Immigration Into Britain: Bubble Before The Collapse

This economic ‘trick’ of higher wages, profits, turnover, prices – and a higher GDP creates a brilliant optical illusion. It is called progress.

Was this cartoon a Government effort at building popular opinion on immigration in 1921 – before the passage of the Immigration Act (1924)? | A 1921 cartoon from the US Library of the Congress. Creative and publication credits not available at source.

odern OECD economies have an interesting economic model.

Overpaid waiters charge more for a coffee. Over-paid waiters fork out fancy amounts for a car-wash. Over-paid taxi-drivers pay huge amounts for a haircut.

And so on.

Socialist, Welfare States work best with slavery – or with immi-grunts model, in the last few centuries | Cartoon by Brian Fairrington; earliest date as per internet search 2010.

How Does Over Pricing Work

Compared to, say Indians, Norwegians are paid some 10-20 times more.These overpriced coffees and haircuts by overpaid waiters and barbers, increases GDP – and gives an optical illusion of wealth.

This economic ‘trick’ creates a brilliant optical illusion. Of higher wages, profits, turnover, prices – and GDP. Now replace Norway, with any OECD economy.

Same story and the plot does not change.

A waiter in Mumbai earns between 125-200 dollars. A Norwegian waiter earns closer to US$1500-2000 per month. Both do the same job and the net economic output should not change.

But it does. What Norway does is overstate Norwegian economic output.

By over-paying everybody.

Attracting imi-grunts on one hand – and making it impossible for some others. | Cartoonist: John Deering; Pub. Date: 2013-01-30; source & courtesy – cartoonistgroup.com

Nuggets of Information

Look behind this show …

A recent study concluded that nearly half of American population dies penniless. Spain has a million prostitutes from approximately 10 million women in the 15-50 age group.

What about the apparent wealth? The cars, trains and aeroplanes …

Using over-generous debt, workers can ‘buy’ the latest cars, toasters and lawn-mowers – which creates an illusion of economic well-being. The vast numbers of workers are tied down by increasing amounts of debt – and taxes.

Dos this ‘wealth’ give them freedom? Liberty?

Not if look at the number of people who are in prison. Who are bankrupt and indebted. Who die penniless. But as long as long as you do what the powerful elite wants you to do, you can have the latest cars, toasters and lawn-mowers.

But …

This illusion can be kept standing, only as entry into the labour pool remains low and limited.  This ties in neatly with low-marital rates – and low birth rates. in OECD countries. Low birth rates mean labour shortages – and need for immi-grunts.

High wages attract immi-grunts…

While making promises on one side – and erecting new obstacles. | Published: Wednesday, February 20th, 2013; Immigration Reform cartoon by by Clay Bennett; source & courtesy – timesfreepress.com

And …

To a country like Britain also …

This line of immi-grunts allows British media to be gross and ill-mannered. It gives them the right to talk of ‘booting’ and ‘kicking’ people. Like in this report.

A Home Office report says there may be as many as 863,000 illegal migrants – 70 per cent of whom are living in London.

The study also reveals that 10,000 foreigners who had no legal right to live in Britain have been granted permission to stay under the so-called 14-year rule.

It means they managed to stay in the country for so long without being booted out that the Government has now given up the fight.

The illegal immigrants are a mixture of those who sneaked into Britain in the back of lorries and those who arrived on visas but never went home.

The ‘robust estimate’ of how many illegals are living in the UK comes from the London School of Economics, and is included in a study titled Practical Measures for Reducing Irregular Migration. The LSE found there were between 417,000 and 863,000 illegals living in the UK, with a central figure of 613,000. Ministers accept the figures.

The Home Office says the top five countries from which the illegals have arrived are believed to be India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh.

This is based on the nationalities of those people the authorities have detected.

Earlier this month, the official Census showed that 7.5million people who were born abroad were living here in 2011, of whom more than half have arrived since 2001.

The Home Office study sets out for the first time how many beneficiaries there have been of the 14-year rule.

This states that, once a migrant has lived in the UK for this long, he or she will have established a right to a family life and should not normally be kicked out.

via Enough illegal migrants to fill three cities the size of Newcastle: 863,000 of them in UK, study finds | Mail Online.

What would be just great is if Brazil decided to throw out British businesses – who are seeking to exploit Brazilian opportunities.

Theresa May, the British home secretary, faces a row with cabinet colleagues over proposals to impose visa restrictions on Brazilians, underlining the tensions between the search for economic growth and the need to recognise public concern over immigration.

Ms May’s plans to tighten rules for Brazilians is a serious test for the coalition, as it tries to balance conflicting priorities. Ministers fear the restrictions will cast a shadow over British relations with Brazil, a fast-growing economy that David Cameron has targeted as a key trading partner for Britain. The Home Office is already fighting criticism from tour groups and UK luxury retailers that the complex process of obtaining a tourist visa in China is preventing high-spending Chinese nationals from entering the UK.

Mr Cameron and Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister, have both visited Brazil since the election and have tried to bolster trade links. But Ms May believes the country is also the source of much illegal immigration to Britain.

The home secretary will propose ending the current agreement, which allows Brazilians to visit Britain for up to six months without a visa. Her suggestion comes as countries such as the US and Australia are taking the opposite course by easing visa restrictions with Brazil, to encourage tourism and business ties.

William Hague, foreign secretary and George Osborne, chancellor, are among those who have clashed with Ms May over her operation of Britain’s visa regime.“The Home Office is in favour of new visa restrictions but everyone else in the cabinet is basically against,” said a person involved in the discussions.

Lord Mandelson, the former Labour minister and EU trade commissioner, said the idea was “certifiably mad”.

Only last summer, Mr Cameron visited São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro accompanied by a 58-strong business delegation, to develop better trade ties with the $2.3tn-a-year economy. According to UK Trade & Industry, 14 government ministers have visited Brazil over the past 18 months.

Home Office figures for 2011 show that Brazil is fifth in the top 10 of illegal immigrant nationalities in the UK, with more than 2,000 forcibly removed that year.

via UK set to tighten Brazilian visa rules – FT.com.

The racism behind the British immi-grunt debate is papered over. Worth looking at some British Government statistics.

Long-stay immigrants into the UK from Poland, India and China are outnumbered by Germans, South Africans, North Americans, people from the white Commonwealth and returning Britons.

Official figures show that of the top ten migrant countries in 2008, 137,000 were from the first group and 152,000 from the second group.

There is no debate in the media, among politicians and among the public concerning North Americans and the white Commonwealth.

The fact that they ‘take jobs’ in the UK does not feature as an issue among those who are most concerned about immigration.

The anti-immigration campaign group Migration Watch and UKIP create fear about immigration numbers and fail to point out that immigrants include people from Australia, US, New Zealand and others.

The figures are contained in the Office for National Statistics latest annual report on migration, Migration Statistics 2008, http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm71/7197/7197.pdf

Of those intending to stay for a long period, the report states:

British, 77,000 (i.e. UK citizens returning to the UK)

Poland, 54,000

India, 48,000

China, 18,000

Germany, 18,000

Pakistan, 17,000

USA, 15,000

South Africa, Australia, Italy, 14,000

The report suggests that many of the Indian, Chinese and perhaps Pakistani long-stay migrants are students. In terms of all visitors and migrants into the UK, the report states: ‘Citizens of the United States of America (USA) comprised 32 per cent of total non-EEA admissions, the nationality with by far the most admissions, representing an increase of 6 per cent to 4.1 million in 2006. The next three nationalities with the highest numbers of admissions were Australia (up 8 per cent to 1.1 million), Canada (up 11 per cent to 1.0 million) and India (up 23 per cent to 0.8 million).’

It is likely that most illegal immigrants are from North America and white Commonwealth countries.

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, few people sneak into the country undetected so most illegal immigrants are overstayers, or people who stay in the UK beyond their entitlement.

There are few figures concerning overstayers by country. When Australia checked their overstayers in 2005, they found the top countries were the US and Britain.

via UK Indymedia – Most illegal migrants likely to be white.

Related Articles

• Ed Miliband: ‘Labour got immigration wrong’ (standard.co.uk)
• Ed Miliband: ‘We were wrong, we do need to cut low-skilled immigration’ (standard.co.uk)
• Agency’s £30m for failing to eject illegal immigrants from Britain (express.co.uk)
• UK visas for Brazilians: are we bothered? (blogs.ft.com)
• Miliband: Low-Skill Immigration Is Too High (news.sky.com)
• Theresa’s leadership challenge? It sounds like Downing Street May have a fight on its hands… (independent.co.uk)
• Diane Abbott on warpath over Ed’s immigration mea culpa (theweek.co.uk)
• Labour immigration policy will focus on short-term student visitor visas (guardian.co.uk)
• Labour to call for end to student visitor visa loopholes (standard.co.uk)
• Bulgaria Hits out at Being Used as a Scapegoat by Britain (novinite.com)

---

UK loses top AAA credit rating

British Economy: What solution? Import another 100-Lakshmi Mittals+Ratan Tatas..

British companies are making third-grade acquisitions abroad – which is not helping British industry to stay the course | Cartoon on Jan 15 2013 by Randy Bish via Cagle.com

he combined debt of the UK economy – State, Corporate and household debt is at a staggering 500% of the GDP. This is the debt that the UK economy has to support. Assuming weighted average interest rates on this debt is at a low 5%, it means that the UK economy is spending 25% of its production on interest payments.

Since the savings rate of the UK is low-to-negative, it means that the UK economy will borrow more – just to make interest payments.

What could be a solution?

Massive inflation to get this debt down quickly.

Or slowly ratchet down the debt, and write-offs, low-inflation,  and desperate prayers that the economy:

1. Hits another North Sea oil
2. Builds another 1000 ARM-chips kinds of company
3. Imports another 100-Lakshmi Mittals+Ratan Tatas.

How likely is any of this?

The UK has lost its top AAA credit rating for the first time since 1978 on expectations that growth will “remain sluggish over the next few years”.

The ratings agency Moody’s became the first to cut the UK from its highest rating, to Aa1.

Moody’s said that the government’s debt reduction programme faced significant “challenges” ahead.

The UK has had a top AAA credit rating since 1978 from both Moody’s and S&P.It added that the UK’s huge debts were unlikely to reverse until 2016.The UK’s net sovereign debt was the equivalent of 68% of the country’s annual economic output, or GDP, at the end of last year.All three major credit agencies last year put the UK on “negative outlook”, meaning they could downgrade its rating if performance deteriorates.Germany and Canada are the only major economies to currently have a top AAA rating – as much of the world has been shaken by the financial crisis of 2008 and its subsequent debt crises.

via BBC News – UK loses top AAA credit rating for first time since 1978.

Looking At Mrinalini-Mallika Sarabhai: Progressive, Feminista, Activista

Using State patronage, Mrinalini Sarabhai emasculated Bharatanatyam, making it sterile and esoteric.

Annie Besant in Cardiff (1924) with two Theosophical Society officials from India greeted by Cardiff Theosophists at Cardiff Central Station. Back Row: (Left to Right) Miss Chambers (looking to right) Miss Wallis (almost hidden), Mrs Freeman, Mr Peter Freeman (General Secretary, Wales), Mrs Graham Pole. Front Row: (Left to Right) Mr Graham Pole, Babu, Dr Annie Besant, The Right Honourable Sastie. Lad presenting flowers is David Freeman, son of Peter Freeman.

ver the last ninety years, women from three generations of Sarabhai family have been a significant fixture of the Indian media-elitist press.

Look Down In Anger

Led by Mrinalini – widow of Vikram Sarabhai, the leader-pioneer of India’s successful space program. Looking down at her husband’s traditional Indian family, but hanging onto her revered husband’s coat-tails, Mrinalini Sarabhai inveigled herself into India’s ruling elites.

Using State patronage, Mrinalini Sarabhai emasculated Bharatanatyam, making it sterile and esoteric. So much so, thanks to Mrinalini and her acolytes, Bharatanatyam to an ordinary Indian has become a laughing matter.

In parallel was Rukmini Devi Arundale, married to British Theosophist Dr. George Arundale. Mainly responsible for ‘sanitizing Bharatanatyam by ‘removing the extraneous sringaar and erotic elements from the dance’ to obtain Western respectability. A dance form that was enriched by more than 2000-years of Indian culture, has now become dead in just 75 years.

Following in Mrinalini’s footsteps, is daughter Mallika Sarabhai and grand-daughter, Anahita. Promoting the toxic sludge leftover by the British Raj.

The Arundale-Sarabhai women are a small part of a larger picture. Rukmini Devi Arundale sought to ‘improve’ Bharatanatyam ‘inspired’ by ballerina, Anna Pavlova  – while Mrinalini Sarabhai went to USA, American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Col. Henry Steel Olcott,

Cogs In A Wheel

Rukmini Devi Arundale was influenced by her own family’s links with the Theosophical Society with its tangled roots and thinking.

From Germany.

The German nation is less than 150 years old. Born out of Napoleonic wars, the idea of Germany depended on Indian historiography for a national narrative. Indic concepts like Aryan values, were distorted by Anglo-German academics into an Aryan tribal identity. Taking this Aryan philosophy further, German thinkers progressed to create a new theology for their new nation – theosophy. From Germany, these ideas travelled to Britain, where Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky formed The Theosophical Society.

Theosophists were used by the British Raj to make a flanking attack on Indian society. The British Raj made prominent land grants to The Theosophical Society. Its HQ at Chennai is a landmark even today. Superficially ‘sympathetic’ to an Indian viewpoint, Theosophists subverted Indian history, building a base for the acceptance of trojan ideas like Aryan Invasion Theory. Theosophists promoted the image of ‘reasonable’ Britishers with whom Indians could do business with.

British Theosophists like Annie Besant and Allan Octavian Hume, of the Liberal Progressive kind, promoted the Congress.

Indians soon took over the Congress and made it into a raucous, Independence-demanding, anti-colonial organization. In the Congress, those with Theosophist-linkages were immediately welcome – and given important positions (like George and Rukmini Arundale).

Excerpts from a recent interview with three-generations of the Sarabhai women. Ideas that are toxic-sludge dressed attractively.

Mrinalini: My mother Ammu was a fashionable young lady. She drove her own horse and carriage, and was friendly with many of the women who were at the forefront of society. After my father’s death, my mother made our home, Gilchrist Gardens, a centre for both social and political circles.

Mallika: The legacy I got from my mother was to not have to think in terms of gender, to celebrate being a woman, a feminine feminist.

A flavor of Pre-Independence India

Mrinalini: With the growing unrest in the country and Gandhiji’s call to women to participate in the freedom struggle, she joined the Congress in the late 1930s, became President of the All India Women’s Conference,Sarojini Naidu visited us often, with her sisters Mrinalini and Subhashini and brother Harindranath. My mother was drawn into the women’s movement and became active in the struggle for their rights through them. Subhashini was an ardent communist, an enemy of the British, and once took refuge with us.

On marriage to Vikram Sarabhai

Mrinalini: For me, getting married and moving to Gujarat was a big challenge. Especially since I married into such an overpowering family like the Sarabhais, I felt very alone. Vikram was immediately immersed in the business and his laboratory, and did not have much time to be with me. The whole family was extremely self-contained, and seemingly so confident, which made me feel inadequate. To live up to the high ideals of the family, which were never put into words but very obvious from my mother-in-law’s behaviour, gave me a sense of isolation that has lasted all my life. They conversed in Gujarati, which I did not understand. People do not realise the trauma a girl goes through when she marries into an alien background. Perhaps that is why marriages in India are still arranged by the families whenever possible. Even little things like food suddenly take on enormous proportions. It was as though I did not exist, except when we met at lunch or dinner. It was so overwhelming. Small happenings, but they leave deep scars.

On economic ‘independence’ – and its effects

Mrinalini: I think economic independence is very much required to live the life of your choice. My father’s will was unusual. He had left my mother her own income, and equal shares to each of the four children. So all of us were financially secure.

Mallika: It’s been very, very hard. When I took over Darpana — the institution for performing arts which my mother had set up — in 1977, about 30 percent of its funding came from the government. I decided that if I wanted to chart an independent course, I had to reduce our dependence on the government. By the 1990s, we used to get a fair amount of corporate funding for either individual events or for festivals. But after 2002, and my stand against Narendra Modi and my public interest litigation against him in the Supreme Court, the corporate sponsorships gradually stopped. For instance, we have an amphitheatre space that Amul used to sponsor events at. Post 2002, that stopped. A lot of these CEOs are my classmates from IIM Ahmedabad, and they would say to me: “Mallika, we can sponsor you anywhere outside Gujarat. But in Gujarat we are told in no uncertain terms that we will not be allowed to operate here if we associate with Darpana.”

Mallika: In 2006-07, we were going to do a performance at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute in Gandhinagar. They were very keen to have us. The audience was in place and the show was set to begin at 6:30 PM. At 5:45 PM, the Director, looking very shame-faced, walked up to us and said, “Sorry, I have to cancel the show because I’ve just had a call from Anil Ambani’s office. The Chief Minister’s office called Anil Ambani’s office to say, ‘You will not have Mallika Sarabhai perform.’”

Activista Mallika

Mallika: But I continue the work because I believe it’s important. We’ve just done an outreach project in Jharkhand, in 400 villages. The performance was developed with the local people. It’s about the lives of two families — one has six children with one girl. At one stage, the woman is pregnant for the seventh time and she is brought in through the audience, screaming with pain. You had to see the faces of the women in the audience. Because this is all a nightmare they have lived. The woman goes into a government clinic behind the screen and there is silence. The doctor comes out and says, “We’ve lost her.” One year later, the university that sponsored this programme did a study and found that 85 percent of the people who saw that performance had adopted to family planning methods. It’s the highest they have seen anywhere in the world.

Mrinalini: It was always my desire to address the problems of life through dance. It was only when I came to Ahmedabad that I became aware of the problems of women. I was studying Gujarati and had begun to read the newspapers every morning. There were constant reports of young women who died, who were burnt alive. Slowly the horror of these incidents obsessed me and Memory, the dance drama about these hapless brides, was created. I set the plot in Saurashtra. It was the first time that Bharatanatyam spoke of a social problem. From then on, there was no looking back.

On their ‘brand’ of ‘feminism’

Mallika: I’m going to go back to Draupadi. Because in the Mahabharata, she said to Yudhishtra after he lost the game of dice, “I love you but you are a weak man and what you have done is wrong.” For us, when we say “I love you”, it means taking the whole package. We do not separate the fact that you can love somebody and still say, “you are wrong.” Draupadi also says: “I have a brain and a womb, and I’m proud of both.”

Mallika: I think where India can score is that our feminism does not have to equate with masculinity. I’m empowered because I’m empowered. Not because I’m powerful in relation to somebody else. It’s not a race with somebody else. That is essentially feminine. We were never a monoculture. The same woman could be a trident-wielding Kali and also become Parvati and who could then flow as Ganga. We are losing this.

via ‘Our feminism is not in opposition with masculinity. It’s not a race’.

Errata: Earlier version of this post wrongly linked the families of Rukmini Devi Arundale and Mrinalini Sarabhai families. Reader’s comments are pointers to the error. Suitable corrections made.

Related Articles

• ‘Countries should take cue from Indian protests’ (vancouverdesi.com)
• Of postures and rhythm (thehindu.com)
• ‘Ahmedabad Rising’ on Valentine’s Day (thehindu.com)
• Her-stories (thehindu.com)
• Killers of creativity #Censorsip #FOE (kractivist.wordpress.com)

---

Indian Elites: Stuck With Nostalgia; In Love With The Raj

While learning English is important, must we develop bhakti and loyalty to English?

he Anglo-Saxon Bloc (Britain, America, Australia, Canada) have been the dominant power for the last 200 years. Behind the rise of the Anglo-Saxon Bloc was India’s traditional gunpowder production system – the world’s largest gunpowder manufactory system. The Anglo-Saxon position has been challenged by France, Germany, Soviet Union – and now China proposes to do the same.

In such a situation, learning English is important. This is something that India has done – but in some parts of the Indian Mind, there is bhakti, even loyalty to the English – and their empty ‘heritage’.

Wonder why Indi’a English-using elites so love the Raj? | Old cartoon by Mario Miranda on the Bombay to Mumbai makeover in Mumbai Mirror published on December 15, 2012 again.

Back from Mumbai’s (which I always prefer to call Bombay) literary carnival, I have trouble with my hearing. There’s Axl Rose’s growling vocals in my left ear, Anita Desai’s gentle, precise whispers in my right.

In my admittedly warped book lover’s memory, Bombay had always been as much a city of books as of film. Friends who were writers themselves – Jerry Pinto, Naresh Fernandes – took me around the city’s bookstores on my first few visits to Bombay.

Bombay used to have a formidable set of bookstores — Strand, ruled by the intelligent taste of the late T N Shanbhag; Lotus Book House (above that petrol pump in Bandra), which had an unmatched selection of arthouse and aantel books; and Smoker’s Corner, a cross between bookstore and lending library.

The last few years were dark ones for Bombay’s bookstores. The 525 bookstores listed by TISS sounds like a healthy number, but it’s misleading — many of those “bookstores” are stationery shops, or textbook specialists who carry either no fiction or limited quantities of fiction. The chain bookstores are depressing places — you expect them to be commercial, but they are dully, boringly commercial, stocking only the most conservative of bestsellers. Lotus closed down in the mid-2000s; Strand and Smoker’s Corner remain, but Strand doesn’t have the range it once did.

The author Ann Patchett started her own large independent bookstore, Parnassus Books, in Nashville some years ago. She built it to recreate the stores that she missed, where “the people who worked there remembered who you were and what you read, even if you were 10”. In an essay for The Atlantic, she defined the kind of bookstore she wanted: “…One that valued books and readers above muffins and adorable plastic watering cans, a store that recognised it could not possibly stock every single book that every single person might be looking for, and so stocked the books the staff had read and liked and could recommend.”

Bombay has a bookstore like that — Kitabkhana in Fort runs according to the Patchett Principle. Like her store, it also functions as a community centre, a place where people will bring their children for book readings, and where authors can do their readings in the pleasant, cosy company of books. If you could combine the two and bring Kitabkhana to Mehboob Studios, where the literary carnival is held, you’d have the best of both worlds.

via Nilanjana S Roy: Cappuccino festivals.

Related Articles

• Colonial cooking (thehindu.com)
• Anglo-Saxon hall found in Kent is ‘tip of the iceberg’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• India Ink: Balasaheb K. Thackeray, a Look Back (india.blogs.nytimes.com)

Mumbai should do something about its filth: London mayor, Boris Johnson

Should we keep increasing the garbage, waste and filth we generate – and pay more to pollute more.

Is this what we want Mumbai to become? A garbage producing leader! | Garbage city cartoon by Norbert Niessen on May 08, 2011 ; source & courtesy – toonpool.com

umbai should do something about its garbage and filth.

“While it may look inappropriate for me to be saying this, Mumbai should do something about the filth and squalour around,” said mayor of London Boris Johnson. He was speaking to DNA on the sidelines of an interaction organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

via Mumbai should do something about its filth: London mayor – India – DNA.

I actually agree with Boris Johnson. Mumbai should do something about its garbage and filth.

Reduce it.

We cannot keep increasing the garbage, waste and filth we generate – and pay more to pollute more. Should Mumbai and other Indian cities work to create the another island of plastic waste that now floats in the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a few times the size of India, and some studies claim 20 metres deep.

Sometime back, carcass parts were found in Cairo garbage bins – a public-safety hazard | Cartoon source & courtesy – ahram.org

Or a situation like Cairo, when animal carcass parts were found in garbage bins – a public-safety issue.

The Indian State increasingly a captive of Big Business, cannot think small. It is very possible to have methane-from-organic-waste; waste water recycling in Mumbai, with its super-dense population. Unlike Delhi, which is widely spread.

We cannot have the ‘modern’ model of urban cleanliness. And till we find a better model, we better tolerate and live with the garbage and filth we generate.

Related Articles

• London mayor wants more Bollywood films shot in capital (dawn.com)
• Boris knocks British business for six in India (itv.com)
• London mayor to lead business team to India (news.in.msn.com)
• Boris Johnson: UK could learn from India over airports (standard.co.uk)

---

Will Britain Exit From EU Before Greece?

It is unclear what benefit EU derives from British membership. But British expulsion from EU will surely simplify EU politics & debates

Britain is the cussed slow-driver on the Euro-bahn who will not let the Euro-truck overtake | Cartoon By Tom Janssen, The Netherlands – 12/12/2011 12:00:00 AM; source & courtesy – caglecartoons.com

Britain – EU’s Fifth Column?

At each stage of the European Union, Britain has been a reluctant member. In the last few decades, with its manufacturing in deep decline, Britain has been working on propping up its multinationals.

Vodafone is one such example. It has become the world’s largest telecom operator using tax-loopholes (provided by the British Govt.) and massive debt underwritten by British banks. Vodafone has nothing – no manufacturing, no technology, no R & D with which it has become the largest operator.

Is the EU going to be such a push-over? US would definitely hope so. | Euro-loser cartoon By Taylor Jones, Hoover Digest – 4/24/2012 12:00:00 AM; source & courtesy – caglecartoons.com

The Anglo-Saxon Bloc

Britain derives much greater power and influence by coordinating policy and finance within the four Anglo-Saxon countries – Australia, Canada, US and Britain itself.

The Anglo-Saxon Bloc is

1. Top producer of
   • Oil
   • Gold
   • Defence
2. Controls world production in
   • Media
   • Microchips
   • Academia
3. Regulates
   • Global finance and banking
   • Money production

It is unclear what benefit EU derives from British membership – but British expulsion from EU could surely simplify EU politics and debates.

Compared the colossal debt that Britain is carrying, the EU budget is smaller issue. | Cartoon on EU Budget cut row by Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UAE – 11/4/2012 12:00:00 AM; source & courtesy – caglecartoons.com

Bite the Bullet

EU officials have begun work on a plan to create a long-term budget without the UK in a move that reflects mounting frustration that Britain’s demand for a spending freeze cannot be reconciled with the rest of the bloc.

Both EU officials and national diplomats have been studying the legal and technical feasibility of devising such a budget, according to people familiar with the discussions, ahead of a two-day summit beginning on Thursday in Brussels, where the EU’s 27 heads of government will try to reach an agreement on the long-term budget.

The prospects for that meeting have darkened in recent days as several diplomats have come to the conclusion that it will be impossible to accommodate the UK’s demands, and are now predicting failure.

“Because of the British stance people are looking, both in national capitals and in Brussels, for a solution at 26. It’s being looked at from a financial and legal point of view,” one official said.

The plan may be a negotiating ploy to try to put more pressure on David Cameron, the UK prime minister, to compromise. The budget talks will resume on Monday evening when Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, hosts a dinner of European ministers.

Officials acknowledge that such an approach – if pursued – would be rife with complexities. It could also have grave consequences for the UK’s already fragile relationship with the rest of the EU. “There are people talking about this,” a diplomat said, but added: “There are huge questions.”

Downing Street on Sunday said it was “sure” the idea was being discussed in Brussels but rejected the idea of a budget deal without Britain as “not acceptable”.

“Ultimately we have to agree to spending this money,” a spokesman for Mr Cameron said. “We make a significant net contribution and parliament has a strong view on this.”

Mr Cameron has staked out the most aggressive position in the debate over the long-term budget, which will cover roughly €1,000bn in spending from 2014 to 2020, calling for a real-terms freeze from 2011 levels.

Sweden has taken a similar position to the UK and other countries could yet thwart a deal. France’s President François Hollande said on Saturday that “above all, spending on the common agricultural policy must be preserved”.

via EU makes budget plans without UK – FT.com.

Related Articles

• Italy’s Monti rebuffs Britain’s EU budget drive – Reuters UK (uk.reuters.com)
• EU bids to keep Britain engaged in budget debate – Reuters UK (uk.reuters.com)
• Merkel warns Britain against European Union exit (telegraph.co.uk)
• Now even the EU wants us to leave (express.co.uk)
• 10 key questions for Britain and Europe at the Brussels summit (guardian.co.uk)
• 56% of Britons would vote to quit EU in referendum, poll finds (guardian.co.uk)
• If Britain leaves Europe, we will become a renegade without economic power | Observer editorial (guardian.co.uk)

---

The Maya Machine Never Sleeps

Along with cricket, a lot of global politics is also being played. Neo-colonialism or India’s anti-apartheid movement, it is all out there in the cricket-field.

Bishen Singh Bedi – one of the four spinners, a combination never equalled.

Lambs to Slaughter

India Y2K generation, that started shaving after 2000 AD, many a time, are like innocent lambs to slaughter.

At the altar of propaganda – the modern day version of maya.

Make no mistake. Many from the older Bombay High generation (anyone who started shaving after 1975), are equally susceptible to this maya.

Will England Win Anything? Ever? Again?

Now that the British cricket-team is visiting India, there are a number of articles on British experiences of India. Do I need to confirm that all the encounters narrated are negative? How many times do British newspapers invite Indian writers to describe the problems of Indian players visiting Britain.

For instance, the racism at Heathrow – and at hotels, clubs, grounds. Remember how in the 70s, Indian brides joining their husbands in UK, were subjected to ‘virginity’ tests, on arrival at Heathrow.

Such Lack Of Grace

Or cut to India’s tour to England of 1974.

After losing two consecutive series (India won 1970-71, 3 test-series 1-0 in Britain; India won 5-test series of 1972-73 in India, 2-1), Britain started their 1974 campaign by ‘fixing the rules.

To avoid a third series loss in the 1974 series against India, ECB imposed an agreement to restrict leg-side fielders to a maximum of five. This meant the Indian team went into the 1974 series without being allowed to use their fielders in close catching positions. BCCI of the 1970s, agreed to these unfavorable terms.

Without access to TV rights, BCCI of the 1970s was dependent on earnings of the Indian cricket team, from tours to rich countries like Britain, Australia, New Zealand. After the rules were ‘fixed’, India had little chance in the 1974 series.

That little chance was India’s famed hunters – spinners. The hunter-pack of spinners worked in tandem with close-in fielders.

India’s superb close-in catching cordon which gave a cutting edge to its spin attack. Led by Eknath Solkar, this group of catching specialists including Ajit Wadekar, Abid Ali, wicket keeper Farokh Engineer and Venkat himself, surrounded the batsmen like a steel trap. One false move and the trap snapped shut, claiming another victim.

via Indian Cricket Fever – Hall of Fame – The Spin Quartet.

Pataudi, who had innovated the ‘hunter-pack’ strategy of spinners in tandem with close-in fielders, opted out of the 1974 tour after coming to know of this stipulation. Wadekar retired after the disastrous 1974 tour.

Consider this fact: the Indian Spin Quartet of Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, and Srinivas Venkataraghvan captured 853 Test wickets in the decade and a bit that they played together, from the mid 1960s to the late 1970s. This compares with the 835 Test wickets that the West Indian Pace Quartet of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft took in the decade and a bit that they played together from the early 1970s to the mid 1980s. In other words the Spin Quartet was every bit as lethal, in terms of danger to batsmen’s wickets, if not to limbs, as the Pace Quartet.

via Indian Cricket Fever – Hall of Fame – The Spin Quartet.

Of course, English pitches of 1974 and later were ‘sporting’. They offered assistance to English fast bowlers. Indian pitches that assist Indian spinners are crumbling ‘dust bowls’, which are dead and deteriorating.

You must also rewmember, if English and Australians struggle in India, it is because Indians create conditions favorable to Indian teams. If Indians struggle in Australia and England, Indians are a weak side – and only tigers at home.

Coming back to the 1974 tour – After all the bizarre rules, came the psychological games.

British police and judiciary pushed a case of billing error into a case of shop-lifting on an Indian player, Sudhir Naik – for a few pairs of socks. After the Sudhir Naik persecution, the devastated Indian team had little chance.

In one innings, India managed to score 42 all out – the all time lowest by any major test team.

Bishen Bedi – and Inset Image – John Lever with his famous Vaseline strip. | Image source & courtesy – intoday.in

The Saga Continues

Soon after the British debacle, later in 1974, for the West Indies tour to India, Pataudi was recalled. Pataudi used the same tactics (spinners + close-in fielders) as a captain against the famed West Indies – taking the series to the decider fifth match.

Soon after, in 1976, came the Vaseline incident where Bishan Bedi spoke out on the ball-tampering by the English team. Tony Grieg was supported by the ECB as an inadvertent mistake – and let off. BCCI in no position to push ECB or ICC, had to penalize Bedi.

Mike Atherton, in his book confirmed how England defeated Australia using a common trick in county cricket – using mint-lozenges. Of course, no one was penalized or brought to book. Dravid, after a stint in the county-circuit, was caught using this trick, brazenly.

Similarly, to counter the West Indian pace-quartets, the ICC turned its attention to bouncers – to curb the West Indies.

The Bouncer Rule (1991) – Somewhere along the way – between Paul Terry’s broken arm and Mike Gatting’s pulped nose – the West Indies pace quartet of the 1980s picked up a reputation for intimidatory bowling. Other teams, when they weren’t complaining about the blows inflicted on their bodies and psyche, started to point at West Indies’ over-rate, which sometimes crawled along at just 70 a day.

Something had to give, and when it did it tilted the balance completely the other way. In 1991, the ICC introduced the “one bouncer per batsman per over” rule in an attempt to end the intimidation, and buck up the over-rates. Flat-track bullies rejoiced but fast bowlers, already condemned to bowling on shirtfronts in most parts of the world, weren’t amused, and vociferous protests saw the law amended in 1994 to incorporate two bouncers per over. One-day cricket took much longer to listen to the bowlers’ pleas, and it was only in 2001 that once bouncer per over was allowed.

MAK Pataudi

Mind you, ICC was totally indifferent after the West Indian pace-bowlers injured five Indian bowlers at the Sabina Park, 1976 Test. India, batting first, crossed 200-1 and seemed likely to run away with the series.

And we have Indian newspapers talking of how ‘sporting’ Britishers had to ‘tolerate’ Indian conditions – in the ’cause’ of cricket.

World Cup 1987 had me watching the semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium, where Graham Gooch literally swept England to victory over India; then, in my room in the Taj Hotel, with the enchanting Gateway to India visible outside (innocent vision against the later horror of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack), I watched Australia win the other semi. Now I had to book a flight to Calcutta for the final.

The airline official looked across his desk at me and offered a 5.30 morning flight. I protested. He stared at me. “Don’t you wish to go?” I hadn’t noticed the twinkle in his eye. “Oh, all right then, I’ll try to get to the airport in time,” I replied lamely. Then he reached into a drawer. “I do have this other flight, if you prefer. It leaves at 9.30.” Much relieved, I forgave him the tease and grabbed at the offer.

There was a further problem when I tried cashing a traveller’s cheque. My bank apparently traded in South Africa, which was still the forbidden land. More panic, more sweating. Fortunately this snag was overcome with a backstreet currency trader. I was on my way.

And I wish I was on my way now to Ahmedabad to enjoy the sights, sounds and aromas of an Indian Test match. However, here in England I have a cosy armchair and a television set cued to the cricket channel . . . and I have my memories.

via Passage to India – Analysis – DNA.

Cricket apart, this jaundiced piece of journalism reveals the double-standards of the West when it came to apartheid in South Africa. It took relentless boycott, led by India, of Western trade and businesses that had to abandon South Africa, which forced the South African regime to finally allow Black-majority rule in South Africa.

People forget that today.

Related Articles

• India’s tough stance in Sky dispute is a sign of things to come (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• India Ink: Outlook Grim As India Prepares to Face England (india.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Reasons for optimism: Why this is England’s best chance in India for years (mirror.co.uk)

---

Gandhiji: Indians Must Be Thankful to Nobel Committee for Not Giving Him the Award

As Euro-power declines and Nobel propaganda becomes less effective, to gain fresh legitimacy, the Nobel Committee may try and foist a posthumous Nobel on Gandhiji.

A portrait of Gandhiji by Illustrator: Alexey Kurbatov Location: Moscow, Russia

Is this true?

British administrators, it is believed, ‘influenced’ the Nobel Committee against a Nobel Prize for Gandhiji. Was the Nobel Committee even close to giving Gandhiji the Peace Prize?

So grateful …

What ever the truth, I am grateful to the British Raj, all the British administrators and bureaucrats, politicians who managed the Nobel award process – to deny Gandhiji the Nobel prize.

Nobel prize, the committee says cannot be awarded posthumously – though some 13 years later, the UN Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjold was given the Nobel 6 months after his death.

Before that, the Nobel prize for Literature was awarded posthumously to Erik Axel Karlfeldt in 1931. Nobel Foundation Statutes were revised in 1974, to create a justification why the award cannot be awarded posthumously – unless death happened after the announcement.

According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation in force at that time, the Nobel Prize could, under certain circumstances, be awarded posthumously. Thus it was possible to give Gandhi the prize. However, Gandhi did not belong to an organisation.

So silly

It would have been so silly to know Gandhiji as a Nobel prize winner.

Along with terrorist-freedom fighter like Yasser Arafat (1994), terrorist-politician Menachem Begin (1978). Where would Gandhiji be, if he was clubbed with a clown-politician like Jimmy Carter (2002). Imagine Gandhiji rubbing shoulders with Barack Obama (2009), a non-entity when he won the prize. Or a crowning gag like EU (2012), as a peace prize winner. Gandhiji, staunchly against religious-conversions in the company of a do-gooder like Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (1979) – promoted by the Vatican, as Mother Teresa.

Or a war-monger like Henry Kissinger (1973).

Earlier, in 1945, Cordell Hull, who in 1939, was instrumental in refusing entry to some 950 German-Jewish refugees, was given the Nobel prize in 1945. Hull even co-authored a pamphlet, calling for bar on entry of European-Jews to America.

A Nobel committee member’s expression of regret for repeatedly overlooking Mahatma Gandhi for the Peace Prize has left his grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi and historians distinctly underwhelmed. “It really does not behove us to be lamenting the absence of a Nobel for Gandhi, when the committee itself has apologised for this so many times and when Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi have accepted the Peace Prize in his name.”

Nobel committee member and Conservative Norwegian politician Kaci Kullmann was quoted by a TV news channel on Thursday as saying ignoring Gandhi was “one of the greatest mistakes” of the Nobel.

Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before his assassination in January 1948 for the Peace Prize.

“What people forget is that at the time, the idea that the Nobel peace prize would go to a non-European was utterly absurd,” said Mihir Bose, author of Raj, Secrets and Revolution, a biography of Subhash Chandra Bose.

“After all, when Tagore was awarded the Nobel, Rudyard Kipling was furious…”

via Nobel apology leaves Bapu’s grandson unimpressed – Hindustan Times.

Related Articles

• Nobel Peace Prize to the EU Is a Farce (cato-at-liberty.org)
• Malala reading in hospital as thousands call for her to get Nobel Peace Prize (standard.co.uk)
• Nobel Peace prize petition for schoolgirl shot by Taliban (thesun.co.uk)

---

Where Do Terrorists Get Their Plastic Explosives from?

Tracing back the sources of explosives is muddied by serious and deliberate leakages and clandestine sales.

US, the world’s largest arms’ exporter, spreads the fertilizer of arms and ammuninution, which creates conflicts – and then US steps in to resolve these conflicts | Cartoon by Polyp.

Boom & Explosions

Ordinary gunpowder, is no longer a high-tech secret. Mix diesel, common nitrate fertilizer and sulfur, all commonly available items, and you get gunpowder.

Things were different a hundred years ago. India was the largest producer of this high tech product – and the British Empire rested on its ability to exclusively access Indian production of gunpowder elements. Within India, gunpowder was commonly available – and manufactured in the private sector, without State control.

In the last 50 years, we have seen a new explosive. Plastic explosive. Like wet clay or plasticine in texture, and stable, it has much more explosive power compared to ordinary gunpowder. Many terrorist incidents in India reported use of plastic explosives. An item with restricted access and limited manufacture, usage of plastic explosive usually signifies State involvement.

Known by various names like C4, Semtex (a mix of RDX & PETN),  visual identification is easy. C4 leaves off-white traces on the debris and Semtex has a tell-tale brick-red color.

Agents and double agents | Cartoon by by Dave Coverly; 31 May, 2012

There Goes The Neighborhood

We had David Coleman Headley, a CIA-DEA American agent, who was deeply involved in the Mumbai attacks. US has more troops in Asia than other part of the world – except Europe. While Europe has a 500-year history of wars, to justify this US army role, where is the need in Asia?

Except the imposition of Pax Americana?

US is today at war with Pakistan – next door to India. After deluding Pakistan for 50 years, US the ally has started war with Pakistan. Neither US nor Pakistan has admitted they are at war – yet American drones have been killing Pakistanis for years now.

In Pakistan, this class of explosives are made by Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF)  and Wah Nobel, a 1962-joint venture between Almisehal (Saudi Arabia), Saab (Sweden) and Pakistan Ordnance Factories.

Making The Wheels Go Round

US is the world’s largest arms producer and exporter. These clandestine sales and furtive supplies have been done by arms agents like Viktor Bout or Wilson.

NOTHING about Edwin P. Wilson was quite as it appeared. If you met him at an airport—en route to Geneva, London, New York, on joking terms with the Concorde stewardesses—he looked like any other globetrotting businessman. In fact, he was a spy.

His chief business in the 1970s was shipping arms to Libya, then under Western sanctions. He didn’t advertise it. But then again, he claimed later, it wasn’t what it seemed. He sold Muammar Qaddafi firearms. But that was done to “buddy up” to him, to try to use him like an asset. He offered him plans for making a nuclear bomb, but only to find out how Libya’s own bomb-making was going. The plans were bogus anyway. He recruited ex-Green Berets to train Qaddafi’s intelligence officers, and to teach them to make bombs disguised as bedside lamps and radios. He earned $1m a year from that, but also learned the officers’ identities. It was all done with CIA backing. These were patriotic acts.

Most spectacularly—and disastrously for his cover—in 1977 he shipped to Libya 20 tons of C4 plastic explosives. This was almost the whole of America’s stockpile, flown out of Houston in a DC-8 charter in barrels marked “oil-drilling mud”. Mr Wilson felt no qualms about it. He didn’t believe it had been used for terrorism. He had sent it to ingratiate himself and to get intelligence. The CIA, he said, knew all about it. But the CIA denied it.

He worked actively for the CIA for 15 years, destabilising European labour unions by using anything—Corsican mobsters, plagues of cockroaches—and setting up his front companies. The work was “a hell of a satisfaction” to him. He left, officially, in 1971, but only for Task Force 157 of the Office of Naval Intelligence, another super-secret outfit.

Then, in 1976, he went “freelance”. The CIA contacts, and all the front companies, continued—sending arms to Angola and boats to the Congo, bringing intelligence back—right up to the moment when he stood in a federal court, in 1983, accused among other things of shipping the explosives and sending the guns to Libya without a licence.

The third-highest CIA officer in the land declared then, in a sworn affidavit, that since 1971 the agency had had nothing to do with him. Not directly; not indirectly. Contacts zero.

The CIA’s story was that he had gone rogue. Deniability was part of the deal, of course. But it was sheer success that made him, in the end, “a little hot”. His front companies were also legitimate businesses, and they made real profits—all the more because his books were hardly audited. Asked once to itemise the cost of a trawler stuffed with surveillance gear, sold to the agency for $500,000, he quoted $250,000 for “product” and $250,000 for “service”. Fine and dandy. Kinglike, and worth $23m, he rollicked over a 2,500-acre estate at Mount Airy in Virginia, lavishing jewels on his girlfriends, entertaining congressmen and generals to picnics and hunting parties.

Not bad for a poor farm boy from Idaho. There were “very, very nice” villas, with Pakistani houseboys, in Malta and in Tripoli,

His revenge for his framing came almost too late. In 2003 his conviction for the explosives-shipping was overturned because, wrote the judge, the government had lied. Far from no contacts with the CIA between 1971 and 1978, there had been at least 80. Several ran intriguingly “parallel” to the illegal acts he had been charged with. The next year he was released, white-haired at 76, fighting fit and pumped up with his own righteousness, to spend the rest of his days trying to clear his name.

He knew that would be a tough sell. For many he would always be a traitor and a terrorist as well as an amoral profiteer.

via Edwin P. Wilson | The Economist.

Related Articles

• CIA wants more drones (salon.com)
• CIA Wants More Drones, Officials Say (huffingtonpost.com)
• Edwin Wilson (telegraph.co.uk)
• Abu Jundal taught Hindi to 26/11 terrorists, says Delhi Police in chargesheet (ndtv.com)
• The Threat of Libyan Weapons of Mass Destruction (usnews.com)

1971 Bangladesh War: Details Less Known

The India-Pakistan war of 1971 that has not been understood or explained. Properly, completely or even contextually.

An Indian Army machine gunner fires at Pakistani positions in a village across an open field, 1,500 yards inside the East Pakistan border at Dongarpara on Dec. 7, 1971. Both sides have taken trenchlines position, in an attempt to prevent each other’s moves. This picture was taken about 200-miles North East of Calcutta. | Source: AP; Courtesy – RIR

Along the lines of the Quicktake post in June-2011, here is a post that builds on 1971 War – particularly adding parts rarely told.

The 1971 war is considered to be modern India’s finest hour, in military terms. The clinical professionalism of the Indian army, navy and air force; a charismatic brass led by the legendary Sam Maneckshaw; and ceaseless international lobbying by the political leadership worked brilliantly to set up a famous victory. After two weeks of vicious land, air and sea battles, nearly 100,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered before India’s rampaging army, the largest such capitulation since General Paulus’ surrender at Stalingrad in 1943.

However, it could all have come unstuck without help from veto-wielding Moscow, with which New Delhi had the foresight to sign a security treaty in 1970.

As Nixon’s conversations with the wily Kissinger show, the forces arrayed against India were formidable. The Pakistani military was being bolstered by aircraft from Jordan, Iran, Turkey and France. Moral and military support was amply provided by the US, China and the UK.

Though not mentioned in the conversations here, the UAE sent in half a squadron of fighter aircraft and the Indonesians dispatched at least one naval vessel to fight alongside the Pakistani Navy. However, Russia’s entry thwarted a scenario that could have led to multiple pincer movements against India.

via 1971 War: How Russia sank Nixon’s gunboat diplomacy | Russia & India Report.

Related Articles

• India Ink: The Imaginary Line that Divides India and Bangladesh (india.blogs.nytimes.com)
• How Bollywood’s Views on Pakistan Evolved (india.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Asif Haroon: My Memories of War (opinion-maker.org)
• Black September (thehindu.com)
• Munificently treading water (japantimes.co.jp)