What if he is a Muslim?

That was the response Gen. Colin Powell gave to the question: Is Barack Obama a Muslim? I always wonder why doesn't Obama answer the question the same way.

His 7-minute response why he decided to endorse Obama is definitely a must-watch:



Also here's the photo essay that he said inspired that Powell talks about:

 

Debate Joint Press Conference

Lies, Damn Lies and McCain

Who's more at fault?

(A) The media for refusing to call these lies as such.
(B) The McCain campaign for not just caring for things like "truth".
(C) The Obama campaign for not doing enough to refute these lies.

While we were away, lets see what happened

History of Saudi Arabia

Opening scenes from the movie, The Kingdom, shows in four minutes a concise but on-the-point review of how Saudi Arabia came about.



via BoingBoing

WTF: Have they totally lost their mind?

This has gotta be a joke:

Actress Kushboo, who was caught in a series of legal tangles for advocating sex education to girls at schools, is in trouble again--this time for "wearing chappals" in front of idols of goddesses at a film 'muhurat' in Chennai recently.

Gurumurthy, a Hindu Munnani activist, lodged a complaint before a civil court here on Wednesday, alleging that Kushboo was seen sitting with her chappals in front of idols of goddeses-Lakshmi, Saraswathy and Parvathy, during pooja for the 'muhurat' at Chennai on November 22.

Someone please tell me this is a joke. Please!

Where is India's Leadership?

It's not enough just to portray ourselves as an "emerging superpower" in the region (Case in point: Apparently India was widely applauded for its efforts during the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 for going to aid the neighboring countries).

But India should not just talk the talk - they need to walk the walk as well.

Take the ongoing uprising that's been going on for decades in Burma (which the military government has renamed it to Myanmar) for example. They have been oppressing basic human rights and any sort of opposition by brutally punishing those who raise a voice against them. Yet India not only continues to ignore these atrocities but also provides Burma with billions of dollars worth of trade.

The recent uprising by Buddhist monks in Myanmar has attracted worldwide condemnations and even sanctions by the US government. Yet there's not even a single press release or a statement supporting the protests.

Where are our esteemed politicians? Oh wait, they are debating if Rama was real or not.

Update:

Looks like India's leadership has woken up from its deep sleep to say that "India is concerned at and is closely monitoring the Myanmar situation. It is our hope that all sides will resolve their issues peacefully through dialogue. India has always believed that Myanmar’s process of political reform and national reconciliation should be more inclusive and broad-based".

Way to show leadership, huh?

Rama is Rama

I dunno if you have been following the ongoing controversy in India about the "Ram Sethu" bridge - which is officially known as 'Adam's Bridge'. Adam's Bridge for those who don't know what it is - is a chain of limestone shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of India (according to Wikipedia).

Reports after reports have confirmed that the "bridge like structure" is not man-made but was created by natural phenomena. And Archaeological Society of India (ASI) said so in its affidavit filed in Supreme Court - Hold, on there... How does a case like this which deals with the ever so important question of "whether or not we can destroy Rama's bridge" end up in Supreme Court? So, what's next? Will Supreme Court take on a case which deals with the purity of Sita? Doesn't our Supreme Court have better things to do or better cases to take on?

Anyways, the very opportunistic Advaniji of the "how-can-i-rekindle-hinduism-so-that-i-can-get-reelected" fame couldn't be happier. He jumped on it like a hungry man. He set off his minions at RSS and its hundred other such wings to loot, protest and strike. What could the poor Congress government do? Why, ofcourse - backtrack the statement and "clarify" (as if this needs clarification) that "Lord Rama is an integral part of Indian culture and ethos and cannot be a matter of debate or subject matter of litigation in court"

And the esteemed Union Law Minister goes on to say (and I kid you not) "The existence of Rama cannot be doubted. As Himalaya is Himalaya, Ganga is Ganga, Rama is Rama. It is a question of faith. There is no requirement of any proof to establish the existence based on faith." [Emphasis, mine]. Well, that settles that. I'm just waiting for the day when our Law minister would say "Law is Law and it can not be disputed in a court".

This controversy has so many such idiosyncrasies, I dunno where to start. The infamous Sethusamudram Project has been in the plans for literally hundred years - yes, that's right - hundred years. It has finally been kicked off and things like these hinder the project. The amount of jobs and economic development this canal would generate for the coastal residents is huge and our politicians are more interested in scoring brownie points as to "who's hurt" by what.

Shame on us for electing such politicians!

Supreme Court says No to Caste Based Reservation System

My views about caste based reservations aren't favorable. Even though the common sense explanation points to the fact that caste based reservation has not worked to achieve its primary goal of providing education and jobs to economically deprived lot of the country.

I have been following Indian Supreme Court's rulings closely only for the last few years and it is probably the only institution in India that's free of corruption, independent thinking and free from political pressure. It literally legislates for the state of Delhi, where it has issued several binding rulings which include the famous pollution control regulations, the infamous sealing drive etc.

The most recent ruling is on the ever-sensitive caste-based reservations. Here's a quote from the Supreme Court ruling:

The concept of creamy layer can not prima facie be considered to be irrelevant. It has also to be noted that nowhere else in the world do castes, classes or communities queue up for the sake of gaining backward status.Nowhere else in the world is there competition to assert backwardness and then to claim we are more backward than you. This truth was recognised as unhappy and disturbing situation and such situation was noted by this court as a stark reality in Indira Sawhney case (Supra).

This Outlook India article puts it more eloquently:

The Supreme Court stays implementation of the 27% OBC quota policy and asks the government not to divide the country because of its "vote bank" and to "determine who are the socially and economically backward"

Emphasis mine. I couldn't have said it better. It's both heart whelming and reassuring to see that atleast one branch of government realizes what a ploy the caste based reservations has become.

I believe caste based reservations is the root cause of most of the problems in India. Because of caste based reservations, political parties tend to pander those "backward classes" for the sake of votes. And it creates this mentality of living on a "welfare state" for those people on these backward classes where they just perform "just to qualify" under these alloted seats (whether it be students or be it government employees). Hence you have a lot of incompetent people taking up government jobs and they become complacent and start taking bribes. Hitherto, the corruption in government. Election becomes jockeying for votes between castes and political parties choose candidates from the majority caste in that constituency so as to appeal the "caste sensitive" voters.

If we abolish the caste based reservation system and put in a reservation system for economically backward, it would do a world of good. I hope this Supreme Court ruling starts this wave of new political reform in this long battle. I yearn for a day where Indians don't have to fill in their "caste" in any application form.

Frenemy

While on the topic of war, it was interesting to see this piece of news coming over the weekend: Cheney and Bush warn Pakistan to Act on Terror. It's interesting in many ways: (a) The fact that India has been complaining of all the terror cells and training camps that are inside PoK and US just kept on supporting Pakistan unconditionally while asking India for evidence. (b) The critics of Muzarraf kept pointing him to past sudden US support and friendships and how it wanes when their interest in the region subsides. (c) How the Afghan government kept insisting that it was Pakistan which was aiding Taliban and harboring them. Here's a quote from the article that's worth repeating:

The decision to send Mr. Cheney secretly to Pakistan came after the White House concluded that General Musharraf is failing to live up to commitments he made to Mr. Bush during a visit here in September. General Musharraf insisted then, both in private and public, that a peace deal he struck with tribal leaders in one of the country’s most lawless border areas would not diminish the hunt for the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Now that there's a growing opposition to the Iraq war in the US and the fact that democrats have taken control of the Congress, White House is looking for an exit strategy and in that unfortunately, Pakistan doesn't feature.

But wait, maybe they shouldn't rush to dump Pakistan. There seems to be another war in the planning and who knows they may need refueling bases in Pakistan for that war.

P.S: And the title of the post is a word that means both a friend and an enemy - a word that I learnt from who else.

Are they winning or losing?

In US media now-a-days, there's an ongoing discussion as to whether US (a) has won (b) is winning (c) will win (d) has lost (e) is losing (f) will lose (g) cannot afford to lose (h) will never be able to win the war in Iraq. Here's the answer from Riverbend who'd have some idea as to whats actually happening there.

Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s worse. It’s over. You lost. You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad to the cheers of your imported, American-trained monkeys. You lost every single family whose home your soldiers violated. You lost every sane, red-blooded Iraqi when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out and verified your atrocities behind prison walls as well as the ones we see in our streets. You lost when you brought murderers, looters, gangsters and militia heads to power and hailed them as Iraq’s first democratic government. You lost when a gruesome execution was dubbed your biggest accomplishment. You lost the respect and reputation you once had. You lost more than 3000 troops. That is what you lost America. I hope the oil, at least, made it worthwhile.

Doesn't sound like (a), (b) or (c) does it?

Caught Ticketless

I am a little bit shocked not at this story but at how unsurprising I am on reading it. I have seen this happen in person where other "friends" (read: entourage) of politicians have traveled on trains without tickets and all that a Train Conductor could do was to watch. This quote is gold:

Our correspondent says that they repeatedly pointed out to the ticket inspector from East Central Railways that they had been put on the train personally by the station master at Haripur.

They said that there was "no need" for them to carry tickets.

Shiv Prasad Choudhary and his wife are the parents of former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, who is the wife of Mr Prasad.

A Blue America

As a result of this recent mid term elections here, America has become a Blue nation again. It's a resounding victory for Democrats. The picture below (Credit: New York Times) depicts much better than I could:



BTW, I loved the in-depth analysis Publia did about the local candidates. I hope I'd be able to do the same to my local candidates in India, only if I can find any information about them.

When all else fails

I am a regular reader of Baghdad Burning, a blog run by Riverbend, a girl from Baghdad. Its probably got the best unfiltered news from the ground that you can find. There's a lot you can learn from an ordinary citizen of Iraq than you can from the CNNs of the world. I used to read the famous 'Where is Raed?' blog during the war for updates which hasnt had an update for a long time but I have just found that he has moved to a new blog.

So in the most recent update in her blog, River talks about how the recent death sentence given to Saddam Hussein. I don't think there's any better analysis of the verdict than this one, which is right on.