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A report on the recent killings and protests in the Kashmir Valley and their media coverage. I had visited the valley last year.
The images bring back memories of the first intifada (uprising) in Palestine in the late 1980s: Young protesters in jeans and bandanas hurling rocks at Indian troops, people blocking roads with burning tires to stop the Indian police, banners reading “Quit Kashmir”, ”Go India, Go Back”, “No India, No Pakistan, We Want Free Kashmir”. This is the atmosphere on the streets of the Kashmir valley in India this summer.
Hi folks,
I'm going to be guest blogging at Sepia Mutiny for a while. Please check out my first post on the new Arizona immigration law.
1. I am suspicious of the Lib Dem leadership. I haven't read their election manifesto and probably should before commenting, but what I have read about them in the past and what others have consistently said to me ('opportunists!') makes me think they want to Americanize British politics and additionally are not all that good at whatever they're trying to do.
"USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah told a briefing in Washington that the United States was envisaging “larger scale, more transformational types of investments,” in Pakistan that could “take us all where we want to go.”"
We? Us? Going places?
You've all seen this clip by now, right? Clinton and Bush II in Haiti post-disastering. During the handshake session, at around the 13 second mark, Bush wipes his hand on Clinton's shirt:
I realize that Pastor Martin Niemöller's famous poem is invoked far too often, but hear me out for a minute.
After the passage of the health care reform bill in the US House of Representatives a few days ago, Members of Congress have been receiving threats from various nutjobs who wish ill on them and their families for having perpetrated this hideous crime on the American people.
Thousands of indigenous people were left homeless as their shanty houses were burnt to ashes on February 19th and 20th. In the attacks, committed by members of the majority Bengali speaking population in the presence of law enforcers, two people including a woman were killed and more than 50 injured, while 357 houses were set ablaze across 11 villages.
How poor is the Indian economy for the poor? That's not all the landless, that's not counting every person but every family, and that's not counting people who own some land and are still dirt poor. And that's in the state that is used as a model for decent development by some economics departments.
A small anecdote that speaks to the greater reality: the extremely poor are still here.
According to PTI, the Delhi police are now moving towards filing charges against the two British dudes who were detained under 'terrorism' suspicions. The article states that the concern is that they were recording conversations between the pilot and air traffic control and this is, apparently, a violation of the Indian Telegraph Act.
I don't know Bangladeshi political history well enough to evaluate the arguments, but as a primer on Bangladesh, it's well written, readable, and worth taking a glance at. The news hook is that the Bangladeshi Supreme Court recently upheld a 5-year-old decision banning the use of religion in politics.
Additionally, I've been meaning to put a plug in for the source, Newsline, which is among the best publications I've seen out of Pakistan - if not South Asia - in a while. Take a browse around.
Non-alignment continues in semi-peripheral form? If someone knows more about India's external relations, I'd be grateful for some input.
Two British nationals were detained by security agencies at a five-star hotel near the Indira Gandhi International airport here after they were believed to be indulging in “suspicious” activities, the police said on Tuesday. The detention was made on Monday after officials of the Raddison Hotel in southwest Delhi’s Mahipalpur became suspicious about the activities of Stephen Hampston (46) and Steve Martin (55), who had checked in four days ago. “We detained them because of their suspicious activities,” Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S.
Rare medicinal plants on the verge of extinction and protected under the Wildlife Act continue to be exported with impunity...
The blueprint for the joint security operations in the naxal-affected States will be chalked out soon by senior officials of the West Bengal government in consultation with officials of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.
I see a lot of headlines about this. Where are the headlines about joint collaboration on economic regional planning or social regional planning? Is it the media not writing about it or is it simply not happening to the extent that it should?
