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  • Save the Girls … and Merck!

    I see that Sujatha has already published a post on Texas governor Rick Perry’s order to make vaccination with Gardasil mandatory for 11-12 year girls in Texas. Many other states are considering a similar move. I nearly fell off my chair at the breakfast table yesterday morning when I read on the front page of the Houston Chronicle that Texas governor Rick Perry is at the forefront of this campaign.

    The pros and cons of vaccinating girls with Gardasil are still under consideration.  I don’t think that the state of Texas or any other governmental agency ought to make the vaccine mandatory at this stage. Although the efficacy of the vaccine has proved to be nearly 100% in clinical trials, its long term effect on the health of women is not known. My own considered opinion is that the vaccine should be made freely available. Insurance should be required to pay. Those without insurance should be subsidized. But the decision to vaccinate (or not) should be left to parents, as of now.  Many parents of young girls have naturally reacted with some alarm at Governor Perry’s high handedness – some because of moral concerns(?) and others due to health related issues.

    More than the debate over whether the vaccine should or should not be mandatory, the question that intrigued me was why our otherwise conservative and generally vacuous governor took this bold and drastic step which flies in the face of what his conservative base thinks of the vaccine. Halfway through the report, I got the answer that cleared up my fog of confusion – Perry’s erstwhile chief of staff is now a lobbyist for Merck, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures Gardasil. Whoops! One sure fire way to boost sales and ensure an undying cash cow for a drug manufacturer is to make a pharmaceutical product mandatory. And here I was, puzzled and pleasantly surprised that Governor Goodhair had suddenly become a champion of women’s health and had acted solely on an uncharacteristic progressive impulse of ensuring their well being. Silly me!

    Acting on an issue that is stirring controversy in the Legislature, Gov. Rick Perry on Friday made Texas the first state to require girls to get a new vaccine for a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

    The executive order, which would apply to all girls entering sixth grade next year, prompted surprise and relief from one lawmaker who didn’t think her bill requiring the same would have passed. But it so angered many social conservatives who have consistently backed Perry that they suggested money and political ties to the vaccine’s manufacturer were behind the decision.

    Perry’s office insisted that protecting girls ages 11 and 12 against the human papilloma virus was a public health issue, not politics.

    "Requiring young girls to get vaccinated before they come into contact with HPV is responsible health and fiscal policy that has the potential to significantly reduce cases of cervical cancer and mitigate future medical costs," Perry said in a press release.

    "This is ‘follow the money’ if I’ve ever seen it," said Cathie Adams, president of Texas Eagle Forum.

    "There’s no health emergency for cervical cancer. The only emergency is in the Merck board room," said Dawn Richardson of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, a vaccine information group.

    The vaccine, known as Gardasil, is manufacturered by Merck and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June. It is only effective if administered before infection; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends it for females ages 11 to 26.

    Big push by Merck

    Mike Toomey, former chief of staff to Perry, is a lobbyist for Merck. The pharmaceutical company has donated $6,000 to Perry since 2005 and $38,000 to legislative leaders and lawmakers. Merck spokesman Ray Kerins downplayed the company’s role in Perry’s order, saying "we’re working in all 50 states to achieve the widest vaccination possible…." 

    By the way, why is the vaccine being aimed only at girls?  Gardasil is a vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV), not cervical cancer. Although only girls are at risk of developing cervical cancer when infected with HPV, boys too get infected by the virus and can spread it to their sexual partners. Should yet another onerous burden of responsible sexual behavior be borne just by young women? The report on Gardasil says:

    ….A recent study found that 90 percent of cervical cancer cases could be eliminated if boys and girls got the vaccine. If only girls get it, just more than three quarters of cases would be eliminated. (italics mine)

  • To Vaccinate or Not Vaccinate (Sujatha)

    Today’s news of Texas governor Rick Perry’s making it mandatory for all young girls in Texas to get the anti-cervical vaccine Gardasil has raised a storm of discussion on whether it is indeed desirable to mandate such a thing.
    Criticism of the move to make it mandatory ranges from outrage of conservative parents who think it interferes with teaching their daughters how to be ‘moral’ and abstinent. ‘It won’t happen to my child, because I’ll raise her to be chaste and therefore she can’t get the HPV virus’, they think."How dare the government force these medical decisions on my children!’, to a concern by other groups that the vaccine has not been tested in the long term enough to ensure that the benefits truly outweigh the side effects. It doesn’t help that the price of the vaccine is so high that some doctors are charging their patients upfront for the cost of the vaccine, especially since insurance isn’t exactly rushing to cover this new vaccine.
    As of now, the silver bullet for cervical cancer prevention still remains the humble and inconvenient pap smear test.  Will the vaccine help? Only time and a thorough study of the long term effects in a large population will tell… and the question arises as to whether parents should permit their daughters to be guinea pigs of sorts.

  • Republican Rogues Gallery

    The right wing of the Republican Party is probably quite pleased with the line up of presidential hopefuls on the Democratic side. So far, they see front runners with obvious weaknesses that won’t play in Preoria in 2008. Here is how the Dems stack up:

    Hillary Clinton: Shadows of Bill Clinton, liberal, woman, feminist (read man hating). Worse than Lucifer.

    Barack Obama: African American, admits to previous drug use, current smoker, little national/ international experience. Middle name Hussein.

    John Edwards: Too pretty, talks about poverty while he himself is a millionaire, resumé thin on defense and international affairs. Was on the losing ticket in 2004.

    Joe Biden: Never mind!

    Despite their glee about Democratic presidential candidates, the right wing is rather glum about their own slate of candidates so far. Although some of the contenders are very conservative when it comes to fiscal and defense issues, their personal lives and social agenda are cause for suspicion.  In fact, one has to wonder if the conservatives worry that none of THEM will play well in Peoria or rather in their case, in South Carolina.

    Mayor (Rudy Giuliani as Marilyn Monroe)

    John McCain: Not rabid enough on abortion. Divorced, used to be a playboy, has adopted a  "colored" child. Opposed George W. Bush in the 2000 primaries and beat him in New Hampshire.

    Rudi Giuliani: Pro-choice, supports gay rights. First marriage annulled, very public affair, messy public divorce (even though he is a Catholic), now in third marriage. Dressed up in drag as Marilyn Monroe. Comes from New York.

    Mitt Romney: Used to be a moderate. Has flip flopped on abortion and gay rights – now opposes both. But can you trust him not to revert to his previous position if elected? No divorce or known affairs. But is a Mormon ( some of his ancestors may have committed polygamy).

    Sam Brownback: Conservative on social issues. But has betrayed Bush by opposing the "surge." Most damning – converted to Catholicism a few years back.

    The right wing would love to see Newt Gingrich or perhaps Jeb Bush as their man in 2008. But Newt is hardly a paragon in his personal life. (Heartless divorce #1, affair, nasty divorce # 2, currently in third marriage). As for Jeb Bush, his personal life is pretty squeaky clean. But he has other problems. He is the smart one in the family and recognizes the devastation older brother has wreaked on the Bush family’s political fortunes for the foreseeable future. When asked about his political aspirations, he said ruefully, " Yo no tengo futuro."  Even Poppy knows it.
     

  • Molly Ivins: 1944 – 2007

                            

    IvinsMolly Ivins, the feisty political humorist and Texas tough lady died today after a long battle with cancer. Ivins, who gave George W. Bush the unforgettable nickname Shrub, was 62. Ivins’ specialty was speaking truth to power, never aiming her satire at the powerless.

    "The touble with blaming powerless people is that although it’s not nearly as scary as blaming the powerful, it does miss the point," she wrote in a 1997 column. "Poor people don’t shut down factories … Poor people didn’t decide to use ‘contract employees’ because they cost less and don’t get any benefits."

      "Molly Ivins, the irreverent nationally syndicated columnist from Texas who rankled conservatives and delighted liberals, died late this afternoon after a seven-year battle with breast cancer. She was 62.

    A self-described leftist agitator, she infused her writings with both passion and wit. Her career spanned some 40 years, and in that time she thought nothing of calling President George W. Bush "Billy Bob Forehead," and current Texas Gov. Rick Perry "Governor Goodhair." Her columns drew such attention that her picture once graced billboards in North Texas above the words, ‘Molly Ivins Can’t Really Say That, Can She?’ (That later became the title of one of her best-selling books).

    Ivins sided with underdogs. In an interview last year with the Houston Chronicle, Ivins said she made a career writing about "who was getting screwed and who was doing the screwing." She was a diehard liberal in a state that turned from Democrat to Republican in the span of a decade and she hardly ever let an opportunity pass to lament the change.

    "Well, fellow Texans," she wrote in 2003, the year the GOP took both houses of the Texas Legislature, "they can stick a fork in us, ’cause we’re done."

    By the end of her life, Ivins’ columns were being carried in more than 300 newspapers around the country. She wrote six books, four of which became best sellers. They included "Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush;" "Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America," which she wrote with Lou Dubose; and "Who Let the Dogs In? Incredible Political Animals I have Known."

    Funeral arrangements are pending.

    Despite her failing health, Ivins wrote a column as recently as January 11, 2007, Stand Up Against the Surge, protesting Bush’s proposed troop escalation in Iraq.

     

  • The Stonehengers

    Some interesting news from the ancient site of Stonehenge – the article from the National Geographic. 070130stonehenge_170

    "A major prehistoric village has been unearthed near Stonehenge in southern England.

    The settlement likely housed the builders of the famous monument, archaeologists say, and was an important ceremonial site in its own right, hosting great "feasts and parties" (see a photo gallery of the Stonehenge village).

    Excavations also offer new evidence that a timber circle and a vast earthwork where the village once stood were linked to Stonehenge—via road, river, and ritual. Together, the sites were part of a much larger religious complex, the archaeologists suggest.

    "Stonehenge isn’t a monument in isolation. It is actually one of a pair—one in stone, one in timber [animated map showing the sites]," said Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a joint initiative run by six English universities and partially funded by the National Geographic Society."

  • The Indecent Sea

    Loyal reader Matt, who likes to have fun with words, also writes children’s verses. He and illustrator Shannon Wheeler have a book in mind – whenever a publisher becomes willing and available. Meanwhile, Wheeler who draws weekly comics for alternative newspapers, has used one of Matt’s rhymes in his latest creation. You can see it at Too Much Coffee Man. Congratulations Matt!  We’ll wait for the book.

  • Hillary’s Evil and Bad Men

    Whatever she may have meant, should Hillary Clinton be saying this?  I guess Bill Clinton ought to take note. It’s pay back time and I don’t blame her! I thought it was quite funny.

    During a question-and-answer session yesterday morning, a voter asked the Democratic presidential frontrunner how she’d deal with "evil, greedy, rotten, power-hungry leaders … like Osama bin Laden … who happen to be men."

    After repeating the question, a grinning Clinton sarcastically asked the crowd at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, "And what in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men?"
    As the room erupted in laughter and hooting, Clinton dipped her head, smiled sheepishly and reveled in her own mischief.

    An informal survey of attendees yielded the following guesses about whom she was referring: A) her husband, Bill B) Attorney Kenneth Starr, who took over the Whitewater probe in August 1994 C) President George W. Bush D) Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

  • Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan

    Spy_princess

    Noor_ancestor1 (Noor Inayat Khan: in two different incarnations) 

    History is not my forte. But I know enough Indian history that this particular story caught me completely by surprise. I came across it in a book review published in the Bengali periodical, Desh (the source of my regular dose of Bengali reading). Spy Princess : The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu chronicles the life of a remarkable young woman of Indian-American parentage who was involved in espionage on behalf of the British Empire during WWII in Nazi occupied France. I have not read the book (now I will) but I gleaned enough about Noor’s life from the review and Wikipedia to be able to present an outline of this unusual bit of history.

    In 1912, a flamboyant "oriental style" dancer with the exotic name of Mata Hari (mother of god in Hindi) was the toast of Paris night clubs. A traveling musical group from India, The Royal Musicians of Hindustan was in Paris that year. Mata Hari performed with this group. The group’s lead singer was a handsome and serious young man named Inayat Khan. He belonged to an accomplished Indian musical family from Baroda and was trained in Indian classical music and the sufi philosophical tradition. The glamorous and famous Mata Hari later went on to become a French spy (some say, a German double agent) during World War I – not the most sensible career choice for someone who sought publicity relentlessly. Little did the gentle Inayat Khan know that one day his own daughter would follow in the footsteps of the notorious Mata Hari and meet an equally tragic (but more honorable) fate.

    Inayat Khan traveled the world with his musical group and introduced the pacifist sufi philosophy to western audiences. During a tour of the United States, he met, fell in love with and married Ora Ray Baker. In 1914 their oldest daughter, Noorunnisa Inayat Khan (Noor) was born in Kremlin, Moscow. The family lived in England and France. From all accounts, Noor and her siblings were brought up in a household bearing both eastern and western traditions. Despite European influences on the children’s upbringing, the cultured and conservative lifestyle of the Khan family was in keeping with Indian Muslim tradition.(Her American born mother had converted to Islam and adopted the name, Amina Begum.) Noor was trained in classical Indian and western music, playing the sitar, piano, cello and violin. She studied child psychology in Sorbonne and music at the Paris Conservatory.

    After World War II broke out, the family escaped to England. Noor decided to join the Women’s Auxilliary Air Force and trained with the Red Cross. Proficient in several languages, she was later recruited by the British government for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose job according to Winston Churchill, was to "set Europe ablaze." After a hurried (and rather incomplete) training in England, she was posted in Paris as the first woman radio operator for the SOE, entrusted with intercepting Nazi wireless transmissions. This gentle, shy and talented young woman became a thorn in the side of the German military – an unlikely, intrepid, wily spy, expertly eluding capture. Noor was later betrayed by one of her own colleagues. Captured, questioned and beaten by the Nazis, she was deported to Dachau for her non-cooperation, where after further beatings and torture, she was shot. At the time of her death Noor was thirty years old. According to her biography (and the testimony of her captors), she died without divulging any secrets and the last word she uttered was liberté. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry not on the battle field.

    Noor Inayat Khan’s brave but brief life story is a little known anecdote from the British/Indian/ European colonial era. The question that intrigues one is : why did a reserved and conservative young woman like Noor who had led a sheltered life, undertake the treacherous and brazen job of a spy? The answer may lie in the education she received from her father, the sufi philosopher who rejected violence and oppression as currencies of human interaction. Noor was greatly influenced by her father’s views on human rights and pacifism. Around the years between 1915 -20 when the fledgling Indian national movement was riding the wave of popular support in India, Inayat Khan had come under suspicion of the British imperial government for his outspoken criticism of colonial rule in India. Yet his daughter opted to serve the British. Why?  Her youth and innocence notwithstanding, clear eyed wisdom and decency enabled Noor to correctly view Nazism as a far bigger menace and force of evil than colonial oppression which both father and daughter had denounced. (The same sentiment explains why Indian nationalist leaders like Gandhi and Nehru also supported British military efforts against Germany in WWII.)

    The title of the book is a bit misleading. Noor Inayat Khan was no princess. In fact, due to the spotty earning record of her peripatetic sufi musician father, the family was often in uncertain financial straits. But there was indeed a royal connection in the family’s past. Noor’s father was the great grandson of the famous and fearless Indian king, Tipu Sultan. 

    In light of the current world conflicts and the status of Muslims in the west, author Shrabani Basu makes the following observation:

    "Noor’s achievements become even more important today, sixty years after the war, when we see her as a Muslim woman of Indian origin who was prepared to make the highest sacrifice for Britain." 

  • The Georgia Injustice System (Joe)

    There’s an online petition objecting to the treatment of Genarlow Wilson by the state of Georgia.  Why?  Because while petitions may be effectively useless, it’s all we’ve got, and through a stunning showing of incompetence and a pronounced lack of human decency (tinged with racial overtones) on the part the Georgia legislature, the Douglas County District Attorney, and the Georgia judiciary, Genarlow Wilson is being punished.  And punished some more.  He is a felon, for committing a misdemeanor–a misdemeanor which shouldn’t even be that, but for codified puritanical nonsense.

    The New York Times wants Genarlow Wilson freed NOW.  I agree with the newspaper.

    ESPN, of all media outlets, has good coverage of the story:

    He’s 20 now. Just two years into a 10-year sentence without possibility of parole, he peers through the thick glass and bars, trying to catch a glimpse of freedom. Outside, guard towers and rolls of coiled barbed wire remind him of who he is.

    * * *

    Once, he was the homecoming king at Douglas County High. Now he’s Georgia inmate No. 1187055, convicted of aggravated child molestation.

    When he was a senior in high school, he received oral sex from a 10th grader. He was 17. She was 15. Everyone, including the girl and the prosecution, agreed she initiated the act. But because of an archaic Georgia law, it was a misdemeanor for teenagers less than three years apart to have sexual intercourse, but a felony for the same kids to have oral sex.

    Afterward, the state legislature changed the law to include an oral sex clause, but * * * the law was written to not apply to cases retroactively, though another legislative solution might be in the works. The case has drawn national condemnation, from the "Free Genarlow Wilson Now" editorial in The New York Times to a feature on Mark Cuban’s HDNet.

    "It’s disgusting," Cuban wrote to ESPN in an e-mail. "I can not see any way, shape or form that the interests of the state of Georgia are served by throwing away Genarlow’s youth and opportunity to become a vibrant contributor to the state. All his situation does is reinforce some unfortunate stereotypes that the state is backward and misgoverned. No one with a conscience can look at this case and conclude that justice has been served."

    * * *

    The image of a bright future dimming with each passing day is what infuriates so many people. Wilson should be held up as an example of a kid who was making it. His life should be protected by society, not destroyed. He was a good student, with a 3.2 grade point average. He was popular, the school’s homecoming king, liked by students and teachers. He never got into any trouble with the law. He was a track and football star. His last two years, he was the defensive back assigned to cover Calvin Johnson, the former Sandy Creek High star who went on to Georgia Tech and is now projected as a top pick in the NFL draft. Wilson studied film, trying to figure out how to outsmart a better and taller athlete. He did well, coaches remember, limiting Johnson to four catches in two games.

    * * *

    From drinking to smoking pot to acting like a cocky star athlete, Wilson now cringes at some of the mistakes he made in high school.

    He admits he wasn’t perfect. Far from it. He drank. He smoked pot. He’d been sexually active since he was 13. And a month or so after that final playoff game, he and some buddies were plotting a New Year’s Eve bash. His mama heard them whispering in his bedroom that afternoon. She knew kids whispering usually meant trouble, so she went in and looked those boys up and down.

    "Don’t do anything stupid," she warned.

    * * *

    (more…)

  • “Ann’s House Has Blown Up!”

    Another little story from my neighborhood. Early last Thursday morning, just after midnight, my neighbors and I heard a distant boom. We didn’t know what to make of it and didn’t think much about it until next morning when the local news reported that a house, about 2 miles from my own, blew up. Blew up! An entire house was reduced to rubble following a huge explosion. The cause is under investigation but all indications point to a gas leak inside the home. Take a look at the attached photo of the home destroyed in the explosion. Nothing except a fireplace was left standing – as also amazingly, the 69 year old occupant of the home. Ann Patterson Smith, the owner of the destroyed home was found dazed but suffering only minor burns and singed hair!

             House_blows_up

    MISSOURI CITY — Fire investigators and Quail Valley residents used the words "amazing," "unbelievable" and "miracle" to describe the survival of a 69-year-old woman after an explosion destroyed her brick house early Thursday.

    The blast, which knocked out dozens of windows of neighboring homes, had such force that debris was scattered hundreds of feet away, and trees next to Ann Patterson Smith’s home were full of shingles, insulation and two-by-fours.

    The only thing left standing on the smoldering concrete foundation was the brick fireplace. A dazed Smith stood clad in her pajamas amid the debris and suffered only minor burns……

    The explosion happened just after midnight at the house that sits on a cul-de-sac near the Quail Valley golf course.

    "It’s a miracle that she survived and kind of a miracle that nobody else was injured," said Jim Wyatt, who lives across the street.

    Wyatt said it was about 12:15 a.m. Thursday when his house shook.

    "It blew my front door in. My wife looks across the street and said, ‘Ann’s house has blown up,’ " he said.

    Wyatt quickly dressed and ran outside.

    "I wasn’t expecting to find anything, you know, and as I am climbing over the rubble, I see her standing up in her pajamas barefooted," he said.

       

  • Hurricane, Hüzün & Holy City – Book Reviews (Part III)

    Potala (The Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet)

    Here at last, is the much belated last installment of the three part book review I began a few months ago. Part I was about a hurricane, Part II described the indescribable feeling of Hüzün and now we end in the Holy City. All three books are essentially about cities, in three far away parts of the world – Galveston, USA, Istanbul, Turkey and Lhasa, Tibet.

    Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet : Peter Hopkirk, a reporter and specialist in Middle Eastern and Asian Affairs for the London Times has written extensively about the little known history and geography of remote regions of Asia. In this book he describes the "discovery" of Tibet by westerners. The quest which began in the second half of the 19th century and continued well into the first half of the next, was part adventure, part religious mission, but mostly it was European imperialist politics. The jockeying for power in Asia between the Russian and the British empires was named the Great Game by Rudyard Kipling. The Game was played on two fronts – the western and northern borders of British India.  On the western front, the playground was Afghanistan (I wrote about it here ) where the final score remained a 0-0 draw for the European powers – Afghanistan successfully beat back attempts at colonial occupation. On the northern edge of India, the prize that awaited the winner of the Great Game was the remote, mysterious land of Tibet whose capital Lhasa was known as the Forbidden City. Some time in the 19th century, fearing foreign designs (China, Russia, Western Europe) on their isolated kingdom located amidst the clouds of the Himalayas, Tibetans declared their holy capital city out of bounds for most foreigners.

    Trespassers on the Roof of the World is a chronicle of bizarre and electrifying tales of the human propensity to chase after the unattainable, with determination, ingenuity, greed and reckless abandon. The outcomes occasionally had a comic twist but more often, they were grim and tragic. Remote Tibet, sitting in the harsh terrain and rarified air of mountain tops, exuded an enchanting and mystic aura. The rest of the world wanted to penetrate its mystery. Early Franciscan and Jesuit monks, Hindu and Buddhist scholars, government spies and mercenaries, enterprising traders and travelers …. Tibet was a dream destination for all. Some sought spiritual insights, others were fueled by missionary zeal to bring Christianity to a "savage" population and still others wanted to undertake the arduous trip just out of curiosity. Foreign powers wanted to exercise their sovereignty over Tibet for profit and strategic reasons. For Indian Hindus, Tibet held precious religious secrets. Within and near Tibet are located several real and mythical gardens, lakes and mountains of divine significance (the seats of Hindu gods) as also the source of many of India’s sacred rivers. Foreign governments (China, Russia and Britain) viewed Tibet with mercenary ( gold and silver mines surround Tibet) and strategic interest. Tibetans understood that when they decided to close the gates to interlopers. It was not hard to do as their land is blessed with naturally impenetrable borders on all sides. With icy mountain passes at elevations ranging from 15,000 to 20,000 feet, access into Tibet was not to be undertaken by the faint of heart. Yet numerous people did – men and women, young and old, from near and far away lands. One European missonary couple attempted the journey with an infant in tow with tragic results. Some reached Tibet without meaning to do so. An American airforce plane flying over the Himalayan range during WWII, ran out of fuel and crash landed in a Tibetan village.

    Hopkirk’s book is an interesting and informative account of the history, geography and politics of the region. Of all the travelers that went to Tibet during the "forbidden" years, the most interesting were a group of northern Indian Hindu pundits who were among the first foreigners to successfully enter Lhasa. They spoke Tibetan, were physically acclimatized to the Himalayan region and unlike Europeans, had the advantage of being able to assume the convincing disguise of Tibetan monks. Those intelligent, brave and loyal Indian mountain men acted as the early scouts for the British government and laid down the groundwork for future military expeditions into the unchartered terrain. They surveyed the land, assessed the possible entry routes and took stock of Tibetan defense forces – all surreptitously. Discovery of their intent would have resulted in certain death. The pundits carried sextants, binoculars and other rudimentary  instruments of land survey in the false bottom of their luggage and concealed their meticulous notes inside the hollow space within their prayer wheel, a necessary accessory for Tibetan Buddhist mendicants. The Indian pundits undertook the extremely hazardous journey on foot for very little monetary reward and almost no public recognition. Most astounding of their numerous feats was the practice of measuring distance by counting their own strides (millions of them). Later, when the British officially arrived in Tibet and more rigorous geographic surveys were performed, the pundits’ low tech estimates proved to be amazingly accurate, sometimes within a few meters of the actual distance or elevation.

    The British eventually beat all other aspirants in reaching the Roof of the World. After several attempts, a small British military expedition manned by English and Indian soldiers, crashed through the gates of Lhasa in 1904 and Tibet capitulated to their superior might and the determinaton of the expedition’s leader, Francis Younghusband. From then on until 1947, when India gained its independence, Tibet remained a loosely held protectorate of the British Empire. In lieu of military protection, access to its gold mines and other natural resources were granted to the empire. After the departure of the British from the Indian subcontinent, Tibet reverted to its isolated and independent existence under the divinely inspired rule of the Dalai Lama. Soon afterwards, in the 1950s, Tibet’s old friend and adversary China, then under Mao Tse Tung’s communist regime, invaded Tibet. This time, the "tresspassers" came to stay.

    Note: In 1959 the Dalai Lama and several thousand Tibetans were able to escape from Chinese occupied Tibet and find refuge in India where they have lived ever since. A parallel Tibet in exile now exists in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala. For nearly fifty years, it has been the home of the Dalai Lama and his followers.  The historic Potala Palace in Lhasa, the traditional seat of the Tibetan spiritual leader is under Chinese control. Shunya has a post with the title, "Potala-in-Exile"  about the Little Tibet in India.   Please check out the gorgeous photos accompanying the article. It was in fact Shunya’s post about Dharamsala that provided the impetus to finish this three part book review which I had planned several months ago in an ambitious moment.

  • E. Howard Hunt (Dean)

    When the Watergate "caper," as it was then called, was unfolding, I had just entered my ‘teens. I did not then have either a probing intellect or an insightful intuition about politics.  Nothing has changed over the years in this respect, so when I read yesterday evening that E. Howard Hunt had died, Norman Mailer, of all things, came to mind.  This is because I loved reading his Harlot’s Ghost about fifteen years ago, in which Hunt was portrayed as an odd character on a few of the tome’s 1300 pages.

    To get a sense of how Mailer depicted Hunt, this excerpt from a review of the book by Wilfrid Sheed, published in the New York Review of Books, v.38, no.20, p.41 (Dec. 5, 1991), should do the trick:

    Howard Hunt is the author’s second "real" character of any consequence, and once more Mailer has probably tailored him to his own specifications, leaving only the name and a persona that doesn’t jar too grossly with the facts. At any rate, Mailer’s version is a very model of Yankee bella figura, the kind of dude who likes nothing better than to conduct his dirty business while hosing down his polo pony or exchanging gorgeously insincere after-dinner speeches with his hosts about the undying love between our great countries. Hunt’s normal agenda is as busy and vacuous as a day in the life of a Jane Austen heroine, and the high point of his bureau’s activities during Hubbard’s stay is the taping of an adultery in the Russian embassy, the publication of which will, it is hoped, cause one of the Russians to defect in a rage, though with what object nobody bothers to ask any more. It will simply give us someone else to debrief, re-brief and worry about and a temporary psychological edge—in Uruguay! Still it must be done. An agency can’t just sit there.

    The first "real" character implied here by Sheed is William Harvey, the CIA’s station chief in Berlin, whom Mailer depicts, marvelously to me, as a superhuman gin guzzler. Sheed explains,

    Whatever the real William Harvey may have been like, Mailer’s recreation is a true likeness of someone, and whoever it is is made to order for that spy novelist’s gold mine, postwar Berlin. A James Bond who is built like a pear and has to throw up periodically, Harvey comes across as at once grandiose and seedy, a dandy who can fart at will and an all-round bilious interloper at the CIA branch of the Yale drama school. If the game is to acquire information that you don’t need as sensationally as possible, he will by God go all the way and build a tunnel right under the enemy’s ass to get it—just the kind of caper to make one a legend in the agency, which is all, one suspects, that most of these people really want.

    Okay, Sheed’s review is long, and my copied excerpts test the limits of fair use, but Mailer’s book is monumental and I don’t have it at hand, so you get the nutshell version. My point is to suggest the kind of perverse pleasure I enjoyed while reading the book—Sheed’s own critical swagger fairly emulates Mailer’s literary muscle-flexing—and to explain, approximately, why this news of Hunt’s demise makes me want to reread the book.

    The obituary sounds a few notes from days gone by that harmonize eerily with today’s news.  As a CIA agent Hunt engaged in "political warfare," "a terror campaign", "dirty tricks, sabotage and propaganda." "He recognized no lawful limit on presidential power, convinced that ‘when the president does it,’ as Nixon once said, ‘that means it is not illegal.’" And there is this quote from a protagonist in one of Hunt’s many mystery novels: "We become lawless in a struggle for the rule of law — semi-outlaws who risk their lives to put down the savagery of others…."

    Different times, different tyrannies, but hopelessly common human frailties. Mailer’s book makes it fun, he helps us to sublimate the misdeeds that don’t "jar too grossly with the facts." Perhaps I’ll wait for Hunt’s posthumous autobiography, noted in the obit, before I revisit Mailer’s bulky caricature. Perhaps I won’t be able to tell the difference between the two.

  • Texas Two Step

    Texas Governor Rick "Good Hair" Perry recently had his inaugural bash in Austin. Due to icy weather, the planned outdoors event was moved indoors.  Undeterred by freezing temps, Perry had a rousing (more like hell raising) party to celebrate his re-election. It was a classic (and disgraceful) "watch what I do, not what I say" style of mixed message from the slithery Texas governor. He spoke effusively and compassionately about racial prejudice and hatred, immigration, bipartisanship and moral values in his inaugural speech. Then, for the evening’s entertainment, he unleashed his friend Ted Nugent on unsuspecting guests.  Nugent, the Motor City Madman, let loose with a message of his own – giving a vicious 180 degree twist to every one of Perry’s statements. Many among the assembled guests were horrified. Even a GOP strategist (Royal Masset) conceded, "I think it was a horrible choice. I hope nobody approved it."

    Here are a couple of examples of what Perry said and how Nugent contradicted it.

    Spencer_rickperry01 Spencer_tednugent02

    (from Austinist)

    "On Racial Prejudice & Hatred
    Perry’s Inaugural Speech: “140 years ago a segment of our people was enslaved and considered less than equal. But we are overcoming past prejudice for the sake of the common good…On this stage is the descendant of a slave who was once sold as property on the steps of a Central Texas courthouse. Today, Wallace Jefferson walks up the steps of our highest civil court in Texas, not only a peer among nine equals, but as our chief justice…I believe hatreds that are centuries old can be extinguished by one courageous generation. If hatred is something that can be taught, then so can the greatest attributes of any society: ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ As the Apostle Paul wrote, ‘against such there is no law.’…Imagine the possibilities in a Texas blind to color, class and ethnicity, where no one is invalidated because of their heritage, but valued because of their humanity.

    Ted Nugent at the Inaugural Ball: The Motor City Madman played his scorching set draped in a confederate flag shirt – a symbol of slavery in just about everyone’s book – showing his pride for the South and his disrespect for African-American heritage in one crushing blow of 70’s-era guitar force. Perry danced on stage in his tuxedo, grinning contentedly.

    On Bipartisanship
    Perry’s Inaugural Speech: “Texas is better off when Republicans and Democrats work together. Our potential is too vast to be spoiled by a politics leavened with partisanship. There is so much we must do together.”

    Ted Nugent at the Inaugural Ball: During his set, Nugent made several comments about Perry’s competitors in the gubernatorial race, suggesting in particular that Kinky Friedman should be “court jester” during Perry’s reign and generally scorning all Perry’s non-Republican competition. At the high point of his set, The Kansas City Bad Boy played a fierce guitar solo, at the end of which he screamed out “George W. Bush!” with frothy-mouthed bravado and barbaric angst. Perry danced on stage in his tuxedo, grinning contentedly.

    For more on the Good Cop – Bad Cop routine by Perry and Nugent, see here. Was this a case of wicked gubernatorial sense of humor, carelessness in vetting Nugent or a slap in the face of all decent Texans?  What a jerk – rather, what a pair of jerks!