Iam Macaca

This is the title of an op-ed piece written by Sidharth, who had a pivotal role in changing the course of the just concluded US mid-term election. Sidharth, an Indian-American who was born and brought up in Virginia, was a campaign worker for Democrat Jim Webb who was up against the incumbent Republican governor George Allen. Allen was your typical republican red-state American politician, the kind that swears by guns and god and swears at gays. In fact some reports say that had Allen won he would have been a contender for president in 2008.
Sidharth was tasked with the job of making recordings of Allen’s campaign speeches. He shadowed Allen throughout the state and was by all accounts (including his own) received courteously. This is remarkable considering the politically surcharged affair that this election has been.
The now famous incident occurred at a speech Allen was giving. Sidharth was in the crown recording Allen who knew exactly who the former was working for. During the course of the speech Allen welcomed “Macaca or whatever his name is to America and the real world of Virginia.” Gosh, that sounds like a racial slur. I don’t even know what it means. But it sounds awfully condescending, like something you would use for some kind of sub-human retard.
Maybe Allen thought he was being funny. Unfortunately for him the seemingly innocuous statement snowballed into a huge controversy which ultimately led to his loss against his democratic opponent. But, was this one incident responsible for tipping the balance of power in favour of the democrats? How did it influence the vote in Virginia? Did the average redneck hick in the state think to himself before going in to vote: Macaca, no good man. I am not gonna vote for this racist scumbag?
Your guess is as good as mine. But the incident does highlight the darker side of American democracy, albeit one that rarely comes to light. Racism is probably sewn into the fabric of American society. Ok, I don’t want to make silly generalizations. But why is it that the world’s oldest democracy has never elected a black, jew, Hispanic or woman as president? John F. Kennedy was the only catholic president. And I wonder if New Orleans was left to its fate after hurricane Katarina because most of the city’s residents are black. A lot of blacks think so.

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I’ve been reading up about Muhammed Ali lately. I admire the guy. He had the courage to defy white America in the prime of his fighting career. He threw his Olympic medal into a river after a bunch of white racist bikers taunted him one night. He showed mainstream America a side of itself that it did not want to acknowledge, a dark side inhabited by bigotry and racism. His reason for avoiding the Vietnam draft: “I ain’t got no fight with the Vietcong, no Vietnamese ever called me nigger.” In the end, in his own words “this is one nigger you don’t own white man.”

hmmm...think the next book I will buy will be frantz Fannon's 'The Wretched of the Earth'. Am proud of the fact that Fannon was born in a family of mixed African and Tamil indentured labourers in Martinique.

Empire strikes back

The Arabic channel Al-Jazeera has started broadcasting in English. Al Jazeer English marks a milestone in the history of news and broadcast and may have important consequences for turning the tide in the global flow of information and images. Hitherto, the west has had a monopoly on information. It was the countries of North America and Europe that controlled the flow of news through outlets like CNN and BBC that had a global reach. This monopoly was used to control news flow in a way that favoured a western point of view. This became painfully apparent during gulf war II when “embedded” journalists traveled with American army columns and prostituted news reporting. Apparently, even “liberal” media outlets like CNN and BBC reported the American invasion uncritically and treated the US army with kid gloves. I remember watching a shocked Rageh Omar, The BBC’s war correspondent, reporting from Baghdad on how US soldiers were targeting journalists. Rageh is now with Al Jazeera.
Al jazeera is notorious in the west (especially America) as a propaganda outlet for Al qaida. But just because they show al qaida videos which CNN won’t show due to misplaced notions of patriotism and self-censorship does not mean they do plug jobs for terrorist outfits. Just call it reporting the other side of the story, the side that the west does not want to hear. The channel has provoked as much outrage in the middle-east by taking a critical view of the authoritarian regimes that dot the landscape. It is a channel that has provoked a lot of debate and discussion, something that is sorely needed in that troubled region. And, if they show the damage wrought by American foreign policy in Palestine, Iraq and possible Syria and Iran should they be labeled a channel that supports terrorists? Especially when CNN, ABC, BBC and Fox will not show the graphic and violent visuals that keep getting generated everyday in the Arab street.
A host of popular television personalities from BBC and CNN have joined the fledgling network (albeit one that is backed by the financial resources of the Qatar government). David Frost (BBC), Rageh Omar and Riz Khan (CNN) to name a few. Why did they leave their comfy media jobs and join a new venture? I believe it was for the challenge as much as anything else. Here, for the first time in modern history, is a channel that is challenging western media outlets and their dominance of information flow and ability to set the economic and political agenda in connivance with their governments. Al-Jazeera intends to bring an Asian and African perspective to its reporting, an alternative world-view. At last, a new perspective.
I hope they start broadcasting in India soon.

BCCI - Brig these Chutiyas some Cricketing Intelligence

The boys in blue sank to a new low the other night against South Africa. Despite a vaunted batting line up they crumbled to 92 all out against a determined pace attack. The only thing these chutiyas are good at is lining their own pockets and doing music videos. The country exploded in rage after the latest debacle. Used as we are to sporting non-greatness, even parliamentarians demanded an explanation from Sharad Pawar, the wily politician who heads the BCCI, the body that controls cricket in India.
The “gillification” of cricket is now complete. A little backgrounder: KPS Gill was an upstanding Punjab cadre IPS officer who was in charge of the state during the height of the Khalistan movement. He brought Punjab back to normalcy when others were shivering in their underpants, though his methods of combating militancy were dubious to say the least. After the militancy was put down he had nothing to do, so he became the president of the Hockey Federation. Hockey was already in decline and after Gill it hit rock bottom. Gill has been at the helm for 12-13 years and since then Indian hockey has been in the wilderness. This in a country that produce Dhyan Chand and where it is the national sport!

Moral: When sport is governed by non-sports people they make a complete pigs breakfast out of it.

So why is Pawar in charge of Indian cricket? What the hell does he know about cricket? Can he tell the difference between mid-wicket and long on? Or does he believe silly point is the position occupied by his bete noir Vilasrao Deshmukh (Maharashtra CM). Here’s a hint, it could have something to do with the fact that the BCCI is the world’s richest sporting body. It out-moneyed Manchester United 3-4 years ago (the previous record holder as richest club). It’s the usual story of how sport gets kicked around in India at the mercy of politicians and pimps of various hues. There was a report in the paper the other day that 16 freeloaders from the Indian Olympic Committee had signed on for an “observation trip” to Greece when the max limit was 8.

Pawar now gets a chance to line his pockets with BCCI money and provide jobs for the boys. This guy has no business being in charge of a sporting body. The only sport he has probably indulged in is horse-trading. What is the message sent out to players when a politician becomes your boss? The just concluded champions trophy final offered a glimpse. The now famous “Aussies manhandled Pawar” incident showed how even famous players crawled to lick Pawar’s ass. I saw the video on You Tube and frankly think its no great deal. Pawar himself did not think so. But Tendulkar, Gavaskar, Azharuddin et al pounced on the Aussies and verbally took them apart. When you can’t beat the mighty Aussies on the field why bother with low blows off it.

Pawar should be held accountable for each and every penny that the BCCI spends and each and every defeat of the team. And please, can we get some professional sportspeople to manage out sporting affairs. What would happen if jokers and pimps were brought in to run politics. On second thoughts, isn’t that already happening?

Justice for Saddam?

So Saddam’s sentencing did not have anything to do with the US mid-term elections! What absolute utter crap. Do those morons at the White House believe we were all born yesterday? They would have us believe that the “independent” judges who handed out the verdict had nothing to do with US elections. It just so happens that W convieniently uses the verdict in his desperate attempts to tout his administrations “achievements”.
Which brings us to the fact that Saddam has been sentenced to hang. The ousted dictator, true to form, would prefer to face a firing squad. Serves him well. OK, lets get one thing straight: Saddam is no angel. He ruthlessly ruled Iraq for two decades with help from his minority sect and quashed all opposition to him. Shias and Kurds are celebrating the death sentence while Sunnis are smarting and vowing bloody revenge. BUT, lets also not forget that Saddam was a SECULAR leader who despised al-qaida type loonies and kept Iraq free of them. The feeling was mutual. And, he posed no threat to the US because he had no weapons of mass destruction.
Which brings us to the question: What to make of this verdict. Absolute roobish (thanks boycott). The bloody regime whose invasion of Iraq has led to more Iraqi deaths (6,00,000 according to Lancet magazine) than during the Saddam years has the gall to try Saddam and call it a great victory for democracy!!!
Will the Saddam verdict make things any better for Iraqis. Unlikely. In fact it just might exacerbate tensions as the Ba’ath party has vowed to attack the green zone and other Iraqis. With the American casualty rate nudging the 3000 mark this just might be the worst news they have heard this month. In any case the American morons have been so incompetent that Saddam, from the confines of his cell, appealed to his Iraqi compatriots for calm! When Saddam pleads for peace you know things have hit rock bottom.
It would have been a better idea if Saddam had been handed over to the international Court. Anyway, Saddam made an absolute pigs breakfast of his trial: He harangued the judge at every turn and generally screamed his way through the trial. Apparently at one point even the chief prosecutor got unnerved. Jolly good show, that.
I wonder when Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and that whole company will be brought before a court and tried for crimes against humanity. Bush can plead “no brainer”. In his case it will be literally true too.

US Elections

As I write this post the US mid term elections would be in its last leg. I wonder if and Americans have grown any wiser than the last time. Will they vote the republicans out of power? The whole world waits with bated breath to see if the American public displays its famous streak of imbecilism once more. I mean after a host of controversies centred around the Republican party if they still vote for them then there is something wrong here.
Lets see, the incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina (they were all Blacks in any case, why bother), the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, The foley scandal, the Haggard scandal, the torture scandal, the shooting scandal, the martian scandal…that’s a lot of scandals to get going. After leading in the polls the democrats find themselves slipping in the crucial 72 hours before the polls. This is when the famed republican “get out the vote” machine wakes from its slumber and begins its inexorable march towards power. They trot out the same worn out issues of Guns, Gays and God and scare god fearing righteous red neck folk into voting for them. As for the democrats, they can only hope that all the bad news coming out of Iraq will find some resonance with the voters.

I wonder which party will triumph?

The last Mughal

William Dalrymple’s new book ‘The Last Mughal’ is out. I am going to buy my copy ASAP. His last book ‘The White Mughals’ rocked. I expect this one to be just as good. Dalrymple writes in a very entertaining and engaging style. Not academic and pedantic, the his writing is simple, humourous and fun to read. At the same time he challenges conventional wisdom and opens up new vistas of thinking.
The Last Mughal is about the great 1857 revolt or war of independence (depending on how you view it). The title refers to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the poet who tragiucally became a figure head for the revolutionaries. But a dozen other characters also put in an appearance including the famed urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. Significantly, Mangal Pandey is a minor character, though he is deified as central to the events of 1857 in certain Indian quarters.
The book is bound to ruffle feathers in India and Britain because it challenges the views held by both countries about the empire-shaking events of 1857. What makes the narrative more credible is that Dalrymple’s primary source were papers in Urdu and Persian written by Indians about the revolt. This assumes significance because till now (or so dalrymple says) all accounts about what happened relied on European records. There were presumed to be no Indian eyewitness accounts. Even Indian historians relied on European accounts. For instance Marxist historians allege that the conflict occurred due to economic reasons. Dalrymple disputes this view. According to him the main reason was religion since evangelical Christianity was on the rise at this time. The enfield rifle controversy (documented in the film Mangal Pandey that starred Amir Khan) was the fuse that ignited the issue.
At the same time I feel sad. A foreigner (no doubt Dalrymple is an indophile, but a firang nevertheless) comes and discovers ANOTHER aspect of India’s past that we have not bothered about. What is it about us that makes us neglect our own country and leave it to foreigners to tell us about ourselves? The documents that Dalrymple used were lying in the Nehru memorial library all these years for anyone to access. But it just so happened that no Indian bothered to read them.

Shariat Panchayats not wanted

Finally some hope for Muslim women. The centre has ruled that shariat panchayats have no legal sanction. Neither can they claim to be an alternative to the Indian judicial system. The centre submitted an affidavit before the Supreme Court which stated that clerics cannot force people to obey their diktats. Further, a mufti cannot impose a fine or force a jail term for people violating a fatwa. The affidavit says that Islamic can only be an alternative dispute redressal mechanism and the role of muftis can only be to provide advice on matters brought before them.
This should hold out a ray of hope to the Imranas (and the activists battling the clerical order) that their rights will not be trampled upon by the mullas. In fact, this is a very welcome step which will help the community to intergrate itself with the mainstream (at least judicially speaking). Of course there will be opposition from the clerics who will cry blue murder and spout nonsense about “our rights being trampled”. The government should be firm and not upturn this progressive step.
It is because of the mullahs and their twisted interpretation of the Koran that women like imrana have to face the ignominy of being punished for being raped by their own father-in-law. Will these bearded fucks ever take off their blinkers and grow up? When Shabana Azmi recently said the Koran does not sanction veils that moron from the Jama Masjid, Bukhari, told her to mind her own business. “Her job is to sing and dance and not comment on religious issues,” continued the dork in a similar vein. Let him rave and rant all he wants, one just hopes the wider Muslim community uses the directive to their advantage.