Month: October 2009

( The painting of Mars and Venus by Sandro Botticelli 1483, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_and_Mars_(Botticelli)

By Dr. Sarojini Sahoo

Deborah Cameron, a professor of Language and Communication at Worcester College of the University or Oxford and a leading expert in the field of language and gender studies, wrote a book entitled The Myth of Mars and Venus in which she describes the men are from Mars, women are from Venus position and reveals that differences between men and women are an issue of culture, not a fundamental difference in our chromosomal makeup. I borrowed this title from her book.

Away from the demands of feminists for the same status in language, some social linguistic scholars think the language of men and women differ in their speech patterns.

Women usually speak in a softer voice using pitch and inflection to emphasize points. They sound more emotional in speech. They use approximately five tones when talking and interrupt others less and allow more interruptions. They disclose more personal information about themselves, and make more indirect accusations. They use “why,” which sounds like nagging (i.e., “Why don’t you ever call?”). They make more indirect statements, use more intensifiers such as “few”, “so”, “really”, “much”, “quite”, make more tentative statements and use “tag endings” or upward inflections which make statements sound like questions (i.e., “It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”). They use more conjunctions when changing topics (i.e., “and”, “but”, “however”) and ask more questions to stimulate conversations. They tend to establish more business relationships through discussing their personal life.

On the other hand, men speak in a louder voice using loudness to emphasize points. They sound more monotonous in speech. They use approximately three tones when talking and interrupt others more and allow fewer interruptions. They disclose less personal information about themselves; they make direct accusations (i.e., “You don’t call”). They make more direct statements and “beat around the bush” less often, use less intensifiers, and make more declarative statements (i.e., “It’s a nice day.”). They use more interjections when changing topics (i.e., “Hey!”, “Oh”, “Listen!”) and ask fewer questions to stimulate conversation. They rarely discuss their personal life in business.

In 1975, for first time, the known grammarian Robin Lakoff claimed that there is a typical female language, very different from that of men, marked by the use of certain linguistic features such as hedging devices, tag questions, intensifiers and qualifiers, so-called “trivial lexis,” “empty” adjectives, and rising intonation on declaratives. Specifically, male use of language was considered the norm and women’s language was deviant from that norm, and thus being regarded as inferior to that of men. (See: Lakoff, R. (1975), Language and Women’s Place, New York: Harper & Row)

To justify his own statement, Lakoff put forward a “dominance approach” theory, according to which the difference in language between men and women is a consequence of male dominance and female subordination. In this view, women are a suppressed minority group.

But another group (supported by John Coates (19860 and Deborah Tannen (1990)), on the other hand, believe that men and women belong to different subcultures and that any linguistic differences can be attributed to cultural differences. They argued men and women communicate differently (and women do it better) because of the way their brains are wired. The female brain excels in verbal tasks whereas the male brain is better adapted to visual-spatial and mathematical tasks. Women like to talk; men prefer action to words. (See: Holmes, J. (1992b), “Women’s Talk in Public Contexts”, Discourse and Society ).

Recently ( on 2009-09-30 ) a book has been published under the title of Code Switching: How to Talk So Men Will Listen (ISBN: 1592579264 , EAN: 9781592579266) by Alpha Books, where authors Claire Damken Brown and Audrey Nelson narrate how men and women act in ingrained styles learned from birth and deeply embedded in the workplace structure. According to the authors, women tend to write long e-messages, which express support, and are more personal and emotive, while men are to the point with precise orders. They point out the following gender differences in their book:

1 – Women play the role of “office mother” offering to lend a sympathetic ear
2 – Men play devil’s advocate and act in a challenging way
3 – Women make the effort to laugh at jokes and make colleagues feel good about themselves
4 – Men are more likely to be the joke teller
5 – Women act in a passive manner, letting colleagues talk over them and interrupt

Although in my opinion, both the theories are somehow nearer to the truth. I strongly believe that men and women are coming from a different subculture and not only are they different in biological manner, but they are also different with their psycho-socio backgrounds. This is due to the way boys and girls are raised linguistically. Janet Holmes claimed that women often use empty phrases like I think or you know, because they are not committed to what they are saying and that they can be used to soften or mitigate utterances in order not to hurt the addressee’s feelings.

Women’s expressions are mainly an interpretation of women’s ideas and their surroundings, and I think they differ from men’s harshness. The myth of Mars and Venus is no exception to that rule. But I don’t find anything harassing if females are considered different. It is to be remembered that the world is built with two complimentary powers and male-female differences today did not exist in the same communities in early periods. It is the patriarchal society which makes its dominance over the feminine world. Those who are saying about the brain mapping, to prove that the female is a weaker sex, has itself become a dogma, treated not as a hypothesis to be investigated or as a claim to be adjudicated, but as an unquestioned article of faith.

Still some scholars fight against the male dominance over language and making women invisible from language. Access their causes and successes at my SENSE &SENSUALITY blog.

http://feminine-fragrance.blogspot.com/2009/10/myth-of-mars-and-venus-painting-of-mars.html

Dr. Sahoo’s website is http://sarojinisahoo.blogspot.com/

By Selig S. Harrison

Alexander the Great, the British Raj and the Red Army all learned the hard way that the Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest and historically dominant ethnic group, will unite to fight a foreign occupation force simply because it is foreign. As Howard Hart, a former CIA station chief in Pakistan, recently told the New York Times, “The very presence of our forces in the Pashtun areas is the problem. The more troops we put in, the greater the opposition.”

The tenacity of the Taliban insurgency is rooted in opposition to an occupation that is, in this case, a particularly distasteful one to the Pashtuns. The US infidel is hated for Persian Gulf and Middle East policies–especially unconditional US support for Israel–that are perceived as anti-Muslim. But there are other factors that explain the strength of the Taliban. Some are widely written about, like drug money, popular anger at corrupt warlords and support from Pakistani intelligence agencies.

One factor of special sensitivity and importance that receives almost no attention either in the public debate about Afghanistan or in the internal policy battles of the Obama administration may well be the most important of all: the domination of the Afghan armed forces, police, secret police and intelligence agencies by leaders of the Tajik ethnic minority, who use their US-backed power in Kabul to lord it over their historic Pashtun rivals.
The Nation

A Taliban victory would have devastating consequences for U.S. interests. But to avoid disaster, America must beware the Soviet Union’s mistakes — and learn from its own three decades of failure in South Asia.

By Steve Coll

The United States has two compelling interests at issue in the Afghan conflict. One is the ongoing, increasingly successful but incomplete effort to reduce the threat posed by al Qaeda and related jihadi groups, and to finally eliminate the al Qaeda leadership that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks. The second is the pursuit of a South and Central Asian region that is at least stable enough to ensure that Pakistan does not fail completely as a state or fall into the hands of Islamic extremists.

More than that may well be achievable. In my view, most current American commentary underestimates the potential for transformational changes in South Asia over the next decade or two, spurred by economic progress and integration. But there is no question that the immediate policy choices facing the United States in Afghanistan are very difficult. All of the courses of action now under consideration by the Obama administration and members of Congress carry with them risk and uncertainty.

To protect the security of the American people and the interests of the United States and its allies, we should persist with the difficult effort to stabilize Afghanistan and reverse the Taliban’s momentum. This will probably require additional troops for a period of several years, until Afghan forces can play the leading role.

However, that depends on the answer to Gen. Colin Powell’s reported question, “What will more troops do?” As Gen. Stanley McChrystal wrote in his recent assessment, “Focusing on force or resource requirements misses the point entirely.” Instead — after years of neglect of U.S. policy and resources in Afghanistan and after a succession of failed strategies both in Afghanistan and Pakistan — the United States, as McChrystal put it, has an “urgent need for a significant change to our strategy and the way that we think and operate.” While I cannot endorse or oppose McChyrstal’s specific prescriptions for the next phase of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan because I do not know what they are, I do endorse the starting point of his analysis, as well as his general emphases on partnering with Afghan forces and focusing on the needs of the Afghan population. I believe those emphases are necessary but insufficient.

FP

(Submitted by reader)

South Asia Foundation (SAF) is a secular, non-political and non-profit organization established for the promotion of regional cooperation through SAF institutions of excellence and groups scholarships in all the SAARC countries, based on gender equality. It has been recognized as an Apex body of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and has special relationship with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The cardinal objective of SAF and its vision is to establish a union
of the eight SAARC countries namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

It is generally acknowledged that during the recent worldwide economic meltdown, it was the Euro that saved the European union from further economic crisis. SAARC countries will also benefit from the centripetal force created by the proposed common currency, like the euro. It will serve as an anchor of economic stability that would accelerate trade and commerce between the SAARC countries. As with the European Coal and Steel Community, it will create areas of congruence such as a ‘peace pipeline’ that will carry natural gas from Iran, Turkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian subcontinent.

Hence, a union of South Asian countries would promote trade and commerce between the South Asian countries and become an important component of South Asia’s collective security.

Released on 18 October 2009, in Amritsar (India)

(Submitted by Harsh Kapoor)

By Alpha Arzu

Despite prevailing stringent laws in the country to protect women, violence in different forms against women still goes on unabated with offenders cocking a snook at the laws of the state.

Repression on women have increased manifold over the last few months. The brutality is inflicted on them mainly for dowry, disputes over wedding and land, said women activists working to promote and ensure women’s rights in the country.

At least 1,479 women had been raped in six months beginning from January of 2009 while a total of 395 rape incidences, the highest number recorded, were committed in Dhaka Range followed by 390 in Rajshah and the lowest two in Railway Range, said Home Minister Sahara Khatun at a parliament session on October 12.

She also added that at least 3,462 women in 2008 and 3,584 in 2007 were violated.

On September 25, an adolescent was gang-raped following her abduction by 10 Bangladesh Chhatra League activists while she was returning from a Puja Mandop in Kolapar upazila in Patuakhali district.
Four police constables raped a woman from ethnic minority community on 28 February 2009 in Khagrachhari while an Indian BSF violated a Bangladeshi woman and killed her husband in Satkhira in last April.

Advocate Salma Ali, executive director of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA), told The Daily Star, “There are a number of laws including Dowry Prohibition Act, Prevention of Women and Child Repression Act (2000) which provides for effective and efficient way of dealing with cases of violence against women such as rape, acid attacks, forced prostitution and trafficking.”

The other acts include Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act 1933, Family Court Ordinance, Cruelty to Women (Deterrent Punishment) Ordinance and Trafficking in Women and Children Act 1993.

“Without proper implementation of the laws, it is really tough to stop violence against women that has become part and parcel of our male partners’ behaviour,” said the advocate who runs shelter home for the repressed women, children and aged people.

Shamima Akhter (24) with her six-month-old daughter was looking for an official at the Nari Nirjatan Protirodh Cell of Women and Children Affairs Department to get legal support for her daughter’s paternal right.

She narrated the sorry tale of her conjugal life. “Within four months of our marriage, my husband Mozammel Haque alias Khokan started to torture me. And finally while I was six-month pregnant, he walked out on me as my poor parents failed to give him the dowry of Tk 30,000.”
Hailed from city’s Lalbagh area, Shamima now visits Nari Nirjatan Protirodh Cell at Eskaton Garden at least four days a week with her daughter. She said, “I have come here on foot. I started at 7:00am and have reached here at 11:00am for the hearing.”

Like Shamima, at least 20 others who are victims of violence visit the Nari Nirjatan Protirodh Cell each day, said sources at the department. “We also receive some foreign women victims who got married to Bangladeshi men,” said a record keeper officer of the cell who mainly files up complaints.

As per case histories most of the victims filed cases against their husbands, or mother in laws for physical torture for dowry.

Meanwhile, the human rights-based organisation Odhikar reported that at least 338 women including 158 girls were raped in nine months beginning from January of 2009. Sixty-eight women and 51 girls were gang-raped, 50 women and 22 children were killed after rape during this period.

A total of 247 women were subjected to dowry-related violence. One hundred seventy-six of them died due to the violence and 64 of them were tortured in various ways. Seven of these women allegedly committed suicide, as they couldn’t bear the brunt of torture, Odhikar statistics stated.

At least 27 women fell victim to illegal fatwa while 45 women and 12 girls became the victims of acid throwing, it said.

TDS
(Submitted by Harsh Kapoor)

By Robert F. Worth

Most of the students at Dar al-Mustafa, the local religious school in Tarim, Yemen, are between 18, the minimum age, and 25.

TARIM, Yemen — This remote desert valley, with its towering bluffs and ancient mud-brick houses, is probably best known to outsiders as the birthplace of Osama bin Laden’s father. Most accounts about Yemen in the Western news media refer ominously to it as “the ancestral homeland” of the leader of Al Qaeda, as though his murderous ideology had somehow been shaped here.

But in fact, Tarim and its environs are a historic center of Sufism, a mystical strand within Islam. The local religious school, Dar al-Mustafa, is a multicultural place full of students from Indonesia and California who stroll around its tiny campus wearing white skullcaps and colorful shawls.

“The reality is that Osama bin Laden has never been to Yemen,” said Habib Omar, the revered director of Dar al-Mustafa, as he sat on the floor in his home eating dinner with a group of students. “His thinking has nothing to do with this place.”

Lately, Al Qaeda has found a new sanctuary here and carried out a number of attacks. But the group’s inspiration, Mr. Omar said, did not originate here. Most of the group’s adherents have lived in Saudi Arabia — as has Mr. bin Laden — and it was there, or in Afghanistan or Pakistan, that they adopted a jihadist mind-set.

Mr. Omar set out 16 years ago to restore the ancient religious heritage of Tarim. It is an extraordinary legacy for an arid, windswept town in the far southeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula.

About 800 years ago, traders from Tarim and other parts of Hadramawt, as the broader area is known, began traveling down the coast to the Arabian Sea and onward in rickety boats to Indonesia, Malaysia and India. They thrived, and they brought their religion with them. Nine especially devout men, all with roots in Tarim, are now remembered as “the nine saints,” Mr. Omar said, because of their success in spreading Islam across Asia.

NYT
(Submitted by reader)

SAN FRANCISCO — The future of ultrasound technology, as interpreted by General Electric Co., looks a bit like a flip phone crossed with an iPod.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt unveiled a handheld ultrasound machine at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Tuesday called the Vscan, saying it could become the “stethoscope of the 21st century.”
The device folds open clamshell-style to reveal a small screen on the top half and a circular button pad on the bottom. A small attached wand can be used to generate a noninvasive scan of a patient’s organs or of a fetus.

The Vscan is aimed in part at primary care doctors, who could use it instead of sending patients to get an ultrasound at a specialist’s office. It could also be used by doctors in remote regions without access to hospital equipment.

Immelt said that the device, which will be available sometime next year, will be “very digitally capable” but that it will not have Wi-Fi access to wirelessly transmit ultrasound images.
The cost of the device is unknown.

During the summit, Immelt declined to elaborate on the possibility that Fairfield, Conn.-based GE will sell a stake in its NBC Universal entertainment division to cable TV operator Comcast Corp. or any other company. He said that GE is “comfortable” with the division.

HP

(Asghar Vasanwala found the following article on Sulekha site where the author’s name is missing. He has reformatted the article and made some minor changes. Ed.)

VEDANT & BHAKTI RASA IN URDU POETRY

There is a misconception that Urdu Poetry is all about gul-o-bulbul, shama-parwana, women and wine. Many Muslim Urdu poets are exponents of ancient Indian philosophy. You have only to go deep into them. Ghalib says:

Asal-a-shahood-o-shahido mashhood aik haiN
Hairan hooN, phir mushahida hai kis hisab meiN

Meaning:You and He whom you are searching for are in fact the same. I wonder for what this search is going on? This is the Vedantic concept Aham Twam Asmi (I and You are the same). Iqbal used the first line of Ghalib’s verse as such and added the second line as
Ghalib ka qaul such hai to phir zikr-e-ghair kya (If what Ghalib says is true then who is mine and who is not?). This means that we are all the same. This is the same as ancient concept of Vishvamev Kutumbakam (The world is just a family).

Again Ghalib says:

Ishrat-e-qatra hai dariya meiN fana ho jana (A restless drop of water gets solace only when is coalesces with the river water). Vedant says that a person gets solace only when he becomes one with the Brahma (the Supreme).

To know the secrets of life is an inborn urge in human beings, but it is not difficult for a jigyasu (searcher for truth) to know all about life. Iqbal says:

Zindagi ek raaz hai jab tak koi mehram na ho
khul gaya jis dum, to mehram ke siva kuchh bhi nahiN

Meaning: Life is a riddle as long as there is no true seeker, who on once seeing his inner-self finds that he himself is a combination of all secrets of life

Ghalib has put the same idea in a beautiful verse:

Mehram nahiN hai tu hi nawaha-e-raaz ka
YaN verna jo hijaab hai, parda hai saaz ka

The transparent cover on the realities of life is like that of the tunes of the instrumentalist with those of the vocalist (singer). The former do not hide the latter but make them more pleasant to the ears. For full explanation, please click my website

About piety and sin Ghalib says:

Jaanta hoon swab-e-tayto zuhad
Per tabiyat idhar nahin aati

Meaning: I understand the heavenly rewards of piety, but I am not inclined towards it (piety). This is the Vedantic concept ‘Jaanami dharmam param no paviriti / Jaanamyadharmam param na nirvati’ (I know what is dharma but I am not inclined towards it. I also know what Adharma is but I cannot free myself from its clutches.)

Iqbal believes in the ancient Indian concept of continuity of life which is akin to indestructibility of Aatma (Soul). He says:

Maut is gulshan mein juz sanjidane par kuchh nahiN

Meaning: Death is just like a bird sitting on the branch of a tree to shuffle and give rest to its wings so that it can fly again.) His imagery of the bird is about the Aatma.

Again Iqbal says:

SamaN ki mohabbat meiN muzmir hai tan asani
Manzoor agar manzil hai, gharat-gar-e-saman ho

Meaning: Unnecessary load of worldly goods is a hindrance to easily reaching your destination, peace of mind and eternal happiness. So if you want to reach your destination easily, throw away your excess load This is the same as aparigrah (non possession) of worldly goods, one of the commandments of Jain doctrine.

Though it is not adequately explored and appreciated, Urdu poetry by Muslim poets has given us elixir of Bhakti Rasa. Ghalib says:

Jaan di, di huyi usiki thhi
Haq to hai hai ki haq adaa na hua

Meaning: Allah gives life and He also takes it away, but the regret is that a person does not perform the sacrosanct duties assigned to him during his life-time

Ghalib’s disciple Altaf Hussain Hali goes a step further. He says:

Bande se magar hoga haq kyoNkar ada tera

Meaning: It is not possible for human beings to repay the innumerable bounties conferred on them by God. So they should not even claim to do that and should always remain indebted to Him).This is the same as a bhajan – Mera is mein kuchh naahi, jo kuchh hai so tor, tera tujhko saumpte kya laagat hai mor (All is yours / what do I lose if I give it back to you)

Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali’s poetry is all about bhakti rasa akin to that of Hindi poets of Bhaktiwaad. About ibaadat (bhakti) he says:

Raud mein, dehshat-e-junoon mein, teri ajab maza khushgawaar dekha
Na is mein koi thakaan dekhi, na is mein koi khumaar dekha

Meaning: Allah! Your devotees feel a unique pleasure in following the path sown by you even if it is full of thorns and the intoxication that we get in your prayers has no hangovers!

He propounds true secularism in his verse:

Salook hain tere yaksan wo gabro tarsan hon ya musalmaan
Na unse kuchh tera bair, na inse kuchh tera pyaar dekha

Meaning: Allah treats all persons as equal whether they are fire worshippers or Christians or Muslims). Hali does not believe in the concept of Kafir. Iqbal in his poem Naya Shiwala says ‘Shakti bhi, shanti bhi, bhagton ke geet mein hai’ (Both power and peace of mind are in the songs of the devotees). The same idea is there in Vishnu Puraan where Lord Vishnu tells Narada that he lives neither in Baikunth nor in the hearts of the yogis. He lives where his devotees sing songs of devotion.

Urdu poets do not approve of worship of God for the sake of showing off. Iqbal in a verse says – When I touched the ground with my forehead in namaaz, a voice came out telling me that your namaaz is a sham as you are deeply stuck in sensual pleasures. Also he gives a new dimension to God’s worship when he says ‘Main uska banda banoonga jisko khuda ke bandon se pyaar hoga’ (I will worship only the persons who love God’s creation).

CONTRIBUTION OF SUFI POETS

Sufism originated from a group of people who had no house of their own and lived on a platform under a shed near Prophet Mohammed’s house. They purposely lived a life of renunciation, deprivation and misery. They wore a dress made from coarse wool called suf and hence the name Sufi. Their motto was Alfaqr Fakhri (Poetry is my pride). Later they spread into Central Asia and preached their cult. Most Islamic historians believe that Sufism was brought to India by Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti.

Here their cult was influenced by Yoga, Vedant and later by Sikh Gurus. They appreciated many aspects of their philosophy and included them in Sufism. This resulted in an emotional integration between Hindus and Muslims, so vital for their living together in harmony. Sufi poets of Punjab wrote poetry in the Punjabi dialect of the areas where they lived, which was easily understood by the people.

Mysticism is the pivotal point of their poetry. This is direct communication and absorption into the Supreme by love and devotion. Like Vedant, they believe that God is there in every human being but He is hidden from him by khudi which is called aham in Hindu scriptures. Therefore it is necessary to kill khudi before becoming one with the Supreme.

The path chosen by them for this purpose is Ishq-Majaazi to Ishq-Haquiqi. In Ishq Majaazi the lovers have normal earthly feelings of joy, pain, agony and ecstasies. In Ishq Haquiqi the lover is a human being and the beloved is God. But they do not ask for worldly comforts and they do not yearn for heaven nor are afraid of hell. They seek only the enchanting sight of the Lord (beloved). This emotion is beautifully narrated by the famous Persian poetess Rabia-Al-Basri – If I love thee for fear of Hell / Put me in the fires of Hell / If I love thee for the sake of Heaven / Deprive me of this bliss for all times / My love for thee is thine alone / I yearn for thy communion / Withhold not thy everlasting beauty from me. Mira has expressed the same yearning for her Girdhar Gopal.

In Punjab, many love lores are sung but the Sufis adopted the love lore of Heer-Ranjha by Waris Shah for illustrating Ishq-Majaazi. Ranjha of Takht Hazara had heard a lot about the enchanting beauty of Heer of Sayals. He went to Heer’s village and met her in a garden. They fell in love at first sight. There were impediments in their meetings but this made their love even more intense. In this love lore, Heer is the human being and Ranjha, the beloved, is God.

Shah Hussain thus describes their union – Yesterday I was away from my Ranjha / Today I have become one with my Lord / He is Heer / He is Ranjha / Friends do not call me Heer / Call me Ranjha.

Bulle Shah describes the metaphysical union between Heer (man) and Ranjha (God) – Friends come and congratulate me / I am wedded to Ranjha / It was the gracious day which has come today / friends come and congratulate me.

Sultan Bahu gives a very meaningful relation between the two forms of love – The plant is the same / Distinctive leaves are the same / Ishq-Majaazi is the flower / And Ishq Haquiqi is its fruit. It implies that Ishq-Majaazi leads to Ishq Haquiqi.

The Sufis often kept this pleasure of communion to themselves but sometimes like Bulle Shah, when in Wajd (trance), they attired in ghagra (long skirt) and dupatta, fell down and said – O physician! Come soon and feel my pulse / I am dying / My Lord has made me to dance to exhaustion / Kar thayya thayya. Shah Hussain even sang – I am a devotee (gopi) / I am a devotee from Vrinda Ban and also the dark complexioned (Krishna) is my bosom friend. At one point he says – Get up Lazy Bones / It is time to sing Rama’s praise.

By Petra Bartosiewicz

When I first read the U.S. government’s complaint against Aafia Siddiqui, who is awaiting trial in a Brooklyn detention center on charges of attempting to murder a group of U.S. Army officers and FBI agents in Afghanistan, the case it described was so impossibly convoluted—and yet so absurdly incriminating—that I simply assumed she was innocent. According to the complaint, on the evening of July 17, 2008, several local policemen discovered Siddiqui and a young boy loitering about a public square in Ghazni. She was carrying instructions for creating “weapons involving biological material,” descriptions of U.S. “military assets,” and numerous unnamed “chemical substances in gel and liquid form that were sealed in bottles and glass jars.” Siddiqui, an MIT-trained neuroscientist who lived in the United States for eleven years, had vanished from her hometown in Pakistan in 2003, along with all three of her children, two of whom were U.S. citizens. The complaint does not address where she was those five years or why she suddenly decided to emerge into a public square outside Pakistan and far from the United States, nor does it address why she would do so in the company of her American son. Various reports had her married to a high-level Al Qaeda operative, running diamonds out of Liberia for Osama bin Laden, and abetting the entry of terrorists into the United States. But those reports were countered by rumors that Siddiqui actually had spent the previous five years in the maw of the U.S. intelligence system—that she was a ghost prisoner, kidnapped by Pakistani spies, held in secret detention at a U.S. military prison, interrogated until she could provide no further intelligence, then spat back into the world in the manner most likely to render her story implausible. These dueling narratives of terrorist intrigue and imperial overreach were only further confounded when Siddiqui finally appeared before a judge in a Manhattan courtroom on August 5. Now, two weeks after her capture, she was bandaged and doubled over in a wheelchair, barely able to speak, because—somehow—she had been shot in the stomach by one of the very soldiers she stands accused of attempting to murder.

HO

(Submitted by reader)

Edited By: Marcel van der Linden & Prabhu P. Mohapatra 978-81-89487-50-8 , Tulika, August 2009 , pp. xxii+338
Economics/Capitalism.
Hardbound
List price: Rs 695.00 / $ 35.00
Book Club Members price: Rs 521.25 / $ 26.25

About The Book:
This volume, in honour of Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, brings together a set of essays that highlight some of the major transformations in the field of labour history today.

The present juncture is one in which the geographical boundaries of the discipline, which were narrowly configured around the nation-state, are being challenged; and the analytical category of labour, for long identified with the industrial, unionized and male worker, has been stretched to include hitherto marginalized, informal workers.

The shift away from Eurocentric comparisons in recent years has meant a questioning of the spatial, temporal and relational binaries that were dominant in the writing of labour history earlier. By focusing on sites, forms and relations of labour that habitually cut across the classical divides of labour history, the essays explore connections between events and processes across time and space.

They demonstrate that global history is not just history at a global scale, but a macro-view of historical processes of importance to human societies and their systematic analyses at all scales. Global history, the contributions in this volume show, can be solidly based on micro-historical studies, if these studies connect with the larger areas
of inquiry.

LWB