Month: May 2009

By B. R. Gowani

Manmohan Singh will continue as Premier
Congress will carry on the economic “reforms”
Modi and communalism downed BJP
The left has lost more ground
300 million barely surviving in poverty
Sri Lanka’s “victory over LTTE” now under obligation
Nepal’s new-born democracy under military care
Pakistan is imploding
Bangladesh is courting the powerful neighbor

US supports the Indian rulers
The capitalists are happy
(within and without India)
“Cong Gets Free Hand”
proclaims The Times of India
What more could India’s elite power want?
For now, Singh Cong is South Asia’s Master

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

By Manoj Mitta (Times of India)

The peaceful conduct of yet another election reinforces India’s claim to being the world’s largest democracy. Although the electorate clearly rejected divisive and extremist forces, it is moot whether India can profess to be a liberal democracy as well. For, when it comes to governance, India has a rather mixed record on upholding liberal values.

One example of India’s failure to uphold liberalism within the country is its reluctance to give up its blanket ban on homosexuality, which I dealt with in my last blog. This time I would like to draw attention to a recent example of India’s failure to stand for liberal values at a global forum.

Two months ago at UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, India abstained from voting on a Pakistan-proposed resolution seeking to curtail freedom of speech in the name of combating “defamation of religions”. Devised by the powerful bloc of Islamic countries in the wake of the 9/11 backlash, this newfangled notion of defamation of religions threatens to redefine the larger concept of human rights as it seeks to shift the focus from protecting individuals to insulating groups from critical inquiry.

Yet, rather than opposing the retrograde resolution, India chose to be among the 13 fence-sitters in the 47-member HRC. Not surprisingly, the 23 countries that voted in favour of the resolution were predominantly Islamic, including of course Pakistan, while the 11 countries that opposed it were mostly liberal democracies from Europe. (The absence of the US in HRC is a legacy of the Bush administration’s overall policy of reducing its engagement with the UN.)
India, on its part, made no pretence of having any reservations about extending the purview of defamation to faith communities. If it still did not vote in favour of the resolution, it was only to protest the fact that Islam was the only religion specifically named as deserving protection. India conceded in effect that if the resolution moved by Pakistan had not been so focused on “Islamophobia”, it would have had no qualms in supporting the idea of casting criticism of religion as a human rights violation.

This is even after 200 civil society groups from across the world, including some progressive Muslim groups, called upon HRC to reject the call from Islamic countries for a global fight against defamation of religions. A conglomeration of believers, agnostics and atheists, these groups forewarned that the resolution might not only restrict freedom of speech and “academic study in open societies” but also be used to “silence and intimidate” human rights activists, religious dissenters and other independent voices.
Times of India for more

O Ganges, Why Do You Still Flow?

Singer(s): Bhupen Hazarika, Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Shaan, Hema Sardesai, Dominique, Ishaan, Mahalakshmi, Suneeta Rao, Rekha, Arpana and Chorus

Lyrics:

Bistirno parore ahonko janore hahakar huniyu nihobda nirobe bud-haal hui tumi bud-haal hui bhuvaa kiyo?

Vistar hai apar praja dono par kare hahakar nishabdha sada
O Ganga tum O Ganga baheti ho kyun?

Vistar hai apar praja dono par kare hahakar nishabdha sada
O Ganga tum Ganga baheti ho kyun?

Naitikta nashta hui manavta bhrashta hui nirlajja bhav se baheti ho kyun?

Itihas ki pukar kare hunkar O Ganga ki dhar nirbal jan ko sabal sangrami samagro gami banati nahi ho kyun?

Vistar hai apar praja dono par kare hahakar nishabdha sada
O Ganga tum O Ganga baheti ho kyun?

Anpad jan aksharhin anagin jan khadyavihin netravihin dekh maun ho kyun?

Itihas ki pukar kare hunkar O Ganga ki dhar nirbal jan ko sabal sangrami samagro gami banati nahi ho kyun?

Vistar hai apar praja dono par kare hahakar nishabdha sada
O Ganga tum Ganga baheti ho kyun?

Vyakti rahe vyakti kendrit sakal samaj vyaktitva rahit nishpran samaj ko chodti na kyun?

Itihas ki pukar kare hunkar O Ganga ki dhar nirbal jan ko sabal sangrami samagro gami banati nahi ho kyun?

Vistar hai apar praja dono par kare hahakar nishabdha sada
O Ganga tum Ganga baheti ho kyun?

Prutasvini kyun na rahi? Tum nischai chitna nahi prano mein prerna preeti na kyun?

Unmat avani Kurukshetra bani Gange janani nava Bharat mein Bhishma rupi suta samarajayi janati nahi ho kyun?

Vistar hai apar praja dono par kare hahakar nishabdha sada
O Ganga tum Ganga baheti ho kyun?

Vistar hai apar praja dono par kare hahakar nishabdha sada
O Ganga tum Ganga baheti ho kyun?

Vistar hai apar praja dono par kare hahakar nishabdha sada
O Ganga tum Ganga tum Ganga tum O Ganga tum O Ganga tum Ganga baheti ho kyun?

Ganga baheti ho kyun?

NOTE: There may be spelling mistakes in this lyric. The first line is in Assamese and the rest of the song is in Hindi.

Read more

By Mitra Phukan

It’s the same voice: rich, highly emotive, beautifully timbered, sonorously resonant. The voice that age has not managed to fell or even to lay low, the voice that entire generations of true-blue Assamese boys and girls have grown up on, the voice that has had men and women across all social strata in our part of the world humming the tunes that he created, for several decades now. Only, this time, the format is different: MTV, no less!

For a septuagenarian singer who cut his first scratchy album on a 78 RPM disc deep in the last century, when his voice was still a clear soprano, this is indeed a long haul. From shellac discs, through cassettes, to Compact Discs, from the lamp-lit auditoriums of his youth to satellite TV, the man has truly come a long way in his artistic journey.

And yet, amazingly, in spite of the fact that Dr Bhupen Hazarika has always been so much a bard of contemporaneous events, he is also, unequivocally , a singer for all seasons, a poet and lyricist whose vision has always been uncompromisingly humanistic. It is no doubt for this reason that his music has always been relevant, no matter at what point of time the lyrics were originally penned, no matter what language they have been later translated into, no matter what culture, away from the once-tranquil, now turbulent lifestyle beside his beloved Luit (the Brahmaputra), those songs are subsequently metamorphosed into.
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by April Howard (Toward Freedom)

Salt Piles at the Salar de Uyuni

In the brine under a crust of blindingly white salt in Uyuni, Bolivia, lies nearly 50 percent of the world’s lithium reserves. Best known as a tourist attraction, the Salar is gaining fame as batteries made with this scarce element catch the attention of governments and auto-makers world wide. While on the campaign trail, President Obama promised that by 2015, there would be 1 million plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles on US roads, and, once in office, he allocated billions of economic stimulus package dollars toward battery technology and manufacturing.

In Bolivia, leftist president Evo Morales wants a state-run lithium refining and battery manufacturing industry to generate funds for health, education and poverty alleviation programs in South America’s most poverty stricken country.

As environmental and nationalist rhetoric promise big changes and bigger money for manufacturers and governments, questions still remain about the environmental effects lithium refining could have on Bolivia’s farming and tourist industry, and the viability of lithium batteries as an energy solution for the auto industry.

A Superlative Element

Lithium is the lightest known metal. At half the density of water, pure lithium has the disconcerting weight of a chunk of pine wood when held in the hand. You can cut it with a knife, but its white metallic luster tarnishes to an ashy charcoal almost immediately upon contact with oxygen. It floats in oil, burns with a bright crimson flame, and ignites in water. Modern society has used lithium in a variety of ways, ranging from mood stabilizing drugs, to the creation of the first human-made nuclear reaction. It is also used in glass, ceramics, light metal for aircrafts and, most importantly, batteries.

At an elemental level, lithium atom’s atomic radius is smaller, and in turn metallic lithium is more electro-negative, and boils at a lower temperature than any other metal. All these qualities make lithium ion batteries (LiIon) weigh less, take up less space, and last longer than alkaline batteries. Currently, LiIon batteries are making the more than 2 billion cell phones in the world light and small enough to slip in the pockets of their users. In addition, your computers, mp3 players and power tools are most likely powering up with a little bit of South American or Tibetan reserves. At the moment, nickel batteries are still less expensive than LiIon models, but if lithium supplies increase, then the cost could go down.

Currently the largest lithium reserves and producers are in Chile, Argentina and Tibet. Most refineries are dedicated solely to lithium, and discard other minerals. Since 2004, world production of lithium, especially in Chile, has skyrocketed. Argentina also has aggressive plans to expand existing plants and build new ones. Yearly production of lithium carbonate, the most easily obtained form, varies from 16 to 25 tons per year, and currently covers demand.
Toward Freedom for more

Sunday, May 24, 2009
2-5 p.m.
Cafe Kathmandu
2779 Commercial Drive, Vancouver

Discussants: Peter Julian, MP, C. Premarajah, Hari Sharma, L. Pathmayohan, and others

Tamils in Sri Lanka have been systematically deprived of their rights and reduced to second class citizenship. Now this minority is facing genocidal violence as the government pursues its military solution to the insurgency led by the LTTE.

Rejecting international appeals for ceasefire and access of relief agencies to the civilians trapped in the war zone and in camps, the Sri Lanka government has continued its bombardment, including a rocket attack on a makeshift hospital that has killed 64 patients. Over 6500 innocent civilians have been killed and more than 11000 injured. There are no figures for those who have disappeared and those who have been buried in mass graves in Vannu. There are over 300,000 internally displaced people (IDP). About 185,000 are in camps without basic necessities. This genocidal violence must be stopped. The murder, imprisonment, and intimidation of journalists daring to report on the situation must be stopped. We must support the Tamil diaspora in Canada in their effort to provide humanitarian relief for the victims of war in Sri Lanka.

By Shazia Mirza (New Statesman)

Mum asks the TV psychic questions live on air as Dad watches the show and takes notes

My parents have always been slightly absurd. But now they have taken that absurdity to a whole new level. With old age, they are becoming increasingly deranged, distracted, foolhardy and preposterous. What is more worrying is that they are in denial about their behaviour. Their word for it is “normal”. Sometimes when my dad is feeling trendy, he calls himself “eccentric”.

The crisis they are currently having has spanned 20 years. It reached a high point last week, however, when my mum called a psychic astrologer on the Pakistani Channel, live on air, to ask him why none of her five children was married. She was in one room talking on the phone to the man on TV, while my dad was in the other room watching the programme to see what reply he would give and writing down all the points.

Later, my mum called me to tell me what he had said. Of course I went crazy; I couldn’t believe she had done something so ridiculous. I said, “Mum, have you gone mad? What’s the point of calling a psychic – on TV?”

She said, “I can’t believe you are so ungrateful! Me and your dad are old. We only want to know if you’re going to get married before we die, and it was £1 a minute. We spent nearly £30 – we had five kids to get through!”

Apparently, people call this man from all over the world. Equipped only with your date of birth, he can read the stars and tell you immediately what you want to hear. He’s like the Mystic Meg of the Pakistani world. I think they call him Mystic Mo (short for Mohammed).

My parents are quite specific about what they want to hear. They ask very poignant questions, like: “Will my daughters marry doctors? Have some little doctors? And then will we be entitled to free health care? Will my sons all be millionaires very soon?”

On the Tube the other day, I overheard a woman saying to her friend: “I’m off to see my psychic on Tuesday.” Like he was a doctor, or a priest. I thought: “At least she’s going in private.” My mother went on to an international TV show, gave my date of birth, and demanded to know whether I was ever going to be Salman Rushdie’s fifth wife. My dad told me that my mum had also said to the poor psychic, “I am 63 years old now. How long have I got left?”
New Statesman for more

The Neenuram Ashram in Tharparkar serves as a beacon to all souls

Deep in the impoverished town of Islamkot in Tharparkar 355 kilometres away from Karachi lies the 100-year-old historic Saint Shree Neenuram Ashram, where hundreds of animals, children and jobless Every day, birds flock to the holy place to get food, and hundreds of cows and buffaloes make their way here to have a drink of water from the many ‘piyaos’ in the Ashram, and get fodder free of cost along the way. This is a place where as many as 4,000 to 5,000 animals come to quench their thirst.

“The Thardeep Rural Development Programme has given us hand pumps,” explains Kala Khushal, 71, shevadari (khidmatgaa) of the Ashram. “We have wells and a water supply system, and about 100 animals can take a drink at a time.”

Khushal has been serving here as a shevadari since 1997, but worked at the Ashram as long ago as 1947 to 1959. Back then, he was a sweeper and used to give water to whoever wanted it. Later, he was a patwari in the district of Dadu, but after his retirement, he came back to serve Saint Shree Neenuram of his own free will. Children from the scheduled caste and adults who cannot afford to pay for food find comfort here too.

“Between 300 and 500 people are served lunch and dinner here every day free of cost,” says Khushal. “Among the people who come here are those who migrate to barrage areas every day because of drought in Tharparkar. They eat here because they can’t afford to get food from anywhere else.”

But at this Ashram, nobody has to beg for food. Trucks loaded with rice and ghee pour in from across the province as a mark of respect to Saint Shree Neenuram, who established the Ashram more than 100 years ago. “It is the love people have for the saint that ensures we are never short of contributions,” says Khushal. “Neen in Hindi means eyes, and Ram is our God, hence the name Neenuram.”

Inside the Ashram is a small temple boasting of a beautiful moorti, which was carved in Jeepur in India. But he Ashram is more than just a place of aesthetic wonder or a haven to feed people. Back in 1962, a school for girls was established at the Ashram, and with Hindi as a medium of instruction, the girls receive not just education, but also vocational training, particularly in sewing. More recently in 2005, it also established a charity hospital.

Khushal is proud to say that the Ashram has never been affected by religious fanatics. “Tharparkar has a unique culture where Muslims and Hindus live in peace,” he says. As far as he knows, there has never been a riot between either group of people. “It is not like Swat and the tribal areas where people are killing each other,” he adds.

Still, he has a word of caution. “Things are changing and nobody knows about the future. The ‘mullah’ has not learnt to forgive.”
Read More
(Submitted by Pritam Rohila)

SATURDAY, MAY 30th, 2009
2 pm – 5 pm
Newton Library
13795 – 70th Ave, Surrey

Free Event
Light refreshments provided

Join us for a public forum and interactive discussion on what the future holds for Pakistan.

ORGANIZED BY:
Fraser Valley Peace Council, Siraat Collective and
Pakistan Action Network (www.pakaction.org)

SPEAKERS:
Haider Nizamani, Sunera Thobani, Huma Dar

“If they snatch my ink and pen, I should not complain,
For I have dipped my fingers in the blood of my heart.
I should not complain, Even if they seal my tongue,
For every ring of my chain is a tongue ready to speak”
(Faiz Ahmed Faiz)

Media headlines and pundits have been inundating us with images of Pakistan as a nation on the brink of disaster. Pakistan is facing many critical issues: the expansion of the U.S. led War on Terror into Pakistan with continued drone attacks, Obama’s AF-PAK strategy, the government’s deal in Swat, the rise of religious extremism and a majority of the population living in poverty without access to basic human rights.

Yet there is also another Pakistan, one in which one of the most vibrant struggles for democracy and rule of law has recently resulted in victory, where poets, lawyers, activists, journalists and other Pakistanis are forging movements of resistance against U.S imperialism, religious extremism and injustice.

In this context, what does the future hold for Pakistan? Speakers will discuss the various issues facing Pakistan and provide an analysis and framework for what we can do as concerned members of the public to contribute to building a movement for justice and peace in Pakistan.

SPEAKERS:

Haider Nizamani is a Lecturer in Political Science at UBC. His specialization is in the fields of International Politics, Security Studies and South Asian Politics. Dr Nizamani authored a book “The Roots of Rhetoric: Politics of Nuclear Weapons in India and Pakistan”. His other publication is “Limits of Dissent A Comparative Study of Dissident Voices in the nuclear Discourse of India and Pakistan” Contemporary South Asia, 7.3 Autumn 1998. He also contributes to Pakistan’s leading English newspapers on national security and political issues.

Sunera Thobani is a professor with the Centre for Research in Women’s Studies and Gender Relations at UBC. She is past president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), Canada’s largest feminist organization. Dr. Thobani’s tenure at the NAC was characterized by a commitment to making the politics of anti-racism central to the women’s movement. Her research focuses on globalization, citizenship, migration, race, and gender relations. Her current projects include “Gender, Globalization, and International Conflict: Representation of Women in the Print Media” and “Television Representations of Women and the War on Terrorism.”

Huma Dar is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Theatre and Film Studies Department at the University of British Columbia. Her work is focused on the intersections and co-formations of gender, religion, class, caste, sexuality, regional, national, and transnational politics of South Asia, specifically analyzing the cinematic, literary, and other cultural texts of the region. Dar has been a President of the Executive Board of Directors of Narika – a South Asian women’s organization that runs an anti-domestic violence helpline in Berkeley, CA.

For more information:
email: pakact@gmail.com
phone: 604-613-0735
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=75989338957