long army of parochial men, considering a woman just a toy for the gratification of their desires. What are your views on this?

It is very important to understand that this social movement centers on the notion that sexual freedom is an essential ingredient of women’s freedom. I believe in sexual self-determination of women where each woman has the right to determine who she will be intimate with. I am strongly against the system where without being judged for her choices, a woman is forced to be involved with her partner. According to my survey, between 60 to 70 percent of married women of India don’t know what an orgasm is in their whole life. Only they are used by their husbands and become a mother of children. Our Shastras also support this milieu as “Putrathe Kriyate Bharya” (means: wife is meant for a son).

I stand just as strongly for a woman’s right not to have sex (of any kind) if she doesn’t want to and I believe that women who make that decision deserve support and protection as well. I refuse to be a victim of some imaginary universal male sexual sadism. As a human being, I always argue about equal status for women and I refuse to believe that by denying our sexual selves, women can be equal with men.

But what I oppose is patriarchal society’s unfortunate decision to grant more liberation for a man than a woman. Our current society uses woman as an object and not as a human being. If a painter paints a nude of a woman, we can appreciate it as a masterpiece. We can enjoy the erotic sculpture showing women’s nude bodies on the temple wall.

We can digest all these from the pen and brush of a male artist, but if Kamala Das writes, we feel disturbed thinking that society is now in danger. When Sunil Ganguly writes about his affairs with other ladies, it is cited as a literary boldness, but when Kamala Das expresses her passion, it is considered as ‘perverted thought.’

How many people became sex maniacs after reading Ulysses? We consider Kamasutra as classic. I never think sex is not dirty play. Our Shringar literature in Sanskrit, literature of Sangam Period in Tamil, and the erotic sculptures on temple wall prove that it is as truth as hunger, thirst, slumber, birth, death wish, and dreams. How could you blame a woman that society is spoiled for HER only?

In the wake of Nithari killings of innocent children by the pedophiles, what is the significance of this type of frank literature? We must come forward to attack a literature which excites the sex instincts of the people. If forbidden impulses are aroused by literature to gratify (let us hope it does not happen in the future) profane desires and men turn into pedophiles, as was reportedly done in Nithari, then what is the utility of literature? Is literature not merely becoming a plaything in the hands of the nasty people? What do you say?

In 2006, a greater number of sex crimes are registered in spring and summer, according to figures provided by the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs in Moscow. In February of that year, nine rapes were committed in the capital, whereas in March this figure reached 15, and in May, it rose to 22, and in June, it rose even higher to 23. The fact is that only 20 percent of rapists are so-called sex maniacs. Another 30 percent are drunken teenagers or released criminals. In half of these cases, the rapist is a person with whom the victim is already familiar, even if they have only just met at the house of a mutual acquaintance or at a bus stop. In the case of teenage girls, who are not always able to say “no” to an adult, the statistics are even higher: four out of five victims of sexual crimes suffered at the hands of a neighbour, class-mate, or family friend. So how can you say woman’s right over her body is responsible for the increase in rape cases ? Why not the son, the hormones, and alcohol?

It’s a vague and absurd idea that woman’s right over her own body (rather we shouldn’t name it as sexual liberation) is responsible to enhance sex crime. Look at Denmark. There were six registered sex offenders living in Denmark in early 2007, according to State List. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. No representation is made that the persons listed there are currently on the state’s sex offender’s registry. The ratio of number of residents in Denmark to the number of sex offenders is 357:1. But the country is very much liberal, having a less control over sexual restrictions.
Your webpage further talks about you: “She accepts feminism as a total entity of female hood which is completely separate from the man’s world.” If there is complete separation between the two sexes, there might be continuous confrontations, arguments and debates and thus generating ill-will between man and woman. The divorce rate is rapidly increasing, which in turn, makes people of both the sexes hysterical. Is there a way out of this confrontation to make life sweet?

Scientists have come to accept that a few fundamental differences between men and women are biological. It turns out that men’s and women’s brains, for example, are not only different, but the way we use them differs too. Women have larger connections and more frequent interaction between their brain’s left and right hemispheres. This accounts for a woman’s ability to have better verbal skills and intuition. Men, on the other hand, have greater brain hemisphere separation, which explains their skills for abstract reasoning and visual-spatial intelligence. The biological differences subject a woman to some experiences like menstrual periods, menopause, and pregnancy which a man never experience. I differ from Simone De Beauvoire in this context that women have their own identity and they are different from men. They are ‘others’ in real definition but this is not in context with the Hegelian definition of “others.”

In various articles I have written, though I protest the patriarchal system , I am never for replacing it with a matriarchal system. I believe in a like status of females with the males. In thinking, taking action, working, and creating, women should be on the same terms as men rather than seeking to disparage them.

I am not against motherhood, but I don’t think ‘motherhood’ is the only important job in the world, nor is not only the not the only “choice” available to women. It should be confined to the ability of woman to say “yes,” as well as “no,” to having children.

I am not against ‘divorce’ and I think it should be treated as the right of both sexes, not only the male’s. What I stress upon is on love and emotional bonding between two hearts, not the social and patriarchal guidelines for females to teach them ‘how to be an ideal woman.’

Thanal Online for more

Written testimony by Anthea Lawson of Global Witness for the hearing by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, on ‘Capital Loss, Corruption, and the Role of Western Financial Institutions’

May 19, 2009

Mr Chairman,

My name is Anthea Lawson. I work for Global Witness, a non-governmental organisation with offices in London and Washington DC that investigates the links between natural resources, corruption and conflict. I lead our investigations on how banks facilitate corruption.

For a decade and a half, our investigations into conflict diamonds, illegal logging and corruption in oil, gas and mining have been the catalyst for international initiatives and policies to promote transparency and ensure that natural resources do not fuel conflict. Our work has been a key driving factor behind the Kimberley Process, to control the trade in conflict diamonds, and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, to encourage disclosure of payments made by extractive companies and received by governments.

But with all of these investigations into various natural resource trades, there was a missing link: the route for the money behind these corrupt or conflict-fuelling transactions. So we started to look into it. And in each of these cases of corruption, there was inevitably a bank involved.

Banks are not permitted to accept corrupt funds under existing international standards, but too often they do not take this obligation seriously.

By accepting these customers, banks are fuelling corruption and therefore poverty. Countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Angola, Turkmenistan and Liberia are stark demonstrations of how banks are facilitating the looting of state assets. They are rich in natural resources, but these resources have been captured by a small minority for their own benefit, robbing these countries of crucial resources needed for development and poverty alleviation. Ultimately this creates autocracy, conflict, instability and sometimes state failure, that may require international intervention in order to protect regional security, such as occurred in Liberia. Misappropriation of natural resource revenues also affects U.S. energy and national security interests.
Page 1

Six of the U.S. top ten oil importing countries rank at the bottom third of the world’s most corrupt countries, according to Transparency International. An increasing amount of U.S. oil imports –now 23% of the total – come from Africa, according to Energy Information Administration statistics.

Global Witness for more

This website has been designed to provide you with more information about the new novel Joseph’s Box by Suhayl Saadi, published by Two Ravens Press in July 2009. More information about the novel can be ontained by following the About Joseph’s Box link.

In addition, the page entitled The Stories provides you with new material that adds to and expands upon many of the cultural references within the novel: a series of tales that represent the various boxes inside Joseph’s Box.

Please follow the links on the menu bar to the left for the information you require.

Buy an advance copy of Joseph’s Box

You can buy Joseph’s Box direct from the publisher via this website at only £10.99 i.e. at a discount of over 20% (RRP is £13.99).

Click here to pre-order your copy of Joseph’s Box. Copies purchased directly from this website and the publishers’ website ONLY will be sent out one month ahead of publication date i.e. June 30, 2009.
Joseph’s Box will be available on publication date as an e-book via this website and the publishers’ website only.

We’re grateful to the Scottish Arts Council for a grant to support the publication of this book and the production of this website.

Joseph’s Box for more
(Submitted by Suhayl Saadi)

“This Song Around The World is a folk tune from Chennai, India. We started the track in New Orleans and added musicians from the across the globe before finally delivering it the people of its origin. We ended up in Chennai recording and filming the vocals from the Oneness Choir. The track has a feeling of perseverance and joy and features vocalists from four continents.”

(Submitted by reader)

Playing for Change Explained

The Inspiration

Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.

The Production

We built a mobile recording studio, equipped with all the same equipment used in the best studios, and traveled to wherever the music took us. As technology changed, our power demands were downsized from golf cart batteries to car batteries, and finally to laptops. Similarly, the quality with which we were able to film and document the project was gradually upgraded from a variety of formats– each the best we could attain at the time—finally to full HD.

One thing that never changed throughout the process was our commitment to create an environment for the musicians in which they could create freely and that placed no barriers between them and those who would eventually experience their music. By leading with that energy and intent everywhere we traveled, we were freely given access to musicians and locations that are usually inaccessible. In this respect, the inspiration that originally set us on this path became a co-creator of the project along with us!

Playing for Change for more

(Copenhagen Post)

Parishioners withdraw state church membership over pastor’s decision to allow Iraqi asylum seekers to stay in their church

The decision by the Children and Youth pastor of Brorsons Church in the Nørrebro district to allow 60 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers to seek shelter in his church has resulted in the loss of some of the church’s congregation.

Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper reports that since Sunday, around 25 parishioners have complained to the pastor, Per Ramsdahl, about his decision, and some feel strongly enough about the issue that they have requested to leave the Church of Denmark.

‘I think I’ve given out ten membership resignation forms on Wednesday alone,’ said Ramsdahl.

Copenhagen Post for more