Month: March 2010

by MAHAN ABEDIN

The dramatic arrest of Abdulmalik Rigi, Iran’s most wanted man, on February 23 continues to be shrouded in mystery. But with information and insights gleaned from security sources in Tehran, Asia Times Online can reveal some of the most intricate background details leading to this stunning arrest.

The imagery – and the concomitant political message – was compelling. The image of a young man being surrounded by balaclava-clad security officers by the side of a small commercial plane was designed to send the strongest possible message to Western intelligence services, their political masters and the Western public in general. If the West led by the mighty United States has failed in its nearly nine-year pursuit of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, embattled Iran managed to get its man with minimal political and economic cost.

Aside from frustrating American subversion efforts in Iran’s southeast, the capture of the Jundallah leader sends an unmistakable message that in the intelligence wars of the Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran has once again seized the initiative. The repercussions of this will be felt across all spheres and at all levels, boosting Iran’s diplomatic and political posture in the region, and thus making the country less vulnerable to American and Israeli bullying.

Asia Times Online for more

The Internet giant has applied its muscle to a phone application that can ‘listen’ to speech and provide translations in a computerized voice for English, Mandarin and Japanese.

by DAVID SARNO

Whether it’s C-3PO, the fastidious Star Wars droid fluent in 6 million languages, or Star Trek’s invisible but convenient “universal translator,” the miracle interpreter has been a favorite device of science fiction.

But now, on planet Earth, Google Inc. is using its vast computational and intellectual resources to put that futuristic technology directly in the hands of consumers.

If you’re traveling in Beijing and find yourself hungry for some American cuisine, you can activate the translator on your Google-powered phone, and say, “Where can I find a hamburger?” Moments later, the phone will spit out the phrase in Chinese — both as a string of text and, if you prefer, in a computerized voice.

Conversely, should you happen to be stopped on Sunset Boulevard by a visiting Japanese businesswoman with a question in her native language, simply ask her to speak it into the phone. Wait a beat, then press the play button to hear the translation: “Is it going to rain today?”

 

Los Angeles Times for more

(Submitted by reader)

Bangladesh has been rocked by the recent flaring up of decades old ethnic tensions, as Bengali settlers set fire to hundreds of indigenous homes.

by PINAKI ROY

Recent violence between the indigenous community and majority Bengali speakers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh left two people dead and many injured.

Thousands of indigenous people were left homeless as their shanty houses were burnt to ashes on February 19th and 20th. In the attacks, committed by members of the majority Bengali speaking population in the presence of law enforcers, two people including a woman were killed and more than 50 injured, while 357 houses were set ablaze across 11 villages.

The indigenous people from these villages are now hiding in the dense forest or have moved to other villages. They claim the attacks were an attempt to grab their land and properties.

Human rights worker Sathi Chakma visited Baghaichhari, where the arson took place, on March 2nd. She said the homeless people were living in fear in Baghaihaat.

“Many are coming with relief. But the relief will matter nothing to them if they can’t rebuild their houses soon,” she said.

“The land where there were villages is barren now. The sooner they can build their houses the better, otherwise the Bengali settlers might grab their land.” Sathi, who belongs to the indigenous community, said she strongly believed the attack was primarily a land grab.

Open India for more

(Submitted by reader)

JEAN LEONARD TOUADI talks to ALEN CUSTOVIC

“Since the Nineties Italy has been experiencing a real social creation of an enemy. The result is that, over time, a number of reflexes and slogans become sedimented in the collective imagination and in symbolic frameworks of daily life, contributing not only to social instability but also to the business of fear.” Jean Léonard Touadi, Congolese by birth and Italian by adoption, a university professor and a member of parliament for the PD, comments for Resetdoc on the “hunt for the black man” that took place in Rosarno, Calabria, at the beginning of January.

What do these events in Rosarno reveal?

As soon as I saw the tragic images from Rosarno, I caught the first available plane and went there. What I found were the same elements I had seen in Castel Volturno, the same dangerous mix of organised crime, illegal labor and serious unease. Personally, I have studied the history of blacks in the United States and what I saw in that town in Calabria looked like what happened in Alabama during the Twenties in the past century. I never expected to see anything similar in Italy in 2010.

Reports also showed immigrants, especially Africans, armed with bars and sticks, crossing the town and causing destruction and chaos. Why all this anger?

I was the first person to make an appeal against violence, trying to make people understand that even if they are totally in the right, violence puts them in the wrong, as well as them being cleverly manoeuvred and exploited. I tried to teach those young people that the history of black people, from the United States to South Africa, teaches us that then best results have been achieved thanks to non-violence.

Reset DOC for more

via Sign and Sight

by ADITI BHADURI

With her large flashing eyes rimmed with kohl and flowing hair, she is the quintessential dancer. Despite her chain-smoking, she is the picture of health and surprisingly agile. But then again, she has been breaking down traditional stereotypes for years as an acclaimed dancer in a country where dancing is frowned upon. Moreover, she has distinguished herself by performing “Hindu” dances in a country whose arch-rival is “Hindu India”.

Pakistani danseuse Sheema Kermani, who has used her passion for dance to create Tehrik-e-Niswan (The Women’s Movement) to fight for women’s rights in her country where they are under duress, has now turned to bridging the divide between Pakistan and India. She spoke with me recently while on a goodwill tour to Kolkata, India (and again via email following the recent terror attack in Pune) about how she came to learn “Hindu” dance forms and why she is performing in India when ties between the two neighbors are at their lowest. Her work couldn’t come at a more critical time – today in New Delhi, the foreign secretaries of both countries will finally resume talks for the first time since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Women’s International Perspective for more

Ridy performs on Ringa Ringa

Ridika’s website

by ELIZABETH KIRKWOOD

EK: How do respond to some of the negative press you’ve had here? Jay Rayner in the Guardian, for example, accusing you of taking a sentimental view of animals.

JSF: Well, I think they’re sentimental. Sentimentality is when our feelings influence us more than our brains and our reason. It is an engagement with the facts, to say, “I don’t want to eat a food that is the worst thing for the environment,” and: “I don’t want to eat a food that abuses animals in ways that I wouldn’t abuse my dog.” That’s not sentimental, that’s just being a decent human being. I have no desire to let a chicken crawl into bed with me, I just don’t want to treat it like a block of wood.

It’s curious, these strange and very sentimental divisions we create. To treat a dog one way and to treat a pig another way is sentimental. And I’ve never heard a good—rational—explanation for why we draw such lines, other than: “we’ve always done it.” Which is not an explanation, as that would justify all kinds of behaviour that we would never do today.

Prospect for more

With an increase of about 670,242 new members last year, Tanzania now has the second largest Lutheran Church congregation in the world.The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) of Tanzania, which is affiliated to the largest Lutheran World Federation (LWF), recorded a growth of 14.5 per cent last year.

This phenomenal growth has seen Tanzania claim the top position in Africa, for having the highest number of followers of the Lutheran Church, and the second place in the world after Sweden.

ccording to figures released on Thursday by the LWF, and reported in several church-based newsletters, Tanzania’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) registered 670,000 new members in 2009.

Even though all the Lutheran churches in Africa were shown as having recorded high growth rates, Tanzania had the strongest showing.

According to the statistics, Asia also showed considerable growth, while the numbers are declining in the Americas. The total number of members in churches belonging to the LWF rose by 1,589,225 last year to just over 70 million.

The Citizen for more

We are pleased to announce a new book of poetry in translation, “Rococo and Other Worlds,” by Afzal Ahmed Syed, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. It is the first English language publication of Urdu’s greatest modern poet.

Here is a section from one poem in the book, “Tell Me a Story”:

*******
Tell me a story
other than how from the museum
the witness table of the peace pact disappeared
other than that a continent is called by the wrong name

Tell me a story
other than that you do not like to kiss lips
other than that I was not the first man in your life
other than that it was not raining that day
*******

Afzal Ahmed Syed holds a unique place among contemporary poets of the Urdu language, as a master of both the classical and modern Urdu poetic forms. The poems in “Rococo and Other Worlds” explore the mythology and historical realities of South Asia and the Middle East; their bold imagery creates narratives of voluptuous perfection, which remain inseparable from the political realities that Syed witnessed as a young observer of the violent separation of East Pakistan and emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 and of the Lebanese civil war in 1976. Musharraf Ali Farooqiís sensitive translations bring this extraordinary work to English readers for the first time.

For more details, click Rococo and Other Worlds

(Submitted by reader)

by JONATHAN COOK

Israel seeks to join OECD despite its continuance of ‘criminal’ occupation, illegal settlements.

An exclusive club of the world’s most developed countries is poised to admit Israel as a member even though, a confidential internal document indicates, doing so will amount to endorsing Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territories.

Israel has been told that its accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is all but assured when the 30 member states meet in May.

But a draft OECD report concedes that Israel has breached one of the organization’s key requirements on providing accurate and transparent data on its economic activity.

The information supplied by Israel, the report notes, includes not only the economic activity of its citizens inside its recognized borders but also Jewish settlers who live in the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan in violation of international law.

Israel’s accession to the OECD on such terms threatens to severely embarrass many of the organization’s member states, especially those in the European Union that are publicly committed to avoiding collusion with the occupation.

Middle East Online for more

(Submitted by Ingrid B. Mork)