Accidental Blogger
A general interest blog
Category: Educational, Cultural & Social Matters
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In keeping with the custom of "What would Jesus do?," on every anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr Day, we hear references to MLK relating to social and political problems of the day. What might MLK have said of the Iraq War, the banking crisis, the presidency of Barack Obama and now the disaster in Haiti. Frankly, we don't know.…
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In the wake of the rather stymied attempts to get succour and aid to the millions affected in Haiti, we have the conservative columnists like David Brooks of the New York Times pontificating on the 'cultural' issues that underlie the extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure that plagued Haiti even well before the earthquake on…
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An article in the Guardian reports on the recent "Mr. Gay China Parade," a beauty / personality contest for gay men, the first of its kind in China. There's a swimwear round and a talent section where contestants can show off their singing and dancing. But organisers insist the contest to be held this Friday is a serious business.…
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Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake.com is on a mission, even to the extent of venturing into the enemy's lair at Fox and Friends: to try and kill the Health Care bill that had already been declared dead by the media a million times since last June. And yet, it keeps rising again, like a cat with…
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This is the time of the year that most people in the US, including me, make their annual charitable contributions. My formula for "giving" is roughly a 70/30 one. Seventy percent of my contributions go to US organizations working either within the US or engaged in international relief efforts. The other thirty percent goes to worthy humanitarian and philanthropic causes in India. The Indian…
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Coming from a seemingly intelligent woman, the assertion that logic, rationality and empiricism may be at the root of misogyny, is a bit unsettling. Kathryn Lofton, in her post So you want to be a new atheist, over at The Immanent Frame blog seems to be implying exactly that. Lofton finds the New Atheists annoying – a bunch of know-it-all loudmouths whose style may…
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As is the custom around this time of the year, Houston is gearing up for the festive season. Christmas decorations are going up in private homes, city streets, public buildings and of course, retail stores. The city is even expecting a smattering of snow later this week – a rare weather phenomenon around these parts.…
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The Daily Princetonian has a story about percentages of female faculty, which are neither particularly high nor rising rapidly. The article doesn’t do either sexism or the Larry Summers stuff, and instead focuses on the lifestyle difficulties inherent in obtaining tenure, at least as currently structured: Director of the Women’s Center Amada Sandoval said she…
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More than a year ago I had highlighted my husband, Sudhir Paul's research in developing a vaccine against HIV. The HIV / AIDS epidemic which in the west was confined almost exclusively within the male gay community and IV drug users in the early days, has now extended its lethal reach well into the heterosexual population. In fact in less developed nations, AIDS…
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While direct democracy is an enticing concept, it is always troubling when the fate of minorities is left to the decision of the majority – think recent voter initiatives on gay marriage in several US states. Here is another, from Switzerland, the directest democracy in today's world. GENEVA — In a vote that displayed a widespread anxiety about Islam…
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For some people nothing President Obama does can pass leadership muster. To paraphrase Hillary Clinton, "If Barack Obama walks on water, some will criticize him for not knowing how to swim." Okay, okay, so Obama bowed a bit too deeply before the emperor of Japan. May be he wasn't coached properly by the White House protocol office. Or perhaps, he is…
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To the English, a grave is like their second home (or castle). Dead Londoners do not want to share graves with the previously dead, even though London is running out of space for the dead. (Why has cremation not caught on as a perfectly private and hygienic option in the thoroughly modern British capital?) LONDON | The city's largest…
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The United Nations high commissioner on human rights has decided to target India's caste system. Navi Pillay, the South African judge who became the United Nations high commissioner for human rights last year, is moving to the forefront of a campaign to free more than 250 million people from the indignities and horrors of caste discrimination. No…
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As Dean pointed out in this post, "A lot of discussion concerning A.B. over the years has taken place "under the radar," via email between the authors, usually with Ruchira at the hub of the network. We get caught up in a topic, have at it among ourselves, and then–oops, sorta accidentally–we end up publishing…
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When culture influences grammar. (Link: Dean) Everybody knows that a noun is the name of a person, place, or thing. It's one of those undeniable facts of daily life, a fact we seldom question until we meet up with a case that doesn't quite fit the way we're used to viewing things. That's exactly what happened…
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