Intolerance of other faiths has been the essence of extreme elements among all religions. As much as I would like to believe that Buddhists and Hindus are an exception, it is not true.Churches in Orissa come under attack.
A curfew has been imposed in parts of the eastern Indian state of Orissa after Hindu hardliners attacked up to a dozen Christian churches, police say.
.....
However it started, the violence appeared to culminate in the attacks on churches on Christmas Day.
Christians were chased out of several churches - in many case just mud huts with thatched roofs - before they were set alight, officials said.
.....
Christians said it was sparked by Hindus objecting to a performance they were staging to celebrate Christmas.
But a Hindu group said it began when Christians tried to attack a local Hindu leader on Monday, Christmas Eve.
[Click here for the BBC article]
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( 3.1 / 12 )
Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, June 21, 1953 – December 27, 2007
A lot is said about her death elsewhere. I have nothing more to add other than saying, "No matter what her politics are, she is one brave woman." She is one of the most charismatic leaders of our times. Rest in peace, Mrs. Bhutto.
From my blog entry on Oct 29, 2007:
If Musharraf-Bhutto power-share is the best US can come-up with in terms of foreign policy in the most volatile nation in the world, the world may be in for big trouble.
How True!
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( 2.8 / 11 )
Recently I came across this well written synthesis on a myriad of Bush Administration scandals. Hugh's list has over 292 scandals. Introduction: George Bush, the Connecticut cowboy, the good old boy from Yale is a man of mediocre intelligence, little imagination, and great stubbornness and vindictiveness. He may be the Decider but his handlers have long known how to manipulate him. The key is to hook him with short, simple sells. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice know that once he has consulted his gut and perhaps his higher father his decision is forever. So whoever gets to him first is likely to carry the day because he doesn't like to be challenged and is, quite simply, too lazy to change his mind. The Bubble is a natural consequence of this decision making process where logic, reason, and facts have little or no role.
1. Ill-treatment of the wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital
2. Improper dismissal of US attorneys for not bowing to the pressure indicting
...and the list goes on. Here is some heavy reading for your holidays.
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( 3.4 / 14 )This being the end of the semester and final examination time, I am a bit tied-up at work. Haven't had much chance to post on this blog. I will do so shortly.
Mohan
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( 3.1 / 42 )
No. I am not kidding. Here is an excerpt from BBC.com article.Hindu gods get summons from court
By Amarnath Tewary
Patna
Painting of Lord Ram and Hanuman
The gods have many temples in their name Pic: Vivek Raj
A judge in India has summoned two Hindu gods, Ram and Hanuman, to help resolve a property dispute.
Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in the eastern state of Jharkhand has issued adverts in newspapers asking the gods to "appear before the court personally".
The gods have been asked to appear before the court on Tuesday, after the judge said that letters addressed to them had gone unanswered.
Ram and Hanuman are among the most popular Indian Hindu gods.
Judge Singh presides in a "fast track" court - designed to resolve disputes quickly - in the city of Dhanbad.
....
Gift
Judge Singh sent out two notices to the deities, but they were returned as the addresses were found to be "incomplete".
Local say the temple belongs to the gods Pic: Mahadeo Sen
This prompted him to put out adverts in local newspapers summoning the gods.
"You failed to appear in court despite notices sent by a peon and later through registered post. You are herby directed to appear before the court personally", Judge Singh's notice said.
.....
[More from BBC.com]
To all this I say, Rama Rama. Yemi chodyam Yemi Chodyam!
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( 2.8 / 34 )
In a Sept 25th entry on this blog I noted that actor Chiranjeevi will enter politics soon. Apparently, the big day is right around the corner. All the indications are that he is going to launch a new party with an emphasis on "backward" castes. A little bird's word to me is that Chiru will team-up with Bahujan Samaj party and a lot of Telugu Desam party veterans are ready to jump ship. Bhesh... old wine in new bottle!The following is an excerpt from an article at rediff.com:
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As the political atmosphere in Andhra Pradesh is hotting up ahead of assembly elections, one and a half year away, there is fresh speculation over Telugu matinee idol Chiranjeevi's [Images] entry into politics.
While there was no word from the superstar, sources close to him say the exercise has begun to elicit views from people from various walks of life as a precursor to his foray into politics.
The actor is believed to have made up his mind to take the plunge and is likely annouce his decision after Sankranti fesival in January.
Chiru, as the actor is affectionately called by his fans and film industry, has been keeping the cards close to his chest about his political plans.
The leaders of powerful Kapu community, to which the star belongs, have been trying to persuade him to enter politics and end the domination of the two major castes -- Kamma and Reddy -- in the state.
However, Chiranjeevi who has a massive fan following across the communities, is said to be wary of being projected as a Kapu leader.
But he is expected to fill the leadership vaccum being felt among the numerically strong yet politically marginalised backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities.
Of late, there have been efforts by Left parties to project Chiranjeevi, who has acted in 148 films, as a rallying point for weaker sections and leader of a possible Third Front as an alternative to the ruling Congress and main opposition Telugu Desam Party.
The Left parties, particularly the Communist Party of India, have been in the forefront of efforts to forge a Third Front by roping in Chiranjeevi.
Media reports also suggested that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party was keen on working with the actor.
Chirnajeevi's fans have been rooting for his foray into politics and are confident that he can repeat the magic of the late N T Rama Rao who had stormed to power within nine months of floating the TDP and ended Congress monopoly in the state in 1983.
Though speculation about his entry into politics has been surfacing on and off for the last 15 years, the actor maintained a stoic silence.
However, in recent times he is said to be holding parleys with his aides and well-wishers in a bid to assess the political situation.
Chiranjeevi, a Padma Bhushan awardee, has been active in social work and philanthropic activity through the Chiranjeevi Blood Bank and Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust he floated couple of years ago.
The reports of his possible political plunge evoked enthusiastic response from his fans who organised rallies across the state and burst into celebrations in anticipation of their leader donning the political mantle.
The major political parties reacted guardedly to the fresh buzz about Chiranjeevi's political entry.
While Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said he would welcome any one joining politics and "more so" Chiranjeevi, the TDP leaders said they would rather wait for the actor to announce his decision.
"In a democracy, anybody can join politics. Chiranjeevi is yet to announce his decision. Why should we comment before that?" senior TDP leader and former minister K Vidyadhara Rao said.
Echoing similar views, the state CPI secretary K Narayana said there was no clear-cut statement from the actor so far about his political plans.
CPI-M politburo member and state secretary B V Raghavulu said it was not the individual but the policies that matter.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi Member of Parliament K Vinod Kumar said the present political situation was completely different from the one that had prevailed when NTR launched a political party.
The 52-year-old actor was born in Mogalturu in West Godavari district and made his debut in 1977 with Mana Voori Pandavulu directed by noted Telugu director Bapu.
[more... form Rediff.com]
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( 2.9 / 11 )Last week the Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on the economic progress made by India and its impact on the caste system. The following are some excerpts.
Socialism and Castes Begin to Give Way; Lessons of 'Dumbo'
By PAUL BECKETT and KRISHNA POKHAREL in New Delhi and ERIC BELLMAN in Mumbai; November 28, 2007; Page A1
Since it gained independence, India has been defined by socialism, poverty and a Hindu caste system that determined a person's place in society from birth. Now, amid an explosion of economic growth, millions of Indians are embracing long-unthinkable ambitions: to lead a better life than their parents and create a better life for their children.
"My son would have followed in my footsteps 10 years ago," says Sanjaya Sharma, 39 years old. He works, as his father did, at a crematorium on the banks of the Yamuna River in New Delhi, where open funeral pyres sit on about 100 concrete slabs. Mr. Sharma's job is to ensure bodies are fully cremated and, if the children of the deceased aren't available, to pierce skulls with a stick in a sacred Hindu rite. Working one of Indian society's humblest jobs earns Mr. Sharma 200 rupees, or about $5, a day.
Now, the father of five says, "I don't want my children to do what I am doing. I want them to go into business, get educated, get a respected profession, learn computers and earn for themselves." Mr. Sharma and his wife push their eldest, a 14-year-old girl named Khushboo, to get good grades. Khushboo says she wants to get a "good private-sector job in Bombay or in America," using the old name for Mumbai.The new sense of possibility felt by Indians, many of them from the lower classes, is one of the most profound social consequences of the great economic reawakening of this nation of 1.1 billion.
Economic growth has averaged about 8.6% a year for the past four years, a rate that, if sustained, would double average incomes in a decade. Indian companies are snapping up Western rivals. Droves of Indian professionals, meanwhile, are returning home from abroad, seeing a greater chance here of entrepreneurial success. Poorer Indians are flocking from villages to the cities in search of new jobs and a better lot in life.
"There has been a psychological breakthrough," says André Béteille, chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. The 73-year-old has studied Indian society since shortly after India won independence from Britain in 1947. "Substantial sections of the Indian population believe that they are as good as anybody."
There's demographic evidence to suggest that India's economic boom will continue. About one-third of India's population is under the age of 15. Over the next five years, India will be responsible for nearly 25% of the increase in the world's working-age population, according to an October World Bank report. China's population, in contrast, is rapidly aging; its working-age population is expected to fall to 57% of the total in 2050 from 67% in 2000, according to a separate World Bank report issued in September.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently claimed India in 2006 became the world's third-largest economy after the U.S. and China based on purchasing-power parity, which adjusts exchange rates to equalize the cost of goods in different countries.
India's newfound ebullience contrasts sharply with the tragic aspects of this ancient land. Many of its rural residents, representing roughly 70% of India's population, still live in brutal poverty. Malnutrition, infant mortality and other childhood diseases are commonplace, especially in the countryside, because successive Indian governments have underinvested in health care and many public and aid-agency funds destined for the poor are siphoned off by corruption.
And it isn't the first time India has felt this kind of optimism. When it won independence, India's leaders believed the nation could secure a new and unique perch as a tolerant, secular democracy, especially if the steady hand of the state was on the economic tiller. Since then, India's stability has stood out against the turmoil that frequently roils neighboring Pakistan, which won independence the same year. But India's economic performance in the few decades after independence was so poor that it came to be referred to derisively as the "Hindu rate of growth."India also has seen short spurts of rapid economic growth before. It experienced three such years in the mid-1990s, but the boom fell apart with the advent of the Asian financial crisis.
Still, there is little to compare with what is happening in large parts of the country today -- changes that are altering how people live and what they aspire to. Domestic tourism companies are booking record numbers of sightseers. An advertisement for IFB Industries Ltd., a maker of washing machines, dryers and microwave ovens, features a smiling young woman looking at a spreadsheet on her laptop. "Housework on your mind?" it asks. "Set yourself free with IFB."
The opportunities open to young Indians are now vast compared with just a few years ago, and they go well beyond information technology and call centers. Whole new industries, free from the shackles of state ownership, offer a new generation a far wider range of choices.
"In my community, you should do only engineering or medicine," says 22-year-old Sunil Ji Bhat, referring to the two traditionally respectable professions for the upper classes. Under the ancient but still-influential caste system, Brahmins like Mr. Bhat are at the top. "Now, new things are coming up: Insurance, journalism, hotel management, and youth are very much attracted to these new fields."
[Click here to read the full article from WSJ (registration required)]
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( 2.8 / 45 )
In an article this week that examined the troubles brewing in Citigroup’s mortgage business, the Wall Street Journal focused on Natalie Brandon, a 51 year old married woman from Granada Hills, CA, who is currently unable to make the payments on her $625,000 adjustable rate home loan from Citigroup, despite the fact that the rate will not even reset higher until June of next year. Amazingly, the Journal reported that Mrs. Brandon bought the house in 1985 for just $105,000, but had chosen to refinance five times over the past seven years, borrowing more than $500,000 and spending every single penny. While this may be an extreme example of American profligacy, it is by no means unique. Unfortunately this type of behavior typifies everything that is wrong with the modern American economy.Had this homeowner behaved responsibly, as was typical for Americans of prior generations, her current monthly mortgage payments would likely be less than $600 and the remaining balance on her loan would be about $40,000. In eight more years she would have owned her home free and clear, and would likely be on track for early retirement. Instead, after 22 years of making mortgage payments, she is now $625,000 in debt. The article stated that she had recently tried to refinance into a 6%, forty year, fixed-rate mortgage, but it fell through. Even if she had qualified, she would have been obligated to make monthly mortgage payments of close to $4,000 until she was in her nineties.
For years, Wall Street and the media have been singing the praises of the heroic American consumer. To that end Mrs. Brandon could be portrayed as Wonder Woman. She did her part to power our consumer driven economy by borrowing and spending to her heart’s content. Her last refinance even allowed her to buy a brand new Lexus. As long as she could find a greater fool willing to loan her more money, there was no limit to what she could buy. As it turned out, Citigroup was the greatest fool, left holding the bag on a $625,000 mortgage on a house now likely worth only half that amount.
[More from an article The End of Consumer Credit As We Know It by Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital, Inc.]
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( 2.9 / 34 )The following is a demonstration of intelligence, or lack there of. Apparently, chimps are better with numbers than us humans. Watch this fascinating video. In this video, a young chimp demonstrates its extraordinary ability to remember numbers by placing numerals in ascending order. [Click on the image]
You are thinking, we humans should be able to do it just as fast, right? Sure we can. But can you do what the chimp does in the following video? [Click on the image]
In case you were not able to view it, in the above video, a chimp is presented with numbers, from one to nine, which are then replaced with blank squares. The chimp shows it can remember which number appeared in which location and touches the squares in the appropriate order.
Now, for comparison sake, here is a beauty! I bet that chimp will beat this 'beauty' in the category of intelligence! [Click on the image]
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( 3.2 / 29 )
Heee. Heee. Of course, she later apologized for the comment. But, me thinks that she shouldn't have!
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( 3 / 29 )Real Estate that is. If you are into real estate business in India, here is more competition for you.
A leading Gulf property developer said on Monday it would team up with a local partner to invest five billion dollars in India's booming real estate sector over the next five years.
A flood of money, especially from the Gulf, has poured into the soaring property market in India, which experts say is among major nations where there is first-time real estate demand rather than only individuals trading up.
RAKEEN, property arm of the Ras Al Khaimah government, said it would form a 50-50 joint venture with India's Trimex mineral group to spend five billion dollars developing residential, commercial and office space in India.
The new company, RAKINDO Developers, "will have a committed capital outlay of over five billion dollars over the next five years," said its managing director Prasad Koneru.
"Our entry into real estate estate can't be better timed. The last 10 years have seen India achieve a transformation process" to create "a booming economy," he told reporters at the India Economic Summit in New Delhi.
Ras Al Khaimah is part of the United Arab Emirates federation, the world's sixth largest oil exporter.
RAKINDO "will deliver truly world-class products," said Khatar Massad, advisor to the Emirate's crown prince.
[more from Economic Times]
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( 3 / 12 )
Senator Trent Lott resigned from US Senate abruptly. Shortly the Governor of Mississippi will announce Lott's replacement. The focus is on Mississippi Rep. Chip Pickering. He is a religious nut who showed his true colors in the Movie "Borat."Catch the story and a clip from the movie which featured Rep. Chip Pickering from HuffingtonPost.com. Notice in the clip, the Mississippi State Chief Justice declaring that America "will always be a Christian nation until the good lord returns." You expect justice to be served from these zealots?
Scary, isn't it?
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( 3 / 32 )
Statue of Liberty is the symbol of free world. If there is a 'statue of discrimination,' it would be synonymous with GOP. Case in point, a story about LEGAL immigration in Today's Washington Post.
Historically immigrants who are naturalized citizens of America have voted for the Democrats. George Bush scored the highest percentage of Hispanic votes ever registered by a Republican President: 40%. The anti-immigrant sentiment among Republicans have turned the Hispanic vote decidedly democratic. It looks certain that most immigrants will vote in lock-step for the Democratic candidates in 2008 elections. To add fule to the fire, the Washington Post reports that there is a massive influx of applications for citizenship. Uh oh! The GOP candidates would be in trouble, won't they?
What would you do if you were the Republican President and can help it?
The Department of Homeland Security failed to prepare for a massive influx of applications for U.S. citizenship and other immigration benefits this summer, prompting complaints from Hispanic leaders and voter-mobilization groups that several hundred thousand people likely will not be granted citizenship in time to cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election.
That's not all.
"I really want to target the elections," USCIS Director Emilio T. Gonzalez told the Associated Press in an interview published Tuesday. "I really want to get as many people out there to vote as possible."
Aides, however, contradicted him. "We are going to process these cases as responsibly and as quickly as we can, but we're not focused on any of the election cycle," Aytes said. USCIS spokesman Bill Wright emphasized that political calculations played no role in agency decisions. "Any implication of that is ludicrous," he said.
[snip]
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who chairs a House immigration subcommittee, said prospective citizens' ability to vote could be delayed, even though USCIS justified what she called its "outrageous" fee increases by saying they would pay to improve efficiency and speed processing. Citizenship applicants by rule must have lived in the United States at least three to five years and established stable lives. Roughly 85 percent of applicants are approved.
Citizenship application fees -- including electronic fingerprinting fees -- rose from $410 to $675 on July 30.
Citizenship Delayed
"These are people who want to be Americans . . . and to not allow them to participate in one of the fundamental [rights] of a democracy, which is voting, is a real problem," Lofgren said.
The immigration agency breakdown comes at a sensitive time. President Bush's immigration overhaul legislation failed in the Senate this summer, intensifying a heated national debate in which most Republican presidential candidates are using get-tough rhetoric on border security to mobilize voters agitated over immigration. Democratic contenders are supporting more comprehensive measures, seeking to attract support from Hispanic voters who may be put off by the harder GOP line.
Read the rest of the story from Washington Post.com
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( 3 / 12 )
It is irrelevant if you believe whether Lord Rama existed, or if Jesus is the Son of God, or Mohammad is the real representative of God. What is important is that in a secular society, there should be an impenetrable wall between the Church and the State. We should not let any one religious doctrine to be taught as a science. When you let that happen, the religion of the majority is what they will end up teaching in schools. there will be no protection for the rights of the minorities. A State that allows religious texts to be taught as a part of the MANDATORY curriculum is no longer a democracy. It is a theocracy!Against the wishes of the founding fathers of this great country, the so called "base" of the Republican party and the hardcore supporters of Bush want to establish this country as a Christian Nation. The proponents of Biblical "Creationism" at the Dover, PA school board are the quintessential representatives of this over jealous religious nuts. They wanted to provide 'creationism' an equal time with the Darwin's theory of evolution in the science classes.
PBS has a fascinating documentary on this subject. I highly recommend that you watch it. [JUDGMENT DAY - Intelligent Design on Trial via PBS.org]
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( 3 / 30 )Financial companies' losses due to the US sub-prime crisis could be as much as $400bn (£190bn), US investment bank Goldman Sachs has said.The estimate by Goldman's chief economist Jan Hatzius is higher than that of the Federal Reserve but in line with some recent independent forecasts.
Mr Hatzius predicts leveraged investors may have to reduce their lending by $2 trillion as a result.
"The macroeconomic consequences could be quite dramatic," Mr Hatzius said.
He said the development could lead to a "substantial recession" if it happened over a year, or to a prolonged period of weak economic growth if it occurred over up to four years.
[More from BBC.com]
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( 2.9 / 22 )
Calendar
