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Culture Cloning Her last posting abroad was in India as political counsellor, at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. She created quite a stir towards the end of her tenure there. Before returning to headquarters in Islamabad in 2001 she hosted a private dinner at her place to say goodbye to all her friends in the Indian capital. Among the invitees was her music teacher who sang Raag Aimen (a devotional song). On her teacher’s insistence Tasnim Aslam also joined her briefly. Indian Press reports saying that the Pakistani diplomat sang Bhajan, raised many eyebrows in Pakistan and created as many ripples in the diplomatic circles. It became a big national story. However, being a tough professional she survived the criticism.

Article from Dawn on Tasnim Aslam.

Culture Cloning Check this article on Tasnim Aslam from Dawn


Her last posting abroad was in India as political counsellor, at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. She created quite a stir towards the end of her tenure there. Before returning to headquarters in Islamabad in 2001 she hosted a private dinner at her place to say goodbye to all her friends in the Indian capital. Among the invitees was her music teacher who sang Raag Aimen (a devotional song). On her teacher’s insistence Tasnim Aslam also joined her briefly. Indian Press reports saying that the Pakistani diplomat sang Bhajan, raised many eyebrows in Pakistan and created as many ripples in the diplomatic circles. It became a big national story. However, being a tough professional she survived the criticism.

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/review/review3.htm#top

Bomb Blasts in Delhi Press gets Kashmir nerves

Talks on opening Kashmir border points took place in Islamabad
Newspapers in India and Pakistan consider the effects of the weekend`s bombs in Delhi on the recent easing of tension over Kashmir.

Indian editorials are harsh in their assessment of alleged links between the bombers and Pakistan, but there is still support for continuing with the opening of Kashmir border points in a week`s time.

One Pakistani paper appeals for what it calls the peace process not to be derailed, but another believes the Indian authorities should gather more evidence before accusing anyone of planting the bombs.


India`s Dainik Bhaskar

The three explosions in crowded markets of Delhi cannot be described as just another terrorist incident. Their implications are quite deep. The timing of these explosions points to deadly intentions and a deep-rooted conspiracy. The recent earthquake on both sides of the Line of Control in Kashmir has brought India and Pakistan and their people closer. Relief operations carried out by the Indian Army have helped reduce the ill will amongst ordinary people towards them. Terrorists do not like this atmosphere of goodwill... We need a tight vigil on the borders, cordial relations with neighbouring countries, and goodwill and trust in society.


The Indian Express

Although the festival-eve terror came close to breaching India`s threshold of tolerance to terrorism, the Government consciously chose not to let the Delhi bombings come in the way of the quake diplomacy with Pakistan. The government`s decision to avoid a knee-jerk response to the terror attacks has given it time and space to assess the results of the investigation.


India`s The Pioneer

The lachrymose statements [from Pakistan] that followed Saturday`s attack on Delhi are nothing more than crocodile tears shed by those who are primarily responsible for conveying, through their inaction, to terrorist groups that India is today a far softer target than ever before. It is a shame that even as the government publicises its decision to open up the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, Indians are killed with impunity.


Times of India

It may be premature to walk away from the negotiating table, at least not until such time as there is clinching evidence of Islamabad`s complicity. But New Delhi must tenaciously work at building a case that proves that Pakistani soil remains the springboard of terror attacks and go international with it.



Pakistan`s Daily Times

Don`t let the Delhi bombings derail the peace process! That the two sides are not jumping to conclusions and have decided to wait and see what kind of evidence emerges is a good sign... There is also a clearer understanding in both countries that there are elements on both sides that find it against their own interests that the two countries should start patching up and settling their old, deadlocked disputes. So, despite there being much to jerk the two back into the old rut of accusations and counter accusations, the process continues.


Pakistan`s Ausaf

We say that Pakistan has already condemned the incidents in which Muslims were targeted as well as Hindus. The Indian authorities should immediately investigate the incidents and hand down exemplary punishment to those who mercilessly kill commoners, women and children.


Pakistan`s Khabrain

The Indian police have termed the incidents as acts of terrorism and have said Pakistan`s Islamist organizations Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba may be involved in them. We say the Indian agencies should have carried out interrogations first and then levelled their allegations against any organizations.

Communal Stereotyping in Bollywood Movies Check out these two films ``Shwaas`` and ``Devrai`` available on DVD.

`Devrai` sensitively delves into traumatized mind:-
Mumabi | June 02, 2005 12:40:17 PM IST


The Indian film industry is now into films dealing with the tribulations of those suffering from schizophrenia and depicting the inner layering of a traumatised mind.

The whole trend of penetrating the unsettled mindset started with Ron Howard`s ``A Beautiful Mind``.

In what is arguably one of the finest performances ever by an actor, Russell Crowe starred as the schizophrenic professor of mathematics John Forbes Nash.

Since then cinema in both India and Hollywood has been seeing things that are otherwise not visible on camera. Attempts to probe troubled and tortured minds have become a consistent part of the cinematic language.

In India, several brave efforts have been made by mainstream actors to play tortured minds. From Hrithik Roshan in ``Koi...Mil Gaya`` to Ajay Devgan in ``Main Aisa Hi Hoon``, the mind has become a playground of illimitable exploration in Hindi cinema.

Last year, Bipasha Basu even attempted a female version of Crowe`s ``A Beautiful Mind`` in a film called ``Madhosh``.

However, it takes a lot more skill than is outwardly apparent to play a troubled mind.

In the recently released Marathi film ``Devrai`` the very accomplished actor Atul Kulkarni succeeds to a vast degree in bringing alive the tortured uncertainties of a schizophrenic mind.

The film, directed by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar, isn`t only remarkable for the way it crystallises the pain-lashed protagonist Shesh`s twisted mind but also because it goes into the minds of those who suffer with the ill person.

Very often it`s the patient`s loved ones who require infinite patience and, in fact, suffer a trauma equal to the sick person. In ``Devrai`` we see how the schizophrenic`s sister (a hauntingly vivid Sonali Kulkarni) is positioned in a precarious seesaw between her brother and peeved husband (Tushar Dalvi).

The husband is rightly concerned about the effect that his wife`s brother`s unpredictable behaviour would have on his professional and domestic life.

The narrative never resorts to cheap black-and-white simplifications to drive in its point. Instead we see the characters as being trapped in a situation that they cannot control and are most of the time unable to fathom fully.

As played by Atul Kulkarni, Shesh`s mind is a labyrinth of mysteries begging to be unravelled. The process is macro-cosmic. We see Shesh lost in his own world as well as lost in the world of normal people.

Surrounding Shesh are blessedly compassionate people including a girlfriend from the past who agrees to accompany him back to his village to look after him. Such idealism cuts into the reality of the situation where mentally ill people are not just shunned, the true nature of their illness often remains undetected.

Despite the rose-tinted culmination, ``Devrai`` is remarkably successful in piercing and probing the protagonist`s restless mind. Layer by layer the film penetrates Shesh`s psychological trauma and permits the people around him (that includes the viewers) to come emotionally closer to him.

That this commendably plotted and narrated film is in Marathi is a matter of choice rather than chance. The language certainly doesn`t dictate the film`s purpose and mood. Cinematographer Debu Deodhar picks through the thick foliage of the greenery almost as if it were symbolic of the tangles in the protagonist`s mind.

``Devrai`` is a wonderful vehicle for the under-utilised Atul Kulkarni. This is his chance to sink his teeth into the mind of a character who affords no simple explanations and analyses. The character`s complexities are gently decoded. And we are left to look at a character who suffers because he can see and feel things others can`t.

``Devrai`` is a mirror of the pain that people suffer for being non-conformists. Its facile pace and likeable easy-going performances make it accessible to the maximum number of people.

It`s time we looked at the cinema of ideas with a penetrating gaze rather than a cursory glance. ``Devrai`` compels us to hold our gaze steadily on a character who is shaken by his own mind. We can`t ignore his pain. The film doesn`t allow us the luxury of dismissal.

A Personal Publication What`s Afoot in Asia`s Largest Slum

One hundred years ago, Dharavi, which is now Asia`s largest slum, was a fishing village at the edge of Mumbai. As the growing city dumped its junk here, the salt plain turned to swampy landfill. Then, from the 1950s, as rural Indians arrived in Mumbai, or Bombay as it was then known, looking for work, they came to Dharavi. Now the teeming slum, which used to be the most marginal of all marginal communities, is right smack in the middle of Greater Mumbai. Its warrens ring with the sound of tinkers` hammers and the chatter of Bollywood songs. A blind man could navigate Dharavi by scent if he could avoid the open sewers and also, somehow, the live and low-slung power lines. There is the smell of river trout from fishermen`s open carts, cardamom sold by spice merchants, caramelizing sugar, fresh clay spinning on potters` wheels, and the tang of animal skin from one of the tanners` colonies, home to a caste of Dalits, or untouchables, who live in Dharavi. Dharavi is also home to India`s first ``Indian Idol,`` 23-year-old Abhijeet Sawant, who, after sudden stardom struck last month, had to go into hiding because so many rabid mothers ran him down for marriage proposals.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118040/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118041/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118047/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118048/

Do riot children smell fear in parent’s sweat? What`s Afoot in Asia`s Largest Slum

One hundred years ago, Dharavi, which is now Asia`s largest slum, was a fishing village at the edge of Mumbai. As the growing city dumped its junk here, the salt plain turned to swampy landfill. Then, from the 1950s, as rural Indians arrived in Mumbai, or Bombay as it was then known, looking for work, they came to Dharavi. Now the teeming slum, which used to be the most marginal of all marginal communities, is right smack in the middle of Greater Mumbai. Its warrens ring with the sound of tinkers` hammers and the chatter of Bollywood songs. A blind man could navigate Dharavi by scent if he could avoid the open sewers and also, somehow, the live and low-slung power lines. There is the smell of river trout from fishermen`s open carts, cardamom sold by spice merchants, caramelizing sugar, fresh clay spinning on potters` wheels, and the tang of animal skin from one of the tanners` colonies, home to a caste of Dalits, or untouchables, who live in Dharavi. Dharavi is also home to India`s first ``Indian Idol,`` 23-year-old Abhijeet Sawant, who, after sudden stardom struck last month, had to go into hiding because so many rabid mothers ran him down for marriage proposals.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118040/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118041/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118047/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118048/

Tales from Behind the Bar What`s Afoot in Asia`s Largest Slum

One hundred years ago, Dharavi, which is now Asia`s largest slum, was a fishing village at the edge of Mumbai. As the growing city dumped its junk here, the salt plain turned to swampy landfill. Then, from the 1950s, as rural Indians arrived in Mumbai, or Bombay as it was then known, looking for work, they came to Dharavi. Now the teeming slum, which used to be the most marginal of all marginal communities, is right smack in the middle of Greater Mumbai. Its warrens ring with the sound of tinkers` hammers and the chatter of Bollywood songs. A blind man could navigate Dharavi by scent if he could avoid the open sewers and also, somehow, the live and low-slung power lines. There is the smell of river trout from fishermen`s open carts, cardamom sold by spice merchants, caramelizing sugar, fresh clay spinning on potters` wheels, and the tang of animal skin from one of the tanners` colonies, home to a caste of Dalits, or untouchables, who live in Dharavi. Dharavi is also home to India`s first ``Indian Idol,`` 23-year-old Abhijeet Sawant, who, after sudden stardom struck last month, had to go into hiding because so many rabid mothers ran him down for marriage proposals.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118040/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118041/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118047/

http://slate.msn.com/id/2118033/entry/2118048/

Gang-rape in Sui Part 4 of 5: Pakistan erupts
An ally`s crisis requires cold calculation

By James Warren
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 20, 2005

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0501190441jan20,1,1916308.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

In the Nixon White House, Henry Kissinger served first as national security adviser and later as secretary of state. His telephone transcripts reveal a man of great intellect, wit and charm. But they also show his cold calculation regarding affairs of the day, most vividly in a hands-off approach toward a bloody South Asian crisis in 1971.

In December 1970, Pakistan held its first free, democratic election for its National Assembly, with an East Pakistan political party winning most of the seats. The loss of West Pakistan`s traditional power prompted its leader, military dictator and U.S. ally Gen. Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, to postpone Parliament`s opening and inspired huge street protests by the Bengali East Pakistanis.

In March 1971, Yahya`s military began a brutal crackdown in East Pakistan. It is believed that about 10,000 civilians were killed within three days and that the eventual toll was a stunning 3 million. An estimated 10 million Bengalis fled across the border into India.

Yahya was a Nixon administration favorite for several reasons, notably for his role in secret approaches the U.S. made to the People`s Republic of China. This relationship helps explain the unsympathetic response Kissinger, then Nixon`s national security adviser, gave to diplomatic cables from Archer Blood, a Chicago native who was U.S. consul general in Dhaka, East Pakistan [now Bangladesh]. Blood sent a series of messages to the State Department describing carnage and decrying the brutality of Yahya`s military.

By the time Kissinger and Nixon spoke March 28, 1971, Blood`s first cable had arrived, saying in part, ``We are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror by the Pak military. . . . We should be expressing our shock, at least privately, to GOP [government of Pakistan], at this wave of terror directed against their own countrymen by Pak military.``

Kissinger and Nixon were suspicious of Foreign Service officers such as Blood, seeing them as ``bleeding-heart liberals`` who sympathized too greatly with the nations to which they were posted. They also believed that claims of atrocities in Pakistan were exaggerated.

What follows are excerpts from telephone conversations secretly monitored and transcribed by a Kissinger secretary with occasional spelling and grammatical errors that were never corrected.

Kissinger: . . . We`ve had a bleeding cable from our Consul in Dacca [Dhaka] who wants us to put out a statement condemning what the West Pakistanis are doing. But of course we won`t consider it.

Nixon: Oh for Christ`s sake.

Kissinger: Well, he`s just one of these pansies.

Nixon: And he says `condemning them?`

Kissinger: Yeah, for genocide.

Nixon: Well, now remove him. I want him out of the job. You understand. You get that over to. . . . Who`s in charge of that one? That`s Sisco [Joseph Sisco, an assistant secretary of state].

Kissinger: Right.

Nixon: That man`s to be out of there. That kind of fellow with that kind of lack of balance and so forth. . . . He`s obviously in there joining one side or the other. He`s supposed to stay out of this goddamned war.

Kissinger: That`s right. If we do that we`re going to have anti-American riots in West Pakistan.

Nixon: That`s right. I don`t want that kind of fellow there and I want his background checked immediately. I want to know who he is and so forth. Then kick him the hell out of there.

Kissinger: Right.

Nixon: Move him some place else.

Kissinger: Right.

Nixon: Isn`t that awful. Jesus Christ, I mean I wouldn`t put out a statement praising it, but we`re not going to condemn it either.

Kissinger: No matter what we think of . . . . Even if we didn`t have that relationship with Yahya, this is just not . . . there`s nothing we can say that isn`t going to get us more trouble than it`s worth, for either side.

Nixon: That`s right. Well, boy! Isn`t that something. Shows you what those career guys would have us do virtually every time. You know, they get over there, they get involved . . . .

Kissinger: Exactly.

Nixon: Par for the course . . .

Consul Blood and U.S. diplomatic colleagues sent an April 6, 1971, cable declaring, ``Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to take forceful measure to protect its citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to placate the West Pak dominated government and to less likely and deservedly negative international public relations impact against them.`` It states that ``unfortunately, the overworked term genocide is applicable.``

That same day Kissinger talks to Secretary of State William Rogers, whom he sparred with regularly. The president was preparing a major speech for the next evening, to announce what he would call the success of so-called Vietnamization after major military operations in Cambodia and Laos.

Rogers: I wanted to talk about that goddam message from our people in Dacca [Dhaka]. Did you see it?

Kissinger: No.

Rogers: It`s miserable. They bitched about our policy and have given it lots of distribution so it will probably leak. It`s inexcusable.

Kissinger: And it will probably get to Ted Kennedy.

Rogers: I am sure it will.

Kissinger: Somebody gives him cables. I have had him call me about them.

Rogers: It`s a terrible telegram. Couldn`t be worse/says we failed to defend American lives and are morally bankrupt.

Kissinger: Blood did that?

Rogers: Quite a few of them signed it. You know we are doing everything we can about it. Trying to get the telegrams back as many as we can. We are going to get a message back to them.

Kissinger: I am going in these two days to keep it from the President until he has given his speech.

Rogers: If you can keep it from him I will appreciate it. In the first place I think we have made a good choice.

Kissinger: The Chinese haven`t said anything.

Rogers: They talk about condemning atrocities. There are pictures of the East Pakistanis murdering people.

Kissinger: Yes. There was one of an East Pakistani holding a head. Do you remember when they said there were 1000 bodies and they had the graves and then we couldn`t find 20?

Rogers: To me it is outrageous they would send this.

Kissinger: Unless it hits the wires I will hold it. I will not forward it.

Rogers: We should get our answers out at the same time the stories come out.

Kissinger: I will not pass it on. . .

Blood was reassigned to the State Department`s office of personnel. ``I paid a price for my dissent,`` he told The Washington Post in 1982. ``The line between right and wrong was just too clear-cut.`` Blood was given posts as acting ambassador to Afghanistan and as charge d`affaires in New Delhi before retiring in 1982. He died last year.

Friday: Entertaining Mr. Brezhnev.

Point of View, 1971 Through Now The POW`s were much lucky than the stranded Pakistanis. India released 90,000 POW`s back to Pakistan immediately but Biharis who sided with the Pakistan army against Mukti Bahini have been stranded in refugee camps for 33 years.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/01/06/letted.htm

Stranded Pakistanis



It is now 33 years since Bangladesh attained independence, and for exactly the same length of time a quarter million Pakistanis have been spending life in captivity, having paid with their own freedom for siding with the Pakistan Army which fought the Indian-backed Mukti Bahini in 1971.

When the surrender documents were signed with the Indian Army, those very patriots who had sacrificed everything for this country were not fortunate enough to make it to Pakistan, unlike those who were taken prisoners of war and brought safely here within a year.

Consequently, they were thrown out of their houses and sent to camps set up by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), which was also supplying them only three kilograms of wheat per family per month.

A total of about 300,000 people were scattered over hundreds of camps in Bangladesh. Half of them were brought to Pakistan by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1973 under the tripartite agreement (with India and Bangladesh), and the rest were left at the mercy of the Bangladesh authorities on promises of early repatriation.

I would like to draw the attention of the peoples and the governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh towards the humanitarian aspect of those quarter million people. While the first generation living in the camps has almost faded away, the second lives in misery and without hope.

On the plea that it had spent billions of takas during the past 32 years and hence could not shoulder the recurring expenses any further, the Bangladesh government cut off the supply of wheat, water and electricity to the inmates of the camp in the beginning of 2004.

Neither Bangladesh nor Pakistan ever approached the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to secure a subsistence allowance for these people. When Dr Francis Lamand, a member of the UNHCR and president of Islam and the West, approached the UNHCR to secure for these people the status of `refugees`, he was advised that a formal request must either come from the host (Bangladesh) or the passport (Pakistan) country.

UNHCR would only consider them `homeless` if they did not meet the requirement of `refugees`. President Pervez Musharraf met Mr Naseem Khan, chairman of SPGRC (Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee), in Dhaka in June 2002 and promised that he would take some measures to solve the humanitarian and national issue.

In Paris, Dr Francis Lamand submitted to President Musharraf the PRC proposal of `repatriation and rehabilitation on a self-finance` basis during the banquet given by the French foreign minister on July 3, 2003. Earlier, Dr Lamand met Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar in Islamabad to discuss ways to solve the issue.

The Pakistani Senate had passed a resolution in 1981 in favour of their early repatriation which ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Rabita Trust in 1988. In June 2004, a delegation of the PRC sought official reactivation of the Rabita Trust which was established in July 1988, and which had generated enough funds to repatriate a few hundred families and rehabilitate them in Punjab in January 1993.

The Rabita Fund was frozen in October 2001, and it not only stifled the process of repatriation, but also stopped the settlement of electricity and other utility bills of at least 63 families which settled in Mian Channu in 1993.

Dr Abdullah Omar Nasseef, president of Motamar-i-Alam Islami, met President Musharraf in Islamabad on June 9, 2004, and the latter asked Dr Nasseef to present the overall scenario and suggest ways to solve it.

Dr Nasseef submitted his proposal with a copy to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in September. It is hoped that the issue will be discussed when Mr Aziz goes to Dhaka for the Saarc summit and will be amicably settled.

SYED EHSANUL HAQUE

Via email

Reforming Pakistan’s Universities -- II TALKING TERMS : DILEEP PADGAONKAR

Pakistan`s Urdu Press

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/978039.cms

[ SATURDAY, JANUARY 01, 2005 11:57:29 PM ]

Every week I receive through the e-mail a review of Urdu newspapers run by jihadi and right-wing outfits in Pakistan. The English translation, as we shall see in a minute, can be a bit co*k-eyed. All the same, the excerpts offer an insight into the mindset of Islamic radicals and conservatives. Their influence on public opinion cannot be underrated. For, in terms of circulation and readership figures, Urdu papers are streets ahead of the sober and moderate English language ones.


Much like the Pakistan Studies textbooks taught in schools and colleges, the right-wing Urdu press harps on onspiracies and threats from within and without. It heaps scorn on the West, Israel and India for waging an ideological-cum-religious war against Islam and Muslims. And it berates the country`s venal military, political, bureaucratic and business elites for kowtowing to these conspirators, including, in the first place, Gen Pervez Musharraf.

But since the Urdu papers denounce every conspirator in an equally vigorous manner, it is hard to say whether they have a pecking order in their list of enemies. For instance, one quotes a jihadi politician as saying that America is the ``biggest terrorist`` because it attacked Afghanistan and Iraq in a bid to ``crush the Muslim world``. The papers routinely castigate President Bush as a ``Christian, fundamentalist extremist`` who is in cahoots with the Jews to establish US monopoly in the world.

A columnist in another paper vents his spleen against Condaleeza Rice, the US Secretary of State designate. She is said to be a ``natural extremist`` who is ``far ahead than Bush in enmity with Islam.`` Why? Because ``she is suffering from inferiority complex. She is a black and she wants to prove herself a `white` through her hard work. That hard work is in the form of enmity with Muslims.`` And what is the evidence of her extremism? ``One evidence is that she is unmarried.``

When it comes to India, the right-wing papers are brazenly venomous. This might bring cold comfort to the Muslim baiters of the Sangh Parivar. But it should know that no Indian Muslim echoes the vile sentiments of the Pakistani jihadis. Here, for example, is what one extremist author asserts: ``So long as the Hindus will keep on worshipping the cow and the Muslims would keep on slaughtering it and eating its meat, the two-nations theory will remain vindicated.`` In his short book on Hinduism, Amir Hamza, who is described as the ``intellectual supremo`` of the Jamaatud Dawa (the defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba), writes in the introduction: ``Hinduism is the enemy of Islam. Hindus are the enemy of Muslims...friendship is impossible unless the enemy comes into the fold of Islam.``

There is more in this vein: ``We should raise weapons against the Hindus who are hell-bent to implement Hindu rule over Pakistan. We should destroy India that is playing Holi with the blood of innocent Muslims. As long as the Brahmin imperialism will not be destroyed, peace will not prevail in the region.`` Other passages berate Brahmins for persecuting ``shoodars`` (shudras) and Hindus generally for their ``bizarre`` religious practices like the worship of the lingam. Their hygienic habits are derided. And their divinities are insulted and ridiculed.

For all these reasons, according to the right-wing columnists, the duty of every Pakistani is to wage jihad to ``liberate`` Kashmir and bring about the disintegration of India. The establishment in Islamabad may well argue, as it indeed does, that one should pay no attention to the rants of these fringe groups. But so long as a blinkered vision about Hindus and India continues to be disseminated through textbooks and the jihadi media, the pursuit of peace and amity between the two countries will be akin to chasing a chimera.

Tsunami http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6785287/

China fails the tsunami test
Big power ambitions, bit player when the chips are down

Romeo Ranoco / Reuters
An Australian soldier distributes clean water in Indonesia`s the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on Tuesday.
By Michael Moran

Updated: 12:09 p.m. ET Jan. 5, 2005As the ships, aircraft and crews of the Australian, New Zealand, Indonesian and Indian navies rushed to the aid of a region scoured by a tsunami, joining a large American flotilla and various British, Thai, Japanese and Malaysian units, the Chinese fleet remained in port.

In fact, the only significant statement from China’s defense ministry in the days following the tsunami was a Dec. 27 announcement that China and Russia would hold major air and naval war games later this year.

News reports of that announcement focused on Russia’s motives – it was speculated that this was Moscow’s way of showing how irritated Russia was that its tampering with Ukraine’s election had been thwarted by Western pressure. Yet the tin ear China showed for the suffering of its neighbors is even more important. At a time when tens of thousands in its neighborhood were at risk of starvation, dehydration and disease, China’s focus was right where it has been for centuries: China.

No hands on deck

With the exception of the American 7th Fleet, based in Japan, China maintains the largest amphibious force in the region, a force with precisely the kind of ships desperately needed in parts of the region rendered inaccessible by the battering waves. The newest and heaviest of these vessels, the 11 ships of the Yutang class, are capable of delivering large amounts of aid to the ragged shorelines now occupying the place where port facilities once sat. Designed for an invasion of Taiwan someday, they also can produce enough fresh water each day to keep a medium sized city alive. Even little Singapore dispatched two smaller landing vessels to the devastated region.

So why are the Chinese still at their moorings?

The answer is complicated by China’s historic policy of “non-interfere” in the internal affairs of its neighbors, and in some places — India, in particular — by historic suspicions and resentments built up over centuries of rivalry. But China`s low profile also speaks volumes about the gap between its rhetoric, which stresses it’s coming of age as a great power in Asia, and the reality of China’s inward-oriented foreign policy.

``They don`t have experience in doing this kind of thing, unlike the U.S., which just pushes a few of the right buttons and the relief effort starts,`` says William Turcotte, professor emiritas at the U.S. Naval War College. ``But they have the sea-lift - they certainly could help. Maybe this will embarrass them into doing something next time.``

Playing possum

More seriously for China, it casts light at an inconvenient time on a somewhat cynical game the Chinese government has been playing for years: soaking up billions in aid and interest free development loans from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other NGOs, even as it has grown into the seventh largest economy in the world. That paradox increasingly angers its neighbors, especially Japan, which is the leading foreign investor in China. In November, Japan’s foreign minister called for China to “graduate” from aid recipient to donor nation.

Like many countries, China committed money to tsunami relief -- $63 million, carefully trumping the $50 million pledged by its diminutive rival, Taiwan. Beijing also sent a number of search and rescue teams to the region and has encouraged private giving. (In contrast, Japan’s $500 million was the top pledge by any country until Wednesday, when Australia`s $764 and Germany`s $674 leap frogged it.

To be sure, China`s $63 million donation is welcomed, as any aid is from any country. But China is not just any country, particularly not in East and Southeast Asia, where its break-neck economic growth and maturing military might cast a large and long shadow.

With the United States deeply distracted in the Middle East, China has moved, sometimes subtly, sometimes less so, to fill what many see as a regional leadership void.

fact file Far East power shift

Its neighbors, once deeply suspicious of its designs, increasingly feel comfortable looking to Beijing for economic leadership and even for cues on how to vote on such issues as the Iraq War at the United Nations.

Flexing muscles - selectively

China’s influence in many of these countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines, is magnified by highly successful ethnic Chinese minority communities that took roots centuries ago in many countries around the region.

In some ways, the tsunami disaster came at a particularly inconvenient time for Beijing. Over the past two months, Beijing has made bold moves, given its inward looking history, to assume the helm of the world’s most dynamic region.

In November, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a group once heavily inclined toward Washington and to which China does not even belong, asked China to organize and lead a new regional trading bloc – a group that could, potentially, dwarf both the EU and NAFTA is its commercial size. Not coincidentally, it is ASEAN which will host the Thursday summit of donor nations to discuss the tsunami tragedy.

The announcement of joint exercises with Russia`s military, too, was a departure for China, which fought a short, violent border war with the Soviet Union in 1969 and in the past has only flirted with a Sino-Russian alliance.

The other rising power

Contrast China’s stance with that of India, itself seriously affected by the tsunami, and Beijing’s behavior looks even less impressive.

Within hours of the disaster, India – China’s near equal in terms of population and economic growth – told the world it did not need disaster relief for the time being, suggesting such money be diverted to poorer nations.

What’s more, India dispatched navy ships and cargo aircraft to its devastated cousins in Sri Lanka, immediately staking a claim for itself in the “core” group of donor nations.

Some Americans, and some in the region, may think it just as well that China remains a one-dimensional player on the world scene, a kind of gigantic idiot savant with a monster economy but not desire to engage in any foreign affairs issue that won’t be a direct benefit to it. That is an understandable sentiment, given the potential for China to be a disruptive, authoritarian force in world.

But coaxing China out of the somewhat paranoid shell through which it has viewed the world for centuries is in the longer term interest of the United States and Asia. Had China, on Dec. 27, announced that its naval transports planned joint relief operations with Japan or the U.S. fleet instead of war games with Russia, an important line would have been crossed. Unfortunately, for China, Asia and the world, Beijing just can’t see the logic – yet.

Michael Moran`s Brave New World column appears weekly on MSNBC.com

When the Sea Swallowed a City Whole India`s Coming of Age, Post-Tsunami

By Ghulam Muhammed

Al-Jazeerah, January 1, 2005



Within hours of Aceh tsunami hitting the coasts of nations around Indian Ocean, the first to face the world with a reassuring message of relief and rehabilitation, was not Bush, Blair, Putin, Koizumi or Hu Jintao. It was India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While Bush came out with a $15 million, a measly amount in comparison to $3.6 billion for Florida tornado disaster that took 116 lives, and offered aid to India towards relief, India found it convenient as well as appropriate to decline the offer and assured of its full capacity to cope with the disaster, at least as far as Indian shores were concerned. Gone were the days, when the first port of call for all heads of Indian government was either the US or the UN, whenever any big calamities hit its people. That newly acquired confidence will not go unnoticed by the rest of the world. India has come of age, and as befits a nation aspiring to be counted on the highest seats of world governance, India had taken the fi! rst step to project itself as a self-sufficient and responsible nation that could take care of its people without having to go around the world with a begging ball.

The next, step for India, will be, no doubt, to look beyond its borders and treat all such natural tragedies as common concern of all the people of the world. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has come out of that centuries old Brahmanical taboo that ghettoized India to its own shores. In today’s globalized world, India under the new leadership, has confidently and promptly acquired the new accoutrements that perfectly suit the native ethos of a people humane enough to populate this vast continent of a nation, without any reference to ideologies of religion, caste, region, race and languages. Let all such ideologies compete to fit the criteria of being the best suited to India’s coming of age and its humanitarian contribution to the peace and well-being of the world.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/January/1%20o/India`s%20Coming%20of%20Age,%20Post-Tsunami%20By%20Ghulam%20Muhammed.htm

Mourning (Tsunami victims) India`s Coming of Age, Post-Tsunami

By Ghulam Muhammed

Al-Jazeerah, January 1, 2005



Within hours of Aceh tsunami hitting the coasts of nations around Indian Ocean, the first to face the world with a reassuring message of relief and rehabilitation, was not Bush, Blair, Putin, Koizumi or Hu Jintao. It was India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While Bush came out with a $15 million, a measly amount in comparison to $3.6 billion for Florida tornado disaster that took 116 lives, and offered aid to India towards relief, India found it convenient as well as appropriate to decline the offer and assured of its full capacity to cope with the disaster, at least as far as Indian shores were concerned. Gone were the days, when the first port of call for all heads of Indian government was either the US or the UN, whenever any big calamities hit its people. That newly acquired confidence will not go unnoticed by the rest of the world. India has come of age, and as befits a nation aspiring to be counted on the highest seats of world governance, India had taken the fi! rst step to project itself as a self-sufficient and responsible nation that could take care of its people without having to go around the world with a begging ball.

The next, step for India, will be, no doubt, to look beyond its borders and treat all such natural tragedies as common concern of all the people of the world. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has come out of that centuries old Brahmanical taboo that ghettoized India to its own shores. In today’s globalized world, India under the new leadership, has confidently and promptly acquired the new accoutrements that perfectly suit the native ethos of a people humane enough to populate this vast continent of a nation, without any reference to ideologies of religion, caste, region, race and languages. Let all such ideologies compete to fit the criteria of being the best suited to India’s coming of age and its humanitarian contribution to the peace and well-being of the world.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/January/1%20o/India`s%20Coming%20of%20Age,%20Post-Tsunami%20By%20Ghulam%20Muhammed.htm

Tsunami India`s Coming of Age, Post-Tsunami

By Ghulam Muhammed

Al-Jazeerah, January 1, 2005



Within hours of Aceh tsunami hitting the coasts of nations around Indian Ocean, the first to face the world with a reassuring message of relief and rehabilitation, was not Bush, Blair, Putin, Koizumi or Hu Jintao. It was India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While Bush came out with a $15 million, a measly amount in comparison to $3.6 billion for Florida tornado disaster that took 116 lives, and offered aid to India towards relief, India found it convenient as well as appropriate to decline the offer and assured of its full capacity to cope with the disaster, at least as far as Indian shores were concerned. Gone were the days, when the first port of call for all heads of Indian government was either the US or the UN, whenever any big calamities hit its people. That newly acquired confidence will not go unnoticed by the rest of the world. India has come of age, and as befits a nation aspiring to be counted on the highest seats of world governance, India had taken the fi! rst step to project itself as a self-sufficient and responsible nation that could take care of its people without having to go around the world with a begging ball.

The next, step for India, will be, no doubt, to look beyond its borders and treat all such natural tragedies as common concern of all the people of the world. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has come out of that centuries old Brahmanical taboo that ghettoized India to its own shores. In today’s globalized world, India under the new leadership, has confidently and promptly acquired the new accoutrements that perfectly suit the native ethos of a people humane enough to populate this vast continent of a nation, without any reference to ideologies of religion, caste, region, race and languages. Let all such ideologies compete to fit the criteria of being the best suited to India’s coming of age and its humanitarian contribution to the peace and well-being of the world.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/January/1%20o/India`s%20Coming%20of%20Age,%20Post-Tsunami%20By%20Ghulam%20Muhammed.htm

Branding Nations http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/comm/events/20041215pakistan.pdf

Steve Cohen has witten a few books on Pakistan and was promoting his new book Idea of Pakistan. Very interesting transcript. This event took place right after Jehangir Karamat`s QA.

The questions varied on topics affecting Pakistan.

Here is an excerpt from two questions.

MR. COHEN: Henry, one of the times I went to Pakistan, I was with
some army guys. And they said, well, you know, a lot of Pakistan`s problems are caused
by the Jewish lobby in Washington, or the Israelis or something. I said, ``I`m Jewish,``
and they say, Oh. There was sort of a silence. And they said, well, at least you`re
People of the Book--you know, part of the Abrahamic tradition. Unlike those Hindus,
you know. And, you know, there are problems with that.
The books looks at this issue at some length. And I looked at it because
in my first book, The Pakistan Army, there was a discussion of the comparison of Israel
and Pakistan, two states founded on the basis of religious premise. And the book was
banned by Zia. He apologized to me. He said, ``Professor, we have to ban your book
because we Muslims are sensitive about this issue.`` And then he eventually lifted the
ban just before he died. He also said about me, he said, ``Well, that`s a pretty good book
for a Jew.``
[Laughter.]
This book, really, looks at the issue at greater length. And I argue that
three countries that were formed as homelands were a persecuted religious minority.
Actually, there were four, counting Bosnia. One was Israel, of course, for obvious
reasons. The second was Pakistan, the Indian Muslims who felt they couldn`t live as
minority among Indian Hindus. And the third was the United States. It was formed as
a--really, it became a refuge for persecuted Christians, both Catholic and Protestant,
from Great Britain. In a sense, we all share the problem of that identity and also the
problem of reconciling our religious roots with the problem of governance and
secularism, or governing our lives and protection of minorities by other than religious
criteria.
And this is where the Pakistanis are really groping, and Jews don`t figure
in this at all. I think their major problem, as Akbar said, is inter-Islamic struggles between Sunis and Shiias, let alone the Ahmadias, who were simply outlawed as
Muslims in Pakistan.


QUESTIONER: Henry Sokolski with the Nonproliferation Policy
Education Center.
I know very little about Pakistan, but one of the things that impresses me
about this panel is that there a Jew and someone who is in dialogue about Mr. Pearl.
Some people have told me--I don`t know if it`s true, but there are a lot of anti-Semites in
Pakistan. Now, they may not be in the elite, or they may be in the elite. But I was
wondering, given your expertise, which is unique on this panel, some people say that a
secular state is one that is not particularly anti-Semitic. You know, the Jewish question
has been running through the thread of history for secular states. Let`s think out 50 years. What are your thoughts on how much of a problem this is and, academically,
what would you do for the educational system to steer Pakistan away from what some
critics say is a problem?

MR. WEINBAUM: Can I address this? I think it would be incorrect to
characterize Pakistan that way. I`ve worked in Pakistan for more than 35 years and I
have never once had difficulty in that regard. Now, you can say not everybody
recognizes your background. Obviously, something can become a problem if you make
it a problem. But I think most Pakistanis are very well able to separate out those who
may hold views on policies they don`t agree with from what someone`s faith is. I really
believe that the heart of Pakistani thought here is not a fanatical view. Yes, it`s held by
some elements, particularly this Deobandi tradition, which happens to be much more
virulently anti-Shiia than it is anti-Christian or Jew.
So I think it would be wrong to characterize Pakistan that way.
Obviously, the Israel-Palestinian issue has taken on a higher profile recently, but that`s in large part a function most recently of Iraq and it`s been part of the larger phenomenon
here of this view that somehow the United States has become anti-Islamic. I can
perfectly well see that if some reasonably good settlement is reached between Israel and
its Arab neighbors and the Palestinians, that Pakistan will have no trouble with this.
I think you heard General Karamat say--and indeed, it`s very interesting.
Because after President Musharraf was here, and it was in this country that he said, I
would like to open up a dialogue, a debate in Pakistan on the recognition of Israel.
When he went back, indeed a debate opened up. I was there at the time. And one might
have thought this would have been closed down very quickly. Well, he kept his word.
There were articles over the news papers. And the remarkable thing was that they were
very rational arguments. They were all based on what was in Pakistan`s national interest. I didn`t see in any of this dialogue here the emergence of any bitterness which
would reflect anti-Semitism.

Hey JC, won’t you smile for me? Hindus for Jesus
Who`ll be singing carols and reading the Nativity story on Christmas Eve this year? Many American Hindus.

By Stephen Prothero



Adapted from American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon by the author.

Today in Hindu homes and temples across the United States a striking image of divinity is on display. Dressed in a flowing white robe, his long hair pulled back behind slight shoulders, this holy man sits, half-lotus style, eyes cast down, in meditation. A halo rings his head, and his body is framed, St. Francis-like, by wild animals. ``He was there in the wilderness,`` the accompanying text reads, ``and was with the wild beasts`` (Mark 1:13). Painted in the 1920s by Eugene Theodosia Oliver, a Catholic, in keeping with instructions from a Hindu monk, the image is called Christ the Yogi. This Jesus is clearly at peace with nature, with himself, and with God. He knows precisely who he is. And who he is, quite plainly, is a Hindu.


The story behind the diffusion of this image-an image nearly as recognizable in U.S. Hindu circles as Warner Sallman`s `Head of Christ` is among U.S. Protestants-is the story of the Vedanta Society. It is also a tale of how Jesus became an American icon, and how American Hindus contributed to that transformation.

But first let’s consider Jesus. His undeniable popularity here can be traced, of course, to the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are Christians. But if Christians had maintained a monopoly over interpreting Jesus, he would not have become a national celebrity. That distinction can be traced to the audacious efforts of America`s freethinkers and Jews, Buddhists and Hindus who have, in a sense, stolen Jesus away from the organized churches, freeing him to be (in Paul`s words) ``all things to all people.`` Buddhists who follow the Dalai Lama see Jesus as a bodhisattva. Hare Krishnas worship Jesus as an incarnation of their Supreme Lord Krishna. Daoists call him the ``Eternal Dao.``

Meanwhile, congregants at the San Francisco Vedanta Society, where the original Christ the Yogi hangs, revere Jesus as a ``great Yogin`` with highly developed ``psychic powers.`` These congregants trace their lineage back to Ramakrishna, an Indian mystic from West Bengal, who was graced with a vision of Jesus while meditating on the Madonna and Child in 1874. Soon his disciples were also cultivating the ``Jesus state.`` Shortly after Ramakrishna`s death in 1886, twelve of his followers gathered on Christmas Eve to discuss Jesus, his life of renunciation, and his realization of God-consciousness. Their leader, Swami Vivekananda, spoke of Jesus` life, death, and resurrection. He described how the apostle Paul had ``preached the gospel of the Arisen Christ and spread Christianity far and wide.`` He said it was time for them to go and do likewise.

The Ramakrishna Order, as this organization was called, burst onto the American scene when Vivekananda stormed the stage at the World`s Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. After this international, interreligious gathering, Vivekananda lectured widely across the United States, spreading Ramakrishna`s gospel of religious unity and befriending key intellectuals, including the psychologist William James.

He returned to India in 1897, leaving behind Vedanta societies in major cities across the country. In these societies, Vedantists celebrated the birth of the ``Oriental Christ`` every Christmas Eve. ``Meditate on Christ within,`` worshipers were told as they did darshan (sacred seeing) of Christ the Yogi, ``and feel his living presence.`` And in Vedanta societies nationwide, they continue to revere Jesus as a divinity today.

At the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society of Boston, for example, Swami Tyagananda conducts a special service every Christmas Eve. There, in an elegant brownstone hard by the Charles River, forty to sixty congregants venerate Jesus by garlanding the same image of the Madonna and Child that once captivated their founder. Then they read the Nativity story from the King James Bible , heed the wisdom of the Sermon on the Mount, and listen to a homily on Jesus` life.

Unlike Christian ministers, Swami Tyagananda steers clear of proclaiming Jesus the only incarnation of the divine, since according to Vedantist teaching Jesus is one avatar among many--one of many periodic descents of divinity into the world. Tyagananda presents Jesus instead as a model of ego renunciation and simple living, quoting (by memory) from Luke: ``Foxes have their holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.``

Christmas Eve at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society of Boston also includes carols: ``Silent Night,`` ``Hark the Herald Angels Sing,`` and Tyagananda`s personal favorite, ``Go Tell it on the Mountain.`` (``So lively,`` he says, ``I love that one.``) After the service, congregants gather for a mixture of Indian and American treats, including Christmas cookies. They leave secure in the knowledge that, like so many other Americans, they are worshiping Jesus. But they are doing so in their own way.


Of course, not all American Hindus are Jesus lovers. Most recent immigrants from India come and go to their local temples without thinking of Jesus, much less worshiping him. But members of groups such as the Vedanta Society and Swami Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship have repeatedly reincarnated Jesus as the ``Oriental Christ.`` While some believe that he traveled to India or Tibet during the ``lost years`` of his adolescence and early adulthood, most say simply that he embodied Asian ideals, including a preference for authentic living over empty rites and dogmatic creeds. In making this claim, these Hindus are doing something bolder than redefining Jesus; they are asserting a right to reshape Christianity, too.


Vedantists from Swami Vivekananda forward have typically divided Christianity into a true and a false form-the religion of Jesus and the religion about Jesus. Then they draw on the authority of the former to denounce what is wrong with the latter. ``The religion of Christ, or true Christianity,`` one swami wrote, ``had no dogma, no creed, no system, no theology. It was a religion of the heart, a religion without any ceremonial, without ritual, without priestcraft.`` (The abominations of ``Churchianity,`` he says, came later.)

The most daring Vedantist reinterpreter of Jesus may have been Swami Trigunatita, the San Francisco Vedanta Society leader who commissioned Christ the Yogi. Echoing the Roman Catholic claim that there is ``no salvation outside the church,`` Trigunatita wrote that the Vedantist teaching of the self-realization of divinity ``alone leads you to the truth.`` ``Will your baptism and acceptance of Christ as your Savior be able to save you?`` he asked. ``No. . . . Unless you realize yourself, no Bible, no doctrine, no amount of baptism can ever save you.``

Trigunatita`s position was not that other religious paths were futile. It was possible to realize your own equivalence with God through other faiths. But any person on the path to self-realization was in his view ``a true Vedantist.``

``No matter by what way, by what method you carry on your religious culture-be you a Christian, be you a Mohammedan, be you a Buddhist-so long as you are a sincere seeker after truth, you are a great Vedantist, you belong to Hinduism,`` he wrote.

``Hinduism is your religion.``