Indian to head Amnesty

Salil Shetty (48), Director of the Millennium Development Goals Campaign, is set to become the Secretary-General of Amnesty International. Salil Shetty will be the first Indian to head the international secular non-government organisation.

An alumnus of St Joseph’s Indian High School and St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore, Shetty was President of the College Student Union in 1979. He did his Masters in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and went on to earn a distinction in a Masters of Science in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics.

He joined the United Nations in October 2003 as Director of the Millennium Campaign ... Before joining the UN, Shetty was Chief Executive of ActionAid. (via B’lorean to head Amnesty).

Citius, altius, fortius

Amartya Sen wins the Nobel prize. For research on the Great Bengal Famine. And what does he do - he papers over the entire British policy in Bengal during WW2 - which resulted in the Great Bengal Famine.

The Congress in India, the UMNO in Malaysia and the Kenya African National Union, better known as KANU, have actively white-washed colonial genocides, It took a Catherine Elkins to partially unmask the killings during the Mau Mau uprising. The genocide in 1857 Indo-British War has been estimated by Amaresh Mishra's book. The killings in Malaysia have remained un-investigated and unexposed.

According to the official figures, Mau Mau killed fewer than 100 whites and about 1,800 Kikuyu loyalists while some 11,000 Kikuyu were killed in return. Both Elkins and David Anderson regard these figures with derision — Anderson points out that the mass hanging of 1,090 Mau Mau had no parallel anywhere in Malaya, Indochina or even Algeria, while Elkins suggests that the real number of deaths may have run into hundreds of thousands. (From The Sunday Times, January 9, 2005, Britain's Gulag by Caroline Elkins; Histories of The Hanged by David Anderson, REVIEWED BY R W JOHNSON).

Rajinder Pachauri, head of the IPCC, which won the Nobel Prize, now similarly promotes the 'interests' and the agenda of the climate change lobby. Promoting, protecting the climate change agenda, to the exclusion of Indian interests.

Arundhati Roy's became a 'force' to reckon with - after getting the a large advance (media reports change from 500,000 to, 1 million) and winning the Booker Prize. No prize, for guessing which country gives out the prize. Her promotion of the 'liberal-progressive' agenda - for instance, her Kashmir ideas keep the debate in India from becoming rational or useful to India.

The most elite of Indians

Today, Amartya Sen returns the 'favour' of the Nobel Prize by promoting Western agenda and ideas. In the climate control debate, he proposes that India should 'welcome' international, inspection, audit, intervention and dictation. Rajinder Pachauri defends the fraud of climate change. To cover up the climate change fraud, he indulges in mudslinging against the East Anglia hackers. Arundhati Roy thinks that consigning another 2 crore (twenty million) Kashmiris into the Pakistani hell is OK - based on terrorist activities of some 2000 jihadis. I am very happy for Salil Shetty, except for one thing. The question that springs to my 'provincial' mind' (aka मोटी, देसी और मंद बुद्धि) is ...

Is Salil Shetty joining this 'elite' club?

Oil, Dubai and India

Dubai - the modern El dorado?

In the last 40 years, Dubai and Middle East oil had interesting effects in India.

After the 1973 Oil Embargo, the oil riches, the glitzy infrastructure boom of the Middle East, new found power had a profound effect in India. It also made the Indian Muslim proud about his religious identity. The Bombay High oil find just about saved the Indian economy - and the Indian mental equilibrium. For the general Indian, the Middle East was the answer to the slow Indian economy. In an economy of shortages, an over-valued Indian currency, the Dubai allure was irresistible. It was the passport to wealth and abundance.

A voyage of 50 years

It took another 10-15 years for Indians to discover the underbelly of Dubai. To an average Indian, the prospect of slow career growth in Dubai, limited growth opportunities, the discrimination between the Western expatriates and Indians (and others) had a telling - and chilling effect. The Indian-Muslim, expecting a warm welcome in sandy climes, found a sneer instead.

As the Indian economy started taking off in the 1980's - starting with consumer electronics and auto-sector de-licensing, Indians found a new modus vivendi with Dubai and himself. The nineties saw this trend only become more pronounced. The Arab 'sheikh' marrying poor girls from Hyderabad peaked during this period.

Oil wells that don't end well

By 2000, India had arrived - and it was apparent to Indians, at least. In the last 10 years, as Saudi debt ballooned, Dubai's problems also became apparent. Just as it was apparent, and Quicktake pointed more than 1 year ago, that wheels are coming off Dubai. Saudi Arabia started accessing debt in 1980’s due to low oil prices – to pay the bill for a ‘welfare state’! Since then that debt has been reduced significantly – it still stands at US$62 billion.

Most oil producing countries, are now living at the edge. As India’s new oil discoveries come on line from 2009, China’s post-Olympics appetite for oil reduces, a recessionary US cuts down on oil consumption, a stagnant EU damps on oil – what happens to these oil producing countries!!

With the dollar hegemony at risk, what happens to their dollar reserves?

Arab sheikhs cant get poor girls from Hyderabad any more

The global liquidity boom saw the Indian economy offer more domestic opportunities. India's software successes gave the Indian expat manager in the Middle East some new found respect. The Arab 'sheikh' is not the frequent sight in Hyderabad now - nor is he as important, as then.

The Indian Muslim in the meantime, has also come a full circle. From the colonial-era myth of 'Muslims were the erstwhile rulers of India', to a situation where (admittedly, the few) Jinnah's ideological acolytes in India, in the face of a imploding Pakistan, an anti-Islamic West and declining Middle East have had to perforce admit, what Deoband mainatained is that

for Muslims, there is no better country than India, no country in which Muslims are doing as well as they are doing in India. Our complaints, our objections, our problems exist, and we will continue to fight our fight for justice, but in other countries the situation is much worse.

I sometimes wonder, how a very well-to-do, urbane, Hyderabadi Muslim, I know, who thought he was a Muslim first, an admirer of the West next and India is the worst place on Earth till the 80's, thinks now.

But for most other Indian Muslims, the Middle East sheen, by this time, has worn off. Increasing incomes in India and stagnant incomes in the Middle East- and the circle is complete.

The idea of Pakistan!

Extract from "Memories of Jinnah By K. H. Khurshid, Khālid Ḥasan

हंस के लिए हैं पाकिस्तान, लड़ के लेंगे हिन्दुस्तान

With a contemptuous smile, we robbed them off Pakistan;

Now we will battle, to conquer Hindustan

Synthesis of Pakistan

For many years, the above slogan (popular in pre-partition India amongst Muslims) summed up the idea of Pakistan. Pakistan was more about taking away from Hindustan than making and building a Pakistan. And that is no surprise.

Consider what Jinnah later boasted “I will tell you who made Pakistan: Myself, my secretary and his typewriter”. Many versions of the boast exist – though no one disputes the boast itself. Another writer narrates how Jinnah won “Pakistan merely with the assistance of “one Secretary and a typewriter machine”.

Yet another researcher writes how “Jinnah once claimed that “I have won Pakistan with the help of my Secretary and his typewriter”. One memoir of Khurshid, Jinnah’s Secretary, pretty much says the same thing, “I’ll tell you who made Pakistan. Myself, my secretary and his typewriter”. At yet another occasion he seems to have said, ” My dear man, I got you Pakistan with a typist and a typewriter.”

Apocryphal (as Jaswant Singh seems to suggest) or verbatim, this boast was repeated so many times and in the many versions, does capture the Pakistani mindset. The State of Pakistan was an artificial creation – and popular leaders like Sheikh Abdullah refused to even meet up with Jinnah and was deemed irrelevant.

Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn …

What partition era Indians remember most about the slogan above, was the indifference, to the fate of Pakistan by the soon-to-be Pakistanis – and their total India-centric focus. It is their reading, that the Pakistanis may not mourn away the passing away of Pakistan much – which is something that most Indians do not factor. Having got Pakistan for a song, they may soon be found snickering at its break up.

Is it this indifference which has allowed Pakistan to become a client state of the West?

Resident Non Indians

Some part of the Indian bureaucracy and English speaking media is possibly made up of RNIs (Resident Non-Indians), whose children and future, they have ’secured’ in the West – much like the indifferent Pakistanis.

And this may be the one quality, that possibly is the one thing, that the RNIs and Pakistanis share – indifference to the fate of the country.

Foreign education takes a hit

Out of the around 93,000 students in Australia, over 40 chose to fly back in the wake of the racially motivated attacks. International education is the third largest source of overseas earnings for Australia, generating around US$12 billion in 2008 and supporting more than 125,000 jobs in the country. (via Foreign education takes a hit).

This one hurts ...

After all, which self-respecting, WASP (‘White, Anglo Saxon, Protestant’) Nation would like to be dependent on us dirty and crass Indians!

Bad feeling, huh!

Some people do think that that Indians are of no ‘use to Australia in industry or as a market’. Education happens to be the third largest revenue stream for Australia – after raw materials and tourism. And Indians, by the way, are significant consumers for Australian raw minerals and tourism also.

Anyway, such concerned people should let their Government know about these ‘new found facts’. Because the Australian Government is trying its best to attract Indian tourists to Australia – just like they tried to attract Indian students.

Indian Students Facing Attacks in Australia – BusinessWeek

A senior diplomat at the High Commission told ET that in the last six months, there have been 500 cases of assault on Indian students, registered by the police authorities across Australia. There are fears that such incidents of muggings, theft, racial abuse, car jackings and even murder are on the increase because of the economic meltdown and loss of jobs.

In fact, the Australian government’s $3.5-million campaign to attract Indian students-in an effort to combat recession-could remain a non-starter if the issue of racial attacks is not addressed. An estimated 95,000 Indian students joined Australian institutions of higher education in the first 11 months of 2008. (via Indian Students Facing Attacks in Australia – BusinessWeek).

Do we need this?

Indians are the most important part of work force planning for the entire West. To keep the declining Western economy (and aging populations) ticking, they need Indians – especially the English speaking countries of US of A, UK, Australia and Canada.

This is possibly the one thing that Indians need to understand!

Do Indians have to put up with this kind of insecurity and aggression? After all, (nearly all) Indians are legally entitled to stay in these countries – and in fact, being pursued by some of these countries. What action is the Australian Government taking to solve this problem? Nothing, as far as I can see. Some Indians have got together and a helpline was launched to protect Indian students from violence – reports the Hindustan Times.

In the US of A …

For the last few years, there has been a spate of killings of Indians in the US of A. The important part is these incidents is the common factors: -

1. Most of thee victims are from Andhra Pradesh (in India) – which sends the largest numbers of techies and students from India.
2. All the seven victims were students or young tech workers.
3. These have happened with regularity. Every 45-75 days.
4. None of these students had any criminal record or involvement in any criminal activity or groups.

Seven murders in 15 months is too many to be a co-incidence.

What’s happening?

Foreign workers being blamed for job losses in USA? Is there some racist group behind this. Is is the Ku Klux Klan? Indian groups had requested FBI to check this out.

Anybody out there?

Importance of Indian immigrants to the US of A

Each year, India loses more than 1,00,000 doctors, engineers, other post graduates to the US alone and another 3,00,000 to other Western countries – commonly, referred to as ‘brain drain.’

To get a real handle on this number, project this number to the 25-65 age group in the USA. At 100,000 students and professionals every year from India, there are nearly 3.5-4.0 million highly qualified Indians between the ages of 25-65 – holding up the US industry. The IRS of the USA processed under 100.5 million individual tax returns – from a US population of 300.5 million. Thus approximately 4% of the total US working population. Put another way, Indians comprise an estimated 10%-15% of the highly qualified and (highly paid) workforce in the US.

Who pays for this

The Indian tax-payer supports India’s higher education (English based) system to the tune of Rs.2,50,000 crores (US$60 billion). The rest of the world picks up these Indian assets at no investment – and the poor Indian tax payer continues to subsidize English language education which benefits the entrenched Westernized Indian elite. These well-trained, qualified young people at the start of their productive lives are lost to the West (and others).

What is the cost for the 300,000 people that India loses to the West each year? Just the direct cost to the Indian tax payer is US$ 2 billion, or Rs.10,000 crores annually.

India needs to end this subsidy to the West

The usefulness and transferability of utility would be highly reduced, if India were to completely use Indian languages in higher education. Indian investment in higher education would then start benefiting India – and the poor Indian tax payers. A recent report on ‘brain drain’ for India Government circulation did not even mention how the use of English language for higher education in India increases transferability of utility from India to richer English using academic systems – like the USA.

Casting the U.S. as Parent in a Teenage World - Thomas P. M. Barnett - NYTimes.com

“It took us 89 years to free the slaves and 189 years to guarantee African-Americans the right to vote,” he writes. “Women waited 144 years before earning suffrage. If a mature, multiparty democracy was so darn easy, everybody would have one.” (via Review of Book - ‘Great Powers’ by Thomas P. M. Barnett - Casting the U.S. as Parent in a Teenage World - NYTimes.com).

Maybe, Mr.Barnett, before you build a case for more intervention by the 'adult' US in the lives of immature Rest, he should look at the American record again!

The writer forgets how the disenfranchisement laws still work in the US. The disenfranchisement laws came into effect by the 1890’s - that continue till today. This ensured that the disproportionate numbers of Blacks could not vote - and George Bush became the President of the USA for the 2nd time. After some 60,000 Black Voters were disenfranchised, George Bush technically, won by less than 1000 votes (most of the disenfranchised voters were expected to vote against George Bush).

Or that in the Police Republic of The US has the largest number of people in prisons - disproportionately African Americans. USA, with a population of 30 crores (300 million), has a criminal population of 70 lakhs (7 million) - behind bars, on probation or on parole. US Government estimates a figure of 20 lakhs (2 million) people serving prison sentences.

Though US women have the vote, they cannot elect their own. Where is the US woman as a President?

Though, maybe the reviewer may be right, when the reviewer claims in the closing line, “it is hard to disagree with his ... observation that “the world desperately wants America back.”

Especially looking at the Middle East, that US propaganda may be working. Maybe, the Middle East does want its Unca Sam fix.

Or that Indians may want 'freedom' - US style.

Pregnancies and media reactions!

The public relations group that has represented octuplets mother Nadya Suleman is stepping down because of death threats, its president said Saturday.

Joann Killeen also said the mother now has an agent: Wes Yoder, the same man who arranged book and music deals for the McCaughey septuplets a decade ago and publicity for controversial pastor Rick Warren. (via The Associated Press: Octuplets mother now has agent but no publicist).

and then came the other story.

A British schoolboy who has grabbed headlines by becoming a father at 13 ... amid calls for a crackdown on the trend towards “children having children” as Tory leader David Cameron put it ... Prime Minister Brown call(ed) to avoid teenage pregnancies as figures showed that Britain had the highest teenage pregnancy in Western Europe ... pro-life campaigners praised the young couple for their “courage” in deciding against abortion ... experts called for better sex-education in schools ... Police said it was “not in anyone’s interest” to prosecute the couple. (via Teenage dad not to be prosecuted).

After so much media attention, I have only two questions - What if Nadya Suleman was a White, Anglo Saxon Protestant - instead of a Muslim?

And what if 13 year old Alfie Patten and his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Stedman were Hindus in India?

My fear is that the most two-faced reaction would actually come from Indian media - especially, the Indian-English media?