Year: 2009

Dear friends,

Two weeks ago, Prof. Muhammad Umar Memon of the University of Wisconsin called me and described the financial crisis regarding his publication “The Annual Urdu Studies”. Prof. Memon is publishing this Annual for the last 20 years. It is a research journal and takes a lot of sweat, blood, and sleepless nights publishing. So far, it has received grants from the University of Wisconsin and from another organization. However, in the present economic condition of the USA, even academic institutions are feeling the pressure. As a result, financial assistance will no longer be available to “The Annual of Urdu Studies” and it is threatened with closure.

Please click this link to read “The Annual of Urdu Studies” www.urdustudies.com

“The Annual of Urdu Studies” is a laborious task; it takes one whole year preparing. On financial side, it needs $20,000 a year to stay afloat, of which $15,000 goes towards the salary of a part time employee. Wisconsin University has provided free office and other facilities for this annual magazine but does not pay the employee’s salary. If Prof. Memon is unable to raise the required funds, shortly this valuable journal will have to fold. Prof. Memon is extremely worried; he is heart broken seeing that this great “Urdu Studies” might close.

The magazine is a scholarly publication. Money generated from subscriptions is too small to pay even for its running expenses. Annual subscription for this yearly publication is only $18 plus shipping and handling. At present, there are not very many subscribers. Please know that professor Memon is working entirely free for his love of Urdu and its literary culture. I have read this annual. I love it. So please support it by contributing whatever you can. Please also send your annual subscription of $25 (USA), $35 (overseas) that will include shipping and handling. I am sending following details received from Prof. Memon.

Donation Checks:

Please make your donation payable to “The University of Wisconsin/Board of Regents” Any big/small donation is welcome.

Subscription Checks:

Please make your checks for annual subscription to the journal ($25 for USA; $35 for overseas, inclusive of shipping and handling) payable to “The Annual of Urdu Studies” and mail it to my address. Once I have collected enough amounts, I will mail it to Prof. Memon who will then submit it to the University.

Asghar Vasanwala
20754 Tulip Circle
Yorba Linda, CA 92887
(714) 777-6675

Or if you prefer, you may send your checks directly to:

Muhammad Umar Memon
Professor Emeritus
Dept. of Languages & Cultures of Asia
University of Wisconsin
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, Wisconsin 53706

(Submitted by Asghar Vasanwala and other readers)

Himal SouthAsian, December 2009

The Sri Lankan military won the war against the Tamil Tigers over six months ago. But since that time, the island has been steadily losing the peace that the people – Muslim, Tamil and Sinhalese – so deserve. The main hurdle towards lasting peace has been the continuing war mentality and ultra-nationalism on the part of the Rajapakse regime – for this is what we have to call it. Those elements that had been the regime’s main strengths in fighting the war – the dangerous mix of militarisation and Sinhala Buddhist mobilisation – are now not only undermining peace, but also creating instability in the government hallways of Colombo.

In the single-minded pursuance of the war, President Mahinda Rajapakse and his brother, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya, with full support from the military, put together a broad and formidable coalition. This was made up of the ultra-nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and then its breakaway faction, sections of the left parties, as well as Tamil paramilitaries, including the breakaway faction of the LTTE. Yet just weeks after the last shot was fired, that coalition began to unravel, with increasing anti-government mobilisation by the JVP, criticism from sections of the JHU and, finally, the need felt by the president for a full overhaul of the armed-forces leadership.

The latest in these twists and turns has been the alienation and vocal opposition of the former army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, who is popularly credited with winning the war. Gen Fonseka, even more a militarist and Sinhala Buddhist nationalist than the president, is now expected to contest Rajapakse in the next elections. And with the opposition United National Party (UNP) backing the general’s candidature, there appears to be little hope of a credible or strong opposition.

Within weeks of the end of the war, the Rajapakses changed the entire high command of the armed forces, giving the top military brass different assignments, from secretaries of other ministries to ambassadorial appointments. Gen Fonseka’s control over the army was severely clipped, by ‘promoting’ him to a symbolic position as chief of defence staff. The general, in his recent resignation letter, claimed that it was widely understood that he was sidelined because various agencies misled the president regarding the possibility of a military coup.

The sidelining of Fonseka is not very surprising, given that the Rajapakses have been clear that they have no ‘friends’ – only their large clan. Brothers, cousins and nephews are thus being put into key political positions without any sense of embarrassment. Initially, they seemed certain that with the war victory they could entrench the family in power for the foreseeable future. Very quickly, however, that future began to seem uncertain, with the challenge posed by Fonseka.

HimalMag for more

(Submitted by Harsh Kapoor)

By B. R. Gowani

a girl, sixteen years old
named Silva Kashif was told

what you are wearing, Ms
nothing but “indecent” it is

it was a knee-length skirt
for law, it was a bit too pert

so what did the law do?
It did the only thing it knew

many lashes on the spot
by religious in-charge rot

first lash for our jahalat
second for our superiority

third for our sharia
fourth for our religion

fifth for our manliness
sixth for your Christianity

seventh for being a girl
eighth for wearing a skirt

ninth to defy the West
tenth to demonstrate our power
…

these incidents become news
few people express their views
issues they rarely become
bolder turns the Muslim scum
will this cruel idiocy ever end?
or will it become the trend?

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – A 16-year-old south Sudanese girl was lashed 50 times after a judge ruled her knee-length skirt was indecent, her lawyer and family said in the latest case to push Sudan’s Islamic law into the spotlight.

The mother of teenager Silva Kashif told Reuters on Friday she was planning to sue the police who made the arrest and the judge who imposed the sentence, as her daughter was underage and a Christian.

The case will add fuel to a debate already raging over Sudan’s decency laws after this year’s high-profile conviction of Sudanese U.N. official Lubna Hussein, who was briefly jailed for wearing trousers in public.

Hussein, a former journalist who used her case to campaign against Sudan’s public order and decency regulations, is touring France to publicize her book about the prosecution. She had faced the maximum penalty of 40 lashes but was given a lighter sentence.

Kashif, whose family comes from the south Sudanese town of Yambio, was arrested while walking to the market near her home in the Khartoum suburb of Kalatla last week, her mother Jenty Doro told Reuters.

“She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along in the market like she was a criminal. It was wrong,” said Doro.

Doro said Khashif was taken to Kalatla court where she was convicted and punished by a female police officer in front of the judge.

“I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried … People have different religions and that should be taken into account,” she said.

Arrests for indecency, drunkenness and other public order offences are not uncommon in Khartoum which is governed by Islamic sharia law.

But the punishment of residents of the capital originating from the south remains a sensitive issue.

Sudan is supposed to be working to soften the impact of sharia for southerners living in Khartoum under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war. The deal lifted sharia law in the south, where most follow Christianity and traditional beliefs.

Women’s groups argue the decency laws are too vague, giving the country’s separate public order police too much freedom to decide what kind of dress is appropriate.

Kashif’s lawyer Azhari al-Haj told Reuters he was preparing a case against the police and judge for arresting and sentencing an underage girl. He said according to the law, people under 18 should not be given lashes.

“She was wearing a normal skirt and blouse, worn by thousands of girls. They didn’t contact a guardian and punished her on the spot.”

Reuters for more

By Mary Kimani

In July 2008 Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced his intention to prosecute President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for human rights violations related to the conflict in that country’s Darfur region. Less than a year later, on 3 March 2009, ICC judges confirmed that an arrest warrant had been issued for President Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

That indictment, among other actions by the ICC, has provoked intense controversy, adding further heat to an often angry debate about the court’s role in Africa. Critics argue that the ICC is placing undue emphasis on Africa and that indicting the sitting Sudanese president threatens that country’s fragile peace process. Supporters of the ICC’s actions worry that such arguments diminish the seriousness of the crimes and point out that some of the most powerful critics are other African leaders who fear they might one day face similar charges.

When 120 states first signed the Rome Statute establishing the court in July 1998, many saw its creation as a major diplomatic breakthrough. That support reflected broad agreement with the affirmation of the ICC Statute that people who “bear the greatest responsibility for the worst crimes known to humanity” should be punished. By 2002, 60 countries had ratified the treaty – the minimum required for it to become law – a number that has grown to 110 today.

The new court has also met widespread support in Africa. Today 30 of the continent’s 54 countries have ratified, forming the largest regional bloc among the countries that are party to the court. Many Africans work at the court, including as judges.

Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, head of the Africa justice programme of the non-governmental Open Society Institute, explains why many Africans initially embraced the ICC. “Most people in our continent are, like me, children of war, want and deprivation, caused mostly by bad government,” he noted in an article posted online by the African publisher Pambazuka.

“For us, justice for mass atrocities is intimately personal.” Unfortunately, in most African countries, Mr. Odinkalu points out, dignity, peace and justice have proved illusory. “This is why most of us supported the establishment of the ICC. We believed the court would help to end high-level impunity for mass atrocities, enabling us to attain the best we are capable of.”

Focus on Africa

All Africa for more

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The Americans have organized mass recruitment among the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled the fighting to refugee camps in Kenya.”

Somali refugees and ethnic Somali citizens of Kenya are being recruited and trained by the thousands for a U.S.-backed offensive in Somalia, to begin next month. The Associated Press, citing numerous sources among refugees, young men who have deserted from the new militia and their families, local Kenyan officials and foreign diplomats, reports that the offensive against Islamist forces in Somalia is planned for late December, the end of the Somali rainy season. That’s the same seasonal window the Americans took advantage of three years ago, when the U.S. instigated an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia that plunged the country into what the United Nations described as the “worst humanitarian crisis in Africa.” That crisis continues, complicated by a severe drought and a U.S. blockade of food aid.

Washingrton supports a puppet government that controls little more than a small corner of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, and would immediately collapse where it not for the protection of Rwandan and Burundian troops that guard the airport. Most of central and southern Somalia is controlled by Islamist Shabab fighters. The U.S. is attempting to starve the region into submission by withholding 40 million pounds of food warehoused in Mombasa, Kenya.

With little support inside Somalia, the Americans have organized mass recruitment among the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled the fighting to refugee camps in Kenya – a practice that violates international law. Recruits are also being drawn from ethnic Somalis who are Kenyan citizens, in the northeastern part of the country. The Associated Press has learned of similar recruitment and training in the Somali regions of Ethiopia and Djibouti, where the United States maintains a huge military base.

The recruits are lured into service with promises of $600 a month, but deserters say they are often beaten, ill-fed and unpaid.

“The Americans are fanning the flames of war among Somalia‘s neighbors – including Kenya.”

The Americans are playing a very dangerous game. In addition to breaking international law and discrediting aid agencies by recruiting among refugees, the U.S. is encouraging a wider conflict in East Africa. Ethnic Somalis dominate in northeastern Kenya, in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, and in Djibouti. Ethnic Somalis waged a secessionist war in Kenya in the mid-1960s and continue to resist Ethiopian rule in the Ogaden. According to the Associated Press, recruits in Kenya are deprived of their identification cards and told, “You are not a Kenyan. From this moment, tell yourselves and other people you are a Somali.” Recruiters are apparently doing the same thing among ethnic Somalis in Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Black Agenda Report for more

Dr. Bernard Thébaud lives in two very different worlds. As a specialist in the Stollery Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, he cares for tiny babies, many of whom struggle for breath after being born weeks before they are due. Across town, in his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, Dr. Thébaud dons a lab coat and peers into a microscope to examine the precise effect of stem cells on the lungs.

Today, with his scientific research being published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Thébaud has made a significant leap to bridge the gap between those two worlds.

An international team of scientists led by Dr. Thébaud has demonstrated for the first time that stem cells protect and repair the lungs of newborn rats. “The really exciting thing that we discovered was that stem cells are like little factories, pumping out healing factors,” says Dr. Thébaud, an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Clinical Scholar. “That healing liquid seems to boost the power of the healthy lung cells and helps them to repair the lungs.”

In this study, Thébaud’s team simulated the conditions of prematurity – giving the newborn rats oxygen. The scientists then took stem cells, derived from bone marrow, and injected them into the rats’ airways. Two weeks later, the rats treated with stem cells were able to run twice as far, and had better survival rates. When Thébaud’s team looked at the lungs, they found the stem cells had repaired the lungs, and prevented further damage.

Biology News for more

By Regina Scharf

One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis.

According to the latest official statistics, the country also counts at least 1.2 million young workers between the ages of 5 and 13 – even if Brazilian law forbids those under 14 to work. If you add teens up to 18 years-old, you will have more than 5 million underage Brazilians in the market place. A huge percentage of them receive no salary.

This number includes teens “adopted” informally to work as housekeepers and submitted to very long hours. It also includes many sexual workers. Brazil’s highway police recently identified more than 1,800 truck stops around the country where minors offer sexual services.

A report released in September by the US Department of Labor, aiming to shed lights on “exploitative working conditions in the production of goods” in 77 countries, concludes that there is fair evidence that several Brazilian industries are responsible for perpetrating these irregular labor practices.

But the report also acknowledges that the government “has taken an exemplary, multifaceted approach to the elimination of child and forced labor.” It has “improved its legislative framework, enforced these laws effectively, established targeted action plans to combat child labor, forced labor, and trafficking in persons”, among other initiatives.

Last October, Brazil and a few other countries signed an agreement to work together to eradicate child labor by 2020, with the support of the International Labor Organization.

The Brazilian government also created the so-called “Dirty List” (Lista Suja) of forced labor cases, including the names of companies and property owners who use workers under forced labor conditions.

In my former job, as a Social and Environmental risk analyst for Banco Real, one of the main financial institutions in the country, we wouldn’t offer credit to companies included in the Dirty List without promoting extensive auditing of their labor conditions and verifying their compliance to a series of laws.

There are, in fact, evidences that all these federal initiatives are pretty effective.

Brazzil for more

AFP report

A Hong Kong businessman said on Monday he was planning to build China’s first Bible-themed amusement park, with construction to start next year if he gets approval from authorities in the communist state.

Mr Leung Moon-lam, founder of logistics firm China South City, said he and some fellow businessmen were working on the final blueprints for the US $659 million (S$912.7 million) tourism project in China’s north-eastern Liaoning province.

Mr Leung, a devout Christian, said the Harmony World park would feature high-tech attractions to tell the stories of Chinese and Western civilisation.

Some of the items would be based on Bible stories, including Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and Noah’s Ark.

“It would not make sense to talk about Western civilisation without mentioning the Bible,” he told AFP.

“I believe we are the first as I have not seen any theme park in China which presents the history of Christianity. It just goes to show how much more open China is today,” he said, adding that other religions, such as Buddhism and Taoism, would also be showcased.

China Daily for more