Indian to head Amnesty

Rewards, recognition and respect followed Western funding and promotion

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 ignored and overlooked 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. Plausibly 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.

Should we ‘desi’ Indians give these ‘glitterati’ so much respect, press coverage and importance?

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 even 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?

India, China, Brazil walk out – Copenhagen dead

In a development that took almost all observers by surprise, India, China, and Brazil walked out the plenary session of the climate summit at Copenhagen, making it certain that the summit will end in abject failure. (via domain-b.com : Copenhagen dead as India, China, Brazil walk out).

Pollutor cleans – not pay

One of the fundamental flaws of the Kyoto Protocol was the principal of ‘polluter pays’. Based the retributive justice logic, it was something that was bound to fail. Instead it should have been based on the Indic justice principle – ameliorative and make good. The operating principle should have been ‘polluter cleans and does not pollute again.’

If the ‘Developed World’ (I have no idea what that term means), made its wealth by pollution, waste and environmental degradation, do the world’s poor want that tainted money? Instead, the ‘Developed World’ should have been asked to clean up and mechanisms put in place to ensure that these ‘offenders’ do not repeat.

For, by, to the rich

Instead, Copenhagen has become a carnival where 20,000 delegates are fighting over the spoils of environmental degradation, pollution and climate hazard. The Indian Government has, of course, lost touch with Indian ideals – and are trying out their hand at Hammurabic justice.

The poor or the ‘common’ man, in whose name Copenhagen Climate Change meet is underway will not see any benefits. Copenhagen is for the rich (from poor countries), by the rich (from rich countries) to the rich (from poor and rich countries) – and may the poor and common be damned.

The future of the Past

Paris got a makeover in the time of President Mitterrand with the creation of La Defense and the revitalisation of the Louvre. And yet, its most visited tourist spots are the Eiffel Tower and historic district of Champs Elysees.

New York too embarked on an ambitious journey from inner city decay to Soho chic, reviving its rundown districts into fashionable areas; romanticised living in a historic brownstone became the ultimate New York real estate dream. Closer home, New Delhi is investing in its renaissance through infrastructure improvement and restoration of its medieval monuments in time for the Commonwealth Games.

And yet, whenever Mumbai’s makeover is discussed, we forget that the city need not be packaged as a business destination alone, with two World Heritage Sites in the city (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Elephanta Caves) and two more in the state (Ajanta and Ellora), making Maharashtra a state with the maximum number of World Heritage Sites. (via The future of the Past).

Neglect of 2000 years of history

The most remarkable feature of Mumbai’s history are Buddhist caves from 1st century to 11 th century. In her article of more than 1800 words, how many times does the author, Abha Narain Lambah, mention Mumbai’s Buddhist caves?

Nil. Yes. That is right. Zero. Zilch. 零. Nul. Null. μηδέν. ゼロ. нул. cero.

Magathane Caves

The other aspect is the totally foreign (read Western) idiom that Lambah uses. Assuming she wanted to use international benchmarks, could she not find any conservation models from Turkey (Boghaz Koi for example), Egypt (the Cairo Museum?), Japan, China (The Forbidden City), Thailand (Ayuthya) – which comes to my mind at least. This ‘narrow-casting’ makes me shudder at the shallowness.

Motivations

Abha Narain Lambah, is a practising conservation architect in Mumbai. A recipient of the Eisenhower Fellowship (USA) 2002, Sanskriti Award 2003 and the Charles Wallace Fellowship (UK) 1998, her projects have won five UNESCO Asia Pacific Awards for Heritage Conservation.

Now how much of a chance does she have of winning commissions from Western multinationals and Western clubs (like UNESCO, et al) or from the ‘Westernized’ South Mumbai types – if starts off on Buddhist and Hindu shrines. For that matter, I doubt if she will win the Rs.28 crore contract /grant /sanction /approval it even from the Maharashtra Government?

As Ganga descends from the heavens, it starts teeming with Nagas (fertility symbol)

Then there are others

To the lengthening line of non-specialists, who are re-writing Indian history, like Amaresh Misra (War of 1857), Anant Darwatkar (on Sambhaji Maharaj), Parag Tope (on Tatiya Tope’s role in 1857), Savitri Sawhney (on the Ghadar Party’s contribution to Indian Freedom Movement), Benoy K Behl (photography of Indian history), it may be early to now add the name of Anita Rane-Kothare. Her work on Buddhist caves of Mumbai is yet to make an impact.

Benoy Behl’s work is particularly very attractive.

Awesome Work

Capturing Indian history across more than 20 countries, Benoy K Behl has spent,

almost two decades now, … to document the spread of Buddhism; his work evident in over 30,000 unique photographs that he has taken all over the world.

He has found that

“At many of these places people may not have seen present-day Indians but they still hold Indian culture in great regard”.

In Mumbai …

Two years ago, a historian, while researching traditional Indian methods of water harvesting, stumbled upon a series of ancient Buddhist caves in Borivli, which its custodians scarcely knew or cared about.

Initially, she was scared that the historical caves would crumble under the weight of the slum colonies that encroached upon them, but now she fears that the construction works being conducted on an adjacent plot might bring the structures down. (via Historian on a mission to save little-known caves – The Times of India).

Old Mumbai mills are valuable – but not the Buddhist caves

While India has managed to obtain funding for ’saving’ the gargoyle-infested colonial railway structures from UNESCO, breast beating activists have managed to increase awareness of structures funded by colonial loot and drug trade (of opium).

In all this, two things are forgotten.

One - Colonial versions show the start of Mumbai’s history when the Portuguese gave Mumbai as dowry to the British in 1661 – including a Government of Maharashtra website.

If there was no Mumbai before the British, where did these Buddhist caves (at Magathane, Kanheri, etc.) come from? Or did I miss the ‘fact’ that British first came to India in the 2nd century, made these Buddhist caves – and came back again to India in the 17th century, built these Gothic Victorian structures, and went away – which we ‘uncultured’ Indians are trying to save?

Did the British come in the 1st century and make these caves?

Two - The liberal establishment in India is worried about all the colonial ‘heritage’ and structures. Old Mumbai mills are included – but not the even more ancient Buddhist structures.

The Mumbai Municipal Commissioner, while decrying the attempts by the Indian neo-Colonial Rulers, to ‘save’ Mumbai’s colonial past, makes no mention of these Buddhist caves. While Kipling’s bungalow is a ‘hallowed’ institution, these Buddhist caves are dying of ‘active neglect’.

<img title=”As Ganga descends from the heavens, it starts teeming with Nagas (fertility symbol)” src=”http://www.thehindu.com/fline/fl2425/images/20080104242506605.jpg” alt=”As Ganga descends from the heavens, it starts teeming with Nagas (fertility symbol)” width=”218″ height=”340″ />

As Ganga descends from the heavens, it starts teeming with Nagas (fertility symbol)

Awesome Work
Capturing Indian history across more than 20 countries, Benoy K Behl has spent,

almost two decades now, … to document the spread of Buddhism; his work evident in over 30,000 unique photographs that he has taken all over the world.</p>
He has found that
“At many of these places people may not have seen present-day Indians but they still hold Indian culture in great regard”

The Dragon vs. the Eagle

Such a loving couple!

At the same time he seriously plays down the horrors of Mao’s tyrannical rule, writing that “he remains, even today, a venerated figure in the eyes of many Chinese, even more than Deng Xiaoping” and that the Communist Party “succeeded in restoring its legitimacy amongst the people” and fostered “extremely rapid economic growth,” “despite the calamities of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.” In addition he diminishes the importance of the pro-democracy Tiananmen demonstrations and dissident sympathies, arguing that there is an “apolitical tradition” in China and that “the Confucian ethos that informed and shaped it for some two millennia did not require the state to be accountable to the people.” (via Books of The Times – The Dragon vs. the Eagle in Martin Jacques’ ‘When China Rules The World’ – Review – NYTimes.com).

For this one insight …

The Dragon versus the Eagle analogy is just hot air! A lot of hot air. China is too busy playing footsie with the USA to challenge! But the bit about China being ‘apolitical’ is a gem.

This one point by Martin Jacques’ explains so much about world history – and modern Asian history.

Platonic-Confucian axis

The axis of Confucian-Platonic authoritarian, ‘wise’ rulers was the overwhelming model for the world. Property rights remained with less than o.1% of the people. Under the CRER principle, (cuius regio, eius religio, meaning whose land, his religion; CRER) even the most personal religious beliefs of the individual were subject to State approval, as per law.

Pareto’s principle … Ha!

Yes – Pareto was wrong.

Rarely (do they at all?) do 20% of the people get to own 80% the national wealth. It is usually about o.1%. Look at America. Less than 300,000 people (from the Forbes /Fortune lists, the Government and the academia, media) who control the US  – a population of more than 300 million.

The West scorns the Chinese One party rule. But how does one more, collusive party in the national polity, in a ‘democratic set-up, become the paragon of political virtue. Did it ever occur to its defendants, that a two-party polity was just a more polished and conniving way of exercising the same authority – in a more invisible manner?

The only exception to this was the Indic system of polity – where property rights were vested with the user, justice was decentralized (did any Indic king dispense justice?), religion was maya and dharma was supreme. The modern Indian State has acquired the Desert-Bloc-Platonic-Confucian authoritarian principles of the State as parens patriae. So, the power of the Indic ideas is something that India seems to have completely forgotten, missed and lost!!

What's the difference? One more collusive political party!

In Greater China

In Hong Kong Chinese movies, till the 1990’s, a recurring theme was the Buddhist monk. Until the modernist Jackie Chan goes to America versions started coming out, it was always the wise Buddhist teacher who taught the Brave ‘Chinaman’ to fight against feudal oppression. It was always the Wise Buddhist Teacher who showed the way.

Lee Kuan Yew – a Confucius bhakt

Now this explains why Lee Kuan Yew extols Confucian virtues of Greater Chinese. Is it surprising that the ‘modern’ Chinese Government is so afraid of Buddhist revival that they have put restrictions on the Falun Gong followers from doing breathing exercises in the open. Falun Gong which attracted nearly 10 crore followers in the last 15 years, seems to have made the Chinese Government nervous.

Contrast the faith that the Chinese have in Buddhist teachers with the representation of Church and priests in Hollywood and you will see the contrast. One set has been able to maintain trust and faith for more than 2000 years – and the other set seems to have lost it in less than a 1000 years.

Is it any surprise that the common Chinese loves and venerates the Buddha – and the Chinese Government lays so much emphasis on Confucianism?

Long-haired women fascinate China

our guide, who was a mine of information about the Middle Kingdom. She took us sightseeing and on passing trees from which cotton-like flowers fell, she proudly told us that this would soon be a thing of the past because the government had decided to replace these ‘female’ trees with male ones to avoid inconvenience to tourists. We were in the land where anything is possible.

The Great wall, like any tourist spot in India, was very crowded. The Forbidden City, right in the middle of Beijing, was spread over a vast area. But it paled in comparison with the grandeur of our palaces. The pace of sightseeing was hindered by numerous requests from locals for photo shoots with my wife and daughter, unusual women as far as the Chinese are concerned.

At Xian, the Terracotta army complex is a must-see but the big surprise was the Wild Goose Pagoda. It is associated with Hiuen Tsang, who famously travelled to India in the seventh century. The museum has a collection of articles he carried back from India. Every Chinese seemed to know one of their most famous stories, ‘Journey to the West’, and the “West” in this case means India. Stone tablets bearing Sanskrit verses, along with their Chinese translations, can be seen in the Stone Steles Museum. Clearly, they were intelligently copying back then as well. (via Long-haired women fascinate China).

The lost art of travel writing

I thought this was a very fresh piece of travel writing. For one it was not a regurgitated piece of propaganda. For another, he is a typical, English-educated, Indian who is surprised to see how far and how widely India is spread. He is also pleasantly surprised by the lack of simple freedoms that Indians assume are available to all – but a rare commodity.

Lastly, he seems to take significant pride, like much of Desert Bloc, in monuments built by rulers, in ‘glory’ of their reign! He does seems to think that “The Forbidden City … paled in comparison with the grandeur of our palaces”. When it comes to monuments, I would have preferred India to at the bottom of the table.

Like Africa.

Failed Westernizations

For instance – in Russia, Peter the Great, asked all the boyars to cut their beards – and become modern like Western Europeans. Russia never recovered from that. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk ordered Turks to stop wearing the fez – and a society with a 3000 year old history, suddenly started getting jolted from one crisis to another. In China, it was the queue.

In their great hurry to Westernize, these leaders cast their countries and cultures into a loop of self-doubt and loss of self-esteem. To all those who want to rush into Western (or anyone else’s) arms, Russia, Turkey and China are excellent examples.

I liked this piece of simple writing. Utkarsh has his tongue in place – firmly in the ‘cheek.’

PR Stunts – The Maldives underwater meeting

The 'science' of global warming

Maldivian officials said the idea to hold the attention-grabbing underwater cabinet meeting came from President Mohamed Nasheed when he was asked by an activist group to support its “environmental day” action on October 24.

“The 350.org group asked if the Maldives can hold an underwater banner supporting environmental day,” an official from the president’s office said.

“The president thought for a while and then came up with the idea to have an underwater cabinet meeting.” (via Maldives cabinet rehearses underwater meeting).

Its been done before

From the early 1950’s to the late eighties, the Western world created hysteria regarding ‘population explosion’  in India and China. Enormous pressures were brought onto the Chinese and Indian Governments to ‘control’ their populations.

The West succeeded in China – and failed in India, thanks to the healthy disrespect that desi Indians had for ‘phoren’ ideas. This entire theory on population explosion was based on wrong ethical, economic and political bases. Above all, it was based on a fear that China and India could raise an army bigger than the entire population of the West put together. Much like the climate control campaign, the population explosion campaign was sustained over the years – and called for great ‘foresight’ from the West.

The Maldives trojan

Propping up Maldives as ‘fifth’ column was similarly done over the last more than 20 years. Based on excellent PR and media management skills, the Maldives was the Trojan horse that India was blind-sided on.

The hallmark of the Maldives’ climate  change campaign has been it slick PR. Dramatic statements, intriguing sound bites, the Maldives’ campaign was beyond the common bureaucratic ‘creature’ – much less a Maldives’ bureaucrat. This is consistent and in line with Al Gore’s media and public relations management – which won the PR agency, the campaign of the year award. And Al Gore the Nobel Prize.

350.org is rather well armed on the PR front – with a specific agency for South Asia itself. The PR agency for the Maldives Travel and Tourism Authority McCluskey International does  seem to either bask in reflected glory – or is hinting at the authorship of this stunt. The Maldives climate change campaign seems to be headquarted in Britain also.

Maldives is now tied up with a the ‘Vulnerable 14′ to actively create pressure on (especially) China and India.

If it was not such a delicious fraud, I could have even admired this operation.

42 terror camps still active in Pakistan: Indian Army chief

Chief of Army Staff Gen Deepak Kapoor has said that there are still 42 terror camps operating across the border in Pakistan in which 2000 to 2500 terrorists are still waiting to infiltrate into Indian side. (via 42 terror camps still active in Pakistan: Army chief- Hindustan Times).

Such cross-border firings did come down for some time after the two countries agreed to a ceasefire along the 198-km International Border in J&K, the 778-km LoC and the 150-km Actual Ground Position Line in Siachen on November 26, 2003.

But Pakistan army is now back to its old strategy of actively aiding and abetting infiltration, and the ceasefire is increasingly turning fragile. Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, in fact, recently said Pakistan army was trying to push in as many militants as possible before the mountain passes get snowed under. (via Terror infrastructure in Pak still intact: Antony – India – The Times of India).

Post-colonial India

So … if we know this … what are we doing about these 42 camps?

Post-Independence India has inherited a Pakistan Fixation, which predisposes us to whine – and demonize Pakistan. Endless whining about Pakistan’s bad deeds gets us nowhere. A ‘victorious’ Congress, ruling for most of the 60 years of post-colonial India, had three clear propaganda imperatives.

1 – TINA, There is no alternative

They needed to prove that it was only the Congress which could ‘take on’ and  ‘defeat’ the ‘glorious and the mighty’ British Empire on which the sun never set. The logic went, “what could India(ns) have done without the Congress”. This thinking went deeper and dirtier, when a certain Deb Kant Barooah, declared “India is Indira and Indira is India.”

Pakistani press trying to 'even' the score

Similarly, Congress decided to re-write history and take all credit for the departure of the British colonialists. Contributions of leaders like SC Bose was ignored or the importance of the February 1946 joint action by the Indian Armed Forces against the colonial forces, was minimized to the ‘Naval Ratings Mutiny.’ Leaders like VD Savarkar (the first to write a non-colonial history of the War of 1857), or Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (the founder of the Jana Sangh-BJP) was dismissed as fascism.

Fact is, that Britain was bankrupt and could not hold onto India. Fact is, that for a 150 years – from 1797-1947, many rebellions, wars, individual hits were made against the colonial British Government. The myth of non-violent Indian freedom movement, served both colonial and Congress interests. It showed the British as ‘civilized’ colonialists – and the Congress as ‘enlightened’ leadership. Just like most Western literature caricatures African-American characters as hard-working, humble, docile, placid, obedient, gentle!

2 – If you don’t have an enemy, create one!

The Congress needed to create an enemy. A demon, who they could blame, use, abuse – and Pakistan fitted the bill perfectly. A failed state (!), a hotbed of terrorism – and to top it all, an Islamic State. What more could the West-Congress combine ask for?

Easily slipping into colonial legacy of ‘divide et impera’, the Congress went onto a disastrous foreign policy trail of Hindi-Chini bhai bhai. A solid realtionship with Pakistan would have,  arguably, saved Tibet from the Chinese maws – which Nehru’s foreign policy predicated.

3 – Craven desires

To gain Western approval, acceptance, favours, privileges et al.

Consider the English language policy of the post-colonial Congress Government. It has massively subsidized English education in India so that the children of the elite could ‘escape’ to the West. The demeaning ‘population control theory’, the English language education – all, a result of this need of the Congress Party.

The deliberate colonial distortion of Indian history continues unchecked and unhindered. You only have to read Congress Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh’s speech at Oxford, praising the Raj,  while receiving his honorary doctrate, or Chidambaram’s decision to end “abject poverty” in India that he seems to “have known for 5,000 years.”

When each of these elements are looked at in isolation, we can take benign view of these actions. When looked at collectively, it forms a clear pattern.

Poor Sri Lankan cricket team got a taste of Pakistan ...

A rather ominous pattern.

The Root Of This Problem

The state of inter-government relations in South Asia is a sign of lazy Indian diplomatic corps (the IFS) which considers all these neighbourhood postings as ‘punishment’ postings. The ‘best’ of IFS corps wants postings to Western capitals. Like the IAS, the IFS is another albatross around India’s neck.

A large part of India’s Foreign Ministry budget goes towards Western engagement (for proof, look at the dubious Festivals of India in USA, France, Russia, Britain, etc). Instead if the same money was spent in the sub-continent, it would have been better spent. The huge monies spent on Western embassies are mis directed. It would be ideal if those Western embassies were Spartan, frugal (I should actually say Gandhian) – and our the money saved was invested in the sub-continent. India’s Western engagements are at a direct cost of involving and managing the neighbourhood relationships.

If India’s problems were limited to Pakistan, possibly, there is some merit to India’s Pakistan Fixation. India’s relations with its other neighbours are also in trouble. Its relations with Bangladesh are at a historic low. Relations with Sri Lanka are back from the brink. Nepal is the new fire in the sub-continent.

What should India do?

The other issue is that Indian bureaucrats whine. They issue empty threats – and take no follow up actions.

For instance, cut off Pakistan’s supplies of paper, inks, dies, presses, spares for the currency printing. Are things changing.? India has indeed has taken the first intelligent action (that I have seen) in a long time in handling Pakistan.

Next! Send a 100 Indian agents to lob grenades into Pakistani terrorists camps – every month. Just one grenade in one terrorist camp every month. Within the next 6 months the terror infrastructure of Pakistan will evaporate.

Other options India can consider.

1. Zardari wants to export cement and sugar to India. India has a large market for both – and can easily absorb Pakistani exports. Tie these Pakistani exports to quantitative achievements in shutting down terror camps in Pakistan.
2. Pakistan precarious financial position does not allow it the luxury of an arms race with India. Pakistan has access to Western technology for – in defence for RDX, machine guns, PACs, etc. The world must withdraw all technology from Pakistan for all arms and ammunition. No RDX, no tanks, no F-16s, no APCs. Pakistan must be put on strict diet of military technology blockade by the world. No less.
3. Fake Indian currency notes are also allegedly coming out of technology supplied by Europeans. Close these channels. Pakistan’s suspected role in counterfeit currency operations must also be put under the scanner. Controlling Government’s of the 12 companies that dominate the currency printing business must be made to choose. Between India and Pakistan. If the German Government can arm twist their companies to suspend currency supply to Zimbabwe, there is no excuse for them to not to lean on dealings with Pakistan.
4. Pakistani Hindus (especially Dalits) are crucial to Pakistan. Announce a scheme for Hindu immigration from Pakistan to India. The loss of this 2% of Pakistani population can make life difficult for Pakistan. Facilitate their immigration to India.
5. Work with US, NATO, Afghan Governments to close down the Peshawar arms bazaar. This small time bazaar became the sourcing centre for terrorists all over the world. Initially, stocked up with arms from the CIA funded jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, Peshawar, has become a problem that never ends. If required, there should be a UN mandate to send in a multinational force to surround, capture and destroy this centre for arms and armaments.
6. Pakistan is at the crossroads of a jihadi, terrorist, criminal elements who have joined together and created an incendiary mash-up. Fueled by a drugs trade worth billions, arms trade worth millions and respectability, as they are ‘carrying out a religious jihad’.
7. The leadership of these gangs has to be de-fanged. LK Advani, as the earlier Home Minister, forwarded a list of ‘Most Wanted 20′ to Pakistan nearly 7 years ago. Not one has come to India. The US has not co-operated on this one important Indian requirement.

The Pakistan problem is finally not as complex and it is made out.

Nor as easy as some may want it to be.

Climate head steps down over e-mail leak

Professor Phil Jones, director of the U.K.’s University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit said he stands by the science produced at the center but while the investigation takes place it was important that the CRU “continues its world leading research with as little interruption and diversion as possible.” (via Climate head steps down over e-mail leak – CNN.com).

Coming together at Copenhagen

More than 20,000 official delegates are converging today to major international conference. Venue – Bella centre, Copenhagen. Sponsor – United Nations. Conference subject – Climate Change, managed by Yvo de Boer, the UN climate head. What about the climate change, could be so important to draw more than 20,000 people to one city from nearly 200 countries (192 to be exact).

What makes this more curious and intriguing is that “never in peacetime history has the government-media-academic complex been in such sustained propagandistic lockstep about any subject.” The motivation for this campaign is (as per Washington Post) is to fix on the “world’s … population … the saddle of ever-more-minute supervision by governments.”

At least three threads seem to be running through the climate change cloth of debate. One thread is oil. The other is the competitive hobbling – like the false debate on population explosion. The third is the scientific skullduggery which seems to be rampant in the climate change debate – “the complex climate politics between the US, China and India.”

The most interesting is Maldives.

1. The Maldives jigsaw

The Maldives Government staged a dramatic PR coup to draw world media attention on climate change, by holding an underwater cabinet meeting. Nepal Government followed up with a cabinet meeting at the Himalayan foothills. These were in a long line of various other such PR stunts.

The PR agency for the Maldives Travel and Tourism Authority McCluskey International does  seem to either bask in reflected glory – or is hinting at the authorship of this stunt. Apparently, Maldives has been at the forefront of climate change trip for some time. One journalist, from New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, recounts his first encounter with Maldives representatives in

Toronto in 1988 to report on the First International Conference on the Changing Atmosphere. Most of the discussions centered on devising strategies to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from automobiles, power plants, and the burning of tropical forests. Among those in attendance was Hussein Manikfan, who holds the title Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative to the United Nations from the republic of Maldives. At first it seemed odd to find a representative from the Maldives at the meeting. The country, a sprinkling of 1,190 coral islets in the Indian Ocean southwest of Sri Lanka, has no tropical forests, hardly any automobiles, and little industry beyond the canning of bonito.

Well coached, when Manikfan was asked what was he doing in Toronto, a slick and dramatic answer was available.

Why was he in Toronto? “To find out how much longer my country will exist,” was his simple reply.

In response to this article in NY Times, significant data was shown, how Maldives will not go under.

High noon in Maldives

Interestingly, the current President of Maldives came to power, in rather unusual ‘circumstances’. In the 2008 Presidential elections, in the first round, Nasheed were placed second with 44,293 votes (24.91%), behind President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the long-ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), who received 71,731 votes (40.34%). In the second round, Nasheed (supposedly supported by the unsuccessful first round candidates) won 54.25% of the vote against 45.75% for Gayoom.

Displaying penchant for excellent PR, Nasheed promptly declared himself as “the world’s first democratically elected president of a 100 percent Muslim country”.

Media management and Maldives

The hallmark of the Maldives’ climate  change campaign has been it slick PR. Dramatic statements, intriguing sound bites, the Maldives’ campaign was beyond the common bureaucratic ‘creature’ – much less a Malives’ bureaucrat.

For sometime, Nasheed was in Britain, a ‘political refugee’. The Maldives climate change campaign seems to be headquarted in Britain also.The New York Times report mentions how

Officials in the Maldives made the decision after soliciting a report on how to cut fossil fuel use and otherwise trim the country’s climate footprint from  Chris Goodall and  Mark Lynas, British environmentalists and authors of books on energy and climate.

The British press has been quite liberal in its coverage and published his writings. President Mohamed Nasheed, declared with saturation media coverage, that Maldives will be the first country in the world to be carbon neutral. This is quite in line with Al Gore’s media and public relations management – which won the PR agency, the campaign of the year award. And Al Gore the Nobel Prize.

Much like how the population explosion report by the ‘Club of Rome’ was released from the Smithsonian, the climate change

“announcement was made in the Maldives, but synchronized with the London premiere of ” The Age of Stupid,” a new film on global warming and oil that is a mix of documentary, dramatization and animation.

One comment simplified the Maldives riddle very well.

If the Maldives are doomed why spend $1.1 billion on the place. Abandon the islands. Move to higher ground. Ans.: They won’t get many $$ if they ask for any other reason. And they know better than anyone they are not sinking!

Of course, this begs the question, why Maldives? That brings us to the next part of the climate change factors.

2. What if

The entire global warming debate is just a facade to keep up demand for oil from India and China. What is the biggest item on the climate change talks? Coal based power plants. Does it seem far fetched that the opposition to coal fired power plants is to stop India and China from reducing the growth in oil consumption.

After all practically all of British GDP today is declining North Sea oil and British Petroleum. Apart from Chinese money, the other source of liquidity, which keeps the US afloat is petro-dollars. And, remember, US future is so closely linked to Arctic oil. Looking at the speed and persistence with which the 123 Agreement was done by the US, it’s use as a lever against Indian negotiating position cannot be underestimated or ignored.

Coincidentally, along with the Copenhagen Summit, the India-Africa Hydrocarbons Conference started in New Delhi. If Africa, the Caribbean and South America start producing their own oil, where does that leave the Oil-West-Dollar Axis? If China and India reduce their growth in oil consumption, what happens? If India and China were to reduce their reliance on oil, leading to a price collapse, the biggest losers will be the Anglo Saxon bloc.

Makes one think!

India’s pharma exports

3.Three things…

First, many of the regulatory bodies (like IMF, World Bank, OECD, et al)are actually a US-Euro Club – to fool the world, with token actions and steps to demonstrate inclusion and fairness to the developing world.

And second, these token actions divert the attention of the developing world. For instance, World Bank list of banned entities were significantly, from two sectors - Software and Pharma.

These are the two sectors where the US still has a lead – and the Indians are its biggest challengers. Generic pharma firms from India have become world beaters - and the Indian software companies have built up US$50 billion a year business, in less than 10 years. These 50 billion dollars have come out of (arguably) US pockets.

At least, the actions against Wipro and Nestor Pharma were pathetic excuses to ban a business – and no third party arbiter will uphold these actions.

Third, on January 9, Standard & Poor’s announced that Greece, Spain and Ireland were on review for a possible downgrade, indicating that a Euro-zone country could default. The cost of the US bailout is likely to exceed US$3 trillion. Current US budget deficit is likely to break all records and estimates.

Not so long ago …

In 1999, an employee of an auto-components manufacturer, Autolite, was arrested in France for trademarks and copyright infringement – based on a complaint by the car manufacturer PSA Puegeot Citroen. The French police, on similar complaints, arrested two other nationals, a Belgian and a Taiwanese woman also.

The Belgian was of course granted bail – and the Indian and the Taiwanese were denied bail - ‘The lawyers representing the Indian businessman offerred to deposit his passport and the sum of 100,000 French Francs claimed by Peugeot in the custody of the court as bailbond, pending the trial of the case on November 12′.

French court procedures took nearly 1 month and the Indian executive was finally granted bail after being in prison for 1 month. After two years of appeals and expensive litigation, the complaint was found to be without any merit – and dismissed.

More recently …

A shipment of medicines destined for Brazil, from India, was detained at Rotterdam. The Dutch Customs used a complaint from a local Dutch company, to detain this shipment, based on local patent laws. After a few months of ‘negotiations’, the shipment was sent back to India. An expert writes, what

‘EU is doing is using Council Regulation (EC) No. 1383/2003 to impound drugs that are suspected of violating patents registered in member-countries even if these are simply in transit. The regulations permit customs to hold these goods for a minimum of 10 working days while informing the patent holder of the seizure. The patent holder then applies to a civil court to initiate legal proceedings in order to prove that infringement has taken place.’

Again coincidentally, India decided to proceed against the EU on the same day as the beginning of the Copenhagen meeting.

Public sector or oblivion?

During the Great Depression, more than 19 auto companies (similar to the number of banks today) were folded into the Big 3. The Big 3 lived to fight for another 70 years. In their death throes, the US Big Auto is likely to go the way European auto sector has gone – public sector or oblivion.

What is on the table

Two out of the G-7 countries are bankrupt – US and Britain. Their industrial base was supported by raw materials and captive markets – acquired by genocide, and the loot of centuries.

France, Germany, Canada, Italy  and Australia (not in G7) are tethering on the brink – under the weight of their social security system, and most of their business is in the public sector. A geriatric Japan is dependent almost entirely on exports to these declining seven. Japan’s investment in India and China has been negligible.

Unhappy negotiators

When certain negotiators in India were ‘worried’ about the conditionalities – Indian played up the Kakodkar card. Kakodkar was supposed to be unhappy with the deal. After much speculation and ‘negotiations’ Kakodkar gave the go-ahead.

Just before the Copenhagen meeting, another Indian negotiator, Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, ‘outed’ the impending Government Of India’s surrender. His analysis and logic was well presented in this post, on the morning of the Copenhagen meeting.

Crooked scientists

As the Climate Change talks came to the actual date, it was discovered that the ‘chief repository’ of data and information was hacked, released to the world. What this ‘leak’ showed the world, was how the scientists are playing dirty.

In June, however, he became a sudden celebrity with the surfacing of a few e-mail messages that seemed to show that his contrarian views on global warming had been suppressed by his superiors because they were inconvenient to the Obama administration’s climate change policy. Conservative commentators and Congressional Republicans said he had been muzzled because he did not toe the liberal line. (via Furor Over Alan Carlin, a Climate Change Skeptic – NYTimes.com).

When data from Indian scientists was released, it showed that the Himalayas have been retreat for nearly a 50 years. The most glaring of it was when

In its 2007 report, the Nobel Prize-winning Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said: “Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate.

Careful reading of the report by

Professor Cogley has found a 1996 document by a leading hydrologist, VM Kotlyakov, that mentions 2350 as the year by which there will be massive and precipitate melting of glaciers.

“The extrapolar glaciation of the Earth will be decaying at rapid, catastrophic rates – its total area will shrink from 500,000 to 100,000 square kilometres by the year 2350,” Mr Kotlyakov’s report said.

Mr Cogley says it is astonishing that none of the 10 authors of the 2007 IPCC report could spot the error and “misread 2350 as 2035″.

India ‘arrogant’ to deny global warming link to melting glaciers, was Dr.Pachauri’s response.

When the levee breaks

A few days ago, some hackers broke into the East Anglia HQ, where most of the climate change data was being ’studied’ and ‘analysed’.

This data was released by these ‘data thieves’ a few days before the Copenhagen meeting. The effect was electric.

This scientific bunker holds the world’s largest trove of climate-change data, gleaned from Siberian tree-ring counts, Greenland ice-layer measurements and centuries-old thermometer readings.

Now the pirating of thousands of e-mail messages from within its walls has revealed a dangerous bunker mentality among the scientists who guarded those records and a data-fudging scandal that has created a crisis of confidence in global-warming science that is threatening to destroy the political consensus around next week’s carbon-policy summit in Copenhagen.

Said one scientist working at the institute: “It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this has set the climate-change debate back 20 years.”

Al Gore’s docu-drama, An Inconvenent Truth, was based on this faulty, fudged and corrupt data. The PR team for that film won the PRSA award for that year. Al Gore’s team won the Nobel Prize. Now some academy members want to take back the Academy Award given to Al Gore, the former vice-president and a carbon-cap advocate, for his climate documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Al Gore has cancelled the US$1200 dinner at Copenhagen.

Whats the climate change

These seem like offensive actions from the EU and the US – to undermine their competitors and to bolster Euro-US businesses. It makes me doubt the Satyam saga. To carry the conspiracy theory thread forward, was there a Merrill Lynch-Ramlinga Raju ‘deal’?

Modern day protectionism, huh?

This also furthers the importance of having non-Western bodies, which are sponsored by the Third World, which will regulate and govern international laws. To depend on the West, is to further dig the hole that the Third World finds itself in.

And in case you forget, remember that for some time Indian cows were blamed for global warming!

The African model

Dot have children – but have Christian children, if you must!

Africans!! Why have children, at all? If you must, at least have Christian children!

August company

A worried Bill Gates cant sleep at night. He is spending billions (ok … ok … not billions for now … just hundreds of millions) to solve this problem. An equally worried Ted Turner has already given away billions – and waiting in line to give away more. Ted Turner ‘thinks’ that people will eat people - instead of food, which will become scarce. David Packard (of Hewlett Packard) was an equally worried man. His foundation has given hundreds of millions each year.

What’s worrying them? Linux? Mobile phones OS. Google? Naah Why worry? Is anyone else making money?. They are a long way off. Let them get closer.

So, what is it? It is the thought of all the Asians, Browns and the Blacks in the world having sex. And the children they will have. The Packard family, Bill Gates, Ted Turner are not alone in having the population crisis and the people bomb on their mind. All these paranoid thinking based on bad economic theory!!

cartoon is a study in arrogance and contempt.

Arrogance in that the West knows best – and the poor Africans must not have non-Christian children. Contempt – for freedom of (personal) choices for Africans. Economic aid is tied to population control measures – or abusive relationships with aid receipients. Or they can go to the nearest Church for aid.

All this while the Italians are scared that kebabs and curries will destroy Italian cuisine.

To Israel, From India with love

Otto Preminger filmed the Leon Uris novel

The greatest level of sympathy towards Israel can be found in India, according to international study on behalf of the Foreign Ministry, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.

According to the study, which was unprecedented in scope and was undertaken by an international market research company, 58% of Indian respondents showed sympathy to the Jewish State. The United States came in second, with 56% of American respondents sympathizing with Israel.

A total of 5,215 people took part in the study. Other countries that showed significant sympathy to Israel included Russia (52%) Mexico (52%) and China (50%). At the bottom of the list, the study ranked Britain (34%) France (27%) and Spain (23%) as the least sympathetic countries towards Israel. (via From India with love – Israel News, Ynetnews).

Leopards don’t change

This study was mighty interesting. On three counts.

Western Europe continues with its sterling record of intolerance, xenophobia, the push for ‘assimilation and integration’. In Western Europe (Britain, France, Spain, et al), prejudice against Jews is marked. Whether it was Shakespeare in the Merchant of Venice or Hitler in Europe, Antisemitism is alive, well and kicking in Europe.

Of course, the proxy for Antisemitism in today’s Europe is Israel.

Classic propaganda

Desert Bloc remains the prime exponent of propaganda – maya. Illusion. Something that tricks people.

For this maya, Israel has to thank people like Leon Uris writer of Exodus, (hired by Edward Gottlieb for ‘improving Israel’s image), The Raid at Entebbe, ( the rescue of Israeli hostages from Idi Amin’s Uganda) or the hunt for Eichmann movies.

The propaganda overdrive on the Holocaust won the State of Israel many sympathizers. The propaganda on how the kibbutzim made the desert bloom, covered  the open wounds of the Palestinians expulsions.

Propaganda practitioners and PR gurus like Edward Gottlieb and Howard Dietz embraced the Zionist cause and promoted the idea of the State of Israel. Edward Gottlieb, a PR pioneer, author of a PR primer book, worked on the cause of Israel. Edward Gottlieb’s masterstroke was to send Leon Uris to Israel to ‘research’ the story of the Exodus. Howard Dietz, the publicist of Sam Goldwyn, (reputedly behind many of Goldwyn’s malapropisms)was another.

from Fifty years of Israel By Donald Neff, page 19

The fall guys

The third part of the story is the story of the ‘fall guys’. The classic ‘fall guys’ for this propaganda operation were the distant bystanders. The ’sympathy’ shown to Israel, comes from typically countries with a small or negligible Jewish populations – like China, Mexico – and India. People who saw these events from far – very far. The Indians, Chinese, Mexicans, et al.

Indians know of the Israeli story through the movies, fiction and ‘war’ stories. In school, the size of the Exodus, made me shirk from the starting the book. But the many ‘rave’ reviews from classmates steeled me to pick up the book – and 1 week later. I was a ‘convert’ to the Jewish cause.

A few years later, it was a different story. My neighbours, some Jordanian-Palestinian students dropped in to see me, in Poona, one night. Over some music and soda, they introduced me to the ‘other’ side of the problem. (I wonder where these Iranian and Palestinian students have disappeared?)

Indians (suckers for propaganda) have been taken in by the maya of Israel.

Nicolas Sarkozy ‘helped’ Roman Polanski get bail

The Glitter Dome by Joseph Wambaugh

The director’s sister-in-law Mathilde Seigner hinted that the leader has been instrumental to the recent development.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it is thanks to the President that Roman has been freed, but he has been super. The President has been very effective,” Times Online quoted her as telling Le Parisien newspaper.

Sarkozy had earlier expressed his views on the director being held on a US warrant for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. (via Nicolas Sarkozy ‘helped’ Roman Polanski get bail).

Joseph Wambaugh on Hollywood

For years now, I have been avid reader of Joseph Wambaugh – a policeman turned writer. His comedies, wrapped in (mostly) LA or (sometimes) New York milieu, are in the style of Raymond Chandler under halogen lamp. The darker areas get better light. The chrome glints more. Glamour quotient gets mixed with large doses of warmth and understanding. Unlike Chandler, Wambaugh’s is never judgmental – which make his characters very real.

I read Wambaugh’s Glitter Dome, and twenty years later I remember one of his interesting observations on Hollywood,

Parking, not pussy, is at a premium around these parts, they said.

Wambaugh captures the politics of Hollywood in The Glitter Dome By Joseph Wambaugh, page 46

Sex, Cinema and Fashion

Hollywood, Bollywood (a patronizing name by which Indian film industry calls itself), haute couture businesses have a rather blase attitude about sex. Hence, to hold Hollywood to ordinary behavioural norms, has a puritanical air about it. In the Polanski affaire, the alleged victim, Samantha Geimer, wants the case closed.

But anyway, coming to why this story gets me curious, is why did Anand Jon, a haute couture designer get such a harsh sentence. Unwilling /semi-willing /actively willing sex in Hollywood /Bollywood /haute couture businesses is what (I have been given to believe is) normal. I mean these days, stars /starlets ‘leak’ sex tapes on the internet.

And no one has ever been seriously prosecuted, convicted and sentenced – as Anand Jon has been!

Where is the balance

I am assuming that Anand Jon is guilty. Is it the first time that models have tried advancing their career by sleeping with designers? Has it not happened before? I wonder what is it that Anand Jon did, which brought down the entire American judicial establishment onto him like ton of bricks. The case of the Sri Lankan Rajarathnam has similar smell to it.

The US prosecuting authority, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, alleges that the Galleon Fund made some US$20 million out of this insider trading. I am sure that Galleon Fund (more than US$5 billion in assets under management) spent more than US$20 million on tea, coffee, espresso, soda, Evian and paper napkins. Rajrathnam’s own net worth was estimated by “Forbes” to be US$ 1.3 billion.

Is there any sense, any balance to these cases. Is Preet Bharara, indulging in reverse ‘affirmative action’ by prosecuting Rajarathnam? Is Preet Bharara trying to prove that he is colour blind?

“If you’re a wealthy trader, you aren’t special,” Bloomberg quoted Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara as saying at a press conference. “Knock on our door before we come knocking on yours.”

If you ask me, he should investigate Hank Paulson, the Former Treasury Secretary, under whose watch many bankruptcies happened conveniently in favour of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.