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  • The curious case of Osama Bin Laden..(Omar)

    The curious case of Osama bin Laden – The Express Tribune.

    I think it is plausible that GHQ (General Head Quarters..the Pakistani army high command) really did NOT know where Bin Laden was hiding. But GHQ has failed to act against (or even to regard as potentially suspicious) the “good jihadis”, both within the ISI and outside it. Because of that, the ordinary Pakistani police and the average local security officer does not have to be a jihadist to fail to take note of jihadists in his area. All that is needed is that some sympathizers within the intelligence community set up such a compound and let it be known that it houses “good jihadis” and has been checked out. NO ONE else will want to look into it. Everyone knows which way their bread is buttered.
    As a practical matter, the “war on terror” is never going to get too far while there are good terrorists being protected, while there are sympathizers in power and while the vast psyops apparatus of GHQ is spreading disinformation that demonizes the US, Jews, Hindus ,CIA…everyone but the jihadists.

    The reorientation of Pakistan away from Jihadist fantasies would be a huge task even if the army was fully on board. Its a nearly impossible job in the current scenario. Anyone can be a good jihadi today and a bad jihadi tomorrow and since no one can tell the difference too well, everyone stays out of the way. For GHQ to drop the notion of fighting their real and imaginary war with India using “good taliban” and “good jihadists” is not a side issue. It is the main issue. Unfortunately, some of the auguries are not good.

    On the other hand, it may well be that this is the best GHQ can do for now. Maybe their psyops apparatus is as much outside their control as their former jihadi soldiers. Either way, its going to be a long hot summer.

     

  • Death of a Madman (Norman Costa)

    Slate_logo

    Death of a Madman:
    What Obama does next will help define the legacy of Osama Bin Laden. (Norman Costa)

    Osama_bn_laden

    By Christopher Hitchens
    Posted Monday, May 2, 2011, at 10:30 AM ET

    "There are several pleasant little towns like Abbottabad in Pakistan, strung out along the roads that lead toward the mountains from Rawalpindi (the garrison town of Pakistani's military brass and, until 2003, a safe-house for Khalid Sheik Muhammed). Muzaffarabad, Abbottabad … cool in summer and winter, with majestic views and discreet amenities. The colonial British—like Maj. James Abbott, who gave his name to this one— called them "hill stations," designed for the rest and recreation of commissioned officers. The charming idea, like the location itself, survives among the Pakistani officer corps. If you tell me that you are staying in a rather nice walled compound in Abbottabad, I can tell you in return that you are the honored guest of a military establishment that annually consumes several billion dollars of American aid. It's the sheer blatancy of it that catches the breath."

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  • Cultural heritage: language, literature and politics

    A very nice interview with poet, author and artist Sukrita Paul Kumar in Muse India. I am publishing the full interview by GSP Rao below.

    Sukrita - Muse India 

    Dr Sukrita Paul Kumar, scholar, critic and poet of great sensitivity, has done significant work in diversified areas like women’s studies, literary translations, and cultural diversity and literary traditions of India. She has published important tomes in these areas apart from books of her poetry.She has been recipient of several national and international grants and fellowships and has lectured at Cambridge University, SOAS (London University) and several Canadian and American Universities on Indian literature. As a writer with wide exposure to traditions of both Hindi and Urdu literatures, she has interacted with leading writers of the sub-continent. As Director of a UNESCO project on “The Culture of Peace”, she edited a volume of Urdu short stories from India and Pakistan,Mapping Memories. She teaches in a Delhi University college. Her detailed profile can be viewed by clicking on her name at top left corner of this page.

    She serves as the Contributing Editor of Muse India for Hindi and Urdu literatures. Here, GSP Rao, Managing Editor, engages her in a discussion on her work and motivations.

    GSP : You teach, write poetry in English, are a scholar participating in several international seminars, have written and edited important tomes on Indian and South Asian literature, and were on the jury of several literary awards. You are also an artist who has had a solo exhibition of paintings. Is there a synergy in all these activities? Which of these roles is the closest to your heart?

    >Sukrita : I am very conscious of the flow of time and unless I dive into it – swim in its stream – I feel like an outsider to life and suffer a strange sense of alienation. Perhaps that is what motivates me to remain engaged in the “here and now” constantly. I feel driven to go into deeper waters, always looking for something. In writing poetry or painting, there is the creative excitement of perhaps approaching something unknown, also of taking a journey within…An adventure which may not actually have any destination! The process itself seems to matter. My research and seminars etc are more outward and external but there too I try to remain close to my inner voice that gets tuned to the voices of other writers I may be studying. You mention my being on the jury for literary awards. I must say here, I do not enjoy sitting on judgement on writers and their writings and often I go against myself in accepting such assignments!

    GSP : You seem to be deeply involved with life around you and derive inspiration from it for your creative work. What have literature and poetry meant in your life and how have they influenced you?

    Sukrita : Literature and poetry are not separate from life… so, it’s difficult to say what they have “meant” to me. I write, teach, read literature and may be breathe it too. In fact, I have been brought up on literature! Writing a poem brings me into contact with my deepest self and I revel in that… this is what keeps me alert to poems lying all around … as much in the sunset or the full moon, as in the eye of the urchin on the road or the dog barking in the middle of the night.

    As for teaching literature and sharing the joy of studying a poem together with my students and discovering its varied meanings, it is a collective and creative experience… How else would the same poem taught to a different set of students yield a fresh set of meanings? The classroom is a vibrant and dynamic workshop.

    GSP : You have wide exposure to literary traditions of both Urdu and Hindi. They have similar linguistic sources and have gained significantly from cross-cultural currents. What are the abiding appeals of these two languages?

    Sukrita : Hindi and Urdu have been a source of great strength to each other through centuries. Unfortunately, the language politics of the subcontinent have led to separation, nay a divorce, between them. Not only were they in complete unison at one point of time (it was difficult to decipher any dividing line between them) they remained interchangeable even while having two different scripts. The dialogue between the two languages churned a synergy and at the same time, each language strove to evolve its own identity through an inspired and sophisticated literary expression. Indeed, there has been a sharing of space as well as culture between them that nourished a healthy syncretism in the literary tradition of Hindi as well as Urdu. The politics of Partition and the well-known British strategy of “divide and rule” played an unfortunate role in communalising language identities. We must remember Gandhiji here who wished to have Hindustani, not Hindi or Urdu, as the official language of Independent India.

    But, with Partition, despite the ousting of Urdu officially, can we say that we are done with it? Couched in people’s memory, Urdu poetry passes on from one generation to another and the role of Bollywood remains strong in keeping the language alive with us, within us…

    GSP : Yes, Urdu ghazals and shero-shayari are particularly popular here and it is perceived as a language ideally suited for poetry. Both Hindi and Urdu literatures have long traditions and are very rich. To what extent have the important works of these literatures been translated into English and other foreign languages for them to be recognised in world literature?

    Sukrita : I’m afraid, even though a lot of Hindi and Urdu literature may be found in English translation and some in other foreign languages too, there hasn’t been any significant impact of these literatures on world literature. To my mind, this is because we have not paid much attention to the quality of translations. Many times the power of the original creative writing in Urdu and Hindi does not get carried adequately into English… not in the same way as it happens in the case of say, Latin American or Russian literature. We have a long way to go in this regard.

    GSP : Quality translations have been a big problem, not only in Hindi and Urdu, but all vernacular literatures. National institutions, universities and publishing industry don’t seem to be doing enough. Translations of important works should be commissioned and good translators paid well … any comment on that?

    Sukrita: Mere commissioning of translations will not serve the purpose. There must be a close follow up in reviewing the process, have good editors for the translated texts and concerted efforts must be made at developing a culture of reviewing, studying and reading the translated texts. Some time ago I was invited to a couple of meetings of “Translation Mission” being set up by the government at the national level. I hope the project is on and that literary translation gets its rightful focus in a country that needs meaningful bridges amidst a plethora of languages, each abundantly rich with its own long literary tradition.

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  • post on genetics and population height differences..(omar)

    from 3QD.

    SCIENCE SHEDS LIGHT ON POPULATION HISTORY AND LIVING STANDARDS

    by Omar Ali

    In a sense, all modern historiography includes the attempt to find objective facts rather than relying on folklore and opinion. To varying extents, a scientific mindset is part of the intellectual toolkit of all modern people and while no person can be entirely rational and no judgment is as perfectly evidence-based as the idealized models would imply, there is a trend towards greater objectivity and a willingness (at least in principle) to change one’s mind if new facts come to light. There is an assumption among liberals (I self-identify as liberal and spend most of my time with others who do the same) that modern liberals are more “science-minded” than conservatives (the so-called “fact-based community”). Whether this is really true has been challenged  but I will assume that liberals DO prefer a scientific approach to history and will touch on two examples where science brings objective information to bear upon history.  One is genetics, which has transformed our knowledge of the origins and relationships of different human populations. The other is height and what average height can tell us about different populations.

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  • “Save A Mother”: Annual Appeal

    (Bringing the post to the front as we make a final push before the May event. Many thanks to those who have contributed. Your help will go a long way towards achieving our goals.)

    A message from Dr. Shiban Ganju, founder of Save A Mother:

    Save A Mother is a non-profit organization working to reduce maternal and infant mortality in India. Since our beginning in 2008, we have grown steadily in our operations in India and in number of supporting chapters in the USA, UK. 

     In 2008, we started working in partnership with local NGOs in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. We started in one districts and now expanded to five districts including one in Karnataka. We aim to minimize suffering and death due to pregnancy and childbirth. We are currently working in 854 villages in India and we will expand to 1400 villages by the end of 2011.

    Health is not possible in the absence of health literacy. Save a Mother trains health activists from the community to spread health literacy. The trained health activists educate women about pregnancy, nutrition, immunization, delivery and care of the child. The activists not only complement the public and private health delivery system but also amplify their effect. They also educate the population about their rights to hold the health delivery system accountable. Some of the key services include: three day initial health literacy training followed by many one day refresher training sessions. We conduct about 8 training sessions a month and have conducted over 950 training sessions so far.

    Save A Mother conducts periodic impact analysis to assess both quantitative data and as quality of life achieved. We collect data on the number of trained health activists, number of mothers registered, number of their prenatal visits, medicines supplied, immunization status and deaths due to pregnancy and delivery. Neonatal deaths are also recorded.

    We have trained over 2000 activists so far. We have successfully reduced maternal mortality ratio by 93 % from 645 to 65 and neonatal mortality by 66% from 41 to 9. We spend about $100 per village in one year to achieve these results. Our cost is low because we are a volunteer organization and our administrative cost is zero. All donations go for field work.

    Save-a-Mother recognizes the need of an aware, sensitized population, who would consider health care as a collective responsibility. Health care should begin with owning responsibility of personal and community health.  Many other regions in the world are in a similar situation, and we hope to bring this special effort to other countries. 

    We believe that one preventable death is one too many. We urge you to support Save A Mother and together we can save millions.

    The 3rd annual fundraiser for Save A Mother, a non-profit organization I am actively involved with is under way. The fundraising gala in Houston is scheduled for May 13, 2011. As I did last year, I am posting an appeal here for donations from readers and also from friends and family in distant locations who may find a secure electronic mode of payment more convenient than sending a check in the mail. As I had indicated before, I am a volunteer for the Houston chapter of this organization that benefits poor women in rural India by educating them about pre and post natal maternal health as also, neo-natal child care.

    The bulk of our fundraising is through direct solicitation in the real world from individuals and businesses. We also want to extend our reach into the cyber-world through on-line donations.  One of my roles in the organization is to facilitate the effort by offering this blog as a venue for fundraising.  I request readers to please look over the website of Save A Mother and the brief summary above by Dr. Shiban Ganju about our objectives and the results of the efforts so far. Kindly use the ChipIn widget link on the left hand side column of this blog to make your contribution. Thanks.

    Save A Mother- Houston Gala 2011 

    For further information about the organization’s work and progress please visit the Save A Mother website where you can find out more about the impact the program has made and other news.

    (Many thanks to Rahul Singhal for setting up the necessary widget for the donation link and updating the website)

     

  • India’s Pakistan policy (Omar)

    Cross posting from Brown Pundits.

  • Honesty and Language: Is Greg Mortenson resorting to linguistic loopholes?

    An interesting follow up to Sujatha's post on Greg Mortenson, his book and his charity. This story in the Economist points to certain liberties that Mortenson may be taking not just with facts but also language.

    GREG MORTENSON claims to have tried and failed to climb K2 (the world's second-highest mountain), stumbled into a village alone after being separated from his party on the way down, and been nursed back to health by kind villagers. He also claims to have been kidnapped, years later, by the Taliban in Waziristan. He wrote a book, "Three Cups of Tea", which has become something of a manual for understanding Central Asia, even being given to American troops serving there. And he has started an organisation called the Central Asia Institute that builds schools and offers other services in the region.

    Now Mr Mortenson is being accused by CBS News of fabricating some of his stirring tales. (He is also accused of potential financial improprieties regarding CAI money, not the subject of this post.) CBS spoke to two porters who left K2 with Mr Mortenson, contradicting his claim to have stumbled alone into the village of Korphe.

    Mr Mortenson's  written response blames the confusion on the Balti language of the people of Korphe:

    Even the Balti language — an archaic dialect of Tibetan — has only a vague concept of tenses and time. For example, "now" can mean immediately or sometime over the course of a whole long season. The concept of past and future is rarely of concern.

    Calling Balti an "archaic dialect" is odd; it is a full-blown language according to Ethnologue, and no language is any more archaic than any other. But this seems as though it might be an attempt to set up a linguistic defence: Balti, being archaic and a mere dialect and all, doesn't have concepts of time that would allow the villagers to be reliable in contradicting Mr Mortenson.

     

  • Can Anyone Meditate? (Norman Costa)

    Spect_images_at_baseline_and_during_meditation_frontal_lobe_pet1b

    The Effect of Meditation on the Brain activity in Tibetan Meditators: 
    Frontal Lobes

    Spect_images_at_baseline_and_during_meditation_parietal_lobe_pet1b
    The Effect of Meditation on the Brain activity in Tibetan Meditators: 
    Parietal Lobes

    Andrew_newberg_md

    Can Anyone Meditate? (Norman Costa)

    This video is an excerpt from an interview of Andrew Newberg, conducted by Robert Wright.

    Andrew Newberg teaches at the university of Pennsylvania both in the medical school and in the dept. of Religious Studies. He is a co-author, along with the late Eugene D'Aquili, of "The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience."

    Robert Wright ("The Moral Animal," "Nonzero," and "The Evolution of God") interviewed Dr. Newberg at the University Of Pennsylvania Medical Centre and focused mainly on this new book, "Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief," also co-authored by the late Dr. Eugene D'Aquili. 

    Here are other video excerpts from the interview.

    Can anyone meditate? – 01m:46s 

    Is religious experience “real?” – 05m:57s 

    Mystical experiences – 02m:34s 

    Religion as pathology – 02m:36s 

    The biology of religion – 01m:59s 

    The Godhead – 01m:34s 

    Why meditate? – 03m:00s

    For a transcript of the entire interview…

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  • Three Cups of Tea and A Mountain of Salt (Sujatha)

    Ho- hum. Another inspirational memoir that isn't. Author/charity tycoon Greg Mortenson, who shot 3ct into fame as the climber who was so touched by being nursed back to health by poor villagers after getting lost on a climbing expedition in a remote part of Pakistan, that he founded a trust to build and educate young Pakistani and Afghani girls, narrated to great effect in his bestseller 'Three Cups of Tea', is, according to this CBS exposé, a fraud.

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  • Translating the language of God

    Compare the following, a few examples of the new English translation of the Roman Missal, the book of texts used in Mass. The revisions are meant to be more faithful to the liturgical Latin that was used for centuries by the Catholic Church, until recently. The first one represents the language in use currently and the second italicized text is the newer "improved" version.

    Nicene creed : Profession of faith

    Jesus Christ is…"one in Being with the Father"

    Jesus Christ is…"consubstantial with the Father"

    Confiteor: The confession of sin at the beginning of the Mass

    "I confess to almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters that I have sinned through my own fault in my thoughts and in my deeds, in what I have done and what I have failed to do."

    "I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."

    People's prayer: Before communion

    "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you."

    "Lord, I am not that you should enter my roof."

    Second eucharistic prayer: Priest's part

    "Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ."

    "Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like dewfall, so tht they may become for us the Body and Blood or our Lord, Jesus Christ.

    There is more in this article in the New York Times (hope the firewall doesn't trip you up!) An excerpt:

    Throughout much of the English-speaking world, the Roman Catholic Church is preparing its priests and parishes for the most significant changes to the Mass in the more than 40 years since the church permitted English in place of the Latin.

    The changes are included in a new English-language translation of the Roman Missal, a translation produced after almost 30 years of labor, intrigue and infighting. The new missal, the book of texts and prayers used in the Mass, is intended to be closer to the liturgical Latin that was used for centuries than the current version. The church officials promoting it say it will bring an elevated reverence and authenticity to the Mass. Many Catholics who prefer a more traditional liturgy are eagerly anticipating the change.

    But after getting a glimpse of the texts in recent months, thousands of priests in the United States, Ireland and Australia have publicly objected that the translation is awkward, archaic and inaccessible. Although most are resigned to adopting the new missal, some have mounted campaigns to prevent it from being introduced.

    “What we are asking of the bishops is to scrap this text,” said the Rev. Sean McDonagh, a leader of an Irish group, the Association of Catholic Priests, which represents 450 priests — about 1 out of 10 — in that country. “I know people are not going to use it. I wouldn’t use it, because everything I know in terms of theology and anthropology and linguistics, it breaches every one of those.” …

    “The first time I saw some of the texts, I was shocked,” said the Rev. Richard Hilgartner, who as executive director of the American bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship is overseeing the introduction of the new missal in the United States.

    “But the more time I’ve spent with it, the more comfortable I became with it,” he said. “The new translation tries to be more faithful to the Scriptures, and a little more poetic and evocative in terms of imagery and metaphor.”

    One of the most noticeable changes is in the Nicene Creed, the statement of faith that Catholics learn to recite as children. Currently, Catholics say that Jesus is “one in being with the Father,” but in the future they will say that Jesus is “consubstantial with the Father.” This is one of several changes that include unfamiliar vocabulary.

    Father Hilgartner said, “We know that people aren’t going to understand it initially, and we’ll have to talk about it. I’ve said to priests, we will welcome and crave opportunities for people to come up and ask us about God. It’s a catechetical opportunity.”

    Aside from the internal debate over semantics, archaic expressions and literary flair within the Catholic Church, I have a broader question regarding religious communication in general. Religious texts are meant to be at least in part, words from God(s) and short of every person of faith hearing the divine message with his/her own ears, it must be imparted vicariously through the language of man. Doesn't it then make more sense to facilitate that communication as simply as possible without the average Jane or Joe tripping over esoteric linguistic hurdles? This tendency to hark back to the "original" language is not peculiar to Rome. Non-Arab Muslims all over the world recite the Holy Quran in Arabic without comprehending a word; Hindu prayers chanted in Sanskrit during auspicious occasions wash over the heads of most adherents. Hebrew was essentially a liturgical language until the state of Israel recast it in its role as the lingua franca of a newly created Jewish state. In the case of Christianity, Latin was not even the tongue that Jesus or his apostles used to spread their philosophy. So, why this universal fondness for religious conversations and expressions of piety in ancient or foreign tongues? As long as the message is true and reasonably well constructed to evoke spirituality and a connection to the divine, shouldn't a language that the devotee understands best, serve as the most effective vehicle and constitute the true "Vox Clara?" Or is making religious dialogue linguistically obscure another way of keeping the seat of power firmly in the grasp of a privileged few?

     

  • Labor law abuses in the Gulf Coast … again.

    In 2008, I had reported on the unlawful exploitation of foreign workers during the rebuilding efforts in Louisiana following Katrina. It seems that the practice is quite common and the financial and physical abuse  is sometimes aided by the governments of the countries from where the workers are imported by US companies.

    GALVESTON — A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court seeks more than $200 million in damages from companies accused of the human trafficking of Vietnamese laborers to the United States to unknowingly work as indentured servants.

    Attorneys Anthony Buzbee and Tammy Tran filed the lawsuit in Galveston federal court to “expose an international human trafficking conspiracy,” the lawsuit claims.

    Nine of the 12 men named as plaintiffs live in Galveston County. The others, including 43 unnamed men, reside in Louisiana and Texas.

    The lawsuit accuses Hanoi, Vietnam, companies International Investment Trade and Service Group, known as Interserco, and General Automotive Industry Corp. of Vietnam, known as Vinamotors, of engaging in a human trafficking ring with U.S. “co-conspirators,” Coast to Coast Resources and ILP Agency.

    Coast to Coast and ILP were sued in March 2009 in Harris County district court after two years of litigation, and an agreed judgment of $60 million was entered, the lawsuit claims.

     The full story from Houston.