Blatant Hypocrisy

When something like this happens in India, we get thundering editorials from the New York Times, and a whole raft of OpEds about the lack of freedom of expression in India.

Or if that infamous video been withdrawn, the one that provoked riots in Libya and Egypt and that may have been part of  the motivation for the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi in which four Americans actually lost their lives --- the howls of "censorship" would have been deafening.

But the following, oh, it is business as usual:




http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/arts/music/met-opera-cancels-telecast-of-klinghoffer.html

The Metropolitan Opera announced on Tuesday that it was canceling plans to simulcast John Adams’s “The Death of Klinghoffer” this fall to cinemas around the world, drawing praise from some Jewish groups who object to the opera, but laments from the work’s fans and a warning from its composer that the decision promotes “intolerance.”

The opera, considered one of Mr. Adams’s masterpieces, depicts the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro by members of the Palestine Liberation Front, and the killing of a disabled Jewish American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer. The work, which sought to give voice to Palestinians and Israelis, and hijackers as well as victims, has attracted controversy since its 1991 premiere. Some Jewish groups have questioned the Met’s plans to present it.

The Met decided to cancel its planned Nov. 15 Live in HD transmission of “Klinghoffer” to movie theaters and a radio broadcast after discussions with the Anti-Defamation League. The league praised the Met’s decision, saying that “while the opera itself is not anti-Semitic, there is a concern the opera could be used in foreign countries to stir up anti-Israel sentiments or as a vehicle to promote anti-Semitism.”

Cheney: December 2007

In an interview with Politico,  one of the architects of the Iraq mess, then Vice President Dick Cheney, December 2007:

Cheney, who has been widely criticized for overly optimistic — and sometime flat wrong — projections in the past, sounded as confident as ever that the Bush administration will achieve its objectives in Iraq.

“I am fairly confident we’ll have [Iraq] in a good place, where we’ll be able to look back on it and say, 'That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq,'” Cheney told us in a 40-minute White House interview.

Sounding a note of caution, the vice president said: "We've got a lot of work to do. We're sort of halfway through the surge, in a sense. We'll be going back to pre-surge levels over the course of the next year."

But Cheney said that by the middle of January 2009, it will be clear that “we have in fact achieved our objective in terms of having a self-governing Iraq that’s capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.”

All of that by 2009? “Yes, sir,” he replied.

Atif Mian on the Leonard Lopate Show

Listen!

Economists Atif Mian explains his new book on the Leonard Lopate show. (House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi).

Bail out the banks, not the borrowers?

Ta-Nehisi Coates has a long essay "The Case for Reparations".  Here I just want to point out one passage:

In 2010, Jacob S. Rugh, then a doctoral candidate at Princeton, and the sociologist Douglas S. Massey published a study of the recent foreclosure crisis. Among its drivers, they found an old foe: segregation. Black home buyers—even after controlling for factors like creditworthiness—were still more likely than white home buyers to be steered toward subprime loans. Decades of racist housing policies by the American government, along with decades of racist housing practices by American businesses, had conspired to concentrate African Americans in the same neighborhoods. As in North Lawndale half a century earlier, these neighborhoods were filled with people who had been cut off from mainstream financial institutions. When subprime lenders went looking for prey, they found black people waiting like ducks in a pen.

“High levels of segregation create a natural market for subprime lending,” Rugh and Massey write, “and cause riskier mortgages, and thus foreclosures, to accumulate disproportionately in racially segregated cities’ minority neighborhoods.”

Plunder in the past made plunder in the present efficient. The banks of America understood this. In 2005, Wells Fargo promoted a series of Wealth Building Strategies seminars. Dubbing itself “the nation’s leading originator of home loans to ethnic minority customers,” the bank enrolled black public figures in an ostensible effort to educate blacks on building “generational wealth.” But the “wealth building” seminars were a front for wealth theft. In 2010, the Justice Department filed a discrimination suit against Wells Fargo alleging that the bank had shunted blacks into predatory loans regardless of their creditworthiness. This was not magic or coincidence or misfortune. It was racism reifying itself. According to The New York Times, affidavits found loan officers referring to their black customers as “mud people” and to their subprime products as “ghetto loans.”

“We just went right after them,” Beth Jacobson, a former Wells Fargo loan officer, told The Times. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.”

In 2011, Bank of America agreed to pay $355 million to settle charges of discrimination against its Countrywide unit. The following year, Wells Fargo settled its discrimination suit for more than $175 million. But the damage had been done. In 2009, half the properties in Baltimore whose owners had been granted loans by Wells Fargo between 2005 and 2008 were vacant; 71 percent of these properties were in predominantly black neighborhoods.

Madhusree Mukerjee on Churchill

Rajan pointed me to Madhusree Mukerjee's 2010 book "Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II".   I found an interview with Mukerjee here.

My indictment is based on what Churchill did, not on what he said.

Of the six questions to Madhusree Mukerjee, I reproduce three here:

Ian Jack's review of Madhusree Mukherjee's book on Churchill

Here.

Just occasionally, though, a book really does alter your view of the world, so much so that you insist others read it and sometimes foist it on them as a gift. This has just happened to me with Madhusree Mukerjee’s account of the Bengal Famine, titled Churchill’s Secret War. I’ve been absorbed and shaken by it. I don’t think anyone who reads Mukerjee can ever see Churchill in the same light again. This may scarcely matter in India, but Britain still sees him as its greatest-ever prime minister and the saviour in 1940 of the civilized world. That reputation, which is both grounded in fact and self-created, will probably survive; so much of Britain’s sense of itself still depends on ‘our finest hour’. But in Mukerjee’s book another kind of Churchill emerges to rival the war hero: obstructive, wilful, egocentric, foolish, and wickedly racist — ‘insane’, as more than one of his colleagues remarked, when it came to India.

On Churchill

Winston Churchill was about as imperialist and as racist as they come.  His good reputation comes from the fact that history is written by the victors.  Somewhere between 1.5 million and 4 million people died in Bengal just as surely as if they had been gassed by Hitler.

Churchill (1943) refused to release shipping to send food to India. “@IndiaHistorypic: 1943 :: Bengal Famine 3M pic.twitter.com/z0ggnp3yQO”
— SGK (@captaink99) June 1, 2014

What Americans need to understand about Pakistan

There are a recent trio of books about Pakistan that should be required reading for Americans who want to understand that country and the Indian subcontinent.   These are:

1. "Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding" by Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani Ambassador to the US.

2. "The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014" by Carlotta Gall of the New York Times.

3. "Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War" by C. Christine Fair, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University.

The last book, by C. Christine Fair, was discussed at the Hudson Institute, the hour-and-a-half session should be watched.  Some C.C. Fair-isms:

1. "...I argue in the book that Pakistan's issues with India are ideological, they are philosophical, they are basically - its a civilizational conflict that Pakistan has set up, and therefore how can you resolve a civilizational conflict by resolving a contentious border?"

2. "I see the Pakistan Army more as international insurgents".

3. "To the Pakistan Army absolute acquiescence is real defeat".

4. "When the Indians think about taking on Pakistan, they think about defeating Pakistan. What Pakistan's military needs to survive an engagement is just the ability to mount another confrontation."



I think C.C. Fair has changed her views considerably in the last four years.  A welcome change.  As JE Menon on BRF commented:

C.Fair's interview is so refreshingly honest that given her background I suspect she is on some kind of medication. It is that blunt. Rare from an American.

Clematis

The clematis puts on its annual spring show.

The Second Amendment's origin in slavery

The constituent states of the United States of America were concerned backed in the 18th century, that if the state militias could be regulated, then if it so chose, only the Federal Government would be able to put down slave rebellions.  Read this, it is fairly convincing.

The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the Framers knew the difference - see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote.  Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that ... and we all should be too.

......

If the anti-slavery folks in the North had figured out a way to disband - or even move out of the state - those southern militias, the police state of the South would collapse.  And, similarly, if the North were to invite into military service the slaves of the South, then they could be emancipated, which would collapse the institution of slavery, and the southern economic and social systems, altogether.

These two possibilities worried southerners like James Monroe, George Mason (who owned over 300 slaves) and the southern Christian evangelical, Patrick Henry (who opposed slavery on principle, but also opposed freeing slaves).

 So the Second Amendment came about.  The Second Amendment is now read to mean an unqualified right of individuals to bear arms.  And the result is periodic havoc.  So Americans needlessly die today because of their legacy of slavery.  Karma is a bitch.

Sunny Singh on NaMo

Here.  
Lots of interesting things there, I'm focusing below on just one.  Do read the whole essay.

Varanasi is also in many ways a microcosm of India. It is one of the most sacred sites for Hindus and attracts millions of religious tourists. Just beyond the city limits, Sarnath continues to be a crucial Buddhist sacred site. It also boasts of the world-famous silk industry, now in an advanced state of decay, and almost entirely composed of Muslim weavers. The city also has neighbourhoods that have been historically dominated by communities from various parts of India, drawn there for its religious significance and settled within the city boundaries for centuries. It is worth noting that despite the platitudes about Varanasi's pluralism - and secularism - in much of Indian press, the communities do not always co-exist without tensions. Economic scarcity and political manipulation have in recent decades added to these inter-community tensions. 

....

 In Varanasi, Modi has made specific promises for development of the city. He has also reached out - not in the vote-bank way of Congress, SP and BSP - to the Muslim community. While he has refused the facile symbolic political gestures such as visiting the Gyan Vaapi mosque, he has promised 24-hour power supply to the weavers, as well as twinning them with the industry in Surat. As a sound-bite generator, this makes little news. But for those of us who know how desperately the weaving community needs assistance, this holds out a ray of hope. 

Aatish Taseer on "A Hindu without vengeance, and without apology"

In case you didn't know, NaMo is Narendra Modi.  TsuNaMo is what swept India.

Aatish Taseer has written another thought-provoking essay about the recent elections,  "The Light of Benares".  Maybe I'm biased or pre-disposed to think in a certain way - but Taseer's words resonate with me.

Some excerpts:

And when Modi began to speak, after the interminable bugling of a conch and cries of ‘Bharat Mata ki…’, what he seemed really to catch was this feeling, at once full of sorrow and rage, of hopes betrayed, of a kind of wasted promise. It was as if he spoke directly to the crowd’s restlessness, and rather than making them feel ashamed of it, he endowed it with a kind of nobility. He made their restlessness and hunger and wish to make something of their lives seem like the noblest impulse a man could possess. He showed them their anger in the light of a government that held their talent and energy and potential in contempt. It was amazing: his belief in that vast crowd’s ability to empower itself was absolute.

and

A Most Baffling Photography Patent

Here is the story.

Amazon.com was granted a patent by the US Patent Office on photographing people or things against a white backdrop.  The patent was filed in 2011.

You don't believe it? Look up patent # 8676045.

Girmit

GirmitUnited.org:

The British and other European colonial powers started the Indian indenture system in 1838, as a cheap source of labour to their colonies after African slavery was abolished in 1833. Under this system some 1.2 million Indians were transported to the colonies between 1838 and 1916. Some 60,500 Indians were transported to Fiji between 1879 and 1916, when the transportation of indentured Indian laborers was stopped.

The indenture system itself was abolished in 1921. The contracts of the indentured labourers, which they called GIRMIT or agreements, required them to work in Fiji for a certain period of time as specified in their agreements.

History:

Women were forced to work on farms just days after birth and they had to leave their crying babies at the fringes of farms, not allowed to feed them….Most suicides were by hanging, committed in early mornings. When the feet touched ground because the rope was too long, the victims folded their feet- so great was the desire to die and escape from a barbarous and inhumane system of girmit-the indenture.

That is the stolen history of girmit, the indenture system that was told by Rajendra Prasad, author of “Tears in Paradise -Suffering and Struggles of Indians in Fiji 1879-2004.”

The Hidden Symbolism of Amar Akbar Anthony

That hit movie from 1977, Amar Akbar Anthony,  supposedly has deep ideological significance.   In Body & Society Vol. 15(2): 71–99  DOI: 10.1177/1357034X0910343,  Jacob Copeman in his paper "Gathering Points: Blood Donation and the Scenography of 'National Integration' in India" cites Cohen (2001)

Cohen (2001) has described the 1977 film Amar Akbar Anthony in which three brothers, separated at birth, have been brought up as Hindu, Muslim and Christian, respectively. 
A woman, unbeknownst to them their mother, requires a transfusion.

In the transfusion scene, three intravenous lines connect the men to the woman, Bharati, whose name ("Indian") and body figure the nation.  The camera pans showing the three young transfusers in turn with a temple, mosque or church respectively as backdrop.  (2001: 15).

India herself is the centre into which its constituent religious populations deliver themselves in an image of transfusion as national integration.

As Cohen (2001) points out, however, that the transfused woman is Hindu ensures that 'integration' takes place under a Hindu sign, thus suggesting a vertical interpretation of national integration, with Hinduism the overarching national schema into which 'minorities' must obligingly position themselves.  This, of course, can be read as a departure from the Nehruvian insistence on the equal status of all religions, and serves as a reminder that 'national integration' is a contested category, the egalitarian content of which cannot be taken for granted. (McKean, 1996; Sheth, 1996) ³⁸.

One of the famous lines from the movie is this gibberish: "You see the whole country of the system is juxtapositioned by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere, because you are a sophisticated rhetorician intoxicated with the exuberance of your own verbosity."

But the gibberish of the social "scientists" beats it hollow.

The election results in India

1. Narendra Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister born after Independence.  Modi was born in 1950.  (Rajiv Gandhi was born in 1944, and the power behind Manmohan Singh (1932), Sonia Gandhi was born in 1946.  The other Prime Ministers were born in  1889, 1898, 1904, 1917, 1896, 1902, 1931, 1927, 1924, 1933 ). 

2.  Modi makes 3 claims about the elections (the first two here):

1. This election has proved that polls can be won in the country on the issue of development alone. This verdict is a verdict for development, to take India forward and to work hard to fulfill people's dreams.

2. This is the second election after the Emergency where people voted for an agenda, rather than going by caste and religion. This result is the answer to those who attacked me fiercely. They did hard work and so much of research to attack me, but finally they lost.

 3. (here) During the victory rally, Mr. Modi referred to people born after British rule ended in 1947, saying they never had the “opportunity” to die or to go to jail to fight colonialism. “We did not die for independence, but we will live for good governance.” “This is the first time people who were born in independent India have played a decisive role in the election,” Mr. Modi said.

The agenda for the elections after the Emergency was the restoration of civil liberties; and the agenda for this election is development.   The poll results seem to show splits in the votes of  Muslims, and various caste groups including Dalits. (Excuse me for the old terminology - the political set up in India since Independence has featured politicians exploiting these divides to create "vote banks".  The terminology and the "vote bank" phenomena should hopefully fade away.)

It also appears that the youth vote went for Modi in a big way.  We shall know more as the analyses roll in.

All in all, a truly historic election.

PS: Pankaj Misra is upset. As a BRF-er put it: "Delicious whine from Pankaj Mishra. Just count each word as a drop of tear and enjoy. Don't try to read it."

De-Macaulayization - 6

Agnimitra on BRF:

1. Survey results of English Proficiency Index (EPI) in among non-native English speakers worldwide shows India slipping down the rankings fast (from 14 to 21 between 2012 and 2014), even as the number of "English-literate" Indians rises.

Lobachevsky - Tom Lehrer

The Mewar Ramayana

A sumptuously produced seventeenth century Ramayana, split between India and Great Britain, is digitally reunited.

A troubling pattern

Violence against dhimmi women.

Malaysian airlines flight MH370 - Inmarsat calculations don't make sense

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/why-the-official-explanation-of-mh370s-demise-doesnt-hold-up/361826/
(via S.)

That the Doppler shift curve didn't make sense was clear when it was first published.  (e.g., me, here, see below.) But just exactly how has been worked out by Exner, Schulman, Steel and Farrar.

PS: http://www.duncansteel.com/ is a good place to follow all of this.

The Soil Biology Primer

A useful resource for the gardener: The Soil Biology Primer.

IDRF

IDRF is the Indian Development & Relief Fund, a charitable organization based in the US, run by Dr Vinod and Sarla Prakash, that raises funds for good works in India. 

Back in 2002, the professional leftist brigade in the US, including such people as Dr. Angana Chatterji and Prof. Vinay Lal,  and organizations like SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association) and FOIL (Forum of Indian Leftists) undertook a campaign against "the funding of hatred in India", and their main target was IDRF.

That was the first I heard of IDRF; and at that time, I had considerable sympathy for leftists.

The leftists managed to get the US Department of Justice to investigate IDRF, and to get US corporations, whose Indian employees make donations to IDRF through paycheck deductions, to withhold payments to IDRF.

I did my own finding-out, and IDRF was nothing at all like what the leftists had represented.   That finding marked my break with the leftists. I was also determined that IDRF should not be hurt by the vile campaign against it; and I started making regular contributions, which I have been doing ever since.

IDRF continues, and is featured in a Sunday Magazine article in the Chennai-based "The Hindu" newspaper.   Don't be fooled by the name "The Hindu", it is a leftist publication, and has an editorial policy that seems to emanate from Beijing.   People on Bharat-Rakshak fondly call it "The Chindu".  So while the title of the article in the Hindu is "Payback Time" where the payback is as in people contributing to society,  it is a sweet payback to IDRF, too, that it now features positively in a leftist publication.

Bird-watching

A Rose-breasted Grosbeak showed up this afternoon, too. So I dusted off the camera and lay in wait.  Couldn't catch a Grosbeak, but there were other familiar friends and a surprise.

This fellow on the left is a white-throated sparrow, that yellow spot I think makes it Zonotrichia albicollis, per the Peterson Field Guide.


All the photos here are with the 400mm f/5.6 with a 12mm tube. The tube reduces the minimum focus distance.  Even so, everything here is a major crop of the original frame.

New birds at the feeder

I don't have photographs, but a new species visited the bird feeders this morning - the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  There were a pair of them.  This is what they look like:

This is my first sighting of these birds.  (Though I feed the birds, I'm not much of a bird-watcher.)

QOTD

Ahistorical liberals—like most Americans—still believe that race invented racism, when in fact the reverse is true.

That is Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic, on Oafish and Graceful Racism.

If the above is incomprehensible, here is a longer quote, with the important part highlighted:

"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," {Supreme Court Chief Justice}  John Roberts elegantly wrote. Liberals have yet to come up with a credible retort. That is because the theories of John Roberts are prettier than the theories of most liberals. But more, it is because liberals do not understand that America has never discriminated on the basis of race (which does not exist) but on the basis of racism (which most certainly does.)

"Races don't exist?", someone expostulates.  Without going into biology, let's just consider the fact that President Obama with one parent from the "white" race and one parent from the "black" race is black per American racial classification.  This is just as arbitrary as saying the son of a German and a Swede is always Swede.

A person with one "black" grandparent, or one "black" great-grandparent is also black.  "Passing"  is the phenomenon where someone of mixed race who looks "white" enough, passes themselves off as "white".

And yes, I've encountered enough liberals who don't understand that race as used in America is a social construct.  They go ballistic over this, and invoke biology and DNA and whatever; or else they seemingly concede the point, but at the first opportunity continue their talk about the genetics of  black vs. white IQs and such.   (I've decided to boycott such people.)

Anyway, please read the whole of Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay.

CUNY: Capital in the 21st century

One and a half hours long:

Panel discussion led by Thomas Piketty, author, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," who discusses economic growth, returns on capital, and inequality with four economists: Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University; Paul Krugman, Princeton University; Steven Durlauf, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Branko Milanovic, CUNY Graduate Center. Introductions by Chase Robinson, CUNY Graduate Center, and Janet Gornick, Luxembourg Income Study Center. Taped April 16, 2014 at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Ukraine, FYI

 Thomas Friedman has such an outrageous column in the NYT that I'm once more in my "cancel the subscription" mood.  The first three comments on his column are mine.  This below is the fourth, which for some reason, I cannot post.

The problem with "cancel the subscription" is that it helps empty the field for the Murdoch media, which is idiots worse than Friedman all the time.  The Murdoch media is transparently propaganda though, and in some sense may be less dangerous than Friedman's idiocy dressed up as sweet reason.

---------

Nov 21, 2013:
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/russia-and-former-soviet-union/putin-russia-willing-to-hold-tripartite-talks-with-ukraine-eu-but-before-kyiv-brussels-sign-association-deal-332228.html

"Russia is willing to take part in tripartite negotiations with Ukraine and the EU, but only if they are held before Ukraine signs an association agreement with the EU, Russian President Vladimir Putin said."

November 29, 2013:
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_11_29/Barroso-rules-out-possibility-of-EU-Ukraine-Russia-tripartite-negotiations-3665/

The EU-Ukraine association agreement cannot be elaborated in the EU-Ukraine-Russia tripartite format, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said at a press conference after the Eastern Partnership Vilnius summit.

He rejected as unacceptable the tripartite negotiations and the interference of a third country in the bilateral agreement and said there could not be a tripartite format in the elaboration of the bilateral agreement between the EU and Ukraine.

----
Some columns ago, Thomas Friedman at the NYT tried to convince us: "It would have been nice if we could have forged a compromise with President Vladimir Putin of Russia that would have allowed Ukraine to gradually join the European Union and not threaten him. President Obama tried to find such a win-win formula. But Putin is not into win-win here. He is into win-lose. So he must lose, for the sake of Ukraine and Russia."

Why was the offer of tripartite talks rejected outright?

The first three comments are under the fold:

John Oliver on the Indian Elections

Here.  (via a friend on Facebook).
Or here:

Common sense: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Los Angeles real-estate billionaire Donald Sterling, eighty years old, owner of the basketball team, the Clippers, was recorded making racist remarks during an argument with his girl-friend; and the recording was made public. 

A basketball-great, and now a common-sense-great, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, has written well about this: Welcome to the finger-wagging Olympics:

What bothers me about this whole Donald Sterling affair isn’t just his racism. I’m bothered that everyone acts as if it’s a huge surprise...... He was discriminating against black and Hispanic families for years, preventing them from getting housing. It was public record. We did nothing. Suddenly he says he doesn’t want his girlfriend posing with Magic Johnson on Instagram and we bring out the torches and rope. Shouldn’t we have all called for his resignation back then?

Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen’s privacy in such an un-American way? Although the impact is similar to Mitt Romney’s comments that were secretly taped, the difference is that Romney was giving a public speech. The making and release of this tape is so sleazy that just listening to it makes me feel like an accomplice to the crime. We didn’t steal the cake but we’re all gorging ourselves on it.

 Read the whole thing.

Spring - April 14

Mostly Daffodils

QOTD

John Dewey (via teacherken on dailykos.com)

What the best and wisest parent wants for his child, that must we want for all the children of the community. Anything less is unlovely, and left unchecked, destroys our democracy.

De-Macaulayization - 5

Some lines from Aatish Taseer caught my eye - they point to the urgent need for de-Macaulayization.
But read the whole thing.

So much of {Sarojini} Naidu’s attitude—her easy contempt for cultural things, her foolish disregard of Coomaraswamy, her inability to grasp the relationship between culture and politics—is still prevalent among English-speaking Indians today. For India, even after decades of political independence, never really got around to culture. And what a heavy price she has paid! India is not an authority on her own past; Indians do not write the great works of Indology; modern India’s cultural life is stunted and slavish. Her young people live in a state I would describe almost as a kind of linguistic apartheid, in which they are routinely made to feel small for not knowing English, the power of which they see around them all the time. Worst of all: through their education system, they are systematically denied contact with India’s classical past, which would nourish their interior life and bring forth their genius.

A few days ago, in my conversation with students at Benares Hindu University, I encountered some of the agony this experience can cause. At first glance the university—set up in 1916—seems to be the exact expression of a vital relationship between a modern culture and its classical past. It is a vast and beautiful university, its streets scalloped with the heavy shade of north India’s great trees. Its impressive buildings of mixed accents, all yellow and red, seem to strive for a synthesis between the traditional and the modern. There are, in its Sanskrit faculty, departments of m-ım-a .ms-a—Indian hermeneutics! But BHU, though it contains the spirit of a time when India really was in the midst of a cultural awakening, seems, like India itself, not to have been able to come through on the promise of that time.

And that wasted promise will produce anger. It was easily audible in the voice of a young PhD student of Hindu Law—Priyankar Aggarwal—when he spoke of his education, which far from being nourishing, had been a trauma. “You might not believe me,” he told me, one windless afternoon, a few days ago, “I studied until the 12th in an English medium school. But, at the end of it, I could neither speak English nor understand it. That is the effect of this modern education system.” The word he used again and again, and with great effect, to describe the stultifying effect of his education was stereotyped.

“In Sanskrit, I saw a vast horizon. That is why I chose it. But in the other subjects, it was so stereotyped. Just mug up what’s in the textbook, give the exams, get your marks, and bhool jao: bhaadh me jaaye!” It was nirasa, he said. And this word, when it came from his mouth, this man who truly knew what rasa was, seemed to contain all rasas’ meanings: not just sap or juice or flavour, but essence. This was what he felt his education had lacked. I knew very well what he meant. My own education, though it had included a far more profound engagement with the West, had left me with a similar feeling of lack. It was what had brought me to Sanskrit too, and the language had given me more than I could ever have imagined. What is it Wilde says of Christ in De Profundis? ‘…like a work of art: he does not teach anything, but by being brought into his presence one becomes something.’

On the power of LISP

An essay from 2006 on the power of the computer programming language, LISP.
Warning - technical.

QOTD

Bion of Borysthenes, an ancient Greek author, observed that “Boys throw stones at frogs in sport, but the frogs die in earnest.” The little boys are the Washington hawks. The frogs are the rest of the world.-- Professor Juan Cole.

The Purpose of Alabama's Current Constitution

The Constitution of the State of Alabama, adopted in 1901, is the sixth constitution that state has had.  The purpose of establishing that Constitution?

From the second day of the 1901 Constitutional Convention: (emphasis added)

CHIEF JUSTICE McCLELLAN - Gentlemen of the Convention, I have the honor and pleasure of presenting to you the gentleman whom you have elected to preside over your deliberations, the Honorable John B. Knox of Calhoun County.

MR. KNOX - Gentlemen of the Convention:

I thank you for the high honor you have conferred in electing me to preside over the deliberations of this Convention. Viewed from the standpoint of my profession, to which, up to this moment, my life's work has been devoted, it is a great honor, indeed; for I know of no higher honor that can be conferred upon a lawyer than to be made President of the Constitutional Convention, which represents the sovereignty of his people; and numbers among its delegates, in large part, the intellect and talent of the State - those who have in the past, and will in the future exert a potent influence in shaping and directing the affairs of the State.

In my judgment, the people of Alabama have been called upon to face no more important situation than now confronts us, unless it be when they, in 1861, stirred by the momentous issue of impending conflict between the North and the South, were forced to decide whether they would remain in or withdraw from the Union.

Then, as now, the negro was the prominent factor in the issue.

The Southern people, with this grave problem of the races to deal with, are face to face with a new epoch in Constitution-making, the difficulties of which are great, but which, if solved wisely, may bring rest and peace and happiness. If otherwise, it may leave us and our posterity continuously involved in race conflict, or what may be worse, subjected permanently to the baneful influences of the political conditions now prevailing in the State.

So long as the negro remains in insignificant minority, and votes the Republican ticket, our friends in the North tolerate him with complacency, but there is not a Northern State, and I might go further and say, there is not an intelligent white man in the North, not gangrened by sectional prejudice and hatred of the South who would consent for a single day to submit to negro rule.

If the negroes of the South should move in such numbers to the State of Massachusetts, or any other Northern State, as would enable them to elect the officers, levy the taxes, and control the government and policy of that State, I doubt not they would be met, in spirit, as the negro laborers from the South were met at the State line of Illinois, with bayonets, led by a Republican Governor, and firmly but emphatically informed that no quarter would be shown them in that territory.

One has studied the history of recent events to very little purpose who has failed to discover that race prejudice exists at the North in as pronounced a form as at the South, and that the question of negro domination, when brought home, will arouse the same opposition in either section.

And what is it that we want to do? Why it is within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to establish white supremacy in this State.

This is our problem, and we should be permitted to deal with it, unobstructed by outside influences, with a sense of our responsibilities as citizens and our duty to posterity.
_______

One might argue that the Alabama Constitution has been sufficiently amended that the original goal no longer applies.  One might also note that the thrust of American "promotion of democracy abroad" has often been not reforms of the target nation's political culture, but a revolution -- which leads to the question - why does that not apply to Alabama?   Should not Alabama at least hold another Constitutional Convention where, even if they vote to keep their Constitution as-is, they explicitly renounce the idea with which it was created?

I leave you with another gem from the same speech quoted above:

As stated by Judge Cooley, the right of suffrage is not a natural right, because it exists where it is allowed to be exercised only for the good of the State--to say that those whose participation in the affairs of the State would endanger and imperil the good of the State have nevertheless, the right to participate, is not only folly in itself, but it is to set the individual above the State.

Saddam Hussein (or Bashar al-Assad, or the US allies of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, etc.)  could argue that they were following this policy;  they were allowing the right of suffrage only where it is to be allowed for the good of the State.




 

Wall Street killed the goose that laid golden eggs

If this dailykos.com story is correct,  the average American thinks the stock market is rigged and wants no part of it.  So, trading volume at the New York Stock Exchange is at a fifteen-year low.

The slump in trading volume is so pronounced that the big investment banks have had to resort to multiple rounds of deep layoffs, resulting in tens of thousands of investment bankers losing their jobs.

Effective regulation is what makes the market work; but few people in politics and even fewer on Wall Street want to concede that the government has a role in sustaining the market.

Hudson Institute: The Wrong Enemy

 The video of a Hudson Institute event is available here.

New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall reported from Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2001 to 2013. She is among those who believe that the problems faced in Afghanistan can be traced back to the policies of Pakistan’s politico-military-intelligence establishment. Her latest book, The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan 2001-2014, is filled with firsthand accounts of Gall’s meetings and interviews with politicians, generals, jihadis and intelligence personnel from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. In an excerpt printed in the New York Times, Gall asserted that not only did Pakistan fuel the Taliban but that elements within Pakistan’s intelligence services even protected Osama bin Laden.

On the launch of The Wrong Enemy, Hudson Institute hosted a book talk with Carlotta Gall. Writer and analyst Dr. Mohammad Taqi joined Gall to discuss her work and the US-Pakistan relationship. Hudson Senior Fellow Husain Haqqani, former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, moderated the event.

The Great American Lawn Scam?

Having (uncharacteristically) done the (supposedly) prescribed lawn care last autumn, I was surprised how bad the lawn in the backyard had done.   I have to replant substantial portions of it, so what am I doing indoors writing this on a nice sunny day, ideal for yard work?

Long story short - I want to plant fine fescue.  Fine fescue is not sold by the usual stores in New Jersey.  Had to order seed from out-of-state.  The delivery got delayed (a mis-routed railway wagon, apparently). So here I am with no seed.

The longer story:

What is culture?

Having encountered the "they all drink coke and wear blue jeans, so belong to the same culture", this page full of definitions of what culture is, is refreshing.

e.g.,

For the purposes of the Intercultural Studies Project, culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.

or

"Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them"

A.K. Ramanujam: Is there an Indian way of thinking?

http://www.cerium.ca/IMG/pdf/Is_there_an_Indian_Way_of_Thinking_An_Informal_Essay.pdf
(PDF)

The Rush to War with Syria

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line  
(via turcopolier.typepad.comP

Remember when the Syrian Government allegedly used poison gas on its people? And the big rush to war which ultimately Obama ended by accepting the Putin+Syria offer to destroy all its chemical weapons under international supervision?

Seymour Hersh narrates:

Obama’s change of mind had its origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire. British intelligence had obtained a sample of the sarin used in the 21 August attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal. The message that the case against Syria wouldn’t hold up was quickly relayed to the US joint chiefs of staff. The British report heightened doubts inside the Pentagon; the joint chiefs were already preparing to warn Obama that his plans for a far-reaching bomb and missile attack on Syria’s infrastructure could lead to a wider war in the Middle East. As a consequence the American officers delivered a last-minute caution to the president, which, in their view, eventually led to his cancelling the attack.

.....

A series of chemical weapon attacks in March and April 2013 was investigated over the next few months by a special UN mission to Syria. A person with close knowledge of the UN’s activity in Syria told me that there was evidence linking the Syrian opposition to the first gas attack, on 19 March in Khan Al-Assal, a village near Aleppo. In its final report in December, the mission said that at least 19 civilians and one Syrian soldier were among the fatalities, along with scores of injured. It had no mandate to assign responsibility for the attack, but the person with knowledge of the UN’s activities said: ‘Investigators interviewed the people who were there, including the doctors who treated the victims. It was clear that the rebels used the gas. It did not come out in public because no one wanted to know.’

 etc.

Race in America - just 14 years ago.

Wiki: ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whispering_campaign )

During the 2000 Republican presidential primary, Senator John McCain was the target of a whisper campaign implying that he had fathered a black child out of wedlock. (McCain's adopted daughter is a dark-skinned child from Bangladesh). Voters in South Carolina were reportedly asked, "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that he fathered an illegitimate black child?". McCain would later lose the South Carolina primary, and the nomination, to George W. Bush.

In addition, on the week of the nomination vote, dozens of radio stations were called on the same day asking talk show hosts what they thought of McCain's fathering of a black child out of wedlock. McCain later said of the incidents:

"There were some pretty vile and hurtful things said during the South Carolina primary. It's a really nasty side of politics. We tried to ignore it and I think we shielded [our daughter] from it. It's just unfortunate that that sort of thing still exists. As you know she's Bengali, and very dark skinned. A lot of phone calls were made by people who said we should be very ashamed about her, about the color of her skin. Thousands and thousands of calls from people to voters saying, 'You know, the McCains have a black baby.' I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those."

-----
 Is there a comparable phenomenon in Indian politics?   Perhaps with respect to Muslims?

PS: More on Bush-McCain-South Carolina:
http://www.thenation.com/article/dirty-tricks-south-carolina-and-john-mccain#

A debate worth reading

Coates v. Chait.  Really worth reading, both to understand America, and to enjoy good writing. Also provides an example of an almost total disconnect, when one person's ideas simply do not fit into another person's worldview.

Overview on dailykos.com.

Coates' first essay.

Chait's reply.

Coates' reply to Chait.

Chait's second.

Coates' third.

Chait's third.

Coates' fourth.

Coates' fifth.

Nannygate Revenge?

A lot of noise is being made about a New York Police Officer being held in New Delhi for carrying bullets to the airport. It is supposedly in retaliation for NannyGate - the arrest and strip-search of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade.

So the following may be taken to be NannyGate first strikes?  Before we get to India, may we remember that in 2004, a person caught carrying bullets at Heathrow Airport in the UK triggered transatlantic probes?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3398181.stm
Quote:

Investigations have been launched on both sides of the Atlantic after a man was stopped at Heathrow Airport allegedly carrying bullets in his coat.  

  The 45-year-old Sudanese man, who flew to Heathrow from Washington DC's Dulles Airport on Wednesday morning, is being held in London under the Terrorism Act. 

-----
You will find below that people of varied nationalities, Indian politicians and legislators, even a pilot and even a policeman have been arrested for having ammunition at the airports all over India.


July 2003, Mumbai: Interesting, as it shows some preferential treatment, but that perhaps because  diplomatic immunity applies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3056989.stm

Quote:

The Tanzanian minister in charge of poverty reduction, Edgar Maokola-Majogo, has admitted that Indian police found a single bullet in his possession at Mumbai airport, but denies any ulterior motive.

The bullet was found in the minister's brief case

Mr Maokola-Majogo says the bullet was found by Indian security agents minutes before he boarded his flight back to Tanzania after attending a conference on poverty reduction in India.

He told the BBC that the bullet was inadvertently left in his brief case when he left the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, for India.

"The special hunting gun bullet accidentally dropped from a packet inside my brief case which also had all my conference papers," said Mr Maokola-Majogo.

He says that he is an ardent hunter and is licensed to carry a hunting gun in Tanzania.

"What could I do with a single bullet without my hunting gun which I left back in Tanzania," asked the minister.

Tanzania's Majira newspaper on Thursday quoted Indian press reports as saying that the minister had been held by Indian security agents for about eight hours after bullets were found in his possession.

But Mr Maokola-Majogo says that Indian police neither harassed, arrested or charged him with any offence.

He says that he voluntarily wrote a one-page statement regarding the bullet found in his possession and was immediately allowed to proceed with his journey home.

November 2003, Delhi
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20031107/ncr1.htm#19

Quote:

The IGI Airport police arrested a Japanese national, identified as Makita Masaru, with a .38 bore bullet from his baggage. The Japanese national was planning to board an Uzbekistan Airlines plane intended for Tashkent. The bullet was detected during X-Ray screening of his baggage.

December 2003, Calcutta
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 394560.cms

Quote:

KOLKATA: A 50-year-old man was detained at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on Monday after security personnel found a bullet in his luggage.

David Ramnunsanga, the passenger booked on Alliance Air flight CD 7211 to Aizwal, was apprehended around 10.30 am when a .22 bullet was found in his handbag at the baggage X-ray conveyor.

December 2005, Calcutta
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051231/asp/bengal/story_5665520.asp
Quote:

Calcutta: M.G. Bopanna, 22, a second-year student of Loyla College, Chennai, was arrested at Dum Dum airport on Friday after a bullet was found on him. He came here from Guwahati, where his father works in a tea estate, and said his grandfather’s bullet was his lucky charm.

December 2005, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)
http://www.gilihaskin.com/about-gili-haskin/
Quote:

{Dr. Gilad Haskin from Israel} In December 2005, on my way from India to Sri Lanka, whilst leading a group of travelers including both my parents, I was arrested at the airport of Tribandrum after a bullet shell was found in my hand luggage.  It seemed as this could have been explained to e merely an error, yet to my dismay and sorrow this minor error evolved into a "Kafka-style daemon dance".

September 2006, Mumbai
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 76,00.html

Quote:

An Israeli woman in her 20's was arrested Thursday morning in Mumbai, after arriving at the city on an El Al flight from Israel, Ynet has learned. The young woman was arrested after a cartridge loaded with 16 9-mm bullets was found in a bag she was carrying, which belonged to her brother.

February 2007, Chennai
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/bullet-in-bag-pinarayi-detained-at-chennai/23531/ 
Quote:

Kerala CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan sent the cops at Chennai airport into a tizzy on Friday evening, with the X-ray machine at the security check spotting five live cartridges of a .38-revolver in his laptop case.

The CPI(M) leader was immediately led away for questioning, and he gave a written explanation that it belonged to his own licensed revolver. The cops, however, took their time verifying his claim with the police in his native Kannur, before he was allowed to go with no charges. 

April 2007, Calcutta
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070405/asp/calcutta/story_7608741.asp
Quote:

A businessman from Jamshedpur was arrested at Calcutta airport on Wednesday morning, after six bullets were found in his handbag. Police said Sanjay Palsania, 37, was scheduled to travel on an Indian flight from Calcutta to Mumbai. During the security check, the Central Industrial Security Force officer at the X-ray machine detected the 7.65-mm bullets. Palsania told police that he was carrying the bullets in the handbag by mistake. 

April 2008, Siliguri
http://www.constantinereport.com/petition-urge-the-indian-government-to-free-monica-heather-bond-2-2/
Quote:

U.S. nationals Monica Bond and her daughter Heather, detained after 9 mm cartridges were found in their baggage during a security check at West Bengal’s Bagdogra airport on Monday, are now in the Siliguri Special Correctional Home.

A senior official of the U.S. Consul General, Kolkata, visited the women at the correctional home on Wednesday, their lawyer Abhaypada Chatterjee told The Hindu over telephone from Siliguri.
Tourists from California, they were arrested under the Arms Act, 1959, and remanded to judicial custody for three days by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Siliguri on Tuesday.

May 2009, Mumbai
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3722643,00.html
Quote:

An Israeli citizen was arrested at the Mumbai airport in India on Wednesday after being found in possession of a rifle magazine.

Jerusalem resident Natan Magar is believed to be a high-tech company's employee who finished a visit to the country and was returning to Israel.
Officials believe he left Israel with the cartridge in his possession.

May 2009, Pune
http://www.vosizneias.com/32401/2009/05/27/pune-india-israeli-mystery-man-on-trial/ 
Quote:

Pune, India - A live bullet was found on Daniel Abraham Ifriti by Lohegaon airport police earlier this month when he landed from Delhi.

The Lohegaon airport police has confirmed that 54-year-old Israeli national Daniel Abraham Ifriti, who was held on May 5 on charges of carrying a live bullet into the country, will be chargesheeted tomorrow.

Landing in trouble: Ifriti was held by airport police on charges of carrying a live bullet into the country.

August  2009, Bhopal  {Note: MLA = Member of the Legislative Assembly}
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-4913208,prtpage-1.cms
Quote:

BHOPAL: A Chhattisgarh MLA was caught by security personnel at Raja Bhoj Airport in Bhopal on Wednesday with live cartridges.

T S Singhdeo, Congress MLA from Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh), known as 'Babaji' in his constituency, was arrested at the airport for allegedly trying to smuggle ten live cartridges into a Jet Airlines flight on Wednesday morning, police said. The ammunition was found during the initial screening of his luggage. The MLA was to board a flight from Bhopal to Raipur, scheduled for departure at 10.30am.

"Those were .27 cartridges meant for a rifle. The MLA — who is from the erstwhile royal family of Sarguja in northern Chhattisgarh — has been booked under Arms Act and produced before court which granted him bail," said Jaideep Prasad, Bhopal SP.

March 2011, Delhi
http://medcitynews.com/2011/03/st-jude- ... rt-search/

Quote:

St. Jude Medical’s (NYSE:STJ) chief executive officer was arrested in India on Wednesday after authorities at the Delhi airport found a single live round tucked into a knee pocket of his cargo pants, according to media reports.

Daniel Starks was in India on business and was about to take a chartered flight from the Indira Gandhi International Airport to Dharamsala. But he was stopped by India’s Central Industrial Security Force in the airport’s VIP lounge. Authorities found a 45-caliber shell in his pants. Such a caliber is most often associated with a handgun.

April 2011, Mangalore
http://www.dakshintimes.com/dakshina-kannada/mangalore/news/11041428883/bullet-found-wallet-doha-bound-student-arrested-ma.html 
Quote:

Mangalore: A Doha bound traveler from the Mangalore international airport  was arrested on Sunday April 3, after a round of ammunition initially identified as a small bullet was found in his possession. The traveler has been identified as a  student named Mohammed Sabik (26) from Talangare near Kasargod.

Mohammed had arrived at the Mangalore airport on Sunday morning to travel to Doha on the Sunday morning Air India Express and was detained during the routine security check. A bullet was found in his Wallet.

Mohammed is said to be resident of Qatar and is pursuing his MBA in the Gulf.  According to him he had enrolled on a arms training course offered by the Police Shooting Training Centre in Qatar where he paid  75 rials for 25 rounds of ammunition to be used during his training. Out of the lot he is said to have slipped in a bullet.  He is said to have kept the bullet in his check in luggage during his travel to India to visit his relatives in Kerala.

He was handed over to Bajpe police station. The Police registered a case and produced him to court.

May 2011, Delhi
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/gadkari-s-pilot-held-with-ammo-at-delhi-airport/795078/ 
Quote:

A pilot of an air charter company, who was to fly BJP president Nitin Gadkari to Nagpur and Gorakhpur on Tuesday, was stopped at Delhi airport by CISF personnel after he was found carrying live ammunition in his baggage.

Aero Air pilot, 33-year-old Canadian Rafael Jose Hubbard, was arrested by Delhi Police for illegal possession of ammunition. He was later released on a bail bond of Rs 20,000.

June 2011, Mumbai
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Baylor_Student_Trapped_In_India__126052073.html 
Quote:

WACO(July 23, 2011) -- A Baylor University student has spent more than a month stranded in India after she was arrested at an airport in Mumbai.

The student from Austin, who's name isn't being released, has been in India on a mission trip with Waco's Antioch Community Church since June 4.

The student was headed back to the United States on June 21, when security guards stopped her at the airport, saying she had a bullet in a pocket of her backpack.

The Director of International Operations at Antioch, Shawn Griesemer, said the student had no idea where the bullet came from.

August 2011, Kolkata  {Note: NRI = Non-Resident India}
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/other-news/NRI-arrested-from-Kolkata-airport-with-bullet/articleshow/9663413.cms
Quote:

KOLKATA: An NRI was today arrested from the Kolkata airport after a bullet was found in his handbag, police said.

Mono Murugan (45) who had come from the US was about to board another flight to Mumbai from the airport here when the .3 bore bullet was found from his handbag during security checking, they said.

He was subsequently arrested by the airport police and will be produced in the court tomorrow, officials said. 

October 2011, Mumbai
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-israeli-national-held-with-live-cartridges-says-it-was-a-mistake-1620140 
Quote:

The 23-year-old Israeli national, Nurit Toker, who was recently arrested by the Sahar airport police for allegedly carrying two live firearm cartridges, has moved the Bombay high court seeking quashing of the proceedings initiated against her. Her contention is that the cartridges were kept in her bag by sheer mistake.

Toker’s plea states that she completed her compulsory three-year military training in Israel on October 18, 2011, and had planned a vacation to India, Nepal and Thailand. She was about to leave for Nepal from Mumbai International Airport, when the cartridges were detected in her bag by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

November 2011, Agartala
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/rahul-gandhis-aide-held-at-airport-for-carrying-bullet_100576194.html
Quote:

Agartala, Nov 10 (IANS) Youth Congress leader Anil Dhantori, who came here to oversee Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s programme in Tripura, was Thursday detained by security personnel at the Agartala airport following the recovery of a bullet from his baggage.
Later Dhantori, also a member of the Haryana assembly, was released by the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) without being handed over to the Tripura police.

January 2012, Goa
http://www.thelocal.se/20120103/38298

Quote:

Police in India have apprehended a Swedish member of the armed forces when she allegedly attempted to board a plane carrying a live bullet in her baggage.....According to the paper, the Swedish woman works with logistics for the Swedish army, but was arrested by security at the Dabolim airport in Goa while on holiday, after a live bullet showed up in the security check of her luggage.

February 2012, Udaipur
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr1H7Wn9clg

Quote:

A 21-year-old New Zealander, Harper Alexander Ralph, is arrested at an airport in India's Rajasthan state with three live cartridges in his possession. No explanation for the illegal carry-on items seems to have been given.

A New Zealand national, Harper Alexander Ralph, was arrested in possession of three live cartridges for a .22mm gun.

The bullets were found during a security check at an airport in Udaipur district of India's northwestern Rajasthan state on Tuesday.

March 2012, Madurai  {Note: MLA = Member of the Legislative Assembly }
http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/mla-arrested-at-madurai-airport-for-carrying-bullets-186904
Quote:

Madurai:  The airport security at Madurai on Friday seized a box containing 21 bullets from the Aravakurichi DMK MLA K C Palanichamy and handed him over to the police.

However, the MLA was let off after he told the police that his Personal Assistant had inadvertently put the bullet box in his personal baggage instead of the medicine box.

The Superintend of Police asked him to give a written statement before ordering his release.

May 2012, Delhi
http://stayingsafeabroad.blogspot.com/2 ... -live.html
(also see http://www.firstpost.com/fwire/american-arrested-with-live-cartridges-at-delhi-airport-322358.html )

Quote:

US citizen Jeffrey Jinnin Worn was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday (May 26) on charges of possessing of live handgun ammunition as he prepared to board an outbound Turkish Airlines flight. The ammunition in his bag was identified during a scan of his carry-on luggage.

June 2012, Delhi
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/a ... ia/962984/

Quote:

New Delhi: Dharmanand Gunanand Ratudi of Kandivali (West) in Mumbai was arrested at the IGI Airport on Saturday for allegedly carrying a .38 bore bullet in his hand bag, police said. CISF men claimed to have found the bullet during X-ray screening of his bag. 

June 2012, Delhi
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/punjab-cop-held-with-52-live-bullets-at-igia/961213/ 
Quote:

A Punjab police official was on Tuesday arrested with 52 live bullets at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here just before he was about to board a flight to Manila, a CISF official said. Inspector Atul Soni, was going to Manila on a Philippines Airlines flight when his baggage containing variants of live and spent bullets was detected by CISF security personnel at at T3 terminal. Soni, who said he was posted in Mohali, had 46 live rounds of 9 mm pistol, 3 live rounds of 7.62 mm rifle and 3 live rounds of .32 bore rifle in his baggage, the official said.....Soni, who was travelling with his wife, was arrested under the Arms Act.

December 2012, Mumbai
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4321440,00.html
Quote:

An Israeli man was detained in Mumbai, India last week after he was found carrying two rifle bullets in his backpack, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday. Israel is working to secure his release.

The man, in his 20s, was on a post-army trip to the Far East and had apparently forgotten the bullets in his backpack during his service in a combat military unit.
.....
At the airport, security guards found the bullets in his backpack and took him for questioning. He explained that the bullets were left there from his military service but failed to convince the Indian authorities which held him for two days before releasing him to house arrest. 

March 2013, Mumbai
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/ ... 0AYtl5lw_o

Quote:

An Israeli man, 23, was arrested in Mumbai Airport at week's end after a bullet was found in his personal bag when he was about to board a flight to Nepal.

He is in jail and efforts are being made to free him.

July 2013, Aurangabad
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 062706.cms

Quote:

AURANGABAD: The MIDCCidco police on Friday arrested Sundar Baidansingh Yadav, a 42-year-old property dealer from Noida, Uttar Pradesh, for carrying eight bullets in his baggage without declaring them to the airport authorities. The bullets were recovered from him in the baggage scan at the Aurangabad airport, when he was about to board a Delhi-bound flight. He has been booked under the Arms Act.

July 2013, Mumbai
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-c ... rt-1862478

Quote:

A 68-year-old Canadian woman with a passion for shooting sports, found herself in trouble after she was caught with 38 live cartridges at the city airport. She was arrested and remanded in police custody. A case was registered against her under the Arms Act, the police said.

According to sources, the incident took place on Tuesday when the accused, Irene Mathias, was on her way to London in a British Airways flight.

During the security check, MIAL security officials found bullet like objects in one of her baggage.

“On further check, 38 live cartridges were found from the bag,” said the source. Mathias came to India five days ago.

Initially, Mathias pleaded ignorance. “She told that since she plays lots of gun sports, the bullet might have possibly packed into her bag by mistake,” says senior police inspector Ravindra Patil of Sahar police station. Sources said considering her age, the cops did not keep her in the lockup.

 September 2013, Bhubhaneswar

 http://www.americanbazaaronline.com/201 ... thorities/

Quote:

Hurtubise was arrested on September 18, when he was caught with eight .22-caliber bullets in his travel bag and subsequently arrested. Hurtubise has maintained throughout that he had no criminal intent for having the bullets, and simply forgot to check his bag before leaving home in Houston.

Incredibly, Hurtubise not only made it onto a plane in Houston with the bullets, but also a connecting flight in Amsterdam, and finally went through New Delhi airport with the live ammunition in his luggage. It was only when he attempted to board a private helicopter at Biju Patnaik Airport, headed for Paradip, that he was caught and taken into police custody.

Hurtubise agreed to a conditional bail plea on October 9, and was allowed to leave the Jharpara jail on October 21, but only under the provision that he does not leave Bhubaneswar, the capital of the east Indian state of Odisha. Hurtubise, a 27 year-old engineer, was originally there on business.

Sep 2013, Chennai
http://www.timesofoman.com/News/Article-22588.aspx

Quote:

The Indian airport police have reportedly picked up a 73-year-old man from Oman for travelling with a 7.62mm rifle bullet inside his razor box.

He was picked up while trying to board a flight after receiving treatment at a private hospital in Chennai, the Indian media reported. The reports quoted the man as claiming his son worked in the police department in Oman.

October 2013, Chennai
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/ ... ammunition

Quote:

Indian police arrested Saturday a Filipino woman at an airport in the southern state of Tamil Nadu for illegally carrying ammunition.

"Yumena Arlene Valera was held at state capital Chennai's airport after two rounds of bullets were found in her possession during routine screening of luggage. The 49-year-old woman was to board a flight to the eastern state of Odisha's capital Bhubaneshwar," an official said on condition of anonymity.

And, of course, the case in question
March 2014, Delhi
http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/us-cop-arrested-at-delhi-airport-for-carrying-bullets-in-luggage-114040500645_1.html
Quote:

A New York Police Department officer has been arrested and charged here under Arms Act after three bullets were found in his luggage, police said on Friday. It was reported that the officer Manny Encarnacion, 49, was arrested in New Delhi on March 11 after he arrived on a Lufthansa Airlines flight from New York, Deputy Commissioner of Police Airport Security M I Haider said. "Three 9mm bullets were found in his baggage. He was booked under Arms Act," Haider said.

PS: The US Department of State in its "Guide for American Citizens in India" (undated) has this:
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/india/635775/ACS/Americans%20in%20India%20Journal.pdf

Before traveling to or from India, you are urged to thoroughly inspect all bags and clothing that might inadvertently contain prohibited items. In the past, U.S. citizens have been arrested or detained when airport security officials discovered loose ammunition in their luggage. If you are found to have loose ammunition or bullets on your person, you could be charged with violation of the Indian Arms Act, incarcerated, and/or deported from India.

Dawisha v. Doniger

Prof. DeLong mentions the case of Cambridge University Press that dumped Karen Dawisha's book on Russian corruption in general and Putin in particular.

Will there be the same uproar in the Western world about Dawisha in Great Britain as there was over Doniger in India?

 Yes, yes, I know, the cases are not remotely comparable.  Dawisha (might be said to have) libeled an individual  while Doniger merely slandered an entire culture.  Dawisha's case is in Great Britain, that mother of civilization, while Doniger's case is in India, which is yet to be civilized (yeah, elephant-headed god, give me a break.)

Hummingbird migration, 2014

From hummingbirds.net:

Col. Lang on NATO

 Over on turcopolier:

NATO was created as a DEFENSIVE collective security alliance for the purpose of deterring any Soviet attempt to take more territory in Europe than they had been able to gain control of in the years immediately following WW2. By the time NATO was created the Soviets had nuclear weapons and the emphasis in NATO was always on deterring the Soviets from an advance into Western Europe by creating the impression that any such advance would cause a conventional war in which after a massive and very destructive struggle NATO would probably be defeated and would likely resort to tactical nuclear weapons in an exchange that would escalate to general war and Armageddon. To make this strategy work it was necessary that the conventional forces committed to Allied Command Europe (ACE) were sufficiently potent to make it clear that conventional Soviet forces would not have an easy and quick victory in which a "done deal" would be accepted as not worth mutual annihilation. Does that sound familiar? During the Cold War the process of keeping the NATO forces strong enough to make the deterrence "work" was great fun for all involved, exercises, books, promotions in large forces, etc. There was also a hell of a lot of money to be made in building the equipment involved. When the Cold War ended NATO would logically have been dismantled, but, the Hegemonist Temptation gripped the elites in the West and the alliance was illogically driven eastward to the borders of Russia and Russian attempts to join this supposed mutual defense arrangement were rejected. This made it clear to the Russians that the alliance was an anti-Russian alliance.

 The Military Industrial complex has gone haywire.

Nate Silver jumps the shark

Nate Silver, celebrated data cruncher, baseball and poll-number statistician, noted for his successful predictions in the 2012 US elections, has jumped the shark with his latest venture.

Details here.

PS: (Wiki)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that was used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality, which is usually a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in an attempt to keep viewers' interest. Its name is taken from a scene from a fifth season episode of the sit-com Happy Days when the character Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water-skis.

The usage of "jump the shark" has subsequently broadened beyond television, indicating the moment when a brand, design, or creative effort's evolution declines.

The Great Game - A View

From vs on BRF, a view of the Great Game, {with some spelling corrections} - it seems relevant in light of the recent events in Ukraine.

1. Britain, a tiny island ruled India - the richest and most advanced of the ancient civilizations, and reduced it to beggary. India's and Indians' faults in allowing this sorry episode to occur cannot be excused or overlooked. The Brits though, had every reason to believe their proxy in the region - TSP - could just as well and just as smoothly dominate free India post 1947. India in any case was a wounded civilization and it wasn't then clear it could rise again.

TSP is the Terrorist State of Pakistan.

2. The Brits learnt well that a potential power whose energies were not diverted into unwinnable feuds would soon learn to wield and project power. So a feud/feuds had to be fanned if extant, exacerbated if dormant and created if nonexistent. The example carries over to how the Brits handled the defeated Ottomans and carved up the caliphate. The seeds of that SNAFU proved propitious down the line post WWII. The Arab-Jewish feud provided lasting fuel decade after decade for the West in general and the Brits in particular to egg on two regional rival sides against each other (so beautifully worded ..... as 'exhaust power potential fighting against itself'). Of course, one side (typically, the bigger one) winning the feud would do the great-gamers no good. So the balance was sought to maintained decade after decade through changing times, climes and governments by supporting the weaker side just enough to counter balance the other.

Sunny Singh on European liberals

Sunny Singh writes:

Strangely enough, if I were from a truly elite background, born to rich and powerful parents, married to other rich and powerful people, but could spout leftist incoherence about India and the world, and never once challenged the dominant paradigms of the hegemonic narratives, I would be welcomed as a darling of this very European 'liberal' circle. 

You see, my crime - at least in the eyes of western 'liberals' - is the same as that of many millions of Indians (and indeed others of the developing world) who are increasingly climbing past the historical economic and political barriers to claim an equal spot at the table: we are the wrong kind of 'elite.'  Self-made, self-taught, fighters to the core, I and many more like me are elite because we have made our way from scratch. And because we are self-made, we are unfettered by the Fanonian psychological baggage that plagues the old established elites from the former colonies. Because we are self-made, we are not beholden to anyone else for our intellectual, economic or political successes. And we are frightening because we cannot be controlled or indeed patronised. 

In fact, the only way the western illiberal liberal has to deal with this upcoming 'elite' from developing countries is by dismissing us as 'posh' (complete with its not so subtle corollary of de-racination). Ironically enough, as the world changes (and faster every day), even that won't keep us out of the gates and silent for long.